Never too much to read---just keeps me up some nights

March 1978 Digest

Ridiculous photo of that first Anna recast. No wonder she didn't last long.

I love how the caption under it is about how worried she is... She sure as Hell doesn't look it there.

She kind of looks like Nancy Pinkerton disguising herself to get back on the show.

Ha she does. "if I wear this hideous wig and make sure to smile constantly the way I never would as Dorian, they'll never know..."

What does she have in her hand? An apple? Is she going to punch someone out? I guess Jim accidentally called her Carla too many times...

LOL I think it's just a punch-warmup gesture, lol...

It's really too bad there are so few ties on the show to these 70s characters and families. I guess by the end of its life AMC was no better but the loss of family (despite how decimated they were--inarguably--the last decade) seemed more a gradual progression to me for some reason--I guess because even characters like Jamie had ties to Phoebe as well as Ruth and Joe, etc . On the other hand One Life now is basically ones tied to the Lods via Vicki (but really tied to the Buchanen's who were more an 80s thing) and Dorian.

I didn't realize there were so many Vinny recasts. I thought Ponzini was there straight into 1981. I am actually disappointed LOL. I just don't like a character being recastso much.

I would love to see that scene of Niki and Vinny at the cafe or diner from 1969. Its in the Anniversary book and looks so 60s.

It would have been interesting to see Niki and Vinny interact had he been alive in 1985.

I was thinking of that photo of Nicki and Vinnie as well! (Though I grant you I'd love to see ANY clip of Gillian Spencer as Vicki--I didn't realize she left on her own but I guess that makes sense as everybody seemed to have nothing but great things to say about her in the role).

I would love to see some Gillian Spencer as Viki as well and I am sure she was great in the tole, but I couldn't imagine Viki without Erika Slezak in the role, especially today. Viki would probably be gone too, I think Gillian left acting on her own and there would be no vets on the show today.

I would love to see some Gillian Spencer as Viki as well and I am sure she was great in the tole, but I couldn't imagine Viki without Erika Slezak in the role, especially today. Viki would probably be gone too, I think Gillian left acting on her own and there would be no vets on the show today.

Oh when I say that I don't mean any disrespect for Erika who is undoubtedly THE Vicki in my mind, or the only one as I've only seen about 6 pics of Gillian. Though I do know some felt in the mid 70s Vicki was backburnered...

But yes, even back then I think I read Gillian left to focus on family or at least not have such a heavy acting schedule. Agnes cast her because she felt she was so good on Guiding Light the last few years Agnes wrote, but I think she took a break after then for a while. She always was interested in writing (and of course was a creative consultant on AMC for much of hte 80s and maybe 90s and even wrote at AW while on AMC), and much of her time on AMC really was more coming back for one or two stories and then leaving--something that was her decision (ditto her 90s role on ATWT). Even at a younger age I doubt she had much interest in playing Vicki at least for more than five years or so on a steady basis.

I think Gillian would probably play her not too far off from the Viki of today - Viki has become flightier and a bit weaker over the years, compared to the more regal and sometimes very cold, imperious figure she was in the 80's and early 90's.

It's always strange to me when I read about Dorian/Marco. I can never picture that, and I wonder if the show ever mentioned it later on, after Marco was reformed and Dorian was Strasser.

Was Robin's Dorian ever really in Marco's orbit? I know he and Karen were for several years but Dorian by then always seemed to be seperate more or less.

Gillian did seem to play Vicki as a bit more timid--which would fit 1960s Vicki anyway. I always wondered if her Nicki was anything like Daisy--just in the way she was played more broadly, earthy, etc--which I get the impression Nicki back then was more like.

Dorian had ties to Edwina, who was in Marco's story - she also had the fights with Larry and Karen. I'm not sure if they ever closely interacted.

Here are the April and May 1978 Digest recaps.

My mom said Gillian was so good as Niki, I wish I would have asked more follow up questions. But I think it's safe to say that her Niki was much more human, like Slezak's eighties Niki.

I've only seen that one episode of Gillian as Viki, and she was very reserved. I wouldn't say "cold" by any means, but at the risk of offending our British friends, kind of "English". Imagine how the Queen would play a stressful hospital situation. Emotion and even warmth there, yet rather contained.

Edited January 5, 201213 yr by SFK