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This is what I have been saying for the longest time.  

I wouldn't necessarily re-pair Robert and Anna, but I agree, @Vee, that the ONLY reason why he and Diane are together is due to their ages and nothing more.

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I don't really get the Anna/Robert hate.  I can see why Holly/Robert have more love, but I also don't find A/R that bad?  It's obviously all on clips and not a whole show context so I could be missing a lot.   They just seem decent to me.  I am open to hear anyone's thoughts about it though.

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On screen, it seems like Robert and Anna were together for a much shorter time than Robert and Holly.  Obviously they had a long history.  But, Duke was presented as the love of Anna's life.  And she was shagging aliens and mobsters with ponytails (aka Evan Jerome) for months before Gloria Monty returned, and suddenly she's tieing Robert to a column, and then they moved into that ugly purple version of the Webber house. 

So, for me, there's just not as much rooting value for them as a couple versus as partners and friends.

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As a kid watching back then I thought they played that there was some emotion still between them. From the wedding flashbacks to establish their history when she first arrived to how Duke was at times angry and jealous of Robert’s place in their lives. It was part of the story when Grant Putnam kidnapped her. The audience did favor Robert/Holly and Anna/Duke though.

I liked them together and I loved their wedding at Lila Quartermaine’s garden, with all the large hats.

Anna was my favorite character. When she was gone I was almost gone too. But habit and then my teen gay hormones kicking in when Jagger arrived kept me watching. I was at the perfect age for Jagger/Karen/Brenda/Jason/Robin/Stone.
 

Riche really lucked out while rebuilding things with that teen squad and the Ryan/Felicia story both capturing the audience that was left. I was way more glued to those stories than I had been during Monty’s return year.

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This all makes sense.  I just thought Anna/Robert had some lovely scenes in Nightshift 2 that made me think the romance was still workable.  Again I know it's more Luke/Laura, Holly/Robert, Duke/Anna, Frisco/Felicia and Sonny/Brenda as the top 5 considered supercouples of GH across the internet, but I still think TR/FH work quite well together.  I guess my point is the separate pairings they are doing right now work way worse than Anna/Robert.

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I don't HATE Robert and Anna as a couple.  I'd be fine with them reuniting and spending their twilight years together.  But it's clear someone(s) at GH feels differently.  If it's Tristan and Finola who keep resisting the idea, then I say, why force the issue?  It'd be lot easier just to have Robert and Anna pursue separate romances than to reunite them and make everyone, including the actors and the audience, utterly miserable.

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Excuse me for being a bit catty, but Robert has not aged well.  As an infrequent, mostly sweeps viewer, it is surprising to see him in his current state.  Meanwhile, Anna is still vibrant.  She was constantly in love scenes as recently as last winter while she was stuck in the cabin with Valentine.  So, at this point, their pairing seems more like an endgame if both actors were to leave the show, than a viable option to maintain Anna as a leading character.  (my only excuse for the ageism expressed in my comment is the projection of hating the process myself)

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Thanks. In considering what was said upthread about how it was harder to ground some of the 80s characters into the more modern world, maybe Labine felt similarly about Sean and Tiffany. While I find Tiffany's descent into self-destruction fascinating, I could see where others find it heavy. In reviewing the summaries, there were some lighter moments (they had several girlfriend-type meetings between Holly and Tiffany), but not enough to lessen the tone of the overall plot. I could see it all just being too much and dumping Tiffany and Sean. 

I think Jessica was worth salvaging long enough to let her have the baby, but her long term potential was most likely limited. What I enjoy about the pre-Labine Riche era is the level of connectivity between the cavas. I know some of those characters aren't the most beloved (Julia, Jenny, Paul, Nikki, Eric, Jessica), but they all seem to play a part and fit with the environment the show is developing. I don't think people would have liked Jessica as Jessie's grandniece, but I thought the closeness in names and the same last name as Jessie's former love would be too much to pass up. 

Hindsight provides different outlooks. In watching 1990, knowing what happens in 1991, Robert and Anna reuniting doesn't seem to be much of a stretch. How quickly that occurred would be, but the Anna & Robert thread seems to be something that was being delayed for some reason. The original set up of the Lucas story with Cheryl's baby being fathered by either Julian or Robert would seem to keep Anna in that orbit. I would say that it's possible Evan Jerome/Edge Jackson was intended to keep Anna and Robert in the same story as Julian Jerome as the baby's father meant Lucas was an heir to the Jerome money.

Also, a rather significant part of the original Cesar storyline in 1990 is the revelation that Sean engineered the break up of Anna and Robert in order to keep Robert's head in the game, which woudl suggest that there would be a potential hurdle removed for Robert and Anna reuniting. Maybe Robert and Anna was never the plan, but there are enough threads that they could have done some easy work and repaired the two. 

Anna goes through a series of guys in 1990: Julian, fauxDuke, Casey, Shep, and Edge. I think that the Hardy/Palumbo 1991 would have had a messy scenario with Edge/Anna/Shep/Cheryl/Robert and the baby drama. 

I think given the canvas at the time, settling on Robert and Anna wasn't the worst decision in the world. 

Most of March, 1992 is available on YouTube. Riche really creates a world that is accomplishing what Monty set out to do by trying to modernize the show and take it out of the 1980s but by emphasizing the hospital and the family connections rather than having characters who simply stated their ethnicities. I think Riche's decision to continue to play what was in place instead of doing a wholesale reset was smart in the long run. The 1992 stories may not have been the stories she is most known for, but it sets the tone for the next few years with Levinson's run and Labine's run. 

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I was just about to make the same observation when I saw your post. 

Tristan is 77 and Finola is 64 so there is already an age difference. And Finola has had (good) work done and presents younger. Its just a fact that on TV these days just about every woman above 50 has some type of enhancement and it has become the norm. We are taken aback when we see someone who has aged naturally.

I don't think Tristan took much care of himself when younger so a lot of wrinkles and sun damage. I don't think its ageism, just facts.

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I think Tiffany was more difficult to ground and find a place for.   Sean has a few more options for me just with the nature of his job.  Once the show reunited Tiffany/Sean I think they were written into a corner.  It really seems easier to give them their happy ending than to go back down the road of more angst and cheating.  I could see them lasting through Labine, but I could never imagine Sean/Tiffany in a Guza world.

I'll have to check out some clips of Jessica and see what I think.  

I do agree with those that say TR hasn't aged well.  On the other hand I always thought Finola looked much younger than him so it doesn't phase me.  I also enjoyed Olivia/Robert so obviously the age difference didn't bother me.   Tristian does come off as a grumpy grandpa sometimes, I just don't think it would hinder Anna's viability.

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I think the right decision was made in regards to Sean and Tiffany at the time, to rest the characters. I could have easily seen a place for Tiffany down the road as a supporting player, possibly involved in media stories with a younger set of characters. I think she would have fit in quite well with Jax, Kate, Lulu and Maxie at  Crimson. Her becoming a PR person feels natural to me.

And I enjoyed Sean, but him being revealed as the big bad with the virus makes way more sense than Holly. His whole foundation was based in going outside the lines when it was necessary or suited him. Sure he was a good guy by the time he left, but I think the swing is much easier to believe with him.

Labine spoke about inheriting a show that was filled with characters that were left over from the last three regimes, not really families per se, and her focus on the hospital was to both ground the show and also give a central hub for a foundation. The hospital and Luke & Laura were the spokes that touched everything.

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Hi everyone!  Here is March 1974 GH summaries.

Friday, March 1, 1974: Augusta gives Henry a birthday kiss.  Joel invites Diana to dinner, and she awkwardly turns him down.  Jim is annoyed when Lucille mentions that they knew of Joel’s assistant coming and that Audrey didn’t tell him.

Monday, March 4: At the risk of losing Chamberlain’s annual contribution to the hospital, Steve decides that Lesley will stay on the Grey case.  Wyatt finds Florence extremely upset, not wanting to live; he’s baffled not knowing she knows the truth about Lesley and Gordon.

Tuesday, March 5: When Audrey tries to tell Jim not to be uptight about the situation with Joel, she immediately regrets it.  Lesley finds Florence hostile and incommunicative.  Joel and Jim have a confrontation with Jim telling Joel he was foolish for bringing in the assistant surgeon; Joel says he’s not going to let Jim’s ego interfere with his having the best surgical team.

Wednesday, March 6: Peter hints to Jessie that he misses Diana more than he thought he would; Diana admits to Jane that she is lonely without Peter; Peter arrives and tells Diana he would like to come over and pick up some of his things.  Howie is indignant when Jane tells him that she sometimes worries about his being with other women.

Thursday, March 7: Joel apologizes to Audrey for the conflict between him and Jim; Joel tells Steve that if Jim insists on him using a different surgical assistant, he won’t comply.  Florence tells Peter she doesn’t trust anyone, including him and refuses to talk to him further.  Peter arrives at Diana's and finds her in her robe; he finds her very appealing, but his mood is interrupted by the baby.  He is still not fond of her, and leaves; Diana is bitterly disappointed.

Friday, March 8: Lesley refuses to see Gordon.  While looking for the keys to the car in Jim’s coat pocket, Audrey finds a small bottle of whiskey; Jim is defensive, and tries to cover his annoyance.  Gordon comes to see Lesley at night; she tells him that it is no longer possible for them to have a life together; Florence calls Wyatt and begs him to come pick her up from the hospital.

Monday, March 11: Steve asks Jim if he can attend the meeting in which Joel and Jim will decide whether or not to perform the difficult surgery.  Augusta suggests that Henry ought to have more fun in his life.  Florence sneaks out of the hospital; Wyatt tries to convince her to return to her room; Florence accuses him of lying to her about Gordon’s affair and begs him to help her escape; as Gordon and Lesley continue their talk, he tries to kiss her and remove her robe; she slaps him; Jessie calls to tell Lesley that Florence has disappeared.  

Tuesday, March 12: Jane tells Howie that she is miserable about their marriage, particularly her part in it; Howie gets a call from Jessie in which he is told that Florence has disappeared; Howie talks to Steve and tells him that if Florence isn’t found, heads are going to roll; Wyatt is angry at Florence; Lesley calls Wyatt and he admits that Florence is with him.  Steve, Jim, and Joel argue in the coffee shop about the difficult surgery; a reporter, Kira Faulkner, overhears and takes notes.

Wednesday, March 13: Jim is extremely upset that Joel refuses to do the surgery.  Kira annoys Steve with questions and her suggestion that the conversation she overheard would be interesting for a community interest news telecast; he finds her charming.  Steve tells Jim that it is Jim, not Joel, who is putting the cardiac patient’s life in danger; Jim tells Joel that if he gives him permission to use his assistant for the surgery, it is a one-time-only deal; Joel agrees; Jim tells Audrey the surgery is underway; he tries to cover his anger, and leave to go get drunk.

Thursday, March 14: Lesley is afraid that Florence knows the truth.  Joel emerges from the surgery happy, but exhausted; he tells Diana of the tension and asks her to celebrate; she accepts.  Kira’s mother suspects that Kira is out scalp-collecting; Kira and Steve get better acquainted and she does her best to get a news story out of him.  Wyatt refuses to allow Lesley in the house to check on Florence; she enters anyway, and learns that Florence knows about the affair; Wyatt forcefully removes Lesley from the house.

Friday, March 15: Audrey finds Jim drinking.  Augusta tells Lucille she is lonely.  Joel and Diana return from their night on the town; Joel asks Diana if there is room in her life for someone new now that Peter is out; Joel tells Diana he hopes to get Jim’s job; he kisses her goodnight.  Jim admits to Audrey that for one fleeting moment, he hoped that Joel would bungle the surgery.

Monday, March, 18: Augusta jokingly suggests that Henry take her to the Chinese ballet; she tells Jessie that the carefree unattached life isn’t for her.  Lesley tells Jessie that Florence knows about the affair and that she is going to draft a resignation letter.  Gordon tries to see Florence, but Wyatt refuses to admit him to the house.  Jessie suggests to Audrey that she talk to Lee about her concerns over Jim’s drinking.  Steve refuses to let Lesley resign and he won’t be bullied by Wyatt.

Tuesday, March 19: Howie tells Jane that Thurston is about to blow his stack over the Grey case.  Gordon asks Lesley to help with Florence; she goes to Florence and tells her that she did love Gordon once, but the circumstances are different now; Florence’s hostility wanes, but she continues to refuse medical help.  Jane pleads a headache when Howie wants to make love; he walks out, telling her a healthy marriage should be a lot different from theirs.  

Wednesday, March 20: Joel asks Peter if he minds if he dates Diana; Peter, annoyed, says she is free to do whatever she wants; Joel asks Diana for a date, but she turns him down.  Steve and Mr. Thurston argue over the Grey case; Steve says he will resign if Lesley is removed from the staff.  Diana dreams of Peter and Joel.

Thursday, March 21: Steve tries to explain to Audrey why he had to intervene between Joel and Jim; Audrey admits to Lee she is worried about Jim’s drinking; Lee and Jane have lunch.  Jim asks a doctor friend in Boston to nose around and see if he hears anything about Stratton.  Steve receives a letter addressed with unusual handwriting.

Friday, March 22: Gordon sees Florence and begs her to let him return; Florence goes into shock and is rushed to the hospital and into emergency surgery.  Diana agrees to go out with Joel.

Monday, March 25: Wyatt can’t bear to hear Florence say she wants to reunite with Gordon; Wyatt finds Lesley and threatens that if something happens to his daughter, he will see to it that she will never practice medicine again; Lesley tells him to save it and go and pray for his daughter’s life.  Peter, waiting at Diana’s, sees Diana return with Joel; he watches as Joel kisses her goodnight.

Tuesday, March 26: Lucille notices another letter for Steve with the same unusual handwriting.  Florence is brought from the ICU, and Wyatt and Gordon are grateful; the old hostilities are swept under a flood of relief.  Jim begins to get the feeling that if he doesn’t perform surgery again he will be disappointing Audrey.  Gordon thanks Lesley for saving Florence; this is the last time he will see her alone.  Steve opens the envelope and discovers it contains three coins.

Wednesday, March 27: Howie tells Steve that all of the wrinkles have been ironed out in the Grey case, and that Wyatt pledged $50,000 to the hospital.  Jane admits to Jessie that she and Howie aren’t close and that she feels sick when he comes near her.  Peter admits to Jessie that he waited for Diana and that she came home from a date with Joel and it was extremely awkward.

Thursday, March 28: When Lee cautions Audrey not to push Jim into returning to surgery, she pooh-poohs him.  Howie tells Augusta that he and Jane are having problems, but it’s Jane that’s the problem, not him. 

Friday, March 29: Another letter arrives for Steve; Kira invites him to have lunch with her and her mother; he is unable to go.  Diana receives her R.N. pin tomorrow; she tells Jessie she enjoyed kissing Joel.  Augusta senses that Peter is feeling low; she makes an effort to cheer him.  Steve opens the envelope, this time it contains four coins and two tickets to the Chinese ballet; he and Jessie speculate as to what it all means.

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A similar move to California in 1943 did not work out either, and she returned to Chicago after only nine months.(42)     With so many shows on the air at the same time, and wielding as much power as she did, Irna Phillips put forth a revolutionary idea for soap opera broadcasting in 1943. THE GENERAL MILLS HOUR, as she foresaw it, would consist of three ofher shows running back-to-back - each in different lengths, from fifteen to twenty minutes depending on the plot - with characters from each occasionally overlapping and interacting. A narrating voice-over would navigate proceedings. It endured for a few months until Phillips abandoned the concept.(43)     By 1943, only a little over ten years after she began, Phillips was single-handedly responsible for five different daily dramas. Her total income from them was $250,000, and her literary output was estimated at two million words per year, the equivalent of forty novels.(44) She had established such a factory by this time that she found it necessary to have a lawyer and two doctors on retainer just to act as consultants.(45)     It was only later that Phillips reached the need for support writers, or "dialoguers," who filled out the basic story lines she devised. Many young writers who began with Phillips went on to successes of their own. In 1946 she hired a young recently graduated writer named Agnes Eckhardt, who later married and changed her name to Agnes Nixon.(46) Nixon would go on to create ALL MY CHILDREN and LOVING. Phillips also had a longtime collaborator in writer William Bell. After cocreating ANOTHER WORLD with Phillips, he went on to found with his wife Lee Phillip Bell two of the most successful soaps of recent years, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and, later, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.     Also in 1943, at near the same age her mother was when she herself was born, Phillips, unmarried and a career woman, adopted a child, Thomas Dirk. A year and a half later, Phillips adopted Katherine Louise.(47)     Throughout the 1940s Irna Phillips reigned as the undisputed queen of the radio soap opera. By the end of the decade a new medium was on the horizon and it would be that medium that Phillips (somewhat reluctantly) would conquer next.      By all accounts Irna Phillips was not anxious to move her shows from radio to television. With television, a fog horn could no longer substitute for the deck of a ship, and actors could no longer be brought in and replaced so easily. So reluctant was she to give up radio that after THE GUIDING LIGHT debuted on television on July 30, 1952, the scripts were rebroadcast that same day on radio. The two GUIDING LIGHTS ran concurrently on the two media for several years until finally the incredible success of the television version made the radio outlet obsolete.(48)     Around this time Proctor and Gamble [sic: My Note: This book spelled Procter and Gamble wrong over & over.], the soap manufacturer and a longtime force in soap opera broadcasting, began its long association with Phillips. Phillips sold the ownership of her current TV dramas to Proctor and Gamble Productions. Between the two of them (Phillips and P&G) they formed the biggest, toughest alliance daytime television had ever seen.(49)     In 1956 Phillips, in association with Proctor and Gamble, stormed onto television with what was to become her most popular (and some say, personal favorite) creation, AS THE WORLD TURNS. The continuing story of the Hughes and Lowell clans of Oakdale, Illinois, began on April 2, 1956, as TV's first half-hour soap. It was produced live until 1975 when it was lengthened to a hour. The show revolutionized daytime drama by gaining more viewers than ever before in the history of the genre (sometimes as high as a fifty percent share of the audience), and it launched soapdom's first all-out lying, scheming villainess, Lisa Miller (later, after marriage/s, Lisa Hughes, then Coleman, then Mitchell, then others). She was played by actress Eileen Fulton, who continues on the show to this day. Fulton's and the show's fame were so intense in the mid-1960s that CBS created a nighttime spin-off titled OUR PRIVATE WORLD. It, however, would only last a few  months.(50)     Irna Phillips's actual writing for her series, radio and television, was rather unusual. Every day at  nine in the morning Phillips sat down at a rickety, brown card table - the same one she had used for years - and began to devise that day's scripts from projected story lines often set down months in advance. From there she would dictate dialogue to her secretary and close friend, Rose Cooperman. "I really don't think I write," she said "I act."(51) Occasionally sitting still and occasionally moving around the room, moving as the character would, Phillips assumed all the characters in the scene - male, female, adult, child - changing her voice to indicate a change in speaker.(52) This process worked so well for Phillips it was later adopted by many of her proteges, including William Bell.(53)     As Phillips would talk, "Rosie," her secretary, would take down every word, following the various characters by following changes in Irna's voice and gestures. Rosie filled in the punctuation along the way. Both women became so involved with the story line they were creating that they found themselves in tears.(54)     The average time for Irna Phillips to dictate a half-hour script was about an hour and forty-five minutes. It usually took longer to type the finished manuscript than it did for Phillips to dream it up.(55) During Phillips's "writing" she seldom lost her place or became confused.  If she did, she could always consult one of her various genealogical charts she created for each show. They consisted of squares containing characters' names with solid lines connecting relatives, dotted lines connecting in-laws, and "X"'s over names of dead or missing family members.(56)     After the writing was finished Phillips would sit down and watch not only her shows but those of her competitors as well. While viewing her own shows, if she found something she did not like in script, performance, or production, it was switched immediately. This often meant a phone call to New York and a list of demands. A few times actors found themselves jobless after a phone call from Phillips. Not surprisingly, many actors, writers, and crew members feared Phillips's wrath. Once, when an actor playing what many thought an indispensable character asked for a raise in salary, Phillips refused and solved the whole problem by simply killing off the character. The show went on without him.(57) Don Hastings, who has played Dr. Bob Hughes on AS THE WORLD TURNS since 1960 (and wrote for the show for many years under the name J.J. Mathews), remembers Phillips as a tough but fair mother lion, ferocious in protecting her creation: "She was very tough on her writers but would protect them if the network or the producers criticized them. She always said that if she okayed a script it was as good as her writing it herself."(58)     Though Irna Phillips could be difficult, and a great many lived in constant fear of her, nobody would deny her skill. Don Hastings remembers a time when AS THE WORLD TURNS ratings had slipped. Owners Proctor and Gamble asked Phillips - then at work on another Proctor and Gamble show - to return and help WORLD. "Can you bring us up to a thirty share by the end of the year?" they asked. Phillips delivered the thirty share in thirteen weeks.(59)     Additionally, Phillips was not as difficult on a personal level as she might first appear. Throughout her career she was instrumental in starting other writers in their careers. Agnes Nixon, Bill Bell, and many other names benefitted from her support and guidance. Phillips was also known to take many young actors under her wing, sheltering and encouraging them.     In her life in Chicago, Phillips had a small but tight-knit group of friends and a fiercely devoted household staff. They admired and respected her enough to overlook her dramatic nature and her many pseudo-illnesses. Producer Lee Bell, who with her husband Bill created THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, was a friend and coworker of Irna's for many years; she remembers an eccentric but likable person. "She was a genius," Bell said, "A brilliant, intelligent woman. You wanted to be around her. Whatever eccentricities [she had] didn't matter."(60)      In 1964 Phillips formulated a new series for NBC titled ANOTHER WORLD. The title referred to the separate "psychological worlds" of its characters and the two separate economic worlds of the show's two major families. Not accidently, it also drew comparison with the previous Phillips creation AS THE WORLD TURNS.(61)     ANOTHER WORLD was the first daytime soap to run one hour. It was also the first daytime show to address the topic of abortion.(62) Phillips invited controversy again in 1967 when she attempted to introduce an interracial story line into LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING, a show she was also writing at the time. When the network bosses balked at the idea, Phillips walked out. She abandoned the show, and it was canceled in 1973.(63)     Despite Phillips forward thinking, however, she did not always approve of the direction daytime shows were taking. She said in 1972: "The daytime serial is destroying itself, eating itself up with rape, abortion, illegitimacy, men falling in love with other men's wives, all of which is often topped by a murder, followed by a long, drawn-out murder trial.(64)     In 1964 ABC-TV put Irna Phillips, at age 63, on the payroll as a special consultant for its primetime soaper PEYTON PLACE, the serialized twice-weekly program based on the book by Grace Metalious. By taking the PEYTON PLACE job, Phillips achieved a rare triple play: she now had her hand in, and was receiving paychecks from, shows running on all three major networks.(65)     In 1965 Phillips cocreated DAYS OF OUR LIVES and composed what has since become arguably the most famous opening line for any show in television's history: "Like sands through the hour glass ..."(66)     All did not always flow smoothly, however. The early years of ANOTHER WORLD were filled with complications: major characters were thrown out with little explanation, and actors were replacedal,ost weekly. Frustrated, Phillips left ANOTHER WORLD to concentrate on a show for ABC that she was cocreating with her daughter (and was based on Irna's own life). That show would only air for a few months when it premiered. Agnes Nixon was later brought into ANOTHER WORLD as head writer to whip the show into shape.(67)     Since Irna Phillips had almost single-handedly created soap operas as a dramatic form years ago in radio, they had begun to change. The incedible success of her own AS THE WORLD TURNS made daytime soap operas an important, highly profitable part of the network schedule. To gain viewers and therefore money, soaps became more and more sensational. Gradually they became more scandalous, sexual, and action-oriented; Irna Phillips's stories of women sitting around the breakfast table were becoming passe. Phillips found herself being left behind by the genre she had created. Allen Potter, who worked on ANOTHER WORLD with Phillips during its difficult years, summed up the problem: "She was from a different era. [She was] still writing kids going down to the malt shop."(68)     Phillips was asked to rejoin AS THE WORLD TURNS in 1972.(69) She simplified some of the plots but failed to turn the recent ratings dip around. Proctor and Gamble, the show's producer, fired Phillips in 1973. Back in Chicago she began work on an autobiography, but nothing was ever published.(70)     On December 23, 1973, Irna Phillips died in her sleep at her home in Chicago. She was seventy-two. In accordance with her wishes news of her death was kept from the press for several weeks.(71)     What made Phillips a success - the Queen of the Soaps, as she was often called - is somewhat difficult to answer. Helen Wagner recently explained it this way: "We [AS THE WORLD TURNS] premiered the same day as EDGE OF NIGHT [a now defunct mystery-based soap on ABC]. What was important on that show was the story. For AS THE WORLD TURNS what was important was the character.(72) Phillips realized early in her career that the success of serialized stories depended on her audience becoming involved and knowledgeable about the characters on the show. She told BROADCASTING in 1972: "Characters have to be multidimensional. The story has to come from the characters, to the point where your viewers will get to know a character so well they can predict his or her behavior in a given dramatic situation."(73)     Phillips believes there were several reasons for her success, not the least of which was her self-described limited vocabulary ("my greatest asset"), which, she believed, made her programs universal. She also attempted in her writing to appeal to the basic instincts of self-preservation, sex, and family.(74)     Perhaps Phillips's greatest personal achievement, however, was creating a world. fully and believably, that she did not really know herself. Though she never married; nor did she give birth; nor did she ever own a  home. But somehow Irna Phillips knew enough about all those qualities to entertain millions for generations - to spin endlessly involving tales of day-to-day life; tales about the simple joys and daily dramas of paying the bills, raising children, belonging to a family, and falling in love.      Irna Phillips wrote in McCALL'S magazine in 1965, "None of us is different, except in degree. None of us is a stranger to success and failure, life and death, the need to be lovedthe struggle to communicate..."(75)     Four of the programs Irna Phillips created - AS THE WORLD TURNS, GUIDING LIGHT, DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and ANOTHER WORLD - are still on the air today.  IRNA PHILLIPS July 1, 1901        Born in Chicago, Illinois 1922             Graduated with bachelor's degree in education. 1924             Graduated with master's degree in speech; began career teaching school in Missouri and, later, Ohio. May 1930        Returned to Chicago; joined WGN as actress and ad hoc writer.  October 20, 1930    PAINTED DREAMS, radio's first "soap opera" debuted;created by Irna Phillips.  June 16, 1932        TODAY'S CHILDREN, second Phillips creation, premiered; departed WGN. 1934            MASQUERADE premiered.  1935            MASQUERADE aired last broadcast. January 25, 1937     THE GUIDING LIGHT premiered.  1938            TODAY'S CHILDREN aired final broadcast; ROAD OF LIFE and WOMAN IN WHITE premiered. October 16, 1939    THE RIGHT TO HAPPINESS premiered.  1940            Phillips moved briefly to New York City; would return to Chicago after six months.  1941            WOMEN ALONE premiered; settled court suit with WGN.  June 29, 1942        LONELY WOMEN (title later changed to TODAY'S CHILDREN) premiered.  1943            Resided briefly in Los Angeles; adopted son, Thomas Dirk. 1944            Adopted daughter, Katherine.  Summer 1948        WOMAN IN WHITE aired last broadcast. October 11, 1948    THE BRIGHTER DAY premiered on radio.  January 31, 1949    THESE ARE MY CHILDREN premiered. March 4, 1949        THESE ARE MY CHILDREN ended. 1950            Second incarnation of TODAY'S CHILDREN ended on radio. June 30, 1952        THE GUIDING LIGHT debuted on television. 1956            BRIGHTER DAY ended  on radio. January 4, 1954        THE BRIGHTER DAY premiered on television.  December 13, 1954    ROAD OF LIFE premiered on television; show ended broadcasts on radio. July 1, 1955        ROAD OF LIFE aired last broadcast on television. April 2, 1956        AS THE WORLD TURNS premiered. November 25, 1960    THE RIGHT TO HAPPINESS ended on radio. May 4, 1964        ANOTHER WORLD premiered.  1964            Worked as consultant on primetime's PEYTON PLACE. May 5, 1965        OUR PRIVATE WORLD, AS THE WORLD TURNS spin-off, premiered in primetime. September 10, 1965    OUR PRIVATE WORLD aired last episode. September 28, 1965    THE BRIGHTER DAY aired last broadcast on TV. November 8, 1965    DAYS OF OUR LIVES premiered. September 18, 1967    LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING, soap opera, premiered.  March 23, 1973        LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING aired last broadcast. Late 1973        Fired by Proctor and Gamble.  December 23, 1974    Passed away at home in Chicago.  NOTES 1.    "The Creators," TV GUIDE (Commemorative Edition) (July 1991), p.59. 2.    Dan Wakefield, ALL HER CHILDDREN (New York: Doubleday, 1976), p.27.  3.    CURRENT BIOGRAPHY (1943), p.590. 4.    Irna Phillips, "Every Woman's Life Is a Soap Opera," Mccall's (March 1965), p.116 5.    Ibid. 6.    Peter Wyden, "Madam Soap Opera," SATURDAY EVENING POST (25 June 1960), p.129. 7.    Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green, NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN: THE MODERN PERIOD (Cambridge: Belknap, 1980), p.542. 8.     "Script Queen," TIME (10 June 1940), p.66. 9.    Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green, p.542. 10.    "Writing On: Irna Phillips Mends With Tradition," BROADCASTING (6 November 1972), p.75 11.     Madeline Edmundson and David Rounds, THE SOAPS (New York: Stein & Day, 1973), p.43.     12.     CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.590 13.    Sicherman and Green, p.542. 14.    Robert C. Allen, SPEAKING OF SOAPS (CHapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1985), p.111.  15.     "Writing On: Irna Phillips Mends With Tradition," p.75. 16.     Edmundson and Rounds, p.44. 17.     Allen, p.112. 18.     Wyden, p.130. 19.     Ibid. 20.     CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.590. 21.     "Queen of the Soaps," NEWSWEEK (11 May 1964), p.66. 22.    Sicherman and Green, p.543. 23.     Wyden, p.130. 24.    Sicherman and Green, p.259. 25.    CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.519. 26.     "With Significance," TIME (11 June 1945), p.46. 27.     CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.590. 28.    Wyden, p.129. 29.    Interview with Lee Bell (4 September 1991). All other information and quotes from Mrs. Bell in this chapter were taken from this interview. 30.    Interview with Don Hastings (5 December 1991). All other information and quotes from Mr. Hastings in this chapter were taken from this interview.  31.    Wyden, p.129. 32.    Robert LaGuardia, SOAP WORLD (New York: Arbor House, 1983), p.20. 33.    Wyden, p.129 34.    Interview with Helen Wagner (10 October 1991). All other information and quotes from Ms. Wagner in this chapter were taken from this interview. 35.     Ibid., p.130. 36.    "Script Queen," p.66. 37.    Wyden, p.127. 38.     Wagner interview. 39.    Wyden, p.127. 40.    Phillips, p.117. 41.    Wyden, p.127. 42.    Ibid., p.130. 43.    Ibid. 44.    CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, P.591. 45.    "Script Queen,"p.68. 46.    Wakefield, p.28. 47.    Sicherman and Green, p.543. 48.    Wyden, p.130.  49.    Ibid. 50.    Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, THE COMPLETE DIRECTORY TO PRIME TIME NETWORK TV SHOWS(New York: Ballantine, 1981), p.571. 51.    Wyden, p.129. 52.    Phillips, p.168. 53.    Bell interview. 54.    Wyden, p.30. 55.    Ibid. 56.    Phillips, p.168. 57.    CURRENT BIOGRAPHY, p.591. 58.    Hastings interview. 59.    Ibid. 60.    Bell interview. 61.    LaGuardia, p.81. 62.    Ibid. 63.     Jean Rouverol, WRITING FOR THE SOAPS (Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books,1984), p.11. 64.    "Writing On: Irna Phillips Mends with Tradition," p.75. 65.    "Queen of the Soaps," NEWSWEEK (11 May 1964), p.66. 66.    Rouverol, p.11. 67.     La Guardia, p.81. 68.     Ibid. 69.    "Week's Headliners," BROADCASTING (17 January 1972), p.9. 70.    LaGuardia, p.81. 71.    Landry, p.71. 72.    Wagner interview. 73.    "Writing On: Irna Phillips Mends with Tradition," p.75. 74.    Sicherman and Green, p.542. 75.    Phillips, p.116.
    • So, Roman admitted that everything he did was to protect Johnny. I like that. It adds another dynamic to this storyline. And it’s also a much better use of the character of Roman. He’s been stuck in the Pub for too long lol I’m also really liking the way that Roman and Kate’s relationship has been written lately. As for Josh Taylor’s voice… no comment

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      And speaking of relationships, I’ve also been seeing improvements in the relationships between Johnny and Paulina as well. I enjoyed their scenes today. They really feel more like an actual mother in law and son in law. I’m cringing a little at the way that Paulina would’ve been written had Ron stayed on a little longer. This type of writing is the exact thing that the character of Paulina needed, especially for a storyline like this.  I am a little intrigued with the idea of EJ and Xander going head to head over buying the hospital too, mostly because of how it could drive other storylines, couples, etc.,like EJ and Belle. Him basically using Belle as his own personal fixer, both with Johnny and the hospital board could lead to something interesting happening in the future. And Philip, doing whatever he can in order to get back in Xander’s good graces is a good addition to this storyline as well.  Btw, I don’t dislike it at all but I still can’t believe that they’re 

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      And yeah, sorry, I know that Days means well but I think they’re making a little too much out of this Xander/Felicity thing. But Xander and Sarah were sweet today. I’m looking forward to seeing everything between them get blown to hell.  Seriously, one of the worst, if not the worst, team in soap history. 
    • Thanks for letting me know! I thought there was a preemption until CBS confused me by uploading Monday's episode on Friday.
    • Lucky Day is an awfully good Doctor-lite episode focused on Millie Gibson and Jemma Redgrave - I am glad the show brought in Varada Sethu who continues to give major Caroline John/Liz Shaw vibes, but Millie was always very good in what felt designed to be a single arc companion and she's very good here too. She deserves a bit more somewhere in the franchise. The depressingly relevant storyline aside, I was most impressed by the showcase for UNIT and Kate Stewart. Jemma is always good but she was amazing here, noting the Doctor would've stopped her from going all the way re: Think Tank if he were there. Yet it's the kind of brute force her father could and did resort to in extreme situations back in the day. I almost hoped she would allow Conrad to be killed right then and there, which is something I think the Brigadier also would've done when backed against a wall over operational control and the safety of the Earth. She came very close, and the steel Redgrave exhibited (as always) was amazing. Whatever spinoffs can still materialize given the current streaming climate and DW's uncertain future (I do think it will continue somewhere, but I would not be shocked if it's back to a run of holiday specials for awhile a la Tennant's and Whittaker's), aside from the upcoming odd Sea Devils miniseries that's in the can, I still hope UNIT and Kate can get a proper one sometime.
    • I think it was just him  And it gave good explanations as to why Alistair was the way that he was. By the time the series ended, he was just evil for evil’s sake 
    • To me, that made no difference. The point stands whether Eva wants to be a Dupree or not. Anita was 110% on top of things. Also it's a logical inference that Eva might be interested in having a place in her supposedly real family. Frankly though I wonder if Eva knows how to feel ... yet. She could really be confused. What I am thinking is if it were me I would be confused.
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