For whatever reason though, I always got a weird vibe from him, like an overly friendly, not very genuine feel about him. I've never met the guy, so I could be completely off base, but I always felt like he was trying too hard. I think the term 'pet' is a fairly good one for him.

I think he realized fairly quickly that he could get a lot of perks just by playing the game so to speak. He seemed very eager to return to AMC after his very brief break. I guess it was a lot better to be the Prince of Daytime then it was to suffer out in the cold of LA/NY searching for work, especially with a wife and kid.

I wonder if Theresa Blake smoked. I could believe it. I remember Kelly saying in a SOD interview that all of the smokers' dressing rooms were grouped together, and I think she mentioned Jill being among them. Ugh, I don't know how they smoked down there in those tiny dressing rooms with no windows.

Ali Sweeney is 35 and younger? I thought she was at least 40 by now.

Alison turns 36 this September. She started on Days 19 years ago when she was 16

Another thing that I didn't know - that actors use other actors' dressing rooms when the other actors aren't working. I just assumed that everyone on contract had the same deal as EB/MTS - having their own dressing rooms that no one else uses.

Having done some amateur acting, I must say I think sharing a dressing room would wind up being the better and more fun experience. Shared suffering and going crazy together trying to memorize lines creates better friendships than being isolated at work and then home, especially for younger people. There just is no reason for someone under 50 to need their own dressing room, and very few reasons why anyone older would need one. Ego I guess, but thats about it.

She wrote in her book that when AMC was moving out to LA, Liza told her to look on the bright side - she'd probably get a much better dressing room, and maybe even her own bathroom. Apparently Liza had a pretty swanky dressing room set up on Passions. When Susan got to LA, her dressing room was even smaller than the one she had in NYC, and she still had to use the bathroom down the hall, but she did have an actual window in the LA dressing room, so that was a bit of an upgrade. Apparently AMC didn't want the actors to get to comfy in their new digs.

How dreadful.

Reading about this, I now believe that she was far too nice to the idiots at ABC when she put them on front street.

Although Ellabelle gave a very good explanation as to why Lucci was/is an A-Lister, I have always believed that her acting skills never came anywhere close to the hype.

Given how popular Dano was, it remains a mystery why AW's ratings were always so bad throughout the 80s and 90s. (Of course, Dano was far from the only positive thing AW had going for it.)

I think that Fulton may have kept her A-List status a lot longer had ATWT (and the P&G soaps in general) mainted its relevance among young people. Sadly, being a big name on that soap did not really mean that much over the past thirty years.

Acting skills have absolutely nothing to do with being an A-Lister. Lucci is an A-Lister because she's Susan Lucci, not because she's the grand thespian of daytime television. Dano, a skilled actress though she is, didn't become popular because of her acting, it was for all of her real life work and appearances. That's the thing, being an A-Lister is about pulling power, an actor's ability to market themselves and transcend daytime.

Most of the best actors in daytime are found on the B-List. And that's probably where they're most comfortable.

Alison turns 36 this September. She started on Days 19 years ago when she was 16

Well, I would've never guessed that she was 16 when she first started. She seemed at least 21 to me.

Having done some amateur acting, I must say I think sharing a dressing room would wind up being the better and more fun experience. Shared suffering and going crazy together trying to memorize lines creates better friendships than being isolated at work and then home, especially for younger people. There just is no reason for someone under 50 to need their own dressing room, and very few reasons why anyone older would need one. Ego I guess, but thats about it.

Maybe it's the introvert in me, but after hours of being on a set, I'd want to be able to retreat back to the privacy of my own room where I can chill for a few instead of worrying if someone'll be there waiting for me.

Then again, you may be right and it could be all about ego for these folks.

AW, in my opinion, never had great ratings because it was never....great. It was always good to fair to painful at times. The constant writing/producing changes hurt the show tremendously and never allowed it to have any long-term stories that stuck. It had tremendous cast turnover at times (especially in '86).

AW had lovable characters and actors on the show most of its run but it never had that "must see" kind of story that would get everyone talking (much like DAYS always did in the 90's). As much as I loved the show and couldn't wait to watch everyday, I can see why it never had a bigger following and just seemed to manage.

I'm going to open this question a bit further by asking:

Is there a A/B/C/D/Z-list system amongst the soap writers/directors/journalists/executive producers/journalists/magazines/blogs as well?

In other words, is there a certain publication/blog that gets first dibs on the on-screen/off-screen scoop? A journalist that all the upper-tier soap stars choose to speak to? A show that gets preferential treatment by the media because their show is an A-list soap?

Alison didn't look anything close to 21 when she started on DAYS, in my opinion.

BTW, she and her hubby are going to be on 20/20 in a couples of minutes here on the East Coast.

Obviously, Susan Lucci is the biggest, no doubt about that (although it was certainly Eileen Fulton before her).

Tony Geary and Genie Francis could still be considered up there, although it's not quite the same anymore.

Just to look at the ABC soaps for a second, I think the closest OLTL got was Erika Slezak, although had she not been run off the show by her stalker, Andrea Evans probably would've been further up, too.

Vanessa Marcil seemed to reach some sort of special popularity in the mid 90s (if only because she also hosted ABC In Concert, and there was that Prince song about her ).

Although I knew Linda Dano from AW, I wasn't aware of her Attitudes gig until it became a recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live for a year or two in the late 80s. Nora Dunn played her (and played her very well, IMO). That sketch probably did a great deal to expand her visibility and give her some cache that she otherwise wouldn't have. Regarding Eileen Fulton, I know that not only the prime-time spinoff, but there was also much made of the time she did ATWT in the morning, the afternoon matinee of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and evening performances of The Fantasticks...at least by Ms. Fulton herself. I've never heard how long that really lasted. But she was probably as adept at doing her own publicity as her publicist was. Any power she held within the industry was probably gone for the most part by the mid 70s.

Although I knew Linda Dano from AW, I wasn't aware of her Attitudes gig until it became a recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live for a year or two in the late 80s. Nora Dunn played her (and played her very well, IMO). That sketch probably did a great deal to expand her visibility and give her some cache that she otherwise wouldn't have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF7AF0qL4JU

Nora Dunn was AMAZING as Linda Dano. Once you've been lampooned on SNL, you've made it.

Really, i think it only comes down to Susan Lucci and Alison Sweeney. Susan is miles ahead of Ali on this though, simply because of the longevity factor. But Ali is definatly following the same path and making herself into a brand. A big difference is Susan Lucci is known for being Susan Lucci, and Ali Sweeney is known, mostly as the host of The Biggest loser - but just as Susan used her glamour and flawless skin/make up/hair to break into the beauty buisness, Ali is using her popularity in fitness to break into that world, and doing it wisely. They both are very smart, buisness driven women who knew/know what they are doing. the reason i say only them is because they didnt leave the soaps, they stayed, but they are known by some who dont even know about soap operas or watch them. I cant think of anybody else, in my lifetime anyways, that pulled this off.

Then there are def the soap actors who if we are talking strictly inside the soap world there are a ton that would make the A list, Geary, Francis, MEK, Cady, Erika S, Strasser, Bernard, Burton, Reckell, Alfonso, Hall, Hogysten, Zimmer, Cooper, braden, etc.. but outside of soaps? Im not even sure they would make the D list.

Alison didn't look anything close to 21 when she started on DAYS, in my opinion.

BTW, she and her hubby are going to be on 20/20 in a couples of minutes here on the East Coast.

She didnt look 21 until about 2006 IMHO.

They were so cute on 20/20