News & Gossip from the mid-1980s per The Soaps of Yesterday

[DramatistDreamer]

Apparently, Eileen Fulton didn't remind people enough, by the way she was cast aside and disrespected towards the end of ATWT. If I were her, I would have been referring to myself as "The Original Daytime Bad Gal" every chance I got, in a true "I'm Britney, Bitch" fashion. They may not have liked it at first, but they'd remember it!

[Xanthe]

Lynda does point out that Sally was out of town for some time. According to the AWHP Julie Phillips left the role in September 1980 and Jennifer Runyon took over in March 1981. That's enough time to have a secret baby if you leave town pregnant, but not to meet David Thatcher and cultivate a relationship first. 

 

Regarding Kevin's age, if we decide he would have been born in Feb 1981, he would have been about 2.5 years old by the time the storyline of his birth was revealed. Matthew Cory, by comparison, was born onscreen in December 1980 and was being played by a 3-year-old in the summer of 1983. Not to mention Jamie, born onscreen in 1969 and now charitably in his 20s played by an actor in his 30s. Time is elastic in soaps. I don't believe they were planning the reveal of Kevin Thatcher since 1981 but I don't think making him a 5-year old was really outrageous or anything.

Edited March 6, 2021 by Xanthe
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[j swift]

Harry Dean Stanton was fired from OLTL? Wikipedia & Soap Central list Arlen Dean Snyder as the first actor in the role, so it may be another case of JMR's newspaper editor getting facts wrong.

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If it's true, I will remember this the next I feel underappreciated at work; some people just don't recognize talent.

Edited March 7, 2021 by j swift

[DRW50]

By this time Harry Dean Stanton wasn't a big name, but was a very well-respected television and film actor. I'd think if he was on the show it would have been in a guest role, like Uta Hagen around this period.

[j swift]

It's not on Stanton's IMDB so I think it's the same editor who headlined the article about Bill & Susan Hayes leaving DAYS with a title about Search for Tomorrow, and confused Loving with Capitol.  That editor needed an editor.

[DRW50]

 

That makes sense. I guess we're lucky they didn't say it was Richard Dean Anderson.

[Vee]

Harry Dean Stanton on OLTL - we should've been so blessed, lol. 

[Franko]

I mean, William Hickey *was* on AMC as one of Ray Gardner's scumbag associates, so ...

(Did Bruce Dern ever do a soap? If he did, it probably would have been a New York show in the '50s or '60s, so we'll never see it.)

[will81]

Lynda hirsch's column from Jan 84 also lists Arlen Dean Snyder as starting in the role soon.

[j swift]

Upon further review Harry Dean Stanton was in the Wim Wenders' film Paris, Texas in 1984, (which won the Palm d'Or in Cannes that year), as well as the iconic film Repo Man.  So, one tends to think he was unavailable to play a part on One Life to Live, although he was in the soap parody Young Doctors in Love two years earlier.

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Thus ends this thread's brief tangent into the life and career of Harry Dean Stanton...

 

BUT, it's a helpful reminder that whether it is 1984 or 2021, you can't believe everything you read.

Edited March 7, 2021 by j swift

[Vee]

I'm pretty sure we'd all have remembered or heard about film legend Harry Dean Stanton on OLTL by now.

[Franko]

A brief tangent: Young Doctors in Love isn't particularly great, but there's a few jokes done pretty well.

 

(Dabney Coleman's on the phone)

"Sara. ... Sara, look, you've got to understand. I am supervising 20 interns. I am running the surgery department in one of the largest hospitals in the country and I'm sitting on 12 medical committees. Now, I don't have time to talk to you, or your divorce attorney, is that clear?! Good!"

[kalbir]

Hahaha yes 

[Franko]

The revolving door of actors caught my eye in September '84:

-- Loanne Bishop leaving GH, "Christina" Milandro and Robyn Bernard joining the cast and Tony Geary preparing for a guest appearance (reportedly without Genie Francis). Meanwhile, Jane Elliot joins AMC.

-- TIL Suzanne Rogers and Lane Davies were once a couple. And, ha, I was right, Suzanne did try for the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line! In lighter news, Arleen Sorkin got promoted.

--  More on the Laura Malone story: She's lost her baby weight, but still can't get her role back. No comment from Chris or Nancy (who's returning to AW for an ATM visit).

-- SFT, which Michael Corbett will soon leave for good, earned a stay of execution because it's doing better than SB, which is hemorrhaging sub-writers. Ah, well, Marcy Walker's on the way.

-- Today I also learned Eileen Davidson was nearly in Red Sonja (!) and got around BITD. Her boyfriends included Christopher Mayer, Nicholas Walker and Billy Vera. I'm now imagining an alternate universe where Eileen gets Brigitte Nielsen's career and does movies like Rocky IV, Cobra and Beverly Hills Cop II.

-- Kelly "Mironi," formerly of RH, coming to OLTL as nu-Tina (which, of course, didn't happen).

-- Yet again, more dumping on the newbie, with a thumbs down for Rituals.

-- Don Stewart, Marsha Clark and Peter Simon out and Kristi Ferrell and Richard Van Vleet (out at AMC) in at GL.

-- Jon-Michael Reed apologized for the Harry Dean Stanton mix up, admitting Harry came to mind because of winning a recent award for his acting.

-- The news I was waiting for: ABC pushing RH to noon and LOVING to 12:30. Coming soon: EDGE's cancellation.

 

All this, and a reminder not to mix pot and alcohol.

[j swift]

@franko called it Loving is on the move on the ABC daytime schedule (BTW no mention of if the Olympics were disruptive to ABC ratings).

 

The obsession with weight continues, but this time its a guy so it is funny, unlike Laura Malone who have to give up breastfeeding her baby to lose 30 lbs.

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Of course, the irony of him "starving as an out of work actor" won't come true for a few more months

 

 

Meanwhile, this little mentioned kiddo could have been the character of Theo on Y&R, and it wouldn't have required a retcon

 

Remember the Alamo?  AW is taking Cecile to Majorca for the character's exit.  Meanwhile Tony Geary was ready to go to Mexico but had to settle for San Antonio, if I said it once, I've said it a thousand times, Felicia the blonde Aztec Princess would be cancelled by current social media mavens

 

 

I find myself really into the David Thatcher murder mystery (as well as EON's Logan Swift's murder mystery).  Both are great examples of good plotting, (something propels the mystery forward every week, like Donna and her blue ring), it brings together a lot of disparate characters (although one wonders why Rachel Cory decided to go undercover in a dive bar to help Caitlin - were she and Sally even that close?), and the mystery is a useful tool to uncover other secrets around town (like Marley's parentage). 

Edited March 9, 2021 by j swift