Early Marland on ATWT was pretty decent and well-written.. but he should have been removed in 1988/1989 when his excesses got out of control.
I much preferred Hilary as Nora than Margo. I never bought her playing a female cop in a male dominated field, she came across better as a lawyer... while Ellen Dolan I could buy as a cop in a male dominated field.
The one trait that the show did maintain for Margo was her sense of humor, but each of the actresses displayed that humor in a different way. Colin's humor was more dramatic, Hilary's was more sarcastic with the best facial expressions, and Ellen's humor was more dead pan/dry. Glynis was a good sport with trying to play Margo's humorous side, and I think that was the only thing she sort of nailed when playing Margo. It came across more like she was bantering (she did well in the flashback scene with Hal when the two were bantering with one another).
Considering how Tom was always a little left of center and funny when played by Deas and Marx, I was surprised that they hired Holmes to play Tom. He had a more serious/earnest vibe that morphed into looking down on others (that came to pass by that 1993 episode shown when he was looking down on his half brother Scott and Lisa). Though I will say that Holmes got better looking as he aged.. it was like he aged into his looks..if that makes sense.
Count me in as someone that was a fan of Brooke Alexander, and I remember when she was let go.. there were blind items about a soap actor struggling to remember their lines and holding up production... and now I wonder if that was talking about her.
I do remember Brooke stating in her Locher Room episode, backed up by Tom Wiggins, that there was a elitist vibe back stage where if you weren't a stage, nor Broadway actor, you were looked down upon and basically bullied. I loved her story about Kelley M (Emily) pushing back against the bullying.
I often find stage performers to be too mechanical and too over the top/unrealistic. It's why I've never had the desire to see plays nor even go to Broadway (and wished those performers would stay on stage and off movie and tv sets).
Those stories just confirm to me that the ATWT set didn't seem as fun backstage as some of the other P & G shows (Guiding Light seemed to have a fun/close backstage going all the way back to the 70s and earlier, while AW people were trapped in Brooklyn so they had to bond for survival... and EON back in the day sounded like a lot of fun backstage).
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Soaplovers ·
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