How far is it from Oakdale to Chicago?

Callous posers from both coasts always trying to put down Oakdale.

Farther when Marland is in charge.

Utter Llanview nut here- but I have become a massive fan of Barbara . And I would also watch Lucinda during OLTL commercials.

And when JULIANNE FUCKING MOORE returns for the finale? Come on!!

As the World Turns Oakdale or Edge of Night's Oakdale?

About 500K a year.

ATWT r4

I'm watching an episode from 1988 and Holden is on a private jet from Chicago to Oakdale.

Didn't Lisa walk from Oakdale to Chicago back in the 60s when they tried to give her her own show?

R4, I think they were supposed to be the same place, no?

[quote]As the World Turns Oakdale or Edge of Night's Oakdale?

Edge of Night was set in Monticello.

They never really said. I think both Oakdale and Springfield were supposed to be generally in IL, close enough to Chicago that one could drive or fly. (Which would really mean more Indianapolis, but that's neither here nor there).

Monticello was supposedly a suburb of Cincinnati.

Henderson....well, who knows where the fuck THAT was.....

In 2006, Barbara bought Casey and Gwen tickets to attend the "Acid Ran" concert in Chicago, so they could check out potential bands for Lisa to book at her club.

When Casey had to convince Gwen to go with him (she and Will were newlyweds and Gwen didn't think she should leave her husband) Casey didn't understand the issue and said, "IT'S ONLY AN HOUR AWAY."

They took a bus to get there and back.

Donna Love could see Chicago from her penthouse.

Salem was also set in the region. When seeking a babysitter for Belle, Marlena said she had to look as far as Chicago to find one.

When Jeanne Cooper died, an article in Salem newspaper said "Genoa City Morns the Loss of Beloved Citizen" or something like that. It seemed a very respectful way to tie the shows together.

Bay City was also Illinois. An Irna Phillips affectation?

Oh that’s by Elgin

While Chicago is mentioned in SALEM, USA, it's zip code places it somewhere in Connecticut, yet we've seen the Missouri state flag used in its police station and courtroom.

It's a fluid kind of place.

R14 I assume so. She was from Ohio but despite not really mentioning a particular state she was describing Middle America, and Illinois is pretty dang middle.

[quote] Donna Love could see Chicago from her penthouse.

I see everything from my lovely little perch!

Bay City and Somerset are both actual cities in Michigan....I thought that's where the soaps were set?

R19 Bay City apparently was considered in IL. I don't know why. I assumed the same as you.

Irna lived in Chicago , as did Bill Bell, so she set all her shows in Illinois. The Bells had a vacation home in Lake Geneva, and they passed through Genoa City, WI, to get there; which is how Y&R came to be set there.

Agnes Nixon lived on the Main Line in Philadelphia, so Corinth, Llanview and Pine Valley were located there.

All true, though Genoa City was really just the borrowing of a name, as the GC shown on YR is radically different than the real one.

When Genoa City became more of an urban setting, the show would often use Pittsburgh for its atmosphere shots and location shoots. Places like Newman Towers, Genoa City Memorial Hospital, the Genoa City Police Department building, and its International Airport, etc. all had real counterparts in Pittsburgh.

R23 Yes, I remember they did some outdoor shots there. ATWT did some too, in its last year or so.

I always thought Genoa City was a stupid name for a soap location. It’s not even a port city like Genoa in Italy.

Found the ATWT one right quick. Filmed over near/at the Mattress Factory.

In the very first episode of Y&R, we see the type of small Wisconsin town Genoa City was originally envisioned to be as Brad Eliot is being driven into town by a truck driver who'd picked him on the road.

And in the next scene, Sally McGuire peers out a window and reinforces this idea when she bemoans what "a drag it is being stuck in a place like Genoa City."

At least she had Snapper's hot cock to entertain her.

Philece Sampler was the definitive Donna Love.

Yeah, about as definitive as Susan Batten was as Connor Walsh.

Tonya Pinkins mentions ATWT in an interview.

She mentions Marland but also a "toxic culture"....but I think most of her time on screen at ATWT was before Marland came onboard. Or a big chunk of it, anyway. ATWT was trying anything to stay afloat before he got there.

[quote[ “We were the kids,” Pinkins says. “[Late Head Writer] Doug Marland was a great, great writer, but there was a culture there that was incredibly toxic. It was like the writers were reading all the soap mags and finding out what was going on in people’s real lives and putting that into the show. It was very tense.”

(and also, Tonya is a little bit cuckoo)

I recall Tonya doing an interview with Soap Opera Digest or Soap Opera Weekly, and saying she didn’t get along with ATWT’s EP at the time, Robert Calhoun.

In the 1970s, Bay City was implied to be in Michigan. Harding Lemay never expressly said it was in Michigan, but he definitely never said, or implied, that Bay City was just outside of Chicago.

In the early 80s, the exact location of Bay City was changed to Illinois, making it a suburb of Chicago.

R33 Madonna was born in Bay City. MI. It’s very small.

So when Beth ran off to the beach on GL, and Lujack followed her, was it a Great Lakes beach?

It may as well be a million miles..

R34, great question! Springfield, at various times, had beaches, lakes, rivers, and sometimes seemed to be close to an ocean (which baffled me).

I was the biggest fan of GL for many, many years. In 1987, when I was a senior in high school, I met a guy who had been offered a writing job on the show. He ultimately turned it down due to a writers’ strike. However, the show had given him a lot of background info including a map of Springfield, etc. He gave me all of the stuff the show had furnished. It was all ruined when my parents’ basement flooded.

You live in your parents' basement?

No, R37, lol. While I was at college their basement flooded and I lost a lot things that I wish I hadn’t.

The dumb cunt-tella got a resounding NO from NATAS regarding an Emmy for Beverlee. Everyone tried telling the moron that they don’t award Lifetime Achievement Awards to dead people. She resisted that fact and filed anyway. The dumb cunt!

MARY!

14 years ago today was the last day of filming for ATWT.

Tuesday, June 25 will mark the 25th anniversary of the final episode of Another World.

And September will be 15 years since the final episode of GL.

Dec. 28, 2024 will mark 40 years since the final episode of Edge of Night aired.

September 3 will mark the day that they dropped THE Search For THE Tomorrow

July 1 will be Connie Ford's 100th birthday (July 1, 1923).

What a kick in the cunt!

I always assumed Salem was East Coast. Bo and Hope sailed right out of there in 1987.

R47, she’d be 101 if born in ‘23.

Thank you, r49. Right you are. 101.

Did Anne Heche and Connie ever bump pussies?

2023 marked 40 years since I spend the night on my knees and on my back in the Tops parking lot and took 40 loads, one after another!

I had a real record until that damn Dawson came along.

Was Stephen Yates the only straight man to play Jamie?

R53 he didn't look so straight in those coochie cutters Jamie wore when he crashed Mac and Rachel's wedding!

R54 No he didn’t look so straight, but he sure as hell ate out my snatch when we worked together at GL!

MARY!

Maeve Kinkead in the Locher Room Thursday.

She's been on a few other tribute shows before - I think for Lisa and Jerry, plus the Maureen Bauer one - but this will be her first session that focuses on her solely.

Will Locher say that everything was wonderful at GL? Gee Alan. Everything was perfect at P&G while you were there!

No snatches will be eaten, no toilets will be clogged, no parts of a show title will be dropped or added.

I’m sure that buttinsky Jill Lorie Hurst will weigh in on Vanessa and her inner radiance.

LOL R60! And Alan will need Jill to correct him about facts on “his” shows that he watched and did PR for 11 years. Has Alan mentioned that he did PR for 11 years? But he always fails to mention that both GL and ATWT were cancelled while he did PR for both shows. I guess the PR didn’t reach the viewers. lol Good job, Locher!

They couldn’t do a fake tree like here in CA?

Why was the Mona Lisa such an embarrassingly cheap set?

It really stood out for its awfulness. It looked like the decor came from Party City. It was odd, considering it was a major set and supposed to be one of the nicer sets in town. Compared to Tops on Another World, it was awful.

ATWT didn’t really have terrible sets, and it stood out.

I just remember that the Mona Lisa was always so damn dark.

25 years ago our beloved Another World left the airwaves.

DARK!

Digest remembers AW.

John Driscoll in the Locher Room.

Not the world's greatest actor but damn, he was hot as fuck.

John Driscoll is straight, fyi.

R69

What a waste

He is. But damn, he's beautiful. Or was.

I saw him once while he was being interviewed by a local station.....he might come across a little Dudley DoRight on TV but he was a big, muscled, beautiful guy in person (biceps for days) and a lot more interesting that "Coop" was.

Locher will get ‘moist’.

PHE-ELIP!

John Driscoll is gorgeous. Beautiful. He was good as Coop. Coop and Beth were a hot couple. MILF getting her young stud.

Driscoll definitely seemed like he has sizemeat.

R75 He probably does but Alan ‘I did PR for GL and ATWT for 11 years and they both got cancelled while I did PR but never mention that fact’ Locher will never sample Driscoll’s cock.

Driscoll is smoking hot. He was on GL with Murray Bartlett and Tom Pelphrey.

Maeve's Locher Room was today.

Locher has not improved in 4 years. He’s hard to watch.

.....

I am just bumping this thread because I know who the OP is.

There's more than one Oakdale, natch.

Alan Locher really does seem to be a nice man but good god his interviewing style was never as maddening as it was with Maeve Kinkaid. His relentless inability to ask follow-up questions was particularly noticeable. OK, so William Roerick, it turned out, knew Kinkaid’s parents. But did that mean Kinkaid had actually met and socialized with Roerick before they worked together on GL? We’ll never know. And what were the “astonishing things” Roerick did for them? Jesus. It was still nice to to see Kinkaid again and we even got a glimpse of Meryl’s brother Harry who stepped in to fix a technical glitch. Locher was wise not to bring up Paul Rauch’s name. And we got further proof that Kathleen Widdoes was really quite the perv on set. I liked her saying that Vanessa being hooked on pills was her least favorite storyline. It made Vanessa weak and pathetic and I remember Billy telling her that. And so ironic since Jordan Clarke was an addict himself.

R83 But I take exception to that Kathleen Widdoes could flash her tits? That was sexual harassment! Who would want to see those things!! Tell me exactly what Paul Rauch did to Maeve because I find Maeve to be hypocritical. Flash your tits Kathleen and that’s ok but what did Paul do to Maeve? And she went back wirking for Paul!!!

I'm at a loss to understand how Locher's show has continued. It's not that he isn't perfect at interviewing.....it's that he's so utterly terrible at it.

Locher has the connections to get the guests and he has the willingness to spend the time setting up interviews.

He's not getting paid for this. He's doing this for his love of soaps. And for the fame it's bringing him.

No, he's not a great interviewer and misses so many follow up questions. But no one else is doing it.

If someone more skilled at interviewing with the connections he had came along, that person would easily usurp Locher.

[quote]He's not getting paid for this.

He's not getting paid for any of the P&G interviews. That's for sure.

But he's done several sessions with actors from the Doctors at the request of the the people running the Watch the Doctors website. He may have gotten paid for those.

Likewise, he's done interviews with current Y&R and B&B stars which the Sony or Bell publicist arranged. It's possible he was paid for those as well.

I love Maeve and enjoyed the interview, but I think she’d be a tough interview for anyone.

I would love to hear the story about Rauch demanding that Maeve dye her hair.

I would also have liked to have heard more in general about her offscreen woes with Jordan Clarke. She made an aside about still loving Jordan when he wasn’t looking good (paraphrasing), was she referring to his weight?

I would assume she meant even when he was going through his drug issues.

Is it any wonder that GL and ATWT got cancelled while Locher was their PR person? Even now he’s a terrible publicist.

Oh and Thank God that Locher isn’t getting paid to say ‘that’s amazing’ 40 times per interview. That’s crazy.

Of course he mentioned that buttinsky Jill Lorie Hurst at least twice.

Maeve did say that she literally said to production at one point she could no longer work in scenes with Clarke because of his addiction issues. I wonder if Jean Carol said to ger “Thanks a bunch.” I forgot who she said she had a big crush on-I’m sure Harry was thrilled to hear that. I bet she had affairs. Like her sister-in-law Meryl.

I like Jill Lorie Hurst. She was one of the few sane people at GL at the end.

The Vanessa pill addiction sl was a fuck u to Maeve, because Kobe and Long wanted to make Reva look good - who could believe the original version of Vanessa would sink so low as to run over pregnant Reva? Lol. Maeve quit a bit after that, saying she was tired of arguing over Vanessa's motivation. I think Kobe/Long were soon gone, and Vanessa got the sl with Ross that brought Dinah in the picture.

Who on GL were rumored to be doing coke besides the actors playing Roxy and Billy? So many of the actors said GL was a very friendly, fun set.

Jill Lorie Hurst’s writing certainly contributed to GL’s demise. She and Wheeler - deadly combo. Show killers.

I heard JLH was one of the good writers.

R95 I think it would be a shorter list as to who wasn't doing coke on the set in the 80s on most of the soaps.

Grant, Krista, Mikey et al have never come out and said they did it, but they were front burner and pretty much all of the younger actors/characters were doing it. Not sure if Zimmer was among them - she had kids by then, so I wouldn't think so, but who knows.

And it wasn't just GL. Apparently AMC was 10x worse and there were just mountains of blow there at all times.

R97 if she'd been given the HW reins more than a few months before the end of the show it might have lasted a bit longer. Unfortunately Kreizman and the other guys like Lucky Gold really stuck to all the bullshit dark stuff (like Grady and Jeffrey O Neill the rapist) until the network lost interest.

Even the great lez story and Phillip's return could not save it.

David Kreizman was HW of GL for the final five years. If you want to blame a writer for the demise of GL, Kreizman is the one you should be pointing a finger at.

Jill Lorie Hurst was merely on the writing team. However, in the final year, they promoted her to the HW team, which at that point consisted of four people.

Jill is the one who pitched the Otalia story and oversaw it's execution. Jill is also the one who convinced Grant to return as Phillip. She also oversaw most of the storylines in those final 4-5 months, making sure they had heart and invoked the show's long history.

Anybody have the book “Soap Opera Babylon” from the 80s? There was a story in it about the cast of some soap being on a yacht trip and the coke was being passed around like candy. One actress got so coked up that she fell off the yacht and they had to rescue her.

It was All My Children, r101; and the actress was Kim Delaney.

Which is ironic because poor Jenny also met her demise at sea.

Like I said, AMC was like Cocaine Central. Walt Willey got so addicted he could barely function. He was one of many there. Lucci was probably one of the few that didn't.

Larry Lau has strongly hinted that he had to leave AMC as Greg in 1985 to get clean (ie. off drugs).

Part of the reason he joined AW as Jamie in 1986 rather than go back to AMC as Greg was to stay away from temptation.

GH was Coke Central in the early 1980s.

Both Genie Francis and Tony Geary have made statements about having drug problems during those days.

This 9 minute video, uploaded to YouTube about two weeks ago, lists some of the openly gay actors who have been on soaps.

It's an interesting video. I knew most of the people mentioned but several were surprises as I didn't know they had officially come out. It's definitely worth watching.

There are some factual errors in the info given and video lists several people who only had one or two day roles for some odd reason.

Video also has some glaring oversights. I guess they left those people out for Part 2 of the video.

See what you think.

What an annoying voice in that old news video.

It never made any sense to make Ho-livia a lezzy on GL. Dumb move by Hurst to even suggest that after sleeping her way through the men of Springfield that she would now eat snatch. So many people hated that storyline. Ratings dropped even lower than they had been and the final nail was in GL’s coffin.

Otalia was one of the few compelling storylines on GL in its final 18 months, r109. Not unusual for a woman to come out later in life — see Meredith Baxter Birney.

Go away Cuntness-Donnatella. Be gone bitch.

Ignore our resident troll at r109.

And the Otalia storyline predated Hurst - it was first suggested when Claire Labine was HW as a story involving Olivia and Holly, then retooled after Ellen Wheeler, Hurst and Crystal Chappell discussed the idea.

The CUNT-ness DUMB Donna-Crossing-the-bridge-SOON is just stupid. Please cross over and spare yourself embarrassment Cuntessa. . Ho-livia and Natalia killed my Guiding Light. The lezzy story never made sense! They were never lezzies. In fantasy, yes but not on my Guiding Light.

R107 I wonder why they had a pic of GL’s Murray Bartlett yet didn’t mention him or the obvious one GL’s Matt Bomer?

Otalia actually stabilized ratings and was attracting new fans to GL, but the cancellation announcement killed any hope of ratings rising, which I believe they would have. Otalia was very popular, and was that type of story that, because it didn’t make sense in one way, that made it work and made it more compelling. I think had CBS given GL one more year it would still be on TV today.

r114 Matt Bomer, Murray Bartlett, Greg Rikaart, Peter Porte, Christian Le Blanc, Tuc Watkins, Ian Buchanan, Kevin Spiras,

All actors who worked in soaps and have publicly come out, but were left out of the video. Guess they'll be in Volume 2.

And then there are the dead actors, including Dack Rambo, Dennis Parker, Peter White, William Roderick, Paul Stevens . . .

So many actors that video didn't include.

I was particularly surprised about Murray not being included because they did include his pic in the video AND he is famous like Matt Bomer, another omission.

That video was clickbait nonsense done in 30 minutes with no research.

Any of us could do it better.

Only Cunt-essa Donna tell all would defend Ho-livia becoming a lezzy. It made no sense. Ratings dropped and GL was cancelled.

Here's the follow up video which covers many of the actors who were left out of the first one.

As before, lots of factual errors here.

Ahem.

Renaud sucked my dick.

anywho....

What Steven Frame (the younger) grew up to look like.....

He was on GL in 85? As William? I don’t remember seeing any YouTube vids of him on GL.

I vaguely remember him as Warren's assistant.

This thread reminded me that the Snyder farm was not in Oakdale but Luther’s Corners. Dunno why I suddenly remembered.

Anybody old enough to remember Santos Ortega as Grandpa Hughes?

William (Renauld White) was the maitre’d at the Springfield nightclub, whatsitsname.

Blue Orchid?

But he seems to have had a contract which is reserved for storyline worthy cast.

R130 Yes! That was it, Blue Orchid, which was owned by Warren.

R130, I don’t think William was ever a contract role. It was a day player role and usually an under-5 (under five lines of dialogue).

That article has a fair number of errors in it.

William Renauld certainly hooked up with Warren Burton.

.....

I’d see Renauld White all the time at SAG film screenings. Handsome man. Always on his own, seemed very quiet.

I went to the Bauer barbeque. It was OK.

But it wasn't as fun as the Bauer Barebackeque in that little back alley club off 5th Street.......

R137, did Lacey Bauer show up. I heard through the grapevine she’s an unrepentent drunk.

Lacey was there, trash talking Simone Biles and the career Lacey might have had.

Haha, R139. I remember she had these great big eyes. She was cute.

Doe-eyed

Lacey Bauer never sucked MY cock!

Well, she sure as shit sucked MINE.

If someone unhinges their jaw, they can suck mine.

My favorite soap scene ever was when Warren tied up India with Xmas lights.

And then plugged them in.

Poor Lacey Bauer died in real life.

I know Mary Lou Retton was a huge GL fan. Didn’t she appear on the show in a cameo?

R145 yes!

R147 Google says yes, in 1985.

R148 can you link? My google must not work.

It was sweet when Chris Bernau would joke with his pendulousness that he was gonna take at least 30 loads over the weekend at The Ramrod. Except Bernau wasn’t joking.

r127 = Janey Cobb

Oh please. Janey Cobb was a big ole lez who wanted Meg’s gash.

IMDB says Mary Lou Retton appeared as herself on GL on the March 8, 1985 episode.

As I recall, she was in Company and interacted with Beth or Mindy or maybe both of them.

1985 not being GL's best days.

Probably when the fucking Sampson Girl contest was happening.

And Infinity.

First half of 1985 was good on GL. It slid fast from late summer on.

R138 and company, your deep cuts are making me so happy!

R145, I too LOVED that scene! (I loved India probably more than any other soap character.)

I remember coming home from school and my mom telling me that I had to watch GL (I’d been taping it) right away to see what Warren did to India. My mom had gotten me into the show when I was young — I associate so much of the show with her.

Mary!

R158, imagine if we'd had internet then.

r158 I feel the same way about ATWT and my own mother.

Every day, she would watch the show. Before I started kindergarten, when I was home all day, I would watch with her. I remember her explaining some of the situations to me, and certain characters were like real people we knew (Lucinda, John, Hoden, Lily, Emma, Margo, etc). Emma in particular was like an old family friend. For a couple of years, ATWT was my mom's and my "thing."

I recently found a bunch of old episodes from the mid-to-late 80s on YouTube and watching them took me right back to those early days with my mom (who is rapidly declining with Alzheimer's). It's a way for me to reconnect with her now, even though she's basically gone. I doubt she appreciated then, nearly 40 years ago, how meaningful those moments would be for me all these years later.

R158 I loved India so much. It made me sad that no one seemed to "get" India after she left. I always wanted her to come back and stay on the show.

India came across as a big bull dyke who was in love with Beth.

I think it was more likely she had the hots for Vanessa.

Please do not feed or encourage the troll.

Kathleen was famous for always showing her tits to the newcomers. She was a perv. She even flashed poor gay Van Hansis. He didn’t want to see granny titties.

MARY r166!

Didn't Kathleen play a bit of a dirty bohemian girl in "The Group"?

I wish Jon Hensley had flashed all the newcomers. But there was the risk of poking them in the eye.

Only Grant’s pendulous dong was capable of doing that, R169.

Entire cities could take shade under THAT dong.

Finally got around to watching Maeve Kinkaid's interview in the Locher Room. It was a very good interview. Great to hear Maeve's story. Alan actually did some research beforehand and it helped the interview tremendously.

Maeve made a comment about her Another World time that I found provocative. She said the AW was expanded from 60 to 90 minutes because of Beverlee McKinsey.

While I'm not disputing that Iris was terribly popular, I'm not sure NBC would expand the show purely because of Iris.

What do others think? Discuss.

Well given that the 90 minute format sucked and failed and ratings dropped and the complete failure of Texas, I’d say Beverlee wasn’t the star they thought she was.

De-fusing Iris sunk Texas. Maeve mentioned Beverlee's health was affected. I wonder if her kidney problems started then.

I wish they'd asked Maeve about Bernau, the early Alan/Vanessa dynamic was so good. Vanessa loved letting Hope and Amanda think their husbands could be hers for the taking.

[quote]While I'm not disputing that Iris was terribly popular, I'm not sure NBC would expand the show purely because of Iris.

Especially because the 90-minute format meant Iris appeared in fewer episodes each week and resulted in fewer Iris-Rachel scenes.

An Iris/Vivian comedy would have been better. Those 2 together were gold.

We did kind of get that on SCTV, with Violet McKay and Mojo on "The Days of the Week."

I agree that the Maeve Kincaid episode of The Lochsr Room was one of the best. I wish he’d followed up a bit more on the topic of her asking not to work with Jordan Clarke for a period of time and her comment about Clarke’s appearance.

I also really, really wished Alan would have followed up (in the interview with Morgan England) when Morgan mentioned how he is still close with Bridget Hayden. I would love to know more about her current life (I know she was teaching in a public school some years ago).

[quote]An Iris/Vivian comedy would have been better. Those 2 together were gold.

Vivien with an E, don't you mean, r176?

This is an old (2015) Buzzfeed story about Jordan Clarke becoming a handyman. It touches on his problems with substances.

I have a problem with Maeve. She’s a hypocrite. Allegedly, she had a problem with Paul Rauch at AW. What about Kathleen Widdoes flashing her tits at everyone? That isn’t sexual harassment? And Maeve just laughed it off. Hypocrite. And Kathleen continued to show her tits at ATWT. That is sexual harassment.

I’m sure I’ve posted this before, but I would love to hear Maeve’s take on the story of Paul Rauch refusing to let her continue at GL I’d she stopped dyeing her hair.

I would have loved to have heard Maeve's take on the story of Paul Rauch sexually harassing her while she was playing Angie on AW from 1977-80. And then how she dealt with Rauch becoming her boss once again when he became GL EP in 1996

Maeve should compare notes with Louise Sorel. Didn’t she leave Santa Barbara amd One Life to Live because of Rauch?

R184 I think the difference was that Sorel was dating Rauch for a time, I don't think Maeve was....?

R178 Follow up is not a thing he does well. Not being mean, but he rarely knows the depth of details that most of his viewers know, so he's just often not prepared to ask good follow up questions.

In 1975, no one thought you could do a 60-minute soap five days a week. Many thought AW would fall flat on its face, but AW proved you could do it and the 60 minute format became the standard.

So, four years later, the idea of doing a 90-minute of a single soap wasn't completely outrageous. It was a bold experiment that ultimately proved that 90 minutes five days a week was too much.

Of course, AW was not at the top of its game in 1979 like it had been in 1975. Harding Lemay was suffering from burnout and wasn't coming up with his best stories.

I wonder if it has been General Hospital that expanded to 90 minute a day in 1979 if would have succeeded. GH was the show at the top of its game at that point, so if any soap would have worked as 90 minutes a day, it would have been GH.

As far as Iris goes, 1979 was not an especially good year for her. Not a lot of great Iris stories there.

Mac and Rachel were divorcing in 1979 and Mac married Janice, who Iris adored. So, not a lot of opportunities for Rachel-Iris scenes.

They also had nefarious Kurt Laverty flirting with Iris. But Kurt was married to a frail wife June Laverty (played by Geraldine Court) so it created an awkward situation.

Iris was also opposed to her son Dennis getting involved with newly arrived in town Cecile (played by Susan Keith). So, Iris hired Phillip Lyons to romance Cecile and break up Cecile and Dennis.

By the end of 1979, Beverlee McKinsey was out with a broken collar bone, so Carole Shelley subbed as Iris for about three months.

Hey, Vivien. Where did you get the idea that June Laverty was “frail”? She wasn’t frail at all, at least that’s not how Geraldine Court played her. She was an upscale, sophisticated New York bitch, sort of an Iris but not as cunning (or cunting).

Geraldine Court loved the cunt! She could eat a snatch all day long.

Another interesting thing Maeve said was that Larry Gates and Bill Roerick had a "complicated relationship" - I'm guessing they may have competed for roles.

r190

Weren't they both gay? Maybe they were a thing at one point and it ended poorly

Did the Pampered Palette deliver?

R191 Roerick was but not Gates.

Also fascinating that Roerick was a family friend - she knew him years before they worked together.

Roerick and Gates both had previous roles on GL in the 70's, s I wonder if they crossed paths then. So did Jordan Clarke,

Did Roerick accompnany Bernau to the Ramrod on Saturday nights?

It still amazes me that kindly old HB Lewis was the racist that Sidney Poitier slapped in that movie.

Its well known that Donna Swajeski used much of Harding Lemay's Bible when she took over as HW after Lemay quit in fall 1988.

But what about Tom King who took over as HW in 1979 when Lemay quit/was fired?

Lemay's last script aired on May 11, 1979, according to the AW Homepage. And King took over immediately after that. So, how long did King work off of Lemay's Bible before his own stories kicked in.

For example, Cecile (Susan Keith) arrived on screen June 6, 1979. She likely was part of Lemay's Bible.

But Mitch Blake didn't arrive in town until Oct 5, 1979. Was Mitch part of Lemay's Bible, or was he completely a Tom King creation?

Was the "Harry Must Die" storyline of Janice poisoning Mac the brainchild of Lemay or King? It kicked off in fall 1979 with the arrival of Mitch and culminated in March 1980 with the St. Croix remote.

What do people think?

I think no one cares about AW anymore. Moving on.

R197 Based on what Lemay wrote in his book, I don't think a lot of what aired after he left was his work. He was very against the sort of hyped melodrama that played out - he did not like writing the Sven/Helga story, though it was one of the more popular ones that played out. He may have had a role in creating Cecile and especially Janice (since she was a Frame) and may have also had a hand in developing Mitch Blake but I don't think he wrote much, if any, of the Harry Must Die inspired story.

Tom King always seemed like a hack, and that storyline was good, so iI would think he was working off some sort of outline from Lemay.

A hack like Tom King seemed much more likely to create the Harry Must Die storyline than Harding Lemay.

I would say the Lemay storylines played out through the summer of 1979.

By fall 1979, NBC and P&G would have realized the 90 minute format wasn't going to work and likely was trying to find a way to get out of the 90 minutes while also saving face. They realized they could cut the show by to 60 minutes by doing a spin-off soap.

So, I'd say everything that was done from fall 1979 onward was what Tom King created. Or possibly Lemay's ideas reshaped to meet the needs of a show that was getting ready to spin-off characters to Texas.

So, I would say all this is Tom King's creations/plottings:

Russ Matthew returned to town in early Oct 1979 (after being written off a year earlier) to join Dr. Kevin Cook (Lee Patterson) , who would arrive in Bay City two weeks later, in a cardiac practice. Kevin's wife Reena (Carla Borelli) would arrive a month later. Kevin and Reena would of course be sent back to Houston with the debut of Texas in August 1980.

Tracey DeWitt would come back to town in Nov 1979, played this time by Y&R's Janice Lynde, and start a romance with Russ.

Nurse Kit Farrell (Halloway) arrived in November 1979, soon to be followed by her Aunt Miranda, her father, brother and sister.

As mentioned above, Mitch Blake arrived in Bay City in early Oct 1979 to open the campus disco. Mitch started plotting with Janice immediately. First references to Harry Must Die started soon after he arrived.

The stunt casting of former Y&R stars Espy and Lynde seems like a Rauch forced move, not a LeMay creation. Lynde inherited an old character that had been played by Caroline McWilliams, so Tracy DeWitt had to be a LeMay creation. Tracy was just a dull socilaite when McWilliams played her, and to appease Lynde she was suddenly a nightclub singer, It didn't matter who/what that character was, she was a real bore.

The upcoming Santa Barbara event has a number of interesting names, including Robert Newman, Crystal Chappell, and Patrick Mulcahey (writer).

link to Santa Barbara event, please.

R205 easily Googled but....sure

Holy shit, that lineup is legendary. I wish I could swing the trip. I'd pay to watch a livestream of the event.

That Santa Barbara event looks so fun.

I’d love to hear from Patrick Mulcahey.

I met Harley Jane Kozak eons ago at the LA Festival Books. She was great!

Patrick Mulcahey is a mess. He had to marry a man with the same name so he could try to be a better version of himself. Patrick is always a victim; oh poor me. Everyone else is in the wrong. He’s exhausting.

r206 Welcome to DataLounge. Hope you enjoy yourself here.

Standard procedure here on DL is to link a news article or an event if you're bringing it up for the first time, as you were doing.

R210 Dear, I've been here for years and have started most of the P&G soap threads. So you can take your cunty attitude and stuff it in your hooha, along with Ada's dishrag.

[quote] Nurse Kit Farrell (Halloway) arrived in November 1979

FIRST AID KIT

And Tracy was eventually blown to smithereens. Right after she sang "I Will Survive"

Espy was sex on a stick.

HARRY MUST DIE and its aftermath was all the show had for a while and Douglass Watson was given some of the best material of his career. he received an Emmy. Poor old Mack finding out on the witness stand that Rachel had slept with Mitch and Matthew wasn't his was an instance of brilliance in a very troubled show.

Later years were just as troubled but other standouts like the recast Nancy Frangione as Cecile seemed to keep things afloat. That period of Cecile as BIG BITCH OF THE SHOW was wildly entertaining, she even had a huge catfight with Blaine. Fun to watch her in that red maternity dress as she ran around Bay City wreaking havoc.

More info on Harry Must Die!

Paul Rauch fired FAT Blaine and replaced her with Judy Dewey. That was a kick in the cunt to fat Laura Malone.

Paul Rauch left AW in 1983. Malone was fired in 1984.

I arrived in 1983. I was, and still am, fabulous.

marlena de la croix in the locher room today

That poor Marlena De La Croix. She’s SO fucking ugly. She seems nice but my god what an ugly duckling.

Yeah, even her profile photo is horrendous. Yikes. She’s like the even uglier sister of that poor gal in Moonlighting,

Connie conducted this oral history with Agnes Nixon, and Agnes clearly thinks Connie’s questions are idio.

*Questions are idiotic

Aggie was a judgmental bitch.

Yikes! I didn't like staring up Connie/Marlena's nose during that interview.

Connie/Marlena should have raised her laptop a foot and sat back a foot while doing that interview. Also should have used a ring light to provide better lighting.

As it was, the angle at which she was photographed was exceptionally bad.

That said, the interview was somewhat interesting, but, of course, Alan bounced all over the place with his questions and failed to ask follow-up questions.

I was screaming at Alan when he failed to ask her more questions about her friendship with Doug Marland and his likes and dislikes. She said Marland adored John Wesley Shipp but I wanted to know so much more.

She talked about a somewhat bizarre friendship with Paul Rauch and Alan didn't even begin to ask enough questions about that.

I wanted to know more about Connie/Marlena's friendship with James Reilly. Her friendship with Susan Lucci. Her admiration of Robin Strasser. And so much more. So many missed opportunities in that interview.

Not far enough

Aggie was cunty to poor homely Marlena/Connie.

Agree, the camera looking up at Connie did her no favors.

She knows her stuff but she came across as very arrogant. "Mimi couldn't lose me." There was just a Weekly Locher Room session and by the language she used in her session, I think Connie thought she was much better than the others.....who were not "real journalist.s" So much so she probably insisted on her own episode.....which was not all that interesting. She kinda acted like her shit didn't stink.

Well I think Connie said alot about her intelligence when she defended Passions.

R228 said a lot about his intelligence… oh, dear.

MARY!

A few months back, someone on here was talking about doing a Marland biography, but worried so many people who might give commentary/insights are dead. Sounds like Connie/Marlena is someone who came provide some good info on Marland.

Likewise, at some point, people on here were wondering if there would ever be a Paul Rauch bio. Again, sounds like Connie/Marlena is someone to talk to.

Who would want to talk to that face???? Yikes!!! Marlena/Connie could play that ugly bitch in In Living Color.

What about MY biography?

There wouldn't be a very large audience for a bio of Marland or of Rauch. Or of Beverlee McKinsey. But there are some people who might be interested.

I mean, that Ryan's Hope book came out last fall and has been doing decently. So, there is still a soap audience out there.

So, I encourage those authors and reporters interested in such a project to pursue it.

There was supposedly a McKinsey bio being written, but that was announced several years ago and haven't heard any updates on it since.

Anna “Banana” Stuart was planning a memoir but don’t think it’s happening. And she really does have a story to tell.

R234, sadly I think you’re right about there being a limited audience. However, I would devour anything written about Marland and/or Rauch, just as I devoured the Ryan’s Hope book.

My mind is blanking, but isn’t Tom Lisanti said to be working on a similar project about another soap? Maybe Texas?

R237 I think you're right.

Anna Banana Stuart was boobsie buddies with my all time favorite Geraldine Court. They muff dived, for sure.

I really wish there would have been books about GL and ATWT, written in that "oral history" style much like the OLTL and RH books.

Agree, R240 — I’d be all over those books!

"An Oral History of The Guiding Light" by Grant Aleksander

A Pendulous View of Springfield

I hope the pendulous one never caught anything. His dick touched the water when he sat down to shit.

Most of the town could take shade under that python

Does anyone have that video of DL fave Geri Court playing with Anna Banana’s titties? Tim something or other says that it exists.

ack