Reservations at the Mona Lisa: more marvelous Midwestern moments

[quote]Do send along missives from Monticello, Oakdale, Springfield, Henderson, and all nearby towns. Aunt Liz will be waiting to spread the news!

Thanks for starting the new thread.

And thanks for saving me some work. I can't wait to start spreading the news!

Prior thread, btw:

YAY!

[quote]Nancy Hughes, wearing Eau de Vinegar

Eau de Vinaigre

I'm not sure that THE Donna Love would have worn a Simply Barbara; she would have stayed with the major houses.

Wow, Linda Purl looks AMAZING. Who’s her surgeon?

The Mona Lisa was so cheap looking, it looked like a bunch of Party City streamers thrown over the Memorial Hospital cafeteria set with the lights turned down.

Lisa McColl kept plugging up the terlets at the Mona Lisa.

I used to have a cassette tape of Eileen Fulton singing “Maybe This Time” live at a NYC nightclub and it was HILARIOUS. That cassette was apparently making the rounds via show queens, many of whom had no fucking clue who Eileen Fulton was but thought her rendition was campy as hell.

(whispers) Maybe this time…I’ll be LUCKY…maybe this time…he’’ll stay…Maybe this time…for the FIRST time…he won’t just…HURRY AWAY!”

Think the type of phrasing as displayed by The Sweeney Sisters on SNL. Only Fulton’s phrasing was unintentionally hilarious. And the final bars going from her chest to head voice was the ultimate kicker.

Why did they get rid of Diana’s? I started watching “As the World Turns” a year after the 30th anniversary which was celebrated at Diana’s but when I started watching, everything centered around the Mona Lisa.

Everybody knows that after 1988, it was all about Barbara Ryan Originals.

Poor Santa Barbara didn’t stand a chance against GH and a weakened GL. I heard it was good- it had two of GL’s best HWs.

SB was fun with a lot of good comedy. Justin Deas was a riot.

Did Deas’s Tom Hughes have a humorous streak or was it all serious?

He was the most humorless of all the Toms, along with Margaret Colin as the most humorous Margo. They went up against Mr Big - played by the dwarf who went on to play Wallingford on AW.

My Tom will forever be Gregg Marx's sexy ass.

The hottest Tom^

But even Dot Boy Walton was Tom for a time.

Pussycat!

Tom Pelphrey getting raves for his new show.

How hard would it have been for ATWT casting to find an actual Amerasian actress to play Tom’s daughter Lien? Was it intentional that both actresses who played her (Chinese-American Ming Na Wen and filipina Lea Salonga) had 100% Asian facial features? It totally diluted the issue of what Amerasian chikdren faced when coming to this country. Lisa’s initial discomfort with her made little sense because Wen looked Asian and nothing else. Set aside the fact that she looked Chinese and not even Vietnamese. I guess Lindsay Price would have been too young to have first played her but there must have been SOMEBODY. I guess Doug Marland didn’t care to wait to find the right one? Anyway, that always irritated me.

Are these the groups you hate most r19?

Fuck off, R20. I guess there had to be at least one of you out there who would respond like this.

Bye, Hortense.

I think the Lien story was one of Marland's rare missteps. I never cared much for the character or story - nothing to do with her Asian background, but that story came literally out of nowhere. And initially the character was just kind of a whiny simp. No chemistry with Paul or Andy.

While Marland did most youth stories well, he really struck out with Lien (and with that whole terribly stereotypical story with Lauryn Hill).

Certainly in 2025 casting someone who wasn't part Vietnamese in a role like Lien would cause controversy.

If Marland wanted to give Tom a child, Tom could have fathered a child when he was on drugs in the late 60s, or maybe in the early 80s, when the character was out of Oakdale for several months before Justin Deas took over.

Didn’t Hogan Sheffer want to give Bob a previously unknown child from his ex-wife Sandy? The story was going to be that Bob spent a night with Sandy after she left Oakdale in 1979 and before he married Kim.

I was lukewarm to Lien but loved seeing Ming Na Wen’s career do so well afterward.

The oriental girls on days of our lives are different kinds of Chinese.

I didn't like Lien at first, but I really started liking her a lot once they paired her with Duke. Michael Louden really seemed to loosen Ming-Ma up, and their chemistry was very good.

I LOVED Michael Louden and was sad to hear of his early death. He could have gone far.

I really liked duke. Like as much as I liked Holden.

Oriental? Okay. And r19 has an illness and should be pitied. I used to like the Hortense Troll and gave it so many WWs on other threads. Defended it. Now I feel dismayed and ashamed.

Can we call this a bit of a bender? I can forgive that.

This is giving me a headache. I'd rather play bridge with Cecile!

21 years and 2 days ago, Barbara said, "So Long, Suckers!" and shocked the courtroom with an impromptu defenestration.

Tom Pelphrey had something special when he debuted on GL. He was the son Reva always should have had.

Ellen Dolan sings!

The recent Locher Room with Texas actors Michael Woods, Harley Kozak, Terri Garber and Tina Johnson was fun. Woods said he got canned later on from ATWT because of some contract issue?

Stumbled upon a Law & Order episode on Hulu-“Snatched”/Season 4/Episode 13-and Special Guest Stars are Ellen Parker, Marie Masters and, in a surprisingly large role, Judson Mills.

Judson Mills was Michael Weatherly before Weatherly existed.

Not really, r35. Mills appeared on World Turns in 1993, a year after Weatherly debuted in Loving.

ok but I find they resemble each other. is that all right with you?

I thought Judson Mills was the Temu Jimmy Wlcek....?

....and they were all variations of the original Hot Stable Boy character, Holden.

Holden --> Linc --> Hutch --> Mike Kasnoff

A shout out to Search from the folks at Edge and Secret Storm end credits to brighten your Sunday.

Interesting to see Bethel Leslie's name as writer for Secret Storm. I know she was one of the Maggies on The Doctors.

She had a lot of writing and acting credits. I seem to remember her writing some episodes of Family.

r37 Michael Weatherly and Judson Mills look nothing alike to me. It never occurred to me that that's what you meant.

Those end credits would have been from September 1971 if it was mentioning Search's 20th anniversary.

Bethel Leslie was listed as a writer in the Secret Storm credits alongside her brother Warren Leslie.

I always get Zina Bethune and Bethel Leslie mixed up. They had stupid ass names back in the dark ages.

Bethel Leslie? I don't know her.

I grew up with Lydia Bruce, and she was "my Maggie," just like Jada Rowland was "my Carolee," but after Retro TV, I preferred Bethel Leslie and Carolee Campbell in those roles.

Bethel had a certain fabulousness. Lydia was fine but I really enjoyed Bethel's take on Maggie too.

[quote]This is giving me a headache. I'd rather play bridge with Cecile!—Ada

Keep [bold]my[/bold] Cecile’s name out of your pussy-eating mouth. She’s mine.

Bethel Leslie was a prolific character actress before moving behind the scenes on soaps. She was really good on the classic westerns like Gunsmoke and Wagon Train. Her characters always had an edge and she played them well.

“I don’t even know who these people are…”

R48 YOU get a kick in the cunt!

I wonder if Paul Rauch ever invited Irene, Connie and Geri Court over to his place to play poker, drink Schlitz, crush the cans on their head, and talk about broads, the NFL and cars.

Man, how I’d have LOVED to see a Connie/Geri/Irene threesome! Carpet’s a munchin’!!!

R52, I bet he’d also ask Susan Flannery over if she was in town. Rauch did prefer blondes.

Can we discuss The Secret Storm here? It's not a P&G soap. As a youngster I remember a young prominent couple dying in a plane crash and a prominent older woman dying of a beain tumor.

When I hit puberty I had raging crushes on David Ackroyd, Gary Sandy, Dan Hamilton and several others.

My father's family knew Madeleine Sherwood.

R55 That’s frowned upon.

As long as this doesn't become a Secret Storm thread, go ahead R55. We also talk about the Doctors here, those are both honorary P&G shows.

R55 Madeleine Sherwood. A bitch! I met her outside of the Guiding Light studio in 1985 while she was doing a role there. She couldn’t have been more nasty! Asked her for an autograph and she said no, I don’t do autographs. Just a nasty old bitch. Rest in hell!

Are you really coming for Sister Woman?

Our beloved Tommy Pelphrey on CBS Mornings this morn. He’s still hot! Oh my.

Sounds right r58. My family hated the old bag. I couldn't watch The Flying Nun without my grandfather grumbling about that nasty little witch. Then she turned up on The Secret Storm trying to be an Ada type. Imagine the uproar.

I was probably too young to ever see The Secret Storm.

I vaguely remember Love of Life. Mostly that the woman who was the lead eventually showed up on GL as Sarah Shayne.

I remember more about The Doctors. My mom watched that one.

Yes

The main character from LOVE OF LIFE became Reva's mother

Her nasty sister played by Tuddi Wiggins was younger, prettier, and a lot more fun

I think Love of Life and Secret Storm were produced by the same production company. Both shows were very PGesque, but were willing to push the envelope a little bit more than the conservative PG would allow on their shows.

Funny thing is, I saw Kim Zimmer's FB account the other day where she posted a photo of her own mom, and that woman and Audrey Peters looked like they could be twins, or at least sisters.

Kim was the weirdest looking leading lady of aĺl the soaps but ATWT was always known for UGLY leading ladies and beautiful men.

Kim Z kinda looked a lot like a few women I actually knew.

I knew two moms of friends of mine that looked and acted so much like Kathryn Hays (as Kim Hughes) that it was a little unsettling.

Kim was gorgeous in the early GL days. Stunning.

Kim Z always looked like someone’s Midwest mother to me, even in the 80s. She just exuded frau energy.

How is Kim’s battle with the titty cancer? I don’t follow her on social media.

Oh crap! Donna Bridges AW bench has been destroyed. Damn those vandals!

[quote]I knew two moms of friends of mine that looked and acted so much like Kathryn Hays (as Kim Hughes) that it was a little unsettling.

Did they also call others “toots”?

Kim was decidedly not frau looking until she had her 2nd baby. Then, yes, she looked like a Midwest ho wife.

Springfield was in the Midwest!

That slut of Springfield scene gets me every time.