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[Carrie Fairchild]

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

 

[Daniel Avery]

I wish I had been old enough to see this: 45-minute episodes!

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I wish I had been old enough to see this: 45-minute episodes!

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Wow. I didn’t realise there was a period where there were 45 minute soap slots. What era is this from?

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

 

[Daniel Avery]

What era is this from?

1976-1978, according to Wiki. AMC, however, went straight to an hour in 1977.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

A couple of ads today covering a bit of recast drama. In 1989, reportedly unhappy with his diminished storylines and the increased prominence being given to Lauralee Bell’s character Christine, Terry Lester quit his role as Jack Abbott on Y&R, a part he originated in 1980. Rather than write Jack out, Y&R went the recast route, with AMC favourite Peter Bergman (who recently been fired from his role as Dr. Cliff Warner) taking over the role.


Meanwhile, over on Santa Barbara, another favourite, Lane Davies (Mason Capwell) quit the show after five years, reportedly unhappy with the direction his character was going in. Enter Terry Lester, who stated that one of his goals had been to star on the NBC soap.


Working on the show obviously wasn’t all it cracked up to be as Lester quit the role after only one year, again unhappy with the direction of his character and apparently taking advantage of the fact that producers let contract renewal deadlines lapse (which sounds like a very Santa Barbara thing to do given its messy behind the scenes dramas). Davies was offered “a lot of money” to reprise the role but didn’t feel the time was right as his primetime career was starting to take off (he would be part of the main cast of shortlived Susan Harris sitcom Good & Evil in 1991). Dynasty’s Gordon Thomson would take over the role, staying until the show ended in 1993.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I'll never forget how they did the recasting of TL with GT. It's vintage Santa Barbara, for sure. They won't let me repost the scene from YT, but if you type the actors' names and Santa Barbara 1581 into the YT search box, it will come up.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I'll never forget how they did the recasting of TL with GT. It's vintage Santa Barbara, for sure. They won't let me repost the scene from YT, but if you type the actors' names and Santa Barbara 1581 into the YT search box, it will come up.

That is quite something! Neighbours did something similar with the character of Libby Kennedy. Original actress Kym Valentine went on sick leave suddenly, so they recast the role temporarily with Michala Banas. When Kym was well enough to return, they had a scene where Michala’s Libby fell into water during a rafting accident and then Kym’s Libby emerged from it.

 

[Daniel Avery]

When Days of Our Lives recast Jack Devereaux (Mark Valley to Steve Wilder, or maybe it was the reverse?), they had one actor disrobe and step into a shower. His wife Jennifer came into the bathroom and decided to join him in the shower for some sexytimes, only for the new actor to greet her and commence a steamy love scene.

 

[tommie]

I remember these effects in Paint Shop Pro too.

 

[tommie]

Wow. I didn’t realise there was a period where there were 45 minute soap slots. What era is this from?

Must've been in the 76-77 season: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976–77_United_States_network_television_schedule_(daytime)

 

[bmasters9]

ABC Daytime daily serial lineup from Mar. 1979, Louisiana Edition for the week of Mar. 3-9 (channels here are WBRZ Channel 2 in Baton Rouge, KATC Channel 3 in Lafayette, and WVUE Channel 8 in New Orleans [WVUE is Fox in the Big Easy 45 years later and now]).

 

[tommie]

Edge of Night seems so lurid.

 

[bmasters9]

Edge of Night seems so lurid.

I would imagine it would be, given that blurb.

 

[tommie]

I would imagine it would be, given that blurb.

Pornography, blackmail and murder - just another lazy weekday afternoon!

 

[Daniel Avery]

Ironically, EON hired a bona-fide porn star to play the town's new Police Chief around the time of this advertisement. But it was totally unrelated, I'm sure.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

 

[Daniel Avery]

 

[tommie]

Was kind of baffled when I saw that ABC had done print ad types for General Hospital. I'm not sure if they'll use this to buy ad space in actual magazines, but that they've made the effort to put these together is great. I don't remember the last time a soap did this - with this and The Gates coming, it does feel like soaps are having a mini revival.