Doug & Julie’s first marriage on screen. Seen by several million fans, this is the show which heralded the first Supercouple’s first nuptials. The actors had already married in person for their first – and only – time.

DVD GL 9-17-2009 (2nd to last ) Guiding Light logo Telenext Media logo Previously on Guiding Light: Bill brought Phillip Alan’s ashes in a box. Bill: “It’s strange that a life as big as Alan Spaulding’s would be as big as this. “A man called Daisy to come to college by Monday—she has 4 hours to think it over. Jonathan & Reva are competing drinking straight out of the milk carton. She invites him & Sarah to live with her. Josh wants Billy to help him kidnap Reva to marry her. “Only Love” Josh isn’t going to Venezuela any more. He wants to marry the love of his life, like Billy did. (I’ve got to watch that wedding DVD!) Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Billy repeats it all back to him. He says Josh is on his own with this. It’s been a year. A lot’s happened! Josh drives off in the antique truck. Alex and Phillip discuss taking care of each other. They’re going to the lake. (I presume to scatter ashes.)Frank can’t pick a baby name. Olivia is willing to do it. Reva is trying to save herself every single day. Shane has a picnic lunch planned for everyone. Danny & Michelle & Robby are moving back! Lawrence didn’t file a record of the marriage. They have no insurance & aren’t really married. Jeffrey called, he’s on Edmund’s trail. Thinks he’s working out of a warehouse right next door. Billy to Josh, “Where’s your girl?”Josh: She’s come a long way … There were children all around. Rick is harassing Ed Bauer about moving home from California. Ed claims to be reading. Really he just doesn’t want to have to help Michelle & Danny move out of their truck. Spauldings at the lake, … (I really like Bill & Lizzie together.) There are a whole lot of waves to be a lake!(No one mentioned getting in touch with Alan-Michael, Vicky or Amanda! None of them are present.)Reva says Kathy on the phone that Kathy, that’s great! She tells Jonathan she has found him a perfect place to live. James & Phillip pitch a Frisbee. Frank has asked out his online friend & she wants to see him, in person, on the bridge.Big fight between Jeffrey & some man. Then, across the way Edmund is laughing at Jeffrey. Here’s Maureen in that striped shirt & Ed has just come to the door saying he’s going to travel. Maureen asks how long she has to pack? He says 10 minutes. She says 15. He says he’ll be there waiting for her. Phillip is both as sad as he’s ever been & as at peace. He says Alan wanted to be brave. Alex says she’ll be fine. Fletcher has come to see Alex. She’s both hilarious & crying. Daisy’s telling James she wants to go to Berkley. He’s okay with it. Josh is going to Tulsa first. Jonathan’s talking to Tammy “up there” about living in Cassie’s place with Sarah. Reva loves it! Coming up on Guiding Light

Phillip realizes Alan has died, sitting on the bench. Phillip calls Rick to come. Jonathan offers to Lizzie & Bill to take Sarah with them & to pick her up later. Rick double-checks Alan. “Only Love” theme song. Natalia is grieving that she just got Rafe back & he’s leaving now. Olivia says she’ll make a copy of a picture for Natalia. Rafe is now on diet control as a diabetic. Rafe & Frank hug & Rafe thanks Frank. Frank says he’s a good man. Jonathan is frustrated & Reva is making sandwiches. Jonathan has never been away from Sarah. Bill & Lizzie are talking about playing dress up with dolls. Bill likes action games like Tag. Daisy tells James she needs to leave & go to Company to have a going away party for Rafe. Phillip tells Beth & Alexandra that Alan has died. Alexandra says “No” a lot of times. Alex says there will be a lot of calls to make. Beth worries how to tell Peyton & Phillip says to tell her that her father loved her. Phillip is going to go tell James & Lizzie. Alex is going to get on the phone to people. Alex is looking at a picture of Alan & crying. Beth tells Peyton. Phillip takes Lizzie off under a tree, taking her on a walk with him, and he tells her. Lillian takes a call at Company & passes the phone to Olivia, who tells everyone. Jonathan gets a call from Bill to come get Sarah & take her to the Spaulding Mansion because Alan has had a heart attack & died. Alex fills in the servants. She tells them that in his own way he loved them. Alan had talked to everyone at the wedding. Rafe talks about Alan being proud of him for going into the service. Reva says it’s too much loss. Frank says Alan is the man behind the curtain, the Wizard of Oz, and then POOF he’s gone. Beth says her relationship with Alan was SO complicated but now she can’t imagine the world without him. Emma is sad. Rafe gives her a magical quarter to think of him. She says she’ll miss him. Olivia & Natalia are holding hands all the time. Buzz is with Emma. Rick says the autopsy showed that Alan died of a heart attack. Alex says they know all they need to know about it. They say they’ll have to plan a funeral. Alex says that Alan said he wanted to be cremated & for them not to do anything elaborate. And he said he loved them all. Frank & Rafe hug again. Daisy hugs Rafe, too. Natalia is about to start crying, she doesn’t want him to go, but she loves him. Rafe says BYE to everyone & gets on the bus. Olivia embraces Natalia. Lizzie is with Reva, Bill, Jonathan & Sarah. Lillian embraces Buzz. Alex goes to the hospital to Alan’s body & weeps copiously. Phillip says Alan saved them all. “Life happens here”
I made it through the show without crying!
(Thursday, 6-6-2019)

I just watched Alan Locher, in The Locher Room on Youtube, interviewing Jill Farren Phelps (JFP). Very little was said about her time as EP of AW. She spoke at some length about killing off Mo on GL and how it fit into what they were trying to do, which was to shake things up on the show with a week long story and a blackout which would impact everyone there, which did not include Josh, Reva, Beth, etc. because that was a time when they were off the show. She considers it a mistake and one that she learned much from. But, as she has stated other places, she says she is not responsible for the killing of AW’s Frankie Frame. She added that she was ‘on the way out’ which aligns perfectly with fanlore. By the time it came to be the HW at the time, Margaret de Priest, aka Maggie the Beast, had more power & Jill had very little pull. MdP had a reputation for serial killer storylines. She was also accused of misogyny in how gruesome her treatment of female characters could be

But, to really look at this we have to go back further. Jill was hired to come on with several mandates. (1) To produce the show while saving some money, (2) to make the show ensemble cast younger overall, (3) to improve ratings and demographics, and (4) to reduce the size of the cast. JFP fired people on her first day at the show. JFP fired actors who were over 50, for example, “Bridget” and “Spencer”, etc. Overall JFP fired 11 people. As fan activists at the time we were privy to inside information from the studio, the cast and some crew. We got wind that the next person to be killed was going to be “Donna”. She would fulfill the over 50 criteria and be another in the total head count of fired actors. But, fans kicked into high gear to try to save “Donna”. We succeeded; “Donna” was safe. Then, they had a focus group about who to get rid of since they weren’t going to kill “Donna”. Now, JFP can’t beg off responsibility for the focus group because she was either a queen of, or a goddess of, or maybe a demi-goddess of focus groups. When she says ‘when they did research, she means when they held focus groups. There is just no telling what people comprised the focus group. Nor is there any idea how the questions were worded, but what they were trying to get at is who the fans would not miss, so we can imagine what the questions might have been and also we’d know that any mid- or upper- range salary was potentially in danger. Also, characters that had recently been on the backburner would also be in danger. The focus group might not know how many absolutely huge storylines an actor had been in. Shows rest characters periodically to spread the love around! This focus group was set the task to decide between two mid-range actresses – Alice Barrett Mitchell “Frankie” and Judi Evans “Paulina”. Now, I have to point out that that’s a “Frame”, important long-term family member versus a “Cory”, a most important core family member. And, both characters were married & had a child. “Frankie” was married to major player “Cass”. What happened leaves us knowing that the focus group dumped on “Frankie” But, JFP can’t deny responsibility for the focus group.

MdP was in the middle of telling a misogynistic serial killer storyline with “Fax Neuman” wreaking havoc in Bay City, killing women. So, as I eluded to earlier the fan activists were on this. We were following the behind-the-scenes action in real time. We raised a major concerted organized campaign against the very idea of killing off “Frankie.”

Meanwhile JFP was losing power. The deed hadn’t been done yet and the HW was more powerful than she. MdP was planning a gruesome attack and death for the culmination of the “Fax” storyline. At that time JFP floated the idea of having “Frankie” killed off-screen so she could be brought back, safe after all from her near-death experience. MdP wasn’t having any of it. So, there’s the hair that JFP splits to say that she didn’t kill “Frankie”; someone else did.

Additional: Some fans remember around 1996 reading that JFP had said there were only a certain amount of jelly beans that can be in a jar and Robert Kelker-Kelly was an expensive jelly bean, so she had to let a mid level jelly bean go.

The broadcast date was August 19, 1996. https://www.facebook.com/shallotpeel/videos/203053586099426

Jill Farren Phelps was EP through August 1996.

Blog 197 v. 1.0 Published 8-26-23

*These selections are not in chronological order.

(1968-85) Stick had other ideas. He planned to kill Niki and keep her share of the money. But before he could cut Niki’s throat, Clint, Bo, and Rafe arrived on the scene and shot and critically injured him. In the aftermath, Tina learned from Bobby Blue that Niki was in cahoots with her kidnapper. Armed with the news, Tina approached Niki and issued an ultimatum: either she divorce Clint now, or Tina would tell all!

Niki was able to get a quick divorce, just at the time that Clint figured out that she had been pretending to be Viki. Clint shamed her into confessing, then agreed to keep the secret that the person everyone believed was Viki Buchanan was, in truth, Niki Smith.

(1968-1988) Megan’s producer, Randy Stone, made it impossible for her to move away to Cali by blackmailing her into signing for another year of “Fraternity Row”, by bringing up a cassette of a porno film she had appeared in early in her career. Max helped Megan to counter-blackmail Randy and before long they were together again- much to the chagrin of Gabrielle. So she turned her attention to the newly arrived married millionaire Michael Grande.

(1968-85) Alex Crown could not accept living a life of crime. The Mob wanted Alex to replace his father, Leo Coronal, as head of the Coronal crime family. Alex had other plans, and refused. With the assistance of his son Rob and Marco Dane, Alex was going to see to it that all the Mob leaders were sent to jail. Marco infiltrated the Mob, tricking the boss, Descamedes, into thinking he was a loyal Mob lieutenant. Descamedes gave Marco a chilling test of loyalty—ordering him to kill Alex Crown! To accomplish the task, Marco “lured” Alex to a wooded area, where he assassinated him. However, as planned, Alex wore a bulletproof vest. When Alex’s letter arrived at the Crime Commission, Descamedes and his fellow mobsters were rounded up and put in jail. Even from the “grave” Alex Crown had reached out.

(1968-1988) Thanks to Blaize, Viki was determined to find Clint. With Clear Eyes’s help, Viki made an incredible journey to Buchanan City, circa 1888. She arrived in the nick of time. Clint had become resigned to spending the rest of his life in the past. In addition, the local doctor had told Ginny (wrongly) that she was infertile. So Clint surmised that perhaps she wasn’t Viki’s ancestor after all. He didn’t have to reunite her with Randolph Lord! He was free to marry Viki’s lookalike!

Just as Clint and Ginny were about to exchange their holy wedding vows in Blaize Buchanan’s saloon, Viki stumbled through the doors and locked eyes with Clint. While they shared a joyous reunion, Ginny fainted from the sight of her “twin”.

Together at last, Viki and Clint worked to successfully unite Ginny and Randolph. With the future secure at last, Clint and Viki went bac to Clear Eyes’s cave, and —poof—they were miraculously transported back to the future!

At home in Llanview, Clint and Viki realized that their adventure in the Old West was but a distant memory. Was it real or merely an incredible shared dream?

(1968-85) More than anything Bo missed his beloved Didi—and she still loved him. When Rafe proposed marriage to her, Didi gently turned him down. One day, Didi wrote Bo a letter, declaring her love, but couldn’t bring herself to mail it. Soon, tragedy struck when Didi, while checking out the new Section B at the Lord-Manning plant, stumbled upon illegal actvity. It seemed that workers, led by her rival, Jack Simmons, were manufacturing micro-chips to be used in high-tech weapons being sold to foreign governments on the black market. During her investigation, Didi was blinded by an explosion in the Lord-Manning microchip room. Bo rushed to her side and, seeing her in pain, poured out his feelings. Did, convinced that he proclaimed his love for her only becauseshe was blind, still couldn’t agree to be his wife. He wouldn’t relent. With the assistance of a barbershop quarter, Bo asked Didi to marry him. This time, she accepted!

(1968-1986) Asa, disapproving of Maria and her Mexican heritage, paid off her mother to leave town with Maria. Clint was heartbroken by her disappearance, and never knew that he had fathered a child, Cordero. Some twenty years later, Clint still knew nothing of his son, or his father’s involvement in Maria’s disappearance.

Asa Buchanan was embroiled in a mess of his own in 1986. Tina discovered that Asa had, for years, been living another life posing as a sea captain named Jeb, he had married a woman named Pamela on the faraway island of Malakeva. Armed with this news, Tina decided to set Asa up. After telling an angry Pamela that “Captain Jeb” was really millionaire Asa Buchanan. Tina convinced Pamela to pretend to be on her deathbed—then get Asa to marry her for real!

Giving in to Pamela’s “dying wish”, Asa married her. Seconds after the ceremony, Pamela leapt out of her bed, and confronted Asa. She proclaimed herself to be the new “Mrs. Asa Buchanan” and promptly moved to Llanview and took her rightful place in the Buchanan dynasty. It was the beginning of a very stormy relationship! Asa tried everything to get Pamela out of his life. He even tried to set her up with Pete O’Neill. The more he ranted and raved, the more he fell in love. In time, Asa decided he Pamela back in his life. However, it was too late! Pamela was already involved with Pete. Worse, Pamela planned to sue Asa for divorce and demand half of everything he had!

(1968-1986) Memorable Moments: Clint: Why the hell didn’t I? I didn’t run off. You did. You ran off! How could you do it, Maria? How could you run off pregnant with my baby and not tell me?! Maria: Stop yelling at me! Clint: I’ve got every right to yell at you! I’ve got every right to snap your neck! Maria: My neck? What about your father’s neck? He’s th eone who did this to us. He decided our future. Clint, I was a scared sixteen-year-old kid. What did I know? I trusted my mother. She was as scared as I was. She was afraid that Asa would have us deported back to Mexico!

Asa worried the moment he saw Cord Roberts pop up in town. Instantly, he knew by the boy’s name that he was Clint’s son. He had to get Cord out of Llanview. Fearing that Clint would find out the truth, Asa arranged a job for Cord in Phoenix. Cord asked Tina to go wtih him but she said no. By then she was engaged to Richard Abbott.

Cord was devastated when his father, Al Roberts, died suddenly of a heart attack. On his deathbed, Al wrote a letter to Cord, revealing that Clint was his actual father. Before Cord saw the letter, Asa stole it.

Returning home to El Paso for Al’s funeral, Cord mourned the man who raised him and instilled a sense of morality and fair play in him. Tina flew to attend Al’s funeral, and before returning to Llanview, she and Cord made love passionately. Unbeknownst to anyone, just days bfore his fatal heart attack, Al had confessed the twenty-year-old secret that Clint was Cord’s father to, of all people, Mitch Laurence, who was pretending to be a minister. Released from prison, Mitch Laurence returned to Llanview in the summer of 1986.

(1968-85) When Alex’s letter arrived at the Crime Commission, Descamedes and his fellow mobsters were rounded up and thrown in jail. Even from the “grave” Alex crown had reached out to betray the mobsters. But he wasn’t done! When Descamedes was released on bail, he appeared on Dorian Lord’s TV interview program. Knowing that the menacing Descamedes was a threat to his family, Alex took action. He lurked in the rafters of the televisions studio, and in front of all of Llanview, shot and killed his enemy and then went underground.

(1968-1987) While undergoing delicate brain surgery, Viki had an out-of-body experience in which she visited Heaven and reunited her with her first love, Joe Riley. Joe urged Vicki to Earth and the man she truly loved—Clint. Spurred by Joe’s words, Viki recovered and reunited with her estranged husband.

At Tom’s urging, Viki went for tests that revealed she had a brain aneurysm which required immediate surgery. During the operation, Viki had an out-of-body experience in which she took a fantastic journey toward Heaven. Guided by her guardian angel, a quirky little man named Virgil, Viki joyously reunited her with many oof her deceased friends and relatives, including Joe, who urged her to return to Earth and the man she truly loved—Clint.

Viki’s archrival, Dorian, was busy in 1987 playing surrogate mother to Diane Bristol, a young girl she met in prison. Diane became like a second daughter to Dorian, which made Cassie jealous. Tension grew between Dorian and Cassie over Diane. Cassie’s instincts that Diane was after her mother’s money proved correct when Diane tried to kill Dorian. The devious girl’s mission came to an abrupt end when she took a fatal tumble over the railing of Dorian’s penthouse balcony.

Soon, Cassie and Dorian’s stormy relationship hit a snag when Cassie became enamored with Dorian’s boyfriend, private eye Jon Russell. Dorian was horrified and deeply hurt when she discovered that angel, Virgil.

Dastardly Deeds: Cult leader Mitch Laurence tries to coax Mari Lynn into bed: Mari Lynn: I’m sorry, Mitch. Mitch: Well, you should be sorry. In fact, Mari Lynn, you shuld be ashamed. Do you realize that you’re the first of my disciples to reject my love? Mari Lynn: I do love you, I do. and I believe in all of your teachings. You’re angry with me?

Mitch: Oh, no. I’d like to think that the messenger is above being angry. What I feel for you is pity. You know the Lord would have blessed our union. Go in peace, my little lamb. Maybe I’ll bestow the honor on you of at some further point.

(1968-1988) Tina once again set her sights on Cord. However, he was otherwise occupied—with Clint Buchanan’s therapist, Sarah Gordon. Regardless, Tina made her move, using guile and her ever-present sex appeal to win him back.

Sarah was hurt, but understanding. She poured her energy into her job helping Clint, blinded by the bullet lodged in his brain, to become self-sufficient. Realizing that his days might be numbered, and wanting to live life to the fullest, Clint persuaded Viki to move with him to their Happy Horse ranch in Arizona.

No sooner had Clint unpacked his saddle bags when he decided to enter a grueling 100-mile horserace through the Arizona desert. He was determined to show everyone that he could overcome his handicap. Over Sarah’s and Viki’s objections, Clint saddled up his favorite horse, Oakie, and ventured out into the desert to practice. Clint was unaware that George Vasquez, the Happy Horse caretaker, had slipped asthma medication into Oakie’s feed, turning the normally docile horse violent! Unbeknownst to Clint and Viki , George Vasquez was Maria’s brother. Blaming Clint and Viki for her death, George was out for revenge! The drugged horse threw Clint, who hit his head on a rock and lost consciousness.

When he awoke, a groggy Clint realized that his vision had returned. He could see! But what he saw caused him to blink in amazement. He had been inexplicably transported back 100 years in time to an Old West town called Buchanan City. As he hobbled into town, Clint happened upon a showdown between two bitter rivals—the ranchers and the farmers. To Clint’s amazement, the head rancher, Buck, looked remarkably like his own pa, Asa. It dawned upon Clint that he had somehow slipped back in time and landed in the home of his Wild West ancestors!

Clint was astounded by the sight of Buck Buchanan’s right-hand man, Cody Vasquez; he looked exactly like Clint’s own son, Cord! Equally amazing was Ginny Fletcher, the town’s uptight schoolmarm, who was the spitting image of Viki! Clint realized that Ginny was Viki’s own great-grandmother.

(1968-1987) In Argentina, Gabrielle was shocked when she saw, while leafing through a fashion magazine, that Delila had taken credit for fashions that she had designed. Gabrielle got even angrier when she discovered that Max was Delila’s partner. He’d taken advantage of her once again! Gabrielle came to Llanview to confront him.

Max’s amazing discovery that he was actually baby Al’s father did not deter him from pursuing Tina. Despite her lingering feelings for Cord, Tina finally agreed to become Mrs. Max Holden. Together, they searched in vain for Tina’s real miracle baby, who was not dead after all! Assisted by Palupe Islands, a feverish Tina had given birth to a boy in the jungles of Argentina. Together, Max and Tina searched for the child, unaware that the baby, whom they called Milagro (Spanish for “miracle”) was being held by Max’s enemy, Rolo, an old associate of Gabrielle’s father, Dante Medina. Rolo planned to use the baby to get revenge on his nemesis.

On the run, Jamie Sanders hurried to Monk’s Hollow, where he found Tina with Viki. As he was about to leave with them as hostages, Clint arrived—and Jamie shot him in the head!

Max managed to subdue Jamie (who was jailed) while an ambulance rushed Clint back to Llanviw Hospital for emergency surgery. After hours on the operating table, Clint survived. However, his surgeons were unable to remove a bullet fragment, which left him blind. Worse, if the fragment shifted, it could kill him instantly!

(1968-1988) As 1988 began, Tina Lord had landed her man—Max. Now, all she wanted was her miracle baby, Milagro, back! The child had been plucked away from the Palupe Indians by Max’s enemy, the evil Rolo. With his female accomplice, Lita, Rolo came to Llanview demanding one million dollars for Milagro’s safe return.

Max captured Rolo—but Lita had spirited away the baby to Italy. Tina and Max followed in hot pursuit. With Max posing as a monk and Tina as a nun, they entered a convent and found the miracle baby, attended by nuns.

(1978) Over the summer of 1978, Marco opened a local modeling agency and slowly and carefully won the confidence of sweet and innocent Tina Clayton, who was working at a local pizza parlor and seeing a nice boy named Greg Huddleston. (Greg’s father was Talbot Huddleston —Karen’s lecherous first John.) Marco hatched his scheme. He plotted to take modeling photographs of Tina and superimpose those shots over the nude body of another model. To get even with Viki, Marco would show the world that Tina was a pornographic model.

Greg Huddleston, sensing Tina’s attraction to the slimy Marco, ordered him to stay away from his girlfriend or Greg would kill him! Greg’s father, Talbot, also ordered Dane to back off from Tina or pay the price. As Marco carried out his insidious scheme, he never dreamed he would come to like Tina himself! Feeling sorry for the sweet girl, Marco abandoned his dummied photograph scheme and instead began to gaslight Viki into thinking that her split personality, Niki Smith, had returned.

One day, Viki again confronted Marco about his role in Tina’s life. Wanting to get Viki off his back, Marco countered by showing the nude photographs of “Tina” to her, Marco threatened to circulate them unless Vki paid him off. After anguishing for days, Viki went to Marco’s health club with $50,000 —though she did not plan to pay him off with it. To her shock, Viki found Marco’s dead body! Thinking fast, she took Tina’s photos from the file cabinet and hurried out.

For a time Greg Huddleston was held in custody as the prime suspect in Marco’s murder. But when the police learned that the murder weapon was pawned by one Niki Smith, Greg was released and Joe, aware now that that circle was closing in on Viki, went to Pine Valley (home of ABC’s “All My Children”) to retain the services of attorney Paul Martin. By the end of 1978, both Joe Riley and Paul Martin feared that an indictment against Viki was just a matter of time.

But, now, Karen was free of Marco Dane, at last!

(1977) Weeks passed as Dorian tried unsuccessfully to use Joe’s secret as the fuel to destroy the marriage to Viki. Finally, Joe decided he could not keep quiet any longer. In a panic, Dorian knew that once Joe told Viki her own chances of winning him would be lost. But what could she do now?

Dorian’s opportunity came when Joe had another seizure at Llanfair and passed out. While he was unconscious, Dorian made a wreck of the room and of her dress. Then, when Joe came to she managed to convince him that he had done all the damage in the room. Joe was terrified! Was he now capable of violence?

Could he in some way harm Viki or heaven forbid, Kevin? Fearing for the safety of his loved ones, Joe persuaded Viki to take Kevin away to their cabin in the mountains.

While Viki was away, Dorian pushed ahead with her evil efforts to get the vulnerable Joe into bed. She mimght have succeeded if not for the clever thinking of Dr. Peter Jannsen, who stumbled upon Joe during a seizure and finally managed to get the whole story out of him. Dorian was frustrated when Peter persuaded Joe to face Viki and tell her everything. Viki listened in horror as Joe explained that he might be fatally ill.

(1977) Joe was nowhere to be found during this emotional mother-son reunion. That same night, he had been in a barroom brawl, hit his head, and was hospitalized with a concussion. Upon learning that Kevin had been returned, Joe was overcome with guilt. In an emotional scene he begged Viki’s forgiveness and another chance for their marriage. Though the wounsd were still deep, Viki accepted and reunited with Joe.

All the while Dorian had lurked in the background, undaunted by the Riley reconciliation. Not for a moment had she given up her dream of eventually luring Joe from Viki. One afternoon, Dorian stumbled on Joe passed out at his desk. He wasn’t drunk. He had been having headaches and blurred vision. Behind Viki’s back, Dorian took Joe to New York for tests, which revealed some irregularities—possibly even a tumor! Dorian convinced him that without accurate diagnoses it would be better to keep it a secret. Dorian insidiously worked her wiles on him. She led him to believe that it would be too much of a strain on Viki to let her know he had something terrible wrong with him.

(1977) Four years after Meredith’s death, Larry Wolek found happiness again with his second cousin, Karen. Soon after their engagement, the bride-to-be ran into friction with Larry when he refused to honor her extravagant request to throw “the biggest, most lavish wedding that Llanview had ever seen!”

Months passed, and in early 1977, there was still no word about baby Kevin. Joe was convinced that they wuld never see Kevin again, but he did not share that with Viki. To numb the pain Joe began to drink heavily. He also spent a lot of time at the office.

One night when he came home drunk once too many times, Viki and Joe got into a major battle! Old wounds were reopened. Joe reminded Viki of how she had kept it from him that Megan had had a heart condition. Viki bitterly countered that none of the present misery would ever have happened if he had not gotten involved with Cathy Craig! The involvement of the demented woman who had kidnapped Kevin was the topper!

Dorian did everything in her power to widen this schism between Joe and Viki. Joe went on a drinking binge and stayed over at Dorian’s, at Llanfair. He had no faith that they would ever see baby Kevin. Viki was done with him. She told him to move out. This was the unthinkable! Joe and Viki’s marriage was shattered.

With each passing day, Cathy’s memory became a little bit clearer. Eventually, she was able to provide the authorities with enough information to loate the woman she left Kevin with. In a ddramatic and poignant moment, the woman, Mrs. MacGruder, handed Kevin over to Viki. Tears flowed as she clutched her precious son in her arms for the first time in months. Viki Riley vowed never to give him up again. Never!

(1976) Llanview was stunned when Victor’s will was read. Dorian, rather than Viki, was given control of the estate. Tony received nothing! Dorian had found out that Megan had died of a hereditary heart problem inherited from her father and she “accidentally” let this slip out to Joe. All hell broke loose! Joe was devastated and this was a serious breach in Viki and Joe’s marriage. They eventually reconciled and again began to look forward to the birth of their child.

Tony was finding his marriage to Cathy rough going at best. It was all he could do at this point to keep his wife wound on the spool. Along with her father, Jim Craig, Tony was able to convince Cathy to seek help with Llanview Hospital’s new Chief of Psychiatry, Dr. Will Vernon. Psychoanalysis did not seem of use to Cathy. She lied. She told Tony she was pregnant without even taking a pregnancy test! She was rapidly losing her mind.

(1976) With time available to him, Tony began to mend his relationshp with his father. Dorian found this infuriating. She didn’t want Victor to give even one penny to this “bastard” of his. Fearing that they would end her chances of inheriting the vast Lord fortune, Dorian stepped up her campaign against Tony!

That’s when Tony realized what she was doing and took that information to his father. Victor lashed out at Dorian. She told Victor she’d known before anyone else had that Tony was his son. The shock of this proved too much for Victor! On April 30, 1976, he crumpled to the floor in the Lord library. He was Llanview’s most powerful figure and he’d just had a massive stroke that left him unable to speak.

He struggled to try to say something to his daughter Viki. But, he could not—and under what seemed like mysterious circumstances, he died in June 1976.

(1976) When Viki was ready to return to the party, she stood at the top of the stairs with her cane, about to descend. But, this was Dorian’s moment to embarrass Viki. She brought everyone into the foyer to watch. Defiantly, Viki handed her cane to Joe. Looking Dorian straight in the eye, she slowly and elegantly came down the stairs—as the guests burst into applause! Dorian’s faint smile belied the humiliation she felt in every pore of her body.

Viki was thrilled at the prospect of motherhood. She wanted so much to give another child to Joe. And yet, she could not bring herself to tell Joe the terrible truth—that their child could possibly be born with the same heart defect that had afflicted Megan.

(1978) Millionaire Adam Brewster hid from Pat Ashley the fact that he suffered dangerous epileptic seizures. Only Adam’s faithful assistant, Gretel Cummings, was aware of the serious nature of his illness. Snobby and ambitious Edwina Lewis, a new writer working for Dorian’s “Lord Press”, came to Llanview and set her sights on Becky Lee Hunt’s man, the wealthy Richard Abbott. Despite Edwina’s seductive efforts, Richard asked Becky to marry him. Faced with losing Richard, Edwina took off for North Carolina to do some digging into Becky’s past. There she learned that Becky’s real name was Jackson, not Hunt. What could she be hiding? Back home in Llanview, Richard received a tantalizing offer from “The Banner’s editor, Joe Riley, to head up the newspaper’s European Bureau. Just as Richard and Becky were about to leave for Europe, a redneck named Luke Jackson showed up in Llanview. Luke was Becky Lee’s husband! Edwina viewed Luke’s presence as a godsend. He was the one way that she could keep Richard from leaving Llanview. One night, Luke brutally beat Richard, leaving him with a fractured skull. Luke was apprehended and sent to jail—but before long he escaped and plotted to get his final revenge on Becky Lee for leaving him. In the resulting shootout, Ed Hall was hit and rushed to Llanview Hospital, where he was operated on by Dr. Jack Scott. Dr. Scott performed a delicate operation to remove a bullet lodged near Ed’s heart. Carla was grateful to the gruff, no-nonsense Dr. Scott, who began to show more than a passing interest in Ed’s wife.

(1978) Within weeks, Ed was out of the hospital and on the road to recovery. Carla began to spend more and more time at the hospital with Jack, her new boss. Sitting at her desk during the day, she tried to shake off the fantasies she was having about her handsome employer. Their simmering relationship reached ann important turning point when Jack asked Carla to accompany him to a medical convention in the Virgin Islands. Ed (who was obviously jealous) opposed the idea. Carla, believing that it was important that she go for professional reasons, left with Jack. However, when they reached the Caribbean, the physical attraction that haqd long been b rewing between them finally came into the open. When Jack kissed Carla, she responded! In the aftermath, Carla was devastated and guilt-ridden. Rushing back to Llanview and Ed, Carla had an immediatemeeting with Chief of Staff Jim Craig and requested that she be allowed to quit her job with Jack and go to work for Larry. However, a simple change of jobs did not mean she could stop thinking of and fantasizing abnout Jack Scott. Ed, back at work, began to sense that his wife was pulling away from him. In the aftermath of the near-tragedy with Luke Jackson, Becky and Richard married in a loving ceremony held at Joe and Viki’s carriage house. Following the wedding, they left Llanview for a fresh start in Europe.

(1978) Dangerous Liaisons: Karen and Marco Karen Wolek rued the day that her old lover Marco Dane showed up in Llanview and proceeded to make her life miserable. Mischievous Marco’s timing could not have been more dangerous—he arrived just days before Karen was to marry Larry Wolek. Though he didn’t break up the wedding, Marco soon demanded a piece of Karen’s prostitution profits. Always platonic, their connection continued for five more years, perhaps because both Karen and Marco thrived by living on the edge. Together this dangerous duo shared dreams of glory that usually led to trouble, not triumph. Dangerous Liaisons: Melinda and Peter When Melinda Cramer fell in love with Dr. Peter Janssen, she found out just how dangerously detestable her sister Dorian could be. Dorian pulled out all the stops to keep Melinda and Peter apart, even lying to her sister that she & Peter were lovers. Worse, Dorian threatened to have the recently cured Melinda returned to a mental institution. Despite the dangers posed by Dorian, Melinda and Peter ran away and got married.

(1979) Jenny’s sister-in-law, Samantha Vernon, was overwhelmed when Tony Lord proposed marriage to her. However, she came to realize that Tony had only agreed to marry her out of guilt over her near-fatal car accident, and at the last moment, she called off the ceremony. Pat Ashley finally discovered what her lover, Adam Brewster, tried to hide—the fact that he suffered from a severe case of epilepsy. With the secret out in the open, Pat married Adam, unaware that he was concealing another heinous secret from her. Adam, who was broke, mastermihnded (with Dorian’s financial backing) a shady arms deal with the notorious Torrentino regime in war-torn San Carlos. When Pat discovered that Adam had put all moral considerations aside in order to get his financial empire back in order, she quickly had their marriage annulled.

(1979) Marco implored Karen to keep his secret, telling her that he’d been “born again.” After considerable soul-searching, Karen decided to protect Marco on one condition—the he immediately stop practicing medicine. Marco had no choice but to agree to her terms. The one bright spot in Karen’s life was her sister, Jenny. She was delighted to be pregnant with Brad’s baby. Unbeknownst to Jenny, though, Brad was back on the road to ruin. This time, he had developed a compulsion for gambling. With his losses mounting, Brad resorted to desperate measures by stealing Jenny’s key to the hospital’s pharmacy and giving it to a mobster named Brick. In exchange Brick agreed to wipe out Brad’s debts. When Brick and an accomplice tried to rob the pharmacy, they were caught by Dr. Jack Scott, who was shot and paralyzed in the violent exchange. The shooting of Jack Scott represented another major step in the volatile marriage of Ed and Carla Hall. Prior to the shooting, Ed had decided he’d had it with Carla’s vacillation over Jack. Asking Carla for a divorce, Ed moved into Ina Hopkins’s boarding house. When Jack was hospitalized, Carla was finally able to articulate her love for him. Upon his recovery, Carla was more than a little shocked when Jack told her he had no intentions of marrying her. It seemed that he was more interested in an affair than in marriage. However, Jack finally decided that he was way too much in love to lose Carla.

Over the summer of 1978, Marco opened a local modeling agency and slowly and carefully won the confidence of sweet and innocent Tina Clayton, who was working at a local pizza parlor and seeing a nice boy named Greg Huddleston. (Greg’s father was Talbot Huddleston —Karen’s lecherous first John.) Marco hatched his scheme. He plotted to take modeling photographs of Tina and superimpose those shots over the nude body of another model. To get even with Viki, Marco would show the world that Tina was a pornographic model. Greg Huddleston, sensing Tina’s attraction to the slimy Marco, ordered him to stay away from his girlfriend or Greg would kill him! Greg’s father, Talbot, also ordered Dane to back off from Tina or pay the price. As Marco carried out his insidious scheme, he never dreamed he would come to like Tina himself! Feeling sorry for the sweet girl, Marco abandoned his dummied photograph scheme and instead began to gaslight Viki into thinking that her split personality, Niki Smith, had returned. One day, Viki again confronted Marco about his role in Tina’s life. Wanting to get Viki off his back, Marco countered by showing the nude photographs of “Tina” to her, Marco threatened to circulate them unless Vki paid him off. After anguishing for days, Viki went to Marco’s health club with $50,000 —though she did not plan to pay him off with it. To her shock, Viki found Marco’s dead body! Thinking fast, she took Tina’s photos from the file cabinet and hurried out. For a time Greg Huddleston was held in custody as the prime suspect in Marco’s murder. But when the police learned that the murder weapon was pawned by one Niki Smith, Greg was released and Joe, aware now that that circle was closing in on Viki, went to Pine Valley (home of ABC’s “All My Children”) to retain the services of attorney Paul Martin. By the end of 1978, both Joe Riley and Paul Martin feared that an indictment against Viki was just a matter of time. But, now, Karen was free of Marco Dane, at last!

(1980) So captivated by Asa and his charisma, Sam did not see that her best friend, Tina Clayton, was seducing Mick!At the same time, sexpot Tina was also waging a campaign to attract Bo’s protégé, country-and-western singer Johnny Drummond. When Samantha found out about Mick’s affair withh Tina, she threw him out of her loft, then threw herself into her work with Asa. He gave her a lavish twenty-first birthday bash in his mansion, Southampton. The party, complete with a rodeo, dancing girls, and a whole barbecued steer, climaxed with Asa (determined to maintain his youthful, macho image) parachuting from a plane! Upon landing, Asa injured his knee and was flown to Llanview Hospital for surgery. Bo flew to Paris to surprise Pat Ashley. When he checked into Pat’s hotel, Bo was spotted by Pat’s new friend, an elegant, middle-aged woman, Nicole Bonard. When Nicole spotted Bo, she recognized him instantly. Bo was her son! Nicole Bonard was actually Asa’s wife, Olympia Buchanan. Many years earlier, when Bo and Clint were children, Olympia had an affair with ranch hand Yancey Ralston and became pregnant. During an argument, Olympia killed Yancey. When Asa found out, he had Olympia banished to Europe, telling his children that their mother had died.

(1980) Now, years later, Asa saw a photo of Nicole and Pat in Paris taken by Bo and went into a state of shock! If she were to resurface, he feared, Nicole could not only ruin his empire, but destroy his relationship with his sons and Samantha Vernon. Asa’s fears were partially realized when Nicole told Pat that “Bo is not a true Buchanan.” Before Pat could find out what her cryptic comment meant, Nicole Bonard was gone! To keep Nicole in check, Asa had her flown to Llanview, where he imprisoned her in an eerie dark mansion, Moor Cliffe. Asa hired his nephew, Rafe Garretson, to watch over her, telling the naive young man that Nicole was insane.Troubled by Nicole’s pleas for freedom, Rafe questioned the unusual circumstances, but was told by Asa’s aide, Chuck Wilson, to do his job and trust his Uncle Asa.

(1980) Homesick for his native Texas, millionaire Asa Buchanan bought a massive estate, Southampton, and turned it into a little bit of the Lone Star State. Here, Asa corralled his sons, Bo and Clint, and right-hand man Chuck Wilson, at his birthday bash for soon-to-be ex-girlfriend Mimi King, and future wife Samantha Vernon. Removing her glasses and donning a blond wig, Maggie Ashley transformed herself into the spitting image of her sister, Pat. No one could tell that she had stolen Pat’s identity. She no longer had to settle for being jealous of Pat’s poise, success, or way with men. Maggie could *be* Pat! After locking Pat in the cellar, Maggie began living a “double life” as her own sister.

(1980) At first, Clint Buchanan was fooled by Maggie’s charade. However, she began making mistakes that aroused Clint’s suspicions that something was wary. With the help of “Banner” aide Matt McAllister, Clint began to piece the horror story together. The woman he was romancing wasn’t Pat Shley! Clint raced to Pat’s house, where Maggie was just about to shoot her sister. Clint froze momentarily upon hearing a single gunshot from within. He broke into the house to find Maggie dead and Pat standing over her with a revolver in her hand. Even though it was an obvious case of self-defense, Pat was so traumatized by her experiences that she could not even talk about the final moments of her sister’s life. Haunted by Maggie’s laughter, Pat withdrew further into herself. She broke up with Clint and found herself drawn to his younger brother, Bo, who had come to Llanview as a representative of his famous father, oil baron Asa Buchanan. Dorian Lord was delighted with this turn of events. She set out to make Clint Buchanan fall in love with her, only to fail when he saw through her manipulative ways. Dorian did emerge with one small victory: during Pat’s absence, Dorian had taken over her talk show—and loved it! It took quite a bit of coaxing to get Dorian to relinquish the spotlight. When Pat Ashley entered his life, Bo Buchanan was in the midst of a torrid affair with his father’s mistress, Mimi King. It was not a difficult conquest. Mimi, thinking her days with Asa were numbered, managed to seduce Bo.

(1979) Clint braced himself for the arrival of his Texas family. An entourage of friends and relatives arrived including his father Asa’s girlfriend Mimi King, his right-hand man Chuck Wilson, nephew Rafe Garretson, and country singer Johnny Drummond. The one face Clint was happy to see was his high-srtung younger brother, Bo, who had been estranged from their “pa” for years, and was clearly agitated at the prospect of Asa’s imminent arrival. Quickly, Clint understood that Bo had been sent on a mission: get Clint to return to the family fold. Clint dated both Maggie and Pat Ashley—but only found himself interested in Pat. Maggie made a play for Clint, who rebuffed her. However, Pat, unwilling to hurt her sister any more than Clint already had, refused to have anything to do wtih him. As the year came to an end, Maggie hatched a plan to steal Pat’s identity. By impersonating Pat, Maggie could have Clint all to herself!

(1981) Karen Wolek put on the performance of a lifetime as she convinced everyone—including counterfeiter Steve Piermont—that she had returned to her wild ways. She got Piermont to give her a job as a runner for the ring. Marco, ever shrewd, was the first to guess that Karen was actually trying to finish what Vince Wolek had started. Steve blackmailed Marco into joining the ring, threatening to harm Edwina if he should balk. Edwina began to wonder about Marco’s mysterious appointments. His secret involvement proved a destructive element to his new “marriage.” Before long, a sad Edwina asked Marco to move out. Ted, fearing exposure, ordered Steve to put a contract out on Karen and Marco. Steve was faced with a dilemma. Having grownn fond of Karen Wolek, Steve pleaded with her to run away. If she didn’t extricate herself from the counterfeiting ring, she would be facing almost certain death. Karen refused and went ahead with a counterfeit money drop—but not before confiding in Ed Hall (now a captain of the Llanview Police) of her involvement. In a shoot-out in a deserted railroad yard, Marco was wounded in the arm, but he and Karen were able to get away from the gunmenby running onto a bridge, then jumping onto a moving train. Ed arrested Steve Piermont, pleading with him to turn state’s evidence against Ted Clayton. Deeply concerned that Viki was in grave danger, Clint took action. Arriving at Viki’s carriage house, Clint pleaded with Viki to come away with him. When she resisted, Clint picked up Viki up over his shoulder and bodily carried her away to her cabin in the mountains. When Ted learned of their whereabouts, he showed up and poisoned Clint—just like he’d done to Vince Wolek! At Llanveiw Hospital, doctors saved Clint’s life by administering an antidote. To Viki and Tina’s horror, Ed Hall captured Ted and arrested him.

(1981) Detective Vince Wolek, hot on the trail of the ringleader, paid a terrible price upon discovering that Ted was a counterfeiter. To silence Vince, Ted administered a poison through a ring on his finger. The dealy dose took an hour to work. Vince, not knowing he was dying, came to Karen and his wife Wanda and then collapsed! His last words were, “Tell Viki…” Before he could finish his sentence, Vince died. Doctors ruled that it was a heart attack that caused his sudden death. The untimely death of the affable Vince Wolek deeply affected the people of Llanview. Viki was extremely upset, though Ted did his best to “comfort” her. Anna and Jim Craig tried to console Wanda in her time of grief. In mourning, Wanda devoted her energies to Llanview West, her new country-and-western nightclub. In a moving memorial service, Larry paid tribute to the brother who was responsible for his becoming a doctor. More than almost anyone, Karen felt the pain of Vince’s death. If she had gone with Vince on the night of his death as he had wanted, he might still be alive. Determined to befriend Steve Piermont, a member of the counterfeiting ring who she knew could lead her to his boss, Karen pretended to return to hooking! Within days of Vince’s death, Karen was prowling the Wallington Hotel —scene of so much heartache in the past—insisting to all that she was back in “the life”. Larry, who was now showering his kindness and honesty upon Asa’s much-maligned mistress Mimi King, was one of many who was skeptical of Karen’s sudden regression. Suspicious of Karen’s motives, Ted asked Viki to find out what was going on. However, before she could provide him with answers, Viki left with Clint to attend a publisher’s conference in New York. Alone in New York, Clint and Viki shared candlelit dinners and long walks together. By the end of the trip, they realized what their friends had known for months—they were in love. When Viki returned to Llanview, she resolved to break off her relationship with Ted. But she never had the chance! With the assistance of a chemist, Ted Clayton spiked Viki’s sherry with a debilitating drug that put her under his control. During Viki’s drug-induced spell, Ted successfully instilled fear and indecision about her relationship with Clint. With her sister Karen as maid of honor and Dr. Larry Wolek as best man, Jenny Vernon became Mrs. Peter Janssen. Jenny’s ex-husband Brad threatened to disrupt the ceremony but backed off at the last second, allowing Jenny to enjoy the day. While Clint was in Texas with Pat Ashley investigating her contention that the missing Nicole Bonard was actually his mother, Ted continued administering the mind-altering drug to Viki. Through a number of manipulatory acts, he finally convinced her to marry him! Upon his return, Clint realized the extent of Ted’s machinations. He warned Viki that she would be making the biggest mistake of her life by becoming Mrs. Ted Clayton. For the time being, Clint’s words of warning went unheeded.

(1982) Locations: Silver Springs, Florida, 1982 The diabolical Dr. Ivan Kipling kidnapped Karean and took her to his South American hideaway in 1982. “One Life to Live” only journeyed as far as the Florida Everglades (which stood in for the jungles of South America) to shoot the climactic conclusion to the story. “I enjoyed the time we went on location to Florida—especially when Larry rescued his wife, Karen. It was the only time I saved anyone on the show! Of course, I’ve saved people through medical means, but I’d never been a real hero before. It felt wonderful!” Michael Storm (Dr. Larry Wolek)

(1982) Peter’s death had momentarilly stopped Katrina from revealing the truth to Jenny. In the weeks after, Brad convinced Kat to stay silent by proposing marriage to her. He promised that, if she married him, then Katrina would be little Mary’s stepmother, and would see her often. Kat accepted Brad’s proposal, and the secret was safe once again. Or was it? Jenny’s lingering suspicions drove her to steal the key to Brad’s safe-deposit box and there she found the audiotape that Brad had secretly made of Peter confessing the switch to a priest. The bombshell disclosure stunned Jenny—but it did not destroy her. The shocking knowledge of the baby switch turned Jenny into a woman who would take desperate measures to keep her child. With renewed inner strength, she returned Brad’s tape and kept the discovery to herself. Jenny’s hopes shattered when she encountered Katrina in the cemetery while paying a sorrowful visit to her real baby. Seeing Jenny in tears, Katrina realized that she finally knew the truth. Katrina was faced with a dilemma. Should she fight for her baby in the courts, or marry Brad and be Mary’s stepmother? Ever the cad, Brad answered the question for Katrina when she caught him proposing to Jenny! Sadly, Jenny realized she must give her daughter to Katrina to prevent the pain Mary would suffer in a courtroom battle… and to keep Marco and Karen from going to prison. In a tearful, poignant moment, Jenny handed over the girl she loved with all her heart to Katrina.

(1982) Back in Llanview, Marco Dane turned his attentions to a new career: show biz! Marco directed a murder-mystery movie, “Blood Moon”, which he shot on location in Llanview. Marco was especially enthused about the script, based on the Hatchfield Murders, an actual event that had occurred in Llanview fifteen years earlier. Joining Marco in the new enterprise was his long-estranged younger brother, Gary Corelli, who was making a play for Cassie Callison’s affections. However, Cassie was playing the field, dating both Gary Corelli and wealthy Kyle Dickinson. Soon, life imitated art on the set of “Blood Moon” when the lead actor, Rudy Lavasso, was murdered! It was obvious to all that the killer wanted “Blood Moon” shut down.! Marco and Capt. Ed Hall set a trap to catch the killer. However, their plan went awry when Marco’s ex-wife, Edwina, saw a gunman about to shoot him. Edwina threw herself in front of Marco and took a near-fatal bullet. The killer turned out to be Kyle Dickinson, the son of the culprit in the actual Hatchfield murder case. Kyle held Cassie hostage, then Dorian, before being apprehended and locked away. After nearly three years, Marco and Karen’t notorious baby switch case came one step closer to being revealed when Dorian received a letter from her institutionalized sister, Melinda, stating that Mary Vernon was really Katrina’s baby, not Jenny’s. Dorian, unaware of the implications, showed the letter to Marcella Salta. In a rapid series of events, Marcello told Larry, who confronted Karen and forced her to reveal her part in the baby switch. To protect Jenny, Larry vowed to keep the switch a secret. But Marcello didn’t! When Marcelo told the news to a stunned Katrina, she demanded proof. Larry tried to convince Kat that what Marcello had told her was a ridiculous rumor. She then confronted Marco, who feigned surprise at the incredible tale. Karen, however, could no long hide the truth from her dear friend. With her back up against the wall, Karen confessed. Katrina wanted to tell Jenny at once, and Marcello tried in vani to make her wait. He insisted that if anyone should tell Jenny, it should be the man she loved—her husband Peter Janssen.

(1982) Memorable Moments: Jenny is forced to give her daughter back to Katrina 1982 Jenny Vernon was stunned to discover that her precious Mary, whom she had raised from birth, was actually not her daughter. Three years earlier, Marco and Karen had switched Jenny’s dead baby with Katrina’s living baby. When the baby switch was exposed, Jenny with her heart breaking, had no other choice but to part with little Mary. Jenny: Mary, Katrina is going to take you to Florida. Remember how much fun you had there last time, remember that? Wouldn’t it be fun to go back there again? And, when you get back, you can tell me all about it, okay? Now I want you to give me a big hug, and a big kiss. And, Mary, I want you to be a good girl for me? I love you so much! Dastardly Deeds: From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Brad Vernon wreaked more havoc than anyone else in Llanview. Brad’s most heinous act of treachery occurred in 1979 when—with his wife Jenny in the hospital—he sexually assaulted her sister, Karen.

(1983) Herb Callison adopted Dorian’s daughter Cassie and remained her dearest friend and closest confidant throughout his stormy marriage to her mother. When Herb walked out on Dorian in 1983, he took Cassie with him! For months, Asa Buchanan worked hard to win back Bo’s love. But Bo, having discovered that Asa was not really his father, wanted nothing to do with the man he used to call “Pa.” Now early in the winter of 1983, Asa had stumbled upon an incredible secret! Bo really *was* his son after all! This shocking revelation, which came in the form of a letter from Delila’s Aunt Twyla to Bo, provided indisputable proof that Yancy Ralston was _sterile_! There was NO WAY that he could have sired Bo. This news thrilled Asa! But, when he went to tell Bo, Asa couldn’t help but notice that there was a developing closeness between his son and Delilah! Asa realized that in revealing the secret he would send Bo right into her arms! And, Asa wanted Delila for himself! He clearly understood that Delila and Bo were in love. But, since they were kin, they had been fighting their mutual attraction. To keep Delila under his thumb, and in his bed, too, while he was at it, Asa kept his mouth shut. More cunning than ever, Asa eloped with Delila. A forlorn Bo turned his attention to Becky Lee Abbott, who was painfully aware of being second choice!

(1983) Despite her love for Bo, Delila felt duty and honor bound to remain with her husband Asa. But, Clint and Bo worked together to change her mind for her! All they had to do was show her Asa in the light of telling a lie. Should be easy-peasy. Once Delila heard the truth that Bo knew all along — and so did Asa — that Asa was really Bo’s “Pa”! then she would know he had been lying to her, by omission if nothing else. She would be furious! Delila left Bo, stricken, angry, stubborn, etc. Bo rejoiced in finally being free to be with Delila & she with him! But, oh, no, there were complications! Bo had recently had relations with Becky Lee—and she was pregnant from it! Becky Lee told Drew Ralston and Larry Wolek but not Bo! Delila accidentally found out about Becky Lee’s pregnancy at the gyno’s office. Delila pressed Becky lee to take quick movement! With no time to spare she got a divorce from Asa and married Bo in May.

(1983) Brad Vernon continued to romance his ex-wife Jenny, who was othersise occupied consoling Larry Wolek after she deaparted with Steve for Canada. Somehoe, whoever knows what’s gong through these people’s heads at times like these..but strange times call for strange actions: Jenny had *somehow* (I’ve made my poition clear!) convinced herself that Brad was <cough cough> become a reformed man. She agreed to marry him — again. (This girl is just asking for it, Am I right?) Brad quit working for Asa becuase there would be too many temting things there. .He opened up an inn, the Vernon Inn. Suspicious of Becky Lee, Asa forced her to admit to the pregnancy. She told him that if he told Bo he would never see the child. For the moment, Asa’s hands were tied. The thought of another Buchanan offspring filled him with joy. He offered to take care of Becky Lee and the baby. She refused because she had accepted an offer of marriage from Drew Ralston.

(1982) Clint and Viki married in a beautiful autumn ceremony held at Viki’s family home, Llanfair, which the newlyweds moved into as soon as they could evict Dorian. Karen and Larry decided to hold off on their own wedding plans until the baby-switch crisis cooled off. Their stormy reunion was threatened by the return of Steve Piermont, who had recently gotten out of jail. Steve began his romantic pursuit of Karen by sending her flowers. Then, while Larry was on the night shift, he sneaked into her bedroom and watched her sleep. Karen violently protested that he had to stop harassing her! But, Marco, who knew Karen best in the world, keenly observed that Karen’s failure to tell Larry about Steve indicated hidden passions that she wasn’t admitting—even to herself. Marco’s insights were right on target. While Larry was away at a medical conference, Steve visited Karen, and they kissed passionately. In vain, Karen tried to resist, but she finally succumbed to his dynamic presence. Throughout the fall of 1982, Karen tried to banish the fantasies she had of Steve. For solace, she fled to a country inn in Nantucket. When Steve followed, Karen couldn’t resist him and they made love on the beach in a shack. Back in Llanview, Karen discovered that a contract had been put out on Steve by the mob. Trying to help him she became a target, too! Steve pleaded with Karen, telling her that he would die unless they left town immediately. Karen was perplexed. While she stalled for time, Steve was shot and seriously injured. Together they fled. Larry tracked Steve and Karen back to Nantucket. There Karen was forced to make a painful choice between the two men. With great difficulty she chose Steve because his need seemed greater. Dejected, Larry, journeyed back to Llanview. Karen and Steve headed to Canada for a fugitive’s life.

(1984) Years ago David Renaldi had kidnapped Cassie, Dorian’s daughter, also his daughter. Herb, Dorian’s husband, walked out on Dorian, taking Cassie with him. David and Jenny tried to get married but his ex, Liat, appeared, throwin a kink in the works. Jenny Janssen was played by Brynn Thayer. David Renaldi was played by Michael Zaslow. Brynn Thayer and Michael Zaslow were best friends.

(1968-1984) Brynn Thayer; Michael Zaslow. Mark thought by taking Viki hostage that he could leave the country with her. At the airport he pretended to be Clint, but the real Clint arrived just in time! He struggled with Mark preventing him from detonating a plastic explosive! Did, safe and secure planted a whopper of a kiss on Bo/Bill. Oh, no, they were in love! Bo returned to his real identity and found new challenges waiting for him. Harry, hurt by Bo’s masquerade, ordered him to move out of the O’Neill house forthwith! Bo took important steps: He told Delila their divorce was still on! Second he kidnapped Didi & took her to NYC to try out the high life.

(1968-72) (1973-75) (1976) (1977) (1978) (1979) (1980) (1981) (1982) (1983) (1984) … Brynn Thayer & Michael Zaslow. Unable to cope with the sorrow of her breakup, Jenny left town for a religious retreat. Convinced that she could trust no one, she decided to renew her vows as a nun! Dorian’s subtle scheme to seduce David was hampered by Herb, who realized that he was still in love with her. Herb stopped their divorce proceedings, ended his budding romance with Edwina Lewis, and moved into Dorian’s duplex to help during her convalescence. When Dorian regained the use of her legs, she kept the big event to herself—nothing and no one could stop her mission to seduce David. No one but Laurel Chapin, who after being hit by a car and healed by her new love, Larry Wolek, confessed the truth—that Dorian fell down the stairs; David did ‘not’ push her! With no obstacles in their path, Jenny was finally free to marry her man! On June 1, 1984, Jenny and David became man and wife. The newlyweds looked forward to a long and happy life together.

(1984) Years ago David Renaldi had kidnapped Cassie, Dorian’s daughter, also his daughter. Herb, Dorian’s husband, walked out on Dorian, taking Cassie with him. David and Jenny tried to get married but his ex, Liat, appeared, throwin a kink in the works. Jenny Janssen was played by Brynn Thayer. David Renaldi was played by Michael Zaslow. Brynn Thayer and Michael Zaslow were best friends.

Blog 67 Part 1 OLTL (1968-72) (1973-75) (1976) (1977) (1978)(1979) (1980) (1981) (1982) (1983) (1984) … Brynn Thayer & Michael Zaslow. Llanview eagerly awaited the 1984 marriage of Jenny Janssen (Brynn Thayer) and David Renaldi (Michael Zaslow). And no one awaited the wedding with more zest than Brad and Dorian—because they were plotting to stop it! Brad had discovered through one of David’s underground contacts that the groom-to-be had once married a woman, brought her to the United States, and in so doing helped her escape the oppression of Southeast Asia. Although David’s marriage to Liat Reynolds was annulled shortly after, a clerical error prevented it from being properly registered. Half the world apart she has now appeared in Llanview and inserts herself into the wedding to “speak now instead of holding her peace” forever. She spoke up, “I am Mrs. David Renaldi and this wedding must not take place!” After she stopped that wedding, she left town quickly. Another complication threatened David & Jenny’s happiness: Laurel Chapin, terrified by the investigation into her partner Anthony Marka’s shoddy activities, paid a visit to Dorian.

This is my all-time best, most favorite GL Otalia scene. It was written by Donna Swajeski. It was brilliantly performed by Crystal & Jess.

Now that Guiding Light’s biggest blunders have been posted it’s time to talk about what Guiding Light got right. And with over seventy years of history there are a lot of things to choose from! In the end, I chose the ones that I felt added to the show’s greatness and, in some instances, my own personal enjoyment. (This is by the same fan.)

27. Reva and Jeffery. Yes my heart was firmly in the Jeva camp, and it took me a long time to even warm to the couple, but I think Reva and Jeffery’s romance had its uses. Their relationship was “fun” when Reva’s life was, at the time, anything BUT fun. What started out as an attempt to make rival Olivia Spencer jealous quickly became more until the two married in 2008. Jeffery was a great sense of support for Reva when she was battling cancer and Josh was married to her sister Cassie. While they will never top my Favorite Couples list like I said, the Jeffery and Reva pairing did have its uses.

26. Jeanne Cooper and Christian LeBlanc. Yes you heard me right, the actors that play Katherine Chancellor and Michael Baldwin on The Young and the Restless. Both these actors paid tribute to Guiding Light by guest starring in one of the finale episodes. Soap stars showing respect to the show that paved the way? A truly classy move. Even more awesome was seeing the amazing Jeanne Cooper playing the “cougar”. Hilarious.

25. Aubrey Dollar. This talented actress made the character Marina Cooper her own. She was feisty, tenacious, and a perfect fit for the Cooper family! She had two great pairings with both Ben and Shayne before deciding not to renew her contract in 2004. The role was eventually taken over by Mandy Bruno, who had none of the former Marina’s “spirit”. Aubrey Dollar will always remain my favorite Marina.

24. Mary Stuart as Meta Bauer. Soap actress legend Mary Stuart took over the role of the Bauer family matriarch in 1996, and thus began Meta’s task of leading this core family . Meta was a source of love and support for Rick and Michelle, especially since their father was always gone. And truthfully, who knows where Manny would have been without this vibrant woman’s influence! She encouraged Michelle to be strong during her pregnancy and knocked some sense into Danny when he almost missed his son’s birth. Check out the Mary Stuart Tribute video here. How appropriate that Meta’s speech from this clip would later be used in Guiding Light’s opening.

23. Edmund Winslow. Richard’s dastardly brother, he took sibling hatred to a whole new level. His crimes were many, his friends were few, but nevertheless he made a mark on Springfield. You never knew which Edmund you were going to get; the angry deceitful ex-prince or the vulnerable man underneath. Edmund was a great Guiding Light villain and certainly made things a lot more interesting.

22. The end shot. As a true blue Guiding Light fan I HATED to see the show end, especially with such cheap production values. But the final shot not only fit the show but really resonated with a lot of viewers. We had just seen Guiding Light’s last supercouple reunite for the last time, heard Reva say Jeva’s famous line “Always”, and then we see the shot of the lighthouse. The symbol of the show, the Springfield Light House was everything from a meeting place for lovers to an apartment. Yes the end of Guiding Light was horrible to witness but that end shot? Perfection.

21. GusH. Another one of those pairings that came out of nowhere and rocketed into Guiding Light history! Part of GusH’s charm was that both characters were sort of lost when they were partnered on a case together. Harley was pregnant after a one night stand with her ex-husband’s best friend Rick (after all it is a soap!) and Gus was on a personal vendetta against the Santos family. But Harley couldn’t deny her attraction to the bitter detective and viewers couldn’t help but fall in love with them along the way. The end of their marriage in 2007 didn’t stop fans from wishing that they would find their way back to each other. But Ricky Paull Goldin’s exit, and Gus’s subsequent death, would prevent the reunion that was slated for 2008. leaving fans wondering what could have been….

20. The Fab Four. No, not the Beatles. This time I am talking about the Danny/Michelle and Tony/Marah couple duo. The original Four Musketeers (Philip, Ben, Rick, and Mindy) had their era but the Manny and Marony duo were great for their own reasons. For one, Michelle was the only person who knew what it was like loving a Santos. So the Marah and Michelle friendship was both realistic and helpful for both women. And Danny tried his hardest to talk some sense into Tony when he needed it, which was often. I’ll never forget when Danny told Tony that, “Marah’s a part of you Tony, she’s a part of your soul” echoing early Manny. These two couples could have become the new super couples of the show but sadly it never came to be.

19. The Santos Family. While some critics think introducing the mob family was too “dark” for Guiding Light I loved them, every one of them. I enjoyed watching Carmen try everything she could to keep Danny in the clutches of “the family” and the Cousins Santos trying to break free to be with the women they loved. Yes I truly enjoyed this family. They were a good addition to the Guiding Light canvas, and of course gave us two great couples: Manny and Marony.

18. All Roads Lead Back to Springfield. The loss of so many veteran characters was part of the reason Guiding Light suffered in those final years. I couldn’t have cared less about Greasy Grady, I wanted to know if Quint and Nola had gotten back together and where Philip was hiding. When Lisa Brown (Nola) returned for the finale we were led to believe that yes, Quint and Nola had reconciled. The return of classic characters such as: Philip Spaulding, Ed Bauer, Bridget Reardon, Mindy Lewis, Holly Norris, and Fletcher Reade was a great send off to a soap that made history.

17. Annie and Alan. The writers ending this pairing is why it is on the biggest blunders list. I never saw any of Alan’s earlier pairings, but I find it hard to imagine Alan loving anyone as much as he loved Annie. She was manipulative and devious, and slightly crazy, which was a perfect match for the King of Devious himself. It was the first time I saw Alan vulnerable, and I loved it! I still maintain that Alan and Annie could have ruled Springfield for years to come!

16. The Wright Cassie. Cassie Layne arrived in Springfield to spy on Lewis Oil for Annie and Alan. But is just so happened that Cassie was Reva Shayne’s long-lost sister Danni Shayne. Laura Wright and Kim Zimmer made for a great sibling duo that even Reva pulling the plug on Richard’s life support couldn’t keep these two fighting for long. While I may not have liked some of the things Cassie did (like being the foil for Dinah and Hart) but I liked the character. When Laura Wright left the show the great Cassie/Reva sisterhood was sadly lost in an awful pairing that should have never happened (Josh/Cassie). But I will always remember the great Shayne/Layne sisterhood.

15. Otalia. Guiding Light has a history of addressing social issues (see: Diversity) so it was good to see the writers break the “taboo” of homosexual couples on soap operas. And Olivia and Natalia’s slow build, friendship-to-romance quickly became a fan favorite. The writers kept viewers guessing until the last episode but it was the build up that made the most impact. It was a natural progression, nothing contrived or forced.

14. Matessa. Long before being a “cougar” was considered “in”, Guiding Light had the delightful story of older woman Vanessa Chamberlain falling in love with younger man Matt Reardon. It was a tastefully done, slow build, type of love story and after talking with other Guiding Light fans they seemed to have enjoyed this couple as well. Matt and Vanessa met as strangers when he defended her in a bar. Going by assumed names, Vanessa hired him as a handy man but the sparks between these two could not be denied. Their relationship started out rocky (she was just getting over her divorce from Billy and he thought she was ashamed of him) but these two eventually fell in love and married in 1996. Even Vanessa running off after learning she was suffering from a brain disorder and subsequently faking her own death couldn’t keep these two apart; they fell in love online using the name “Tess” and “Robert”! Unfortunately as the show ended the writers decided to have Matessa end, thus ending one of the better (and long-lasting) couples in Springfield.

13. Abigail Blume. Introduced in 1995 when Reva was suffering amnesia, Abigail left her Amish community in Goshen to get treated for migraines…and ended up falling in love with Rick Bauer. What was particularly special about Abigail was that she born deaf, just like her portrayer Amy Cox Ecklund. She was the first character on Guiding Light with a handicap and Abigail was so sweet it was hard not to find her character charming. She was my favorite of Rick’s pairings because she not only supported him, but Abby also challenged him to be a better person. I was definitely sad to see them end.

12. The 70th Anniversary episode. For those who don’t know, Guiding Light began as a radio program about a preacher named Rev. John Ruthledge and the people of Five Points. In 2007, in celebration of Guiding Light’s 70 year run, the cast of Guiding Light did an episode where the modern cast portrayed the characters from the radio show. It was a great homage to history and many long-term fans (such as my Grandma whose love of Guiding Light originated in the radio days) were pleased by the effort.

11. Gina Tognoni. Dinah has always been an…interesting character. At times she’s been sweet and caring while other times she is manipulative and deceitful. Wendy Moniz was excellent at playing the many subtle layers of Dinah and her departure in 1999 left some big shoes to fill. In 2004 Gina took up the role and she made the character her own. Dinah was still a grey character but even when she was being bad she did it with style. Gina was great at showcasing Dinah’s strength while also portraying her vulnerability, especially in regard to her personal relationships. And oh how I loved the Dinah and Shayne pairing!

10. Diversity. In the 1960’s legendary soap writer Agnes Nixon wanted to incorporate social issues into the storylines. The result was Guiding Light being the first show to regularly feature African-American characters. Dr. Jim Frazier and his wife Martha were the first African-American characters on the show, which paved the way for such characters as Hampton Speakes, David and Gillian Grant, Marcus Williams, and the Boudreau family. What was even better was that these characters weren’t just filler material, they were fully developed with meaty storylines.

9. Buzz Cooper. Buzz was introduced as a Vietnam veteran who had abandoned his wife Nadine and kids Frank and Harley, who subsequently believed that he had died. He returned to Springfield in 1993 when Harley started looking into why his name wasn’t one of those included on the Vietnam Memorial. Sounds like a real likable guy right? Part of the reason the character caught on was because Buzz wasn’t instantly forgiven. It took time for Frank and Harley to accept him into their lives, even longer for them to love him as their father. The other part was Justin Deas. He just had a way of playing Buzz where you couldn’t dislike him, he was not only funny but had a “every man” feel about him.

8. The return of Manny. In my opinion these two should have never left Springfield…but I digress. But out of all the great legendary characters that came back to give Guiding Light their big send off this couple was the one that I truly looked forward to. They weren’t like some of the other couples where their status was ambiguous, Manny were together and happy….and moving back home! Manny magic.

7. Bizzie. A last-minute couple that I never saw coming. Lizzie was the spoiled Spaulding princess and Bill, well I guess you could consider him the Lewis family playboy. I would have never in a million years imagined these two together. But then Lizzie matured and flourished and went toe to toe with the slightly devious Bill. A great slow build romance that took some hits along the way Bizzie was one couple I cheered for during Guiding Light’s final hours.

6. Always Jeva. Reva may have married three Lewis men but no one held her heart like Josh, and vice versa. Each time they would get divorced I would wait patiently (okay sometimes impatiently) for them to find their way back to each other. When Reva would call Josh “Bud” or they would say their catchphrase “Always” it was hard not to love Jeva. These two seemed to corner the market in angst but Robert Newman and Kim Zimmer would always knock it out of the park no matter what! The writers kept viewers waiting until the very end to see these two reunited but alas, Reva and “Bud” did reunite and then drove off in search of new adventure.

5. The Families of Springfield. One thing that made Guiding Light so special was that at its core it was about the different FAMILIES living in Springfield. For years, decades even, the writers were great at building up these complex dynamics. Alan and Alexandra’s power struggles over Spaulding Industries. Michelle’s feelings of abandonment over Ed’s desertion. Josh and Billy showing Tony just who he would have to deal with should he hurt Marah again. Tony being tempted by the power Carmen and Maria dangled in his face…but ultimately remaining loyal to Danny. Families truly were the heart and soul of Guiding Light which was what made it all that more special.

4. The Lewis Brothers. I just had to give these two their own spot simply because the Lewis brothers were a hoot and a half! Jordan Clarke and Robert Newman had great sibling chemistry and played well off each other. Whether they were being loving siblings or duking it out I loved watching these two weave their magic. And who didn’t chuckle when Billy would call Josh “little brother”? Billy and Josh mend fences: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYau0bLsM18&feature=related and The Lewis Boys: The Boys are Back in Town

3. The Bauer Bar-B-Que. The Bauer bar-b-que was a tradition that thankfully endured even in Guiding Light’s darkest days. It was an episode I looked forward to every year because the whole town seemed to gather together to celebrate. It was also good to see that even though characters came and went, some traditions were still sacred. Here is a great video dedicated to the Bauer Bar-B-Que: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWAqRGfUHx4

2. Roger Thorpe. The best villain in Guiding Light history, Roger Thorpe is also considered one of the best villains in all of daytime television (which is no small feat). He had already made a name for himself by the time I began to really watch in earnest, but what I did see of Roger I enjoyed. He was a villain you loved to hate, but that “hate” never lasted because Michael Zaslow was just that damn good! For your enjoyment, Roger Thorpe: The Scandal Years

1. Reva Shayne. Created by Pam Long in 1983, this sassy vixen quickly became a fan favorite, and it was easy to see why. She was a strong woman who rose above her humble beginnings as the daughter of the Lewis family maid to become the wife of not one, but THREE, of those Lewis men. And along the way the self-proclaimed “Slut of Springfield” has done it all! She’s been cloned, traveled through time, been psychic, battled cancer, and “died” three times…and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Portrayed by the always fabulous Kim Zimmer, Reva Shayne will forever remain one of daytime’s top characters. In the words of Zim Zimmer herself, “Long live Reva Shayne!” Share this: __________________________________________________________

Paul Voorhies says: September 22, 2018 at 12:20 am Did you not watch GL from 1979-1985?? It was truly the Golden period of the show. What it got righter than ever in that era. I could list 50 but will stick to 10.

1. Nola’s machinations and scheme claiming she was carrying Kelly’s baby. The story arc lasted over a year, and Lisa Brown was at her most fantastic. Her movie fantasies were unique in daytime and added a sense of real class and timelessness to the show.

2. Alan and Hope—Doomed from the start, the chemistry between do-gooder (and clueless) Hope and the sociopathic Alan was a brilliant juxtaposition.

3. The 4 Musketeers—Phillip, Beth, Mindy, and Rick. Best quadrangle ever! The yearly Xmas trips to NYC to see Nick were unique.

4. Carrie Nye as the over the top; scheming “real estate agent” from hell was pure genius.

5. Vanessa the vixen—when spoiled brat goofy toity Vanessa hit town, Springfield was never the same. Her midnight visits to Ross’s apartment in nothing but a fur coat, which she quickly dispensed of after he opened the door, was perfect.

6. Beverlee McKinsey as The Countess Alexandra—pure class and a master class in acting

7. Lenore Kasdorf as Rita—ont of GL’s most indelible characters, along with Nola. Doug Marland’s writing for both characters was superb. I’m a psychotherapist myself, and the man knew how to create genuine archetypes and flesh out characters, especially female ones.

8. Lucille Wexler/Amanda/Jennifer -culminating in that delicious murder trial

9. Phillip’s paternity and maternity story—talk about a slow boiler years and years in the making. The final reveal at the Country Clib was riveting. And Grant Alexander was extremely underrated.

10. Mary Kay Adams as India Von Halkien—one helluva character and a fascinating actress to watch.

DASTARDLY DEEDS

Irna Phillips, the creator of “As the World Turns” said she never wrote villains or heroes, but people who “behaved badly in some situation and “well in others.” Oakdale has surely had its share of “villains,” but two who stand out are John Dixon and James Stenbeck. Their styles were very different, but they managed to cause much turmoil and trouble for the citizens of Oakdale.John Dixon – Larry Bryggman, the actor who brings John Dixon so vividly to life, says, “I don’t think you play a villain… you play a *person*.” According to Bryggman, John was “a very ambitious fellow who came from the wrong side of the tracks,” whose driving passion was to “better himself. He was willing to fight for what he wanted and felt that he was entitled to play any kind of game that it took; the end justified the means.”John was briefly married to James Stenbeck’s sister, “Shop Til You Drop” Ariel Aldring. The union of the two schemers did not last. Other Dixon wives included Dee Stewart, Karen Stenbeck and Lucinda Walsh.When he first came to town, John went into practice with Dr. Michael Shea, and it is said that Shea helped create the monster that John became. Bryggman says, “John is a good doctor, he’s always been a good doctor” who takes great pride in his work. It was a dark day when longtime nemesis Lisa Grimaldi sued him for malpractice in the wrongful death of her husband Eduardo.Before John came to Oakdale, he had an affair with Lyla Montgomery (pictured here), and Margo is their daughter. Social climber Dixon offered to marry beautiful, rich widow Kim Reynolds when she was carrying Bob Hughes’s child. After she lost the baby, he blackmailed her into staying in the loveless marriage.James Stenbeck – John’s arch-rival, James Stenbeck, was even more devious. The war began when James had an affair with John’s daughter, Margo. Time and time again, the two men tried to kill each other. First, James blinded John in a car accident and later tortured him with a dagger. Then, in the ultimate act of revenge, John staged his own death, hoping to send James to jail as a murderer. But he returned when his ex-wife Dee was falsely accused of the crime.According to Anthony Herrera, who played him so brilliantly, James Stenbeck “entered Oakdale a glorious hero of the Swedish aristocracy who was working for the U.N.” On his first Fourth of July in Oakdale, he was welcomed into the community by none other than Chris Hughes. According to Herrera, Stenbeck “was not a villain…he was a good guy … he was an aristocrat… he was upper class.” His attitude was “What do I care about your laws and mores?… People like Stenbeck buy and sell countries. He wants something, he takes it. I never played him evil—mean, tough, vengeful, yes, but never evil.” Like his nemesis, John Dixon, James always felt totally justified in whatever he did. James did not grieve when John was presumed dead, but when he returned, and they confronted each other outside the courtroom, the look on James’s face when he saw John was worth the wait.When the dashing James Stenbeck and the beautiful Barbara Ryan spotted each other across a crowded room, sparks flew, and their love story began. But they did not live happily ever after. He didn’t know she was pregnant when he broke off with her and returned to Sweden to marry a woman of his family’s choosing. When his wife died, he returned to Oakdale to claim Barbara as his own —no matter that she was about to marry Tom Hughes. Did he love her? In the course of their marriage, he tried to drive her crazy, committed her to a sanitorium, trapped her in a bullring with a charging bull and came back from the dead several times to taunt her. As Herrera puts it: “He loved her, but she got a little out of hand.”As it turned out, Stenbeck was not the true Stenbeck heir. Herrera admits, “It might have thrown him on some levels, but emotionally and psychologically, he was still a Stenbeck.” Nanny Greta Aldrin had switched her son James with the true Setenbeck heir Gunnar St. Clair. When the two men met, the forces of good and evil clashed. James fought Gunnar to the death in Spain and tried to push him out of an airplane window. But Gunnar prevailed. The Stenbeck fortune became his, as did the fair Barbara. One fateful day at a heliport in New York City, Paul saw his father shoot his mother’s friend Hank Elliot in cold blood. Paul turned his back on his father for good. And James vanished. Not one to go down in defeat, James returned. To his shock and horror, he discovered love letters from Paul to James’s ex-mistress Emily Stewart . James attacked Emily, and in the fray that followed it was Paul’s turn to shoot. He killed his father to save Emily. It was a grizzly yet fitting end for this evil man. When asked by a journalist what it was he didn’t like about James Stenbeck, however, Herrera replied, “What’s there not to like?”As for his relationship with his son Paul, James tried to convince Paul that he should want the things that only his father could give him, mainly power and wealth. James was very good at mind games. So for years Paul idealized his father. Everyone tried to convince the boy that James was evil incarnate, but Paul couldn’t quite believe it.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

CAST PICTURES THROUGH THE YEARS

In the early 1960s when the show was live, for 25 cents and two box tops of Cheer detergent you could receive this picture of the cast!On April 2, 1966, “As the World Turns” turned ten years old. Helen Wagner, Don Hastings, Eileen Fulton, still all reside in Oakdale and celebrate!In 1981 ATWT celebrated a quarter century.In 1983 the cast gathered for a group picture. Betsy and Frank were the hot young couple this year.The picture go on page after page!THE AS THE WORLD TURNS FAMILY

ON THE UNIQUENESS OF THE SHOW

Eileen Fulton Lisa Grimaldi It’s family, it’s great love, it’s great deceit, it’s great longing; You can see it and feel it. From the roots come these truths. why these people want Oakdale life, It’s like life but bigger. The Hughes family is my family.

Kathryn Hays (Kim Hughes)I’ve always thought what was special about this was that we maintained the family unit.

Scott Homes (Tom) Hands down it’s the fact that this show above all others uses its extended families & hasn’t decimated its cores

Marie Masters (Susan Stewart McDermott) Nobody tells family stories better than ATWT!

Colleen Zenk Pinter (Barbara Ryan) The Hugheses are the only family that Barbara has ever loved. I’m an orphan. My parents are both dead, so Bob really is my dad. And, Kim always has been my mother figure, which is why over the years when she’d had to berate me for something I had done… it was always so difficult. It’s like talking to my mom. The Hugheses are Barbara’s family.

Paul Lammers (Director) I think first of all the acting, the quality of the acting on this show, is very special. The other shows don’t compare. And this show has an awful lot of legacy with Irna. The core is still here with Helen Wagner and Don Hastings and Patricia Bruder. That’s the nice thing about it, the continuity of so many of these characters.

Scott Bryce (Craig Montgomery)I would have to say what a phenomenal collection of talent there is on this show. There’s a core group of people who are just always there, who have been there since the beginning and keep the backbone and the history. And that’s it’s strength. When the show deals from its own deck to history, it can’t lose. Because that’s what the medium is. It’s about people— not plot devices. It’s about what did you do to me today? Do I love that person? Do I still love that person even though I divorced her ten years ago? Those histories count, The fans remember who loved whom. who hated who. who hurt who. … the stuff that makes us human. And that’s what the medium is.

Brooke Alexander (Samantha Anderson)Just trying to hold on to family values and issues is hard to sell in this day & age because of what else is going on. They present that part of human beings that I think of as a group have to be careful of losing. The show’s always striven for integrity. You see a lot of projects sell out for the obvious, for the superficial, and I’m really proud to be a part of a group that really believes in that integrity.

A FOND GOODBYE A few short months after Nancy and Chris Hughes celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on the air, the world stopped turning for Don MacLaughlin, the actor who had created the memorable part of Chris Hughes. His obituary in “Variety” read: “A face we’ll never forget.” He was Chris Hughes, patriarch of the Hughes family, and he was Don MacLaughlin, father, friend and congenial gentleman with a sense of humor that put everyone at ease. According to Helen Wagner, who shared his “onscreen” life for thirty years, “It was a gentle humor where everybody could join in.” After all, as Don would say, “There are enough problems in Oakdale.” His friends and colleagues at As the World Turns” remember him fondly and well. Helen thought of Don MacLaughlin as her “second husband.” Indeed, her 1955 wedding photo with husband Bob Willey (left), was used in the opening credits of the show until the opening credits were changed.

BEHIND THE SCENES THEN AND NOW Then: In the early 1960s, when the show was live, actress Helen Wagner studied her script in her kitchen set, a favorite meeting place. Now: More than thirty years later, another Hughes set is readied for taping: Kathryn Hays and Don Hastings, as Kim and Bob Hughes, prepare to celebrate Christmas Eve at Tom & Margo’s while technicians and crew order the set.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AS THE WORLD TURNS EPISODE #10,155 TAPE: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1995 AIR: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1995A TOUR BEHIND THE SCENESActors Ellen Dolan, Joanna Rhineart, Larry Bryggman and Scott DeFreitas have coffee and share a brief moment of relaxation before their long taping day begins. From 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., director Maria Wagner takes Kathryn , Colleen, Don, Larry, Dan, Helen, Scott, Ellen, Joanna and John through the “dry run.” This is the initial meeting of the script, the director and the actors. Everyone gets their chance to “moan and grown” and iron out any problems and kinks. “That’s where the true collaboration begins… in rehearsal. With director Maria Wagner, longtime adversaries Bob Hughes and John Dixon rehearse their latest encounter, probably a confrontation. Director Maria Wagner’s preparation begins well before this day. She just calls this day, “the day of.” when she receives the assigned script and breaks it down scene by scene and then line by line. She calls production meetings with the script breakdowns and hair, makeup, costume and set. After meeting with them, she does her camera blocking with just the camera persons. For Maria, truly, “the day of” is the fun part. Everything else is homework done before. Maria talks Andy & Margo through a brother-sister scene that they will do Christmastime.

AFTER THE DRY RUN IT’S OFF TO MAKEUP, HAIR AND COSTUME LAST STEP BEFORE THE SET: WARDROBE ATWT has accounts at Barney’s, Saks and Bergdoff

ANECDOTES FROM THE LIVE DAYS (1956-1975)

Larry Bryggman (John Dixon) I remember a lot of things that went wrong and accidents that happened: Doors not opening, chairs breaking, people walking into the studio, making noise when they shouldn’t and muffed lines. This all seems funny now but at the time it was devastating.

Leonard Valenta (Director) There was this constant state of fear that something would go out of control on the air — and you couldn’t fix it. Well, at least once Nancy came out onto the porch to get the paper and she mentioned Bob was flying back in in a slight fog. Well, there were ways to do fog —and ways to do fog. This time they did too much fog and it rolled into Nancy’s kitchen and under her appliances.

Eileen Fulton (Lisa Grimaldi)It was during the infamous “phantom fetus” storyline. The organ began early and I thought it was my cue that the show was over, like we had run long, etc. and I was about to reach under my shirt and take out the pillow. Something stopped me which was good because it would have gone out coast too coast!

Don Hastings (Bob Hughes) There are *so* many ‘live’ stories… having a bed collapse, with Michael Ebart, who played Chuck Ryan, and winding up in each other’s arms, lying on the floor. We got up, put the bed back together and finished the scene. One day, one of our directors told me my back was going to be to the camera because, “You never forget your lines?” [the Teleprompter was on the camera] Well, I forgot every line in the scene! In the original Hughes kitchen, there was a a hutch with china in it. We taped in Grand Central Terminal, and there was a train that left at 1:55 every day that rattled all the china.

Marie Masters (Susan Stewart)I would get so nervous that I would actually have fantasies about leaving the studio, leaving town, leaving the country, etc. There it was, my wish fulfillment. Ten seconds before countdown, I remember walking into the scene and being introduced to someone there & not remembering *my* own name!

Rosemary Prinz (Penny Hughes) In the late ’50s nice women would come up and they knew everything about the kitchen and we would let them put everything back where it went. One night I came downstairs with Dad to have this serious talk. I went to the refrigerator to get us some milk because we never drank anything but milk. Everything tumbled out! I adlibbed, “I just can’t deal with this right now, Dad. I’ll clean it up after we talk—and we went on with our scene.

AUDITION TALES

Yvonne Perry (Rosanna Cabot) Yvonne first auditioned for a part on “All My Children,” which she didn’t get. When the call came from “Guiding Light,” to audition for Eleni, Yvonne dyed her hair, darkened her eyebrows and did a Greek accent, but she didn’t get that part either. Casting director Betty Rea liked what she saw, however, and cast Yvonne in a small recurring role that was whittled down to two days’ work. But as Yvonne says, “I had this little thing on my resume when Rosanna came along.” She auditioned for the role of Tess but didn’t even get to read. Rosanna was her lucky charm. She auditioned, screen-tested and was booked the next day. “It was exciting.”

Bill Fichtner (Rod Landry/Josh Snyder) Vince Liebhart, casting director, said, “I don’t really have anything for you to read right now, because there’s really nothing you’re right for. We do have this part of Lily’s father. You’re much too young for it, but why don’t you read this scene, and I’ll get to know you a little bit. Then he said, ‘Why don’t you come back and meet with Phyllis Kasha.’ Phyllis worked with Vince at the time. So I came back and met her and read the scene. And she said, ‘That’s very good; you’re young for this, but maybe you should come back and meet Cal (Robert Calhoun),’ who was the executive producer at the time. Well, I met Cal, and he said, ‘That was really wonderful; you’re young for this.’ And then I got a call to come in and test for it. It was me and three other guys, and they all looked older than I did. Martha Byrne watched the test and said, ‘Oh, I think that’s my dad!’ And that’s how it worked out.

Martha Byrne (Lily Grimaldi)Martha had auditioned for the role of Lily, but they wanted more of a tomboy type, and the part went to Lucy Deakins. Martha remembers,”I hadn’t worked for about three months on anything, and I was getting very depressed. I said to my mom, ‘I’ve really had it. I really need a break.’ There was one audition I was going for, a movie called “The Boy Who Could Fly,” My agent said that they had cast a girl who is on a soap opera, Lucy Deakins, and the soap opera wouldn’t let her do it. So, they’re scrambling for someone, and you have to go. So I went. I remember the producer saying in the background ‘Oh Lucy, Lucy, why can’t you be here for me?’ I’m thinking “God, I’m 15 years old. I stink that bad? I’m sure I did a fine job, but it didn’t matter because he wanted her. So I flew back to New York and found out that I didn’t get it. And I was so upset I decided to quit. I’d auditioned for ‘As the World Turns’ eight months before, and I didn’t get it. Lucy got it. Now Lucy had the part in the movie. Then Lucy quit the show and went to do the movie, and they called me. I didn’t even have to audition!

Rosemary Prinz (Penny Hughes) They’d seen every ingenue in New York, and I’m sure I was like the third dredging up of whomever was left… so I went over to the office, and even though they’d seen everybody in New York, there were about thirty girls. It was an hysterical scene with Aunt Edie (Ruth Warrick) in which Penny told Aunt Edie that she knew her mom wished that it were Penny who died in that swimming accident instead of Susan, her sister. It was extremely emotional. Ted Corday and Irna Phillips are the only people I remember from it. I kicked off my shoes, in a radio studio booth, and did the scene and screamed and cried. They said, “Thank you. Would you wait outside for a moment?” The other girls were all gone by then. Ted Corday came out and said, “I hate to do this to you, but would you mind reading again?” After I did they said, ‘You’re Penny!’

FIRST DAY ON THE SET

Parker Posey (Tess Shelby)It was like Alice in Wonderland’s worst nightmare. I get on the set and I’m like projecting my lines and Ben Hendrickson said, ‘See those mikes?’ And I look up and there’s this big microphone. He said, ‘You can talk just like this.’ (whispers) Then he patted me on the shoulder, just like Daddy. One of my first scenes was with Colleen. We walked through it earlier… just the blocking. Now Hal is leaving and when we had to shoot it I’ll never forget it She turned around and she was in tears. I had no idea she would cry in the scene.

Tom Wiggin (Kirk Anderson)I hadn’t done daytime for five years and I had forgotten about just how to memorize lines. The night before I was looking over the script and by midnight I didn’t know any of them! The network people weren’t sure about me. The second day I had six scenes with Liz Hubbard. I got canker sores on my tongue and used Anbesol on them. Doing the scene I was just sorta “stand and deliver” and they thought “That’s an interesting choice for the role!”Ming-Na (Lien Hughes) At the time it as Scott Holmes and Hillary Bailey Smith playing Tom and Margo and my first day on the set! Scott made a joke and broke the ice and helped me over my first lines.

FAVORITE STORY LINE

Eileen Fulton (Lisa Grimaldi)I love what we’ve done recently. This past year… the whole thing with Eduardo, … I have loved turning my son inside out to be so awful again.Scott Holmes (Tom Hughes)I loved the whole rape/HIV storyline. It was played out in real time and gave us an opportunity to show how much Tom and Margo love each other.Elizabeth Hubbard (Lucinda Walsh)The search for Sierra (Lucinda’s daughter) was real and meaningful. Lucinda had a purpose, The famous hot tub scene.Gregg Marx (Tom Hughes)The story that was the most involving, and the one that I think brought out some of my best work was when Tom and Margo lost the baby.

Martha Byrne (Lily Grimaldi) There were so many with Jon. The bell tower for sure… When Lil was 16 and he was always in the stables! When I found out I was adopted and he followed me to Wyoming.

Scott Bryce (Craig Montgomery) As an actor I’ve been in bed with some of the most beautiful women in the world. Accidentally being in bed with both Lucinda and Sierra was a highlight.Yvonne Perry (Rosanna Cabot) The Montana stuff…Mike and Rosanna discovering each other!

Shawn Christian (Mike Kasnoff) So much innocence, Montana, … Exciting Mike and Rosanna together.

THE PEOPLE BEHIND “AS THE WORLD TURNS” ON APRIL 2, 1956, PROCTER & GAMBLE PUT THE SOAP IN SOAP OPERA WHEN THE COMPANY LAUNCHED TELEVISIONS’S FIRST HALF-HOUR DAYTIME SERIAL—“AS THE WORLD TURNS”

Bob Short In 1983, Bob Short won the NATAS Trustees Award for achievement in daytime programming.Ed TrachCame in to P&G from the halls of Yale Drama.

Kenneth L. Fitts He feels strongly about listening to what the audience thinks and feels.

Joe Willmore Live to Tape

Laurence Caso Dealt with the untimely death of Doug Marland

John VAlente an Executive Producer

Many Head Writers Irna Phillips Douglas Marland Lucy Johnson

STAR TURNS ON ATWT Meg Ryan Marisa Tomei Julianne Moore John Wesley Shipp Steven Weber Dana Delany Parker Posey Ming-Na Wen

THE YOUNG AND RESTLESS LIFE OF WILLIAM J. BELL Creator of The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful by Michael Maloney with Lee Phillip Bell (2012) Sourcebooks Foreword by David Hasselhoff

Lee learned she was pregnant with their son, William James (Bill) who was born July 7, 1962. Bradley Phillip came next on June 29, 1964. Bill and Lee’s daughter, Lauralee Kristen was born on December 22, 1968. “She was the most difficult person I ever met who was in this business”.–Paul Rauch, Emmy-winning executive producer, Another World, One Life to Live, Santa Barbara, Guiding Light and The Young and the Restless (about Irna) Rita Marshall, the no-nonsense soap opera producer of fictional Southwest General in the film Tootsie (played with precision by Doris Belack) and iron-willed was modeled after Gloria Monty, the iconic and iron-willed producer who helmed who helmed General Hospital in its heyday. However, the part of the stern celluloid executive could have just as easily been patterned after Irna Phillips, legendary creator and head writer. In her unpublished autobiography Irna recalls meeting Bill. Louise asked me if I’d see a young man very interested in writing serials. (Bill completed his book, The Rat Race) He had no serial-writing experience. Irna was reluctant to hire Bill. She felt that for a serial writer to be successful they needed to be mentally unbalanced. “You’re not crazy enough.”He offered to work for nothing. She said she’d start him at seventy-five dollars a week. Bill went to Irna’s place every morning and listened and observed as she dictated a day of The Guiding Light. He learned long-term outlining, characterizations, her “square system of outlines and many other techniques of the craft. Irna took a liking to him and gave him his first assignment–write an episode of GL. He was also highly competitive and ambitious. She liked working with her proteges in person. She had worked with Aggie long distance for long enough that they both began to feel the strain. I asked Aggie if she would be comfortable writing the 15 minute show, The Guiding Light. She readily agreed. Irna took Bill through a learning curve to write the half hour show As the World Turns. Bill had sound arguments, good ideas and an excellent source of story motivation but he was not a strong dialog writer. I changed my approach with him. As his grasp of dialog strengthened I increased his salary. At the end of 10 years he was earning a thousand dollars a week. Irna and Bill both called actors by their character names. After the broadcast Irna would call the production office in NY with notes from the days’ broadcast. Bill would have homework to write the next days’ episode. Bill could’ve returned to advertising but he felt he had the job of a lifetime. Paul Rauch recalls Irna summoning him and P&G exec Bob Short, to her apartment for two days before Christmas — to see her Christmas tree.Occasionally Irna would travel from Chicago by train (she hated to fly) to P&G’s headquarters in Cincinnati for story conferences. They finally married Jeff & Penny but then they killed Jeff off in August 1962. Bill said, “We don’t kill our people often, but when we do it opens the door for more story. Gossips speculated that Bill & Irna were romantically linked. Bill had one word for that, “Never.” ATWT’s success led to more opportunities for Irna and Bill. They cocreated Another World, which debuted on May 4, 1964, for NBC’s daytime lineup. The show’s bible, dated August 26, 1963, is titled simply “Another World” and ran a mere twenty-four pages. “In a community not too far from Oakdale, a community near the university–one that is not certainly what we think of as suburbia but not completely cosmopolitan either–live two families,” Irna and Bill wrote. They compared AW patriarch Jim Matthews to ATWT’s Chris Hughes and Jim’s wife, Mary to Chris’s wife, Nancy. “As far as Another World is concerned, we believe that in some way we all create ‘another world’ for ourselves.If we didn’t, facing reality twenty-four hours a day would be too much. They also created a primetime spin-off for ATWT’s Lisa, played by Eileen Fulton., Our Private World.Creating AW also provided valuable lessons. “It was a whole new level of learning,” Bill said of the show. Bill later realized that launching the series with a funeral was too depressing. He and Irna soon left AW and James Lipton took over as head writer. Next, Agnes Nixon assumed head writing duties. Her Alice/Steve/Rachel triangle put the show on the map. “Aggie did a fabulous job with that show,” praised Bill.After a decade with Irna, Bill was ready for a new challenge. One arrived when Betty Corday, wife of the late Ted Corday, a former ATWT director and cocreator of Days of our Lives, contacted Bill about taking over head writing duties at Days of our Lives. The NBC serial, which featured the Horton clan, had been struggling in the ratings and was headed for cancellation. “It was the moment of truth,” recalled Bill Irna wrote in her autobiography, “It is my opinion this sense of competition (with Lee) clouds Bill’s judgment.” On December 23, 1973, Irna Phillips died of natural causes at the age of seventy-two. The memorial, funded by the Chicago Tribune Foundation and the Chicago Cultural Center Foundation, credits her as the “mother of soap opera.” Bill, in fact, viewed going to Days in 1966 in a positive light. He was, after all, leaving Irna’s employ to save a show that she, along with Ted Corday, had created. And, save it he did.

As the World Turns. The Complete Family Scrapbook. Special 40th Anniversary Edition. by Julie Poll. General Publishing Group. Los Angeles. © 1996 by Procter & Gamble Productions.

LISA IN LOVE

More than anything else Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Shea Colman McColl Mitchell Grimaldi loves being in love! She might be many other things —businesswoman, mother, mentor, and friend —but she’s an incurable romantic who has married seven times in her quest for the ultimate mate, and she’s not averse to trying it again.

Husband #1:

Bob Hughes She was a feisty college coed from Rockford, Illinois, and he was a first-year med student. It was the first love for both, but what pretty Lisa Miller wanted most of all was to be a doctor’s wife, and she persuaded young Bob Hughes (above) to elope. Nancy and Chris were stunned when they found out and wanted the marriage annulled, but Lisa was already pregnant, so the newlyweds moved into the family home. Lisa soon grew bored with being a wife and mother. Leaving son Tommy in Nancy’s care, she returned to college and drifted into an affair with wealthy shoe tycoon Bruce Elliot. The affair convinced Lisa that she wanted out of her marriage, and as usual, she got her way. Lisa was in love with Bruce, but Bruce wasn’t the marrying kind. Lisa begged Bob to take her back, but Bob had been truly hurt by her infidelity. It would be a long time before Bob married again, and it seemed that every time he got involved with a woman, Lisa would come back into his life. Some time it looked as if they would get back together, but they never did. According to Don Hastings, who has played Bob Hughes for some 35 years, “There were times when she came back, and I consoled her, and she mistook it for love.’ As for their relationship, he says, “I’ve always been kind of wise to her, and I think he’s someone she can let her facade down with because she trusts him. The marriage didn’t work out, but there is a valid friendship.” And, of course, there is their son Tom.

Husband #2:

John Eldridge Lisa ran off to Chicago, leaving Tom behind. She settled down in the Windy City, where she wed and then divorced wealthy John Eldridge (played by Nicolas Coster, who also played Eduardo Grimaldi, husband #7). Lisa returned to Oakdale with a hefty divorce settlement and was ready to enter Oakdale society in the style she’d always dreamed of. Michael Shea, mentor to Dr. John Dixon, and he became …

Husband #3

Michael Shea When Lisa met Michael Shea, he was married to Ellen Stewart’s mother, Claire, whom he was using for her money and her social position. Undeniably attracted to Lisa , Shea allowed her to lure him into an affair.All was going smoothly until Lisa discovered she was pregnant with his child. Lisa begged him to marry her, but Michael liked his life the way it was, and he refused. When Claire learned the truth, she divorced him. After Lisa gave birth to a son, Chuckie, Michael became attached to the boy and finally asked Lisa to marry him, but she turned him down, still smarting from his previous rejection. The devious doctor then blackmailed Lisa into marriage after Tom who had returned from Vietnam with a drug problem, was caught stealing drugs from Shea’s office. According to Eileen Fulton, it was a terrible marriage but a “luscious storyline” because as “the woman scorned,” Lisa got him back by prancing around the house in sexy negligees and then denying him sex. “It was great fun!” Eileen recalls. Michael got what many people in Oakdale thought he deserved when he was murdered by a jilted lover from his past. Lisa was soon enjoying lobster, caviar and champagne with millionaire Simon Gilbey, but the affair was short-lived. Another unsuccessful attempt to woo Bob back led to a fling with his older brother Don. When Chuckie was killed in a car crash, a disheartened Lisa turned to a new project, running the Wade Book Shop. That is, until husband #4 came to town.

Husband #4

Grant Colman Grant Colman came to town to join the Hughes law firm, and he became smitten with Lisa. After he heroically rescued her from a stalker, Grant proposed. He was handsome and successful, and she happily accepted. But Grant had neglected to tell her that he was already married to a clingy woman who had no intention of giving him up. Joyce Colman came to town and did everything in her power to interfere with the romance between Lisa and Grant. She finally gave Grant the divorce he so dearly wanted, and he and Lisa made plans to marry. On their wedding day, Joyce presented the happy couple with the unwelcome news that she and Grant had a son named Teddy, who was living in Laramie, Wyoming. Grant decided to cancel the honeymoon and investigate Joyce’s wild claim.The bride was not amused! Much to everyone’s surprise, Joyce’s story turned out to be true. But Joyce wasn’t the only threat to the Colman marriage: Women were always fighting over Grant, and Lisa was very jealous. Eileen Fulton (Lisa) says, “Grant didn’t see it. He was just so handsome, he couldn’t stand it. He didn’t realize these women were just falling all over him. He just thought Lisa was overreacting, so the more he said, ‘This is not happening,’ the angrier she got, because she didn’t know that he really didn’t see it. It made for great friction.” According to actor James Douglas (Grant Colman), “It was a very painful moment when he gave her back the keys. It was agonizing for them both, because they loved each other, but he knew she didn’t trust him.” Out of their difficult parting a trust and friendship grew, and Lisa and Grant remain great friends and confidants to this day. After divorcing Grant, Lisa decided that she wanted to be independent for a while, and she threw herself into a new project. She and Barbara Stenbeck opened a boutique together and called it Fashions Ltd.

Husband #5

Whit McColl This relationship often resembled more of a power struggle than a marriage. Lisa had always craved security, and Whit’s money and social position returned her to the center of Oakdale society. Whit had a secret wife as well—Charlene L’Amour. He had married her during a drunken stupor in Las Vegas and had forgotten all about her. Charlene ended up living at the McColl mansion under the guise of pretending to be Whit’s sister, and miraculously everyone got along! While Lisa was off on another buying trip, Lucinda Walsh came to town and tried to wrest the McColl empire away from Whit. Housekeeper Dorothy Connors, who had been secretly in love with Whit for years, took advantage of his low spirits and heavy drinking in the hope that he would give in to her desires. Lisa returned from her trip to find Whit dead on the library floor! Lisa blamed Lucinda, but the culprit turned out to be spurned housekeeper Dorothy Connors.

Husband #6

Earl Mitchell Earl Mitchell was the dashing uncle of Shannon O’Hara, new in town and involved in diamond smuggling. Nobody, including Lisa, knew that Earl was an Interpol agent sent to check out the drug ring run by the infamous Falcon (James Stenbeck), Eileen Fulton says Earl, “He was romantic and exciting, and I think he supplied all the romance that Lisa had been looking for.” But their road to love was a rocky one. Lisa went through menopause and was sure that he wouldn’t find her attractive, and Early would disappear on missions Lisa knew nothing about. When Earl announced his departure from Oakdale, Lisa was sure that all was lost, but he returned on Christmas Eve just as Lisa was getting ready to take down her tree… and he proposed.

Husband #7

Eduardo Grimaldi Eduardo had a dark side, and Lisa’s family, especially Tom, did not approve of the relationship. Eileen Fulton says, “Lisa has never doubted anything in her life.” She was sure that he was right for her and hoped that Eduardo would be her lucky charm. With two of her ex-husbands, Bob and Grant, in attendance, Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Shea Colman McColl Mitchell became Lisa Grimaldi in a stylish ceremony aboard the ‘Valleta’, Damian’s yacht. Once more, Lisa’s happiness would not last long. Before they could even plan their honeymoon, terrorist Hans, believing Eduardo had short-changed him for the dirty deeds he’d done for Kingsley-Malta, arrived at the newlywed’s penthouse and shot Eduardo in the shoulder, severely injuring him. Eduardo summoned Orlena Grimaldi to his side to discuss a family secret. It was a mistake that would prove fatal. Distraught, Lisa sued attending physician John Dixon for malpractice. “One of James Douglas’s favorite moments was when as husband #4, he gave Lisa away to husband #6. Here he dances with her at her wedding to Eduardo, husband #7.” “Lisa went off to Paris on an extended buying trip and returned with husband #5, publishing magnate Whit McColl.” “He was a Maltese aristocrat and the cousin of Lily’s husband Damian. A charming international adventurer, Eduardo reminded Lisa immediately of Earl.” “It was 1987 when Lisa married Earl Mitchell, husband #6, and they were very happy. But due to Earl’s dangerous line of work, their happiness was short-lived. On the trail of the Falcon, Earl lost his life, and Lisa nearly died as well. In his honor, Lisa and Earl’s niece, Shannon, established the Earl Mitchell Center for runaway children. Lisa had loved him deeply, and after his death she remained single longer than she ever had before.”