Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Today in Soap Opera History (May 14)


On this date in...

1979: Tom King's first script as ANOTHER WORLD's head writer aired. King replaced Harding Lemay who left the soap after eight years.  David Butler made his first appearance as Ben Campbell, Karen's brother.  Also in the episode, Brian (Paul Stevens) shocked Mac (Douglass Watson) and Janice (Christine Jones) when he told them the extortion idea came from Iris.

1980: On THE EDGE OF NIGHT, Logan (Joe Lambie) and Deborah (Francis Fisher) confronted Raven (Sharon Gabet).



1981: On AS THE WORLD TURNS, John (Larry Bryggman) fell down the stairs after an argument with Margo (Margaret Colin).



1991: On ANOTHER WORLD, Kathleen (Julie Osburn) hoped she and Cass (Stephen Schnetzer) were back on track, but Cass was off making love with Frankie (Alice Barrett).

1992: On THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, Lauren (Tracey Bregman) and Sheila (Kimberlin Brown) had a fiery confrontation about Dylan.



2002: Ray Stricklyn, who played Howard Hawkins on DAYS OF OUR LIVES in 1991, died at age 73. Stricklyn had previously played a doctor on both DYNASTY and THE COLBYS.

2003: Kyle Brandt debuted as Philip Kiriakis in DAYS OF OUR LIVES.

2004: Legendary British actress Anna Lee died at age 91. She played Lila Quartermaine on GENERAL HOSPITAL for 25 years starting in 1978. Ms. Lee was posthumously awarded a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award a week after her death, on May 21, in New York along with nine other daytime television legends.

2006: NBC aired the final episode of THE WEST WING.

2009: Actress Susan Willis, who played Helga Voynitzheva on ALL MY CHILDREN in the early '90s, died at age 83.

2010: ONE LIFE TO LIVE kicked off its three-episode "Starr X'd Lovers" musical prom special.



Celebrating a birthday today are:
Victor Miller (Former writer, ALL MY CHILDREN; GUIDING LIGHT; ANOTHER WORLD; GENERAL HOSPITAL) - 73
Jennifer Billingsley (ex-Polly, GENERAL HOSPITAL) - 71
Edmund Gaynes (ex-Paul, AS THE WORLD TURNS) - 66
Nancy Sorel (ex-Monique, GENERATIONS) - 49
Natasha Ryan (ex-Hope, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) - 43
Sabryn Genet (ex-Tricia, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) - 42
Gabriel Mann (Nolan, REVENGE; ex-Arthur, MAD MEN) - 41
Martine McCutcheon (ex-Susan, ECHO BEACH; ex-Tiffany, EASTENDERS) - 37
Justin Klosky (ex-Joey, GUIDING LIGHT) - 33
Amber Tamblyn (ex-Emily, GENERAL HOSPITAL) - 30

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you have a tip on a bit of soap history on this date or future dates, let us know. Send an email to [email protected].

5 comments:

  1. I was an avid AW viewer in the 1970s and 80s, but I don't recall a brother and sister named Karen and Ben Campbell.

    Granted, the canvas was very FULL when the show expanded to 90 minutes. Can you fill me in on who they were?

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  2. Where is the results for the weekly favorites poll? lol I am really anxious to see them.

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  3. James, Karen was Michael Randolph's final love interest. They left town together and moved to Florida to get married. Not sure if they were mentioned after that. Ben was her rebel brother with a gambling problem but he wasn't on too long. I wasn't sure if Harding had a longer story planned that got cut short or if he was never intended to be around more than a couple of months.

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  4. I grew up on ATWT (seemingly since birth)I was so young really wasn't able to fully understand what was going on until about '83-84 so it was a bit of a shock to see Lyla walk in with Doctor Bob Hughes--I think I was expecting her to walk in with John Dixon since I remember that there seemed to be some residual feelings between John and Lyla in the mid 80s just before Lyla met Casey and John became involved with Lucinda Walsh. And I knew Kim was an Andropolous before she became a Hughes but to see Bob and Lyla? This really makes me want to see as many episodes from 1981 as possible! Looks fascinating. And on just a girly-girl note, I love that russet shade of hair color for Lisa's hair-it really gave her a soft glow. How stylish were the women at that restaurant--the best the 80s could provide (lol)

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  5. Thanks for the quick recap explanation about Ben & Karen on AW. I forgot about those two!

    Brian :-)

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