Marland Monday: Nineteen Emmys, three Oscars, and two Tonys
Hey kids, what time is it?
It’s Marland Monday!
Every Monday I look back at the career of Douglas Marland, one of my favorite writers and one of the best soap opera writers in the genre. The past couple of months I’ve looked back at his legendary rules. Today I’m looking back at the performers that gave his words life. To quote Karina Longworth: Join us, won’t you…
Marland had started writing with his mentor Harding Lemay on Another World. In 1976, he was hired to write for NBC’s The Doctors. The Doctors has gotten a new life when Retro TV started showing reruns in 2014. Unfortunately, I don’t get Retro TV, nor have I had a chance to watch the show on streaming channels, so I don’t know much about the characters. But these names might ring a bell…
Kathy Bates as Phyllis Gillette
Jonathan Frakes as Tom Carroll (I have found a clip of Frakes in a group therapy session-character actress Anna Maria Horsford is in this one as well but I couldn’t find out her name in the clip. This was right after Marland left the show)
Marland then moved on to General Hospital, then onto Guiding Light. He was lucky that Betty Rea was Guiding Light’s casting director. Betty Rea had a knack for picking out performers that turned into stars. Like who? Well, let’s take a look…
Kevin Bacon- Yes, seven degrees of Bacon includes Guiding Light! He played Tim Werner, a troubled teenager kicked out of Lincoln Prep (Springfield’s out of town boarding school for boys, where they usually went at ten then came back a year later seventeen and troubled) and in love with Morgan (Kristen Vigard) But as we all know, Morgan was in love with Kelly. This led to drunk driving and Morgan being in a coma for a while. Tim sobered up, Ed Bauer was his sponsor. Bacon left the show to do a little movie called Diner.
John Wesley Shipp-We all know good old Kelly Nelson by now. He loved being a doctor, he loved Morgan, and he confronted Nola (Lisa Brown) about her lies. Shipp of course went on to be Dawson’s dad on Dawson’s Creek and The Flash.
Amy Steel-Steel played Trudy, a love interest for Tim. She left to star in the first Friday the 13th sequel and is known as a Final Girl. Oh yeah, Alex Keaton lost his virginity to her on Family Ties.
Moving on to Loving, Marland got to work with a wonderful cast, with two names you might remember:
Bryan Cranston: Cranston was good old college professor Doug Donovan who was in love with Merrill Vochek. Of course, she was in love with someone else. Cranston would later write in his memoir “…Marland was a nice person. The producer was not.”
This fact would later be confirmed by a Loving reuinion where several actresses confirmed Cranston’s story, and a certain someone makes a cameo Fear not! Walter White was waiting in New Mexico for him.
Speaking of Merrill Vochek…
Patricia Kalember-Merrill Vochek is the top reporter in Cornith, and is lucky to have Doug Donovan (see above) But Roger Forbes, the new president of Alden Unversity has just moved back into town. Why are exchanging longing glances when they are in the room together? Kalember of course was Georgie in the show Sisters and countless TV shows and movies.
After leaving Loving in 1985, Marland landed at As the World Turns. There were two newish performers that would take part in his first big storyline….
Julianne Moore-in the three years she was on ATWT Frannie Hughes was kidnapped twice, found out her fiance was a serial killer, her other boyfriend was killed (see below) found out she had a twin half sister (Moore also played the half sister Sabrina) then found out the half sister slept with the second finace. Holy Moly, no wonder Moore won an Emmy for playing both Frannie and Sabrina. Also I’m betting when she was offered the chance to play Sarah Palin, she probably thought “It can’t be as dramatic as being Frannie and Sabrina.” (Also for several months before Marland arrived, Frannie’s best friend was Marcy, played by Marisa Tomei)
Steven Weber-long before he got his wings (Yes, I did it, because he was on the show Wings. Hit me later) Weber played Kevin Gibson, who loved Frannie but was unfairly blamed for things that were out of control-little things like stalking, murder, you know run of the mill stuff! One of my favorite scenes invoving Weber is when he-and several of the show’s regulars-found out who Kim’s stalker was (another one of Marland’s first big storylines)
Oh yes, John Wesley Shipp played Douglas Cummings on the show for four months. He won an Emmy. Watch below, and you will see a delighted Martha Byrne give him the Emmy.
William Fichtner- At first he was Rod Landry (Look I do not make up these names) then it was found out he was Josh Snyder, who had a deep dark secret. I don’t want to say what it was, but Fichtner did an excellent job playing someone who did a horrible thing, and dared the audience to either condemn or root for him. Fichtner went on to do Armageddon, Crash, and just wrapped up five years on the TV show Mom.
Allison Janney-Long before she went to the West Wing, she played a friend of a friend in Marland’s last big storylines. She also won a little thing called an Oscar playing Levona Golden in I, Tonya, and was one of the stars of Mom with… William Fichtner. Guess who played Fichtner’s brother for several episodes? Steven Weber. You cannot make this up.
One more person to mention…
Maggie Baird-Baird played Dr Taylor Baldwin, a bad girl wanting Dr. Casey Perretti back. Baird went on to do voice-over roles and other guest starring jobs, but might be best known as Billie Ellish’s mom. Billie’s dad? He was Neil Everest on Guiding Light. It was a match made in Proctor and Gamble soap opera heaven!
I know I might be missing other performers, including the ones who day in, day out gave great performances every weekday. With the people I listed above they have won ninetten Emmys, three Oscars, and two Tonys. Not bad for soap opera actors, huh? My dream is to have them come back for something Marland related. Maybe Billie Ellish could write the score? Strangers things have happened.
Tune in next week….
