At Christmas time, ALL MY CHILDREN married off its first supercouple, Phil and Tara.... Julia Barr debuted as Phoebe’s tempestuous niece, Brooke English; Candice Earley (Donna) and Eileen Herlie (Myrtle) also came aboard.... SESAME STREET staple Roscoe Orman (pictured) took on a very different role, that of pimp Tyrone....Erica got her second divorce (from Phil).
ANOTHER WORLD’s first spin-off, SOMERSET, was axed and went off the air on December 31.... AW took home the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.
AS THE WORLD TURNS celebrated its 20th anniversary on April 2.... Santos Ortega, who’d played Grandpa Hughes (technically, Will Hughes) since 1956, passed away in April; his character died in his sleep in June.... Kim and John’s son, Andy, was born.
DAYS OF OUR LIVES tapped future superstar Deidre Hall to play Marlena.... Daytime’s first interracial smooch took place between David and Valerie.... The show picked up the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing....The long-running paternity potboiler surrounding Mike Horton was finally resolved when Bill was outed as the tyke’s father,
prompting an enraged Mickey to shoot his brother....The show landed on the cover of Time, featuring Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes (Doug and Julie), whose supercouple characters finally made it to the altar.... In a quickly dropped storyline, Mike
Horton questioned his sexuality.... Jennifer Rose Horton was born.
Douglas Marland, who’d worked as a script writer for AW, was snapped up by THE DOCTORS, marking the Emmy-winning scribe’s first gig as head writer (he replaced
Margaret DePriest).
Genie Francis joined the GENERAL HOSPITAL ranks as Laura.... For the first time, the
series’ location was identified as Port Charles, NY.... The show expanded from 30 to 45 minutes and got new head writers, Eileen Pollock and Robert Mason Pollock.... Steve
and Audrey remarried....Monica cheated on hubby Jeff with Rick, his brother.
GUIDING LIGHT made two notable hires: Maureen Garrett, who replaced Lynn Deerfield as Holly, and Robin Mattson, (pictured) who made her soap debut as Hope Bauer No.5.... The Marler family, represented by Jackie (Cindy Pickett) and Justin (Tom O’Rourke), were introduced....Rick’s mom, Leslie, diedin a car wreck.... Jordan Clarke, who would go on to an Emmy winning run as Billy Lewis, exited the show after two years as Tim.
ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s Viki welcomed her first child (that she remembered giving birth to,
anyway), Kevin, with husband Joe Riley, while her father, Victor, died under mysterious
circumstances, and suspicion was cast on Dorian, his wife....Jacklyn Zeman (now GH’s
Bobbie) earned her first soap credit as Lana.... Laurence Fishburne wrapped up his stint
as Joshua Hall.... In July, the show expanded from 30 to 45 minutes.
SEARCH FOR TOMORROW’s Larry Haines (Stu) won the Daytime Emmy for Lead Actor.
Christopher Reeve (pictured) exited LOVE OF LIFE as Ben. The following year, he was cast in the titular role in the big-screen smash Superman.
RYAN’S HOPE star Kate Mulgrew (Mary), who was unmarried, offered to quit the show when she discovered she was pregnant. Instead, the show wrote in the pregnancy. Mulgrew gave birth to a daughter the following year and gave her up for adoption; she reunited with the young woman, named Danielle, in 1999.... Helen Gallagher (Maeve) won the Daytime Emmy for Lead Actress.
John McCook (now Eric, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL) joined the YOUNG AND RESTLESS
ranks as heartthrob Lance....Edward J. Scott started his Y&R career as an associate producer.... The show’s theme music became known as “Nadia’s Theme” after it was used to accompany a montage of gymnast Nadia Comaneci’s performance in the Summer
Olympics on ABC’s WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS....Katherine tried to buy Phillip
Chancellor III, the child that Jill bore by Kay’s late husband, from her for a million dollars. Jill rejected the deal.