EDGE OF NIGHT TODAY

What have Sky and Raven Whitney been up to over the past twenty-five years? Find out in the latest installment of Mariann Aalda's (Didi) Eye on Monticello!

And please enjoy this classic EON opening sequence, featuring Didi, Calvin, Raven, Sky and whole lot more!

PRE-PRIMETIME PRE-TEENS

Before they found prime-time success in Who's The Boss and Heroes, Danny Pintauro and Hayden Panettiere made a slapsh in daytime as three iconic, pint-sized dynamos from a trio of core families.

At age seven, Danny Pintauro stepped into the role of As The World Turns' Paul, son of Barbara and James. (For details of what a heavy storyline was laid on those second grade shoulders, click here.) Enjoy the clip below: Evidence that, once upon a time, James actually did love Paul - or, at least, loved him in a noticeably less twisted way.



Meanwhile, Hayden Panettiere made her mark as not one but two daytime tots!

There's Guiding Light's Lizzie...



And, even before that, Sarah on One Life to Live...

WHERE IN THE WORLD....

Perhaps no one has lived the life of a New York soap star with more panache and notoriety than Eileen Fulton. The woman credited with inventing the soap industry’s contractual “granny clause” in the late 1960s (no grandchildren for her character) is working with the cabaret coach and director Diana Basmajian to create the nightclub act she’ll unveil at the Greenwich Village piano bar Don’t Tell Mama on Dec. 17.

In an apartment on the Upper East Side whose walls are painted a dramatic shade of purple, Ms. Fulton recently quieted two Pekingese dogs — Ella Fitzgerald and Rosemary Clooney — as she practiced the showbiz yarns that might make it into her cabaret act. At 77, and waving off concern over the pneumonia that landed her in the hospital just as the final episodes of “As the World Turns” were broadcast, Ms. Fulton dismissed talk of retirement with a succinct “You die.”

More on Eileen, as well as Jake Silbermann (Noah), Michael Park (Jack), Terri Columbino (Katie), Van Hansis (Luke), etc... at: The New York Times.

And for those who'd like a preview of Eileen's nightclub act, check out her cabaret reel, below:

And then buy Eileen's CD!

ANOTHER WORLD TODAY EPISODE #79-1: COVER UP!

"You could have stepped up and helped those kids at any time," Rachel accused Alice.

"My coming forward would have hardly gotten all the charges dropped. Especially not where Allie was concerned."

"You could have tried. You were so sanctimonious about being the one Jamie turned to when he was sick years ago."

"That's your interpretation of my motives."

"You picked a hell of a time to quit butting into my family's business." Rachel zeroed in with her best shot. "Steven Frame. How could you look at that name in the paper, how could you look at that face; we both know who he looks like, don't we? It's unmistakable — and, understanding that you had the means, still refuse to lift a finger to help him?"

"I don't need to justify myself to you. Not today of all days."

"I knew it." Rachel's smiled mixed triumph with bitterness. "You were lashing out at me, using my children and grandchildren to do it."

"Would it be terribly rude," Alice inquired. "If I were to suggest you get over yourself, Rachel? And quickly. It's not attractive."

***

Grant steps in to protect Marley even as Jamie discovers Lorna at the hospital with Morgan, Lila warns Donna off turning to Matt, Carl pleads his case to Dean, and GQ meets with Hudson's adoptive parents.

Your votes are in! Who is the new Mayor of Bay City? Find out at: http://www.anotherworldtoday.com/2010/2010_79p1.html

And as several lives hang in the balance, we want to hear your thoughts on what should happen next! Go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Another-World/307355595460?ref=search&sid=13800416.3728872026..1 and http://www.soapopera451.com/talk/mboard.php to voice your opinions on future storyline twists and turns, and become a part of keeping "Another World Today" spinning!

And for a refresher course on the reason behind Rachel and Alice's over 40 years of animosity, please enjoy this retrospective from the 1994 prime-time special, 50 Years of Soaps.

GUIDING LIGHT SYNOPSIS NOVEMBER 1-5, 2010

Via http://twitter.com/MelindaSueLewis:

While waiting for GQ and Beth to show up for their legal meeting, Mindy attempted to make small talk with Mel.

It didn't go well.

First, they clashed about Leah dating Kevin Marler. Mel thought her daughter deserved to have fun and not obsess about her schoolwork like Mel did when she was Leah's age. Mindy thought anyone with Thorpe chromosomes - especially a teen-age boy - was bound to be trouble.

Next, Mindy was furious to find out that GQ went on TV again, to talk about Hudson's custody. (http://www.anotherworldtoday.com/2010/2010_78p1.html). But, she grew speechless when she heard GQ reading aloud some of the nasty, racist mail he'd received as a result.

Mindy swore to Mel that she had nothing to do with it (even as she and Beth privately wondered if Phillip might be involved... he did promise to protect them, Spaulding style).

Mel conceded that she knew that. But, also pointed out that the custody battle was bound to have a racial dimension. Did Mindy really want to put Hudson - not to mention herself and Rick... and Leah - through this?

What should Mindy do now? Tweet her your advice via: http://twitter.com/MelindaSueLewis.

And, to read more, go to: http://www.soapopera451.com/msl/, where all of Mindy's tweets appear in chronological order!

Plus, should soaps delve into issues of race? Please let us know your thoughts below!

TURNS ON A SMILE!

Some As The World Turns bloopers to start your weekend off with a chuckle!

Missed Opportunity: Guiding Light Edition
Cassie Layne Winslow and Alan-Michael Spaulding: A Bad Romance
By Nicole Walker

It never fails. Just like you know that when a woman sleeps with two different men on the same night that she’s going to end up pregnant or when an emotionally distraught girlfriend/wife/mother gets behind the wheel of a car you can set your watch by how many minutes she has before she crashes her car into oncoming traffic...

When news that an actor is leaving a soap and their character is being written out, THAT is when the character and their potential becomes 1000x more compelling than what they were before they were given the pink slip.

Now, many Guiding Light fans were skeptical when the beloved Alan-Michael Spaulding was brought back to the canvas in 2005, which was understandable since he wasn’t being played by Emmy award winned Rick Hearst. I mean, Alan-Michael IS Rick Hearst (sorry, Carl Tye Evans, we love you, too; it's just been a while) and Michael Dempsey (Alan-Michael’s new portrayer) was quite pretty to look at, but he wasn’t Rick Hearst.

And, as if the poor guy didn’t have enough against him, instead of playing with the big boys upon his return, Alan-Michael was thrown into not one but two head scratching romances with women nearly half his age - Marina and Ava - the former being the daughter of his ex-wife, Eleni, who at one time could have turned out to be Alan-Michael’s daughter!

::Sigh::

After nearly two years on canvas, Dempsey was given his pink-slip in 2007, and us viewers were left to watch and wait for his exit.

And then it happened.

One scene of Alan-Michael playing the Spaulding Family Defender against the emotionally volatile and grieving Cassie Layne Winslow and suddenly I could visualize a compelling, organic, character-consistent, emotionally engaging storyline for Alan-Michael and Cassie that could keep going and going for years.

Take Alan-Michael: Always at odds with Alan and being a Spaulding, he nevertheless takes up the mantle of gate-keeper and head of the Spaulding family because that’s what a son does. In taking this action, of course, there is the hope that he will finally earn Alan’s respect and love.

Take Cassie Layne Winslow: A grieving mother who is unraveling to an alarmingly unpredictable degree. She has a legitimate beef against Alan-Michael’s father, Alan, for his role in Cassie’s daughter’s death and aims to see Alan - and all the Spauldings, if necessary - pay and pay dearly and will do so by any means necessary.

The two battle; Cassie doing her damndest to upset Alan’s life and Alan-Michael doing his best to set it right, Cassie changing up her tactics and playing up her grief to sucker Alan-Michael in, Alan-Michael playing to Cassie, claiming that he does feel her pain and understand what she’s going through...

Only somewhere along the way, the sweet sensitive part of himself that Alan-Michael tries to protect does begin to feel Cassie’s pain and Cassie is shocked to realize that not all Spauldings are without a heart or compassion and the two realize, to their horror, that they are falling in love with the enemy.

But this wasn’t supposed to happen, each is using the other as a means to an end. So they retreat from each other back to their warring selves, only the more they try to fight it, the more they can’t resist each other, even when they give in to lust and temptation they tell themselves that it’s all part of the plan, that they’re in control of themselves, in control of the situation and that nothing will keep them from their ultimate goals.

And then fate intervenes. Cassie ends up pregnant. Clichéd? Maybe. (Ed. Note: Tricky without a uterus, perhaps even more so.) But nothing steps up a storyline like a blood-feud baby!

Now the game goes to a whole new level.

For Cassie this child is a miracle, a salve for her broken heart or a weapon in her vendetta against the family obsessed Alan, even as it remains a vulnerability that the Spauldings can use to completely and utterly destroy her once and for all.

For Alan-Michael- this child marks the defining moment of his life. A family is now within reach, but will he cut ties from the Spauldings for his child and its mother and make a deliberate effort to protect his own child from Alan’s crushing influence? Or would he be swayed by Alan’s sudden interest in another heir to use his and Cassie’s child to finally cement himself in his father’s good graces?

Would Cassie and Alan-Michael ever trust each other enough to believe in their love? To let go of the past and look to a future as a normal happy family with their new bundle of joy?

Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

Cassie and Alan-Michael never engaged in full on crazy, sexy, hot, Spaulding-Layne warfare.

Alan-Michael went out with whimper instead of a bang, forced out of Springfield by Alan in a most humiliating manner in a supposed effort to ‘protect’ him.

Cassie would leave town a year later after finally hitting rock bottom, taking the one kid she had left, RJ, off for a new start in Hawaii.

Somewhat anti-climactic ends, I’d say.

But who knows, maybe those two, crazy, pretty kids still found each other after leaving Springfield; Cassie being the one to help Alan-Michael finally let go of his anger towards Alan, and Alan-Michael showing Cassie that not all Spauldings are irredeemably evil.

What do you all think? Click the Comments button and let us know!

***

Nicole Walker is the Associate Producer of Another World Today. She is rarely without an opinion.