Ex-GL and AMC Star Attempts Suicide

Daniel von Bargen, perhaps best known in the soap world from Guiding Light and All My Children, was hospitalized this week after shooting himself in the head in a botched suicide attempt.

The Montgomery, Ohio, resident shot himself in the temple with a Colt 38 gun on Monday. He called Hamilton County 911 after his attempt failed.

According to the call, Von Bargen shot himself to avoid going to the hospital. After the dispatcher asked if the shooting was accidental, von Bargen responded, " No, I was supposed to go to the hospital today, didn't want to … well, I shot myself." Von Bargen is a diabetic and was supposed to have two of his toes amputated that day.

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Interview: Alina Adams Brings Soaps Into the Digital Age

While you might not know Alina Adams by name (yet), you do know her by her body of work. She’s worn many hats in the soap-opera community, including writer, host, content producer, developer, etc. She’s authored soap-opera tie-in books “Oakdale Confidential,” “The Man From Oakdale” and “Jonathan’s Story,” and is also the woman behind the “Another World” website, which has carried the show on into the 21st century even though the NBC version was canceled in 1999. Alina is also the writer of Mindy Lewis Bauer’s Twitter feed (twitter.com/MindyLewisBauer), the writings of the popular “Guiding Light” character, who chronicles the ongoing drama that’s still happening in Springfield, after “Guiding Light’s” 2009 cancellation.

Perhaps most forward-looking of all Alina’s projects is the development of enhanced electronic books which, in addition to standard text, features video, music, graphics and links relevant to the story. An enhanced e-book can be experienced on tablets, iPads, smartphones and computers — all you need is an Internet connection and a free Kindle app. I spoke with Alina recently about electronic innovations and the future of soaps.

Daytime Dial: One of your first interactive projects in the genre was to bring “Another World” back via storytelling on AnotherWorldToday.com. How did you decide on the format in which to bring it back?

Alina Adams: TeleNext had put up reruns of “Another World” on hulu.com. It was 2009, exactly 10 years after the show had gone off the air. I suggested we do some out-of-the-box thinking. Instead of just telling people: “Here are some reruns. Watch these episodes,” we’ll update the story. Let’s work with the characters that were in the episodes that they were showing and use the episodes on Hulu as flashbacks, and combine text and video in a completely new multimedia format.

DD: And then when you incorporated Mindy with that by having her refer to “AW” on her Twitter feed, that was a great tie-in.

AA: Everybody loves a crossover! You could either pick up new readers — or in this case, new followers — or you won’t. It’s highly unlikely you would lose anyone as a result of it. So it’s a win-win situation.

DD: Mindy’s “Guiding Light” Twitter started as a promotion for the 25th high-school reunion of the Four Musketeers (Phillip, Beth, Rick and Mindy), and you guys decided to keep it going. Back then, it was affiliated with “Guiding Light,” but you’ve decided to continue it on your own since the show’s cancellation.

AA: TeleNext knows this is going on. They can’t officially sanction it, but they are not taking it down. It says right there on the profile: “This is no longer affiliated with TeleNext.”

DD: I also love the interactive quality of Mindy’s Twitter, where she asks her followers for advice on what to do in certain situations.

AA: Twitter is terrific that way. It creates immediacy and intimacy. And believe me, the fans definitely have their opinions on how things should be handled, and they aren’t afraid to voice it.

DD: Tell me about your enhanced electronic book “Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime’s Greatest Moments.”

AA: I reached out to the fans on transmedia — Facebook, Twitter, fan clubs, soap sites — and I asked them to tell me their favorite, most memorable moment from the beginning of soaps until now. I received a wonderful avalanche of responses. Once I compiled those lists, I went to either the actor, writer or producer who was involved in the scene, and I got the story of how the scene came together.

For example, after Linda Dano tells you about what it was like to shoot the intervention scenes on “Another World,” there the scene is — you can click a button on your tablet and watch it. I developed the idea as a fan and as a consumer. If you’re reading a book that’s telling you about something great that happened, you want to see it right then, and we now have the technology to make that happen.

Read more about Alina Adams and her innovations for the future of soaps at alinaadams.com. And if you need a belated gift for the soap lover in your family, go to amazon.com and order “Soap Opera 451” for immediate download.

Interview: Life After the Light for Robert Newman

When “Guiding Light” ended its historic 72-year run this past fall, fans were devastated. Robert Newman, who played Joshua Lewis for almost 25 years, is still in New York and is currently starring in the musical “Sessions,” which he began performing in prior to “GL’s” demise. I had the chance to chat with Robert to discuss the end of the “GL” era.

Daytime Dial: What were those last few weeks of filming like on the “GL” set? It must have been a pretty bittersweet time.
Robert Newman: Part of my doing “Sessions” was to give me a distraction from the fact that “Guiding Light” was ending, and it really worked well. My experience of those last few weeks might be different from some of the others, because I was already on this other journey. I almost didn’t have time to digest how heavy this thing was: the ending of a 72-year, 15,672-episode show, of which I spent many years of my life. I did around 3,500-4,000 episodes. The last couple of days, it started to become a bigger thing for me to realize and understand that this really was going to end.


We shot the last scene a few days earlier than the last day of shooting, with Josh and Reva meeting at the lighthouse and riding off in the truck together. That had its own feel to it, because we knew it was going to be the final scene of the show, with “always” being the last word spoken on the show. So that was an emotional day.


The last day we actually shot, a lot of the people who worked on the show came out (on location) to Peapack, N.J., that day. We also had about 200 fans who watched us filming, following us from location to location. As each scene ended, there would be an announcement made that this actor had shot his last scene, and he had been on the show for five years, or 12 years, or 13 years, or whatever it was, and there was a toast and applause, and then we’d shoot the next scene. And, of course, there was a big bash that night.

DD: How has it been since the show ended? What do you miss about it?
RN: Since then, it’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, something I didn’t expect or anticipate. I miss the people, I really do. I wasn’t particularly the most social guy on the show, but when you work that intimately and that closely with people, you kind of take it for granted. I will say that I don’t really miss the show — I’m not sure what that’s about, but I don’t. I’ve moved on. It was time to say goodbye to Josh, and I’m OK with that. It was about the people — it was about working with Kim Zimmer, it was about Josh and Reva, it was about being with people on both sides of the camera who are just a hoot to work with.

DD: Are you happy with the ending?
RN: The writers had a wicked task ahead of them. I mean, how do you wrap up 72 years of storytelling? Their sort of bailout of going to a one-year-later scenario worked fine. I think if they had tried to wrap everything up into tidy little packages on the couple of months that we had, I think it would have been sloppy. It was appropriate that the last scenes are with Josh and Reva, and driving off in the truck at the lighthouse. I joked that the truck should all of a sudden explode and then go to a black screen, sort of a “Sopranos”-like ending, but they didn’t go for that. They wanted the happy ending.

DD: What are your plans for the future?
RN: I will probably stay on stage for a while. It feels good to me, and it’s where I want to be. That might mean doing some traveling (to various region theaters), but I’ll probably stay on stage for a bit. That’s my way of taking a break — it gives me a break from the hectic television shooting schedule. Then I’ll figure out some things after that.

Interview: Catching Up With Robert Newman

Since the demise of “Guiding Light” this past fall, Robert Newman, who played Joshua Lewis for almost 25 years, has hardly been resting on his laurels. He’s been playing to packed houses in the musical “Sessions” at the Algonquin Theater in New York City. As the show nears its end in January, Robert took time to reflect on the play, as well as his time spent on “GL.”

Robert is no stranger to theater, and musicals specifically. He explains: “For the past five or six years, I had been taking a month or two off from ‘Guiding Light’ to do theater somewhere, and it’s almost exclusively been musicals. It’s something I kept quiet for the soap. They asked me to sing a few times, but I said no. Plus, I just couldn’t envision a situation where Josh would suddenly break out into song.”

In “Sessions,” Robert leads a talented cast of singers and dancers as Dr. Peterson. Robert says: “The show is about a therapist and his patients. There are eight patients, all representing different walks of life and different problems in life. For example, there’s an older married couple who hate each other; there’s a man who’s very reclusive; there’s a woman who’s beaten by her husband, etc. All of them represent different struggles in life.

“The therapist himself is going through a midlife crisis where he is on the brink of having an affair with one of his younger patients, which would not only destroy his marriage, but his career as well. He is also beginning to question the value of what he does. He’s very skilled at his job, but he doesn’t think so.”

“Sessions” will ring true for many people who come to see it. Robert says: “There’s a lot of comedy in the show, and quite a bit of tragedy as well — kind of how life is. The audiences really like the show. Everybody in the audience can relate to some character in the show. We have people in the audience who are very weepy by the time we get to certain sections in the second act. For some of the soap fans, it’s interesting for them to see me as someone other than Joshua.”

So, what was it like for Robert to work with a cast other than his family at “GL”? “Everyone has been great. They welcomed me in. A lot of them have been on board with the show since the beginning. I brought a very different take to Dr. Peterson than my predecessors had, and they all climbed aboard and took the ride with me. They’ve been very loving and supportive, and we’ve become very close in the five months I’ve been working on it. The theater has become my second family now.”

Fans can expect to see much more of Mr. Newman’s board-treading. He reveals:
“There’s nothing like being on stage. I feel very much at home. I love having a live audience, and I love the give-and-take that happens between the audience and cast.”

If you are going to be in the New York area, check out Robert’s turn as a song-and-dance man. “Sessions” runs until the beginning of January; you can get more details at sessionsthemusical.com. And don’t miss next week’s column, where Robert discusses those final days on “Guiding Light.”

Finals Days of the Light

Guiding Light's last airdate is Sept. 18th, so make sure you tune in during these final days to see some old friends. Beginning Sept. 14th, the following former castmembers will make an appearance: Lisa Brown (“Nola”), Carey Cromelin (“Wanda”), Morgan Englund (“Dylan”), Melissa Hayden (“Bridget”), Maureen Garrett (“Holly”), Jay Hammer (“Fletcher”), David Andrew Macdonald (“Edmund”), Peter Simon (“Ed”), Nancy St. Alban (“Michelle”), Paul Anthony Stewart (“Danny”) and Krista Tesreau(“Mindy”). Okay, I'm getting teary-eyed now ...

Also, the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes will do a tribute to the 72-year-old soap this coming Sunday, Sept. 13th.

GL: The Hits Keep Coming

Hot on the heels of the news that many fan favorites — Morgan Englund, Maureen Garrett, Melissa Hayden, Lisa Brown — will be back to help Guiding Light ride into the sunset in a fury of style and nostalgia, comes word that Jay Hammer will return to Springfield as Fletcher Reade on Thursday, Sept. 17.

GL: Such a Tease!

•Buzz (Justin Deas, pictured) decides he needs to leave town..

•Bill tells Lizzie he wants to take the next step.

•Olivia invites Josh over to her house.

•Phillip searches for a cure to buy him more time.

No Hope for a GL Reprieve

Here is the official statement from Telenex Media Inc. about the demise of Guiding Light and its possible return on another network:

"We promised our fans we would do everything we could to find a new home for the show. In the ensuing months, we have engaged in serious discussions with many networks, leaving no stone unturned in our effort to place the show elsewhere. Unfortunately, despite the urgent and dedicated efforts of many people, we have not been able to secure an outlet to carry the show moving forward. We are extremely disappointed with this outcome, but we are confident we have exhausted every possible option.”

GL Casting Tidbits

Maureen Garrett (pictured) brings Holly back to Springfield on Wednesday, August 26.

Jessica Leccia (Natalia) returns to Springfield from her maternity leave on Monday, August 17.

David Andrew MacDonald returns as Edmund on Friday, August 7.

GL Casting News!

I am so excited about this, I could burst: Morgan Englund reprises his role as Dylan Lewis on Guiding Light on Monday, Sept. 14.

In my (and most other fans') book, he is the true Dylan Lewis, and I am glad to see he'll be back to bid good ole GL farewell. In fact, the entire time his mom, Cloris Leachman, was on Dancing With the Stars, I kept hoping to catch a glimpse of him in the audience cheering her on.

With so many fan faves coming back to say goodbye, it makes the cancellation of this grand ole show all the more bittersweet.

UPDATE: More fan faves are coming back! Melissa Hayden (Bridget) and Lisa Brown (Nola) will also return on Monday, Sept. 14 for a special occasion.

GL: Such a Tease!

•Jeffrey and Jonathan (Tom Pelphrey, pictured) devise a plan to stop Edmund.

•Dinah and Shayne tie the knot.

•Alan finds out Phillip's secret.

•Mallet finds out the hard way that he was wrong.

GL: Such a Tease!

•Dinah finally gives Shayne (Jeff Branson, pictured) an answer to his proposal.
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•Marina and Mallet team up to solve the murder case.

•Phillip gets an update about his treatment options.

•Buzz sneaks behind Marina's back.

ATWT & GL Casting News & Fan Events

Oakdale Highlights:

• On July 23rd, Matt Edwards appears as Ed Lazarus to do business with Craig and Rosanna on ATWT. Vanessa Ray appears as Teri, and John Hillner appears as Dean Severn.
• Van Hansis (Luke) and Jake Silbermann (Noah) (pictured above) will attend their first European fan event in France on Oct. 17 at Auditorium Jean-de-La-Fontaine 25, avenue du General Sarrail. For more information, please visit http://www.mgcevents.com/ or e-mail contact@mgcevents.com.

Springfield Highlights:

• Michelle Ray Smith is back as Ava on Friday, July 24, on GL. Tom Pelphrey returns as Jonathan on Aug. 5th. Fiona Hutchison reprises her role as the ghostly Jenna on both July 29th and Aug. 13.th.
• Frank Dicopoulos (Frank) will be the honorary chairperson for the FAAN Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward A Cure in Long Branch, NJ on Sept. 12th. For more information, please visit www.foodallergywalk.org/longbranch_nj.

ATWT and GL Casting News

On Guiding Light, Tom Pelphrey (pictured) returns as Jonathan on Wednesday, August 5.

Also, Fiona Hutchison reprises her role as the ghostly Jenna on GL on both Wednesday, July 29 and Thursday, August 13.

We knew he was coming, now we know a date: Forbes March makes his first appearance as Mason on As the World Turns on Tuesday, July 14.

ATWT Announces New Head-Writing Team

PRESS RELEASE

New York, NY — Emmy Award-winning writer David Kreizman will join current Head Writer Jean Passanante, forming a new head-writing team for CBS’ As The World Turns, effective immediately. It was announced today by Christopher Goutman, the show’s Executive Producer. Kreizman was a member of the Guiding Light head-writing team through the end of its run.

“I am thrilled that Dave and Jean will make up the new head-writing team for As The World Turns,” said Goutman. “Both writers have an incredible respect for the show’s rich history and I am confident this partnership will generate the exciting, character-based stories for which As The World Turns is known.”

Passanante joined the As The World Turns writing team as Co-Head-Writer in 2001 and was named Head-Writer in 2005. During her tenure at As The World Turns, the show has been the recipient of four Daytime Emmy Awards, two Writers Guild Awards and two GLAAD Media Awards. Prior to joining As The World Turns, Passanante served as Co-Headwriter of All My Children, for which she received Writers Guild and GLAAD Media Awards, as well as an Emmy nomination. Previously, she served in a similar capacity on the writing teams of Another World (1998-99) and One Life to Live (1992-98), for which she won an Emmy Award in 1994. Her other daytime experience was as Director of Writer Development for ABC Daytime Television.

Kreizman began his career as a Production Intern at Guiding Light in 1995. During his early years there, he held positions as a Production Coordinator and an Associate Producer. He joined the show’s writing team in 1997. Kreizman was named Head Writer of Guiding Light in 2004 and received an Emmy Award in 2007. In 2008, he became a member of the show’s newly formed head-writing team. Kreizman also served as a writer for MTV’s Spyder Games (2001), where he was nominated for an Emmy.

GL: Such a Tease!

•Dinah returns home with terrible news.
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•Olivia enlists help from Doris to find Natalia.

•Bill and Lizzie's wedding day falls apart.

•Mallet (Robert Bogue, pictured) and Marina get a letter from Edmund.

GL: Such a Tease!

•Everyone gathers for the Bauer barbecue.
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•Natalia gets the shock of a lifetime.

•Alan (Ron Raines, pictured) comes between Phillip and James.

•Reva grows suspicious of Josh.

GL: Such a Tease!

•Remy puts Christina's life in danger.
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•Ed Bauer gives Phillip (Grant Aleksander, pictured) devastating news.

•Shayne and Mallet discover the truth about Dinah.

•Olivia decides to tell Emma about Natalia.

Baby News

Maura West and Scott DeFreitas (Carly and ex-Andy, ATWT, pictured left) have welcomed a baby girl to their ever-expanding brood (the couple has four other children).

Arianne Zucker (Nicole, Days) and Kyle Lowder (Rick, B&B) are expecting their first child together in December. Days executive producer Ken Corday said that Arianne's pregnancy will not be written into the story line.

Jessica Leccia (Natalia, GL) and husband Brian Malloy welcomed their first child, a daughter named Ivy Lola, on June 10.

GL: Such a Tease!

•Beth is horrified when she learns the jail time James could face.

•Rafe demands answers from Natalia.

•Jeffrey is rocked to find that Edmund's body is missing.

•Cyrus (Murray Bartlett, pictured) overhears a clue about the diamonds from Christina.