Beneath the Surface

References to Carrie Todd Marler still appear regularly on GL message boards and other printed resources to this day, nearly 25 years after her last appearance on the show. Carrie was a creation of legendary daytime writer Douglas Marland. Famous for his (and Gloria Monty's) revitalization of GENERAL HOSPITAL in the late 70's, he left that show to take over GL and his reign as headwriter remains among the best loved eras in GL history.

Carrie was played by Jane Elliot (best known for her work as GH's Tracy Quartermain), a powerfully inventive and disarmingly natural actor whom Marland selected to use as the instrument to tell a complex and disturbing tale of (what was then known as) Multiple Personality Disorder. Right in the middle of the story, then-executive producer Allen Potter fired Elliot and then Marland quit in protest of his friend's treatment. By the end of 1982, Marland, Elliot, the character of Carrie were all gone. But the legends remained.
Beneath the Surface finds us at the beginning of 1982, as Carrie (freshly acquitted of Diane Ballard and Joe Bradley's murders) marries her true love, Ross Marler. This is after several frightening revelations at the trial, but before a series of even more horrific events and discoveries in the months to come.

Unfortunately, this clipset does not contain the real "meat" of the Carrie story. It does however present a very good opportunity to "get to know" Carrie and, believe me, it's worth it! Jane Elliot's work in the role is really quite lovely and the story is fascinating.

This sequence is also notable for featuring the very first meeting of Ed Bauer and Maureen Reardon, as well as nice moments with Henry Chamberlin, Vanessa Chamberlin, Sara McIntyre, Mike Bauer, and , obviously, Ross and Justin Marler. Jackie Marler is played, for better or worse, by questionable recast Carrie Mowery. Also featured are some nice moments with the zany kids from the Tangled Web clipset, including bad boy Josh Lewis still focused on Morgan Nelson.

Rest assured, readers, that I am on the hunt for more Carrie clips and will present them when/if I get them. In the meantime, enjoy Beneath the Surface.

clip 1 , clip 2 , clip 3 , clip 4 , clip 5 , clip 6 , clip 7 , clip 8

bonus Carrie/Ross clip (probably from 1981)


FYI: It will be a little while until my next blog entry because I will be spending the rest of the month adding clips from 2006 for a year-end retrospective which will be the focus of my next entry. In the event that I receive an older clip or clipset that absolutely can't wait until January, I will post about it, but unless that happens, there will be no new entries until the end of December. If you want to keep up with the 2006 clips I'm putting up, I'll be doing regular progress updates for the retrospective at the GLMP message board