It didn't take soap star Linda Dano long to land work. Lots of work, as a matter of fact -- she's going to be doing quadruple duty.
The actress, who has spent the past 16 years playing Felicia Gallant on "Another World" -- the soap NBC has canceled -- will soon be appearing on ABC's soap lineup. The entire lineup.Dano will reprise the role of Gretel Cummings, which she played on "One Life to Live" from 1978-80. And she'll show up on that show on June 28, just three days after "Another World" bites the dust.
But "OLTL" won't be her only stop. After a few months on that show, Dano will take the character to "All My Children," "General Hospital" and "Port Charles." She has a one-year contract with ABC.
Of course, compared to a lot of things that happen in daytime soap operas, this is hardly outlandish.
HUGHES RETURNS: Another former ABC soap actress is returning to the network -- albeit on a different show in a different role.
Finola Hughes, who starred as Anna Devane Lavery Scorpio on "General Hospital" from 1985-92, is joining the cast of "All My Children" on Friday, July 23. And more than just the face will be familiar.
Hughes will play Alexandra Devane, "a passionate woman harboring a deadly secret, who arrives in Pine Valley with an astonishing connection to a core character."
And, as these things go, the soap will also ask the question -- "Could she also be related to an ill-fated look-alike character?"
(I'm guessing . . . yes.)
Like so many other soap actors, Hughes is coming back to daytime after failing to find success in prime time. She had a role in the short-lived show "Jack's Place" and spent a year on "Blossom," but her most recent television exposure came two years ago in the even shorter-lived prime-time soap "Pacific Palisades."
COMING NEXT MONTH: NBC affiliate KSL-Ch. 5, which now carries "Another World," is planning to carry its replacement.
"Passions," the new NBC-owned soap created by the former head writer of "Days of Our Lives," debuts on Monday, July 5.
Ch. 5 currently has no plans to begin airing that other NBC soap, "Sunset Beach" -- a show it has passed on since it debuted in January 1997. ("Beach" will continue to be seen locally on KUWB-Ch. 30.)
NUDITY ON "TONIGHT": Speaking of shows KSL is glad it passed on, how about that recent episode of "Saturday Night Live" (another show Ch. 30 has picked up) hosted by Cuba Gooding Jr. And how about that one skit in which he dropped his jockey shorts and displayed his bare butt for viewers?
The folks at KSL must've been happy not to air it, right?
Well, what about when the ever-pandering Jay Leno reran the bit on "The Tonight Show" the following week when Gooding guested?
Nudity on KSL. What'll they think of next?