mark.waltz — 19 years ago(March 16, 2007 09:45 AM)

With the storyline that Jill and Kay are going through now (the revelation that the late Philip was not Jill's natural son), Jill needs the woman who raised her, and in all cases but by birth, was her mother. Julianna McCarthy was outstanding in the role of Liz Foster Brooks, the show's original matriarch. When she recurred a couple of years ago for almost a year, I was hoping that the producers would realize how invaluable she was to the show. After all, she was also Nikki's mother-in-law, Kay's best friend, and the show's tell-it-like-is truth sayer. Other soaps had similar characters ("AMC's" Mona Kane, "AW"'s Ada Hobson) with vixen daughters that lasted for many years, and for most of her run in the 70's and early 80's, Liz was very well written. She was particularly good in the storyline where Liz pulled the plug on her dying husband, and was certainly emmy worthy.