Career
They worked with from the time Barnabas Collins (played by Jonathan Frid) was introduced as a vampire, transforming him over the years into a rather more multi-layered anti-hero. After wrapped, Russell and Hall took over at for Agnes Nixon, who began to focus more on her other soap All My Children. During its first few years, was a groundbreaking soap which addressed racial, ethnic, and class issue.
But under Russell and Hall’s watch, the show took on more haunting character studies tied in with the exit of previous established characters.
With the onscreen death of Nixon’s original character Dave Siegel came the arrival of Doctor Dorian Cramer, who prescribed Dave’s widow, Eileen Riley Siegel, pills for depression which lead to an out-of-control addiction. In addition to their long-lasting work on, their work on led to memorable storylines, one of which involved Dorian giving terminal patient Rachel Wilson a dosage of treatment going unmarked on her medical chart prompted her lover Mark Toland to give her a second more lethal dosage and Doctor Larry Wolek get framed for her mercy killing (ironically Rachel Wilson wanted him to end her life in the first place).
When the truth was revealed, the board of directors at Llanview Hospital took a vote to decide whether or not to suspend her medical license with Victoria Lord casting the deciding against her. Russell and Hall also wrote the provocative Karen Wolek storyline.
Daytime Emmy.