The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 73

Friday. March 23. 1984 TV TIMES 5 Bishop was raised in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of a school teacher and a Mennonite minister. She was involved in theatre and music, and after graduating from high school she spent a summer touring Europe with the United States Honor Choir. Columbia, which had also gone through the cheque forgery scandal of former president David Begelman.

So the studio gave out five six-month contracts, and Bishop received one of them. She quit her waitressmg job, got an agent and started winning some small TV parts. A theatre major at Denver University, she transferred to University of Colorado and a German major. She stayed with theatre in her spare time and performed in a touring children's theatre group. She moved to Los Angeles in 1978 and almost immediately became involved in what she calls "a classic Hollywood story.

Are you ready to hear it?" After three months as a singing waitress in a popular L.A. nightspot, she heard that Columbia Pictures was starting up a training program patterned after the protective systems that the studios operated in the 1930s and '40s. Bishop was one of the 30 chosen from 8,000 applicants who studied and rehears- A LOS ANGELES publicist calls to give notice that one of her clients is coming to Vancouver for a public appearance. We were somewhat apprehensive when we learned that the actress in question was from General Hospital. The crowd from the once top-rated daytime drama has been an unpleasant lot to interview recently humorless, self-absorbed and abrupt.

But this publicist assures TV Times that her client, who plays Rose Kelly on General Hospital, is different, so we break our rule to "never again interview one of Them" and agree to meet Loanne Bishop. Bishop turns out to be a cheerful, energetic sort, willing to go anywhere to eat and willing to discuss just about anything. As we walk around Granville Island looking for a restaurant without a Friday night lineup, she recounts what's been happening with the General Hospital storyline, and her account is complemented by imitations of other characters on the show. We finally end up at Bridges' pub noisy with the usual Friday night action and music for a couple of beers, a sandwich and a some conversation. Bishop has spent the past four years on General Hospital, suffering mostly in silence as her character, the proprieter of Kelly's Diner, served coffee and advice to the major players of the soap.

After all that time on the backburner, she's finally getting a strong plotline of her own as Rose, a Catholic, is romanced by Jake Meyer, a Jewish lawyer. The increased activity in storyline coincided with contract renewal time, and she recently made a very tough decision: to stay on for another six months. "I feel like it's time to move on," she says, "but lately I've been doing some interesting things with the character and I'd like to see it play out. And I like the guy who plays Jake a lot. His name is Sam Behrens." She spells his name to make sure the actor gets proper credit for his work.

The storyline she's playing seems tame and conventional compared to what's on prime time television and on the big screen. Rose goes off to her Daughters of Ireland meetings and Jake turns down bacon-filled hors d'oeuvres, while relatives and friends of the older generation go "tsk, tsk" at the possibility of a marriage between the two young lovers and that's about as deep as General Hospital goes in its exploration of the two faiths. Bishop says that for daytime television it's a deep plotline. "It's pretty bold of them to take this on," she says. "I mean, it's bold for the producers, from their line of thinking.

Rape, incest and having Luke rape Laura, that's okay for them. That's playing it safe. But taking on a real issue, that's bold." She also auditioned very well, she believes for a Francis Ford Coppola film. The same day, her agent asked her to go read for General Hospital. After the heady experience of reading for Coppola, all she could think was, "moi, to a soap opera?" She went to read for the grande dame of daytime drama, producer Gloria Monty.

"It was at the height of the Luke and Laura rape thing." Bishop recalls, "but I didn't know this. I didn't know who Gloria Monty was. I just went up to her and shook her hand, real casual, and that probably helped me win the part." Her luck continued when the TV and film community was hit by an actors strike that left daytime television unaffected. She became one of the few working actors in town. "Actually, it was the best thing that could have happened to me." She loves her character, considering it to be the best woman's role on the show.

"When I found out that she was about 35," says the now 28-year-old, "I fell in love with the character. She's the only woman on that show who really works. I like the fact that she works, that she has a place of her own and is truly independent. And I get really good response from women viewers it was a definite relief from the airhead-ed bimbos I had been up for previously." As much as she loves the character. Bishop is anxious to try other parts and perhaps move to New York.

"The bottom line is, you go with your instincts with these things," she says of her contract renewal. "I like going to work in the morning. There isn't anybody I don't get along with on the show. I love the crew the crew is the greatest. "You feel better when you're doing something, and being productive." She proud of the work that gets done on daytime TV.

The primetime soaps get all the credit. But considering that they do an hour show a week, and we do five without summer vacations, I think we do very well." She describes the acting style on daytime good acting as a balancing act with the scripts, which aren't always that great. "If you overdo it you look like a fool, and if you underplay it you look as though you re embarrassed to say the lines." So far, Bishop done fine on that front. Now, she has another six months of General Hospital scripts to get through without looking foolish or embarrassed. TWO FOR G.H.: Bishop with co-star Shell Kepler ed for 10 weeks, without pay, on the hope of being signed to Columbia's talent development program.

At the end of the 10 weeks, the apsiring actors were to perform their scenes for the Columbia brass. In the meantime, the brass had walked out of the studio and the new regime was no longer interested. The night of the talent show, shortly before Christmas, it was raining "cats and dogs" and there was only a small turnout of agents and casting directors. Bishop played her scene unrecognized, her face covered in bandages. By the first of the year, none of the 30 actors had been awarded contracts, so some of the disgruntled got in touch with The Los Angeles Times.

Coverage of this small scandal was an embarrassment to.