Since soaps got their start on radio, there's a nostalgic thrill in seeing the oldest shows, GUIDING LIGHT and AS THE WORLD TURNS, come full circle by doing podcasts. Of course, someone else thought of it first: Fans have been getting daily doses of drama from "radio" soap SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES since 2003; last year, they could also listen in to its spin-off, ROCKLAND COUNTY. We caught up with Creator Roger Newcomb — a lifelong soap fan (his all-time fave is ANOTHER WORLD), who currently only watches ATWT on a regular basis (he also runs the message board www.weloveatwt.com) — about the shows, which have attracted soap stars, including Kale Browne (ex-Sam, ONE LIFE TO LIVE; ex-Michael, AW), Kurt McKinney (ex-Matt, GL) and Anne Sayre (ex-Mitzi, ATWT), all of whom have lent their voices to the production.

Soap Opera Digest: How did SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES get started?
Roger Newcomb: There are a lot of online soaps and fan fiction [online], but I never really read any of it. It was hard for me, without at least hearing it. Some sites will use pictures for a Web soap, so you'll see Kristian Alfonso [Hope, DAYS OF OUR LIVES] and Maurice Benard's [Sonny, GENERAL HOSPITAL] pictures [along with an original story], and I just could not separate who they are on TV. But I've always liked writing and even as a teenager I would write my own soaps. It's really my favorite genre of TV, but in the last few years, especially, it became more and more dissatisfying to watch. It's the writing, constant cast changes and budget cuts — there were a lot of things getting on my nerves. They weren't able to tell as good stories as they used to. It's tough because I probably follow AS THE WORLD TURNS the closest, and Bob and Kim don't even have a house and they're the center of the show. So, I just got the idea to start writing again to get some of the enjoyment of soaps back for myself. When I was a teenager in the mid-'80s, I had no connections and I couldn't publish it anywhere. It was nothing like today, where anybody can publish a blog. Around the time when I got the idea, I was listening to some old radio soaps from the '30s and '40s and I really liked that concept. I thought it would be really cool to update that concept with modern stories. I started SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES with a small group of my friends, and it was actually a really fun thing to do with a group of people. About six months in, I realized it was starting to develop a following, so I switched the casting process from my most talented and available friends to actual actors. The actors do it for free. I put a casting notice out and I'll get 200 headshots and resumés in a day. It's a voice-over credit; it's an ongoing gig. It's amazing because I never thought that could happen.

Digest: How long is each episode?
Newcomb: They vary; it's anywhere between five and 10 minutes. With ROCKLAND COUNTY, we started out doing one show a week, which was about 15 minutes. And now we do two shows a week, which adds up to about the same, but we split it over two days. Because what I found was that people were having a harder time following it once a week than with SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES, which was on every day. With soaps, a lot of it is habit. Once you stop watching for a while, you never kind of get back into that everyday "I've-got-to-see-it" routine. So, ROCKLAND COUNTY is now on two days a week and probably we'll want more.

Digest: S&S is set in Manhattan, while RC is set in nearby Rockland County, where you now live. What made you want to do a spin-off?
Newcomb: I love SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES; it's a lot of my personality because it has a lot of offbeat humor, but especially after moving here and having a new perspective, I kind of wanted to do something more suburban. It's 25 miles [away from the city], so it's back-and-forth. The character of Brian Morgan started on SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES and came over to ROCKLAND COUNTY. The Morgan family is a core family, but he still works in Manhattan and he's treated patients from SCRIPTS & SCRUPLES [which features a psychiatric hospital]. It's more suburban, a little bit different tone. I was trying to cast actors who had done soaps before.

Digest: Like Anne Sayre, who plays one of RC's main characters, Barbara.
Newcomb: Yeah, and she's a friend of mine, so that one was easy. And Nick Sullivan, who was one of Hayley's friends [Albert] on ALL MY CHILDREN in the '90s, plays Paul Ramos. He's got a great voice, which is so perfect for the character he plays.

Digest: How do they record their scenes?
Newcomb: The actors actually call in their lines to an 800 line and record by themselves, which is a lot different than interacting face-to-face with somebody. So, they're having to react constantly without the other person being there. It turns out amazingly well, considering we're not in a studio and we're not all face-to-face. Sometimes you'd swear the people are together. Two-and-a-half years ago, I knew zilch about editing or sound effects. Now, there's no situation or sound that I don't have an effect for. Any crazy thing you can think of, like opening a can of beans — it doesn't matter, there's a sound effect [laughs>]. A few weeks ago, I had a scene where somebody went to the morgue and they had to unzip a body bag to identify the body. And there were like 10 sound effects I found for unzipping a body bag. So, they're really authentic. There are a million fight sounds: slapping, scratching, hair-pulling. It's hard for me to watch anything now without listening for the sound effects.

Digest: And then you edit it all together with narration and everything, so no one knows what it will be until they hear it. What do they say?
Newcomb: I get a lot of feedback from the actors about how it's edited or certain sound effects. They do it a couple of times and I take the best and merge it with sound effects and background music. It's cool because they're doing it by themselves. Let's say Michael Park [Jack, ATWT] and Maura West [Carly, ATWT] are doing a scene together — they have a pretty good idea how it's going to turn out. But if they were doing my show, they would be doing it separately and they would listen almost like fans who have no idea.

Digest: How did you get Kale Browne to do it?
Newcomb: It's amazing — any time I've ever talked to a soap actor, they've been willing to do it. Gregory J. Martin is our casting director and he has a lot of contacts in the industry. So, he'll just call up an actor and tell them about the show and they always seem excited to do it. Kurt McKinney I met through Gregory. Kale's character is kind of missing, but at some point he'll be back, in the middle of the story when the time is right. I would love for him to come back with Anna Stuart [Mary, AMC; ex-Donna, AW]. I would really like to have "Michael" and "Donna" reunited on my show. And I've even talked to Philece Sampler [ex-Donna, AW], thinking, 'Well, I can reunite Michael and fake Donna, as well.' I would love to have Stephen Schnetzer [Cass, AW/ATWT]. He's my all-time favorite. I would like to get Peter Parros [Ben, ATWT], too. He's great, and nobody seems to appreciate that. Monica Bailey, who was the outspoken, overbearing woman on BIG BROTHER the second season. Everybody remembers her because she was so obnoxious [laughs>]. She's a friend of mine and she's on ROCKLAND COUNTY. I would love to pair her with Peter Parros because on AS THE WORLD TURNS he's so nice, but I would love to see him play something completely crazy and interact with her.