As the World Turns creator and longtime head writer Irna Phillips created Lisa in the late 1950s as a short-term character.

A Procter & Gamble executive said to Fulton six months into her run as Lisa, "I want to tell you what a wonderful job you are doing, because when you first came on the show we thought, 'We can't keep her.

In the Archive of American Television interview, Fulton explained that the character was originally written to be a "nice girl", which she did not find compelling as an actress, and that, while she read Phillips' lines exactly as they appeared on the script, she said them with a "scheming tone" in her voice.

"[1] In The Soap Opera Encyclopedia, Christopher Schermering writes, "Although Lisa was guilty of many lapses, nothing made her more hated by her audience of housewives than a simple sequence in which she hired a maid to clean house and went gallivanting about town.

"[2] A scheming "vixen" in her early years, TIME magazine once referred to Lisa as a "superbitch" and the "most hated woman on TV.

[4] The character departed on May 3, 1965, and briefly crossed over into her own primetime spinoff series, Our Private World, for a few months in 1965, during which Lisa left Oakdale and moved to Chicago.

Australian actress Carmen Duncan, best known to American audiences for her role as Iris #3 on Another World, filled in for Fulton for three episodes in late 2004 while she was on emergency medical leave.

Lisa initially demonstrated her scheming ways by faking "difficulties" with her pregnancy to get out of helping her new mother-in-law with the household chores.

Rejected, Lisa moved to Chicago in mid-1965 (with the character relocating to the primetime soap Our Private World), where she became involved with the Eldridge brothers.

Several months after leaving Chicago, Lisa resurfaced in Oakdale, and began having an affair with Dr. Michael Shea, a charming, manipulative sociopath.

Michael put things together and figured out that Ellen was the mother of that child and that her son was Dr. Dan Stewart, a bright young doctor that Shea resented.

By this time, Lisa hated Michael with a passion, and though she did marry him (to save Tom), she refused to have any kind of a sexual relationship with him.

Michael responded by orchestrating a series of events designed to make Lisa appear as an unfit mother, so he could divorce her and sue for custody of Chuckie.

Lisa had a few more flings, including one with Bob's older brother, Don Hughes, attorney Dick Martin, minister Wally Matthews, and the rich Simon Gilby.

Lisa pretended to be ill, and staged an elaborate scheme designed to demonstrate Valerie's true calculating ways.

Though she succeeded in this, Grant and Lisa's lives continued to be complicated, this time by a new woman, Tina Cornell, who had a played a role in the previous manipulations involving Valerie, and was injured as a result.

Though deeply saddened by Whit's death, Lisa embarked on two new business ventures during this period that would help her through the sorrow.

In 1985, Lisa joined her friends, Kim Sullivan Hughes and Barbara Ryan, to launch Fashions, a high-end boutique showcasing top designs.

Kim and Barbara eventually both sold their shares in the business to Lisa; she remains the sole owner through the show's conclusion in 2010.

Lisa became the sole owner when Craig left Oakdale in the late 1980s, and presumably still operates the restaurant today although it was neither seen nor referred to on camera after 2005.

The two began dating, and though Earl had a mysterious side, disappearing without explanation for days on end, Lisa agreed to marry him.

Lisa later told the couple her reasoning was that she was afraid of the racism they would face, even going as far as to assert that interracial marriages were "morally wrong".

His cousin Orlena Grimaldi sneaked into his room and killed him, resulting in Lisa believing Eduardo's death was due to medical incompetence on the part of John Dixon, who was on duty in the ER when he was brought in.

She would remain involved with Java until Isaac and Bonnie left town, at that time, selling her shares in the club.

She was featured in a tribute episode in May 2000, honoring Fulton's and costar Don Hastings' 40th anniversaries on the show, in which a mean spirited tabloid story causes Lisa and Bob to reminisce about key events in their lives (via flashbacks).

In more recent years, Lisa has retreated from the spotlight, interfering in the lives of her son and daughter-in-law, and mentoring Oakdale's younger residents.

In 2008, she appeared three - four times per month, but played a large role in the April 2010 episode depicting Bob and Kim's second wedding.

In her last scenes, Lisa made peace with former fiance John Dixon and rival Lucinda Walsh.