Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

I think she was co headwriter?

So what did people think of the McLeary brothers? I loved David Forsyth on AW, at least the first few years of the character. I remember the last credits for SFT, he was in what seemed like every other shot.

Edited February 19, 2010 by CarlD2

[EricMontreal22]

HAHAH I shoulda checked the first page of this thread

Pamela K. Long & Addie Walsh (July 1986 – December 1986)

[take_the_high_road]

When was Lemay's stint on Search?

Mignon was unfortunately later killed. It was one of the few episodes of the show that I saw.

[EricMontreal22]

Harding Lemay (April 1981 – July 1981)

[saynotoursoap]

Technically Walsh was the headwriter. Pam Long was the Executive Story Consultant.

[saynotoursoap]

Search was excellent soap opera during this period, and the storyline with Jennifer was super. There was another actress who played Jennifer first. She was not nearly so good as Fairchild. Fairchild made Jennifer a spectacular character. Jennifer's madness evolved slowly. She wasn't one of those overnight psychos we have on soaps today. Jennifer loved husband Scott Phillips madly. He was an alcoholic who mistreated her. They had an argument, and Jennifer fell through the plate glass patio door in July 1975. She miscarried their child and was left with a grotesque scar running the length of her cheek. Jennifer turned to John Wyatt, seducing him away from Eunice. When John made attempts at reconciliation with his wife, Jennifer and her best friend Stephanie invented a "mad rapist" who was supposedly terrorizing Jennifer's apartment building, forcing John to spend the night on Jennifer's sofa. When this scheme fell through, she faked a suicide by taking an overdose of pills, but the plan went awry. Jennifer nearly died. When she finally came out of it, she was in a deep psychosis, hearing John's voice echoing in her head, urging her to hurt Eunice so she and John could be together forever. Jennifer finally murdered Eunice in November 1976.

Killing off Eunice was a grave mistake. What happened was that under Bernie Sofronski, Search had adopted a demographically tiered structure where stories were focused on the veterans, the middle-aged characters, and the young couples. Mary Ellis Bunim wanted the demographics tiered lowered. She thought the best way to reinvent Search for the 70's was to kill off Jo. Jo was shot in May 1976, and for a good while, it appeared she might die. Bunim urged writer Ann Marcus to use Mary Stuart less and less. Bunim's attempts to kill Jo were thwarted, so she killed off Ann Williams' Eunice instead. It was pretty much an act of revenge. The next year, she did away with John Cunningham's Dr. Wade Collins, destroying a witty interesting couple in Wade and Janet. Bunim was allegedly a bitch. Someone else mentioned Harding Lemay. He quit Guiding Light as a Emmy winning dialogue writer for Doug Marland to take over Search for Tomorrow. Bunim bullied him to have one of the female characters brutally raped. Lemay refused, so after the WGA strike of 1981, Bunim replaced him with Don Chastain, an actor who played Max Taper on the show. Chastain ran the series into the ground. Having Stu's faithful wife Ellie suddenly run off with the cook at the Hartford House was typical of Bunim's contempt for the veterans and the soap's rich history.

[Sylph]

:wub:

The immensely fabulous Morgan Fairchild! Love her!!!

[saynotoursoap]

From the beginning, Search had a tougher road to hoe than most due to the fact that it was essentially a story of one character. It was not a "family soap" like ATWT, GL, or AW. Mary Stuart had enough talent and charisma to hold it all together until the early 1980's, but at this point, the soap seriously needed a strong family structure for Jo. Too many writers had killed off most of Jo's family over the years, and even her last marriage, to Martin Tourneur, had ended in divorce.

Regardless of its lack of strong family, Search was doomed when it moved from CBS to NBC. Nothing could have saved it. When Search followed The Young and Restless on CBS throughout the 70's and early 80's, Search consistently lost part of Y&R's lead in audience. How TPTB ever thought having the two soaps go up against one another on opposite networks could have saved Search for Tomorrow beggars belief.

[Paul Raven]

Robin Eisenmann(sp?)was the first Jennifer but it was probably a short stint.She later vplayed Nurse Stacry on GH and subbed as Nikki on Y&R.

SFT had a strong family set up with Stu but it was not utilised.Janet was written off, as was Gary and the SORASING of Danny and constant recasts of Tom destroyed that part.

As for Jo,Patti should have been brought back earlier,divorced from Len with two kids(Chris & Tracey).Much as I hate rapid SORASING,they could have been teens in the early 80's and kept Jo in the forefront as mother/grandmother(as well as aunt to Suzi).

If Bunim was such a bitch,maybe this accounted for the constant writer turnover throughout the 70's.

[Sapounopera]

Do you think that pairing Stu and Jo could have worked? Having them become one big family with Patti, Suzi, Tom, Janet and her kids , or would it just ruin everything?

[Paul Raven]

Stu and jo were actually step siblings.Jo's father married Stu's mother in the 50's.

Stu and Jo worked as close friends.it was very unique relationship.

[EricMontreal22]

Thanks--I was just going by the list on page one of this thread, I admit

I really liked Walsh's era at Loving, even if I think that's not a very popular opinion (when Agnes Nixon took over in 1994 though I liked it even more--I know Taggert and Guza wer ein between) and I would actually prefer if she had been chosen to be AMC's new HW instead of Swajeski and DK (especially if the rumours of Broderick remaining on the staff are true), but maybe she no longer wants to HW...

Edited February 23, 2010 by EricMontreal22

[EricMontreal22]

Are there any clips of Fairchild on the show?

Yeah, I've read, and from the 1950s and 60s episodes I've seen, it seems true, how Roy Winsor's Search and Love of Life were in many ways closer to the radio soaps--a narrower focus on one theme and small set of characters, etc (he opened that up some for his much more melodrama filled Secret Storm)--as opposed to Irna Phillips' soaps.

It's great to read your thoughts and memories on the shows. I ahte to speak ill of someone who passed away from a harsh battle with cancer, (even if she inflicted Real World and Road Rules on us), but I wonder why Mary Ellis Bunim had such a long run as an EP after Search--I know some of her era on Loving which was pretty typically lacking in any real concept of vision.

[DRW50]

I'm still surprised at how stark this is for a soap. Very good acting from both ladies.

[EricMontreal22]

HAHA just found--terrific stuff, I admit far more compelling than I've ever found anythign Search related from the 70s on, before. Maybe I should re-evaluate the show lol. What year was this? 1976? That's crazy (and I find the death much more shocking than Stacey's death on OLTL last week )

Page one says that Peggy O'Shea was HW in 1976--I love her work on OLTL, I guess she joined OLTL's writing team pretty much right after she left Search. And Robert J Shaw came soon after who I know people disliked at Search, but was responsible for some of the best scripts on Peyton Place early on...

Edited February 23, 2010 by EricMontreal22