DRW50

John - and we discovered quite a lot about this charming, dynamic man. He speaks like a polished actor (which he was), and has an enormous knowledge not only of theater and television, but music and ballet as well. He has a bachelor's degree in English, and a master's in theater as a directing major. He taught for a year in a small girl's school (Christian College) in Columbia, Missouri, where he says, "I was the drama department." He came to New York in the summer of '63, and worked for four years with the local CBS station as a production assistant in the news and public affairs department. "I was with 'Camera Three' for some time, which you may have seen on Sunday mornings. I was also with 'Dial M for Music,' and 'The American Musical Theater,' though I think both these series are no longer running." Then Mr. Edwards chuckles as he adds, "'Camera Three' has been going forever, almost as long as 'Search.'" He then went to Channel 13, which is the New York NET outlet, as staff associate director. "Then I received a letter in May of '69," he recalls. "It was a letter from Bob Driscoll, who was then producing 'Search For Tomorrow,' asking me if i would be interested in the position of associate producer. Interestingly enough, he had tried to phone me in my apartment, which was then on the upper West Side. This was all before I was married. He was unable to get me on the telephone. I was never in, and as a matter of fact I was in New London, Connecticut, then directing a production of 'My Fair Lady' for the Pfizer Chemical Co., which is how I met my wife, because she was the choreographer. "Well, anyway, Mr. Driscoll sent me a letter and it was mailed from this building (57th St.) on a Monday. I received it thirty-five blocks north of here on Friday! So it's a wonder we ever did get together, but we finally did. I was interviewed, and met the people at the ad agency, and from Procter & Gamble, and became associate producer in May of '69.I took over officially as producer in the early part of '72, although I'd been producing on an interim basis since July '71." John told us that prior to coming to 'Search,' all his experience had been in the control room, so this was a big step into management. We asked him if he liked being a producer. "Yes.You're on top of things from the very beginning, from the concept of the storylines, right through the breakdowns in the scripts, and participate with the directors and the cast in the actual rehearsal process." John S. Edwards was born in Middlebury, Vermont, and studied at Dartmouth. He has a master's degree from the Yale Drama School. HE lives in a brownstone house that he bought almost two years ago in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, with his wife Lotte, and his step-daughter, Carla Witmer. What led him into acting and the TV field? "Well, I think the same thing directed me to the theater that directs everyone there - some inarticulate longing. Some would call it a disease and some would call it a calling, but I think you just head in that direction. When I first became an undergraduate, I took the English major, thinking I was going to be a lawyer. I'd done a lot of acting when I was in high school, and in a sense I tried to avoid going into show business. But I discovered that was what I wanted, and there was no sense in denying it any further. I really began acting when I was a junior in college, and started making preparations to go to Yale."

June 1974 Afternoon TV.

The people running Emmerdale now don't seem to care about its history. If they did then the Skillbecks would be back. I would also say that Matt's twins with Peggy weren't really dead.

No, that was Lee Hawkins. Thanks for the memory jog. I didn't realize it was that clear from the start. I still feel like Roscoe would have been better with a less malevolent character. It was tough to find men who worked with Brooke.

And this man is considered one of the greatest GOP intellectuals? http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/05/14/us_gingrich_1/index.html

I was reading a mid-1993 soap magazine and they praised ATWT's for Duke's return, and said the show needed his good-natured obnoxious personality again, and he told John he had quit med school, etc. I don't remember any of this. How long was he around? Was he already split with Lien from this time?

The fun never ends in Emmerdale. The latest rumor going around is that I also read a rumor at DS that the show planned to give Nathan the story about stalking Katie and setting fire to the village, and that's why Lyndon quit. If so I like Lyndon even more now! What a trashy, sick story to give a character that you could have used for years and years.

That's very pretty. Always nice, and rare, to see any celebration of Loving.

Michael Storm also essentially said he hated the storyline. I wonder what that was about.

Do you think her being there instead of VR made any difference to the story or was Victoria not a major player in it?

That's great. I've never seen this. Ellen Weston looks half-asleep. I saw that photo of Melody used in a Who's Who Daytime TV. Of all the photos of her to use over and over.

Beautiful photo. I think I'd only seen the B&W version of this. That's Audrey Landers in black and Veleka Gray sitting at the piano right? They look a little similar there.

At first you can't tell that's Elizabeth Lawrence, until you look at her profile.

I never knew her father played the minister. That was so nice of AW to do. Thanks for these.

I just spent too long looking for Kent Masters King Dru clips on Youtube. I couldn't find any. I know this was discussed near the start of the thread but could anyone share again how long she was in the role and what you thought of her?

That's true. I think they probably kept him around longer than they may have had in mind, as he was "redeemed" during Eterna. Still, it was a waste. They replaced him with Carlo - Carlo came into the show working with Michael. I don't see why both couldn't have stayed around. I agree about Sarah. She was a very good innocent type of heroine, which soaps are now ashamed of. She was a contrast to the more complex and scheming heroines/vixens. She was also great with Bo. And Megan/Sarah are one of the best sister relationships ever on soaps.

For some reason I think the first time we actually saw Roscoe was when he was on the plane. I thought they sort of painted it as a surprise when Jim and JT were the same man.

Jim was a con from the start. At first he was seen as a "hero", as he saved Brooke when the plane crashed. This was his intro; they, Maria, and Edmund, and some extras, were passengers. He and Brooke were close quickly and got together. Soon we learned that he and Laura knew each other, and that's when we started seeing his true nature. He got Laura to take pictures and videos for him when she was underage. He guilted her into staying quiet, for Brooke's sake, and he also made her think that she had killed her mother (her mother had been killed in a fire - he told her it was because of the photos Laura had burned). Then Ricky, the boy who had been in the pictures with Laura, came to Pine Valley. He was a heroin addict. To ensure his silence, Jim gave him a lethal overdose. I thought this was all pretty ugly stuff - 1997 was a very dark year for AMC. I don't know if it was this or the upcoming material under McTavish that made Roscoe quit. When McTavish came, she decided to just make Jim all-encompassing evil, rewriting the story to claim that he had caused the plane crash (Broderick's version was that Adam's airline had put fautly parts in the planes, leading to some rushed stuff I didn't care for where Liza got on one of his planes, had a miscarriage, and he was exposed on The Cutting Edge by Hayley and Mateo), and making it clear that he had murdered Laura's mother.

It's a good reminder of how good Julia and Roscoe were together. I always felt like it was a huge, and bizarre, mistake to make Jim Thomasen so vile. Some blame McTavish but he was actually really sick even before McTavish showed up. It was a big waste of a good actor and a strong leading man, which AMC could have used at that time.

The family but also the decision to make him into yet another smug and cold bully. Emmerdale already has about 10 of those, who needs more? So which characters would you dump? I'd get rid of every teenage character who isn't named Victoria. I would also get rid of Bob, Hazel, Brenda, Katie, Jai, Leyla's sister...

2 down, 2 to go!!!! http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/notw/showbiz/1298148/Emmerdales-Sapphire-Elia-axed.html Now just shut Home Farm down and start culling other wastes of space.

I don't know that much about the show's history so I didn't want to speak - but your thoughts are very well put together and the cap of Harold's Store then and now is striking.