saynotoursoap

I consider the rivalry between Dr. Bob and Dr. John to be the greatest professional rivalry in soap history. How did the two of them meet, and what started their rivalry?

I'm sure that you have all seen this promo regarding ATWT's upcoming 60-minute expansion:

<iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gy9SiZHvrE8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

However, can anybody please provide the context of that particular scene?

Max, I am not sure how John and Bob met. I imagine it was at Memorial. John was originally intended to be a short-term, minor character, and the part grew thanks to Larry Bryggman's superb performance.

At the point when I began watching regularly, around the summer of 1972, the villainous John we know and love was just beginning to take shape. John came from a very modest, working class family. He put himself through school and was very ambitious. He sought to break all ties with his past, including his family. When John married Kim, she wanted to invite his parents to the wedding, and John refused. He admitted that he was ashamed of his mother and father and did not want Oakdale's uppercrust to see how humble his roots were. John primarily married Kim as a trophy wife. I am not sure the phrase was used in that era, but essentially he used Kim's grace and good breeding to gain acceptance into Oakdale's society.

John was insanely jealous of Bob Hughes. John felt that he (John) was a far superior physician and that Bob never really worked for his accolades, rather they were handed to him on a silver platter because he was the son of Chris Hughes, whose name carried respect in the town. John was very competitive with Bob and wanted to prove that he could achieve something greater without the good name and automatic acceptance. After marrying Kim, who was pregnant, John became enraged to learn that she was having Bob's child, the result of a one-night stand. John could not bear to know that Bob had beaten him to initimacy with Kim, and that she was now carrying living proof of that intimacy. This was the point where the rivalry between the two really intensified, with John determined to sabotage Bob whenever possible.

In the above clip, from November 1975, John almost had the perfect opportunity.

The previous month, Bob and his wife Jennifer (Kim's sister) arranged a surprise birthday party for Nancy Hughes at the exclusive Colonnade Room. Bob's ex-wife Sandy had recently returned to Oakdale with her arsey new husband Norman Garrison. The Garrisons were in the Colonnade Room the night of Nancy's party, and Norman slipped and fell. Later, he developed chest pains. Bob and Jennifer were going to go home, but at the last minute, Bob decided to accompany Sandy and Norman to Memorial. Jennifer drove home alone. Although it was October, Oakdale was hit by a unseasonable snow storm that night. Jennifer's car skidded off the road and crashed, killing her instantly. Sandy felt bad for Bob and attempted to comfort him as best she could. Meanwhile, Norman was recovering and after consulting with an attorney, decided to sue the Colonnade Room, arguing that the fall caused his heart attack. He wanted Bob to testify that the accident could have upset him so much that the attack was a direct result. However, Bob did not agree and refused. Norman accused him of being in love with Sandy and not wanting to help him.

Unknown to anyone, Norman himself was having an affair with a young woman named Tina Richards. Tina sneaked into Norman's room at Memorial, and they quarreled about Sandy. Tina wanted everyone to know that she and Norman were in love, but Norman feared that if he were exposed as an adulterer, everyone would think he was also a liar who was attempting to cheat the Colonnade Room in a frivolous lawsuit. At that very moment, Bob stopped by the nurse's station to get Norman's chart. Bob told the nurses that he was going to check on Norman's condition, but on the way to the room, he realized that he had forgotten his stethoscope to listen to Norman's heart. Bob took the back stairs to retrieve it from his office. Norman was shouting at Tina about Sandy, that she had caused all the trouble between them. He suffered another massive heart attack and collapsed. Tina exited the room unseen. When Bob arrived a few minutes later, he found Norman, who was dead. The nurses who overheard the argument assumed that Bob and Norman were arguing about Bob's ex-wife Sandy, and rumors began to swirl that Bob had caused Norman's death because he was having an affair with Sandy. That is the "rumor" and "petty minds" referred to in this clip.

I'd have to check the ratings for April-December 1982, Sedrick, but I recall Texas' ratings actually got worse. Some NBC executives were against Texas going to the morning slot because of Price is Right (which was drawing blockbuster numbers back then).

Everyone's right about NBC daytime at that time, though. Clueless. And this was with Brandon Tartikoff at the helm.

You are correct, Steve. I believe people misunderstand the "improved" statements in articles. At the time Texas was moved to the morning, the series did improve dramatically in storyline and characterization. It stopped attempting to be a daytime Dallas, and also stopped the Luke and Laura, sci-fi antics. The writer, Paul Rader, shifted the focus to strong family drama and sizzling love triangles. Despite the general consensus that Texas was gaining better critical acclaim, the ratings actually dropped. At 3, the show averaged between a 3.5 and 4.0 rating. When it was moved to the morning, the ratings fell to 2.5-2.9. I would have to look to confirm it, but if I remember correctly, the last year's total average was near a 2.6.

In my opinion, NBC never should have moved the series. Actually, NBC probably should have waited until GH mania died down to even premiere it. GH was getting hugely inflated, almost unbelievable numbers, and nothing could really compete with it because there was simply too much publicity. In truth, much of GH was hype. It was everywhere. You could not get away from it, because it was a fad. Like all fads, one day it had to wane. If only NBC had waited for that to happen, I feel that Texas eventually would have flourished. In fact, both GH and GL fell in the ratings immediately after Texas was moved to the morning slot. With the improved writing and direction, Texas may have finally succeeded.

In terms of the show's quality, more than one actor has spoken that in the last years the backstage atmosphere was unhappy and that they felt they were a B or C list show. But onscreen, although I have only seen a few episodes, I am struck just about every time (the exception being an early 1982 episode which didn't do a lot for me) at the strength of the cast and the energy in the scenes. Lydia Bruce, Jim Pritchett, Jada Rowland, David O'Brien, Liz Hubbard, Meg Mundy, these are not only strong actors, but also very unique. In an era where everyone seems the same, and even on soaps of the early 80's when everyone began seeming the same, they stand out. They could have carried a show for a long time. The younger cast also has some standouts, and the writing, when it is good, is fun, flip, yet also down-to-earth, and always remembers the characters are human beings.

In the proper hands this would be a top-rated show today.

I wonder, though, if those were not the actors who were more interested in what The Doctors could do for them rather than what they could do for The Doctors. The most vocal ones seem to be the ambitious actors such as Zimmer, Baldwin, and Storm. The vets that I had an opportunity to meet enjoyed the series, and it was not just the vets. Others have told me the same thing. I know John Pankow, who played Danny Martin, and he talks about The Doctors fondly: it was a good training ground, and he said that most of the cast was very enjoyable to work with. He mentions playing competitive Scrabble between takes with Jada Rowland and Lydia Bruce! I think they all knew that money was tight and the production values much lower than other shows, but the acting ensemble was terrific, and those who were really there to act may have gotten more out of it than those wanting to use it solely as a stepping stone to other things.

Carl,your LIAMST article revealed that Albert Stratton played Mr Sebastian in TD's Danny/Robin story.Thought I'd note it here for the record.

Was that questionable? I thought that Stratton's appearance was a fact. He is shown laughing maniacally in one of my YT promos for The Doctors when his house catches fire. I'm not going to embed and pimp my own videos, but would someone please tell me how to embed videos in these posts as Carl often does?

That sounds very moving.

Do you think the main story, Jennifer Harmon's divorce, was the weakest part of the show?

No, Carl. Chris' story was the major storyline. The only thing I found clunky at all about the series was when Julie Franklin launched into one of her psych diatribes, which seemed more like a televised therapy session than drama. Had that aspect been toned down earlier, and the initial writing not so pedantic and hip, the soap would have been better. Despite this quibble, I do want to reiterate that in general the series was good, particularly as it went on and developed. NBC really never gave it chance, but the network was one of the more unforgiving for underachievers. Has everyone here seen the HTSAM clip on YT?

Actually, I think it was, although I can't remember who came first, Travis or Luke.

I don't recall how John Wyatt died. Was it a heart attack?

Also, I think the Corringtons went the wrong way in getting Maree Cheatham booted from the show. To SEARCH fans, Jo was "their girl," and Stu "their guy." Stephanie should have gone after either one of them, hurting them either physically or psychologically. That would have turned the tide against her for sure.

It was so close they may as well have started together, but technically, Travis preceded Luke. Rod Arrants started on SFT in October 1978, and I believe Tony Geary's Luke arrived in Port Charles in November 1978.

Khan, John Wyatt died the same way his late wife Eunice had, shot and killed by his rival. Stephanie had become involved with Ted Adamson and withheld the fact that she slept with Ted because she had breast cancer and feared she would die. When Ted told John the truth, he and Stephanie reconciled after her mastectomy, but John became obssessed with the idea that Ted was corrupt. Ted was indeed secretly using stockholders' money from the Collins Corporation to fund a land deal, because oil was supposedly buried on the land. Ted seduced Janet to keep it all quiet, but John was determined to expose what he considered embezzlement. Stephanie refused to go along with it and continued to support Ted to get back at John who told Stephanie that she behaved like a mistress instead of a wife. John got drunk one night and unable to find Stephanie, decided that she was with Ted. He went to confront Ted, who he saw in a romantic clinch with a woman, as it turned out, the woman was Janet, not Stephanie, and during a scuffle, Ted shot and killed John. Stephanie blamed Janet, as Janet could have ousted Ted and stopped the land deal, and shortly thereafter, a mystery assailant shoved Janet down a flight of stairs. Stephanie was arrested for the crime, but it was later revealed that the deranged Mignon Sentell had done it by mistake.

On paper,at least,HTSAM sounds ahead of its time,actually dealing with the realities of money and illness etc.

This is fertile ground for storytelling and if it is weaved in with the more traditional and fantasy elements,the shows would be all the better for it.

Current soaps play fast and loose with these issues and are hollow and lifeless as a result.

Saynotoursoap,your contributions are so fascinating and invaluable.Thank you!

I think it was ahead of its time, or at least, it attempted to do something that other soaps were not doing. I wish more soaps today would follow that way thinking rather than attempting to copy one another.

I do not intend to give the impression that How to Survive a Marriage was all doom and gloom. There were lighter moments. After David Bachman died, Fran became especially close to her next door neighbors The McGees, an Irish family consisting of Johnny McGee (Armand Assante) a former professional boxer, his mother Patricia, and his young bride Maria. Johnny refused to talk to about his boxing career and had taken up carpentry. Fran needed help around the house, little things that David had not taken care of, and she and Rachel did not know how to fix. Johnny offered to make all the repairs, as he knew she was struggling to keep her head above water. I remember an episode where they stayed up late sharing a pizza and just talking. Johnny confided to Fran that he had accidentally killed a man in a fight, and that is why he no longer boxed. He had become a carpenter so that he could create instead of destroy. The two were reaching out to one another to talk about their fears and the things that they could not articulate to their families. They had a warm moment and Fran laughed for the first time since David's death.

There were quiet scenes such as these that were intimate and not preachy as some of the scenes with Julie could be. In a way, it was like Ryan's Hope, perhaps even more realistic, though with dialogue that was not as poetic. But like RH, HTSAM did foster a feeling of hope, as the title suggests. The last scene of the series, in fact, had all of the remaining cast gathered at Noah's Ark and discussing how things had changed for the better during the previous year, and it ended with everyone laughing and raising their glasses in a toast "to survival".

David owned a garment manufacturing business and had gone into deep debt. He hid the declining fortunes from his family. As Rachel's 16th birthday approached, she desired a lavish sweet sixteen party. David was tormented. He loved his daughter deeply but knew that he could not afford the party as he was actually bankrupt. He was ashamed, distraught, and felt less than a man because he could not provide even simple things like a birthday party for his daughter. Rachel was unaware of this and began to argue petulantly with David almost daily. Under tremendous stress, he finally consented to the party, but while hanging decorations, fell from a chair and suffered a heart attack. Rachel thought that her quarreling with him had caused the attack.

It was only upon his death that Fran and Rachel realized that extent of David's stress. It was a very difficult period for both mother and daughter. Rachel went into a severe depression and basically retreated from life. Fran did not have long to mourn or experience shock as she could not pay the mortgage on the house. She feared what would happen to her children as she had always been a wife and homemaker, and now she had a family to support in a world of economic crisis. Fran attempted to get a job, but she was considered either overeducated (she had a college degree) or not educated enough for more technical jobs. Rachel had to emerge from her depression and get a part-time job in a supermarket to help make ends meet. Fran's good friend Peter Willis co-signed a second mortgage, and Fran managed to hang on to her home, but it was tough and bleak. In today's world, with people losing homes and a recession looming, can you imagine a soap doing this today? The sensibility for daytime has changed. Now it is all about rewriting history so that you can have twins and the CIA and back from the dead, etc. How to Survive a Marriage truly reflected the period of time from whence it came, unlike today where you cannot find a single soap opera that even comes close to delineating anything remotely real and significant.

I don't know if I buy that Joan Copeland would 'assume' Rosemary's position after she left. It makes no sense. Monica was not a matriarch, she had no real story of her own. She was most famous for being Mariliyn Monroe's former sister in law! I loved what I have seen of her on Search, she was chic and catty where Jo was always sure and steady, but in the credits Jennifer Harmon was billed first as Chris Kirby. It just seemed a stunt to appease Ms. Copeland - and her agent.

I have no doubt that Joan Copeland stipulated in her contract that she would receive star billing. After all, Rosemary Prinz's star honor was a stunt to appease her and lure in viewers who remembered her as Penny. In truth, Rosemary was not a matriarch either, and Prinz spent most of her time shoveling out pseudo-psychology, with her only real story being the romance with Tony D'Angelo. My point was that the "switch" was not really "inexplicable" as you describe it. It was planned all along. I really cannot fault the producers for doing what they could to try to attract an audience. Rosemary Prinz and Joan Copeland were known. And even if Copeland was only "famous for being Marilyn Monroe's sister in law" (which I disagree with having watched her on SFT), Jennifer Harmon was not famous for anything.

Paul, that is Chuck Hillman, played by the late Edward Winter.

Until I read this I thought the widowhood story started when the show did. How long was it before he died? I wish I could see that story, as Schemering talked about how good it was.

I think that some works suffered with how to write a feminist heroine, in how to not make them seem too hard or unsympathetic. Is that what happened with Harmon?

I had no idea that Lynn Lowry was in so many horror movies or in Score, which was written up as being an intellectual type of pseudo-porn, bisexual film. Do you remember her character on this show?

I hope this brought back some memories for you. I haven't seen a lot of the show in magazines so this one I was interested in.

I just saw this thread. If anyone is still interested, David Bachman died the first week of July 1974, exactly six months into the series.

It was a very well-written storyline, amazingly shocking for that era with so many details typically glossed over on other soaps. I remember after David had the first attack and was hospitalized, the doctors told him that he probably would not survive due to irreversible damage to his heart. He insisted on signing papers that would allow his organs to be donated after his death. This was fairly shocking for 1974 and so different from the norm of everyone gathering around the patient to reassure him that everything would be okay. Those scenes of David telling Fran about the organ donation, the realization that he would indeed die, along with his goodbye to his sixteen year-old daughter Rachel (who blamed herself for the heart attack) were so heartbreaking. The last scene, when David was suddenly seized with a second attack and Julie held his writhing body as Fran stood by quietly watching her husband die...it is unforgettable.

Why did the Corringtons hate Maree Cheatham? I know she may have been a bit difficult but you'd think they'd enjoy writing for her.

Was Val on the way out anyway, due to his age?

I've only seen bits and pieces of him as an actor...I think I've seen more of him in the soap magazines, going around with kilt and bagpipes and writing columns about his AW time (I guess that didn't end very well either - although I always felt bad for him when Lemay called him out for stealing the spotlight from Susan Sullivan in his last scenes, since...um...they were his last scenes ever on the show!).

I apologize. This is what happens when I write while I am tired. I forget to filter those things I generally keep to myself.

Apparently the first meeting between the Corringtons and Cheatham at a cast and crew party did not leave the couple and the actress with favorable impressions of one another. Remember, in that era -late 70s- it was not uncommon for a villainess to get clobbered on the street or in a supermarket. The Corringtons attempted to make Stephanie the most reviled person on the show. Regardless of what you may think about Dufour, he was hugely popular, regularly ranking in the top 10 actors of magazine polls. Also, within the series itself, John Wyatt had strong core ties. He was the brother-in-law to Jo, father of her niece Suzi, and as an attorney, was a franchise character who had reason to become involved in many different stories. So, the Corringtons set him up to be killed and shifted the responsibility to Stephanie. It made it worse that he was killed mid-episode, mid-week. I remember all of the calls made to our local radio station complaining about how horribly Dufour's departure was handled. To further remind the audience of her culpability, Stephanie was constantly talking about killing John, killing their dream, etc. To make her even more hated, they had her fight Jo for custody of Suzi and blithely go after Jo's potential love interest Martin Tourneur. The funny thing was that Cheatham played the part with such verve, the plan somewhat backfired. Stephanie came across as fun, and it was hard to hate her no matter what she did. Plus, we were moving into the era of glamorous villainesses, with Alexis Carrington only a couple of years away.

I do not feel John/Val was too old. The producers hired John Aniston and Wayne Tippit around the same time, two equally older leading men, who were not beloved or tied to the core at that time. I agree about Lemay, too. Susan Sullivan was new, and had not achieved the popularity Dufour had at that time. He deserved every scene he had, and it was wonderful that Bette Davis became so moved by his scenes that she contacted to tell him what a great job he did.

I wonder how the Dobson's have fared at SEARCH, especially when it was being contemporized. Would it have been a smash like their GL, or a mixed bag like their ATWT?

Good question. The Dobsons successfully wrote GH and GL as half hour soaps, and I believe they probably could have written Search, just as long as they kept their irreverence in check. That would be the only thing to trouble me about them. The Dobsons loved to kill popular characters just becaue they could, such as the unfortunate demise of Leslie Bauer on GL. During the Corringtons reign on Search, they had Stu experience a heart attack. I could see the Dobsons doing the same story and have Stu survive ...only to get run over and killed by a speeding beer truck in front of the hospital. Granted, the Corringtons pulled the same trick when it suited them, such as killing off veteran Val Dufour in the middle of a Tuesday episode just because they hated Maree Cheatham, but the loss of John Wyatt was not nearly as bad as it would have been to lose Stu or Jo.

I thought Ann Marcus did a good job writing for Search. She and her team won the WGA award in 1975 for their work. Jane Chambers, one member of Ann's team, was a renowned playwright and well-liked by her peers. I always wondered what kind of work Jane would have produced had she been given the opportunity to headwrite.

I wonder if it's down to some writers being better at half-hour and some better at hour (weren't Marland's biggest successes all hour soaps)?

I believe you are correct, Carl. Marland was Harding Lemay's protege, and Lemay felt constrained by the half-hour format. He wanted more time to build scenes, and Marland's style was more in the Lemay vein (though, IMO, Lemay's dialogue was far superior). Henry Slesar, on the other hand, told me that although he found a half-hour soap more difficult to write, he preferred it over hour serials because his soaps were heavily plotted, and with a 30 minute format, there was no room for fat. It made him trim away all the excess and focus on that which was essential. In his opinion, hour soaps were just thirty minute soaps with unnecessary padding. So, yes, I think some writing styles were more appropriate to a particular format.

Couldn't you say the same about AS THE WORLD TURNS?

ATWT was old-fashioned, but I would not describe it as a small soap. It was a family soap, with a big, veteran cast and many different arenas. It lent itself to Marland's style: centering stories around large, core families, and utilizing big business and hospital settings to generate story. Search for Tomorrow did not have large, core familes. It was small, with Jo and Stu and a several secondary characters. The show had not used a hospital to much effect since Tony Vincente was killed off, and I cannot see all of the characters on Search suddenly working for TI, running spouting business dialogue. To me, Search was small, intimate, more about two people having a quiet conversation. I would not have cared to have Jo and Stu saying two or three lines to one another while 12 other characters in the same scene ran around saying their own few expository lines. Search was not a busy type soap. Neither was The Doctors, which in my opinion, Marland demonstrated his least successful work. Could Marland have made SFT work, probably, but I think there were other writers who were more suited to the style and texture of it.

I guess what I meant was I think soap towns have strong identities and I'm not sure Somerset did. It was a place various AW characters went to, then with a series of shifting rich families (the Delaneys, then the Moores), along with a few other characters like Ellen Grant. I can see where he would want to go back to basics but I was trying to figure out if Somerset ever had a basics, or if they needed to build that from the ground up.

I do not really understand what you mean by soap towns having strong identities, but no matter. Only three characters went from AW to Somerset: Missy, Sam and Lahoma, and Missy had not been seen since 1969 on Another World. The ties to AW were not really strong other than attempting to use its name and popularity to entice viewers to the new series. To me, Somerset was about the town of Somerset, just as Texas was about the people of Houston, Texas. Had the writers attempted to create a separate identity for Somerset, something other than just being a half hour extenuation of Another World, perhaps it would have been more successful.

I thought it was cool that How had a Jewish family and I loved the Chris/Fran friendship. Tricia O'Niell was glamorous and cool as Joan, but all Joan seemed to do was wait for Peter to come home and give him a drink. The character had potential because we saw Joan's restlessness.

Rosemary Prinz was good as Julie Franklin, but I would sometimes watch with my mother and all she could lament was 'I wish she was back as Penny' - it bugged her more that Peter Brandon (who played her bro on ATWT of course) was on How as Terry Courtland.

I can't fault Lin Bolen's idea, this soap was created with the housewife/career woman in mind. I think it copped out. Chris and Larry should never have re-married. Michael Landrum was replaced - why? He was a fairly good actor and a good looking guy. He looked like a LARRY. Lynn Lowry had some of that Jaime Lyn Bauer sultriness and she provided the stark contrast to Chris Kirby.

And there was the inexplicable switch from Prinz's departure where she had star billing, to giving that to the very minor character of Monica Courtland. Starring Joan Copeland as Monica Courtland and I believe Monica was billed past Chris, Larry, Fran, Dave, Peter, Joan on the show. I guess Copeland saw her chance...

Was Lin Bolen having a thing with Paul Rauch while all this NBC drama was going on? It would have seemed typical of him.

Rosemary Prinz refused to sign a contract longer than six months. She had felt trapped as Penny on ATWT and had no intention of allowing that to happen again. Also, she insisted on "star billing" in the credits. It was a condition of her contract. Joan Copeland was a very well-respected actress who had given a mesmerizing performance on Search for Tomorrow, and it was intended all along that she would assume Rosemary's place when she departed at the end of her contract.

Thanks.

I wonder why he felt that way. Somerset was never really just a town, was it? When you're created as a spinoff, with established characters, you are never just a town.

Winsor's point was that he was not writing the serial with a particular genre in mind (i.e. a "crime serial" such was the case when Slesar wrote it). He was refocusing the show back to being about the people who lived in the town of...Somerset, which was what it was supposed to have been about in the first place.

The weird thing with Search is that it seems like they had managed to revive themselves several times until the bad times hit again around 1980 or 1981. They've managed to create a series of young, beautiful, popular characters, romances, and integrate a few veterans. I just don't get where it fell apart.

In truth, Carl, it did not fall apart. When Search was canceled, it was averaging higher ratings than it had the previous year, and this was despite a writer's strike and a quick succession of changing writers: Linda Grover to Harding Lemay to Don Chastain. SFT's stories suffered, yes. 1981 in particular was a bad year plot-wise, but the ratings were actually improving. Search was dropped for economic reasons. CBS had to pay a licensing fee to P&G and on top of that, they had to agree to run a percentage of P&G commercials at a discounted price. Thus, they would make more money off of Capitol, even if it came in at a lower rating, which it did. It is not dissimilar to the situation with All My Children and One Life to Live. They are not canceled because they are not making money; they are canceled because they are not making enough money.

As for the storyline, the plot began disintegrate in the summer of 1980 following the apartment fire that killed Renata Sutton. The show had introduced the Mitchell siblings, Beau and Cissy. Beau and Cissy ran a honky-tonk outside of Henderson called The Boilmaker. This was during the Urban Cowboy craze. Beau used it as a front for illegal gambling. He was mixed up in corruption within Henderson's city government. I cannot remember if it was the mayor or chief of police, but some bigwig was ordering hits. He murdered Beau, and there was another character played by Ralph Byers who was murdered. The details elude me, but somehow this led to a bomb being detonated in Jo and Stu's inn, which destroyed it and made way for the disastrous riverboat venue. This was counterpointed with the ridiculous spy plotline with Travis and Liza's adventure in Hong Kong. Over in the corruption plot, the villain attempted to kill Kathy and Liza, and was subdued by Kathy who conked him over the head with a jar of Hershey's kisses (I kid you not). Cissy accidentally on purpose got pregnant by Lee Sentell, and naturally a barren Liza's new adopted baby was Cissy's kid. Stu's sensible wife Ellie ran off with the cook. There were Taper brothers who were involved with Kathy and then quickly killed in a car crash. In short, the plot was violent, depressing, and predictable, whereas it had once had a nice balance of melodrama, comedy, romance, and generational cast.

Also, in my opinion, Doug Marland would not have been a good fit for Search. Search was a small, quiet show. It was old-fashioned, but in a good way. I think someone such as Labine and Mayer would have been good for it, just as they were for Love of Life, which had a similar feel and format. And, the obvious choice would have been rehiring the Corringtons who were through with Texas at that point and had done such a wonderful job as headwriters when they previously wrote SFT. I never understood why Linda Grover, who was so good for The Doctors, failed to carry on with the framework that the Corringtons had created. Regardless, with a good headwriter, a solid tone, and a little time, I feel that SFT could have risen back into the top 5 soaps again. It was not burdened with the irrevocable problems which usually face a canceled serial.

saynotoursoap very very kindly uploaded a March 1983 episode of Search for Tomorrow. Stephanie takes in a young girl while there are fireworks between Liza and her nasty father-in-law Rusty.

What happened with the story with Stephanie and this girl? And with her older brother Craig Augistine? I like the idea of Stephanie mentoring a troubled girl, especially since Wendy was already grown by this time. I must say I was surprised at how raggedly styled Maree Cheatham was; it's not far off from her GH character.

The scenes with Liza and Rusty are a strange mix. They seem to be trying for Dynasty/Dallas style melodrama. Sherry Mathis does a good job with the material, overall, but the guy who plays Rusty is not good at all.

I really wish someone like Doug Marland could have written for Liza. I know he wasn't necessarily a miracle worker but he handled the super-glam/everyday fusion of ATWT very well and I wonder what he would have done for her.

Sherry Mathis was so beautiful, even in the slightly cheap fur. What a presence she had.

This was not really my choice of an upload, but a friend of the actress who plays Andie wanted to see it, and of course, I complied. This was the only episode I had with the actress.

In my opinion, the 1982-84 era of SFT was particularly bad. I found little to enjoy in the plots and characters from the era, and my memory is hazy on the details. Keith, Andie, and Jenny all arrived in Henderson around the same time. Jenny hid a secret about giving up a child years before. Keith and Wendy fell in love, but Stephanie opposed the relationship as Keith was beneath Wendy socially. Keith and Wendy secretly married, and there was tension between Andie and Wendy. I believe that Andie ran away. Somehow the courts became involved, and Keith sent Andy to live with Stephanie so that he could be near her. Stephanie agreed, but forced Keith to end his relationship with Wendy. Shortly after the episode I posted on YT, it was revealed that Keith was not Andie's brother. He was actually her father, and her mother was...surprise, surprise...Jenny Deacon. Keith was forced to admit the truth when Andie became sick and went into a diabetic coma. Naturally, Wendy became enraged over Keith's lies and divorced him. It was at that point that she started having an affair with Warren Carter. If my memory does not fail me, Jenny fell in love with Lloyd Kendall's son Michael. She, Michael, Andie, and Keith all left Henderson in the fall of 1983. I believe they were casualties of the change in headwriter and producer.

I loathed the character of Rusty Sentell. David Gale was indeed miscast. He had previously played Father Mark Reddin on The Secret Storm during the infamous plot in which he left the priesthood for Laurie Stevens. However, the character of Rusty was not particuarly well written either. The idea had been that he would be one of those elegant villains, not too different from an Alan Spaulding or Mason Capwell. The difference was that those characters had redeeming qualities and a depth which Rusty lacked. He was written as very one-dimensional, an overused plot device to create synthetic tension in the marriage of Liza and Travis. The ill-conceived development, matched by Gale's inability to find an iota of humanity in the character made Rusty insufferable to me.

As for Stephanie, Maree Cheatham did become somewhat more dowdy around this time. In this particular episode, she is dressed casually because she is supposedly helping the maid prepare things for Andie; however, the character did not have a love interest at this time either, so she was typically not dressed and coiffed in the style to which you generally see her. Cheatham was becoming bored with the show by this time, and I think it shows. She is much more like the Stephanie we know and love in the 1980 episodes, warpped in fur and being bitchy to Janet.

Sherry Mathis was a gem. Easily she could have remained in that part forever and never grown stale like the other great ladies of daytime: Helen Wagner, Charita Bauer, Mary Stuart. I wish she had stayed with Search one more year so that she could have been our last Liza.

Thank you so much for sharing this, Carl. Beverlee looks lovely in these photographs, I always preferred her with longer hair. The style she wore on Another World for most of the 70s made her look far older than her years, IMO. She was just exquisite. It is also interesting to read about her life in Oklahoma, which somewhat resembles the family origins of Steven Frame. I suppose this is why she successfully played Emma.

I can never get enough of these old articles, and actually purchasing the magazines now can be prohibitively expensive. Many are selling for over $50. I truly appreciate you taking the time to scan, type, and upload them for us.

Just finished the third season. That finale was the BEST episode EVER. Actually, it may have been one of the best season finales I've ever seen on any show. The endings with Jake and his brother falling from the platform and then everyone finding out about the bombs before Kimberly runs out with the detonater "It's not what you think...it's worse!" FREEZE FRAME. I got CHILLS!

And remember, that was not the original season finale. It had to be re-edited at the last minute because of the Oklahoma City bombing a month before. FOX considered dropping the plot completelty and reshooting, but it was too expensive. This is one time that I think a cliffhanger was more suspenseful by NOT showing what happened. All My Children also had to re-edit a bomb plot, though in that case, it was excised altogether.

Interesting a few months after the '77 article was written the word "The" was dropped from the show's official title, but even now and through out the last decade my grandma will still refer to it as "The Guiding Light". Was there any negative reaction to the show dropping the word "The" from the official title?

Actually, the "The" had already been dropped by 1977. One of the TV reference books incorrectly states that the title changed with the first hour long episode. GL changed the lighthouse logo to the sunlight through the trees opening in November 1975. "The" was officially dropped from its title then. No, I do not think there was any significant reaction to it. Although the graphics were Guiding Light, announcer Allan Berns continued to say "The Guiding Light" for the next six years.

Blair died about a decade ago. I remember reading his obituary. He lived somewhere in New York, I believe, and was either in his very late 80's or early 90's. I believe that he retired in the 1970s which is why he has no credits following the ones from 1966. He may have done stage work, too, as he had earlier in his career. I have never thought to check on that. No, I read all of your articles and love them. Please keep posting more when you have the time and inclination!

What did you think of Lynn Milgrim's Susan?

The same thing I thought of her Orleana Grimaldi. No comment.

Seriously, despite being a member of the core family and possessing an interesting relationship with her mother, for some reason the character of Susan was never very successful. The best scenes with Susan were those played by Lisa Cameron when the fabulous Audra Lindley was still Liz Matthews. Their fights were legendary, the kind that would make your hair stand on end when Susan became petulant and needy, sending Liz into an emotional tirade about how cold, selfish, and unfeeling Susan had always been. I so wish those tapes had been saved. Agnes Nixon's tenure on the series, IMO, was the best era of Another World, followed closely by Harding Lemay's first five years. How I would have loved to have seen Rachel's reaction to a Pat/Jamie affair!