will81

I couldn't find a Jean Holloway only Jane, so I guess the soap press/newspapers got her name wrong, which isn't uncommon Ann Marcus left Days around Feb 79 (Jason47 lists her end date as Feb 26, 1979) and all the articles I found said she would be starting at LOL in late April or early May. So her eps would have started airing in June 79

Found the Sep 51 Variety review of Love of Life. John Hess confirmed as writer so I assume he was there from Sep 1951 - Jun/Jul 1958. Updated HW list

The strike started Mar 06, 1973 for most writers, but Daytime Drama writers didn't join until about Apr 12, 1973. Since writing for WTHI probably ended around Feb 73, I wasn't sure if maybe they moved over with Tom Donovan and Jean Arley. Thanks for clearing it up though. I know the strike ended late June 1973 but I assume all the Watergate pre-emptions probably kept Labine and Mayer's work from airing until about Sep 1973.

Yeah it is. For some reason the files do not come up with the covers. Here is a screenshot with results. This is just from filtering 1953. You can then filter further to just reduce it to TV Guide only

Small article that mentions Robert Burr (Matt Corby) in Love of Life from Jun 29, 1970. Since Burr was on tour around the US in the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead through to April 1970, he must have only just joined the show around May/Jun 1970. I believe the Shaprio's created this character, so this would assume they were both still writing the show at this point, but were gone only a few months later.

Article about Cindy Griver from Sep 28, 1970. She started this week and so did her cat Have you seen internet archive have posted TV Guide magazine from 1953 - 1955 (so far) It has small daily synopsis of Guiding Light, LOL, SFT, The Bennetts etc.. Guiding Light is the most consistent, so with the other shows it can get frustrating. However you get a small sentence daily, so it adds up for a period where there is little to no information.

Also I have this. Not sure if it helps with any cast info or not. From Sep 12, 1970

I know this is an old post, but I thought I would add all the HW info I have. I thought Roy Winsor wrote the show in the very beginning? At any rate here is what I have based on the list above. If I find more I will add it. I didn't want to add all the articles as I figured it would just take up too much room. John Hess - UPDATED - Hess is mentioned as writer at shows premiere Sep 24, 1951 in a variety review. Next mentioned as writer of the show in August 1952. He is mentioned again in a profile in April 1958 Harry W. Junkin - A profile on the writer from Dec 1958 states he has been writing the show since July 1958 Jack Paritz - An article from Oct 26, 1959 states Jack signed a deal to write Love of Life. No further mentions could be found Don Ettlinger - UPDATED Thanks to Paul Raven we have confirmation Ettlinger started in 1960. He is listed as writer on an Aug 22, 1960 script. Only other info I could find stated Ettlinger joined and wrote the show during the time Joseph Hardy was an associate producer on the show which was 1962 - 1965. Ettlinger left the show to be a consultant on Flame in the Wind which Hardy produced. John Pickard & Frank Provo - Their script archive lists materials from Nov 1964 - Aug 1965 Roy Windsor - Referred to as writer in 1965, but nothing specific, so I wouldn't take this as much proof of anything, but maybe he did write the show during this time Robert Soderberg - @Paul Raven Lists info showing Soderberg was added March 1966. Another mention is from March 1967 in an article about LOL going to colour. Variety stated Soderberg's first air date was Mar 28, 1966. Robert J. Shaw - In a Sep 01 1968 article it is mentioned he has been writing the show for a year and a half. So I assume he took over around Mar 67 @Paul Raven Has added info that places Shaw's end date as Jun 1969 Robert & Eileen Pollock - @Paul Raven Has info that shows the Pollock's taking over after Shaw Esther & Richard Shapiro - Found nothing on them. Except their own interview which states 1969 as a start date Robert J. Shaw - UPDATED - First mention of Bob Shaw is Oct 1970 in a sort of gossip column about CBS people hanging out a restuarant and he is mentioned as being with Love of Life. In an article on the shows 5000th episode (which aired Dec 7, 1970) Shaw is listed as HW Donald Wallace & Paul Roberts - Listed as writers of the show in Sep 1971 in article about shows 20th Anniversary Loring Mandel (Christopher Bell) - Script archive gives us approx dates of Jan 31, 1972 - Sep 14, 1973. First mention in press is September 1972 in article about shows anniversary. Last mention is April 1973 when he claims a Writers Guild award for the show Claire Labine & Paul Avila Mayer - The first mention of the pair is Sep 1973 in an article about the shows anniversary. The last mention is from Apr 26, 1975 which implies their last episode to air is May 30, 1975 Margaret DePriest - Same Apr 26, 1975 article implies new HW's first episode to air will be June 02, 1975. First actual mention of Margaret is actually an article on her husband from Oct 29, 1975. States DePriest is a writer on Love of Life. Only mention of her I could find for this show. Paul & Margaret Schneider - Only thing I could find was their script archive which suggests their first episode was Dec 02, 1975 and their last was Sep 17, 1976 Gabriel Upton - First mention is during an article on the shows anniversary from Sep 1976. Maybe she started Sep 20, 1976 Jean Holloway - Article from Oct 13, 1978 states Jean is new HW. She most likely began airing in Nov Ann Marcus - Script archive suggests her dates range from May 21, 1979 to Feb 01, 1980. An article from April 1979 states that Ann will be taking over the show at the end of the month. So likely her eps came on late May or early June 1979. She was the last HW

No worries. So Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer were the last HW's on Where the Heart Is and Tom Donovan and Jean Arley were producers of that show to the end. All of them moved to Love of Life and I wonder if they went straight from WTHI to LOL, meaning their first credited eps may be from Mar 26, 1973?? I could find no mention of Paul and Margaret Schneider, other than the UCLA script archive which suggests they started HW'ing LOL Dec 02, 1975 - Sep 17, 1976. This would make Margaret DePriest's run exactly 6 months long. The first mention of Gabriel Upton (the next HW) is the week of the shows Anniversary in September 1976. So maybe those dates for Paul and Margaret are correct and Upton's first credited ep is Sep 20, 1976

Here is confirmation on dates about a previous HW shift from 1975 for Love of Life. From Claire Labine & Paul Avila Mayer to I assume Margaret DePriest. From April 26, 1975.

No worries. Interestingly Terri left town the week of Sep 19, 1977. Which lines up with the above articles. So I am guessing that is the week the Elman's scripts started airing and I assume the Hollands stories were on screen six weeks later, the week of Oct 31, 1977.

I could find little on them, but it seems they were not there until the end of August and their scripts didn't start until mid-September. They were gone pretty quick too after only six weeks and replaced by the Hollands. Although if six weeks is Sep 23, then they must have joined in mid-late Aug. Here are the articles from Aug 03, 1977 Aug 27, 1977 Sep 23, 1977 Okay I did a bit more research and this is my theory. SFT was in fifth for the 76-77 season. GH and ABC wanted writers they felt could turn around the show. Most likely Irving and Tex were the ones they went for or the ones they could get/afford? I think ABC was pretty desperate. Though they were obviously not the right fit. Here is some more info from Aug 14, 1977. Before they joined

Nice. Thanks for that. Interesting that Days got best 1hr show since it was falling from grace at this point. Also many of these actors are not the usual crop winning fan polls. Was Doris Belack very popular?

I tried to find some info about Larry on SFT and could find none. His first tv gig ever was in January 1957 and by 1961 he was playing Ed Gibson on Edge of Night. Apparently they were giving Larry more to do because John Larkin as Mike Karr was planning to leave the show in Oct 1961.

I still can't get into Brad and his attitude. I'm glad Leslie isn't putting up with it. I wonder if Bell was slowly planning Tom Hallick's exit, and if Tom had given him plenty of notice or not. Might be why Cynthia is moved from Snapper to Brad. Poor Lorie, she finally thinks she has ridden herself of Mother Prentiss, only to have Lance be her downfall. In My Sister's Shadow is firmly re-established but now somewhat forgotten until Bell needs it later on. Great move there. Jill/Derek/Kay is on the move. I didn't realise Jill and Derek had sex so early on. Kay's lonliness, desperation and need were so beautifully set up the past few months with Joann. It is actually better that the Derek story got dropped the previous year as I feel Jill and Kay benefited from the past few months. Bill's death and her short term relationship with David helped motivate Jill to go for a man that was more than just a provider and Kay's all consuming interest in Joann laid out some major character work for her that would play into her situation with Derek. Jody and that story doesn't register much with me. I'm sure if I was watching at the time it might have held some interest though. Chris and the Becker's. Really loving the sadisitic dark turns in this story. Ron's sole motivation is to get Karen back, Nancy is but a tool to that end. Pumping her full of drugs to get what he wants. She is not a human to him, just a thing. I do wonder if Ron's only reason to get Karen back is to kill Chris' dreams and hurt her and win. Rapists are often motivated by power and control over their victims. Ron was thwarted a couple times when he wanted to rape Chris, so his tactics are zeroed in on taking away Karen from her. To read SOD you would think Brock was barely around, with SOD and Bryna, he is all over the place. Just never with his own story. A true supporting character it seems. Did Bell spring the "Hey I'm a lawyer" bit because Greg was no longer on canvas and he wanted someone established to go into court with Chris and the Becker's. If Greg was on canvas, would Bell have used him and not had Brock become a lawyer?

I get the feeling VP had no f*cks to give and didn't care if people liked her or not. She wasn't there to make friends. She had been an agent and knew the business well enough to know not to get swallowed up by it. She had her own trajectory in her mind and wasn't about to be sidetracked by anyone or anything. Also I don't think she was mean or nasty, maybe straight forward or abrasive. Which might be why there are no real stories.

I second this. At the time I was cringing at the idea and am thankful they brought Diane back and got her involved with Victor, though I am not happy with how her character ended up by the time Alex Donnelly left.

Hey not sure if everyone is aware but since 2019 TV guide has been uploaded to the internet archive from Mar 1953 and so far to Dec 1955. TV guide ran daily synopsis for GL and others (some days are missing here and there) They are usually just one sentence, but if you are interested in 50's GL or 50's TV in general check it out. They also sometimes have LOL, SFT and sometimes the other soaps of the day as well. It is in the American Libraries - Media History Digital Library - Filter to 1953 and Chicago and all the issues are there (maybe just one missing) Here is an example

Bell was lucky to have a protege in Kay Alden who carried things on. Though I don't always think she got things right character wise. However some of his later creations such as Sharon and Phyllis are not the vision Bell had for them. Sharon especially. From everything I have heard post 2006 (and in fact starting more around 2003) Sharon is a shell of the character she started out as.

I feel like 1976 was sort of the last year of the Brooks family on Y&R. In 1977 Peggy would be gone, Jen would be gone, Lorie was now a Prentiss, Leslie would be married to Lucas within a year and Chris was mostly isolated to the Becker's and occasionally the Foster's. Lorie and Leslie were really more Prentiss family members by 1978 and often seemed to be isolated away from Peggy and Chris. All four Brooks sisters were on canvas again briefly in 1979, but Pat Everly's Peggy seems to have had nothing to do and I get the feeling she barely appeared. Chris is mostly off screen through 1980 and in 1981 while all four are back on canvas they are still separated. It feels like the four sisters were barely in a room together past 1977. Maybe just once in 1979 when they confronted Stu about Jill. I am not even sure Leslie and Lorie were even at Stu's wedding to Liz. I assume they were, but pictures only show Jill and Peggy, and we know Chris was there as she went into labour. ETA: Of course Leslie would not have been there, she was still at Jonas' with amnesia Same. I also found the whole Brock being a lawyer thing odd, Bell never really uses Brock as a lawyer. I think maybe just once or twice at most.

In 1981 there were rumours though about ATWT. I do wonder if during this time, despite denials, if CBS ever seriously considered it for any of their current soaps

Yeah seems to be the case.

Thanks for that

The other issue is, I seem to remember it being a mid-life crises affair, despite the fact that they cast a younger actor in the role and just gave him the Mr. Sheffield grey hair special. Made even less sense. Why they de-aged Nathan is beyond me. Nathan Purdee and Randy Brooks were both born in 1950 and Adam Lazzare-White was born in 1969.

How much do you think the NYC ratings would have affected Somerset? I ask because in NY WNBC moved the show from 4pm to 1pm in the summer of 1975 after WCBS moved The Mike Douglas Show from 4:30pm to 4pm and shortened it to an hour all to accomdate Dinah Shore's syndicated show (That I assume was not doing well enough in its original 9am slot) It was now up against Ryan's Hope and the game show Musical Chairs