wonderwoman1951

‘road to life’ ended on 30 december 1955 — four months before atwt debuted. apologies — forgot that the show continued on radio after it was cancelled on television. four of irna’s shows moved to television while continuing on radio: guiding light, of course; the brighter day, which ran on radio 1948-1956, television 1954-62; young do. malone, radio 1948-1956, television 1958-1963. interesting that the road of life lasted less then a year on television, but rather than being cancelled entirely, continued on radio until 1959.

to put the pre 1979 wiping of tapes in perspective: about 10 years ago, i came across this 1957 episode on youtube, atwt 10 april 1957 which i sent to laurie caso. he told me that he had never seen it, and that there were only about a dozen early episodes the show could access. so while pgp wiped thousands of early episodes, who knows how many were slipped into briefcases, and now, thankfully, onto youtube. also — i’m sure the same thing happened at gl, yet there’s been no discussion on the gl board. not sure what to make of that.

well… the original title for atwt was ‘as the earth turns,’ which irna phillips preferred, but was the title of a 1933 novel (having read the novel, irna clearly took some inspiration from the story), so the title need to be changed. among the several dozen suggestions in a document from the ivory snow group dated not too long before atwt premiered (don’t time to find the document now), was ‘days of our lives.’ so… fwtw: i always thought ‘as the world turns sounded better than ‘as the earth turns,. ‘road to life’ ended on 30 december 1955 — four months before atwt debuted.

when i last spoke with irna’s son, tom, two years ago, he said that he was still receiving royalties from days…

what actually happened was that shortly after sft and lol premiered, irna approached pgp about moving tgl to television. according to her unfinished memoir, ‘all my worlds,’ head of pgp production, william craig rejected her idea, saying that only a serial created for television would succeed. so irna and ted corday adapted two tgl scripts, and irna paid for the pilot out of her own pocket. the fact that the show would be available on both radio and television was a big part of why pgp agreed.

except that when gl expanded to television in 1952, it continued on radio until 1956 to give people time — 4 years, not 4 weeks! — to adjust.

Not the best time for the show. And they had the gull to shove Conner and Mark down our throats on the 40th anniversary show i was on the set that day, which was gross enough. but then i heard from a reliable source they had planned to show mark’s bare butt. don’t know if they shot it, but thankfully, it didn’t make on screen.

true enough — i always forget about that when i discuss the factors that led to atwt’s demise. but, i was told (by a cbs programming exec) that the bell’s insisted that b&b run after y&r. and given the success of y&r, it’s not hard to understand why cbs agreed.

looking forward to this. very curious why kate mulgrew, mary munisteri, and claire labine’s kids weren’t included.

Thanks for the correction. Don't want to be guilty of the very thing I am objecting to ! be that as it may, the point being made is that what led to gloria monty, luke, laura, scotty was the fact that ‘general hospital’ was losing its time — badly, 8.6 vs 7— to ‘another world.’

true enough, but the point was that the fact that aw trouncing gh in the ratings was what they call in film ‘the inciting event.’

re aw creation: i believe that eddie drueding wrote that piece; liccardo and levine are quoted as sources.

while not widely seen, one of philip baker hall’s best performances was as a man descending into dementia, opposite the always exquisite lois smith in ‘ruth and erica. ruth and erica

surprised that no one’s mentioned kate mulgrew. my understanding was that claire labine wasn’t planning to have mary ryan become pregnant so soon after marrying jack, but wrote it in when kate became pregnant, leading to a protracted, and beautifully wrought, conflict between jack and mary. finding out years later that mulgrew had given up her daughter for adoption, then immediately had to play the mother of a newborn still gives me the shivers.

this preliminary obit in the ny times mentions his role on ‘another world,’ as do several of the comments. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/movies/ray-liotta-dead.html

nice piece on huffpost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marnie-schulenburg-dead_n_628604f2e4b02667554e7670

this is the link i though i embedded.

found it with bl’s help. 9 june 1994. thanks. after ed comes into ross’s room, ross takes off his briefs (or boxers) and talks about how as a bachelor, he can walk around the house naked whenever he wants. and watch how much peter simon is able to convey without saying a word.

sad, sad news. the morning of blake and ross’s wedding in 1994, ross and ed had a conversation — just a conversation between two old friends talking about their years of history — that i remember to this day, more than 25 years later . i cannot find it anywhere online. i’ve always suspected that it was part of the reel he submitted for his first emmy, in 1995. i remember reading somewhere that liz kiefer put together his reels. if anyone knows where it is, please post.

ahh — that would be bill bell.

just saw this: tamara tunie’’s in london playing kamala harris in a new play, 47th. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/apr/10/the-47th-review-old-vic-theatre-mike-bartlett-trumpian-satire

i was privileged (and lucky) to meet her twice — at the paley center event in 2010, and in 1996, when i was on the set covering the 40th anniversary episode. we finished the interview. but a bit later, she tracked me down to make sure she had told me about the huge crush she had on don mclaughlin when she join the show, as indeed she had.

just sat this: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bobby-rydell-teen-idol-dead-at-79_n_624cbae2e4b068157f7d6482 the music i grew up with — you can do the math.

in 1996, i looked through marland’s original longterm and can confirm that his original plan was for kelly and nola to end up together. i loved the idea and always wondered why the change — thought it might have come from p&g or cbs since nola was not the typical soap ingenue.

not quite. while their names are similar, gina belafonte is an actor (and the daughter of harry belafonte. ginia bellafante is a journalist and critic at the ny times (and time magazine before that).