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Levinson was a writer on "General Hospital." I think he was the headwriter before Labine arrived in the 1990s. Later, he was on the writing staff for "The City." Looking at the credits of the episodes saynotoursoap has posted of "Loving" from 1987, it would seem Ralph Ellis was also listed at the top. I believe Ellis is credited as headwriter in Schemering's book, but Levinson wasn't. It would appear that Levinson took over from Marland in 1985 and was gone by January 1987. Not sure what is going on with Ava and the gun. I really think the show began to fall apart again around this time. A lot of this stuff doesn't really go anywhere all that interesting, which is a shame because Ava / Curtis / Stacey / Jack should have played out for years. Really, Heather should have been Curtis' daughter and Curtis should have been involved in Lily's return in the late 1980s. Eventually, the quad should have been usurped by Cooper / Ally / Casey / Steffy. Mike was the Vietnam vet. I think he was emotionally distant and had trouble connecting with everyone, including the ones he loved. Your timing on that October 1985 summary is perfect. Your summary would probably be late August/early September, which places the partial episode in August 1985. Marland would have been gone about two months. Marland stayed two years and there was tons of turnover even when he was there. The show dumped two of the main plots rather abruptly. The LIly story was quickly wrapped up in January 1984 with the younger set switching things up a bit. Stacey / Tony / Lorna had a brief run before the show settled into Stacey / Jack / Ava. Similarly, the Doug / Merrill / Roger story was wrapped up rather quickly in the spring of 1984. Merrill left for D.C. in March, Roger died in April. By May, Doug had married newcomer Edy Lester and was involved in the first round of the Jonathan Maitlane story. Around December, you have another casting purge. Jonathan and Edy are killed off. Doug leaves town. Rita Mae catches Billy in bed with a co-ed and Billy takes a coaching job in the South in January 1985. In return, Gwyneth and Trisha return to Corinth for Christmas and Steve Sowolsky also pops up. Really, the show rarely had a stable cast. I have a book from 1984 where some cast member states they had nicknamed the soap "Leaving" because no one stayed long in the beginning. It featured a picture of W.T. Martin and Marilyn McIntyre, who were the latest to depart the soap at the time of the publication.

Boyton's character Beau was the one Lauren Woodard had recently married in the July 1983 episode that was on youtube. Lauren was the tormented blonde ingénue pregnant by a Catlin and taunted by a catty Crissy Catlin. I'm not sure if Boyton played the character when Beau and Lauren were involved. Alice Mitchell Barrett stated spent most of the summer of 1984 with Boyton and Hill. By the fall, Boyton was released from his contract because the character was in Argentina at Thanksgiving. Hill and Barrett have appeared in other episodes that popped up online. Barrett was briefly seen in the July 1984 episode at the very end drinking a soda at the race track while Julie Ridley's Maggie Catlin contemplated what to do about her relationship with Dirk. I think Lionel Richie's "Stuck on You" played in the background. Barrett and Hill also popped up in a November 1984 episode. They were in a cabin being watched by someone, or something. I'm not really sure where that story was going. I'm wondering if this clip features the first appearance of Jacquie as she is being introduced to Beau and Woody, who were the major players. It does seem like she knows Lucian and that she is already working at the stables, so maybe she has been around for a little bit. Anyway, these were fun.

Thank you so much for this. I know this show was mainly a mess, but it fascinates me. They were clearly setting up a big cliffhanger with hopes of an eventual return and tagged on the stuff in the convent at the end. Christine Jones' speech was once featured on youtube, audio only. It's nice to read it as some parts were fuzzy. I don't remember why Jeff was in jail. I assume it had something to do with the gambling / boxing / racing story he was involved with. The stuff involving Youngblood and C.J. is interesting as I had read little about it. I thought Youngblood was attached to the white supremacy storyline for some reason. It's interesting to read they brought Aaron Fields in so late in the game and how Taylor Chapin's return in the form of Lorrine Voznoff goes completely unmentioned, as well as Patrick Chapin being Michelle Davenport's father. Anyway, it was given a fair chance, but I still would like to have seen what might have happened in another six months or so. I think the Carter-C.J. stuff could have gone on for a while, but some of the younger set definitely needed some work. Thanks again! Your contributions don't receive enough praise.

Here's a partial episode from 1985 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmjjy4PTh04 I want to say this was late summer / early fall. As I recall, Elizabeth Burr's Noreen Donovan wasn't around all that long. I think April until November. Again, Levinson is listed at the start of the writers credits. Baby Johnny was born in May/June and became sick and September, which I think either led to Ava/Jack reuniting or just Jack/Stacey separating. Jeff Trachta's character was around until May / June 1986. I'm thinking he died in a police shootout, but I cannot really remember all the details. He was intended as a spoiler for Dolly / Keith and they weren't around much longer either. I think their last big moment in the story was Dolly meeting her daughter. Jane Powell's Rebekah Beecham was Linc's businesswoman mother. Marland had introduced Linc Beecham and his brother Judd as Dane Hammond's partners in the takeover of Alden Enterprises. Dane had worked for the Aldens for years and had been dismissed because Curtis suspected him of embezzlement. Anyway, Linc fell for Susan Walters' Lorna and, of course, their conflict was that Linc had stolen Lorna's family company. At this point, Marland left and subsequent writers (Levinson? Nixon?) introduced Rebekah Beecham, Linc's mother, who was against Linc and Lorna's relationship. She popped up after Linc and Lorna were in a plane crash in the fall. During sweeps, Rebekah revealed Linc already had a wife. Eventually, Zona came to town and claimed she was having Linc's baby. Zona was crazy and Rebekah was egging her on. Rebekah wanted Zona and Linc to remain married in order to get her hands on Zona's land. Eventually, Zona took her own life, but Lorna stood trial for the murder. A SW fan had posted most of the tail end of SW's run in Italian several years ago. SW played the Zona / murder storyline. I think in the final Italian clips we saw SW in jail. I get the impression O'Hara played all the Zach Conway (John Gabriel) stuff. After they dumped Linc, they briefly brought in a Judd recast for Ava, but that didn't last long.

I'm the one usually complaining about the Dolly plot. The more disturbing element wasn't featured. Later, it is revealed that Dolly had had a child with Carl, the pimp she referred to in her conversation with Hunt Belden. Hunt claims to have knowledge of where the child is and attempts to (successfully or unsuccessfully, I cannot remember) lure Dolly into an affair. At one point, Hunt tells Dolly that Carl sold the child to child pornographers in order to cause Dolly grief. Then again, I have similar feelings about the current AMC plot involving Cassandra Foster. The guy speaking with the older woman is identified later as Terry in conversation with Harry and Pirate. I'm not sure how he fits into the story and its odd that we got that bit with him and the lady. Even though he is listed in the credits, Anthony Herrera is on the way out the door at this point leaving both Gwyn and Ann open in terms of romantic story. Maybe they considered increasing Terry's role before going with the Harry triangle. I was surprise to see William Levinson listed as leading the writing staff. I found it bizarre that no one was separated, but I think it was later like that when Ralph Ellis was writer. I don't know what to think.

This was posted ages ago but it seems fairly close in date to this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_6TRwbSqKM

It looks like the real first episode has popped up on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDjGrSw50rU The user has uploaded other episodes including what appears to be most of the final two weeks.

Some brief clips featuring Alice Barrett Mitchell, Peter Boyton (the first online clips I've seen of him in the role of Beau), and Charles Hill. Scene I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT5po_InRvo Scene 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzgEsGSpK08 Scene 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78xnUZpEDX4 Scene 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SDPS5Snxnk Scene 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQZvNqDYESE

A 1986 "Loving." This doesn't seem to be long after the other 1986 already online. This seems to be from about February / March. Part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUCLvjDDw0w Part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDLlXS404wg

Shout! Factory is releasing the complete series December 3rd.

In the 1984 AOL episodes, both TR and Martin were present. I think Aniston was only there on a recurring basis and departed within a few weeks of the start of the AOL run.

The Aniston interview was neat. Interesting hearing him talk about both his children. I thought the Jane Krawkowski story was particularly interesting. I agree that Eddie seemed like a wasted role, but I'm not sure I agree with his rationale. Rooney's role on LOL was Dory Patton, wasn't it? Gail was her Rooney's SFT role. I only remember because I believe both roles appeared in the 1977-1978 period and I've read those SOD synopses several times over. I didn't realize how far the prison rape story had gotten. If this was to have happened to Bill, I think that certainly been an interesting dynamic to Laura and Bill's relationship since I suspect they would have utilized Laura's role as psychiatrist and the conception of little Michael to complicate their already rocky history. The 10 tips for Victor were humorous.

In "The Fan Who Knew Too Much," the author states that Orin Tovrov ("Ma Perkins" and "The Doctors") created "The Brighter Day" and that Irna Phillips later took over the show after several years. The writer of this book, Anthony Heilburt(?), was posting years ago on a radio soap board and mentioned he thought he found mentions of the original location on "Ma Perkins." He didn't mention this in his book, but I was rather surprised to read that he seemed confident that BD was Tovrov's work. This site features a letter dated May, 1950 where Tovrov writes to Margaret Draper (Liz). It is shortly after he left the series. http://playingintheworldgame.wordpress.com/tag/brighter-day/ Irna Phillip's script collection in Wisconsin starts with scripts of "The Brighter Day" from December 1950. Heilburt suggests in his book that Phillips took the series away from Tovrov, but I wonder if there was another writer between Tovrov and Phillips. http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;view=reslist;subview=standard;didno=uw-whs-us0076an;focusrgn=C01;cc=wiarchives;byte=321238519

I mentioned Liza Chapman in the "Kitty Foyle" thread. I noticed on IMDb that her son has posted a biography for her that I had not previously seen. It lists her role on "The Secret Storm" as Barbara Bradford. According to her son, she appeared in two episodes. I believe I found an article from the time of Chapman's death that said she had appeared in November 1966. I read here, or another board, that there had been talk of the character appearing in a recurring capacity. I don't know if that's true or if the character was recast.

Could that be an early advertisement prior to Kathleen Murray's hiring? Carleton E. Morse didn't have much success on TV despite "One Man's Family" having such a long run on radio. Some of his papers are housed at the Thousand Oaks Library along with John Pickard / Frank Provo's papers. John Pickard had adapted "One Man's Family" for Austrailian radio before arriving in the States where he ended up staying with Morse and meeting Provo, who I believe was acting on OMF as Claudia's husband or suitor. I've wondered if Morse and Pickard kept in touch despite Morse being West Coast and Pickard/Provo being East Coast. It's a shame Murray died so young. This was only a few years after Liza Chapman's (AW) untimely death.

Thanks for posting the articles about Nancy Stephens and Peter Ratray. Ratray's wife would have been pregnant at the same time as his onscreen wife, Pamela Murphy. I don't remember if I knew that. Anyway, in trying to learn more about the Ratray-Willis baby I stumbled upon the info that they had another child, Devin Ratray, who appeared as MacCauley Culkin's older brother Buzz in the "Home Alone" films. I didn't care for Ratray's sleazy stockbroker character on "Ryan's Hope," though I would be interested to see how he was on "Bright Promise."

It's in the January 1952 TV Radio Mirror. It's about 36 or so pages in. Given today is the anniversary of Maggie's first appearance on "Days of our Lives," the article is worth looking over. The Faith Richards story is fairly similar to the one involving Maggie on "Days." I know Bell wrote for Irna Phillips. I have to wonder if he didn't write for "The Road of Life" for a few years. Otherwise, it is a rather blatant copy of another author's story. http://archive.org/details/radiotvmirror00macf

Bumping for relevance

Dr. Carl feel free to post any articles you want, or mention the article and the issue it is in. I'm slowly jumping from issue to issue with no rhyme or reason. Some of those summaries are INCREDIBLY frustrating because they are so repetitive and provide so little information. I've recently read a book written by a radio fan who has turned me onto some other radio series. I'm become very interested in the work of Provo and Pickard ("Young Doctor Malone" and "Wendy Warren and the News") as well as Charles Gusman ("Road of Life"). There were some wonderfully detailed articles on the marriage of Jerry Malone and his first wife, I want say Carol Evans, but that might Dr. Jim Brent's first wife. Anyway, if there is anything that piques your interest, feel free to mention the issue and I'll look it up. I was surprised to see some of those brief TV serials covered. I'll need to look into more, but according to Daytime Diary synopses, Constance Ford's "Woman With a Past" had a bit of a different set up than the soap historians have recorded and there are additional details about characters on "The Seeking Heart" that I hadn't heard about. I was also shocked to see Joe Sullivan pop up in those Daytime Diary summaries as early 1956 for "Secret Storm" as I thought the character wasn't around until much later.

I don't know if this has been discussed, but most of Radio Mirror and TV-Radio Mirror is available online thanks to the Library of Congress via archive.org. For daytime fans, the Daytime Diary section began in November 1949 and continued until July or August 1956. Starting in late 1953 (November, I think) the show starts covering television serials. They would appear to be about three months behind as "Valiant Lady," premiering in October 1953 is first mentioned in January 1954. Of course there are multiple articles of interest to fans about individual shows across the years. I found one detailing my favorite, "Right to Happiness," about a couple named Whelan who I had never heard about and learned that Carolyn once worked as a reporter. An article about "The Road of Life" detailed a rather juicy plotline in which Sybil Overton, an old school bitch goddess, plotted to pass off the child of her late husband on her maid, Pearl Snow, in order to land her man, Dr. Jim Brent. Of course, in order to do so, Sybil had to arrange a marriage between Pearl and a merchant marine, who fell in love with Pearl and threatened to destroy Sybil's detailed plans.

I need to catch up these among other things. If that episode features Joshua (?) Locke, Rachel's ex husband, I vaguely remembering seeing it during the original run and I wasn't a regular PC viewer. Alison / Livvie / Jamal / Jack were really a wonderful set of characters despite having some not so wonderful stories once the books began.

Gavin Houston is in the cast as well. He was the Remy prior to Lawrence St. Victor on "Guiding Light."

Cool ad. Thanks for posting, Carl. I'll try to read some more of these this weekend.

April Joy Slater was Arlene's daughter with Ian Russell, her top client when she was prostituting herself. To make everything even more skeevy, I believe Ray was her pimp. When Arlene was a hooker, she was in love with Tom Crawford. I don't really remember when the show switched from Arlene / Tom to Arlene / Ray. The evolution of Ray as a leading figure is bit before its time. It's reminiscent of soap's mob love in the 90s and 00s. Regarding transition, the cast had gotten pretty big. I imagine some cuts would have to be made. It kills me to know Abbi was dumping Tudi Wiggins almost as much as that Raxl hairdo they had Meg in during the Tuesday episode. Considering how quickly the show was cancelled, I would love to know if Marcus kept any unproduced scripts / breakdowns / story projections. Bambi's story had just wrapped up that week. Marcus wrapped up Tony's Vietnam child plot, the one I assume she planned to use on "Days" with Chris Kositchek, by sending Tran, the Chans, and Kim out of town. She just didn't have any real story in the final episode. The plans for the Wilson sisters appeared onscreen. Kelly Wilson was set to be involved in a love triangle with Wes Osborne, Mia's brother who was DJing at the disco in the Dana Delaney clip, and Cheryl Kingsley, who may have been the blond dancing at the disco in the clips. With Meg set to depart, Lianne and Tom would probably been presented with another obstacle. Andrew Marriott had a crush on Lianne so I suspect that may have gone somewhere.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-TV-SHOW-SCRIPT-60s-ONE-LIFE-TO-LIVE-ORIGINAL-Dr-Stanton-SOAP-OPERA-/290876055007?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b9905ddf