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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

The first episode was recently auctioned on ebay. This information comes from the images made available in the auction listing.

Funny, the show didn't last much longer. Robert J. Shaw was the show's final writer and wrote for several years. I've read that CBS cancelled the show earlier in 1957, but kept postponing the conclusion because they hadn't finished the preparations for their replacement series. That must have been an awkward situation both onscreen and offscreen.

I chuckled when Coster was talking about people being fearful living in the Upper West Side and alluding to the racial / ethnic tensions. These subjects would never be broached in modern soap press. I enjoyed Coster's interview. The Hover one didn't engage me as much. The Hover family just seemed too nice. Maybe that makes me an awful person. lol

I read both the Bruder and Fulton interviews. Both provide interesting narratives. I found Bruder's story about the early days of her marriage interesting. The whole first dinner party sequence is something that would easily play on a soap back in the day, but you would never see play out today. Eileen Fulton is such an interesting character. She seems larger than life and yet grounded, if that makes any sense at all. She sounds like someone who is too big to be in the country, and yet she seems so at home. I found her comments about capital punishment and child rearing a bit shocking only in the sense you would never see such topics broached by the current soap press is such a natural manner. If any of this would have been talked about today, it would be presented with salacious undertones. I found Fulton a bit contradictory though when it came to mercy. She claims to prefer it, but that seemed in stark contradiction to her views on capital punishment earlier. I guess she could have been blinded by her friend's murder, but it seemed rather hypocritical.

I was looking through this thread again. Carl asked about when Leonard Stadd was fired. John Young, the show's final head writer, donated his papers to a university (Syravuse?) I believe his scripts only covered the last three months (Oct. - Dec. 1961). So Stadd would have been headwriter from Sept. 1960-Sept. 1961. I thought he was there longer as I had once read the creators Provo and Pickard were only with the series six months. Provo and Pickard's papers were donated to a television museum in California I believe. And, of course, there are scripts available for "From These Roots" in the P&G collection at Bowling State University. Anyway, it would seem our current writing credits for FTR would be: John Pickard / Frank Provo : June 1958 - September 1960 Leonard Stadd: September 1960-September 1961 John M. Young: October - December 1961

Thanks for posting this Carl. I never knew Mills last name was originally Miller. I like how Mills actually talks about what is happening on the show (her character being in the hospital / the flashbacks related to Laura's decision to become a nun) as they are usually more personal than this. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of Burr from his time on the show so it was nice to see tha Donnelly family pic.

I thought I would bump this thread. I was looking at synopses for "The City" and I read a news item about Fran Brill appearing on "All My Children." Brill appeared as Robbie, Erica's counselor at the Betty Ford Clinic. Her first appearance was January 31, 1996.

I've never been very interested in "The City" but I find these episodes and 'flakes' (great term SFK) intriguing. Visually, the show is strong and I can see why Jean Dadario Burke landed at AMC. Ignoring the lack of story and weak characterization, the show is stunning. I'm wondering what would have been if Burke could have EPed Claire Labine's "Union Place" using the sets from "the City." While I like the look, I find some of the characters out of place in a very real location. Watching some of the scenes at the bar between rock star Nick Rivers and television producer Richard Wilkins seems a bit awkward given the dialogue and the story. Some of the other Corinth transplants seem so out of place. On the otherhand, I have fallen under the charm of Maggie Rush, who I've only known as the psychic who found Angie's adopted baby in the finale. The stuff with Cooper arriving in New York for the holidays was well done. Without a doubt, Heinle did her best soap work on "Loving" / "The City." Weatherly is still good as Cooper. I kind of like the family Jacob, Angie, Frankie, Zoey, and Kayla make. Kayla's goodbye was well done and I like the scene with Sydney / Richard talk about Richard's break up with Zoey. At times, the show reminds me of the European soaps (both the British and the German). SFK, thanks for posting these.

AdelaideCate thank you for uploading those June 2000 episode. They were a real treat. I'd never watched the ABC soaps until SoapNet arrived so I reemmeber seeing bits and pieces of this time period with Cedric / Jamal / Alison and the arrival of Livvie. For the most part, I found myself enjoying these episodes and understand why many have said this was one of the strongest periods for the show. I'm surprised how integrated the cast of PC and GH is at this time. Alexis showing up as Frank's custody attorney and Alan appearing in scenes at GH. And look at soap vets Peter Hanson, Susan Brown, Maree Cheatam, and Nicholas Pryor all appearing in strong supporting roles. In particular, I'm surprised how much Gail appears in a professional role at GH. What a wonderful surprise. I like how they experimented with the episode structure. Initially, I wasn't a fan of the opening montage of everyone preparing for the custody case resolution, but I like how they bookended the episode with a similar montage of everyone back where they started. It was rather effective. Also, the back and forth between Julie telling Chris about Christina while the Baldwin / Coe clan celebrated Christina's birthday was great. I forgot how wonderful Carly Shroeder was as an actress. She was so charismatic and lively. The scenes where she and Scott go to viist her mother's grave and put flowers on Claire (the terminally ill patient Scott had helped secure the right to die at home) was touching as was SErena's offer to have Lucy adopt her. The little beats did so much while the story keeps moving at a quick pace. I like the atmosphere of the hospital and how it seems to drive a lot of the story and the interactions. I love cocky do gooder Ian scolding nwbie nurse Gabriella for her failure to insert the IV during the cycling accident. It was nice to see Ion Overman before she became the OTT vampire. I loved Alison telling Eve and Kevin that Rachel was a pariah now after the stunt she pulled at their wedding. I wish the show had continued to tell stories within the hospital as Karen Harris and Barbara Bloom did such a good job during this period. Watching the valerie stuff again upsets me deeply. I hated how they changed Hope's paternity as I felt it undermined Jamal's character. There was no reason to do that other than to ruin Jamal in order to pimp Rafe. "Secrets" was my favorite arc, but the Valerie plotline is such a blemish on a strong story. It was also nice to see the first Nurse's Ball episode in its entirety. I beleive LoriJo only has part of it on her youtube channel. Thanks again.

According to wikipedia, Sue Randall's was born Marion Burnside Randall.

This was neat. I've never seen Marion Randolph credited as Diane Emerson before. Considering this was the second anniversary, this would place Randolph as Diane around the fall of 1955. Most of the sources list Dolores Sutton and Sue Randall playing the role in 1955.

Carl, thanks for posting this article. It was a fun read. It sounds like 'The Doctors' had a lot of fun off screen. It was interesting to hear a bit more about Carolee Campbell's development on the show. I knew she started out as a U/5, but I was unaware of the connection to Rick Edelstein. It's been several years since I've seen "The Forsyte Saga." I really enjoyed the later installments with Susan Hampshire's character, Fleur, and her love for Jon and all the nasty history being revealed about Irene's first marriage. In the beginning, I recall it being a bit boring, but maybe I'm simply biased towards the later end of the saga. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I enjoyed the period she was EP more consistently than I did than when Robert Costello was there. In the beginning, George Lefferts was there for the first 13 weeks or so. I really liked the music in the beginning which was very moody and jazzy. I always attribute that to Lefferts, but I may have no right to. Schemering's book lists Avery as Edelstein's successor followed by the Pollocks, but I didn't see Doug Marland's name on his list at all. I thought the Averys were with "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" less than a year. I know they were sub writers under Irna Phillips, and I assume CBS hired them to maintain the ship when Irna left the serial late 1967/early 1968. I swore I read in a newspaper article that Don Ettlinger was hired in spring 1968. In the article, which I cannot find, I believe Tom Donovan announced Ettlinger's arrival and the introduction of Garrison family, who I had earlier assumed were a creation of the Averys. Please feel free to correct me on any of this as I'm wondering if the article I read wasn't dated spring 1969. I think Barrett came after Lee. I want to say Lee was there in 1983 when Gary Tomlin was head writing and they had the live episode. Barrett came after and hired Louise Shaffer and Malachy McCourt. I want to say she was EP when the AOL episodes started.There were so many writing / EP changes I cannot remember if Paul Avila Mayer worked under Barrett or one of the other producers. I like the Averys. From what I've read from people here, their work on "The Secret Storm" was very good. I believe the 1966 episode of "Storm" on youtube saynotoursoap is theirs. The Averys lived a rather interesting life. I believe Jane was a model before she married Ira and the two travelled a lot. Besides their TV work, they wrote several travel books about their time in Europe and, I believe, a restaurant guide. Jane's mother, Helen, had remarried and as living in Florida in the 1960s. One of the local papers would mention the Averys whenever they were in town to visit Helen in the society pages. There was nothing earth shattering revealed, but it seemed like the Averys would have fit in with their characters in Woodbridge.

Regarding Brown & Essensten and AMC, didn't they also introduce Samuel Woods and his son, Dre? I also seem to remember tuning in once and seeing Samuel's father. That was all under them, correct? When I started watching GL under B&E, the only black characters featured were Vicky Spaulding and David, but I think Sugar Hill and Dahlia Crede had been written off only a little bit earlier. To be fair to B & E, Paul Raunch's GL was very lily white. The only attempt to integrate was with the Boudreau family, and the less said about them the better. An interesting group of actors, for the most part, some intersting potential, but no story time or development. Back to "Loving," I think Elise Neal's Janie Sinclair was intended for bigger things. In her short run, they mixed her up with a lot the cast. Initally, she was dating the thug who kidnapped Angie Hubbard when she was in Chicago or some other large urban area. Hardshelled Janie eventually helped Angie get back home, and Angie realized Janie had been abused by the boyfriend. Once in Corinth, Janie took advanage of Steffi and Cooper, who were determined to learn the secret Deborah had used to blackmail Clay into marriage. Janie ran with it and told them she (Janie) was Clay's illegitimate daughter. Cooper put her up in a nice room, but Frankie exposed her as a fraud. I was never a huge Buck fan, but I thought the revelation Janie was his daughter was interesting as it tied Janie to Trucker and the Aldens by extension. There was a bit there where Janie was attracted to Buck, not knowing he was her father, but overall Janie was interesting. Also, the press release in SOD or one of the mags about Neal said she was intended for Frankie. Janie's death was supposedly one of Uncle Harry's predictions, but the original prediction said it would be someone close to Ava. I'm not sure Ava and Janie even had a scene together. More likely, the show intended to kill off Dinahlee as Jessica Collins decided not to renew her contract with the show. Dinahlee and Ava were good friends so her death would have impacted Ava. A couple of Harry's other predictions also didn't really play out the way they were suppose to. Harry suggested someone would come into money (i.e. the Rescotts own Alden Enterprises) but that story was resolved rather quickly. I suspect it would have been a story that would have pitted Ava against Alex as Alex was incredibly close to the Aldens.

Frankie appeared on "The City," but he wasn't there for the full run. I assume Alimi Ballard left at the end of his three year contract like most of his age group did. Did they really ever use Frankie? I've read some episode recaps where they hint Frankie / Stephanie might become a couple and then they hired Elise Neal to play Frankie's Erica Kane-esque love interest only to kill her off after three or four months. I believe on "The City" his character had a story with Monti Sharp's James, but I'm not sure what it was. I'm not sure if B + E were planning the revamp in advance. I seem to recall the network announcing the plans at some sort of celebration ; either an early anniversary party or a pivotal episode number in May / early June. The show had such big holes to fill in 1995 with the departures of Robert Tyler, Michael Weatherly, and Paul Anthony Stewart. I'm sure landing Darnell Williams was a coup and the show built on the Charles / Angie story that Nixon started (didn't they actually marry under Nixon when Angie nearly died or am I confusing Angie / Charles with Ava / Alex). My point is the show would have had to undergo major changes in 1995 even if "The City" wasn't a part of the overall plan.