Paul Raven

Gunsmoke came to television from radio in Fall 1955 and played Sat @10. By it's second season it was Top 10 and became the #1 show for 3 seasons. It expanded to an hour and each season ratings fell until 1966-67 it fell out of the Top 30, at which point it was up for cancellation. Instead it moved to Mondays @ 8 and returned to the Top 10 till 1974.

Next psycho-Mari Jo Mason...

DANIELLE BRISEBOIS AS THE WORLD TURNS pre 1977.

CAPITOL Peter Elliott ... Michael Reagan 85 - at least 86 Party chair The show taped at CBS Television City will be broadcast April 3(1986 )Joining the 41 -year-old Reagan in the one-day guest appearance were the show's stars Catherine Hickland and Dane Witherspoon (He may have dome more appearances?)

Celeste Holm, the consummate pro, returns to television By 808 THOMAS Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - When Celeste Holm made her “Falcon Crest" debut with the season finale, she naturally enough asked what was in store for her character when she returns for five new episodes in the fall. “We don’t know,” said the producers of the hit CBS serial. “We haven’t written it yet.” Did Miss Holm worry? Not a bit. Since 1946 she has been contributing her skills to Hollywood with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of professionalism. Her visits here have often been rewarding, including the supporting actress Academy Award for “Gentleman’s Agreement” in 1947 and nominations for “Come to the Stable” in 1949 and “All about Eve” in 1950. Her latest assignment casts her as Anna Rossini, the Italian mother of Cassandra Wilder (Anne Archer) who has dedicated her life to ruining the domineering vineyard matriarch Angela Channing (Jane Wyman) in “Falcon Crest.” “Obviously,” remarked the blonde, blue-eyed Miss Holm, “I come from the northern part of Italy.” She is no stranger to television. Back in 1954 she starred in “Honestly Celeste,” a comedy that lasted less than three months even though it was written by the estimable Larry Gelbart of later “MASH’fame. A White House comedy called “Nancy” perished after a few episodes in 1970 from “a lack of similitude.” She also bears scars of last season’s “Jesse,” the Lindsay Wagner series about a police psychiatrist that was shot down by network sniping. “It’s fun to be in a series that works,” she said of the “Falcon Crest” assignment. Celeste Holm is a brainy Easterner who never quite fit into the local pattern. After a brilliant career on Broadway, especially as the original Ado Annie in “Oklahoma!” and the title role in “Bloomer Girl,” she began work for 20th Century-Fox in 1946. Her first films were unpromising: “Three Little Girls in Blue” and “Carnival in Costa Rica.” Then came “Gentleman’s Agreement.” “I never really felt comfortable out here,” Miss Holm recalled. “My agents used to take me to parties. Social life was much more organized in those days. People stared at me, and I could read in their eyes what they were saying; I wonder how much money I could make out of her.’ I became very defensive.” Her career at Fox was progressing well until 1950 when the studio started making cutbacks during a box-office slump due to television. When her contract called for a raise, studio boss Darryl Zanuck asked her to stay on at the same salary. “When I declined, Zanuck said he would call all the other studios and tell them not to hire me,” the actress said. “I couldn’t get a job in films for two years. At the moment it seemed like a dumb decision on my part, but I was young and impatient.” Strangely, Zanuck allowed her to be cast in Joseph Mankiewicz’s landmark “All about Eve.” She remembered co-star Marilyn Monroe as a “pretty little dumb girl who kept everyone waiting.” Of George Sanders she recalled: “Offstage he said not one word to anyone, just disappeared into his dressing room. Anyone that alienated is in a lot of trouble.” Sanders took his own life in Barcelona in 1972, ascribing his end to “boredom.” Miss Holm and her fourth husband, actor Wesley Addy, divide their time between Manhattan and her family’s fifth-generation farm in New Jersey. She heads New Jersey’s film and TV commission and serves on the National Endowment for the Arts.

Desert Sun June 5 1981 NBC hunting for daytime viewers By TOM JOHY Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) With ratings on the tumble and affiliates threatening to jump ship, NBC canceled that bold experiment in daytime TV, “The David Letterman Show,” last Oct. 20, and began a steady climb toward respectability. NBC’s share of the audience has increased since ‘Letterman’ left the air from 16 percent of the folks watching TV during the day to 20 percent. ABC, in the meantime, has lost three points, from 31 percent of the audience to 28, while CBS’ share has dipped from 28 to 26. No one blames Letterman himself for NBC's near-disaster. The talented comic recently won an Emmy as outstanding host of a daytime variety series “Obviously, there’s been some sort of mixup,” Letterman quipped as he accepted the award and remains under contract to the network. “The pressure the stations put the network under was enormous," said Irv Wilson, an NBC vice president responsible for daytime programming “If we hadn’t canceled the show, the stations might have canceled out on us.” It was the kind of headache NBC’s president, Fred Silverman, didn’t need. Silverman has had his hands full since taking the job in the summer of ’7B, trying to lift the network from the prime-time cellar. But that’s another story. “I think it was a terrific idea to do that kind of show,” Wilson said in reflection “I just don’t think Letterman’s appeal was to the morning audience. But you don’t know until you try.” NBC tossed a couple of new game shows, “Las Vegas Gambit” and “Blockbusters,” into the Letterman’ void, and the two have been at least moderately successful. In the meantime, Wilson and the people who work for him were determined to upgrade the remainder of the daytime schedule. “We hit a low point when Letterman’ was canceled,” Wilson said. “The two games that we put in there are sound, interesting programs and seem to be doing well. "We felt that the best thing the network could do was let the schedule settle in, then try to make the shows better improve the writing, improve the production.” Among other things, NBC dumped Bill and Joyce Corrington as head writers for “Texas,” the daytime serial introduced with fanfare last August opposite the ABC supersoap, “General Hospital.” “Texas” recently has shown some sign of vitality, though “General Hospital” remains tops in the afternoon field with 37 percent of the audience in the 3-4 p m. slot to 15 percent for the NBC soap “Days of Our Lives,” 1-2 p.m., is NBC’s highest-rated afternoon show, with nearly a quarter of the audience in its time period. “I think what we have is better today,” Wilson said, “and I think the ratings show that the tactic is beginning to pay some dividends.” Now, with momentum clearly a factor, NBC will test something new, a program called “Wedding Day,” in which couples will exchange marriage vows and share other events like the bridal shower, bachelor party and reception with the TV audience. “Wedding Day” will be broadcast in the “Password Plus" timeslot, 11:30 a.m.-noon EDT, June 8-12. “I think the show plays exactly to the audience we are looking for,” Wilson said, “and it’s going to be an interesting trial.”

Knots geared up for a Summer season with Johnny,Paige etc but it never happened. I think with some clever planning a Summer season could work? Say with limited appearances from JR/Bobby and a focus on other characters eg something like Ray get's involved in a new business venture and interacts with new characters for a Summer story arc. Of course, viewers might not be happy with a JR free show.

Desert Sun 29 October 1987. NBC primed to start soaps next summer by Gary Deeb. Nothing's been announced yet, but this column has learned exclusively that NBC will make an unprecedented move next summer by launching two brand-new weekly prime-time soap operas The hot weather experiment will seek to 'capitalize on the lack of first-run summertime programming on the Peacock's two competitors. The bold plan was confirmed by NBC program chief Brandon Tartikoff, who believes that at least one of the two summer serials could become a permanent year-round series. 'Im real excited about this.' Tartikoff told me. I know the nighttime soaps are all declining right now in popularity, and a couple of them may get canceled by the end of this season But that's what makes this the right time to put these new soaps on the air. If Knots Landing or Dynasty or Falcon Crest should get canceled next spring because of low numbers, that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of prime-lime soap viewers out there, it just means that those fans have grown tired of these particular programs that have been on for so long. If NBC's summertime soap ploy results in strong audience response, one of those off-season newcomers might get Tartikoff's blessing as a permanent fulltime program "If the viewers are there in big numbers and if quality of the show looks good, I'd be prepared to keep it on right into the fall, without interruption." he said. Furthermore should NBC achieve that sort of success, the weekly nighttime soap opera would be telecast virtually throughout the calendar year with no reruns and no three-month summer vacation. My firm desire is to put a weekly soap on the air with 40 fresh episodes each year, rather than the usual 22 or 24 or 26," Tartikoff declared. Of course, that would be extremely costly it we did the show like most hour-long weekly series. But we are looking at ways to cut the costs and therefore make it financially viable to keep a show like this on the air just about around the calendar. What I want is to develop a series that would cost us around $500,000 per episode, instead of the usual average of $900,000. Now how can I do that ? Well, maybe we'll shoot the show on tape instead of film. Tape is cheaper. Also, the cast of a program like this wouldn't have your customary 12 to 15 regular cast members, maybe we could keep it down to six or seven. I've already got five producers who want to try it. but we ll only do two soaps like this on a trial basis next summer, so I'm gonna have to disappoint at least three of those five people." Less than five years ago, when NBC was mired in a miserable last place prime-time standing, Tartikoff was continually frustrated by the presence of popular serials on the two rival networks Dynasty" on ABC; and Dallas," Falcon Crest" and Knots Landing on CBS Whenever NBC attempted to create a hit nighttime serial, the result was failure like “Flamingo Road." “The Yellow Rose" and Berrenger's." “We were never able to put together a successful prime-time serial, Tartikoff said. Meanwhile, the soaps on the other networks were rolling along and clobbering us week after week So I know it's ironic that now just as all those nighttime soaps are running out of gas and the genre is supposedly dying NBC is ready to come along and take a chance that the audience is ready for a new soap or two. I honestly think it could work." In addition to trying to squeeze out a hit program for its primetime lineup. NBC' also is planning the summertime soap ploy as a way of stopping the flow of viewers away from the major networks in June, July and August. Peacock program boss Tartikoff has stated regularly that all three big networks are risking the permanent loss of many viewers by continuing the old practice of wall-to-wall reruns virtually every night all summer . *Obviously Tartikoff/NBC went cold on the idea. Maybe they just couldn't get the finances right. I wonder if they reached out to people with daytime experience who knew how to structure/ produce on a more limited budget. ABC had already tried with The Hamptons, which failed.

Desert Sun 22 January 1988 ‘Dallas’ ponders its format By JERRY BLACK AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES The primetime soap opera Dallas may drop the serial format if CBS renews the show for an 11th year in the fall, officials said. Discussions are now under way between Lonmar Telepictures and CBS over creative changes in the show, Barbara Brogliatti, a spokeswoman for Lorimar said this week. One means of pumping new life into the show, which has declined in the ratings in recent years, is to have each story begin and end in the same episode."We've tested the idea with the audience and found that our viewers love the idea of self-con-tained stories." said Brogliatti. She said Lorimar and CBS were also considering dropping the serial formal for Falcon Crest, another soap opera that has dropped in the ratings A third Lorimar serial on CBS, Knots Landing, would remain unchanged. Although the changes are being contemplated, it will not be known until mid May whether CBS will renew the shows. Dallas, which made its debut in April 1978 did not begin as a serial, but gradually switched over. The Who shot J R ?” cliffhanger at the end of the 1979-80 season generated phenomenal worldwide interest. When the show returned in the fall it was first in the ratings and stayed at the lop for three of the next four years.In the 1982-83 season it was in second place. Meanwhile. Charlene Tilton is returning to Dallas as vivacious Lucy Ewing for the final two episodes of this season She would stay with the show if it comes back in the fall. Tilton had left the show two years ago because the producers felt they were unable to develop interesting stories for a woman of her young age,Brogliatti said. Now that she is older, she is returning to the show and one of the questions that must be decided is the status of Lucy Ewing’s marriage to Mitch Cooper, played by Leigh McCloskey. *Do you think a move to self contained stories would have made any difference?

PATRICIA HUSTON FOR BETTER OR WORSE March-April 1960 5 week role

Desert Sun, Number 194, 17 March 1984 Koch plans horse series in Kentucky By DAVID McCORMICK Associated Press Writer HENDERSON, Ky. (AP) Kentucky millionaire horse breeder and plantation owner Wilson Calhoun so far is just a character in the mind of Hollywood producer Howard W. Koch. But if Koch is successful, Calhoun will be the hero of an ABC television series called “Kentucky” which he describes as a cross between CBS’ steamy soap, “Dallas,” and NBC’s frontier saga, “Centennial.” The producer for Paramount studios has received the go-ahead from ABC to draft a script for a two-hour pilot show that could air this fall. Filming would begin this summer if the script is approved. And, depending on the audience response, a regular series could be on the air by next January. “What it basically is is a modern story with flashbacks,” Koch said in a telephone interview from his Hollywood office. “It’s the saga of the Calhoun family from the time of Daniel Boone right up to the present,” Calhoun, Koch said, is a 60-year-old, twicewidowed, fifth-generation native of the Bluegrass State. He manages his 3,000-acre estate near Lexington between big financial dealings that take him to New York, Chicago and occasionally to an exotic foreign country. He has two sons and a daughter and the plot will get rather tangled, Koch said. “It’s a high-rolling set. It’s about power and how power works and how power corrupts. “He faces a world of trials and tribulation just like everybody else, but in Kentucky, which is different from everyplace else.” The idea is just fine with Lynda Jalbert, director of the Kentucky Film Office. “What it will do for tourism is just really a coup for Kentucky, kind of like what ‘Dallas’ has done for Dallas and South Fork,” she said. “They have hundreds of people daily to visit South Fork,” the Texas ranch where the television series’ Ewing family is shown heading its international oil empire. The film office was created in 1976 to attract movie and television producers to Kentucky. Since then, major pictures filmed in the state include “Coal Miner’s Daughter" and “Stripes.” “We just finished shooting another one with the working title of “River Rats,’” Ms. Jalbert said. “It should be out before very long.” Kentucky’s varied geography makes it a fine film location, she said. “The only things we don’t have are deserts or beaches Otherwise, we have everything in the way of locations I think any producer could possibly want.” The pilot is being written by the husband-wife team of Stephen and Elinor Karpf, who wrote the movie "Love Story” and the script for the daytime TV soap opera “Capital.” Koch said the publishing firm of Simon and Schuster has agreed in principle to publish a novel this summer also with the working title “Kentucky” based on the pilot script Asked to assess the chances his idea has for becoming a TV series, Koch said “It’s a crap game. I’d say right now it’s about 50-50.” Certainly, the networks are interested in the bigfamily sagas, with their feuds and double-dealing. Among this season’s most popular programs are “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” about the oil-rich Carrington family in Denver and “Falcon Crest,” set in the lush northern California wine valleys. If producers could squeeze intrigue out of the wine industry, they certainly can make hay with the horse-breeding business

SEPT 1 1987 Character actor Karl Bruck dies LOS ANGELES (AP) - Karl Bruck. a character actor known to daytime soap opera fans for more than a decade as Maestro Ernesto Faustch on the CBS saga “The Young and the Restless,” died Aug. 21 of cancer. He was 81. In addition to his role on "The Young and the Restless," Bruck was seen regularly on such TV shows as “The Fugitive.” "Star Trek." "Mission; Impossible," “It Takes a Thief" and “Love Boat.”

Desert Sun January 27 1986 Martha Scott takes role on ‘General Hospital’ By JERRY BUCK AP LOS ANGELES (AP) Martha Scott has departed CBS’ “Dallas" and now is playing a mysterious grandmother in ABC's daytime soap opera “General Hospital.” “There are very few parts for, shall we say, older women," Miss Scott said. “This is an extraordinary role for a woman who’s been around all these years. People don’t write roles for women my age. It gives me a channel to do something different. I had a little bit of it in The Turning Point.’ She was the entrepreneur. There's some of it in my role in Dallas.’ as a woman who’s trying to guide her daughter’s life.” Miss Scott played Sue Ellen Ewing’s mother on "Dallas” for seven episodes this season. In November, she showed up on “General Hospital” as Jennifer Talbot, the grandmother of Terry (Robyn Bernard). The girl has a tough emotional problem and you begin to wonder what influence the grandmother has over her," Miss Scott said. “You know from the moment she sees her grandmother she’s terribly shocked. She has a terribly nice facade. She’s very polite, slightly Victorian in her way She speaks her language a little differently. People around Terry notice this woman has a tremendous influence on her mind. "As it develops it gets more intense and mysterious and horrible,” she said. “To be honest, I don’t really know what’s going to happen. It’s like Dallas,’ They won’t tell the actors anything.” Miss Scott, most noted as a film and stage actress and producer, had a fling at soap opera earlier in her career. "I had a daytime show in the 1950 s called Modern Romances,’ ” she said "I told a story and it was enacted by a group of actors. We did a complete story every week. 1 remember they let me out to do Ben Hur ’ The wonderful part of it was that the kids all knew me. I was the last face on NBC before Howdy Doody' came on. Kids would run up to me and say, ‘I know you! You’re on before "Howdy Doody.’ ”

Desert Sun, Number 278, 25 June 1985New Ewing is heir apparent to ‘Dallas’ good guy roleBy JERRY BUCK AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - Dack Rambo. the latest Ewing to turn up on CBS’ “Dallas,” is the heir apparent to the good guy role vacated by Patrick Duffy. Duffy quit the show after seven seasons and his character. Bobby Ewing, was killed in the last show of the season. Rambo was in the last five shows, playing Jack Ewing, a cousin to Bobby and J.R. Ewing, the slippery oilman played to perfection by Larry Ragman “Hopefully, Jack was brought in to fill the good guy role, although in the beginning we re not sure where he stands,” Rambo says. “I think that’s essentially what it’ll be because there’s only one villain, and that’s Larry Hagman. “It’ll be a nice change for me. On 'All My Children’ I was a ruthless character. On Paper Dolls' I was evil Wesley Harper. Lloyd Bridges played my father, the head of the empire. He had everything and 1 wanted it all. I’d stop at nothing to get Papa out of the way. Unfortunately, the show wasn't given enough of a chance to find an audience.” At first it was suggested that Rambo take over the Bobby Ewing role, but that was considered a risky thing “It would have been difficult for people to accept someone else in that role,” he says. “Patrick has a large following.” The woods seem to be full of Ewings Jenny Lee Harrison has also joined the show as his sister, Jamie She is married to Cliff Barnes, the Ewings' archenemy. “They just got married, but I don’t know how happy they’ll be,” Rambo says Jack and Jamie are the children of Jason, a brother to Jock Ewing. Jason never appeared on “Dallas' but was occasionally mentioned His death was announced early last season He was the partner of Digger Barnes, the father of Cliff. Although Jack is essentially a hero, he has a mysterious past and five years of his life are unaccounted for “Dallas” will begin its eighth season in September. Actress Barbara Bel Geddes will resume her role as Miss Ellie, which was played by Donna Reed during her illness. The ninth episode in the fall will mark the 200th episode and there is talk of doing a “Dallas” special at that time. Rambo was a sort of a modern day Zorro in “Sword of Justice” in 1978-79. That was the year “Dallas” made its debut. "Larry Hagman came over and did a guest shot on the pilot,” he says. “He told me he’d recently done four or five shows for 'Dallas.' He said he didn’t expect anything to come of it. He was already back doing other things.” Earlier, Rambo was a cowboy searching for his father in “The Guns of Will Sonnett.” Walter Brennan played his grandfather on the show, which was on two years from 1967-69. Rambo's first series came in 1962 when he was a teen-ager He and his twin brother, Dirk, played Loretta Youngs twin sons on “The New Loretta Young Show" in 1962. His brother was later killed in an automobile accident that left Dack emotionally scarred for many years. The twins, who lived on a farm in central California, were staying with an aunt in Los Angeles when Miss Young saw them in church. “Little did we know that entering that church was going to change our lives,” he says. “She came up to us after Mass and said she was doing a series and needed twins.” His real name of Rambeau was shortened to Rambo and his first name Norman gave way to his nickname, Dack

Whittier Star Review, Volume XVII, Number 106, 15 January 1948The popular daytime drama, The Guiding Light, again did the unusual - turned a story character into a real person. In the script "Charlotte Wilson,” portrayed by Betty Lou Gerson. was given a radio try-out. Listeners to the program were urged to register their opinions of this new' actress by sending a postcard to Charlotte, c/o "The Guiding Light.” The overwhelming number of "ayes” amounted to over 600. *