Paul Raven

ROBERT "SKIP" BURTON ONE LIFE TO LIVE Rob Faulkner 1977 Feb 79 LOVERS AND FRIENDS/ FOR RICHER, FOR POORER Lee Ferguson 1977- Sept 78 THE DOCTORS Mel Harvey Dec 1978- Feb 79 ONE LIFE TO LIVE Dr. Peter Janssen May-June 1980 TEXAS Beau Baker 1981- Jan 82 DYNASTY 1981 AS THE WORLD TURNS Brian McCall Aug-Dec 1982 ANOTHER WORLD Jeffrey Cartwright 1985

Mia was Travis' half sister and David Sutton's first wife. Mia could have survived the fire but be badly affected causing much angst for David,Travis and Liza. Liza could have taken over mothering of Mia, causing complications. At least another years worth of story but in typical Search fashion for the time ,Renata dies and David leaves. Maybe Lewis Arlt wanted to leave, in which case write David out but keep Renata.

Love of Life Bud the Juvenile delinquent basketballer Michael Corbett Tess Krakauer Prentiss Randolph Prentiss ...Toni Bull-Bua...Nov 1966-73 Richard Rollins...Lawrence Weber July 1969-71 affair w/ Claire Toni___ Lamont Prentiss Davis.. .Frances Sternhagen...June 1967-68

Jon Michael Reed September 6 1980 Mary Stuart, Jo Vincente on "Search For Tomorrow" since its debut in 1951, once remarked, "I've seen more writers come and go on our show than there are years we've been on air. I think everyone in the business has written for us at one time or another." Gabrielle Upton, who has written for scores of soaps, the most recent being this year's canceled "Love of Life," has been named the now head writer of "Search " Upton replaces Linda Grover and John Porterfield, who wrote the show for the last half year. It is rumored that Upton is an "Interim" writer, that P&G, which produces "Search," is training a new head-writing couple to take over by the end of the year. If this is so, It's hoped that the trainees, along with Ms Upton, will be able to remedy the show's allments Groverand Porter field have, frankly, left "Search' In a shambles. Despite several humorous character touches, the folks on "Search"" have been generally dangling by bare story threads. One special and unique character, Renata Sutton (played by Sonia Potrovna), was recently killed off in a most viewer. anguish-provoking manner And at least two other previously powerhouse characters are slated to get the ax within the next month. One of the relative newcomers is Ralph Byers, who portrays conniving Jim Ramsey. Byers has a most interesting background. Born in Washington, D C. he worked for the govern ment in astrophysics for the space program He originally intended to be an astronaut, but got sidetracked when the acting bug bit him. You might say he got 'Star Trekked' since he appeared in that film. He also played Hugh Sloane in the TV version of"Blind Ambition " In 1971 he was the sixth ranked amateur fencer in this country and qualified for the Olympic team. Byers says he "owes everything" to Robert Milli (Adam Thorpe on "Guiding Light") who saw him in a play in Washington and recommended an agent. This led to his landing the Ramsey role. Let's see if he'll be among those searching for another soap role In a few months.

Search for Tomorrow Mel Torme'...Mel Torme..78or79...singer duet with Liza March 1980 3 day stint. Stephanie Mills...Stephanie Mills...March 83 3 day stint...singer Dr. Nick Hunter...Burr De Benning...65-66.. ...Ken Kercheval...July 66-67,72-73 ...Stephen Joyce...68 ...Terry Logan...68... Guiding Light Nurse Rita Stapleton Bauer Sarah Daly March 1980 2 weeks (temporary) replaced pregnant Lenore during physically taxing kidnap sequence Lenore Kasdorf 1975-81

Yes any decent writer could. My nomination of Sharon to get the axe was based on the current state of the show. As ill advised as some of the story choices were for Sharon, they were probably no worse than several other characters. So maybe Sharon/Billy? Another go round with Adam? Possibilities but nothing I would want to see. The only thing at this stage would be searching for her father, but that would require extra sets and characters and that's unlikely. That story set in Crimson Lights would be a dud. Maybe Sharon could go to work at one of the companies-at least she could be doing something different.

Universal, wanting to get into daytime, develops 'The Unguarded Heart'in 1971.

With all the changes and talk of budget cuts surely the time will come when there will be a cast cull. Seriously, who do you think could/should go at this point. personally I'd be happy to see the back of Victor and Phyllis but I know that ain't happening. In terms of relevancy to the current stories I think Sharon Case could be dropped. Sharon has no story, her last marriage was a flop and she's trapped in the coffeehouse doling out useless and ignored advice. The whole therapist/counsellor thing has never worked, she doesn't have a home set and her children are out of town or seldom seen. So Sharon could decide to leave town for whatever reason and it wouldn't be too noticeable. Mariah and Noah could mention her and go to visit. If there's a wedding or illness,she could come down with one of those soap excuses that keep her away. Jason Thompson as Billy. I don't think he's ever worked as that character and the finding his true spirit crap has gone on too long. Not interested in Billy/Phyllis or Billy/Victoria round 456 or a reunion with Lily. And he doesn't seem close to the Abbotts. Again he could leave town 'temporarily' for a fresh start and promise to see his kids regularly-if they could be bothered it could be mentioned that those tykes are away with their dad. Who do you think and why?

The thing with the early Pam Long /Gail Kobe era was that the new characters and stories were fresh, interesting and well written. Introduced in 83 Mindy Annabelle Warren Lillian Billy Claire Bradley Beth Reva Jim But in the following years only a few survived and there were more new characters, so as stated the show was unrecognizable, with too many disparate characters from different regimes.

Comings and goings have always been apart of soaps and some of those actors eg Lenore Kasdorf chose to leave. But TPTB need to step back and look at the overall canvas and be very careful to maintain that continuity. I'm sure alot of headwriters want to introduce their own characters but everyone needs to be mindful of maintaining a through line. Now maybe Pam Long wasn't that excited by Hope but should have been cognisent of her importance to the canvas. Perhaps use some of her creativity to re-imagine Hope and write that for her.Maybe Elvera would have risen to the challenge and Hope continue on the show. Or say in the case of Rita or Elizabeth, bring them back at some point to interact with the new characters and give them a new energy. some of those actors may have been happy to come back. Doug Marland was much more gradual in in introducing new characters.

Yes, the problem with GL was that in addition to dropping those vets they pretty much dropped most of the cast by 85. Hope, Justin, Elizabeth, Holly, Rita, Jackie, Nola, Tony, Kelly,Morgan, Trish etc

Broderick, you've sold me (despite the repeated wad references!!) I would imagine in creating the weeks thrust you would picture the characters, where they are, who they interact with and what they're saying -that would be an intrinsic part of the process. I remember reading on Jason 47's Days site of correspondence from Bill Bell to Betty Corday about his frustration that scripts he had written had lost his intention due to a director or actor choice. And that was w/o all those levels of interference we see today.

I agree Vetsoapfan, but I can see CBS/P&G point of view in that case. Potter/Marland should have fought harder to keep them at least recurring but yes they were ruthless about cutting people. Around this time AW- Pat SFT Bob, Ellie,John EON Bill GL the above mentioned ATWT Nancy Judge Lowell I guess these actors were drawing big salaries and the investment wasn't worth it to TPTB Wasn't Helen Wagner offered reduced appearances and less money so she left? That may have been the case with others who felt that was not for them. Pat at AW is really hard to take as she was much younger than the others and had lots of story to tell.

Marland was'forced' to drop the characters of Adam, Sara, Barbara and Steve-all actors who had been there for over a decade and were probably on good money. It was a shame but I can see the reasoning. All 4 had no real connection to the current cast. Adam's son Roger was dead, Barbara's children Holly, Ken and Andy were gone, Sara's son Tim had been written off and Steve's daughter Leslie killed years ago. So their purpose was limited. The best option would have been recurring if TPTB were committed to using them regularly.

Thanks for posting that. From reading it , it seems to me the headwriter could/should provide that .

Not so, which is why I'm trying to get aclearer picture of how the process works and why all those levels are necessary. I think streamlining seems a good idea in theory but Griffith has shown he is incapable of writing interesting, well plotted stories so the whole thing will continue to be a disaster. My other thought concerns the network execs. Over and over they are accused of micro managing but I would love to know some actual objections. I would imagine the limited airtime given to the lesbian story is one and in the Sally story the fact that termination isn't even presented as an option. As for Josh's other stories one can only imagine what might be rejected if they approve of what airs. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that they interfere. Also, it would be great if an actor spoke out about the shoddy way the show is written and produced.

Yes, yes and yes. The thing with trends is that they are just that they come and go. Soaps pursued them but then got locked into that formula as nightime moved on. Dallas/Dynasty- those shows were cancelled and there was a move away from the exploits of the super rich Supercouples- they were limiting. By building up such fan loyalty there was an outcry any attempts were made to split them up and attempts to do so went against their whole reason for being. Action/adventure- they were usually imposed plots that could have been given to any characters. And the budgets required for the inevitable location shoots became unsustainable.

I would love to know how the whole writing process actually works as this would give us some proper insight into the process. I would imagine as a headwriter that in addition to long term story, you would map out the week day by day/ scene by scene with details on what the scene was about and key points to be made through dialogue. Then the dialogue writers would fill that in and as headwriter you would go over that and make any revisions. So that would pretty much eliminate the need for breakdown writers. So I can see why they might not be necessary in that scenario. But they have been there for years , so I am unclear how the process works.

I said looks interesting. The same with the 50th returns. It could be interesting but most likely not. BTW Barbara Crampton looks great. I would rather have had her back over Diane, if only to avoid the horrible rewrite. Leanna has many more possibilities as a character. But Barbara probably wouldn't commit.

I think Josh's EP title is pretty much a vanity one. He makes extra $$$ and gets some say but I'm sure the other producers are handling the day to day stuff. I think the COVID measures must have made a huge impact on budget. I wonder how Mal Young was on handling the budget? He got rid of Chelsea,Chloe and Kevin and put Neil and Paul on recurring. I don't recall the show looking any worse onscreen .

It's too much of a chore to watch every day. Just follow the summaries and dip in and out if something looks interesting eg Heather's return.

Search for Tomorrow Dr Kelson ??? suspended Dr Gary Walton after learning he administered drugs to Laine Adamson w/o following procedures. Nov 78

Week ending August 1 1982 For the first time in 3 years,GH did not top the weekly ratings. 1. AMC 10.2/33 2. GH 9.6/33 3. OLTL 8.5/30 4. Love Boat 5. TPIR 6. Y&R 7.7/29 7. ATWT 7.2/24 8. TPIR 2 9.GL 7.0/24 10. Family Feud 11.Alice 12.DOOL 13. RH 14. CAP 15. Wheel of Fortune 16. AW 17. ? 18.? 19.? 17/18/19 Not reported but Diffrent Strokes, One Day At A Time and Tattletales were airing at that time and would have been in those positions. 20. EON 21. SFT 22. TX 23.TD Chips reruns were airing on NBC 3-4pm at this time but I have never seen it mentioned in ratings reports at that time for some reason.

DeWitt was about 20 years older than Val.

Harsh!