Paul Raven

There is no need for Phyllis at this point and like so many others her romantic possibilities are limoted so it's just rehashing Phick with no real drama or stakes at hand. MS is probably floundering and pissed due to the horrid writing and it's coming through onscreen. Phyllis could leave town and even if Summer stayed they could write around her mother's absence for a fair while. Just don't put Summer in anything that would require Phyllis' physical presence. Result - saving her salary to be spent elswhere and one less played out vet to write for.

Was Lyman interested in returning to AMC at that point? I would imagine with Mama's Family ending she would have been hoping to parlay that into some more primetime work rather than heading back to NY and AMC. She did agree to Generations but it was in LA, short term and came with some contract perks I recall eg the chance to direct, which she wanted to pursue.

Lizabeth Pritchett Somerset Search For Tomorrow

Judy Lewis The Verdict is Yours Frank Lovejoy Light of the World Jarrod Helpmate Wheatena Playhouse 'Lydia' Myrt and Marge Ken Ross Proposed soap 'House with the Open Door' 1939 Abie's Irish Rose Abie Woman in Love is a segment of 'By Kathleen Norris' Arline Blackburn Woman of America 1946 Joyce Jordan 1946 By Kathleen Norris 'Woman in Love Tamara Todhunter David Harum 1947 Stella Dallas 1943 Just Plain Bill 1942 Young Widder Brown Ellen Brown (temp for Florence Freeman)

April 1969 He Thrives On Suspense Irving Vendig can be considered to be the exception to the rule you can't have your cake and eat it, too. For Vendig has continued to enjoy success and a substantial income as , a writer, first in radio and now TV, while living in Sarasota, although it is estimated about 99 per cent of all regularly scheduled network TV programming originates from either New York or Hollywood locales. Yet Vendig, who has lived in Sarasota since 1938, refuses to leave his Florida home for the supposedly affluent addresses of the writing fraternity on both coasts. "I like it here in Sarasota," he says. "The air is clear and the society is different." Vendig is creator and head writer of NBC-TV's new suspense series, "Hidden Faces," which is colorcast Mondays through Fridays. Though the serial originates from NBC's studios in New York, where the actors and production staff are based, Vendig writes the scripts in Florida. In today's world, the 1,100 miles that separate him from New York City present no handicap. "I am no further away than the telephone," he says. "But in a crisis or for major casting I will fly to New York, and it is easier and more relaxing to get to New York from Sarasota, than to travel to the city from Westport, Connecticut. I know because I used to live in Westport." While working on a serial such as "Hidden Faces," Vendig, who also created "Edge of Night," the first half-hour dramatic TV series in 1956, sits at his typewriter seven days a week. His day begins at 8:30 a.m. Born in Holly Springs, Miss., Vendig moved to Chicago at the age of two. "I took my parents with me," he chuckles. While working as a researcher for a Chicago advertising agency on the Little Orphan Annie" radio show, he decided he could write dramatic dialogue. In 1935, he began writing his first radio serial, "Judy and Jane," with which he was associated for 25 years. As his career was beginning to prosper, daughter Laurie Ann was experiencing respiratory ailments. "When Laurie Ann was five, she had pneumonia twice during the same winter," he recalls. "Our physician informed us that she could not take another severe winter. We had to move to Florida. A friend suggested Sarasota, and we've never regretted the change." Despite the change in location, there has been no change in career except for the better. He created and wrote the "Houseboat Hannah" and "David Adams" radio shows. He was associated with Erie Stanley Gardner in his "Perry Mason" radio series for 14 years, but left when the show moved to Hollywood. "I would not leave Sarasota," he says, "even though I could have been involved with 'Perry Mason,' television shows and feature movies." In 1951, Vendig assumed the writing responsibilities of TV's "Search for Tomorrow," then in its eighth week. During the more. than five years that he wrote the series, it climbed to the number one rating for daytime serials. He left it six months after he created and began writing "Edge of Night," which went on to become TV's top rated daytime show. Now he is striving to catapult his "Hidden Faces" into the lead in the rating race. After completing each script, he Xeroxes a copy and sends it air mail, special delivery to Charles Fisher, producer of "Hidden Faces," in New York. Fisher reads it and then discusses it with Vendig via telephone ("our phone bill is enormous") before turning it over to the serial's two production assistants for cast calls and set breakdowns.

I believe the first use of a teleprompter was way back in 1950 when First Hundred Years debuted on CBS. As it was the first time live 15 min daily serial was attempted and it was felt actors couldn't cope without it. The youtube clip of BTS at Y&R with Jeanne and Jess shows the cue card guys scurrying around below camera level to position themselves to be seen. At some point in the 70's reruns of The Doctors 'prompting services' are credited. I always wonder if Constance Ford on Aw used cue cards as she was always looking elsewhere rather than others in the scene. That could have been her acting style or a way to reference the prompts if necessary.

Jeanne Cooper. Peter Bergman has stated in various interviews that he never uses them. Various soaps have banned them at one point or another but as budgets (and taping times) were cut I think all shows employed them.

Donna Reade Romance of Helen Trent Doris Harper Betty and Bob Agnes Stevens Painted Dreams Ma Perkins Helen Van Tuyl Right to Happiness Rose Palmer Thunder Over Paradise Quicha Lone Journey Mrs Trilling Ma Perkins Mattie Henderson Helen's House proposed serial 1940

Patricia Dunlap Backstage Wife Jill Stewart Todays Children Catherine Carter

Edge of Night Sgt Damato...Rock R. Rogers 1960

Dull actor, dull character. Just thinking how the marriage of Sharon/Rey was pointless. They're already having problems. The whole story would have been more dramatically effective if their mutual reluctance to marry came into play. Sharon, because she's already had umpteen marriages and is conflicted about her relationship with Adam. Rey, because he's already had a bad marriage and Sharon has the above listed issues. The inevitable split wouldn't leave Sharon with yet another divorce on her scoreboard. Rey has lost his family and work connection, so he could be dropped with little fallout.

Search for Tomorrow Tracey Walter...Davy early 70's

Edge of Night Jay Barney...Dr Field 1960/61 Dina Paisner appeared July 29/30 1959 James Shaw...courtroom guard 1973

Jay Barney Edge of Night...Dr Field

Bernard Grant True Story 'Blackout' 2/15/58...Johnny Beaumont Diana Douglas True Story 'Blackout' 2/15/58....Jane Beaumont Jan Miner True Story 'Man Next Door' 6/13/59....Leona Green Donald Buka Right to Happiness...Billy Harris 'injured war her' 1944 Aunt Jenny 1952 /1956 Front Page Farrell 1949 My True Story... Jonathan Willard 1954 Stella Dallas... Stanley warwick 1954 Lora Lawton ...replaced Billy Redfield in unknown role 1946

Patty Tate on Search as a young girl and I believe Beth on Eon was a goodie. Dorothy on ATWT not so much.. Seems once she played Dorian and matured her roles had a darker quality.

Yes I guess that CBS daytime skews older and not as urban? So less desirable to advertisers. So 2 million daytime viewers might not equate to 2 million primetime.

Lack of budget means no sets or extra characters, That and years of poor stories mean Nick is pretty much superfluous at this point. Its sad that CBS #1 soap hasn't been given financial support it needs. I'm sure some of its primetime shows have ratings not far off Y&R but don't look like they were taped at the community center.

Glitter was basically Hotel Mk2. ABC that season had Dynasty, Hotel, Paper Dolls, Love Boat, Finder of Lost Loves and Glitter. Way too much Aaron Spelling. All those shows were on the decline or outright flops. I imagine half of the regular cast were hardly seen.

Thanks for posting that. I had never heard of him so did some research. A pioneer in the modelling field. He also appeared on OLTL.

Audra Lindley True Story 'Who Am I? 8/31/57 ...Sandra Ellison Meg Mundy True Story 'Secret File' 9/28/57.... Kay Manning True story 'Milk and Cookies' 5/24/58... Judith Walker Stephen Elliot True Story 'Secret File' 9/28/57...Stuart White Lee Bergere True Story 'Reunion' 10/19/57...Paul Ashley Ed Begley Amanda of Honeymoon Hill 1943 The Soldier Who Came Back The Right to Happiness David Harum Just Plain Bill Valiant Lady Story of Mary Marlin...Daniel Burke

That Love of Life info is great!

Primetime shows were preserved because of the possibility of reruns. Many shows didn't really start to profit until they went into local reruns. Short run shows often made a loss. Soaps were seen as inexpensive (and profitable) daytime fillers that would never be repeated -how could they when they could run for years? As part of that economic framework, the tapes were erased to be used again.

Wouldn't it be cool if the actress/character was something special and really lit a fire under the show? When was the last time that happened?

A very detailed article about the Hometown USA concept - an interesting and ambitious plan that seemed a go, but never eventuated. This was September 1952. TED MILLS is a 34-year-old, chubby-cheeked TV producer who is now working on what may well be the biggest is that he has. been charged with producing a one-hour program that is actually four individual 15-minute programs. Although the four-in-one programs have separate stories, they also have a number of common characters who will appear in all the shows. On top of that, the four shows each will originate in the same studio, with only the usual one-minute "station break" (the time allotted for station identification) separating them. Drama, But Not Soap Opera Mills project is an NBC-ty daytime series scheduled to start on the air early next month and titled "Hometown, U. S. A." Although the four programs will be on five days weekly, they wont in the true sense conform to the soap-opera tradition. Mills, who gained lasting TV recognition as the producer ' of "Garroway at Large" is constitutionally incapable of turning out anything trite. "Hometown" is an imaginary U. S. city. Its four subordinate stories are called "Anthony Grey, M.D."; "Charlie Soon and Crystal"; Lydia Powers' and "Amy Burrage." Grey is the town's leading surgeon; Charlie, who had one term at college and cant forget it, is a grocer; Amy is a philosophical spinster who dabbles in crime detection and Lydia is the daughter of the town's leading industrialist, a man named Jack Whittemore. Whittemore will be one of the characters to appear in all the stories, as will the "Hometown' police chief and postman, among others. "Hometown, U. S. A. will probably employ more TV people than any other video show on the air, including the present champion, NBC's "Today," which has about 180 people on its payroll. "Hometown" will have 200 or more people on its weekly payroll, including 50 actors; a large group of technicians, set designers, cameramen and stage hands, as "well as four writers, a story editor, four directors and four assistant directors. Mills himself no longer talks about "Hometown" as an imaginary place with imaginary people. He has been working on the show so long he already has plotted, out six months of scripts for each show that when he talks about the characters he sounds as though they're old personal friends. In his mind, "Hometown has actual streets, thriving industry (a cement plant and musical instrument factory are the town's biggest companies) and an assortment of the problems arising in any average American town. Just recently. Mills completed a plan of operation on how "Hometown will get on the air. Here are some of the details. Each script is to be written six weeks in advance. Every writer is to know all the plots and what common characters are to be used on a specific day (otherwise the' writers might double tip and actors would have conflicting rehearsal and costume Every script most be written so that two or three minutes before the end of the program two of the four cameras used can be released. This will enable them to be trundled into position for the next program. "Hometown will originate in NBC-TV's Brooklyn studio, where a permanent set is being built. The set will be constructed to represent individual homes and offices. One great advantage of this procedure is to cut down production costs, enabling advertisers to buy five complete programs for about $8,000 a week plus time. This is about $2,000 less than the cheapest soap operas now on TV. If NBC manages to sell all the parts of "Hometown it will gross around $8,000,000 a year for time and talent. Its weekly production costs will probably run to around $540,000. 'Hometown' Inspiration Of Program Executive" The idea for "Hometown was the inspiration of a young NBC -TV program, executive named William Kaufman, one of the men at the network whose jobs are to develop new shows. Kaufman is well known in literary circles as editor of an annual " anthology of TV's best scripts. In designating Mills as the producer of the complicated "Hometown" set-up, NBC chose a veteran who, despite his relative youth, has an 'impressive record. A Williams College graduate. Mills pre viously produced the Ezio Pinza TV show, "Hawkins Falls. a current N BC-TV soap opera originating, in Chicago, and "Crisis. a documentary series dealing with civic problems. Before getting into television six years ago. Mills had acted in and produced Summer stock plays at Williamstown and Stockbndge. Mass. During the war he was assistant to Frank Capra, the movie director, in turning out an Army film series called "Why We Fight." After the war he was offered two jobs, one in Hollywood at $400 a week and one with KBC-TV at S400 a month. On a hunch he took the TV job. even though it paid only a quarter as much. "Happiest hunch I ever had" he says.