Paul Raven

Donald Buka Love of Life 'government agent' 1965

In 1965 Emily MacLaughlin and John Beradino fought and won to be credited on every episode.At that point union rules specified cast list must be run at least once a week. Emily was on a yearly contract and John had signed on for five years. Guess they fought this together and producers decided it was a small price to pay to keep them happy. MacDonald Carey got credit on every Days ep and I think Joan Bennett did also on Dark Shadows. At some point Mary Stuart was credited on every Serach ep. Those 60's eps of The Doctors also list a certain actors in every ep.

Guiding Light Dr Walters Charles Randall 1965

Nov 65 Following a quick decline in the ratings of Peyton Place, other primetime proposals were shelved. CBS dropped a Sunset Boulevard twice weekly serial which Stirling Silliphant was writing for Paramount. as well as East of Eden, based oh the book and movie.

In a Variety article about Strange Paradise, it was mentioned that one of the motivations for going forward with the show was the the success of Dark Shadows as a 7pm serial in Cincinatti. The local ABC affiliate did not take the show so an independent station aired it in the evening to great rating success. The ABC affiliate then took it back at first opportunity.

Strange Paradise originally titled Garden of Evil.

Martha Greenhouse Love of Life 1969

Will Hussung He joined in September 1969

Sept 22 - 26 1969 Love of Life had just been moved to 11.30 against Hollywood Squares on NBC to make way for Where The Heart Is at noon. In the first quarter hour LOL 6.5/35 HS 6.5/35 In the second quarter hour LOL 7.4/36 HS 7.7/37 That was below Dick Van Dyke's numbers in that timeslot but LOL had more women watching. At Noon,Where The Heart Is edged out Jeopardy with a 37 share v 36 share for Jeopardy. In it's first 3 weeks WTHI had a 35 share, a 32 then a 37,so off to a strong start.

According to a Variety article from 1972, at the time P&G managed to get all of it's soaps in a block on CBS. they were pressuring NBC to move Somerset to 3.30 following AW now that EON was not airing in that slot on CBS. NBC refused saying that Return to Peyton Place had built to a 30 share in that slot and they were happy with that.

Jan 24 - 28 1972 1. Hollywood Squares NBC 11.5 2. General Hospital 11.5 3. As The World Turns 11.4 4. Newlywed Game 11.1 5. Days of Our Lives 10.3 6. Jeopardy 9.0 7. Sale of The Century 9.8 8. The Doctors 9.7 9. Edge of Night 9.7 10. Another World 9.5 11. Let's Make A Deal 9.5 12. Dating Game 9.5 That was the highest rating ever for Hollywood Squares and second week in a row as #1,Also highest ratings ever for Jeopardy, Sale of the Century and best rating for Concentration in 10 years and Three on A Match in 4 years.

Sept 25-29 1972 NBC 7.4 ABC 7.3 CBS 7.0 ABC did not program 10-11.30 at that point. Somerset was leading the pack at 4pm with a 7.1 v ABC Love American Style reruns 6.0 and CBS Family affair reruns 4.3 So at one point Somerset was a ratings success.

I wonder if all this cost cutting extended to the writers and producers or were they still pocketing the big bucks? It seems odd that they could just propose a 50% pay cut, aren't there some kind of union rules that would protect them from such drastic reductions?

Did Lily have to don the sexy underwear to please her man?

ABC won the daytime ratings for week ending Jan 9 1972. It was it's second weekly win in a row. ABC 8.7/29 NBC 8.0 CBS 7.7 Top 4 1. General Hospital 2. As The World Turns 3. Newlywed Game 4. Hollywood Squares None of ABC's afternoon programs ran 3rd in their timeslots.

The first 2 90 min specials on ABC 'Honeymoon Suite' and 'This Child Is Mine' won their timeslots. ABC pre-empted gameshows for these and the results were: Honeymoon Suite 9.9/33 This Child Is Mine (with Rosemary Prinz and Robin Strasser) 10.0/35 Of course they cost far more than the game shows to produce. ABC continued with more 90 min specials and CBS followed suit but I think ratings dropped as the novelty wore off and ultimately it was just not cost effective.

Love of Life David Craig Herb Nelson This character and that of Ed Plummer continued into 66.

Looking at some older scenes on YouTube, the Great Pumpkin had an extra seating area beyond the swivel chairs as well as a billiard table (????), but that vanished in the great squashed set reset of 2020. If the Grey Pimple was an additional hangout/meeting place I might have bought but for people to be continually hanging out there is dumb.

No way did it seem like Victor was #1. Some of those eps he mumbled and grumbled in a couple of scenes only. It's starting to feel like they are taping random scenes that get inserted into an episode. eg taping some Victor scenes on a day when EB is working and then slotting them in. Although I have read that an actor has to be paid if they appear in an episode. So maybe it's just being done to save time, nor necessarily money.

And then Irna was fired and they had Kim marrying John to give the baby a name...

For those who are asking 'Who is Zac Tinker?' Why not google him?

Robert Cenedella and Ian Martin were listed as writers as well as AHB on the premiere episode.

In it's first week on air 'How to Survive a Marriage' averaged a 20 share in the 3.30 timeslot. That was one share under what Return to Peyton Place had been doing. I guess NBC hoped for better but were probably realistic that a new show would take time to build. However HTSAM never seemed to gain momentum and was cancelled.

Oct 65 CBS developing Written on The Wind, based on Universal 1957 movie, as a primetime hour serial. Bertram Berman exec producer,Paul Roberts script supervisor, Mark Rodgers writer.

The Best of Everything Add Alex Alexander - joined in April 70.