Paul Raven

Re Margaret Draper Her SFT role was 1966

re Eugene Smith ATWT - 'Berns' 1960's

Re Jay Barney His Secret Storm role was Capt Barton. I think this is the role you have as police lieutenant

Some Doctors trivia Laryssa Lauret and Terry Kiser both appeared in the Broadway play 'Paris is Out!' in 1970

Re Secret Storm Kingsley Collins was played by Will Hussing

There is a Tribes thread on the Cancelled Soaps forum for anyone who wants to know more 1972 Douglas S. Cramer and the production company of the same name are awaiting the impending network decisions on next season's schedules with high hopes. He unfurled his own banner, The Douglas S. Cramer Co., but, financially unable to do it en- tirely on his own, affiliated with Columbia Pictures and Screen Gems as an autonomous producer of motion pictures and television programs. Mr. Cramer has two years of storylines and two sample scripts based on the theatrical motion picture, "Diamond Head." Until recently it was in contention as an hour program in continuing serial form as a possibility at CBS -TV for the 1972 -73 season. But now it has been deferred until a future season. Still, Mr. Cramer, whose extensive production background includes stints as TV supervisor for Procter & Gamble and broadcast supervisor on Lever Bros. and General Foods accounts at Ogilvy & Mather, has more than just a passing interest in the serial form. By July, he intends to come out with three variations on serials for daytime network presentation -a comedy anthology, a dramatic anthology, and Doctor's Wives, which is more in the pure soap -opera style. Rita Lakin was the writer for Diamond Head.

June 1954 Search For Tomorrow 11.8 Love of Life 10.5 Guiding Light 10.1 Valiant Lady 9.5 Secret Storm 5.2 Three Steps to Heaven 4.9 Hawkins Falls 4.2

Another report from 1977 on this controversy NBC gets tangled in a story line Decision to end love affair between black and white evokes charges that network succumbs to racist pressure; tension eases, however, with her continuance in altered role A controversy has broken out over why network daytime's most prolonged interracial love affair has hit the skids. Tina Andrews, the black actress involved in the NBC -TV serial, Days of Our Lives (Monday- Friday, 1:30 -2:30 p.m. NYT), says NBC has shamelessly caved in to a barrage of racist -slanted mail. NBC executives say that the interracial subplot was scheduled to last only a year (from spring 1976 to spring 1977) and had run out of Nielsen gas. (The series is down a couple of rating points from its position this time last year.) One consequence of the raft of stories late last month about the dispute- particularly a marathon report in The Los Angeles Times -is that NBC and Columbia Pictures Television, which produces the serial, have decided not to take Ms. Andrews off the show completely. (Her last day was scheduled to be Thursday, May 26.) "My agent has been told that my services will be called upon in subsequent weeks," said Ms. Andrews by phone from Los Angeles, where the series is taped at NBC's Burbank studios. "And I'm delighted, because I love doing the show." "We haven't exactly resolved where this subplot will go," said the co- executive producer of Days, H. Wesley Kenney, con- firming that Ms. Andrews has not been fined. In the subplot, David Banning, the young white man, although in love with the Tina Andrews character, Valerie Grant, has decided to marry the white woman he's made pregnant. At least that was the plan before the controversy broke. Now, Mr. Kenney says, David may end up visiting Valerie at the Howard University Medical School, in Washington,; where she's studying for an MD degree, and it's not inconceivable that the romance could be rekindled. Madeline David, NBC's vice president for daytime programs, says she's convinced the producers have handled the love affair "very sensitively, and with good taste." Both Ms. David and Mr. Kenney say that although there may have been less touching and kissing between David and Valerie than if they were both white or both black those kinds of overt demonstrations of affections are not necessary to the establishing of an emotional connection between two people. Ms. David remembers that the most concentrated outpouring of negative mail NBC ever got for a daytime show was when a white man and a white woman got involved in a steamy sex scene in The Doctors (Monday- Friday, 2:30 -3 p.m.), proving to her that too much physical involvement can be a detriment to viewers association with the tenderness between people they identify with. "There was no deluge of mail" over any of the scenes between David and Valerie on Days of Our Lives, Ms. David said, "only a dozen or so letters from the lunatic fringe ' that are often unsigned and loaded with ugly references to the supposed domination of the airwaves by "niggers" and "kikes."

1999 Can the once highly popular `All My Children' rebound from its sagging ratings? ABC TV thinks so. But to make sure, it's brought back Agnes Nixon as the show's head writer; Nixon had been a consultant. Considered by many to be the first lady of serial dramas, ABC is hoping she'll help revive the show, which has been a network staple for 29 years. "We brought Agnes back to deliver the escape, the fantasy, romance and mystery," that soap opera fans want, says Angela Shapiro, president of ABC Daytime Television. `Agnes makes the characters come alive in a way that no one else can. It's remarkable what she brings; we're really lucky." 'All My Children' was a leading soap throughout the 1980s and during the earlier part of this decade. She created All My Children as well as ABC's `One Life to Live' and `Loving' (which later became 'The City') and 'Search for Tomorrow' She was co- creator of 'As the World Turns,' which airs on CBS, was the head writer for `Guiding Light' also on CBS, and for NBC's `Another World.' Here, Nixon talks about soap operas, where the audience has gone, what viewers want from daytime dramas and how to fix 'All My Children.' What's happened to the daytime drama audience? There has been some attrition with all the cable channels. I think that's the way of the world. But I think good stories, well told and acted by very good actors, will always be popular. I just think we have to get back to some of the basics of storytelling...the things that have always influenced and interested people. Why are soap operas appealing? Basically it's because it's the form of entertainment nearest to real life. Every day is a new episode, there's that appeal, as well as the fact that it's never repeated. I think there's something about a continued story. Charles Dickens was a serial writer; people use to wait in Boston for the boat to come from England with the next installment to see what was going to happen to Little Nell. Also, you have to have believable characters. Sometimes, soaps have gotten into characters that were not believable. The characters have to be three dimensional, someone with whom the audience can identify. Stories have to be believable, suspenseful, interesting and involving. What do you think about proposals for 24-hour soap channels on cable? I am very excited by it. I also think we'll get a truer measurement of viewership. The Nielsen ratings don't list VCRs and we know there's a vast audience that tapes and watches soaps later. I frankly think we don't have a true picture now of measurement of audience viewership. Plus there's something nice about the fact that what I do will be seen again. I am thinking particularly about the actors now. I think it brings us a little more satisfaction. Do you think daytime serials will always have a home on broadcast television? Yes, I do, I truly do. I am not saying they all will. Again, because it is a story. A good story well presented is just as movies are, it's entertainment. It's human stories and people are interested in people. What do you like most about writing daytime dramas? I am a storyteller and I like the dramatic form. To me it's just the thing I love to do. You take something in life that generates an idea and then it grows and one embellishes it. Seeing it come to life on the air by actors is just a great thrill for me. What is the hardest part of writing serials? The discipline you have to have because of the time pressure. It takes five days a week, 52 weeks a year, and that's pretty grueling. One can do a movie of the week or even a nighttime episode. A writer might stay up two nights getting it finished and then go collapse on the beach at Malibu. But a writer of daytime serials doesn't have that luxury. It's like getting in shape. You have to learn to pace yourself and to get refreshed and renewed in a much shorter time -like a weekend or a Saturday. Without giving away anything, what are you planning to do with All My Children? We're going back to what used to be one of the hallmarks of All My Children, which was young romance. I think that young romance is particularly good because we all identify with being young. We remember it so well. Through young romance we are able to see the world with what the true meaning of naïve is, which is 'fresh wonder.' I do feel that is what's needed on the show and we're getting to it very quickly.

1966 Griffin Productions Co., NewYork, is raising its sights in the TV programming field to gain representation outside of the "game show" area and into daytime serial, primetime specials and nighttime series sectors. Last March Merv Griffin, president, appointed Bob Aaron, who had been director of daytime programs for NBC -TV for six years, as executive vice president with a mandate to accelerate the company's expansion and diversification effort. In script form are two projected daytime serials. One is Keep It in the Family, described as the adventures of a "real family" and Best Things in Life (adventures of four American girls working abroad), which is aiming for a "new dimension" in daytime programming through production entirely in Europe.

1977 NBC also said it would begin running Chico and the Man next Monday (May 9, 12:30 -1 p.m.), replacing new soap opera, Lovers and Friends (with 3.0 rating and 12 share in first 64 episodes), which "will go on a summer hiatus," according to NBC.

Thanks for that. I knew there was an original title but couldn't remember/locate it. Will add it in!

1967 Producer William Dozier, whose Greenway Productions produces Batman and Green Hornet in association with 20th Century -Fox TV, is moving into daytime programing. He has formed Greentree Productions, a separate organization, also associated with Fox, to turn out a pilot for a projected soap opera for NBC -TV. Plans call for the series, Brookfield, to be a daytime strip. TV Guide reported Brookfield was set in a 'posh girls school'. 1970 Paramount Television is producing the pilot for daily half - hour daytime series, Holm Sweet Home, which is aimed for showing on ABC -TV this fall. The program, which is being written by Roy Kammerman, is described as a humorous soap opera that centers around a midwestern family's experience in the age of the atom, the pill and the miniskirt. As for 1971 -72, WB -TV reported a number of plans for series that would include segments on the drug -abuse problem. One is a daytime serial, The Woman Inside, WB -TV says has been optioned to a network it declines to identify. 1971 Universal Studio's entry into the daytime television arena will be via a drama said by its creator, George Lefferts, to be a departure from the traditional soap opera. The program is being produced for General Foods. No network has been announced. World of Women was described as an "update of the patriarchal society of the era of The Forsyte Saga with the heroine of the 'now' generation replacing the patriarch of yesterday" by Clare Simpson, vice president in charge of programing for Young and Rubicam, agency for General Foods. The half -hour show now in development, according to Universal Studios daytime programing vice president Frank O'Connor, will deal with the modern female as she confronts the problems and rewards of a contemporary existence.

I thought it might have been a promo from an independent station that picked up AW when it was dropped by an affiliate but on checking KCRA was an NBC affiliate at that time and in fact had been so for many years, so maybe it had been dropped at some point and was rejoining the lineup.

Update

Four Corners had a 2 hr debut Tues @ 9 and came in 65th with a 6.0/9 share The competition was ABC Home Improvement 14.7/21 10th place Spin City 10.7/16 22nd NYPD Blue 11.7/20 16th NBC Frasier 12.6/18 12th Just Shot Me 11.2/17 19th Dateline NBC 12.0/20 14th The following week it moved to its regular 10pm slot and landed in 84th place with a 4.8/8 ABC was 15th with NYPD Blue 11.4/20 and NBC was 14th with Dateline 12.0/21 At that point CBS yanked it.

Please feel free to add anything I may have missed, and comment if you prefer any of the 'originals' CBS The Clear Horizon... Far Horizon/ Army Wife Search for Tomorrow... Search for Happiness As The World Turns... Journey's End/As The Earth Turns The Edge of Night... The World Within The Secret Storm... The Storm Within/ Bright Star The Young and The Restless... The Innocent Years The Bold and The Beautiful ...Rags Our Private W0rld ... The Woman Lisa Falcon Crest... The Vintage Years Secrets of Midland Heights ...Heartland /Midland Heights NBC The Bennett Story... The Bennetts The Greatest Gift ... Dr Eve Our Five Daughters... Five Daughters The Doctors... House of Hope Paradise Bay... Point Paradise Bright Promise... Look To This Day/The Best Years How to Survive A Marriage... From this Moment Lovers and Friends... Into This House Sunset Beach...Never Say Goodbye Somerset... Between Two Worlds ABC The Young Marrieds... That Young Marriage General Hospital ...Emergency Hospital One Life to Live... Between Heaven and Hell Ryans Hope ...A Rage to Love /City Hospital Never Too Young ... No Time for Love Loving... Love Without End The City ... Lov NYC Port Charles ... GH2 Dynasty ...Oil The Colbys ... The Colbys of California

In the Bill Bell archives is a series proposal 'The Many Ways of Love'

thank you for alerting me to this fabulous resource. Maybe April Montgomery was the original name for Margo or Cricket?

Frank and Doris Hursley had several soap proposals in the works over the years Crossroads Clinic Hollywood Girl Lady of the Theater Richard Douglas for the Defence. South Paradise 1966 This Precious Hour As did daughter and son in law Bridget and Jerome Dobson Bodies and souls 1993 Co-Ed 1990 Couture Dangerous Liasons 1994 One World 1990 Westwood General Hospital - Sixth Floor Heritage 1973

Some GH related trivia - Sharon DuBord (Sharon Pinkham) was maid of honor at Judy Carne's(Laugh In) ill fated marriage to Burt Reynolds in 1963.

1954 NBC investigating bringing radio soap "Big Sister ' to TV. It has previously had a short experimental TV run in 1945 with Mercedes McCambridge.

Re The Brighter Day A 1954 TV Guide summary mentions a character 'Blake' You have Ted Blake listed in 1958 and Dr Blake Hamilton in 1960. Could it possibly be one of these characters or an entirely different Blake?

Millette Alexander (Sara GL) was once daughter in law to Oscar Hammerstein, famed musical theater legend (Oklahoma, Sound of Music, King and I etc)

Carolyn Conwell (Mary Y&R) in SOW talked about auditioning for Marlena on DOOL in 1976. She recalled 'They applauded at my audition, they loved it . But I'm not pretty. I have an off center face. She (DH) is just so photogenic. So that's why I didn't get the part. And I was just as happy, because this (the role of Mary0 is actually better for me.' Carolyn was 46 at the time of her audition, Deidre was 29 so perhaps they had a different concept for Marlena before DH was cast.