Paul Raven

TV Guide published this farewell in May 69

Farewell to Peyton Place

By Leslie Raddatz

Farewell to Constance Mackenzie, bookstore owner and ostensible widow,

Who eventually wed Elliot Carson, father of her illegitimate kiddo— Allison, whose blonde hair was so long at first.

She disappeared from Peyton Place in a burst

Of publicity, but was talked about all the years the show was on the air.

(She was supposed to be in New York, where she reportedly gave birth to an heir.)

Good-by, Elliot Carson, jailed for a murder he didn’t commit.

(Catherine Peyton really did it,

But she was dead when the story began.)

Elliot bought the Clarion, which he edited and ran,

Replacing Uncle Matt Swain,

Who left town on an early train.

Elliot and Constance argued a lot

And took in strays like Rachel (whose possession of the vanished Allison’s bracelet was never explained in the plot) ;

And Jill’s baby,

Which she hinted might be Allison’s —maybe.

(She later acknowledged Joe, Dr. Rossi’s brother, the pater—

We will get to the doctor later.)

Oh, yes, the Carsons had their own little tot, 

Who, unlike Allison, was legitimately begot.

A triple farewell to the Harringtons—

Leslie, the father; and Rodney and Norman, his sons.

Leslie married the late Catherine Peyton for her money

And went on to do all sorts of unfunny

Deeds, like having an affair with his secretary, Julie Anderson, mother of Betty Anderson (who not only married Rodney twice, but also his illegitimate half-brother, Steven Cord), and planning to murder his father-in-law, Martin Peyton—of whom more anon, you may be sure.

Rodney loved Allison, and they had one nationally telecast nautical affaire d’amour—

A cheery event in the career of Rod, who was tried for the murder of

Joe Chernak, A roughneck, And later was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident. Norman's life took a brighter bent. He married Rita Jacks— Once involved with the Chernaks—

And, except for an auto accident and —

loss of an unborn baby in an emergency cardiac case,

They had a happy time—at least for Peyton Place.

Good-by to Ada Jacks, mother of Rita and owner of the local taphouse,

Whose husband Eddie, a louse,

Conspired with Leslie Harrington to murder Martin Peyton.

But old Martin had fate on

His side, plus the story chart,

In which he played an important part.

A parting with patriarchal Martin seems de trop,

Since he has already passed on— leaving no dough

To Betty or Steven,

Apparently to get even,

For the failure of all manner of machinations

Involving his will, plus sundry situations

With a friend of men

Named Adrienne

And with his housekeeper, Hannah Cord

(Who posed as Steven's mother—her Damocles' sword,

Since Steven was really Martin's grandson, born out of wedlock,

A regular occurrence in the Peyton flock).

Good-by to Dr. Michael Rossi, to whom we said hello in the very first show—

A friend of Constance, and, concerning Allison, in the know.

Rossi was one of those Latin romantics

Getting involved in antics

With Dr. Claire Morton, Ann Howard and Marsha Russell,

Whose ex-husband died after a tussle

With Dr. Rossi—on trial for his life as the series ends,

And no clue given to what the future portends.

Finally, farewell to the others in the endless, ending anecdote—

Eli Carson, Lee Webber and Sandy, Jack Chandler, John Fowler, Tom and Susan Winter, the Miles family, Carolyn Russell, Dr. Vincent Markham, Nurse Choate,

The Schusters and their deaf daughter, Kim,

Judge Chester. Remember him?

There were almost a hundred of them —quite a mob.

Television won’t be the same. Sob.

@depboy Great find! Wish more actors would talk about their soap experiences.

Yes the claim of 140 seems too high.

37 minutes ago, Neil Johnson said:

It seems a bit more of an intentional effort at NBC.  Because around 1969, three out of four NBC soaps had a significant movie actor in a lead role

 Good point. There was about a gap of several months before Marlowe assumed the role. Wonder what was going on. Did NBC make a thing of Marlowe joining the show?

Bud Grant was NBC daytime VP 66-72.

He was poached by CBS daytime in 72 and went on to be their primetime VP.

20 minutes ago, Neil Johnson said:

When Hugh Marlow was hired to play Jim Matthews on Another World in 1969, he had been a movie actor for many years, having roles in at least thirty-five films (and major roles in many of those).  Does anyone think perhaps NBC pressured P&G to find a movie actor to play the Matthews family patriarch in order to follow the success of MacDonald Carey (another movie star of comparable stature) playing a similar patriarchal role on Days of Our Lives?

Additionally, during this time Dana Andrews was cast as the star of another NBC soap opera, Bright Promise.  And a few years earlier (1965), movie star Ann Sheridan had been cast as Kathryn Corning on Another World.  That left The Doctors (and later Somerset) as the only NBC soap(s) of that era without a movie actor in a lead role.  I've often been curious if NBC was intentionally attempting to pepper their daytime dramas with film actors -- something the other networks seemed to have little interest in at that time.   

That's an interesting thought- had never occurred to me.

ABC had Joan Bennett leading Dark Shadows and Gloria De Haven joined ATWT in 65.

Secret Storm added Jeffrey Lynn to the cast- he had been in many movies.

Guiding Light had Jan Sterling-incidentally, one of my favorites-she was always worth watching in any 1950's movie.

So I guess it was just an overall trend rather than NBC specific. I guess Bright Promise did imitate Days with Dana as the 'patriach'.

NBC's response to those awful ratings for SFT and TD was to write out vet characters Janet and Kathy and bring in a slew of newbie youngsters-Kristin, Warren, Jenny,Keith etc Ellis/Hunt were dropped as headwriters for C David Colsen

TD hired Harding Lemay but he lasted but a few months. A pity we will not see his work.

With that timeslot and those ratings there was no hope for The Doctors but they did keep trying.

Meanwhile CBS was mounting a challenge to ABC. In addition to adding Capitol, Guiding Light was remaining strong, the Dobsons returned to ATWT and Bill Bell was revamping Y&R,

April, Barbara and the Stevens were dropped, Snapper and Lance were written out. John,Ashley and Traci were added and (unwisely) Angela and Claire Laurence arrived.

@depboy. Thanks .The changeover could have happened at any time in Dec/Jan. I wonder why he was replaced?

Another interesting character at this time is Duncan Stewart played by Kerwin Matthews. Matthews was best known for the Sinbad/ Gullivers Travels movies and did some Euro pix. By 72 he was acting sporadically and I wonder if Duncan was always intended as a short term role and not a major new romance for Audrey.

ratings from around this time February 16, 1973. 

1. 11.9 - ATWT 35%

2. 11.0 DAYS - 33%

3. 10.5 AW 33%

4. 10.4 GH - 31%

5. 10.3 SFT - 33%

6. 10.1 Doctors - 32%

7. 9.3 OLTL - 27%

8. 8.6 EON - 28%

9. 8.6 AMC - 26%

10. 8.0 LOL 29% 

So SFT moving to NBC gave them nothing.

The few weeks before The Doctors had been getting a rating around 3.4-3.6. Search debuted with a 3.6 then dropped to below 2.9 within a month or so.

And we know SFT's demos skewed old so doubtful it was doing any better than TD in that regard.

Meanwhile TD replaced Password Plus which had been averaging 3.4/13, within a month TD was  rating below a 2.0. And Password would have been way cheaper to produce.

The best NBC could do was move Texas to the morning, throw in Diff'rent Strokes and Chips  reruns and then Fantasy at 3pm for the Fall.

Now that we have seen how The Doctoes and Search for Tomorrow performed after SFT switch to NBC , could I request the numbers for Password Plus at 12pm on NBC before it was replaced by The Doctors for comparison.

At the time NBC claimed that Search and TD moving would improve their ratings in the timeslots.

James Westmoreland was playing Teddy in Oct 72 . At some point John Gabriel took over. Do we have a date for that?

Variety Jan 27 82

NBC's Grant Tinker and Brandon Tartikoff trying to talk up the daytime lineup.

The article mentions  daytime makes the money to power primetime and NBC is looking like 'Berlin at the end of WW2'.

The priority is to get away from the gameshow mentality in the morning and fix the soaps in the afternoon.

They are looking at more personality/service oriented shows that may include Richard Simmons.

As for the soaps anything that doesn't show ratings improvement by early Summer may go down the drain.

Top of the list is Texas (13th) that has affiliates hollering as it's a poor lead in to local stations'fringe time'.

Tartikoff said he was more hopeful for Texas now than six months ago and that Texas had no problem attracting the younger demo but was getting killed by GH (1st) Now that GH writers have moved to Days (10th) Texas has more of a chance.

Tartikoff expects to see an immediate ratings improvement when The Doctors moves to Noon, altough station clearances are lowest that would be true of whatever was placed there. He hopes to knock off Family Feud, but not before TD undergoes major changes.

At 12.30 Search for Tomorrow (8th) moving from CBS should show some fast improvement in that timeslot up against RH (5th) and Y&R (6th)

When the timeslot changes take effect NBC promo department will go all out.

A lot of hype there but nothing positive eventuated.

NBC made no moves towards 'personality/info' shows in the morning, instead moving Texas to 11am replacing Wheel of Fortune and Battlestars. that was a flop.

Search did better than The Doctors at 12.30 but I'm not sure TD did much better than Password Plus at midday.

Getting Pat Falken Smith back at Days was a good move but unfortunately she was soon gone and DePriest/Anderson were not of the same caliber and Days momentum was lost.

AW hired Corinne Jacker and that was a bust.

Imagine if PFS had stayed on at Days and maybe The Dobsons had been grabbed for AW. Things might have been different.

 

2 hours ago, GLATWT88 said:

I wonder if demos weren't as great due to it being an older soap. 

I'm pretty sure that would be the case. And the financial side of things would come into play also. If CBS could make more money from Capitol that would be a major factor. 

5 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

according to a variety article you posted upthread, liamst’s share was under 30. in the 60s, atwt was pulling shares as high as 60 — sound’s like half.

Yes in the mid 60's ATWT was getting shares in the 50's but by 67 it had settled down a bit, as competition increased from Let's Make  A Deal

2 weeks ending August 6 1967/ 2 weeks previous/coverage -  a few weeks before LIAMST thing debuted

1. As The World Turns  10.9/39 (11.5/41) 99.3

10. Let's Make A Deal 8.6/31 (7.5/27) 86.7

At 2pm

9. Newlywed Game 8.7/33 (8.7/33) 97.8

17. Days of Our Lives 8.0/30 (7.4/28) 95.6

20. Password 7.9/30 (7.8/30) 98.0

 

Variety October 11th 1967

In its 2nd week Love Is A Many Splendored Thing had a 7.6 to be beaten by DOOL 8.3

So doing roughly what Password had been doing. However I suspect the demographics would have been better. A 7.6 would probably mean around a 27 share so not half of ATWT rating or share.

5 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

curious about where you heard that  irna quit the show a month after its debut.

Variety Feb 7 1968 ' ...Miss Phillips quit the new serial 'Love Is A Many Splendored Thing' back in October, P&G asked her to return to "Guiding Light'.

There was never any mention of what 'Coming of Age' was about. Obviously about young people reaching maturity. But it could apply to many age groups,I guess.

Do you think it was a good title? Soap titles can be tricky.

I tasked myself with watching Fri ep (must admit to some FFing)

The main thrust was Phyllis celebrating her freedom. It was unbearable for me to see her pity party of how hard done by she was and Lauren having to be her support. That nonsense of her collaborating with a criminal,  killing him, hiding the body to protect her kids! They are grown adults and thankfully gave her a serve for her psycho justifications.

Now the whole thing happened on the park set, where somehow Fylthllis had managed to set up a table for her celebration. There was Lauren keeping up the one shoulder dress tradition and, I'm sorry Tracey but the surgery and that awful hair is screaming waxwork. Lauren propping Phyllis was nauseating.

Summer and Daniel meet in her GCAC suite which is identical to Audra's. They don't bother to differentiate them with different accessories or furniture. But their next scene takes place in the GCAC entrance. 

Puzzling how set choices are made. Phyllis could have had a table at GCAC or CL. Seems like taping is all over the place.

Meanwhile Audra gets around-her GCAC suite, Crimson Lights, CGAC dining room and bacxk to her room. Lots of talk of mergers and takeovers but Audra doesn't actually do any work.

Sharon is channeling businesswoman vibes with talk of offices and staffing-from a table in empty CL.

And never a word on what these businesses are actually going to do.

This show....

5 hours ago, kalbir said:

ack: Patty, Nikki, Luan, Phyllis, Sharon, Nikki, Phyllis, Diane

Was there any reason to have Jack and Sharon married? It was a ridiculous pairing that went nowhere. They barely interact now and when they do it is not as former spouses. Similarly Jack marrying Nikki the second time was pointless. 

 

5 hours ago, kalbir said:

Ashley: Steven, Victor, Blade, Cole, Brad, Victor, Tucker, Tucker

Ashley's track record would look slightly better w/o Blade and Cole in the mix. Those stories could have played w/o marriage involved. They should have done more with Steven. 

Was the first marriage to Tucker necessary?

Apparently Irna quit the show about a month after it went to air, so unless she expected it to be #1 in its timeslot in the first few weeks, the theory that bad ratings were the motive doesn't ring true. And LIAMST was not losing half of ATWT audience.

i think its more likely that there was pushback about the 2 stories and backtracking from the execs . Irna could see where this was going and quit.

 

Lois Smith

As The World Turns  'standby role ' - she was paid but never appeared 1968

As The World Turns ??? 1970

19 minutes ago, Sapounopera said:

I can understand someone like Erica Kane getting married as often as Elizabeth Taylor and Zsa Zsa Gabor. But this doesn't work for all soap characters and it shouldn't be the norm
When many people have been married more than 5-6 times on a show, it is time for several of them to go (or move to the backburner) and be replaced by new people.
 

The problem lies with the writers/producers who keep marrying characters for short term story ignoring the long term damage. characters falling in love and marrying, claiming to be madly in love and everyone pretending they haven'tsaid and done this multiple times is insulting to viewers.

As you said it works for some characters, but overall it's lazy.

Characters can still have story and not be married. Look at Abby on Y&R . No sooner than she married Stitch, they divorced. Then another short lived marriage to Chance. At this rate, she'll  catch up to her mother's marriage total in no time.

The Stitch/Abby marriage never needed to happen. They could have been involved and the problems that drove them apart could have been the impetus for one or both to decide not to commit. 

Then if Chance and Abby did marry they could have played their problems a lot longer w/o heading straight to the divorce court.

But the writers seem more interested into rushing them into marriage and just as quickly breaking them up.

Senator Alfred Preston...Don Gantry...Nov 1971-72 

Sam Dutcher   Paul Sparer  Jan 68 - ? 68

Nikki Cabot..July 68 - Feb1969...Jody Locker  

Sam Watson...James Burge   Nov 71- Jan 28 72  

Mark Elliott

             Sam Wade...1968

              David Birney..June 1968-70 

              .Michael Hawkins...1970-71 

Laura Donnelly Elliott...

     (Formerly Sister Celeste)

           Donna Mills... Sept 1967-70

           Veleka Gray...Sept 28 1970- Jan 26 71

Jean Hurley.Garrison...Jane Manning 1968- Jan 31 72 March 73

Dr. Robert Ellis...Robert Drew  1969 1971- Jan 28 72  

Dr,. Doug Preston........Gene Lindsey  Sept 1971 -?71

Marian ______Hiller...Constance Towers April 1971-72 

 

Dr. Sanford Hiller...Peter White ? - Sept 1971 

...Stephen Joyce...Sept 1971-72 

Mia  Elliott...Nancy Hsueh...Sept 1967- March 68

 

 

@Broderick thanks for clearing that up.

From those numbers, if Camryn is on contract, it is with a 1 ep a week guarantee. I wonder if contracts still work on 13 week cycles ie with a once a week contract she wouldn't necessarily have to be on screen once each week but total 13 appearances over 13 weeks.

In a Feb 68 Variety article Irna Phillips talked about the importance of mentoring other writers to carry on the soap writing tradition.

Mention was made of Agnes (now at AW) Bill Bell (Days) and David Lesan (SFT) all who started with Irna.

It mentioned her current proteges John Boruff and Warren Swanson.

In looking at those names of course Agnes and Bill are legends.

But the others did not become prominent writers so the torch was not really passed on. 

Irna's daughter Katherine did not continue.

Bell mentored Kay Alden and Sally Sussman  but neither could live up to his legacy. Sally got to create Generations but it struggled.

Did Agnes really mentor anyone who went out on their own? Megan Mc Tavish?

I think it was hard for later writers to wield the sort of power those Big 3 had. TV had changed too much.

In the Feb 68 Variety article, Irna says she quit because she differed with CBS execs about how it should progress. They were anxious for it to become a fast hit and she insisted that was no way to develop a serial.

No mentions of the 'controversial' stories there. it looks like Irna wanted to delve into character and CBS wanted more action.

I can see both sides. CBS made the change to boost ratings in that slot and knew Irna's approach might not deliver for months. They had NBC and ABC breathing down their necks,whereas in the past with ATWT it was a different scenario and the network could afford to wait, which they did for over ayear as ATWT began to climb.

Meanwhile Irna continued to receive a royalty as a creator of the show.

EDIT

I went back to my files and found the copy of the Variety article from Feb 68.

It states that Irna had returned to GL recently so your dates of Dec 67 is correct. It states that when Irna quit LIAMST in October 67 she was asked by P&G to return to GL.

GH L&L wedding week 13.8/43 a massive achievement for the times.

But going back to the 60's ATWT was also scoring amazing numbers. The worth of a rating point may have differed back then but ATWT was scoring phenomenal numbers back then w/o the publicity and hype of GH.

January 1969

ATWT CBS 14.4

Lets Make a Deal ABC 10.5

Hidden Faces NBC 4.4

 

2 weeks  Sept 29-Oct 10. 1969

1. As The World Turns 13.7/50

ATWT March 66 16.9 rating