Paul Raven

Don't know if this has been mentioned but the Bare Essence mini series is on YouTube (23 parts!)

1980 was not a good year for SFT as the writers who followed the Corringtons made many changes and the show went downhill.The ratings started to fall and Search endured constant change in the years that followed. How was Jamie,Kathy's sister in law?I don't recall Kathy having a brother. I always wondered if Patricia Estrin(Jamie) got the job because she was Rod Arrant's wife.Perhaps it was part of his deal to re-sign as Travis. Incidentally,veteran actress June Havoc,who played Madame Zophie in Search's last year,died this week aged 97.

Nancy was very much a wasted character with a lot of potential. The show never was on solid ground character wise.They should have looked to who was available rather than constantly bringing on new characters. With the Loves,they got rid of Nicole and Peter. The McKinnons were established as the working class family and then everyone of them-Vince,Mary,Ben,Cheryl,MJ and Kathleen were goners. The Corys lost Jamie,Nancy,Sandy/Blaine etc Rachel's sister Pam and father were never brought back.She also had a cousin(Sam's daughter)who could have been utilised. Way too many mistakes were made.

The only child on SB during that time was Gina's son Brandon and I think he pretty much stayed true to his age, The other chidren born on the show were not aged significantly over the years.

Out of all the changes that happened post Lemay.Blaine emerged as one of the strongest characters. she had so many things thrown at her by different regimes but Malone made it work. She made the fatal mistake of not losing her pregnancy weight and Dewey,her temp replacement took over. Blaine/Malone should have been brought back.Maybe Sandy needed to be killed off,as he was never used again and Chris rich had moved on. Either that or a strong recast.

Ira Cirker,who directed AW for 16 years and won several Emmy's died recently at age 86.

Tin O'Connor talks about Eliot Carson and PP When you got the regular role on Peyton Place, did you decide immediately that you would relocate to Los Angeles? Yeah, I was making a commitment to stay out there. I was travelling so much, back and forth, that I decided just to go and do it. At that time, I had a house on an island in a lake in New Jersey. Really? It just came up, and my wife and I decided that it sounded like a good idea. We were apartment dwellers and always had been in New York, and this sounded great. It was about an hour out of town, and a long bus ride. I just loved it, the water, the summer and the winters. In the winters we could walk across because it would be frozen. It was our own island, a small island only large enough for one house. Tell me about your character on Peyton Place, Elliot Carson, and your approach to the role. Initially, as it came on, he was in prison and he was just being released, but he was not really guilty of what he was charged with. He was a true blue kind of fellow who felt that what he found in terms of Allison and Constance, the love he felt there and that they felt back, and the family feeling that he had, put him in such a positive ground, that he was a force for good. He was there for what he stood for, in the way he wrote his stories and how he ran the newspaper. That was all sort of brought out with his father. His father and he both worked at the newspaper, and had a lot of everyday conversation about what was happening in Peyton Place. So the discussions were a great deal about self-improvement. He was always kind of nagging himself that he could be better. Elliot had a subtext of anger that was there at the root, and could begin to surface at any time. He really had no in between. His experience of the time he spent in the penitentiary, and his survival in the penitentiary, I think gave him a different sense of being. Although he deeply appreciated where he was and understood what he had, and he did not want to lose it, he wasn’t a person to be bullied. And a couple of shows did come up with that, where that was demonstrated. You worked more with Dorothy Malone, who played your wife, than with anyone else in the case. What do you remember about her? I liked her. She was nice, and she was a pro. She’d come from films into this, and I think there was just this little bit of adjustment for her into television. Dorothy had an Academy Award, and she was a very good actress. I seemed to work well with her. We didn’t have a great deal going between each other, but it wasn’t anything that was uncomfortable. Did you and Dorothy Malone choose to leave the show in 1968? No, we were written out. They dropped the characters. The problem, as I understood it, was ABC. The cost of the show, after three and a half years or more, was going up and up and up. ABC had a contract they wanted to stay with, and Twentieth [Century-Fox] was beginning to lose money on making the show, as popular as it was. They looked downstream a ways, and just slowly began to release Dorothy and myself and others on the show, and change the format of the show. And within a year it died, it was dead. When Peyton Place went to three half-hours per week, Fox added a second unit, so that multiple episodes were shooting at the same time. Did that make it more difficult? We went back and forth, from whatever set to the next, whenever we were needed and whenever we were called. It was really crazy, and very, very difficult to do. We had to be on top of three scripts at a time. Did you meet with the writers at all, or have any input into how your character was scripted? No. Maybe the other actors talked with them, but I liked what was done with [my character], and I just kept pushing it. They seemed to write to the person that I thought this guy was. And if I wanted to do something, I just simply did it, and took the dialogue that way, with me. I remember the first scene that I had on the show. I was in prison and I was talking through the bars. I think it was to my father, [played by] Frank Ferguson. We had this very long scene, which was this character’s introduction, and there were an awful lot of nuances in it. The way it was written was one way. The way I played it [was another]. I can’t remember which director shot it, but he was rather happy with what I did that he hadn’t seen, that element in it that I was introducing. I smiled through it, teased it, and I would indicate just via looks that the character was so strained and had so much internal controversy.

All is Forgiven aired on NBC as a spring tryout series.It scored good ratings after Golden Girls,but was not picked up for fall.At that time NBC had so many hit comedies that there was really no room in the schedule(how times have changed). Maybe it wasn't that good and they decided to go with other shows.Anyway,Carol Kane played Nicolette,the head writer of the soap All is Forgiven and star Bess Armstrong was the producer. Another show that possibly qualifies as primetime soap was 'For Love and Honor 'on NBC.It aired Fall 83.It was inspired by 'An Officer and a Gentleman' and was set on an army base. Cliff Potts was Eugene Allard,whose adulterous wife Phyllis(Shanna Reed ex Terry Texas)was an alcoholic.He was having an affair with Carolyn,the base medical officer(Shelley Smith,who has been previosly mentioned in this thread). China Bell(Yaphet Kotto)was an embitteredformer boxer and Viet vet. Other familiar names in the cast included Rachel Ticotin,Keenan Ivory Wayans,Kelly Preston and Amy Steel(ex GL) The competition was Falcon Crest and Matt Houston and the lead-in was the notorious bomb 'Manimal'. You would have to question the wisdom of putting this show up against Falcon Crest,seemingly appealing to the same audience.

Stephanie recently did Coronation Street as a love interest for Ken Barlow.

Never saw Year in the Life,but it sounds quality.

Colbys Season 2 started to come together.Much as I worship the woman,Barbara Stanwyck's character was not missed.Stanwyck herself complained about not being given anything meaty to do. The original love intersts for Bliss(!) and Monica were Wayne a blind C&W singer,Neil-played by Phillip Brown and Sean played by Charles Van Eman. They were boring and jettisoned for Season 2. Instead we got Cash(played by James Houghton-Y&R,KL)for Monica and Kolya for Bliss.Adrian Paul played Kolya and he was hot!(He should have become a bigger star.I thought he would have made a good James Bond. But Charlton Heston was a drag.

Falcon Crest was another show that was slow off the starting blocks and fairly stodgy in Season 1.The arrival of Richard Channing and the move to full on serialization really lifted the show. I found Season 1 of The Colbys pretty flat but Season 2 really took off. Does anybody recall 'A Year in the Life' on NBC in 87-88? It reads a little like Family. It began as a mini series exploring the death of the mother,which brought back 4 grown children to the family fold. The series explored the lives of the 3 generations of the Gardner family. Cast included Richard Kiley,Wendy Phillips,Adam Arkin,David Oliver(Perry AW),Diana Maldaur and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Yes,FHTE was subtitled 'The War Years' It took place in Honolulu during 1942,with the city under martial law following the Japanese attack. Sgt Warden was still having the affair with Karen,but now had to deal with Robert Prewitt's brother Jefferson(Don Johnson)The AWOL Robert had been killed while trying to return to base under Warden's advice.Jefferson became involved with Lorene,the prostitute who had been Robert's girlfriend,and eventually married her.Warden(Devane)and Holmes(Thinnes)had a showdown over Holmes treatment of Karen,after which Holmes suffered a heart attack.Karen then left Honolulu to spend the duration of the war on US mainland. Re the movie-apparently Joan Crawford was set for the Deborah Kerr role but backed out at the last minute.

Fresno was a ratings disaster,and this was at a time when mini series were pretty much surefire ratings grabbers.Of course,being a satire,viewers probably didn't know how to handle it. There is so much good stuff in this thread,I'm finding it hard to keep up! re Emerald Point-was Jill St John brought on mid season to spice things up(in an Alexis type move?) Another show to add to the mix From Here to Eternity on NBC.They had great success with the mini series starring William Devane and Natalie Wood that this series was commissioned.Barbara Hershey took on Wood's role and I remember reading that Devane became one of the highest paid TV stars by agreeing to do it.Roy Thinnes,Don Johnson,Kim Basinger and Claire Malis(ex Dorian OLTL)were part of the cast. The show was a ratings flop,beaten by Vegas on ABC and a movie on CBS.

Eric,I don't know how much you've read on Behind The Screen(only Schemering?)The Wikepedia page basically regurgitates his work,although there is a photo. The Jacobs interview features a pic of Debbi Morgan,Catherine Parks,Mike Sabatino and Janine Turner,all looking suitably sexy and soulful. I have read that one of the inspirations for KL was the 57 movie No Down Payment starring Joanne Woodward,Jeffrey Hunter,Barbara Rush etc.It is well worth checking out. I think he is talking Season 3.It did have more self contained episodes where one story was introduced and resolved egLilimae meets Jackson and falls for him,only to discover he is interested in her only because of her connections to the Ewings. Or the one where the women accompany Laura to see a 'haunted house' and stay the night,resulting in Val nearly jumping off the roof. Karen's college roommate Victoria(Jessica Walter)arrives and tempts her to go to New York.

Some quotes from a Jacobs interview in 81 Re Behind The Screen "It's hard to keep an audience on a serial when it's only on once a week.It was originally designed for three times a week,but the network became conservative and decided to go for once a week" If the ratings continue to stay high during the first six weeks,however,it's expected BTS will begin airing twice a week. How do you hook an audience? "With Dallas,we did it with sex and no pilot has ever been more detested,but the character of JR began blowing up.As I see the history of this kind of genre,it goes back a long time.It goes back to Peyton Place,I guess,as the first primetime soap,or One Man's Family,which is where Eva Marie saint started." "Even though The Waltons had each story separate,you can't really show those shows out of order. First of all,the kids were growing up,and it had the umbrella of the depression and of events,so even though the episodes are different you have an arc. In Family,we couldn't really play the shows out of order because we had what we call arcs,or as ABC used to call them emotional journeys of each chracter,where we find the character and where we left him at the end of the year". Knots Landing was the first idea Jacobs and partner Michael Filerman presented to CBS,but when the network felt it was too middle class and wanted something more sensational Dallas was created. After Dallas became ahit,the network suggested they work KL into a Dallas spin-off,which Jacobs said was easy since Lucy's father was "the prodigal son".Knots Landing is still the apple of Jacob's eye. "It's going to be the best show on television this year",he smiles."It's just wonderful and we're not very serialized at all.I thought it was a mistake to serialize so much and I don't think we were as effective. Towards the end of the season,we stopped serializing and the ratings went up.Especially this year,KL has a reality to it that's very touching and it's insightful when it's at it's best.' "I was talking to someone recently and what I said was that if anybody put a gun to my head,i would admit that we were not doing War and Peace every week,but while we're doing it,we think we're doing War and Peace and Knots demands that of you. With Dallas you can be outrageous and crazy,but not with Knots.It's about passion,it's not about power,and it's very challenging. I guess I'm using the word challenging as a euphemism for 'very difficult',bit it's exciting.If I have my way,though,Behind The Screen would be the most fun of the three.' "BTS isn't sexy though. There is a lot more innuendo than there is endo.I think CBS would have actually let me make the pilot sexier than it was,but I did a show last year called 'Secrets of Midland Heights',which I also loved,and it was supposed to be a show for a young audience.development people were saying,'Make it sexier,make it sexier'. Program people were saying,'Not so sexy'.Then development people were saying,'We'll take care of them',but they didn't. So what they got was a 10.00 timeslot and sexy or not,the show was not designed for 10.00.It was designed for young adults". It seems CBS wanted to replicate the Friday combo of Dukes of Hazzard/Dallas on Saturday by pairing 'Freebie and the Bean'with SOMH. Midland debuted in the Dallas timeslot and got a 41 share-terrific for a new show,but Dallas at that point was scoring shares in the high 50's. The following night up against Fantasy Island the ratings fell to 22 share and continued to tumble.

Maybe it was 'Jackie Collins Sunset West'?

Jackie Collins did have a deal with CBS for a nightime soap,but I don't think it ever went to a pilot. I can't recall the exact title but it wasn something like 'Jackie Collins 5th Avenue'or some such locale.

Stu and jo were actually step siblings.Jo's father married Stu's mother in the 50's. Stu and Jo worked as close friends.it was very unique relationship.

Robin Eisenmann(sp?)was the first Jennifer but it was probably a short stint.She later vplayed Nurse Stacry on GH and subbed as Nikki on Y&R. SFT had a strong family set up with Stu but it was not utilised.Janet was written off, as was Gary and the SORASING of Danny and constant recasts of Tom destroyed that part. As for Jo,Patti should have been brought back earlier,divorced from Len with two kids(Chris & Tracey).Much as I hate rapid SORASING,they could have been teens in the early 80's and kept Jo in the forefront as mother/grandmother(as well as aunt to Suzi). If Bunim was such a bitch,maybe this accounted for the constant writer turnover throughout the 70's.

Caroline McWilliams,who played Janet Mason for 6 years(69-75)has died at age 64. Best known from prime time as one of the cast of Benson.

There was a tv movie that preceded Paper Dolls by a couple of years with Joan Collins as Racine and Daryl Hannah as Taryn.I don't think it was intended as anything but a one off,but maybe it was reworked into a series a couple of years later,

The 81 ABC movie was primetime. In 83,NBC developed the daytime version with Pat Falken Smith as writer,Doris Quinlan,producer and starring Susan Flannery,

The 1981 TV movie was on ABC and a pilot for a possible spinoff. Shelley Smith,who briefly was a semi hot TV name due to a short lived comedy 'The Associates'took on the Lindsay Wagner role.Smith guest starred on RH as one of the celebrity guests at the opening of Delia's Crystal Palace restaurant,along with Van Johnson and Otto Preminger. Others in the Scruples pilot included Priscilla Barnes,Dirk Benedict,Roy Thinnes,Jessica Walter,Kale Brown and James Darren.

Ron Harper also was on LOL,AW and Loving