It is interesting that Brenda Brock (One Life to Live) has not been heard of since leaving that show or being written off the show.

Does anyone have an idea of what she has been doing?

The addition of a new, younger family member of the Woleck family would not have had to involve Anna.  Dr. Dan Woleck could have easily brought a new younger member into the storylines.

Gabrielle Upton/Gillian Houghton, final writer of The Secret Storm,  has passed away.

 

Gabrielle Upton, who wrote the screenplay for the classic California surfing movie Gidget, starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson and James Darren, has died. She was 101.

Upton died Sept. 13 in Santa Rosa, California, her daughter, Greer Upton, told The Hollywood Reporter. News of her death had not been reported until now.

A three-time WGA Award nominee, Upton wrote for such network shows as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour/Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey, Convoy, One Step Beyond, The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, The Virginian, The Big Valley and The High Chaparral.

 

 

She also worked on several daytime soap operas during her career, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, The Secret Storm and Love of Life.

After Frederick Kohner took a crack at adapting his best-selling 1957 novel Gidget, the Little Girl With Big Ideas for Columbia Pictures’ Gidget (1959), Upton came on and received sole screenplay credit.

Directed by Paul Wendkos, the coming-of-age movie spawned several other Gidget movies and a 1965-66 ABC/Screen Gems comedy starring Sally Field.

Upton also provided the story for Robert Siodmak’s Escape From East Berlin (1962), based on a true story and starring Don Murray, Christine Kaufmann and Werner Klemperer. She lived in Germany while that film was in production.

Born in British Columbia in 1921, Upton acted and wrote radio plays for the CBC. She and her husband, actor and sound man Julian Upton, then moved to Los Angeles and worked at what is now known as Theater of Arts on Hollywood Boulevard.

Upton served as head writer on CBS’ Guiding Light for many years starting in 1952 and held a similar position at many other (soap operas).

In 1953, she wrote and starred on an episode of the CBS anthology series Schlitz Playhouse, then wrote for The Loretta Young Show, Ford Television Theatre and the drama Wire Service early in her career as well.

Upton also co-wrote the screenplay for the German-French thriller Tender Sharks (1967), starring Anna Karina, and came up with the story and script for Brown Eye, Evil Eye (1968), starring Hugh Griffith.

She often wrote under the pseudonym Gillian Houghton and specialized in medical, legal and suspense shows.

Survivors also include her son-in-law, John. Her husband died in 2016 at age 94.

Gabrielle Upton/Gillian Houghton has passed away.

 

Gabrielle Upton, who wrote the screenplay for the classic California surfing movie Gidget, starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson and James Darren, has died. She was 101.

Upton died Sept. 13 in Santa Rosa, California, her daughter, Greer Upton, told The Hollywood Reporter. News of her death had not been reported until now.

A three-time WGA Award nominee, Upton wrote for such network shows as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour/Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey, Convoy, One Step Beyond, The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, The Virginian, The Big Valley and The High Chaparral.

 

 

She also worked on several daytime soap operas during her career, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, The Secret Storm and Love of Life.

After Frederick Kohner took a crack at adapting his best-selling 1957 novel Gidget, the Little Girl With Big Ideas for Columbia Pictures’ Gidget (1959), Upton came on and received sole screenplay credit.

Directed by Paul Wendkos, the coming-of-age movie spawned several other Gidget movies and a 1965-66 ABC/Screen Gems comedy starring Sally Field.

Upton also provided the story for Robert Siodmak’s Escape From East Berlin (1962), based on a true story and starring Don Murray, Christine Kaufmann and Werner Klemperer. She lived in Germany while that film was in production.

Born in British Columbia in 1921, Upton acted and wrote radio plays for the CBC. She and her husband, actor and sound man Julian Upton, then moved to Los Angeles and worked at what is now known as Theater of Arts on Hollywood Boulevard.

Upton served as head writer on CBS’ Guiding Light for many years starting in 1952 and held a similar position at many other (soap operas).

In 1953, she wrote and starred on an episode of the CBS anthology series Schlitz Playhouse, then wrote for The Loretta Young Show, Ford Television Theatre and the drama Wire Service early in her career as well.

Upton also co-wrote the screenplay for the German-French thriller Tender Sharks (1967), starring Anna Karina, and came up with the story and script for Brown Eye, Evil Eye (1968), starring Hugh Griffith.

She often wrote under the pseudonym Gillian Houghton and specialized in medical, legal and suspense shows.

Survivors also include her son-in-law, John. Her husband died in 2016 at age 94.

 

It is interesting that the possibility of moving Search for Tomorrow out of Henderson and, possibly, to New Orleans is discussed above.    Also that the the late Val Dufour was leaving a role on Search for Tomorrow.

If the show had moved to New Orleans, it would have made a lot of sense to have kept Val Dufour on the program.   He was a native of New Orleans in real life.

Also, I had never known that Ralph Byers had played a role on Search for Tomorrow.  I only knew him from the last months of Edge of Night.

It should be remembered that many of the early casts on both One Life to Live and All My Children were quickly replaced.

Michael Storm was the third actor to play Larry.

Nat Pollen was the second actor to play Jim.

Alice Hirson was the second actress to play Eileen.  (And the original Eileen, Patricia Roe, had previously worked on The Guiding Light when Ms. Nixon was that show's writer.)

Tom Berringer was the second actor to play Timmy Siegel.

The original actress hired to play Victoria was replaced even before the show began.   After Gillian Spencer left the show, Victoria #2 (Joanne Dorian) was suddenly replaced.

I do not know why the role of Cathy was recast so often.   I would have been very surprised, though, if Dorrie Kavanaugh had been fired.   My understanding is that she was wanting to sing opera and that she was also editor of a newspaper for young people.   She and Francesca James (Marcy on One Life to Live and Kitty on All My Children) and, later, Felicity LaFortunate (Laurel on All My Children) all departed with the intentions of careers in opera.    (One reason that Kitty's twin Kelly was a singer when she arrived in Pine Valley.)

Dorrie Kavanaugh remained on One Life to Live longer that any of her other roles on television.   Her roles on Dark Shadows, The Guiding Light and The Edge of Night were all rather short.   And the roles on The Guiding Light (Charlotte) and The Edge of Night (Tango) were both filled by other actresses after she left those shows.

The four CBS-owned soap operas were also using organ music (which, to me, does not seem at all old-fashioned).    Later in the 1970s, CBS hired Carey Gold to play a variety of instruments for both Love of Life and The Secret Storm.

Ms. Clair had not only played Mrs. McGrath on The Edge of Night, she was married to the male lead of The Edge of Night, Lawrence Hugo (Mike).

And Hidden Faces was owned by NBC - not Procter and Gamble.

Where was The Nurses (during its ABC daytime run) taped?

The original primetime series was produced at Filmways Studios in East Harlem.  Was the daytime version also taped there, or had the production moved somewhere else?

"Another World, Somerset, Lovers & Friends/For Richer For Poorer, and Texas were filmed at the NBC Studios in Brooklyn, NY."

Wasn't Our Five Daughter produced there also?    And, where were Ben Jarrod, Attorney at Law and (later) Hidden Faces and (still later) How to Survive a Marriage produced?

I was just watching an old episode of One Life to Live on this site, and the episode contained credits of both the performers and the names of the people who worked on the show.

There was a character listed with the other contract performers named Dr. Alan Bennett played by Roger Rathburn.

I cannot remember this character.   Could someone please tell me who Dr. Bennett was in the storyline?

I also did see actor Jay Gregory as Douglas Kern (a decorator) listed.   Mr. Gregory had played rather major roles on Somerset and The Edge of Night.

When shows are recasing characters, there are two choices among the possiblities.  One is to hire someone who strongly resembles the departing performer and hope that the new performer is accepted by the audience.   The other option is to cast a new performer who is not all that much like the perfomer who left.  

As the World Turns hired Phoebe Dorin to replace Rosemary Prinz as Penny Hughes.  Sje did resemble Ms. Prinz.  However, Ms. Dorin was not accepted, and the show wrote Penny off the show.   (Penny's daughter was later brought onto the show.)

The question has been asked about any other possible replacements could there have been to replace Rosemary Prinz.

Although this performer did not resemble Rosemary Prinz all that much, the only person that I could imagine in the role would have been the late Nanocy Malone.   She was around the same age as Rosemary Prinz (and not so young as the earlier suggested Erika Slezak).

Ms. Malone had played roles on The Guiding Light and Another World.   She was later a head writer of The Guiding Light.

I am wondering about New Orleans native Jennifer Harmon.  She played Chris Kirby on How to Survive a Marriage and Cathy Craig on One Life to Live.    After a long absence from One Life to Live, she returned to that show playing a different character in a day role (as an attorney).

Does anyone know what she has done since she appeared in her second One Life to Live role?

Earlier tonight, I saw a clip of All My Children from probably 1980.  Erica was in the office of Brandon Kingsley, and another model came into the room.   Erica introduced herself as "Erica Cudahy."   Later, in the same scene, the other woman called her "Mrs. Cudahy."

I see the name of Mike Hammett each Saturday when the credits are rolled on the CBS Morning Show.

Could Gillian Houghton be one of the writers that CBS hired?   She had written screenplays for movies prior to writing The Secret Storm and Love of Life.

Here is her IMDb biography:

"Gabrielle Upton, Canada, 1922, was a screenwriter for various motion pictures and daytime serials and an actress. Ms. Upton was head writer and thrice nominated for Writer's Guild of America Outstanding Writing Achievement Awards for the daytime serials Love of Life (under pseudonym Gillian Houghton) and the Secret Storm. She has over forty prime-time TV scripts to her credit as well. Ms. Upton specialized in medical, legal and suspense shows. Her first major motion picture solo writer's credit was for the initial "Gidget" movie with Sandra Dee in 1959. This movie was followed by several more including Escape From East Berlin in 1962 and The Beach Boys: An American Band in 1985."

I also know that Ann Marcus and Jean Rouverol were writing soap operas for CBS during the 1970s.  Eventually, John and Joyce Carrington wrote Search for Tomorrow.   Ms. Marcus had written a lot of prime time television, and Ms. Rouverol had written other things before she was blacklisted.   She wrote for the soap operas after her blacklisting was over.

Eugenie Hunt had been co-headwriter for The Guiding Light (from 1969 - 1973) and, later for As the World Turns.  She had written a Broadway play (A Roomful of Roses) and screenplays (The Best of Everything, This Property Is Condemned).  

Robert J. Shaw had written a whole lot for prime time television (including the serial Peyton Place).   He had written for Valiant Lady in the 1950s, but, later was writing Bright Promise, Somerset (for NBC) and Search for Tomorrow (on CBS).

I am not sure when Ms. Leslie and Ms. Day began writing the show, but I do know that they were writing the show when Sean Childers and Mickey were introduced.  (one of the best storylines of the show, in my opinnion)

I could tell, as a 13-year-old child, that something about the show was different.  I noticed this change before the first episode was over.     

As I seem to recall, this episode under new ownership was the day that Willifred Hollister (Bernard Hughes) passed away.

Shortly after this, Linda DeCoff was replaced by Stephanie Braxton as Laurie Hollister.  She had played a blind girl on an episode of Love Is a Many Splendored Thing when Iris (Leslie Charleston) was playing the blinded Iris Garrison.

Joel Crothers had already replaced the original actor who had created the role of Ken.  

I, too, would love to see the 1967 episodes.   I read the other day that Lara Parker had played a nurse on The Doctors prior to being cast on Dark Shadows later that year.

I had not realized that Ian Martin had written scripts for The Doctors.

I did know that he was the coloborator of Henry Slesar when Mr. Slesar wrote Somerset.   (He also played Lyman the butler on that show.)  Their work on Somerset was excellent!

He is also listed as having been a writer for How to Survive a Marriage and One Life to Live. 

And he played Charley Brooks on The Edge of Night during that show's early years.

Three different actor played Hank Barton on As the World Turns (Don Scardino, Paul Falzone, and Gary Sandy), but Mr. Sandy seems to have made the most lasting impression.   It is he that most people mention in the role.

Could you identify the two actresses who played Sally and Sharon on The Secret Storm?   This was when Peter White was playing Jerry Ames.    (Sharon was after Jerry, and Sharon was her roommate.)

I had not known that George Lefferts (the original producer of Ryan's Hope) had worked on As the World Turns.

I am somewhat somewhat shocked at learning this because he had worked on Ryan's Hope for such a short time and the quality of Ryan's Hope had improved so much when his replacement (Robert Costello) began working on the show.

Someone also thought that the Ivan storyline was out-of-place, and the whole storyline was dropped in a few weeks.     The show had a lot of young performers under contract (Cassie, Rob, Joy, Giuletta).   Danny Wolock was brought back, and Annie was added as his girlfriend.  Brody was the only one that did not have a contract role on the show.  

Guiella, Annie, Ivan, and Brody were all dropped.   I cannot remember if Josh and Lisa were on the show or had already dropped, but I think they remained along with Joy, Rob, and Cassie.  (Guiletta was dropped after her mother came to Llanview.)

Eriq LaSalle also played a young reporter, but that was a little later.  Also, Marilyn McIntyre played a hench woman for Dr. Kipling, but I think that her character also was off the show by this time.   Ms. McIntyre later was on Loving.

The Match Game - Hollywood Squares show did not air in my market, and I am just now seeing the reruns on the Buzzr network.    I really enjoy it, and I think that the Hollywood Squares portion of the show was better than The Match Game portion.   (I had preferred the NBC version of The Match Game with the two celebrities and four contestants.)  There were more stars to play Hollywood Squares (nine) than on The Match Game (six).  

I also loved how NBC usually had at least one soap opera celebrity playing Hollywood Squares.  Ususally, this was a performer who was currently on The Doctors, Another World, or the serial Days of Our Lives, but, at other times, it was someone who had appeared on other soap operas and left (such as Leah Ayers of Love of Life and The Edge of Night) or Jackee Harry (from Another World).

I remember seeing Nancy Frageone (from All My Children and Another World), Nancy Stafford (from The Doctors),   Christopher Rich (from Another World), Linda Dano (from One Life to LIve, As the World Turns, and Another World), David Oliver (from Another World), Rick Porter (Another World), etc.    So, while promoting its own daytime schedule, it was also appealing to other viewers of ABC and CBS.

I had not known that Sam Schacht had played Larry Hale on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.  I distinctly remember that one day I was watching that show with my mother.  The character of Larry was having breakfast with Kim, his wife.   Joseph Stern was playing Larry, and he had a beard.   My mother told me that he was a new actor playing Larry.   I have thought all these years that Mr. Stern had simply grown a beard and that my mother had thought there was a new actor in the role.

Apparently, Mr. Schacht played Larry first, and then Joseph Stern replaced him in the role.

Mr. Stern later left acting and became a television producer.