Love of Life Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

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[beebs]

Found this on Chandler Hill Harben's YouTube. Anyone know whenabouts this is from exactly?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0T9OMInRyg&feature=related

EDIT: Didn't notice this had been up a full year on YouTube already. Apologies if someone already posted this.

Edited December 27, 2011 by beebs

[ClassicSoapsFan]

I am curious about one thing (I apologize if this was discussed before.) I was born 6 years after the show ended and only seen the credits and read about the show on wikipedia.

Was the prison rape storyline that happened with the character that Christopher Reeve formerly played a first and that's why the fans didn't take the storyline well? Or was it so horribly written/acted that it wasn't believable. I ask because Michael's prison rape story on GH seemed to be met with a nonchalant response about the content (unless i am missing something) and good acting overall by the people involved.

[DRW50]

I think Chandler Hill Harben played the rape story.

The last time the clip was put up I think someone said it was from 1979.

[dc11786]

The characters are celebrating the fourth of July in the clip so its July 1979.

I'm sure saynotoursoap can explain it better, and probably has somewhere in this thread, but I don't think the prison rape storyline played out as many were led to believe. When Christopher Reeves assumed the role of Ben, Ben was a cad who drove his mother Meg up the wall. In order to ground him, Meg offered him a small fortune to settle down and marry Betsy Crawford. Little did Meg know that Ben was all ready married to Arlene Lovett, a piano player at the Victoria Club. Arlene and Ben planned to run off with the money, but things slowly changed along the way. Ben fell for Betsy and Arlene became entangled with David Hart. The bigamy story was a labryinth tale that involved a series of characters and complications as people learned Ben and Arlene's secret and they fought to keep it that way.

Eventually, it was revealed Ben had committed bigamy and it looked like Betsy might be punished as well. I believe Ben owned up to his lies and was sentenced to prison as a result. Reeves departed the show when Ben was shipped off to prison. I believe this was May 1976. In October 1976, Ben began sending letters to Betsy and Chandler Harben Hill assumed the role. In November, there was a prison riot and in the course of the events it looked like Ben might be raped, however I don't believe he was. The insinuation was Ben would be raped had the riot continued or if the attacker hadn't been stopped.

I'm not sure how it was received, but this is a time period that doesn't usually read too well based on weekly summaries and SOD synopses. The stories involved a love triangle between Eddie Aleata / Felicia Lamont / Charles Lamont and Meg / Cal / Rick.

[DRW50]

73-74 Daily TV Serials

[Paul Raven]

Ben in prison.

[dc11786]

I find the comments about Cindy Grover sweet, but it is rather sad since they talk about her parents' divorce in another article in the same issue. I'm not sure how I feel about including all this personal information in a magazine considering the personal nature of soap opera.

The Candy - Dan - Kate - Rick sounds like an intriguing story. It surprises me how long Rick Latimer managed to stay on the canvas and how his position evolved.

The beginning of Vanessa and Caroline as penned by Labine and Mayer. What an exciting time that must have been.

I don't think I ever noticed the actor on left in that photo before. Isn't he a rather well known character actor?

[dc11786]

I'm to lazy to figure out how to post this within the thread. On e-bay, there is a copy of the final cast of 'Love of Life.' I think this was taken at Sarah and Timothy's wedding in December 1979, which means Judy Landers and Julia Kelly hadnt joined the series yet.

The only actors I cannot identify are the two males on the left in the back row and the actor behind Audrey Peters. I assume the actors are

Paul Craggs, Christopher Wyatt, and Gary Giem.

http://www.ebay.com/...252757557025870

[DRW50]

I didn't know Judy Landers was on this show.

[dc11786]

Landers appeared in the final weeks as Cheryl, a young woman who was hired to work at the disco Ray Slater ran. Cheryl was set to work with Wes Osbourne, Mia's brother who had deflowered Gina, Ray's sister, the previous summer. When Ray first hired Wes, there was tension due to the Gina / Wes situation and this may have been revisited when Wes became involved with Cheryl and Kelly Wilson, the sister of Lianne Wilson who arrived to attend Rosehill College around the same time Cheryl came looking for work. Wes had visions problems so I suspect a blindness story was heading his way. The show seemed to have a fairly well developed canvas, but I'm surprised how large the cast had gotten.

[DRW50]

That's interesting. I thought the Landers sisters were in primetime at this point, like that BJ and the Bear appearance.

It's too bad Judy never went back to soaps - she would have fit in well on DAYS or AW in the 80's. Or AMC.

[Paul Raven]

[Paul Raven]

Arlene and Edouard

[jam6242]

CNN's website has a story today about Elizabeth Kemp (Betsy Crawford) being an acting coach. Although it discusses her career history, not a word about her being on "Love of Life."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/10/living/creativity-spark-elizabeth-kemp-mentor/index.html?hpt=hp_c3