I've read up on the history of Roy Winsor's "Love of Life" (1951-1980) via Wikipedia and ols WoST. The premise of the two sisters -- Vanessa and Meg -- and the people around them really appealed. Especially since one was "the good one" and the other, the scheming manipulator!

I am most interested in 1970s LoL, in particular when Paul Avila Mayer and Claire Labine reinvigorated the show. They brought back manipulative Meg (played by the stunningly intense and queen-like Tudi Wiggins) along with her emotionally fragile daughter Cal and son Ben (played by a young Christopher Reeve).

I've only ever seen one episode of the show (on YouTube) from this period, but I have fallen in love with its stunning opening credits (featuring roses -- referring to the fictional town of Rosehill, NY, where it was set) and theme tune. And the show seemed imbued with sweetness and tension and suspense and longing. It was only a half-hour program!

I also read up some SOD recaps which recreated the atmosphere of the show alongside recounting "what happened."

Anyhoo... thoughts, commentary, information. I'd be grateful to hear any of your stories with regards to Love of Life.

2 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

Audrey Peters/Van didn’t go anywhere, and the show still tanked

 

True.  However, I think LOL hung on for as long as it did, BECAUSE she was still there.  Otherwise, it seems as if there was little or nothing there to keep even the diehardiest of diehard fans (the kind who never, ever quit on a show, no matter how rotten, because, "like a tree that's planted by the waters, I shall NOT be moved") from fleeing.  I mean, even Sammy Davis, Jr. and his "Candyman"-singin' ass would have been out the door the minute the news broke that Audrey had quit/retired/died, and he was supposed to be LOL's #1 true-blue fan!

 

Contrast that with GL, for example, which seemed to do okay (for awhile, anyway) w/o Charita Bauer as Bert.

 

2 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

I think it was in the 70s that TPTB started realizing that many of these shows could go on for a long, long time, and so it might’ve been in their best interest to establish characters and families that would be around for a while.

 

Not only that, but it was also their way of capturing the attention of newer (read: younger) audiences, who could form their own attachments to the newer characters and families, in the same way that their parents and grandparents had formed attachments over the years to the original ones.  In the case of SFT, I think the tactic worked, even if it was ultimately undone by a revolving door of HW's and EP's who ruined the show with one bad story-related decision after another.

 

Unfortunately, where LOL was concerned, growing the show in that way seemed to have almost the opposite effect (again, from what I have read about its' history): not only did expanding the show's canvas alienate large sections of the show's standing audience, BUT, it seems as if the younger audiences whom TPTB had desired weren't all that interested either.  As (I think) Mimi Torchin once said, LOL was doomed to be just "your mother's soap opera."

Edited June 14, 20187 yr by Khan

I think the Labine's expanded it when they wrote in the 73-75 period by bringing back Meg and her two kids Ben and Cal thus reestablishing the Meg/Van angle that was popular in the 50s.  We also were shown her two kids Ben and Cal that were kind of like Meg/Van (Ben was like Meg and Cal was like Van).  

 

From what I've heard, Gabrielle Upton was the one that totally uprooted the canvas by making Ben the nice one.. and writing off Cal.. when the Meg/Cal conflict was a big component to the semi revival the show had in the mid 70s... but I do think the early morning time slot hurt them as well.  People always forget time slot can make or break a show sometimes.

 

I also do think if the show continued in 1980, we would have seen the canvas continue to adjust since Marcus was just mere months into her regime and the quality was slowly improving.  If rumors were true Tudi was leaving, it could be why Marcus was planning to bring back Van's step daughter to fill the Meg void... and I do think Dana Delaney's character had potential to be a young Meg in training.

 

However, I think the biggest issue for LOL was that the premise was good and evil... Van was all good and Meg was all evil (or more grey when she returned in the 70s).  I think as soaps continued to evolve.. the all good and all bad concept was indeed your 'grandmas' soap.. and not a modern day soap.  

 

Still if Ann Marcus was given at least another year, I think viewers could have seen what her true vision/plan was because the show was still in transition with the Ben/Mia/Betsy triangle looking to be resolved ( I have a feeling Mia and/or Betsy would have been written off).. Arlene was seen walking away from her abusive husband (and rumors were saying she was wanting to leave so maybe that was setting the stage for her leaving the show).. etc.  I think if you looked at the more recent additions, we could see where Marcus was going.. a more modern soap with a connection to the tentpoles Bruce/Van.

 

 

23 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

Did Van ever have any children of her own? 

 

No. In every soap book I've read that devotes space to LOL, it's mentioned that Van was unable to conceive. However, she had stepkids, helped mother her sister's kids, and was a mother figure to quite a number of younger characters on the show.

I think, at its core, the good/evil trope can evolve into something deeper and more nuanced. The Van/Meg conflict was sort of a precursor to Viki and Dorian on OLTL. It just would have taken a more deliberate pen to show that each woman, while Van is dominated by superego and Meg by id, is human. I also think that having their offspring (or whomever became their proteges - Van didn't have kids, but with the university, she could have taken on a role model position with all of those kids) around would have helped in giving the writers a chance to write the two women as growing older and realer. Meg still inclined to her nasty ways but having a cooler enough head to stop Ben from cutting up ("I'm a grown ass woman, I can do what I want - you're still my child, and you WILL listen to what I say!"). I really wish we could see more of the Ben/Meg dynamic because I bet Tudi brought out the best in CR and CCH.

Found some info on 1965 Love of Life April thru August

 

Frank Provo and John Pickard were headwriters throughout that time, but for a week in April Margaret Lewerth was listed as headwriter and for a week in July Edward White was listed as headwriter.

I assume Pickard/Provo were on gaycation at those times.

 

Cast/characters appearing in that time frame

Cast

Bernard Kates ??

Ann Loring  Tammy Forest Porter

Andrea Martin  Lynn Nelson

Ron Tomme  Bruce Sterling

Audrey Peters  Vanessa Sterling

Lee Lawson  Barbara Sterling

Frederick Rolf  Dr Kenneth Wannberg

Sybil White  Elizabeth Wannberg

Paul Savior  Rick Latimer

Jack Stamberger  Henry Carlson

Frieda Altman ??

Dan Ferrone  Alan Sterling

Maury Cooper ??

Helene Dumas  Vivian Carlson

Bonnie Bedelia Culkin  Sandy Porter 

Gene Pellegrini  Link Porter

Jordan Charney  Tony Vento

Alexander Clark ??

Russell Gold  ?? later played Ed Bridgeman

Ralph Bell ??

Buster Crabbe ??

Agnes Young  Mrs Vento

Justin Sterling  Hank Latimer

 

Have never seen mention of the Wannbergs or Lynn Nelson in synopses but there were on fairly regularly during those months.

Bonnie Bedelia was listed as BB Culkin. I didn't know she was aunt to Macauley of Home Alone fame.

Buster Crabbe was an an Olympic swimmer turned actor. He was on LOL 4/5 times over a few weeks.

"Scottie" MacGregor (Love of Life) has passed away.

 

Katherine "Scottie" MacGregor (born Dorlee Deane MacGregor; January 12, 1925 – November 13, 2018) was an American actress, best known for her role as Harriet Oleson in Little House on the Prairie.

 

When MacGregor was a child, her mother moved the family to Fort Collins, Colorado, where they lived most of Katherine's early life. She graduated from Northwestern University with a major in drama and moved to New York in 1949.   After arriving in New York, she was hired by the Arthur Murray Dance Studios in New York City as a dance instructor. She studied acting under N. Richard Nash, Sanford Meisner and Stella Adler.

Beginning in the 1950s, as Scottie MacGregor, she worked in theatre on and off Broadway in New York and other states in plays such as The Seven Year Itch and Handful of Fire, and won such uncredited parts as "a longshoreman's mother" (On the Waterfront); "Alice Thorn" (The Traveling Executioner) and "Miss Boswell" (The Student Nurses). She appeared in numerous episodes of various television series: Love of Life (1956), The Secret Storm, The Nurses,  Play of the Week (1959), East Side/West Side (1963), Mannix (1970–71), Emergency! (1972), Ironside (1972, 1974), and All in the Family (1973), as well as the two 1981 "Heroes vs. Villains" episodes of Family Feud hosted by Richard Dawson. She had roles in the TV movies, The Death of Me Yet (1971), The Girls of Huntington House (1973), and Tell Me Where It Hurts (1974).

 

MacGregor's best known role from 1974-83 was in NBC's Little House on the Prairie as Harriet Oleson, a general store owner's wife and a comedic part.^[5] MacGregor's favorite description of her character in Little House came in a fan letter from Minnesota in the 1970s, in which Mrs. Oleson was described as "the touch of pepper in the sweetness of the show". In 1979, thanks to the popularity of Little House in Spain, MacGregor was invited to Madrid, Spain and appeared on RTVE's 625 Lineas program.

 

After Little House on the Prairie, she withdrew from screen productions in favor of local theater. She dedicated herself to the Hindu religion, and to teaching acting to children at the Wee Hollywood Vedanta Players, before finally retiring in the early 2000s.  In 2014, she did an in-depth interview about her life and career for the book Prairie Memories by Patrick Loubatiere.

Personal life[edit]

She was married to actor Bert Remsen from 1949 to 1950 and to actor, director, and teacher Edward G. Kaye-Martin, 14 years her junior, from August 1969 to October 1970.

MacGregor died on November 13, 2018 at the age of 93.

Oh no, Mrs. Oleson!  

Edited November 14, 20187 yr by I Am A Swede

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Variety Sept 21 1955

Peggy McKay 'No Soap' on 'Love of Life' TVer despite enviable status.

Unusual instance cropped up last week of a 'soap queen' with one of the most enviable reps and paychecks in the daytime serial sweepstakes throwing it all up so she'll have greater access to dramatic roles as a TV freelancer.

She's Peggy McKay, star of CBS-TV's 'Love of Life' sponsored by American Home Products. she's been top femme on the show for the last four years with an assured five times a week cast to coast exposure and income.

However, Miss McKay served notice on the client and agency that she's washing up on the stanza after Oct 28, primarily because the demands of an across the board showcase prevented her from obtaining roles on major drama entries. Sponsor tried to convince her to stay bit it was no dice.

Very early on.Peggy McKay and onscreen dad?

Ep # 6202

Taped Tues Sept 9 1975

Aired  Tues Sept 16 1975

 

CAST

Ben

Betsy

Arlene

Rick 

Cal

Carrie

Jamie

Meg

 

SETS

Ben/Betsy Bedroom

Arlene's Apt

Jamie's Office

 

TIME

New day/mid morning

 

Exec Producer Darryl Hickman

 

Writers

Margaret De Priest

with Clarice Blackburn/Mary Ryan Munisteri/Moe Cooper

 

@Musical Soap Lady

@slick jones

I'm so happy to see this article found - I never got to see it before, and having people remember, and give me the chance to recapture these key chapters in my life is very precious and appreciated!  - Amanda (AKA Andrea Martin)