Love of Life Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

Thanks for all your investigative work!

According to story synopses,Jean Holloway's work began in Nov 78.

Characters leave town,stories are resolved etc.

[will81]

No worries. Cool, thanks for that info

[Paul Raven]

Don Ettlinger is listed as headwriter on a show dated August 22 1960. The show features Nina Reader as Barbara as well as Tammy, Guy and Rick so that date seems correct.

[will81]

Awesome thanks for that. 

[FrenchFan]

Will, how do you find the script informations ? I would love to dig them for other soaps if I might.

[will81]

I go through script archive collections. To be honest there isn't much there. I do have some info for Search For Tomorrow I was going to put in that thread as I have Ann Marcus' episode numbers from her archive and was able to estimate pretty accurate dates. There are several places where writers have donated papers and scripts for archive. The Jerry Dobson collection is an eye opener and not sure what to think as it conflicts with some other info. It basically has scripts written by him for Guiding Light starting from Apr 21 1975 and scripts attributed to him for ATWT starting from Aug 28, 1979. Which makes me wonder when Doug Marland would fit in there and where the info on Marland came from for his brief 1979 run. It also has the Dobson's last script for GH as July 04, 1975. So it might be that the Dobsons were working on both GH and GL for a couple months. Bridget did say she was contracted to P&G while still writing GH. Maybe Cenedella wasn't working out and they asked the Dobson's to do double duty for a bit before they moved over. 

I can PM you links, though I have mostly exhausted them by now, but maybe you will find something in there I didn't

Edited August 31, 2021 by will81

[FrenchFan]

I am impressed ! Thanks for your research. It is a terrific work !

[Paul Raven]

Robert J Shaw left as headwriter in June 1969 and was replaced by Robert and Eileen Pollock.

This was at the time that CBS took over production from Roy Winsor Productions.

[will81]

Amazing info. So Shaw was probably there roughly Mar/Apr 67 to Jun 69

I wonder how long the Pollock's were there and if the Shaprio's started in 1970 and not 1969. Maybe they started very late 69, like December

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by will81

[Paul Raven]

Robert Soderberg announced as new headwriter March 66.

[Nicholas Blair]

Thank you to everyone researching and archiving these topics. Does anyone know what happened to Brian Farrell, who played David Hart on LOL in 1975? His acting credits extend only to 1986, per imdb, which suggests he either got out of the business, or, like so many, succumbed to AIDS. He was a good young actor who played the son of the evil mayor (Charles Baxter). He was part of a young love storyline with Deborah Courtney as his screen partner, but his evil dad tried to rape her (of course) and he had to shoot his dad (of course) and went crazy (of course).

I believe this era of LOL, which brought back the character of Meg (played by Tudi Wiggins), as well as bringing in the mayor and his son, began well with Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer as HWs, but went downhill after they left, though I'm not sure exactly when that was.

Was Gabrielle Upton the HW who made Arlene (Birgitta Tolksdorff), acceptable as a minor character, and Lloyd Battista, enjoyable as a thuggish type, into the romantic leads of the show, which turned into The Perils of Arlene? This was so dreadful that I stopped watching.

[amybrickwallace]

They were approached by ABC in 1974 about creating a new soap. I think they continued with LOL until early 1975, until they left for ABC to create RH.

[Nicholas Blair]

Thanks. That explains the drop in quality!

[amybrickwallace]

Their loss was ABC's gain!

[Paul Raven]

The reveal by slick Jones that Beverlee McKinsey played Diana Martin solves a long standing mystery.

But, as is often the case, new questions arise.

Did the writers create the role with the intention of Diana becoming the long term character of Diana Lamont?

Or did they make the decision and then decide BM wasn't suitable? She stated that she wasn't the best match for the role.

Charles and Diana are mentioned as coming on as neighbors of Bruce and Vanessa. it seemed like they were an established married couple, so why was she known as Diana Martin?

All those story details are lost unless an article is dug up or a long term viewer makes a contribution.

Here's hoping!