Love of Life Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

Just watched the Aug 1960 ep saynotuoursoap has posted.

Don Ettlinger was the writer (the 3rd since 1951).Only 4 main characters in the show.It was surely so much easier to write the shows back then with 1 or 2 stories and a few scenes each day. Or maybe it was harder to keep up interest for the same reasons?

Anyway,wonderful to see such a rare ep.

apparently,this was the 3rd opening the show had.

The first was the shot of the fountain outside the hotel,which can be seen in episodes on the net.

Then came a short lived opening of a flower blooming in slow motion

Then came the starry sky we saw in the ep under discussion. Does anyone know how long that lasted and what replaced it.The next opening I know of is the flowers on the windowsill from the 70's. Surely there were other openings in between?

Edited June 26, 2011 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

I do wonder about what was going on at the show at this time. This is a decided move away from the 50's episodes I've seen, which are much more full of clear "good" and "bad" characters. How did viewers adapt? What did they think of people like Barbara and Rick and did they miss Meg, or Paul? How long was this after Meg and Paul were gone? 2-3 years?

Was the older woman the one who had an evil twin? I can never remember the stories.

I have to admit that I wasn't overly enthralled with Rick and Barbara here, but I know how important Rick became later on. The older characters are the ones I was most interested in in this episode.

I'd love to see the blooming flower one.

[All My Shadows]

Everything I've read over the years says that opening was used from 1960 until the show's transition to color in 1967.

I really had no clue Rick was on this early. I only know him from his appearance in that 1975 episode that was on YT years ago (that I watched on dial-up because I wanted so badly to see it). It's great to finally have something from the little transitional period the show went through in the late 50s/early 60s.

[DRW50]

I knew he was on by the mid-60's because of the books and the story and script breakdowns I posted some pages ago from that Mary Hartman Mary Noble book, but I didn't realize he was on from 1960. That's quite a run. How many Ricks were there again?

[Paul Raven]

There were 4 Ricks over the years. Interesting that he outlived all other characters from 1960 except for Van and Bruce,especially in light of the many writer chamges over those years.

Edited June 26, 2011 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

August 1956 TV Radio Mirror.

[DRW50]

[Paul Raven]

Whatever happened to Jean McBride??

Did her choosing to leave cause the writers to decide to shift the tone of the show,or was that decision made and Jean dismissed?

I remember the writers plans that Carl posted earlier in the thread had Meg returning in the early 60's which,of course,didn't come to pass.

[DRW50]

I'd love to know this too. I also wonder if they considered her for returning when they brought Tudi Wiggins instead. It's odd that she has no credits after LOL, although some may just be forgotten (for instance she says she did a Studio One, which isn't in her IMDB profile).

Meg was in many ways one of the first anti-heroines on daytime. I wish we could see more of Jean's work and know what happened to her.

[Paul Raven]

MMeg and Van battle over a gun!

Edited June 29, 2011 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

That gun photo is shocking for the day.

They look like Helen Hayes and Joan Crawford.

Edited June 29, 2011 by CarlD2

[saynotoursoap]

Jean chose not to renew her contract in 1958. According to Roy Winsor, she was so identified with the role, he felt he had no choice but to write Meg out until enough time had passed for viewers to forget about Jean. Jean retired from acting to marry NY Supreme Court judge Saul Streit and raise their child. Many years later she saw Audrey Peters in a Manhattan restaurant and introduced herself to Audrey as "your sister". They had lunch together, and apparently Jean continued to have fond memories of Love of Life, even though she did not regret retiring from show business. Saul Streit died in the late 70's/early 80's. He was much older than Jean. The last I heard, she was still alive and living in Manhattan.

[DRW50]

I'm glad Jean left on her terms, and had a happy life. I would have felt bad if she'd been written out because the show wanted to move on from Meg. In the long run she probably did them a favor, as resting the character of Meg meant she had a dynamic return in the early 70's.

Do you know if they tried to ask her back when they thought of bringing Meg back in the early 60's, or why they chose not to bring Meg back?

[DRW50]

August 1977 Digest.

[Paul Raven]

1969 pic of Ron and Audrey