Love of Life Discussion Thread

[j swift]

Does anyone else recall an old YouTube video, which I can no longer locate, that was a news story about the final day of filming for Love of Life?

The image that sticks in my head was a very glamorous, (and maybe slightly delusional), Audrey Peters saying that someone told her it was the finale but hardly believed it.  I never watched LOL while it aired, but that clip amused me whenever I searched for classic soap interviews on YT.

[robbwolff]

The video is still out there on Chandler Harben’s YT page. The video features the final episode plus a CBS News segment where Audrey gets emotional as she talks about the sadness in the show ending.

[j swift]

Found it - thank you @robbwolff

I don't know what it is about that Audrey Peters interview (perhaps, the hysteria without actual tears), but she was born to be a daytime actress.

I also smiled at the inclusion of the "Mrs." on the chyron of the audience member's name, and the puritanical "study" of the lack of morals in daytime soaps, at a time when they were still probably profitable enough to underwrite the news division.

[Paul Raven]

Jon Michael Reed Sept 24 1978

Another development in serialdom is the axing of producer Jean Arley and associate producer Tom deVilliers from "Love of 'Life." The show has usually been a ratings alsoran in recent years. But Arley and deVilliers were responsible for the serial's visual spruceing up and improved production values.

They turned an aging war horse into a modern, classy-looking soap opera. If they failed in any production department it was only in casting several inexperienced and awkward young performers. But "LOL" has a history of developing untrained actors into splendid performers, as witness the list of "LOL" veterans, among them Jessica Walter, Cicely Tyson, and practically every night- time TV performer currently in front of the cameras.

Jean Arley later turned up at OLTL but what happened to deVilliers?

[dc11786]

I think this was when Gabrielle Upton was on her way out the door and Cathi Abbi was brought on board. Upton had introduced a bunch of younger characters including Andy Marriott, who seemed to be an attempt at another Ben Harper type rich playboy lothario who was sleeping with most of the younger females. There was also unremarkable characters like Michael Blake, the veteran who was interested in Cal, Mary Jane Owens, who I think was a nurse, Sheree Manning, who was one of Andy's conquests, and a few others. The period following this is the infamous "Bambi Brewster saga" era so it wasn't an immediate improvement until May, 1979, when Jean Holloway was dismissed and Ann Marcus came in and really reset the the show with Dana Delaney's Amy Russell and really emphasizing the college set. 

[TEdgeofNight]

Jean Arley was a disaster at OLTL, in my opinion. Ratings fell and they couldn't get Paul Rauch in there soon enough.

Tom deVilliers worked on AMC for years afterward as an associate producer. He was at AMC a long time.

Edited February 23, 2023 by TEdgeofNight

[Soaplovers]

And from what I heard kept Bambi and used her properly.

It's a shame Ann Marcus wasn't given more time to work her magic because the last few episodes I saw on YT seemed to reflect a show tying up old stories/threads from previous writers while introducing some modern new characters like Amy... and that final scene when Arlene walked away from her verbally abusive husband gave me hope that she was finally waking up to the fact that she could do way better then him.

[Contessa Donatella]

Of course what was the real shame of it was that they had Jean Holloway be involved at all. 

I have the text of an article, "3 Women Behind 3 Top Soaps" about Babbin & Arley & Monty. Here's the excerpt about Arley, although it admittedly does not say much at all about LOL. 

''It's like a Dickensian novel,'' Miss Arley said. ''It's fantasyland and entertainment, and problems that anyone can empathize with and that you don't get in any other medium. We have an opening night every day.''

The women love their jobs, but not because they have suddenly been thrust into a new and fascinating world. Their careers before they were appointed to these positions were equally as challenging.

''We've paid our dues,'' said Miss Arley. She majored in drama at Stanford University and started out as ''an extroverted kid who wanted to be an actress,'' with the Wharf Theater in Monterey, Calif., and Off Broadway in New York, before becoming a casting director for theater, commercials and television series.

''The commercials were fun at first because they had been using bland, white-bread types and I brought in great character people, but eventually it became boring,'' she said. ''I was working for a lot of producers, and I thought I knew as much they did, so I became an associate producer and then a producer.'' Before taking over her current position at the beginning of the year, she was associated with ''Love of Life'' and ''Ryan's Hope.''

 <https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/25/style/3-women-behind-3-tops-soaps.html

Edited February 28, 2023 by Tonksadora
add excerpt

[dc11786]

Ann Marcus kept Bambi and maintained her relationships with Dr. Paul Graham and Tony Alphonso, a cook working at a restaurant. Tony had served in Vietnam where he had a fling with nurse Kim Soo Ling, who found her to Rosehill to reconnect with Tony and inform him that Kim had given birth to their child and put it up for adoption. This was a story that Ann Marcus had been plotting for years and had tried (unsuccessfully) to tell twice on other shows. Originally, Marcus plotted the story for Mia Elliott on "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," who was set to return to San Francisco and admit she had lost her husband and son while overseas and wanted to look for them. The series was cancelled before Marcus even got to start the story. In her assignment prior to "Love of Life," Marcus proposed telling the story again, but this time with Chris Kositchek having a child from his time in Vietnam. This story was nixed.

On "Love of Life," Marcus was finally able to tell the tale. She had time to ruminate on the plot. Kim's return threatened the happiness of Bambi and Tony, who were engaged to be married. Kim wasn't sure if she should even tell Tony as she didn't want to cause problems for Tony. Eventually, it came out and they tracked down their son Tran, who had been adopted by a nice family. The adopted mother was dying, I believe, and the story wrapped in the last week with Kim leaving Rosehill. Bambi's role in it was definitely secondary. It could have been told with anyone. I wonder if the show would have put Bambi back in Ray's orbit given that he and Arlene split in the final week. 

I don't like the pairing of Ray and Arlene. Ray Slater seems like the precursor to Sonny Corinthos. I don't think Ray was given a whole lot to do until being paired with Arlene. He was on a couple of years before they decided elevate the role after Arlene had become a prositute, got knocked up by her john Ian Russell, and went on trial for Ian's murder. During that time, the show had kept Arlene in the orbit of Tom Crawford, the brother of her romantic rival Betsy. It was Gabrielle Upton, I believe who shifted Ray and Arlene into each other's orbit. I would hope Marcus would have split them longterm, but the setup was for Ray and Arlene to get back together given Arlene was pregnant with Ray's child, but Ray believed the child was Hal's. 

Marcus' run is something I wish would pop up because it's so close to the edge of when so much other material appears for other shows, but I feel like its a huge shot in the dark. I think her greatest move was to place the college at the forefront. It isn't until recently, with all the information @slick jones has shared about the casting in the 1960s, that it is clear how important the role Wingfield Prep, the private boys' school where Bruce was employed, was to the story. I think reviving that seems very fitting. Also, I believe Vanessa, prior to her newspaper work, was involved in advertising so teaching commercial art would have made sense given her history. Characters like Amy Russell and Steve Harbach seem very appealing. Woody Brown was charming as Skipper on "Flamingo Road" so I imagine he was at least functional in the role of Wes Osbourne, Mia's messy younger brother. Neither Judy Landers' Cheryl Kingsley or Julia Kelly's Kelly Wilson were on long enough to do much. 

I'm curious what a post-February, 1980 Rosehill would have looked like once the dust settled. Tudi Wiggins had decided to not renew her contract. Meg's absence in Rosehill would have been felt. I'm not sure Ron Harper's Andrew Marriott had the gravitas to be shifted into the heavy in the Tom Crawford/Lianne Wilson romance to keep it a viable story. Also, the rumors of Peter Reckell playing Hank Latimer is intriguing, but I'm not sure how that all would have played out. 

 

 

[te.]

To be fair, actors tend to like to claim that they were leaving a show that was cancelled either way, so I'd take it with a grain of salt. Apparently no one really likes being seen as being a part of a failing shows "final cast". And it's not like Tudi Wiggins moved on from doing daytime - a year later she was on All My Children. 

[dc11786]

 

Your point about knowing the source of information is important. In the "Search for Tomorrow" thread, there is a comment from Jon-Michael Reed about the Corringtons wanting to dump all the older cast and shift the show to New Orleans. I can't help but wonder if Mary Stuart was the source of that tidbit given that Martin Tourneur couldn't have shown up in Henderson any earlier than November, 1978 as Aniston was still on "Love of Life" at the time. I have seen Tudi Wiggins say in papers she wasn't going to stay on with the series in papers, but a much missed poster Jon (saynotoursoap) had also stated this suggesting that a) her contract was non-renewed and b) the source was Charles Hill Harben. 

Regarding Meg's final storyline, I feel like it would have been much richer, and more entertaining, if it wasn't Tom and Arlene that Meg was trying to keep apart with her feigned paralysis and blackmail marriage scheme. Mark Pinter's Tom was more ambitious, I believe, than he was when Richard K. Webber played the part. His Tom was the one interested in the research projects and was sleeping with Meg to get access to the money. I think Meg making life a living hell for Tom and Arlene, with Arlene giving as good as she could get would be absolutely delicious. Especially if Carrie Johnson became aware of Meg's duplicity and had to choose between the happiness of her daughter or her friend.

Of course, eventually, we'd have to wonder whether Meg was willing to work with reformed mobster Ray Slater to get what she wants. Ray, in many ways, seems like the kind of man that turned Jean McBride's Meg on. Meg agreeing to marry Ray in order to help Ray get custody of the child he shared with Arlene would make for a great set of sweeps storylines. Which, in turn, would give Ben and Betsy something to cluck about without being the center of the story. Then, you play this out with Amy and Bruce working together to represent Tom and Arlene, while Eliot decides to align himself with Ray and Meg. You can just continue to spin a lot of drama out of this especially if it's played at the same time that Meg has learned that Amy is NOT Bruce's daughter, something Amy only recently discovered from her mother. Meg blackmails Amy to provide her with tabs on Bruce's case providing them with details they couldn't know otherwise. Bruce, of course, would assume that Meg has taken advantage of Vanessa's familial ties and got access through her (access to the files in his home office when Meg was visiting).

And, given it's Meg, there would be some elaborate scheme to discredit Arlene (maybe she gets Arlene set up for prositution again) that would be uncovered by Vanessa, who would plead with her sister to tell the truth. Then, Meg would decide to play her trump card and tell Vanessa that Amy is not Bruce's daughter and threatens to reveal the truth if Vanessa discredits her in court. Vanessa, knowing how much Bruce has come to love Amy, is torn. Vanessa confronts Amy, who reveals the whole story about how she honestly believed Bruce was her father when she came to Rosehill and, when she learned the truth, she loved him like he was her father. Vanessa tells Amy she is going to tell the truth and Amy prepares for the fallout. 

Then, Vanessa offers to share what she heard in court to help clear Arlene, which is the best they can do without having the crooked cop. Vanessa shares her story, and Eliot tries to trip her up by suggesting that this was a ploy on her part because Bruce had blamed her for supplying Eliot with information about the case (possibly at the suggestion of Meg, who, by now, needs Ray emotionally and cannot afford to lose him). Eliot presses her to retell the story hoping to trip Vanessa up, but slowly Vanessa says too much and she is forced to reveal in court that Meg attempted to coerce her into silence by threatening to reveal that Amy isn't Bruce's daughter.

Then, the story becomes about Bruce's downward spiral having lost his "daughter" and feeling betrayed by his wife. And on and on...

 

[Paul Raven]

That's terrific. Using established characters and their history to propel new stories, Bravo!

[Soaplovers]

Gabrielle Upton seemed to be the writer that moved Arlene out of the Ben/Betsy/Meg realm into Ray's orbit.  And then created Mia to be the conflict in that relationship..when Arlene spent a good 2 years in that role as the spoiler.

Labine created that conflict, Depriest made it more messy by installing Arlene's mom as an employee of Meg I think. And I think the follow up writers carried that on until Upton came on.

By 1980, was there any mention of Arlene's past ties to Ben/Betsy..or was she completely separate from that orbit?

[dc11786]

I think the split of Arlene from Ben's story was facilitated by the departure of Christopher Reeve in the spring of 1976 leaving Arlene in Rosehill while Ben was in prison. The recasting of Ben didn't occur until the fall and by then, Arlene was already involved with Tom Crawford, which I imagine was a way to keep the Betsy-Arlene tension going with Ben out of the picture. Carrie's health crisis kept Tom and Arlene in the same circle, but when the bills mounted, Arlene turned to prostitution. In early September 1976, Michael Allinson was introduced as Ian Russell and by early October, Chandler Hill Harben was introduced in prison as Ben. I'm not sure CHH's Ben and Arlene had much interaction at all.

In early September, the Schneiders introduced Michael Allinson as Ian Russell and the prostitution storyline was in place by the time Ben was back in Rosehill. Ben hits Jim Marriott in January, 1977, and the Marriotts arrive on the scene. I think the Jim-Mia scenario is bizarre especially as it is all played as backstory that Jim's accident was more the result of his failed romantic overture with his stepmother rather than Ben's carelessness. In theory, it makes sense to invest in Ben-Mia given that Liz Kemp's contract was up in June, 1976, but it would have made more sense to revive the Arlene-Ben story given that both characters were in dark places. 

I am very vague at the moment on what happened with Arlene from post-murder trial (summer of 1977) and then tailend of Gabrielle Upton (fall 1978). I know Arlene had her baby and she and Ray got together, but did anything really happen of interest until Bambi was introduced as a romantic foil in the Ray/Arlene story. 

[Paul Raven]

Wed June 19 1964

Ep# 3318 writer Don Ettlinger