Rituals

[te.]

I'd assume the head writer change had to do with them probably filming the show in blocks to sell in syndication rather than doing long-term contracts; normally syndicators like to plan in three months blocks (65 episodes), so if that's how they sold Rituals then they only had two blocks with the same head writers.

It'd be interesting to know the filming dates.

[NadineC]

I'm sorry, I don't know the story very well. So, there is no reason for Jeff to break into the Willows ?
 

[robbwolff]

And from September 1982 to August 1983, Guiding Light had Douglas Marland, then Pat Falken Smith, then L. Virginia Browne and Gene Palumbo. Next came an interim team of Carolyn Culliton, Gary Tomlin, and Richard Culliton. Then came Pamela Long Hammer and Richard Culliton.

[dc11786]

Thanks! I had mistakenly thought that the halfway point would have been episode 120, but it would be 130. So yes, it would seem most likely that Gene Palumbo´s last episode was episode 130. 

When Raymond Goldstone stops and Anderson and Burkow begin, I do not know. I may have a better idea in the near future. The only reference I have to the final writers is from early June, 1985, which would be right before the start of the final cycle. I do have a comment from someone at Metromedia in one of the newspapers where they state they would wait until after May sweeps to make a decision regarding cancellation, which I believe was announced in early July. Given that Burkow and Anderson were announced after sweeps, I wonder if the news was delayed. The final 13 weeks would start in mid-June 1985 and there are some story points that seem to end abruptly while others start (the Crusaders kidnapping ends with Mark Field being shipped back to New York, Clay Travis returns for a hot minute to tie up that dangling thread, and the surrogacy plot begins).

Regarding filming, I am in the process of receiving material that should help with that. I know that episode 1 was taped August 16-17, 1984, with episode 2 filmed August 20-21, 1984. The last film date I have is for episode 251, which was Monday, July 1, 1985. It would be most likely that the show filmed its last episode around Friday, July 12, 1985, but I am not sure if Christina´s final speech was an add-on, but it seems unlikely given that Jones is quoted as having 40+ pages her last day on the set, I would imagine that most of this was her final monologue. 

I don´t believe Jeff had a reason. I have to look into the February, 1985, episode summaries that are available via Soap Opera Digest and the newspaper columns. I am also trying to compile an episode guide using the daily newspaper listings, but I am going backwards and have only gotten from June-September, 1985. 

I believe Christina Robertson hired Clay Travis to steal a necklace from Taylor Chapin so he had a reason to break in. At this point, Carter has discovered he is a Chapin, which means so is Jeff. Jeff shouldn´t need to break in. 

Thanks. 

[dc11786]

This came among the pages of a press kit I bought on eBay several years back. It is pages 3-8 of a document, which I suspect is a bible written for the show sometime between February and June, 1984, presumably by John Wiliam and Joyce Corrington. 

First up is the final page of a biography for Laura Lawson. Laura is clearly the Priscilla Lawson character with a new name. 

***

page 3

... kind of power. Her family´s wealth, social position and importance to the college gave her unique standing among the eighty entering freshmen. Laura won election as her class president and has been asked to conduct Freshman Orientation for this year´s crop of girls. She plans an impressive student-faculty reception at her home. 

Because she has, without knowing it, Judd´s blood in her veins, Laura is more imaginative and romantic than most children of staid upperclass families. She is bored by young men like Randolph Stiles who pursue her because of her grandfather´s wealth and political influence. So when Laura first sees Judd Dwyer come riding into the student-faculty reception she is hostessing, elegantly dressed in a tux and mounted on Turner´s best stallion, drunk as a lord but still handsome and gallant-- she falls in love. That he is old enoguh to be her father is no detriment. She wants Judd, and sets out to win him-- by offering him what all the males who´ve pursued her want. She senses some old tension between Judd and her mother-- and wining for a change-- spurs her onward. If her indiscretion with a faculty member is discovered, Laura knows it would end her career at Briarwood before it has time to flower. But she does not know the turth about the relationship between Judd and Charlotte, there is no way that Laura can realize a much more serious disaster will lie ahead for her if she succeeds in keeping the affair secret from her mother. 

***

Lots of things have been renamed besides Laura. Judd McBroom is now Judd Dwyer. I suspect Randolph Stiles is a renamed Fenton Langley (who, in the pilot, is Priscilla´s fiancee played by Matt Lantazi). Other names will be changed as the show moves away from the original pilot stage into this (brief) unproduced bible. 

Turner is Turner Lawson, Laura´s legal father. I have his (incomplete) biography as well as the complete biography of General Bayard Lawson, Turner´s father and Laura´s ¨grandfather.¨

[j swift]

@dc11786 Are you suggesting that there were multiple pilots filmed, or is this just part of the development process?

It is no wonder that Charlene Keel disavowed the soap, it sounds like none of the people or places from the book found their way onto the screen.  Do we know if the school was called Haddon Hall in her book?  I am going to assume that the production decided to reference it as a college and not a boarding school to avoid the issues with the women's ages when pairing them romantically.

[dc11786]

From what I understand, here is the history of the development of ¨Rituals¨

Rituals, the novel (1979): Charlene Keel publishes her novel, set in Woodbriar, a private girls' college. The main characters were Priscilla Lawson, a spoiled young woman, Dabney Palmeroy, a cosmetics heiress with a harelip leaving her insecure, London, the daughter of a rock-and-roll singer Ariel, and Sandy Hutchinson, a British student who would be revealed to be the secret daughter of Sterling Lawson. The girls, and their mothers, had all been involved in some form with Judd McBroom. By the end of the novel, Charlotte Lawson reveals to her daughter Prisc that Judd is her biological father with Prisc revealing she is pregnant by Judd. 

Rituals, the pilot (c. February, 1984): Charlene Keel developed a pilot script for a stripped version of ¨Rituals¨ that was very faithful to the original novel. It was still set in the girls´ college. The emphasis remained on the girls´ with less emphasis on the mothers. This pilot was filmed. As far as I am aware, Keel was driving creative force behind this.

The cast for the pilot includes:

Christine Jones as Charlotte Lawson

Philece Sampler as Priscilla Lawson

Barbara Crampton as Sandy Hutchison 

Joe Lambie as Judd McBroom

Tom Hallick as Eliot Fine 

Stephanie Braxton as Jenny Barnes

Michael Savage as Sam Barnes

Howard ¨P¨ Pruett as Richard Barnes

Wendy Smith Howard as Dabney Palmeroy

Matt Latanzi as Fenton Langley

Robin Leary as London Dwyer

Jane Merrow as Harriet Winslow

Rituals 1.5, story bible (c. March-June, 1984): Here is where things become a little more complicated. We know that the show is credited to John William and Joyce Corrington, Gene Palumbo, and Clifford Campion. I have an incomplete document of 5-pages of character summaries that seem to be from a bible that seems to bridge the material in Rituals, the pilot and Rituals, the bible for the series . What I included above is from this document. I don't think this is from Gene Palumbo, but it could be. Palumbo and Clifford Campion's bible is dated July, 1984. 

This version seems to keep intact elements of the original show. Woodbriar is still at play. The Lawson family has been fleshed out and becomes the prototype for the Chapin family in the final television version. Bayard Lawson, the patriarch, seems to be clearly the first attempt as creating Patrick Chapin. The Charlotte-Laura dynamic seems to be reused later for Taylor-Julia. In this version, the secret heir is not Sandy Hutchison but Lee Byrnes, the product of Turner Lawson raping Jenny Harris Byrnes. The Byrnes family is the prototype for the Gallagher family. Jenny's husband is Jeff Byrnes, a cop. 

Given that we don't know what role that the Corringtons played, and given that I have only five pages of this document, I'm suggesting this may have been written by the Corringtons. 

Rituals 2.0, the story bible (July 3, 1984): The story bible that was most likely used for the show was written by Gene Palumbo and Clifford Campion. What role Campion played is not clear as he was mostly a writer known in the 1980s for writing issue telefilms. This is clearly not the version that I am speaking about above because both bibles outline the character who ultimately becomes Patrick Chapin.

In this bible, the Chapin patriarch is named Bradford Spencer Chapin. His wife is Katherine Haddon Barrington Chapin and his children are Whitney and Brady. It is Barrington Mills (not Chapin Industries) which is originally the source of the family fortune.  

Rituals 2.0, the series (September 10, 1984): The first episode airs after being filmed August 16-17, 1984. The source of the filming is the set and cast list from the first episode. There are more changes made. Bradford becomes Patrick. Whitney becomes Taylor, though Christina Jones was playing a character named Whitney at one point so I'm not sure if the name Whitney was reused or Jones was initially slated to play the Taylor role in the series given that Taylor was the successor to Charlotte Lawson (Jones' role in the original pilot). 

[j swift]

The Google search for Charlene Keel is a fascinating rabbit hole.

She had a short career as a rock journalist.  She has a current business as a ghostwriter.  She lists episodes of Days of Our Lives and Fantasy Island among her credits.  Her social media leans politically progressive.  And, she was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson for her first book about the risqué life of being a flight attendant.  There's some ironic humor in Johnny correcting himself by calling them attendants, but then always referencing them as girls.

 

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I adore that kind of Jacqueline Suzanne, Jackie Collins mildly ribald humor to sell a book.

Edited September 19, 2023 by j swift

[dc11786]

Continuing yesterday's discussion on the evolution of "Rituals," I can only speculate on the purpose of the document I have which I am called Rituals 1.5. It seems more traditionally family focused series with the upperclass WASP Lawson family and the working class Bryne family headed by a cop and a restaurant owner. There are some clear lineage to the Chapins and Gallaghers with some elements repurposed into other characters in the other family. 

The next three pages I have cover the biography of Bayard Lawson, the patriarch of the Lawson clan. He would appear to be the basis of the Bradford Chapin character of Palumbo and Campion's bible and the character Patrick Chapin who appeared on air played by Dennis Patrick from September until December, 1984. 

Here is Bayard Lawson

***

pg. 4

Genl. Bayard Lawson, 65, communications mogul

Even the money, the power, and the prestige do not really make up for the old fays as far as Genl. Lawson is concerned. He lives in a smaller, uglier world now and has to make do with it. Once, an age or two ago, when he was young, it had seemed there was no end at all to the American world, the American century. 

His family had been decently fixed, not wealthy since the Civil War, but possessed of a fine old name, 200 acres of land in the Virginia Tidewater, and a history resplendent with connections to early presidents and statesmen-- and wisdom enough to continue to bring strong women into the ranks with each passing generation. Bayard Lawson, born a second son, had graduated from Virginia Military Institute just in time for service in WW II. He had applied for a commission in the Army Air Corps, but a friend of his father's, Genl. Allen Preston, who had been called back into service even before hostilities had started, had sent for him and offered him something wilder, more dangerous even than flying those damn crates all over somebody else's sky. 

Bayard had joined the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, which, much later, would become the CIA, and which did indeed offer the possibilities in war and peace far more interesting than barreling through the skies of Europe or the Pacific in a P-40 or a B-25. 

His service continued until the close of the Korean War, and ended only then because his older brother died unexpectedly in an automobile accident leaving no heir. Bayard retired and returned

pg 5

to the Lawson's Virginia estate. They do not announce medals given those who work in the Intelligence Service. The world does not come to know what you have done in the service of your country, and considering some of the things done, that may be just as well. But in a wall safe at home, Bayard Lawson has decorations that would amaze his friends-- and some documents that would dismay his enemies.

More than that, he still possesses the intricacy of mind, the cleverness, the animal instincts that he has picked up in four years of lethal service during the war. Those instincts, that cleverness--- plus information and friendships few others possessed-- have made him very rich and nationally powerful. 

In 1953, the General had purchased an almost bankrupt newspaper in Alexandria, near the Pentagon. Within a few years, with vigorous and determined work-- and extraordinary news breaks supplied by some of his old connections-- The Alexandria Examiner had become one of the most important conservative newspapers in the country. Its central focus has always been on government, on corruption, on bureaucratic indolence and stupidity, on any  hint of disloyalty to the U.S. No matter who you are, what your politics, how large and powerful your corporation, Bayard Lawson's Examiner will break you, wreck you, if you are caught in betrayal of the public trust. 

The paper's success allowed the General to move into television, book publishing, and, most recently, into high-tech communications design and innovation. His conservatism does not extend to science and technology, and he delights in the Space Program, in the advances of science and its application. 

pg 6

While his wife has been dead for many years, the General has never re-married. Perhaps because his deepest feelings belong to Dr. Rose Hamilton, President of Woodbriar College. Rose returns his devotion but, a feminist of the old school, she had chosen early to devote her life to scholarship and education. Between Bayard and Rose there is an easy affectionate relationship that would surprise some of his Washington acquaintances who suppose Bayard Lawson is framed of brass and steel. 

Because of his instinctive respect for education and his relationship with Rose Hamilton, Bayard has long been the chief financial backer of Woodbriar College and seems always available to fund new programs that would enhance the college's prestige. His daughter-in-law, Charlotte, a Woodbriar graduate, serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and he has just commended the education of his only grandchild, Laura, to Rose Hamilton's capable hands. 

Laura is especially dear to him. Not just because she is a beautiful and spirited young woman, but because he is beginning to have a strong sense of his mortality and his granddaughter is his only hope of influencing the future. He would have preferred a grandson who might have picked up the reins his son Turner let fall from disinterested hands. But Laura will at least continue the family line, and hopefully will do better than that. If she chooses wisely and marries a man of ambition and ability, she might even help him forget some of the disappointment he feels over Turner's failure as a man.

***

Typing this, I am making connections between this version of the Lawson clan and the Tourneur/Sentell clan who also had a military nicknamed lead, a son who was a failure at many things, a grandchild maintaining the legacy, and interests in technology. Though, this is if this is in fact written by the Corringtons, which I will probably never know.

Below is the title page for the bible for the series and the first page including the start of the biography of "Bradford Spencer Chapin," who is eventually renamed Patrick Chapin. 

 

[j swift]

@dc11786 Do you think that this was written to inform the incoming writing staff or for promotional material?

The language is so flowery.  It makes me wonder what, for example, local affiliate PR people or soap journalists were meant to do with this character study?  I cannot imagine modern head writers using such detailed histories to delineate their characters. 

Also, how odd to call Dr. Rose Hamilton an old school feminist, and use her ideology as an impediment to romance.  She was a feminist, not a nun.

Edited September 19, 2023 by j swift

[dc11786]

The document I have presents more questions than answers. It looks like, and reads like, the pages of a story bible to me. It is formatted a bit similar to Palumbo and Campion's. Now, who wrote it, I'm not sure I'll ever know. I've ruled out Keel because she has gone into some length about her involvement with the development in the Soap Opera Digest article from July, 1985, that you referenced earlier. To me, it seems like someone decided fairly early on that the original concept of the show (the four college freshmen) wouldn't be appealing in the nighttime spots they were actively seeking. 

Since the Corringtons are listed as developing the show, and we know that Keel developed the original concept, I believe that the Corringtons were hired to develop the new version of "Rituals" sometime around early spring 1984 without Charlene Keel's knowledge and this document would be their proposed story bible. Why the Corringtons didn't end up writing "Rituals" most likely had something to do with the fact they started writing "One Life to Live" in the summer of 1984. As @te. pointed out, the show was syndicated and being renewed in chunks (6 months at a time). I suspect the Corringtons may have wanted more stability and jumped at the chance to work at the network. I think after the Corringtons bible was developed, the material was given to Gene Palumbo and Clifford Campion who developed their own vision of the show. It's also possible this is a draft of Palumbo and Campion's before they ditched the concept. If that is the case though, where do the Corringtons fit in?

Since I originally received this, I've purchased a bunch of PR material that was used to help promote the show. There was a "Rituals" newsletter that promoted the big NATPE (I think that is the acronym) conference where syndicated shows were being sold in mid-June 1984. Up until and through the conference, the show is still being developed with the Lawson family in mind as the material promotes how the set designer is creating the Lawson mansion, which I believe was the Chapin mansion. How the person got a hold of this document, I am unaware as it was with the press kit with materials on the final version of "Rituals" that made it to air. Maybe it belonged to someone in PR at Metromedia and there were using it to develop material. I really don't know. 

So the show was in production in May, 1984, under either the Charlene Keel concept or this alternate concept that is suggested in the story document. 

I'll post the final two pages tonight of the document that detail Turner Lawson, but give some significant details into the Brynes in the process. 

 

[dc11786]

The final pages of the mystery document cover the character biography of Turner Lawson. Some of Turner's story seems to be placed onto Eddie Gallagher: the violence, the bitterness, and the crippling accident. On top of that, Turner and Jenny's relationship may have been the basis of the Patrick/Sarah affair.

The dynamic between Turner and Charlotte is also interesting. Originally, in the book, the Turner Lawson character was Sterling and was bisexual and Charlotte cited her husband's sexuality as the reason she didn't think he could be the father of Sandy Hutchinson. In this version, Turner has fathered a son, Lee.

If this is indeed written by the Corringtons, I think they had Martin Tourneur in mind when crafting the similarly named Turner Lawson. 

*** 

pg 7

Turner Lawson, 45, playboy, horse breeder

The General has never been able to figure out what went wrong with his only child, Turner. He has wondered if his absence in the wars had anything to do with it. Never mind. It doesn't matter. The fact is, from the General's perspective, Turner is no damned good. Handsome, intelligent, charming, attractive to women, connoisseur of the high life, Turner seems more a parasite on the Lawson family than its continuation. He seems content to drink, to ride, to take sudden unplanned trips abroad, and to take no part at all in the many facets of the family businesses. 

What had once seemed nothing more than exuberance and high spirits in a young man has soured into the methodical and almost pathological womanizing of a man in middle age desperate to hold back whatever kind of darkness he senses just over the horizon. IT has been a long time since any emotions have been exchanged between Turner and his father-- except for contempt on the General's part, resentment on Turner's. 

What the General does not know is that, years ago, Turner paid a high price for his exuberance, and that the baby girl born at Lawson Manor to Turner's wife, Charlotte, is not Turner's child. Turner has been sterile since an incident years ago when he became involved in a passing affair with a town girl, Jenny Harris. The girl had been almost engaged to Jeff Byrnes, one of the town's young policemen, but Turner had seen her at work in a local cafe and wanted her. He had waited for her to leave work one night. His

pg 8

position had made him something of a legend among the people in town, and Jenny had gotten into his car when he invited her to. Later, Jeff, on patrol duty, had found Turner raping her. He pulled Turner out of the car and beat and stomped him almost to death. Not wanting to create a scandal, Jenny had lied to Jeff, telling him Turner had not raped her. She had refused to press assault charges, and had soon married Jeff. Not even Turner knows that Jenny's first son, Lee, is his son. Since General Lawson had been out of the country at the time of the incident, Turner managed to keep him from knowing about it. But though he soon recovered from external signs of the beating, there was permanent internal damage. Turner found that he was sterile. 

It was then that his high spirits turned to desperation. He became known for chasing almost every Briarwood girl, and when the situation became known to the General, Turner was faced with the alternative of marrying and settling down-- or losing his inheritance. Turner had discovered that one of his Briarwood girls he had enjoyed-- if not loved, Charlotte Stuart, was pregnant and seeking an illegal abortion. He had made her a proposal--  but not a typical one. Turner offered to marry her and raise her child as his own, if she would agree to never reveal the baby's real father. Charlotte, in desperation and appreciation, had agreed hoping that with time she could win Turner's love, forget her own heartbreak, and make the marriage work. She had learned later that an unspoken condition of her marriage was that she would let Turner lead whatever kind of life he wished without her complaining to the General. Their marriage had become one of convenience early on. They keep separate bedrooms, and Turner has had a series of discreet...

***

Unfortunately, this is where this document ends. The set up here is pretty fascinating, in my opinion. I would have been fascinated to see how this version could have worked. 

[dc11786]

I received a copy of Gene Palumbo and Clifford Campion's bible for "Rituals" today. It came with some set designs, some outlines for episodes from October 1984, a binder of marketing material intended for stations to promote the show, and a binder full of cast and set lists for most of the show's 260 episodes. It will take a bit to get through, but here are some immediate stand outs. 

Many of the characters names changed from the bible to the on-air. The city was originally called Barrington, not Wingfield, and it was named after Katherine Chapin's family. The Robertsons were the Butlers. Now, whether this was the on-air situation, but, in the bible, Susan Butler (Christina Robertson) is Rose (Sara) Gallagher's niece. @NadineC, you might be interested to know that Jeff Robertson was originally called Tim Butler. Tim was also the product of a brief marriage Cabot Butler (Carter Robertson) had prior to marrying Susan (Christina).

Whitney Chapin and Matt Parrish (Logan Williams) were the parents of Julia Field. Julia was suppose to be this naive, innocent young woman who was going to fall in love with her own father. This, in turn, puts a different spin on the tale about Jo Ann Pflug leaving over the moral issues. Taylor was seducing her own daughter's boyfriend, but she was also allowing her daughter to love her own father. 

Also, the affair between Rose (Sara) Gallagher and Bradford (Patrick) Chapin was also detailed in the bible and the child that resulted was mentioned as well. Rose and Bradford's affair was prior to her marriage to Eddie Gallagher. Rose went and had the baby up in Boston where she stayed with Susan's father. Meanwhile, Katherine Chapin became pregnant and learned of the Bradford's illegitimate child. Katherine confronted Bradford while driving leading to an automobile accident. After the accident, the child died and Katherine remained in a coma. Bradford replaced his dead child with Brady because Trumble Barrington (Katherine's father) wanted a male heir. Brady's origins are ambigious in the character profiles section, but there is a lengthy document covering the story for the first 29 weeks so I'll be curious if anything comes up. 

Also, I skimmed a bit and Kin Shriner's complaints start to make more sense. After Sally Jarrett Gallagher (Lacey) loses the baby, Mike and Sally end up with possession of a child. Mike struggles with fatherhood and becomes physically abusive to the child. This is probably something that Clifford Campion (the writer of several social issue telefilms) developed. I only saw a little bit of the story outline so I'll have to look into a little more. 

From the set and character lists, I was able to determine a couple things. It looks like Logan and Tina Louise's Taylor last air in episode 130. The switch between Lorinne Vozoff and Laurie Burton and Claire Yarlett and Mary Beth Evans was at the end of the first contract cycle. Marc Poppel is replaced by Jon Lindstrum at the end of the second cycle. C.J. Field's first episode was March 22, 1985, so there was no crossover with C.J. and Tina Louise's Taylor. Marissa Mallory seems to just fade out an episode or so later than the one online.  Bernhardt and Patty stick around into the third cycle of the show (May, 1985) and I think Bernhardt appears even later than that. 

Unfortunately, the cast lists online contain character names for (I'm assuming) non-contract players. So I cannot tell when Ketty Lester is replaced by Lynn Hamilton or Randy Hamilton takes over from Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs. No writers are credited either so I don't know when Raymond Goldstone leaves and Steve Burkow and Stacey Anderson assume the role. 

[j swift]

@dc11786 - I admire your collection of memorabilia.  It's like a little mystery box of treasures.  I can't wait to hear what you explore.

I wonder if the writers changed the last name from Butler, because Carter was raised by the Chapin's butler and that would have been too confusing

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Also, the Jeff's parentage is intriguing because in the SOD recaps sometimes they reference him as Christina's adopted son, and sometimes as her stepson, so it would make sense if he came from Carter's first marriage.

Edited September 22, 2023 by j swift

[j swift]

Have we seen this article on Patti Davis being fired from Rituals?  I wonder in hindsight if that set was bit more of a nightmare than reported at the time?  But, given that she was only there for 2 episodes, it makes sense that Marissa disappeared quickly.  I think they spoke more about her than to her in scenes.

President's daughter not fired from soap, her manager says

HOLLYWOOD -- The producers of a TV soap opera say President Reagan's daughter Patti Davis was dropped because she failed to show up for taping of the show, but the actress' manager says she did not intend to appear on the show beyond the two episodes she taped.

'Rituals,' a new syndicated daytime drama, announced last week that Davis would no longer appear on the show after she called in last Tuesday and asked to postpone her scheduled appearance that day until 3 p.m.

 

She later phoned to say that 'scheduling problems' would prevent her from taping any time that day.

Davis told the show's producers that her meeting with a book publisher conflicted with her taping of the show.

'We have a $15 million annual budget and a huge cast. We felt it would have been easier for her to reschedule her meeting with the publisher than it would be for us to reschedule all the other performers' appearances and shoot around her,' said Jim Moloshok, a spokesman for Telepictures, which produces the show.

'She was contracted for two days work, which she performed,' said Mike Gursey, Davis' manager. 'The producers then asked her to sign a long term contract, which she declined to do because she never intended to be a regular on the show. We're very suprised to read reports that she had been fired.'