On 5/18/2022 at 8:18 AM, Paul Raven said:

A good summary of happenings around late 1969/early1970

During the past few weeks the suspense has been unbearable I keep gnawing my nails and wondering if Stephanie Martin is actually going to murder Nicole Travis. I really don’t think so, for somehow there is the impression that Nicole is going to win Adam Drake away from Susan Forbes and sureiy she won’t be killed before that happens. I can't be sure though.

Anything can happen in Monticcello and usually does. Nicole, Stephanie. Susan and Adam all live there and are a part of probably the most dramatic and involved program on television -  it’s a soap opera called "The Edge of Night" and it originates from CBS each weekday between 3:30 and 4 pm. The show has been running for a few years now and there Is always a crisis or two in various stages of development at any given time.

Right now the plot centres around the threat to Nicole’s life. Nicole is the daughter of Ben Travis, a kingpin in a nation-wide loan shark operation who is presently in prison. Nicole was unaware of her father's criminal activities. She has settled in Monticello and opened a ladies' wear boutique in partnership with Susan Forbes and Adam Drake is messing around with both of them. During the past few months a mysterious stranger has been telephoning Nicole quoting Shakespeare and threatening her. More recently attempts on her life have been made, and it was during one such attempt that Nancy Karr was shot.

Nancy is the wife of Mike Karr a law partner with Adam Drake. Anyhow it was recently revealed that the person menacing Nicole is none other than Stephanie Martin, who works of all places in the boutique owned by Nicole and Susan, Stephanie is a young widow who lost her husband, son and one twin daughter in a car crash awhile back, Apparently the crash somewhat deranged Stephanie so that she not only wants to kill Nicole but in the meantime had unbalanced the surviving daughter Debbie who is a patient at the Haywood Institute fur emotionally handicapped children.

The plot thickens. So does the cast.Enter Liz Hillyer. a poor little rich girl who is working at the institute and who has taken a persona! interest in Debbie. The institute director Dr Jim Field doesn't realize it but he is in love with Liz. So is Vic Lamont, a lawyer and a junior member of the law firm of Karr and Drake.He has a manslaughter charge in his past but that's not important to this plot. Liz is the daughter of Orin Hillyer who is presently off somewhere on holidays with his second wife Julie Jamieson. Julie had been freed from a charge of murder just prior to the trip and Orin's first wife was killed a few seasons ago as the result of another scandal. Orin needs a holiday!

Monticello police under the direction of Chief Bill Marceau have been keeping a haphazard eye on Nicole. Bill and his wife Martha are close personal friends of the Karrs. Martha works for Bill at police headquarters. Assisting Martha with the office duties is Cookie Christopher, a sister of Nancy Karr and wife of Ron. Ron used to be connected with the loan shark business but eventually helped to expose it. He also saved Lori Ann Karr, Mike’s daughter when she was kidnap[ed but that was the second last crisis.

Ron is now in a new business in partnership with Duane Stewart who just happens to have once been married to Nicole but divorced Nicole to marry Pamela. He has has since found out that he is still in love with Nicole. Susan Forbes is happy about this. Ron Christopher has some connection with Stephanie Martin and it is becoming apparent that Stephanie’s husband has been killed by the loan sharks and that Ron might know something about it.

While all this has been going on in the background recuperating has been Phil Capice who was brutally beaten and in a coma for months for trying to help Mike Karr break the loan shark operation.This caused all sorts of trouble between the Karrs and the Capices but it was resolved when Phil gained consciousness. Phil’s nurse Mrs Lydia Holliday really wasn’t a nurse and kept him in a weakened condition so she’d have a steady job. And then Calvin the houseboy goes and elopes with Sarah. Phil’s daughter. Anyhow within a few days or so we should know if Stephanie will fell Nicole with a bullet or with poisoned wine.... And who says television is not relevant?

Love it ! What is the source ?

I wish this era were available.

Still early in my viewing, but Edge is becoming one of my favorite shows. I am obsessed!!!

10 hours ago, RavenWhitney said:

Henry was very angry when he was fired. He said no one ever told him to shift his style which he certain could have done.

Am I reading this correctly?  There are (apparently untrue) stories that are oft quoted throughout the internet about the network or production asking Slesar to change his style but, the man himself said it was a surprise and he was given no direction or warning.

57 minutes ago, j swift said:

Am I reading this correctly?  There are (apparently untrue) stories that are oft quoted throughout the internet about the network or production asking Slesar to change his style but, the man himself said it was a surprise and he was given no direction or warning.

ABC wanted to keep Slesar but the show was operating on a shoe string budget and P&G wanted him out. I suspect it had a lot to do with salary. Lee Sheldon was 32 at the time he was hired as Henry's replacement. i'm sure Lee was paid a lot less than Henry. P&G was about money and bottom line and they had been losing money on licensing fees. In fact, when Henry was fired, and Lee took over, the show reduced its contract actors from 18-19 to 15 for the remainder of its run.  They moved to recurring Marianne Alda, cut Mark Arnold and others.  Henry was fired because of money problems.  If they wanted a change and could have paid big bucks, they would have hired veteran writers to transition the show.  They hired a newbie who destroyed the show. It was embarrassing. But the producers didn't help by changing up the title credits with the lame sunset and terrible music.  Henry was subsequently hired by ABC for 1 year at OLTL and he lasted 14 months on Capitol on CBS. He also consulted on AW at some point in late 80s but wasn't given screen credit for it. 

Edited May 29, 20223 yr by RavenWhitney

14 minutes ago, RavenWhitney said:

 If they wanted a change and could have paid big bucks, they would have hired veteran writers to transition the show.

That's a very logical conclusion, thanks for your expertise

With such a tight budget, I wonder how the show could manage to get Willie Aames, Elaine Stritch, Eva Gabor, Dick Cavett and Jerry Zaks to appear during this era.

11 minutes ago, danfling said:

With such a tight budget, I wonder how the show could manage to get Willie Aames, Elaine Stritch, Eva Gabor, Dick Cavett and Jerry Zaks to appear during this era.

Most if not all of those people were based in New York/the East Coast, so that probably cut down on expenses.

If money hadn't been a problem (his veteran writer salary), I'm sure Slesar could've changed his style to suit their mandate.  But I'm glad that didn't happen.  If they wanted a choppy, amateurish mess like Lee Sheldon turned in, it's a good thing Slesar didn't prostitute himself financially and talent-wise to create such childlike garbage.  His legacy at Edge of Night is generally looked back on as 15 years of excellent storytelling.  Lee Sheldon -- bless his heart -- doesn't have a legacy worth mentioning.  

Not to defend Sheldon, but I read that the show improved once he gained some experience in writing a daily show.

It seems that sometimes these writers who are inexperienced with the daily serial format are sometimes thrown in at the deep end with little preparation or guidance and have to learn on the job under terrible time constraints.

I had thought that Willie Ames and Eva Gabor were based in the West Coast.

41 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Not to defend Sheldon, but I read that the show improved once he gained some experience in writing a daily show.

It seems that sometimes these writers who are inexperienced with the daily serial format are sometimes thrown in at the deep end with little preparation or guidance and have to learn on the job under terrible time constraints.

I never saw much improvement, but that's just my opinion of course.  Lee Shedon learned some of the "do's & don'ts" of writing in the genre -- not beginning a new day in the middle of an episode, and so forth.  But the stories themselves just weren't "Edge" quality, and the scenes were short & choppy, seemed random and haphazard.  To me, the entire show just deteriorated one day in 1983 and never really regained any appearance of quality until the last day.  

16 hours ago, FrenchFan said:

Love it ! What is the source ?

I wish this era were available.

Newspapers.com article from that time.

Sheldon hadn't a clue.  From Raven and Sky as Nick and Nora Charles to the final Raven story (to deal with the actresses pregnancy)....all stories were incredibly stupid. The final three storylines: Some crazed guy who's dad owned a mine kidnapped Raven because she looked like his dead wife, Michelle.  Beth the 35 year old virgin, marries Miles, after the Laurie Karr/Liz mystery which made no sense was resolved.  The final episode with the Alice in Wonderland twist was the final insult to viewers. So effin dumb.  

Forgive me because I know this has been asked and answered, but who wrote the Children of Eden storyline (unsure if it's children or people or whateve's, but the one where Jody was captured before a ren fair).

 

  

Edited May 30, 20223 yr by victoria foxton