The Catlins

[dc11786]

There used to be more. I would like to see more pop up, but I think with the decline of VCRs a lot of the material will remain lost or deteriorate soon. 

 

I reached out to Sam Smiley, the show's original headwriter, last fall. He was willing to speak about the show, but he didn't really provide much information. It was 35 years ago so I didn't press him much. He said he still had his computer he wrote the material on and had saved episodes on VHS. I imagine others have materials as well, but, as I said above, it's just in hiding. 

 

I'm pretty sure C.T. McIntyre passed away several years ago. I would loved to have read an interview from him about the series. The Atlanta Constitution profiled him when the series started and to say he was a character was quite an understatement. They had no problem revealing his series of failed (and possibly questionable) business ventures. 

 

For its time, I'm sure the show was probably a disaster, but I adore the material I've come across. Some of it is absolutely awful and some of it is strong especially considering it is from the mid-1980s when soaps are big on Luke and Laura style romantic adventures. Don't be fooled, the show attempts this, but it also features the romantic foibles of Michael Forest and Pamela Burrell as grandparents T.J. and Annabelle Catlin as well as some strong family drama involving the Catlin clan. 

 

There are some scripts available in Atlanta. I believe Mary Nell Santracroce donated them to one of the universities. I imagine it cannot be more than 2 or 3, but who knows. 

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Thanks for such a detailed post and for providing more key information. I remember watching a few episodes in the 80s when I was a kid. But the show was on TBS which we seldom watched and it aired at such a strange time. It definitely is a show I'd like to see in its entirety. Like Capitol it is completely defined by the 80s and there aren't a huge number of episodes to go through.

 

I do love Lisby Larson and the clips I've seen from her on this show look fabulous. Peter Boynton was wonderful as the oily Tonio on ATWT, so I am sure he's just as good on The Catlins, even if he's not playing the same type of character. One thing I am curious about is why the show's title only referenced one core family, when the original concept was focused on two rival families. Was the idea to eventually get rid of the second family or eventually marry them into the Catlins? I am sure there's a reason they picked one family over the other when titling the show. Maybe that's something Sam Smiley could explain for us. Hopefully he's been preserving the episodes he had on tape.

[SoapDope]

I watched TBS back then as a kid too, but never watched the Catlins. I wish I had. Cable/Satellite was so ground breaking in those days to offer cable produced soaps and sitcoms. Now days it's just a common thing for networks to produce their own series. 

 

I feel the 80's was probably the highlight for soaps and game shows. By the 90's talk shows began to dominate daytime and by the 2000's it was all about reality TV. 

[dc11786]

The extent I've seen of Peter Boynton as Beau Catlin is the clips from the poker game and a non-speaking shot of him in a preview for an episode where some woman was telling him he needed to get over Lauren, his wife who had been in love with his brother Matt. Beau ended up being the loser in the triangle with Woody Thorpe and Jackie McCormack and was replaced with Dr. Peter Crane, Vanessa's husband, to a lesser extent. Given how few Catlins were left by the end, I don't understand why they wrote out him or Julie Ridley's Maggie. 

 

In terms of the title, I can only assume the show highlighted the Catlins over the Quinns because they were the protagonists while the Quinns were the antagonists. Like the Barnes family on DALLAS, I don't think the Quinns were ever going to have the dramatic weight that the Catlins had because of numbers alone. In the beginning, there was just Medger, creepy Seth, and Eleanor and Eleanor was already married and had two children by Jonathan Catlin. In the end, the show eventually did replace the Quinns with the equally wealthy and dysfunctional Mahoney clan. 

 

I've also seen a couple of people reference the pilot episode as "Catlin's Cove." I did ask Sam Smiley about that, but he didn't mention anything about a possible alternative title. The possible alternative title sounds like a parody or something one would title a web series. I'm not sure if this was the pilot that aired or something that was used to get interest from television executives as I believe there was some filming done in 1981 to get people to buy into the idea that a soap could be produced outside New York or Atlanta. It's also possible that "Catlin's Cove" was just some actor's mistaken memory of what the show was called. 

 

I've been sitting on these because there hadn't been much interest, but since there seems to be some these come mostly from Seli Groves' soap column. The first from a description of the first week in a local paper's tv section. I've added things like full names where possible in order to make things easier to follow.

 

 

April 4-9, 1983: [Week 1] The first week ends with a cliffhanger- naturally – as young Jennifer Catlin learns some unpleasant truths about her about-to-be-husband, Robert Goode. It appears her brother Beau ran into Robert on the Riviera where he specialized in escorting rich old ladies. The final scene of today’s installment thrusts Jennifer and all the Catlins into a heap of trouble. 

 

April 25-29, 1983: [Week 4] Jennifer Catlin was released from jail. Chip tried to draw her out of her depression. Cassie’s son, James, became a suspect in the murder of Robert Goode. Seth Quinn tried to renew his affair with Priscilla. Sterling Frye offered TJ Catlin a deal. COMING: James’ alibi needs some checking into. Maggie Catlin suspects another woman in Roger Brown’s life.

 

May 2-6, 1983: [Week 5] Jennifer Catlin and Powell Jackson were forced to spend the night waiting for their plane to be repaired. Bryce Draper offered Maggie Catlin a romantic dinner; meanwhile, Maggie  continued to suspect Roger Brown had another woman in his life. COMING: James’ alibi takes on suspicious overtones. Lauren Woodward goes to a doctor.

 

June 13-17, 1983: [Week 11] Powell Jackson placed Jenny Catlin under hypnosis and then gave her a post-hypnotic suggestion. He also put a bug in the Catlins’ den while the police hypnotist tried unsuccessfully to work with Jenny. COMING: Powell starts to activate his post-hypnotic control of Jenny, who begins to respond. Beau Catlin draws close to Lauren Woodward.

 

June 20-24, 1983: [Week 12] Matt Catlin returned from Chicago with Crissy and Bobby Catlin, his ex-wife and son. Lauren Woodward became ill; Beau Catlin rushed her to the hospital. Seth Quinn tried to force himself on Priscilla, but Jonathan Catlin arrived in time to save her. COMING: Powell Jackson’s continuing post-hypnotic control over Jennifer Catlin causes an unexpected result.

 

July 11-15, 1983: [Week 15] Megan’s [possibly Medger Quinn’s] plans for himself and Eleanor Quinn Catlin took on a more intense aspect. Marriage for Beau and Lauren Catlin opened a new area of problems they hadn’t considered. COMING: Eleanor’s pregnancy causes changed attitudes all around. 

Edited June 29, 2018 by dc11786

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

Thanks dc11786. I like how you compared the Catlins & Quinns to the Ewings & Barnes. Makes sense. Though in the case of Dallas, they kept the title more general by relating it to the setting. In the case of The Catlins, they were more specific and gave one family prominence. It's almost like if Romeo & Juliet had been retitled as The Montagues (leaving the Capulets out because Juliet becomes a Montague by marriage).

 

Do you have all the recaps from Seli Groves' column? It's fun to read these.

 

Edited June 29, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove

[dc11786]

I didn't copy the other soaps from Seli Groves' column. 

 

I get your point about the Quinns. The feud between the Quinns and the Catlins is a running thread throughout the series. Due to the drug shipments that Cullen Quinn is making using Catlin ships, the Catlin family lands in financial trouble and either default on a loan or are required to take money to keep the family afloat. Whatever the details, Medger Quinn ends up gaining significant power over the Catlin shipping enterprises. In the later part of the show, T.J. Catlin becomes devoted to regain control of the company with the help of Dirk Stack, his potential son-in-law and protégé. This causes more tension with T.J. and Annabelle because T.J. is choosing to save the company at a time where his marriage is in trouble. I don't know what happened to Catlin Enterprises in the end. In the final episodes I have, the show previews some scenes with T.J. being held hostage on a foreign ship alongside Kay Webber (Barbara Rucker of ATWT and TEXAS). Despite this, I don't think the show saw the Quinns as a major presence on the show. In one of the final stories, Jane Berman's Lucille Crowe ends up cozying up to Medger landing herself a job at the television station where she annoys Stacey Manning. Stacey implies that Lucille is looking to marry Medger in order to achieve some wealth and status. 

 

Overall, the Quinns hold a position not much different than the Coleridge clan on RYAN'S HOPE. They may be a significant family, but they are not the dramatic thrust of the story. 

 

For @slick jones, James was played by Marvin Scott and Cassy was played by Georgia Allen. I believe they are James O'Neil and Cassy O'Neil, but that is a pretty big spec based on what has appeared. The Groves' column did say that Cassy was James' mother and the actors name come from an Atlanta AFTRA newsletter in late 1983 talking about some of the new actors involved in the show (specifically Charles Hill's Woody in this scenario). Because James and Cassy appeared with Woody, I'd imagine James is James O'Neil. In the March 1984 episode I have, James is said to be working at the saw mill, and, in 1985, Woody and Jackie are involved in the material with Monty O'Neil, James' son, and Andrea Smith, Maggie Catlin's legal partner and James' love interest who is looking after Monty in his absence. Based on this, I think the O'Neils were introduced by Sam Smiley. The Atlanta Constitution mentions that there are no black characters on the show in the first episodes, and then James and Cassy appear fairly early on. I think Andrea Smith was introduced by Steve Lehrman, but it's possible she was introduced by another writer. Monty was definitely a late addition as the show seems to be heading towards introducing a younger crowd. 

 

Another cast member in 1983 was Dr. John Nixon, a dentist, who appeared as Isaiah Robertson, who was described as the Catlins' connection to the African American community. 

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Great comments. When I asked about Seli Groves' column, what I meant is-- do you have other synopses for more weeks of The Caitlins? Or just this period of time?

[dc11786]

I posted what I had for "The Catlins" from Groves' column. I don't think he covered any more. I would love to be wrong. 

 

A couple of days ago, I went looking through the Atlanta Constitution for references to "The Catlins." I found a name @slick jones  asked about a few years back. Tom Even played Bunker Nelson, a Texas oilman. Slick, do you remember where you found the name? I'm assuming he was referenced in the clip that Machiste posted several years ago involving his scenes as Joseph High Otter and Medger Quinn's plot involving the mountain and some sort of mineral deposit. If so, that means Tom Even was on in 1985. 

 

Also found some solid confirmation that "The Catlins" was called "Catlin's Cove." Marti Ruffin, a Georgia businesswoman, was interviewed several times about her investment in the soap opera. Before WTBS bought the series, C.T. McIntyre secured 14 investors to put up the money for the production of the pilot, and I believe the test episodes. I don't believe the shows that aired were the same as the test episodes. Anyway, Ruffin refers to the project as "Catlin's Cove" and an early summary for the show describes the Catlins as owning a club. I don't know if they were wrong or if things evolved just as the show's title did. 

 

Ruffin, by the way, appeared as an extra on the show at least twice. She was one of the jurors on Jennifer Catlin's trial, which would have taken her into July 1983 if she appeared the entire time. She also appeared in a scene in a disco. 

 

I have several names I'll have to put together for Slick. It does seem that Charles Honce appeared in 1984 as Bryce Draper, the Quinn family attorney who earlier tried to become involved with Maggie Catlin. 

 

Also, found additionally confirmation that show ended May 24, 1985, not May 31st like most of the books state. I've never seen episode listings for the last week of May 1985 and have now seen two articles state that the show was ending on May 24th. The latest was a rebuttal from one of the writers to Lewis Grizzard for his remarks about the show in his columns throughout its run. I found another little bit of backbiting from the production team to detractors printed in the papers. Hugh Merrill, a writer for the Constitution, published a fairly lengthy piece on "The Catlins" in June or July 1983. It's tone is condescending (not surprising) but its provides a rather interesting (and detailed) glimpse into the show. The paper later published a piece from Marti Ruffin, the aforementioned backer, who said that Merrill wouldn't be invited to any of the events held by "The Catlins" team. I suspect he was heart broken. 

 

The loyalists were definitely loyal. Arlene Peck, a columnist for another paper, published bits about "The Catlins." I believe she was friends with Muriel Moore, the original Annabelle Catlin. Peck never talked down about the show, and, later, in 1985 she is in the show credits for helping arrange the travel accomodations for when the show was on location. 

 

 

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

In another thread someone posted a late 1983 interview with GL headwriter Pam Long. In the article it says her former show Texas was being rerun on superstation WTBS. Did this coincide with broadcasts of The Catlins?

 

Texas ended its run in late December 1982 on NBC, and The Catlins debuted in April 1983. I am wondering if Texas re-aired in its entirety on TBS and if it was used as a companion soap with The Catlins. Anyone know?

[All My Shadows]

I believe Texas and The Catlins aired together in an hourlong block. Texas was either split into 30-minute episodes or edited.

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Thanks. It makes sense they would air together.

[dc11786]

"Texas" aired on WTBS from October 4, 1983 until June 29, 1984. The episodes were split in half. The dropping of the "Texas" reruns coincided with the end of the 11:00pm airing of "The Catlins." Starting July 2, "The Catlins" only aired in its morning spot. The announcement about the single airing of "The Catlins" was made no later than March 20, 1984, before the anniversary and about the time that Proctor and Gamble became the credited production company for the show replacing Empire Media (which I believe was C.T. McIntyre's company). 

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

So this means TBS only showed nine months worth of Texas (the show ran for almost two and a half years)...? Were people upset that Texas was not allowed to run to its final episode?

[robbwolff]

No. It means they showed only around 4 1/2 months of episodes since each hour-long episode was split into two half-hour episodes. If I remember correctly, TBS started with the Alex Marshall shooting, which took place sometime in November 1980. So TBS' run took the show probably through around sometime in March 1981.

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Interesting. I suppose these same episodes were the ones that were available on AOL ten years ago.