Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

[DRW50]

October 1952 Radio TV Mirror

[Khan]

In a way, SEARCH's earliest days remind me of today's websoaps: small cast, bare-bones budget and production values, but the potential for simple, human drama that can take the genre of serialized storytelling to the next level.

[DRW50]

Search's earliest days are what websoaps should be - straight to the heart, honest, full of people you can care about in universal problems. No pointless cameos by someone Mary Stuart worked with in 1946. No half of the episode taken up by credits.

Edited September 18, 2011 by CarlD2

[Goldensoaps]

Thanks for the article!!!! I love it!!!! It is great and it is from 1952!!! WOWWW THANKS!!!!!!!!

[DRW50]

Thanks for reading. It fits right in with those photos of the first episode you have on your site.

[soapfan770]

I don't know if these NBC era ads had been posted yet but the first one is from November 1985, the other four are from June 1986:

[DRW50]

I don't remember the first one.

I wonder how popular the McLearys were.

Those ads were a bit suggestive for the time (in soap ads) but nothing compared to some of the ads RKK did when he went back to AW.

That one of the top half of their faces being obscured cracks me up. Especially since Matt Ashford seems to be making a "Wow this is really stupid, pffft" expression.

[Max]

Those June 1986 McCleary ads (which I have seen before) are beyond insulting to the viewers' intelligence. A couple years ago, a similar television ad was done for OLTL, asking viewers to watch because the Ford brothers are so sexy.

In answer to Carl's question, the McClearys were quite unpopular, because they hogged up all the air time from the characters who were at the heart of SFT; in this respect, it was very similar to the way the Ford brothers hogged up screen time on OLTL. The interesting coincidence is that the head of NBC daytime (back when SFT became all about the McClearys) was none other than Brian Frons, so he should have known better than to have shoved the Fords down viewers throats. (Of course, blaming Frons for the Fords in no way should let RC & FV off the hook for pimping them; however, that topic was previously discussed in a thread I created.)

Really, the major difference between the McCleary and Ford brothers was that the portrayers of the former could actually act.

Edited September 20, 2011 by Max

[DRW50]

I don't mind the ads that much if there's some substance behind the actors (as there was here - not with the Fords) - but it does take more than this to get viewers to want to watch. I'm just sorry it didn't work. There's no reason why under better hands Search couldn't have run for 10-15 more years.

Edited September 20, 2011 by CarlD2

[Max]

Sadly, even with the most talented writers and producers, SFT would still have been doomed on NBC due to the fact that many of that network's affiliates either did not air the soap at all, or refused to air it in the proper timeslot (12:30 P.M. Eastern). Also, by the mid-80's, P&G seemed to lose all interest in this classic soap.

Even if SFT had never been cancelled by CBS in 1982, network executives would have gladly canned this soap (barring a major ratings boost from where it was in 1981) for the almighty Bill Bell's B&B (in 1987). (And if SFT had stayed, then GL or ATWT would have been axed to make room for B&B.) The only silver lining is that had SFT remained on CBS, the ratings (and perhaps the quality as well) would not have fallen nearly as much as they did on NBC.

Edited September 20, 2011 by Max

[DRW50]

This is from a 4/77 Daytime TV Stars article on Mary Stuart. It's the only photo I can remember of Tina Sloan as Patti.

[Paul Raven]

Great pics, I have never seen Tina as Patti or Dino in that time frame.It was weird to get him back as Len and recast Patti,then give them nothing.Tina looks a good fit for Patti.

Val Dufour always reminds me of a vampire.

[DRW50]

Tina actually looks like Mary in that photo.

I wish we knew what plans they even had for Patti, aside from what's mentioned in synopses. I don't know if this was a time of transition for Search but to just drop Patti after years of being a main character seems a little odd. I remember Tina suggesting Patti might become more of a schemer, but I don't know if that was actually something in the script or not.

[Paul Raven]

Late 60's on set.Ann Williams and Mary Stuart do look like sisters.