Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[robbwolff]

Interesting. Did the article mention anything about Love of Life, which is clearly missing from the lineup. Interesting that CBS knew back in July that it would be dropping Love of Life.

[John]

What did Marcia say about Sherry?

[RavenWhitney]

Robert Reed left because he was battling AIDS.

Pam Long had retired from soap writing to have her babies with Charles Jay Hammer. She was effectively the headwriter of SFT and Addie Walsh/Trent Jones were her outline writers/associate headwriters. But Pam wrote the long story for the last six months of the show which I thought sucked. Gary Tomlin was doing a good job and didn't need to be replaced but P&G loved Pam Long and wanted her in the fold; she needed a break from the grind of writing GL, an hour long show.

Does anyone have any info on the final producer of SFT, David Lawrence?

The best thing about the show was the casting in the last year or two. They hired many wonderful EON actors including Ann Flood, William Prince and Mauve McGuire!

[John]

Robert Reed died in the 1990s. are you sure the cancelation didnt end his participation i the role

[robbwolff]

She described Mathis as a consummate actress but then went on to say that Mathis was remote and not social at all. For what was a loving tribute about Gideon, I (and a number of others online) wondered why McCabe thought it was necessary to make negative comments about Mathis.

[robbwolff]

I'm not sure I buy that as the reason Reed left Search. He left around June 1986 and passed away in 1992. He was quite active in acting after leaving Search.

[DRW50]

I got the feeling that the show just didn't think Lloyd Kendall worked. Wasn't TR also on the way out if the show hadn't been canceled?

[Soaplovers]

I did read somewhere that one of the original plans for the final episode was to have Jo and Stu married but that Pam Long nixed it because she thought that the characters would never think of each other in a romantic light and had the idea to have the final scene between them as they looked at the Christmas lights.

I can't judge Pam Long's tenue at the show since she was only there for a few months, but judging by the fact that the final scene between Jo/Stu was her idea, I think she might have been a good fit long-term.

[DRW50]

I know that Mary Stuart said there was something where she was supposed to be jealous of Stu having a new girlfriend, and she played it as being worried about losing a friend, not as romantic, as she thought that was silly.

I'm glad Long agreed.

[robbwolff]

I believe TR left...maybe around September. And then Jane Krakowski returned for the final episodes.

[robbwolff]

I thought it was Long that wanted to end Search with them marrying. I can't see how that would have worked. It would have been such a rushed romance.

[dc11786]

Didn't Jane Krakowski leave to appear in the play "Starlight Express" and intended to return?

Robert Reed wasn't on very long. Joe Lambie was still playing him in the flood episodes and the character departed in July. Maybe the intensity of the work wasn't good for Reed's health? They also casted three very different actors in the role of Lloyd so it may have been hard for Walsh and Long to get a sense of character.

[amybrickwallace]

I'm so glad that I took the chance to write Louan a fan letter, after I learned through a web search that she'd quit show biz, moved east to NC and went into real estate. So I wrote her c/o her real estate office in 2010. She was so kind to write back and autograph my index card. Lou and I then became FB friends and stayed so until the end. She was a true sweetheart and a fighter. Lou will always be remembered with love.

Her former SFT co-star and future AW star David Forsyth was the MC for a fundraiser that she took part in. Mr. Forsyth himself is a throat cancer survivor. How great that they were able to reunite for such a great cause.

I have the letter and autographed index card scanned, and I also have a 2006 Memphis magazine feature on Sherry Mathis that I would like to post here. How do you post attachments?

[DRW50]

I liked Brick and Amy a lot. Great name!

Do you have Photobucket? You might be able to scan that stuff, upload it to Photobucket, then post the items here.

Those are beautiful memories of Louan.

I didn't know that about David Forsyth.

[amybrickwallace]

Thank you for the welcome and advice. I don't have photobucket, at least not as far as I know.

Primetime viewers will probably remember Lou best for her guest spot on Seinfeld, where she played Jerry's girlfriend's (a pre-Gilmore Girls Lauren Graham) stepmother who put him on her speed dial!! She also played Mr. Belding's wife on an episode of Saved by the Bell (and its follow-up, The New Class) - and ended up giving birth in an elevator during an earthquake. Sounds like a soap plot, doesn't it?

I told Lou once that most of my contemporaries remember her the most as Mrs. Belding, and she found that very funny. She thought it was so sweet to be remembered by so many kids for that part.

After Lou's passing, her adopted hometown of Asheville wrote a very nice tribute article in their paper:

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20140205/NEWS01/302050069/-perfect-stage-exit-Asheville-actress-Louan-Gideon-dies?fb_action_ids=10201534675230960&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=artrectop&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

She also wrote a book about stylish headscarves for women going through cancer treatments:

http://www.amazon.com/Thats-Elegant-Head-Wrapping-Styles-Tressless-ebook/dp/B0099787ZK

Here's a video demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udSLCHxHIoc