Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

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I think I asked this the first time I saw this promo several years back, but how long did this weird son of Stephanie's stay around?

Edited July 3, 2018 by DRW50

[dc11786]

Without looking it up, Brian Emerson was around for a few years. I think until 1984. Several different actors played the role. I believe they paired him with Suzy Wyatt for quite a bit and brought Kristin Carter, Warren's sister played by Susan Scannell, in as a spoiler for the couple. Kristin got pregnant so Brian and Kristin married. I think Kristin miscarried and Brian became a cop with characters being written out. It's also possible I've mixed all this up. 

[DRW50]

 

Thanks for that. I always get confused as I thought Brian was the blind guy...

[Paul Raven]

There were 4 Brians in 4 years

Paul Joynt

Larry Joshua

Gene Peitragallo

Jay Acavone

 

Didn't Tomothy Patrick Murphy's Spence character also pretend to be Brian?

[Jagger1966]

 

 

 

I believe you're right about Spence pretending to be Brian.  I remember him pretending to be someone.  I can't remember the exact details but your mention of Brian is ringing a bell.

[dc11786]

Michael Kendall was blind. I believe the actor appeared as Suzanne's wealthy beau on "Designing Women." Michael appeared with his brother, Steve, during the same time period as Brian. I think the other Kendall brothers (Alec and Chase) appeared just as they wrote out Brian and Kristin, who went off in different directions. Michael left earlier. I think he may have married Linda Gibboney's Jenny Deacon, but I'm not sure about that. 

 

I know the books say Spence pretended to be Stephanie's son because he also romanced his "sister" Wendy. 

[Khan]

Ah, Timothy Patrick Murphy.  Such a promising young actor (IMO).  It's sad to think of what could have been with him.  (Damn this [!@#$%^&*] AIDS.)

[danfling]

Jenny (Linda Gibboney) married Keith (Craig Augestine), and they left town with daughter Andie.   Andie and Stephanie were very good together, and Andie should have remained.

[Khan]

Harding Lemay, who head-wrote SFT for a brief period, has passed away:

 

https://www.welovesoaps.net/2018/07/Harding-Lemay-obituary.html

[slick jones]

Jenny married Michael Kendall and left town with Andie, her daughter. Keith had married Wendy.  Andie had believed Keith was her brother.

[danfling]

I am sure you are right, Slick.   However, I could have sworn that Jenny married Keith!   Was Michael the role that Michael Sullivan played on the show?

 

(I wanted Keith and Jenny together so much that I guess my memory made me think that they actually did marry.)

[RavenWhitney]

Wow, Ralph Ellis gave a bunch of his SFT stories and scripts to SU.  

 

https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/e/ellis_search_for_tom.htm

[dc11786]

I watched a bit of "Search for Tomorrow" from the NBC years recently. The episodes came from here and there, but there were a few things I wanted to comment on. 

 

(1) During the live episode, Danny Walton returns to Henderson. I had forgotten that they introduced Danny with the sweater around his shoulders, a very preppy look which kind of clashes with the type of character I can only imagine Cain Devore and John Loprieno would play. Does anyone know if this characterization stuck? Without looking into the weekly summaries, I imagine the plan was for Danny to be paired with either Angela Moreno or TR. For a younger skewing show, NBC's SFT was never able to maintain a high school set around Jane Krakowski were they?

 

(2) Having seen the AOL episodes, I always thought Warren was kind of a one-note villain as that is the way I felt he was portrayed in his late 1984 - early 1985 run. I was surprised by some of the material I saw with him getting the club from Martin (which he was going to have to share with Lloyd) and celebrating with Wendy. At one point, Wendy mentioned that Warren had been more upset than she had when Wendy miscarried. I wasn't expecting that, but I could see how that would be needed to necessitate the Jonah storyline.  I did enjoy Warren's dying conversation with Wendy where he implicated Suzie in his murder. It was over the top as anything, but it complicated the already complicated Suzie / Wendy dynamic. It is really amazing how both women would be written off by the show cancellation in under two years time. Mind boggling. 

 

(3) It was nice to see Courtney Simon as Kathy. The show really needed more people in that age range and older. Kathy and Scott would have helped. Also, they had already built some interesting complications for Scott for his return to Henderson. When Kathy returned played by Nicolette Goulet, Scott had been imprisoned for vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol. I think trying to bring Scott back from that place had the potential to be fascinating, but I guess the writers (or producers or network) didn't see it. 

 

(4) I was also shocked when Hogan and Cagney were speaking about Sunny's rape and Hogan mentioned that Jack Benton, the man who had raped Sunny, needed psychiatric help. I don't know if I've ever seen a show play that beat other than at an attempt to justify a redemption or whitewash what the character had done. With that said, it was also sad to hear Hogan go on about how Sunny must feel having been brave enough to state what had happened, but not to have the jury believe her. It's a shame that Sunny never really gets a good story after all of this. I think the Liza / Hogan attraction (with Mathis in the role) was angsty, but Sunny doesn't fare well. 

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

The NBC years are what I watched. I always saw Warren as a Roger Thorpe type character (as in Roger from Guiding Light). Where he was trying to prove himself with the big boys and had mistreated his wife (Suzi) but he was determined to raise his son (Jonah) the way Roger was determined to be part of his daughter's life. On some level we could sympathize with Warren, because he was his own worst enemy. He was ultimately killed off so that Suzi and Cagney would be a main supercouple. But then a later headwriter also killed Suzi off which I felt was a mistake.

 

Sunny played more of a supporting role after the rape. But then she later was on the front burner when she tried to commit suicide after she lost Hogan to Liza. I felt that story was all wrong for her. The Sunny we knew would never give up or try to kill herself. And it sort of wrecked her nice friendship with Liza. In the show's final year she had hooked up with con artist Bela Garody, and that pairing didn't feel right. But we were told in the final episodes she was pregnant with Bela's baby and if it was a girl she was going to name it Jo, after Joanne. So at least Sunny did become a mother, or was going to become one post-show.

 

Danny did not work out on the show. They brought him in for a triangle with T.R. and another young guy named Ryder. Ryder was eventually killed in the flood. Danny was brought back temporarily for those episodes, I guess as a support for T.R. but he had pretty much been dropped by the producers. And after the town rebuilt itself he was never seen or heard from again. I don't think the Danny-T.R. thing worked with viewers, since T.R. was Liza's adopted daughter, and this made her Danny's niece. So while they were not technically blood related it had an incestuous vibe to it. After Ryder was killed off and Danny disappeared again, T.R. had nothing to do. A few months later they wrote her off by sending her to college in Europe. But she came back for two episodes at the end to celebrate Christmas.

 

Edited July 12, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove

[Paul Raven]

The frustrating thing is that Search, despite its years on the air and many cast changes still had a solid core to build on:

 

Stu/Jo patriach/matriach

 

Stu's daughter Janet ,maybe a recast recurring character

 

Janet's children Liza, Garry and Danny (the latter two with much story potential)

 

Jo's daughter Patti (divorced or widowed)

 

Patti's children Tracey and Chris (sorased to teens)

 

Jo's ward Bruce and his daughter Tori

 

Sunny and her sister Laine (mother of Gary Walton's son)

 

Throw in a few other characters and away you go...