Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[victoria foxton]

Please register in order to view this content

 October 12, 1984 

[dc11786]

I read an article on another board that confirmed the original plan for Adair McCleary was to reveal that she was the mother of baby Elan. It seems like this storyline was dropped when Gary Tomlin departed in the earlier part of 1984. I wonder if the show was going to have Travis and Liza raising both Lloyd Kendall's daughter T.R. and his granddaughter (Elan) as the show seemed to suggest that Alec was involved with Adair prior to their arrival in town. 

 

I know some liked the other writers in 1984, but I wish Gary Tomlin had been allowed to continue. I don't know if anyone could have made the show work with the second casting purge brought on in the middle of the year, but I'm still curious. Not that 1984 was horrid, but the middle of the year seems to lack the kind of large storytelling that NBC became known for during that time period.

 

[amybrickwallace]

 

Now that would have made sense. Was Elan's mother ever revealed?

[dc11786]

I believe a day player came to claim the child in the summer of 1984 and the story ended. 

[slick jones]

Yep,  

Elan Barnes...Andrea Pellegrino...84...baby

Karen Barnes...Anne Marie Bobby...84...unwed mother 

Sheila ___Barnes...Beth Fowler...84   .mother Karen .

 

Karen Barnes and her mother Sheila claimed Baby Elan.

[amybrickwallace]

 

Thanks. Talk about ending a story with a whimper. Was a writer/EP regime changed at that time?

[victoria foxton]

Please register in order to view this content

 

[Paul Raven]

EW HOPE FLOODS 'SEARCH FOR TOMORROW By CLARKE TAYLOR

NEW YORK-The floodgates are due to break open Tuesday on the fictional town of Henderson, USA, but regular viewers of NBC's "Search for Tomorrow" can take heart that the 34-year-old town is being devastated in order to save TV's oldest daytime drama. The flood, which viewers have seen coming in recent days, will result in only one fatality, but the lives and life styles of the survivors will be dramatically altered, and so will all of the soap's sets, and even its familiar theme music. All of this at a cost to sponsor Procter & Gamble of as much as $1 million over the next year in its effort to rescue the soap from drowning at the bottom of daytime drama's audience ratings.

"At last there is a real ray of hope that there will be a tomorrow we've been searching long enough," said David Forsyth, who plays Henderson Herald reporter Hogan McCleary. Forsyth was one of several of the soap's popular actors who suffered colds and who were even hospitalized briefly as a result of last week's taping of the simulated flood to be seen Tuesday. The actors, including Mary Stuart, the reigning "queen of soaps," endured 150 gallons of "rain" water and a huge pool of 4-feet-deep water set up for the torrential scenes created in a mid-Manhattan studio. "Nobody minded," Forsyth said. In fact, he said that there has been a "180-degree turnaround" for the better in cast and crew morale, which he termed "dismal at best," until now.

"The stories weren't going anywhere ... the characters were scattered all over the place . . . there was too little attention being paid to the show's history and continuity and there was barely any romance left," continued Forsyth -whose onscreen romance with Liza Sentell (played by Louan Gideon) was the last spark of romance in Henderson before the flood. "As a result, the public felt cheated," added the actor, who said this was evident from disgruntled fan mail and from promotional forays he made out among the public.

 It was this state of affairs, brought about, in the view of Forsyth and others on the set, by the comings and goings of five executive producers and several different writers over the past 2 years that resulted in increasingly low audience ratings. This, together with the fact that "Search" is one of the few soaps that has not expanded from a half hour to one hour.

It was in such a climate that John Whitesell was hired last November set of "Search for Tomorrow.' as executive producer of the show. In just five years, Whitesell, 29, has moved from production assistant to director to producer, previously on "Texas" and "Guiding Light." "I was brought in with a mandate to make the show work, to keep our loyal audience and to find a newer, younger audience," said Whitesell, who also directs some segments of the soap. "To do this I felt I had to literally wash away the remnants of the past and build from scratch. 

 

 

 

[RavenWhitney]

Whitesell lasted 6 months before they moved him to AW as EP (and fired Gary Tomlin as HW a second time), and David Lawrence took over as EP for the final months  the show aired (with Pam Long/Addie Walsh further ruining the show with the non-sensical Judge Henderson/McCleary saga).  The flood was a waste of money and they killed off Ryder, a young viable character and actor.

[Paul Raven]

It's been mentioned before that Mary Stuart disliked working with Paul Dumont.

His only other soap role Paul Martin on AMC was also short lived.

Aug 76

 

Some women just can't hold on to their men. . Much-widowed lovelorn Joanne on "Search for Tomorrow" has been left in the lurch by a potential mate.' Chris Delon decided to reunite with bis terminally-ill -wife, Gwen, and move out of town. Jo was tearful, but stoic in the knowledge that it was all for the best. What a sacrifice. And what a bitter twist to the latest adventure in Jo's 25-year search for happiness, since the bullet that caused her current paralysis was originally meant for Chris. Actors Paul Dumont and Barbara Babcock (Chris and Gwen) are now free to pursue other career avenues. But one might assume that Dumont would be bitter about the rather sudden end to a seven-month romance that promised to be a many-year job. He isn't, though. Not quite. " "I suspected when I was first cast in the part that it was a test of chemistry between actors and characters. The test just didn't work," says gallantly diplomatic but unperturbed Dumont. I'm up for a role on the new nighttime series 'Ball Four. And there is talk that Gwen might kick the bucket in San Francisco and I'll be able to return to poor Joanne, who's confined to her wheelchair." Don't count on it, Paul. Jo seems destined to wheel down the show's 25th anniversary come September, all by her lonesome and loverless self.

[amybrickwallace]

 

Yeouch. I assume this was before John Aniston showed up as Martin. Those of you who watched originally, were Jo and Martin popular as a couple? Did they have rooting value?

[NothinButAttitude]

Please register in order to view this content

 

[victoria foxton]

@NothinButAttitude thanks for sharing. Awesome find.

[DRW50]

Thanks @NothinButAttitude.

 

Barbara Babcock - I never knew she was on Search. Yet another talent who seemed to slide through the show without any real fanfare. It's too bad they didn't do more with her.

[NothinButAttitude]

@victoria foxtonand @DRW50, no problem! I always do a search for new episodes for soaps and this popped up. I haven't watched it yet myself, but I do plan on sitting back and watching it before it gets deleted.