Excerpt from a 1980 article about soap stars

Ron Arrants (Travis Tourneur Santell on Search for Tomorrow) describes his character “as a romantic with dimensions, a combination of Rhett Butler, Howard Hughes and Citizen Kane the younger. He inherited an international business conglomerate, he is classical straight arrow. He flies his own jet and speaks several languages. On Lovers and Friends, I was just a millionaire. Now I’m a BILLIONAIRE.”

Arrants’ character fell in love with Liza when her husband died and the couple went through just about every conceivable tragedy until their TV marriage last December. “WE HAVE HAD 10 major obstacles to our relationship,” he has figured out. A major star of daytime, Arrants still rides the subway from his Brqpklyn Heights home to CBS in New York but it gets more difficult daily to study his lines during the 20-minute ride. Autograph seekers are the interruptions. A native Californian, he has transplanted comfortably for a good economic reason: “I work 305 days a year, and have for 10 years. Elven though there’s nothing here for actors except daytime and the stage, it’s good experience, and I’m grateful for the work. It’s a good life, and I feel a responsibility to stay in daytime, after barely getting by for so long. But I have the economic freedom to take the risk again if I ever want to.

“Actors who think of themselves as artists, who have an impulse to stretch and grow, find an excitement and challenge they can only experience in soaps. There is no beginning, middle or end in daytime. You never have that sense of completion you get in the theater. “TO THE EXTENT that an actor can feel secure, I am. I even get two paid vacation every year.That came as a big surprise,” he laughs

'BUFFALO COURIER-EXPRESS. Saturday. September 2, 1978

Search’ Loses Sensitive Actor by Jon Michael Reed

NEW YORK — First the bad news. "Search for Tomorrow” has lost one of its finest young actors. Michael Nouri, the dark, brooding man who has portrayed Steve Kaslo on the series for the past several years, decided a few months ago that he was ready to move onto other career goals in lieu of signing another contract with the show. The character of Steve had been in remission from a disease for over a year. Rather than replace Michael, who was enormously popular in the role, the writers and producers went out on a limb by having Steve’s condition worsen. For two months the ”Search" audience has watched as Steve deteriorated physically.

CRITICAL conditions on soap operas’ usually terminate in miracle cures. The writers and producers of “Search” were brave enough not to honey-up their story and allowed Steve's life to be cut short. Last week Steve Kaslo died. The tragedy was compounded by the fact that with Nouri's departure serialdom also lost one of its finest, most sensitive young actors. Audiences can be confident that Michael Nouri, who displayed his singing talents on the “Search. ' will soon pop up on theater screens or Broadway boards.

NOW THE good news. "Search” is intensifying Its efforts to do more location shootings. Last weekend Mary Stuart (Jo). Peter Ratray (Scott), George Shannon (Chance), Lewis Arlt (David) and Billie Lou .Watt (Ellie) were shipped off to Manakin. Va., outside Richmond, where they were involved in exterior shootings that involve an auto accident. Sorry, you’ll have to tune in next week to find out who’s involved terminally as a result of that. .The "Search" cameras also taped the exterior of a Manakin hotel, the Foxhead Inn, which will serve in the "Search” story as the facade to the fictional Hartford Inn.

Back to the bad news. "Search" is undergoing sweeping cast dismissals. Expect them soon. In their place two newcomers are adding spice to the longest-running TV' serial. Blonde Megan Bagot appears as Laine Adamson, manipulator Ted Adamson’s sexy daughter who will probably spark a flame for Scott Phillips. Christopher Goutman will be a regular as Marc D’Antonio, the volatile drama professor who may help shy Kylie bloom. Other additions are on the way, so stay tuned

Thanks @Paul Raven

I guess that wasn't what happened with Nick...and Scott wouldn't be around much longer.