Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[VanessaReardon]

Thanks. Sorry for the repeat. It’s brought up discussion though. I think SFT was doing great in the ratings at this time. Liza & Travis were ‘it’ and they were capitalizing on Rod Arrants having the Luke Spencer hair. lol 

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

I think SFT gave Rod Arrants the Luke Spencer hair intentionally.  Because he didn't have it earlier, when he was on For Richer, For Poorer.  Or later, when he was on Y&R.  Another World also gave a perm to one of their hot new studs. It finally disappeared about a year and a half later (the perm, not the stud). 

 

But was Luke Spencer already all that popular, when Travis first appeared on SFT?  That was 1978, I think.

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Neil Johnson

[Paul Raven]

Travis (1978) pre dated Luke, (1979) who did not have the perm when he first appeared.

[rlj]

AWs Sandy Cory!

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Luke didn't have the perm when he first appeared?  Did Travis have the perm when Travis first appeared?  

Edited April 27, 2020 by Neil Johnson

[DRW50]

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[SoapDope]

This may have been posted before. Lisa Peluso for Ruffles (1974)

 

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[Forever8]

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[amybrickwallace]

Thanks for posting those videos. I'm still looking for the episode from 1984 where Cagney is searching for Suzi and Liza and Stu try to comfort Sunny after the fallout from her assault by Jack Benton hits the papers. This was also right about the time Maree Cheatham was leaving and Louise Shaffer took over as Stephanie. 

 

Speaking of Stephanie, was it ever explained how she went from a nurse to running a TV station? I never have been able to find out.

[dc11786]

Stephanie and Rusty Sentell bought the TV station when Suzy, Warren, and Brian’s plane crashed in South America. I believe she wanted to send Sunny down there and the station manager wouldn’t so she bought it. Initially, it was a story point under Ralph Ellis and Eugenia Hunt in their final days. David Cherrill really had Stephanie working at the station. 
 

When Rusty was murdered, Travis inherited the station. Liza handled that asset for him under Joanna Lee/Gary Tomlin. I enjoyed the friendly rivalry between those two. 

[victoria foxton]

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Search For Tomorrow clips featuring Cagney and Patty

[amybrickwallace]

 

Thanks. It makes sense now, in a convoluted soap way.

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I finally got to see the episodes from 1984 that were posted a couple of pages back. Very moving (except for the annoying redhead who was forever panting over Cagney). It's easy to see why then-15-year-old Jane Krakowski became a star. Even though she's mostly known for comedy these days, she had true dramatic chops as TR, the lonely presumed orphan who finds the parents of her dreams in Liza and Travis Sentell. When her dream of an ideal father literally explodes in her face, you genuinely feel for her. I'm not surprised that she got two Emmy nominations for her work.

 

It was so sad seeing Rod Arrants/Travis leave. The graveside service in the pouring rain was a great scene - beautifully done by both the cast and crew. Sherry Mathis played all the right beats of Liza's grief, dignity and resilience. My favorite moment came when Liza lay in the muddy ground in pouring rain following the plane crash, wanting to give up and be with Travis. Then she hears the sound of a baby crying, and gradually sees the faces of her children. Then she declares that she can't give up because they still need her, rising from the mud to go off and find help.

 

Other than that, I found most of the rest of the material to be hit or miss. They never did find the right actor for Lloyd Kendall, did they? Did they kill him off or did he just leave town in 1986? 

 

Who exactly was Cord Tourneur and what was his story? Were Sunny and Hogan a popular couple at the time? It seems to me they should have been endgame. Was Martin divorced from Jo by this time? Thank goodness John Aniston landed Victor Kiriakis the next year and could drop that ridiculous Southern accent.

 

[dc11786]

My guess is the business venture between Stephanie and Rusty was meant to escalate animosity between Rusty and Martin. At the time, November 1982, Stephanie and Martin maintained a loving friends type relationship. Given the history between Rusty and Martin regarding the Colonel, I imagine the plan was to keep those two characters at each others throats in every which way they could. 

 

The TR storyline is great. I didn't realize until recent years that the Kendalls weren't initially brought on to replace the Sentell / Tourneur clan, but provide them with a long standing enemy. The original animosity stemming from Lloyd's father's suicide bleeds right into the revelation that Steve Kendall is Martin's son. So a Tourneur was raised a Kendall. Now, you have TR being found and raised by the Sentells. I don't so much mind the Liza / Lloyd storyline in this context. Also, I think Travis' death was open enough that had the show continued, he would have returned from the dead. It would have been very interesting to see Travis return to a happily little family unit of Lloyd, Liza, TR, and Tourneur.

 

The issue seems to be that when Travis dies, the family dies with him. A member of that generation needed to be present in order for the story to really continue. I think having Lee Sentell return with Roger Lee (say that Cissy has run off) could have created conflict for Liza and Sunny. Cord seems interesting. He definitely isn't a Travis-type, but I think they went too far with the PTSD and couldn't turn back. 

 

I think Peter Haskell was a very good Lloyd. He left the show in 1985 to take the role of C.J. Fields on "Rituals" only for that show to fold in six months. Joe Lambie was too young or to young looking to play Lloyd. The little of Robert Reed that has popped up has been unmemorable. The show would have been well off to offer Haskell the chance to return to the show in 1986 when Lambie left. 

 

Martin and Jo divorced in the 1981 or 1982 I think.  They were definitely divorced by the fall of 1982. Martin and Jo were definitely viewed as endgame in the writers' eyes. Jo's kidnapping by Vargas played a lot on that with the ransom and such. 

 

Sunny and Hogan were fairly popular. Forsyth left the show after less than a year though and they never really were able to retell a meaningful story for Hogan and Sunny when Forsyth returned. I enjoy the Liza / Hogan relationship, but it comes at the expense of Sunny, at times. 

[OzFrog]

I watched some Search For Tomorrow episodes from 1984 a few months back, and was curious about one of the storylines.

 

Warren Carter had just escaped from jail where he had faked his death, and was now stalking Suzy while secretly taunting Jo, Martin, Cagney, etc with mysterious gifts. It had got to the point where Warren was hiding in an old house and was blackmailing someone to keep his secret.

 

What ended up happening wth that storyline? I know by December 1985 (when Lisa Peluso left as Wendy), Cagney and Suzy were happily married, but what happened in between?

[victoria foxton]

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After Suzy ended Warren's reign of terror. The couple married and didn't have much to do. Cagney became a cop. Suzy was killed in the fall of 1986 by Ella Hobbs.

Edited May 21, 2020 by victoria foxton