Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

Thanks for posting that. Summer of 81 and the beginning of the story that had Travis and Liza on the QE 2.

Didn't know Tucker Smallwood was still on as Bobby that late.

Search always had good production values but the stories were lacking. Zach and Sylvie were short term and the whole story had no long term repercussions.

Wish there had have been credits.

[RavenWhitney]

Joyce and John Corrington were head writers and they had for most of the run, three script writers.  Mary Ellis Bunim was exec producer.

[Paul Raven]

The Corringtons were long gone by this stage - they departed when they began writing Texas in 1980.

[RavenWhitney]

Oh, that's right. It was Gabrielle Upton for a while, then Don Chastain took over during the writer's strike and was hired after the strike for a while. He played Max I think.  Didn't Ellis/Hunt take over in early 82 and stay a year to transition the show to NBC? What a mess. Too many writers and producers.  P&G execs were nuts.

Who's the actor who played Zach in this episode?

Edited March 11, 2021 by RavenWhitney

[slick jones]

Shawn Stevens, who went on to play Oliver Martin on Days of Our Lives the following year.

[dc11786]

I believe this is a strike episode. Mignon Sentell returned in 1981 under Harding Lemay and was killed off in either late June or early July as I recall. It would be easy enough to track down the month of this. It sounds like this aired shortly after this. Whether or not Don Chastain wrote all of the strike or not, it is known that he wrote a bulk of it. The single storyline episode also makes sense in this context. It is a bit bleak hearing Stu speak about Ellie knowing what would be coming down the pike in the next few weeks. 

 

I think Tucker Smallwood was brought back for this storyline. I know he had a recurring gig as a KVIK employee through most of the opening months of "Texas". I didn't realize that Bobby's mother had been the housekeeper for the Tourneur / Sentell family.

 

This episode is really rough. I think the nicest thing I can say is it was nice to see Smallwood, Stevens rendition of "Longer" was fine. I like the set for the Terrace. But, yeah, this really makes one understand why the show would end up leaving CBS later in the year. 

 

I'm pretty sure there's a writer's list here somewhere. I think after the Corringtons you had several months with John Porterfield and Linda Grover. Gabrielle Houghton was there for a longer stretch. Then Lemay was there for a minute before the writer's strike. Don Chastain wrote most of the strike and then continued into the fall. Chastain got some praise for infusing some comedy into the show and writing the boxing storyline with Suzi and Brian. Chastain was dumped late in 1981, and a writing team was hired just prior to the announcement that the show was leaving CBS in November 1981. When it was announced in December 1981 the show was leaving CBS, it was announced that Ralph Ellis and Eugenie Hunt were returning. I believe Hirsch or Reed complained about the convoluted spy plots that Chastain was plotting. This spy plot was the Operation Sunburst story which was a convoluted mess that continued well into Ellis and Hunt's reign only to peter out when it became about Rusty Sentell's quest for power. 

 

Seeing this after seeing a good stretch of late 1982 (October - December) I have to say I think Hunt and Ellis moved things in the right direction, but were still off the mark. I wish they had managed to keep what had been there. I think Spence Langley was an intriguing character and an important part of the Brian Emerson story. If Spence had taken on the Ringo Altman role in some of the Warren Carter stories I think it would have been a little more meaningful. Spence may have left by the time they got there, but I think it would have worked. Also, I imagine some of the elements of the Jenny Deacon tale could have been used with Cissie Mitchell who had some larger ties to the canvas. 

[amybrickwallace]

 

Thanks for sharing!! It's always great to see more of Sherry Mathis.

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[beebs]

So apparently this episode was September 22, 1981 (according to Shawn Stevens's description), and from what I've gathered online, the strike ran from April until July? So this is a couple months post-strike, I think, so from the looks of it, Chastain is HW here.

Edited March 12, 2021 by beebs

[Franko]

Going off the CBS Thursday promo right after the episode, this is sometime during the week of Sept. 21, 1981.

https://www.ultimate70s.com/seventies_history/19810924/television

 

ETA: Whoops, looks like I posted at the exact time as beebs did.

Edited March 12, 2021 by Franko

[victoria foxton]

Even though the Jade story is a poor man's version and blatant ripoff. Of GH's Ice Princess. I would still love to see it.  I found the episode rather meh. SFT had better production values than sister soaps GL and ATWT.

Edited March 12, 2021 by victoria foxton

[dc11786]

Thanks for the correction. This is definitely Don Chastain. By mid-September, the episodes would have been credited to him or, at the very least, were being written by him. I believe the strike episodes ended on-air in August / September. The "Ryan's Hope" reruns credited Labine and Mayer again in early September, while there is the infamous story of Marland phoning in the dialogue to the aborted wedding on "Guiding Light" in August 1981. 

 

This episode is bad. I'm really not surprised that they dumped Chastain. 

 

I know that Travis and Liza had a lot of these types of stories, the spy and adventure plots, but they so rarely worked for me. I actually like when Gary Tomlin and Joanna Lee made them less of the show's signature couple and worked them more into the ensemble. Liza and Stephanie's rivalry and the mystery of the feud between the Tourneurs and the Kendalls was much more interesting to me than these type of plots and had the potential for long term ramifications. 

 

It also just dawned on me that both of Travis' parents were murdered. I guess I'm happy that Janet left town on a plane and not in a body bag. 

 

[SoapDope]

When did Shawn Stevens role end on Search end ? When did he start on Days ? I read somewhere he was going to be cast in a recurring role on Facts Of Life around this 1981/82 time period, but he just did one guest shot. 

 

Stevens walked away from show business in the mid 80's. According to IMDB he resumed his on camera career in 2015 and has about 30 credits listed 2015-present.

[Bright Eyes]

Thanks to Jason47, his exact dates for DAYS are known to be 8/5/82-7/21/83.

[SoapDope]

Thanks for the info. I wonder if his SFT role lasted into early 1982 ?

[victoria foxton]

Doug Marland,Pam Long and Meredith Brown 1986 interview