Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[GymnastGuy]

Hey there,

I will be posting the summer of 1980 of Search for Tomorrow on my channel.

For those interested in full credit crawl at the end, you will see it very soon

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The summer 1980 shows:

Written by Linda Grover and John Porterfield, Catherine Bacos, Thom Racina.

Linda Grover previously was Headwriter on The Doctors.  Thom Racina has written on most all of the soaps!

Here is a link to my 1980 playlist. Enjoy!

 

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Edited February 6 by GymnastGuy

[AMCOLTLLover]

I love the SFT uploads.  Thank u for all your uploads. 

[DRW50]

Thanks @GymnastGuy

I think a few of the people here mentioned that Grover did a good job on The Doctors.

(was this after she was done with The Doctors - does anyone know?)

[GymnastGuy]

I enjoyed Grover's work on The Doctors.  Grover was Headwriter from 1978-1979.

[DRW50]

Thanks.

[VelekaCarruthers]

Linda Grover wrote TD from April 78 to end of February 79. In the episodes I've seen she brought more psychology and character to the show and I believe one or more of her script writers may have been (or became) therapists. I believe Elizabeth Levin and David Cherrill wrote scripts during her less than one year tenure. Levin would become HW after Linda (twice) with David writing scripts. He may have been co head for Levin's first stint.  John Porterfield spend some of 1992 on Norma Monty's disastrous GH writing staff. I don't think Grover did any more soaps after SFT.

[DRW50]

Thanks. I think I or someone else posted a Grover interview years ago from her Doctors run (I think @Paul Raven did too) - no idea if any of that is still up.

Edited February 7 by DRW50

[dc11786]

I haven't watched the 1980 episodes yet, but I remember looking into the 1980 summaries a bit after deep diving into the 1981 summaries. From what I recall, there is some interesting set up with Beau Mitchell when he first arrived. I think he had previously known the Adamsons as he had carried on an affair with Ted's ex-wife. I don't think the Prince Antonio / Renata stuff is of any interest to me. The royalty element was recycled on "Texas" in a story that could have been better than it was. I thought Cissie seducing an impotent Lee was an interesting point, but that might be much later than January. I didn't think much of Allison Snowden as a complication for Travis / Liza, but I felt like there was some interesting stuff with her father, who owned a news agency, that was quickly swept up under the rug. 

I think there was a bit of a cast turnover late in 1979. Gary, Laine, and Carolyn are all dropped or leave about the same time. Then, the Mitchells arrive and Cathy returns with Erick and Doug. If I recall, Kathy's return seemed to be setting up complications for David and whoever his current romantic partner was (was it already Renata?). I remember reading the summaries and feeling like it was a rebuilding period cut short because of the  

Everything sorta comes to a halt in March, 1980, when it becomes clear the Corringtons are leaving. It feels like the Mitchell story is centered so that it can carry things over until Grover and Porterfield arrive in mid-to-late May. The exact date is definitely in this thread. 

From summaries, I thought there were interesting elements during Grover and Porterfield. Spence Langley posing as Brian Emerson is a story I would love to see. I think Wendy posing as Dawn and Spence posing as Brian as they fell for each other was intriguing. The fire at the condo complex that killed Renata seems rather dire, but also fascinating. I think Grover continued the Cissie pregnancy story. 

I'm not sure what the intentions of Dr. Jamie Larsen were, but I don't think that Grover planned for her to be a domestic terrorist as was revealed under Lemay or maybe under Upton. 

Grover headwrote with Norma Monty in January - February, 1992. I don't think she and Porterfield worked together as I think they were divorced by that point, but I could be wrong. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

I've always believed having Jo and Stu sell the inn (was it called the Hartford House?) was a big mistake.  Owning the inn gave both Jo and Stu plenty of screen time without necessarily giving them their own storylines (which would have been difficult to do with characters of that age in the early 1980s). And owning the inn sort of kept Jo at the "center" of the show in a natural way, again without shoe-horning her into plots.  

After selling the inn, it was more difficult to use Jo in a believable way.  Since she had very little family, it seemed the writers had to manufacture ways (or reasons) to have Jo appear on the show.  And without the inn, Jo's appearances seemed a little forced or intentional, rather than her natural scenes at the inn. And I feel sure the writers found it more difficult to use Jo, without the inn as her backdrop.  Stu, although of similar age, was an easier character because he had more family to interact with.  

Plus the inn was the perfect soap opera set.  Not only was it Jo's home, it was also a hotel (where characters could mingle), a restaurant, a bar, a meeting place, an event center.  Almost any character on the show could drop by the inn, and end up in an unplanned conversation with Jo.  Something that became awkward and unlikely, after the setting was gone.  The inn was a great public space that most soap operas in 2025 would LOVE to have.  

Edited February 7 by Mona Kane Croft

[VelekaCarruthers]

So sad to see cuties Paul Joynt (Brian 1) and Tim Murphy (Spenser) in those early scenes knowing they both died of AIDS related complications.  Their shirtless night camping scene in the recently posted May episode is full of erotic subtext.  Of course, they missed an opportunity to wow the audience by having one of them have a crush on the other.  Grover's decision to have Brian go into a Young and the Restless fantasy about Stephanie when he meets her for the first time is a total gay hoot.  During the camping scene he has the cutest queer boy/mother dream/nightmare.  These few Grover shows are radically different that the January Corrington episodes.  Clearly, Grover/Porterfield were green and didn't have command of things.  Dialog was uneven at best.  No wonder they didn't last long.  Was it Bunim who hired Grover or had she left as well to take over ATWT and was it Fred Bartholemew as producer?

[Contessa Donatella]

Patrick Mulcahey once, in a Twitter DM when Twitter was still Twitter, said that Bunim at SEARCH absolutely would NOT take up for herself, no matter what was said - and apparently quite a lot was said. He did not say so but I got the impression that he & maybe some of the other writers would say things to defend her. If I understood it correctly the head honchos wanted her to "youthenize" the show. And, apparently the actors took it as if they were being banished to another time zone. Or so it was said.

[TheyStartedOnSoaps]

Paul Joynt did not die from AIDS related complications. He died from suicide after a long battle with mental illness. For many years he suffered from DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) otherwise known as a multiple personality or split personality. He battled DID even while working on Soaps. The day he took his own life, he returned home from a devestating audition that went poorly, and one of his stronger personalities took over and hung himself. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Probably you do not know this but it is customary here on SON, to post something useful in case anyone might be triggered by reading about this stuff.

Recently when I posted something extensive about Brenda Benet, this i what I posted.

If you are in any way triggered by this mention of suicide, please see the resources available to you, here below:

Or if you for any reason are experiencing doubts about life, please do consider one or more of these resources! 

And, know that you are NOT alone.

In USA:  988 Lifeline
Dial  988 on your phone.
Free, 24/7/365, confidential support.
Call or text the 988 Suicide Crisis Lifeline,
or visit their online chat:   https://chat.988lifeline.org

More information can be found here

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQ6M_RlrUI_yDiVfbtSZEXB9Dc26YqFntaN8mVOgMz9RsHfv0DVqcwqa8Rm1Z9T3GqaHjPfOX_XEjcM/pub

 

[allmc2008]

Since when has this been a thing on SON?

[Errol]

Donna,

This is a message board. Posters aren't expected to post anything like that whatsoever.  

The only time any of that is used is when I use it in articles, but that is a professional expectation as a journalist. No way are posters expected to do so.

If this a customary expectation of posters, particularly due to "trigger" issues, it's news to me.