Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[TEdgeofNight]

So was Mary-Ellis Bunim the youngest EP in soap history? She was in her late 20’s/early 30’s at SFT. Impressive. In the summer of 1979, SFT was killing it in the ratings. 

[Contessa Donatella]

The Syracuse NY University Library houses the Ralph Ellis papers. 

Ralph Ellis Search for Tomorrow Collection

An inventory of the collection at Syracuse University

Overview of the Collection

Creator:Ellis, Ralph (soap opera writer)

Title:Ralph Ellis Search for Tomorrow Collection

Inclusive Dates:1971-1974

Quantity:7 linear ft.

Abstract:Scripts, breakdowns, story projections for the daytime television drama Search for Tomorrow.

Also, the contents of the boxes is listed, by date & most of it is scripts. Only one box is breakdowns. Too much to copy in here. But it can all be seen here 

https://library.syracuse.edu/digital/guides/e/ellis_search_for_tom.htm 

They have a policy of doing an hour of research for free. Other methods for remote researchers are outlined.

Plus anyone local has full, free access, only making an appt. is required.

This may also be of interest. This is from their order form for copies of items in the collection. Choices include: paper, pfs, jpg. 25¢ (This is not for print quality. For print tiff or jpeg & cost is higher.) Most of rest is std.

Not Syracuse, in Schemering a high rating is listed for SFT In 1952-53, 16.1 Nielsen rating. Of course, the number of households would have been substantially lower.

Edited Tuesday at 02:36 PM by Contessa Donatella

[DRW50]

I was wondering if anyone has a strong guess about the dates for these summer 1966 episodes? In the first episode, Andrea says Len and Patti will be married on July 8th. An episode or two after that has a character saying that the wedding is "five weeks" away. 

[DRW50]

Finally finished the first of the summer 1966 videos and watched a little of the second. 

- What exactly is the backstory with the Reynolds family? I got something where Sam had to lie and take the blame for something he didn't do. And Len having a brother. Did the brother die? Was there a fire?

- It's funny how these soap blocs of episodes work. I've read so much about Andrea, and about all the Patty Parade, and when a ton of episodes appear, it's with an Andrea I had never even heard of (Virginia Gilmore) and a Patty I mostly knew from a photo in an old soap magazine (Melissa Murphy). I am pretty sure the photo came from one of these episodes as the pose is exact (it's one of her staring into the distance in her nurses' uniform). 

- Looking through some posts from about 15 years ago I see why a few bits of this are vaguely familiar - saynotoursoap had posted an episode that must be from this same set (the one where Jo vents to Bob about the burden Sam was putting on Patti and talking about how Sam was replacing her relationship with Arthur).

- The Patti/Andrea/Jo/Sam/Len story seems one-note on the surface but is surprisingly rich underneath - Jo and Sam on opposite sides, but also on the same side, but Jo struggling to get past her anger toward him over Arthur's death. This all slowly boils under the constant melodrama with Patti, Len and Andrea. I don't really know why Patty even wants Len, given how childish he is (Dino is a good actor though), but I do enjoy seeing her fight what is a constant losing battle against Andrea. 

- What makes this so delicious to watch is the writing having respect for the characters and for us. Most soaps would write Patty as a fool, with Andrea running rings around her, but Patty clearly knows just how manipulative Andrea is, and even manages to convince those around her who would have given Andrea the benefit of the doubt. This awareness means that you don't just see Patty as a cipher.

- Thanks to @Paul Raven we know why Gilmore left (for a teaching position). I am glad to know it was her choice to leave because she's great in these episodes. She's very believable at 'nice nasty,' so you understand why Len is fooled by her. She underplays the poison even when alone. I know nothing of Gilmore or her career, but I'm extremely impressed with her work in this first batch of episodes.

- I appreciate how the writing, and most of all the measured work of Mary Stuart, brings out the psychological aspects of the Sam/Len/Andrea mess and the Len/Andrea relationship, without feeling like the characters are reading from a textbook.

- This is by far the most I've seen of Stu and Marge together. I'm glad that even with the 15-minute runtime there's enough to allow for glimpses of their married life, natural even as they recap plot. I can see why viewers loved them. I've rarely seen such a simple but effective quasi-comedic duo on a soap, especially in these years. There's a lot of talk these days about "positive masculinity," which unfortunately seems to mean shooting up steroids while listening to Rogan, but we get the real version with Stu. He watches sports (we even see him watching TV - I wonder if we ever see Jo watching TV) and doesn't know what a "boutique" is, but he loves his friends dearly and wears his heart on his sleeve. I'm reminded again and again of just what an understated but brilliant actor Larry Haines is in dramatic moments - just watch his work when he tells Jo that Arthur's land struck saltwater, not oil. Yet Melba Rae matches him beat for beat. 

- "Junior" is their baby, right? Is this after Janet was off the canvas for a while and their son was made into their nephew? Is the son/nephew already gone?

- I notice that Patty and Emily are both full of what used to be called having "pep in your step," or what Marvel used to call "snappy patter." I'm reminded of how Leslie Jackson was the same way on GL in the episodes from around this same time. I think @vetsoapfan or others have mentioned that Alice on AW was portrayed in a similar way early on. I wonder if the P&G soaps were trying to react to the 'youth craze.'

- Something else that stands out and which I think is very smart is having the younger set all bursting with life, anxieties, resentments, hopes, dreams, while the older characters are restrained, scarred by the years, but still alive. This is an inverse of soaps in modern decades, where the younger characters often feel much less vibrant than the older characters. 

- A few days ago, I was reading an old Youtube comment thanking Mary Stuart for how much her work had meant to this viewer, how she had always felt like someone they knew. That's very much on display here. She makes you feel every bit of Jo's inner turmoil, playing the pain so subtly, honestly. This is some juicy melodrama, but Stuart never plays it as such.

- Melissa Murphy does a very good job playing all the different sides of Patty, but...silly as it is for me to say she's "wrong" as Patty given how little I've seen of the character, I just don't think she suits as Jo's daughter. She's missing the haunted quality I think makes sense for Patty, and I don't sense a big connection between Murphy and Stuart. 

- I've said for years that I believe soaps should try a 15-minute format again, and these episodes I would use as a chief example of why. They are able to keep a small canvas and focus almost exclusively on one story, a story that would be exhausting if the show ran for 30 minutes (don't even want to think about an hour). 

- Of the few stories on display that aren't the big one...

- I am very glad to get to see these glimpses of the Allens. As mentioned, I do wonder what plans the show even would have had for them. Were they planning early for a half-hour extension? They seem a bit younger than Jo, Stuart or Marge. I'm not sure if that was intended. I can't see any big couple swap going on here. Maybe Bill would have caused Stuart business trouble? I wish they could have stayed around. I like the idea of the two of them living in Henderson, offcamera, years earlier, having stories with "our" characters that we never saw. (I also feel stupid for thinking their son, played by Bobby Breen, was the child star, as I didn't realize he would have been about 40 at this time)

- Does anyone know if the story with Emily dating (?) her college professor was ever an actual story or just something that happened offcamera?

- You can see what a disaster is on the way with Emily's love for Nick (and Nick leading her on). On paper, it's a story I'd have a difficult time watching, but there's something I can't look away from in how earnestly Pamela Murphy plays Emily's devotion. She also has a regality about her. I see that she was on Dallas as a character named Marie. Did she and Ken Kercheval interact? Do we know why Nick was recast? Did the original actor want to leave? I wonder just where Ken's mind may have been in these early episodes. Only about two or three episodes into his run as Nick he is having surprisingly intense tonsil hockey with Murphy (you can decide for yourself at 8 and 33 minutes).

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Anyway, I've been enthralled by these episodes, helped by their being in easily digestible form. I haven't ever read much about this time, other than the Andrea climax a few years later. Sometimes I get the feeling this period would be seen later on as old hat and the early '70s would bring the refresh, but this all seems very strong to me, much more than I had expected.

Edited yesterday at 10:32 AM by DRW50

[Paul Raven]

@DRW50 Such interesting comments. Thanks for taking the time.

Junior is Stu Bergman who got renamed Tom when the charater was aged up.

Janet left in 65 I think after helping Marge with the pregnancy.

Jimmy the son/nephew left in 62 never to be mentioned again.

I vaguely recall that Burr De Benning got a Broadway show. He might only have been recurring.

[SoapDope]

Melissa Murphy has two entries on IMDb as Melissa Murphy (her first husbands last name who she was married 1959-1973) and Melissa Converse (reverting to her maiden name after her divorce). She is the stepdaughter of actor Don Porter (Gidget) which she appeared in an episode. She was acting up till 2011. I remember her on guest appearances on Charlie's Angels and Eight Is Enough. She remarried in 1981 to a John C. Ewing.

[vetsoapfan]

Yes, it was common in the 1960s for young women and girls to be portrayed in a limited, two-dimensional way in films and TV. They were not always portrayed as individualistic, nuanced characters, but rather as overexcitable, giddy, and somewhat flaky. It wasn't realistic, but I imagine the audience was used to it. Think of the Beach Blanket movies, Gidget, or sitcom teens like Lucy's daughter Chris from The Lucy Show.

Jacquie Courtney started out in this style,  but somewhere early on she began to tone down the elastic facial expressions and became more thoughtful and realistic in her portrayal. This, to me, allowed her natural sweetness and vulnerability to shine through. "Less is more," as they say, and less mugging allows for more depth and truth in performances.

JC's revised handling of Alice helped her grow into a daytime legend.

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BTW, to illustrate what I mean about the portrayal of teens from the 1960s in the media, this clip shows what I am trying to say. The kids involved are fun to watch in this one-off film, but such larger-than-life behavior would grate on my nerves on a daily soap where everything and everyone else is more subdued. If Penny Hughes had been like this, she never would have become...PENNY HUGHES.

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@DRW50, your extensive commentary here was great. It's always a pleasure to read your posts.

Edited 20 hours ago by vetsoapfan

[vetsoapfan]

Jimmy was introduced and referred to on-camera as the Bergmans' son. 

He drifted out of sight for a while, and when he came back, he was suddenly their nephew. 

Then he just disappeared for good. As you say, never to be seen or mentioned again.

WTF?

Such incompetence on the part of TPTB.

The show also dropped all references to Stu and Jo being step-siblings (their widowed parents married each other later in life). I thought this was a mistake, too, since the good friends then became even more closely connected. But at least TIIC didn't suddenly announce one day that Stu was, in fact, Jo's nephew!

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[chrisml]

From the Sept 22, 1951 issue of Billboard. It's a review of Search for Tomorrow: 

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[Paul Raven]

Jo's sister in law Louise lasted a few years and then vanished. She might have been a useful character to be used later on. Surely Louise would want some contact with her niece Patti.

What happened to Irene Barron? Did she die or just disappear? I know that every character can't remain on canvas, but a reference to Irene from time to time or news of her death would keep the connection with viewers.

[DRW50]

@Paul Raven Thanks for all your answers and kind words. Makes sense as to why Burr would leave in that case. I sure miss the New York soaps and what they were able to do for theater actors. 

I always get confused over the other Bergman child. Makes no sense to just forget/rewrite/forget, although I know that was much more common in these years.

Speaking of that, when Jo was saying all she had was Patty (very poignant), I thought this would be the perfect time for her to mention losing Duncan Eric, as he was Arthur's son. I guess he was out of sight, out of mind. 

Something else I appreciated in these episodes and don't see often on soaps past the '70s or so is the characters having little moments like crossword puzzles or card games to help ease us into their conversations. They wanted us to think of these characters as being real.

@SoapDope I didn't know that. Wish IMDB could combine them.

@vetsoapfan That clip is perfect for what we were talking about. I can even see Emily in there...

Thanks for your kind words. I don't have the best turn of phrase but when I actually do enjoy soap content as much as I enjoyed these episodes, I need to get the words out while I can. If you were watching the episodes at the time they aired I hope they bring back good memories for you. 

I totally forgot Jo and Stu were step-siblings at one point.

@chrisml That's such a great find. I didn't even know of this other sister. Those blurbs are the closest we'll get to seeing many of these episodes, unless we develop time travel.

[Contessa Donatella]

Perhaps we could apply for access to the Pine Valley transporter. But, where is Henderson? Will travel to Pine Valley be a problem?

[chrisml]

This is from the June 14, 1986 edition of Billboard Magazine. It's about the new theme song for SFT. Thought might be of some interest.

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I have been going through the Billboard archives looking for info on SFT. I found a minor article about some BTS changes on the soaps. The interesting tidbit is the merry-go-round of staff and the fact that legendary actress Frances Reid was fired from a soap called Portia Faces Life. It did not last much longer after her firing.

[DRW50]

Thanks @chrisml . I had never known anything about that final theme or who wrote it, or maybe I had just forgotten because it was never very memorable to me. I'd say scoring a theme to a soap about to be canceled is another sign of his industry fortunes, but he did win an Emmy and we're talking about him 40 years later, so who am I to criticize? 

I have to say I prefer the instrumental. Here is the video for the album version, which features four of the stars of Search's final year. If you ever fantasized about Matt Ashford starring in Grease, this is your moment.

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I wish more of those early short-lived soaps were available, although the scraps we've seen haven't exactly been enthralling. 

I'm not sure they ever said the state. I used to think it was New York but I am not sure why.

[chrisml]

It does have a very distinct 80's vibe to it, but it was nice seeing the actors do their thing. I'm not sure what the thing was, but it was nice. 

Found a Letter to the Editor in the April 26, 1954 edition of Life Magazine:

 

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