Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

I wish I could see this. Andrea just sort of faded away as a character didn't she?

[soapfave06]

According to Joan Copeland's IMDb page, she was on into 1972 but had become more sympathetic towards the end. I think they should have done more things with her.

[saynotoursoap]

The 1972 date is incorrect. Joan stayed with Search through March 1973.

As Andrea, she concocted a heinous plot to break up son Len's marriage to Patti by using the disturbed Emily Rogers, daughter of Dr. Bob Rogers. The plan worked beautifully. Patti decided to divorce Len and sue for custody of their son Chris. She petitioned the court to have Andrea subpoenaed for testimony at the trial, and Andrea panicked. Andrea went to their home and confronted Emily that the jig was up. Emily went crazy and decided to snatch Chris.

She and Andrea got into a violent struggle. During their tussle, a candle was knocked over setting the dining room drapes ablaze. Fire raced through the Whiting home. Chris was asleep in his nursery on the second floor of the house. Andrea bravely fought the flames and rescued him. Emily also ran upstairs, but trapped by the fire, she plunged through a second story window, dying in the fall. Patti realized what had happened, but amazingly she forgave Andrea, as Andrea nearly died too from smoke inhalation. For Bob's sake, they agreed to pretend that the fire had been completely accidental, and that Emily had been a heroine, giving up her own life to save Chris.

When Len learned the truth, he packed the family up and moved away from Henderson. A despondent Andrea, having lost her beloved son and grandson, took a fatal overdose of pills, but she was saved in the eleventh hour. She then committed one final, selfless act. When Len showed concern over her near-suicide, Andrea lied that it was an accidental overdose, rather than use it to gain her son's sympathy and continue her hold over him. She left Henderson for good shortly thereafter.

Edited November 5, 2011 by saynotoursoap

[edgeofnight]

Today, (Nov. 5) Andrea McArdle (Wendy Wilkins) turns 48. Happy Birthday! (That certainly makes me feel old...if Andrea is 48!)

[soapfave06]

Thanks for that wonderfully detailed summary saynotoursoap! It seems Andrea did stay scheming for longer than I thought. Soaps were so much more creative back then. The thouht of Andrea lying about her overdose being accidental would never happen on a soap today.

[saynotoursoap]

You are welcome, and I agree about past soaps being so much more creative.

When I typed the previous post, all of my synapses were not firing. I intended to mention that the conclusion of the Emily/Andrea plot on Search was directly responsible for the infamous fall "up the stairs" taken by Liz Stewart on As the World Turns. If you are a fan of that soap, too, originally Irna Phillips had plotted that Liz and Dan Stewart would marry, but on their honeymoon, a candle would be tipped over and set Liz's nightgown on fire. She would later die from her injuries. When CBS realized that the World Turns fire would be telecast concurrently with the fire on SFT, they made Irna change her story. Hence, Liz fell and ruptured her spleen rather than going out in blazing negligee glory.

[DRW50]

That's fascinating. I never knew that. I knew about the fire being on some P&G soap but didn't know which one.

Did you see the posts about the story with Wade's death, the death of Tony, etc.? What did you think of that story? Wade's death sounds so grisly to me.

[edgeofnight]

Thank you for bringing back such wonderful memories...Andrea Whiting and Emily Rogers. Of course, my heart will always belong to Kathryn Walker (who played Emily) for her Emmy winning portrayal of Abigail Adams in the PBS mini-series 'The Adams Chronciles.' (I'm privileged to know the son and namesake of the man who wrote The Adams Chronicles for television.)

You are so right...soaps were so much more creative back then. The headwriters of today's shows should be made to watch episodes of these classic shows of the past.

Edited November 5, 2011 by edgeofnight

[Mitch]

Wow, Phillips was going to burn somebody to death on her honeymoon??? Can you imagine the screams from fans if that happened today? They would call it too dark....though it would be funny if it was one half of some annoying super couple who marry five times over and over again. Would have loved to have seen Harley of Gus go up in flames on their honeymoon to see the Gusher go freaking nuts!!!

[DRW50]

Irna Phillips supposedly hated Jane House (Liz) for appearing as a stripper on Broadway (in Lenny) at the same time she was playing Liz on ATWT. Irna gave Liz serious pneumonia or something like that and had her in the hospital dying. Fans called in, furious, and the brass wouldn't let Irna kill Liz off. Jane House, annoyed at Irna's writing, quit, and they recast. Irna still wanted the character dead.

[soapfave06]

I always think Irna Phillips is wonderful, but some of the stuff she comes up with is just crazy. I definitely didn't know that she planned to have Liz burn to death. She definitely hated the character. I like the story they got out of Liz falling up the stairs though.

[saynotoursoap]

I am not sure that I can add anything relevant to the discussion. I believe that I commented in this thread a long time ago that I thought Search was wonderful from 1973-76, but the 1977-78 years left much to be desired. The Elmans' writing jumped the track in early 1977, and Robert J. Shaw and Henry Slesar were not able to get it back on track again.

Obviously killing off Wade was a mistake, in my opinion. John Cunningham and Millee Taggart had a fine chemistry together. They were somewhat lighthearted and fun. Perhaps they did not contribute a great deal in terms of continuing plot, but I think a happy couple and levity are important to balance a soap's tone. As much respect as I have for Doug Marland, I always felt that he and writers like Phillips and Bell were too serious. Their soaps were always filled with a surfeit of drama, much of it dark and morose, which is fine if you want that sort of thing everyday, but I do not. Viewers need a chance to catch their breath and breathe. I want a nice balance of tone, stories, and characters.

Wade and Janet did make a contibution to Search whether the producers chose to acknowledge it or not. I realise that Cunningham left of his own accord, but they could have recast with a similar actor. The plot of Janet being lured into a relationship with young schemer Chance Halliday made her seem somewhat dumb to me, and Taggart and Wayne Tippit did not have quite the same chemistry that she and Cunningham did. Losing Wade did not destroy the series, but it was one of many small errors that continued to undermine the series in the long run. It never made sense to axe Janet either, considering her familial ties to Stu and Liza.

[DRW50]

Thanks.

From what has been said in the soap books, Search was always more wedded to humor than the other soaps. It's odd because, aside from a few fun moments with Jo and Stu, I've rarely seen any of this. I know Marge and Stu were a popular, comic couple, but all I've seen of them has been drama.

I do remember from the episodes you shared with us that Stephanie had a naughty type of humor. I guess that was a reason for her popularity.

[saynotoursoap]

CarlD2, on 05 November 2011 - 10:56 AM, said:

That's fascinating. I never knew that. I knew about the fire being on some P&G soap but didn't know which one.

Did you see the posts about the story with Wade's death, the death of Tony, etc.? What did you think of that story? Wade's death sounds so grisly to me.

Carl, I realised that I did not respond adequately to your question. My diatribe concerned the loss of John Cunningham rather than storyline of Wade's death.

Regardless of Cunningham's departure, I did not like the kidnapping and murder of Wade. The story was not well-written nor was it well-produced. The casting of Conard Fowkes as villainous Allen Ramsey seemed wrong to me. The audience knew from the beginning that Allen was a bad man, and Fowkes appeared incongruous with what he was performing. Had the story played as a mystery, with the identity of Wade's kidnapper(s) unknown to the audience, it might have worked better. It would have been a trick similar to casting sweet, drippy John Wesley Shipp as demented Doug Cummings on ATWT. With Allen's story, only the miscasting surprised the audience.

I felt the story was not constructed effectively either. Again, had Allen and Fay not been revealed as lovers, and had the story played as a total mystery, it might have been more effective. Also, it moved much too quickly. Allen and Fay kidnapped Wade within a month of their first appearances onscreen, and Wade was dead a couple of weeks after that. I really dislike writers bringing in new characters and playing them up daily, only to use them as marionettes to move the plot along. It was obvious that Allen and Fay served no other purpose, so ultimately, there was no "payoff" in the plotline like there would have been had Allen and Fay's villainy arisen slowly over, say a year.

The way that it was written, it simply came out of left field. Allen was counseling core cast members one week, and the next he was plotting a kidnapping. This sort of thing might work on a soap such Edge of Night, but Search was not a crime/mystery soap. The tone became cold and brutal. Allen and Fay intended to let Wade go, and we thought that he would escape harm. It was a classic Friday cliffhanger when Allen and Fay returned to the shack where they had stashed Wade. He had been seen loosening his bindings throughout the episode. In the last two minutes of the show, he freed himself and ripped his blindfold off, just as Allen and Fay entered. He and Allen scuffled, rolling onto the ground. Suddenly, Fay pulled out a pistol. The two men were entwined, but she screamed and fired anyway. Blackout. I was certain that on Monday it would be revealed that she had accidentally shot Allen, and that would be the end of the story, six weeks, short and sweet. But, it was just the beginning. On Monday, we saw that Wade had indeed taken the bullet. Then a bum entered, and Fay shot him, too. She and Allen fled. By the end of the episode, the wounded men had been discovered, and it was announced that it was too late to save either one. Wade was dead.

The plot twist was unfair, but not unfair in the way that a sudden heart attack or accident or even random killing (like a mugging) would have been. What I mean to say is that it felt like a cheat to the audience. And, then we had to endure another eight weeks of Allen romancing the now wealthy widow Janet. He planned to dump Fay and get his hands on the Collins fortune. Fay discovered his treachery, so she went to Janet's house and slipped her a poisoned Mickey. In the eleventh hour, Janet's stomach was pumped. She was saved and Allen and Fay went to prison. Despite a surfeit of violence, there were no long term ramifications from the plot, which in my opinion, is a cardinal sin of soap opera. Even the flimsiest story should have some dramatic resonance. Concurrent with the story, Janet's daughter Liza and Liza's husband Steve were divorcing because Liza had been disfigured in a plane crash. The writers could have written something of substance by having Liza comfort her grieving mother, and then realizing how short and precious life is, Liza could have decided that divorcing Steve over something as superficial as her physical appearance was a mistake. But, no, we did not get that.

Also, if you are not going to write substance, then at least make it stylish. The show failed on that point, too. Wade was held in a cheap, tiny little set that was harshly lit and had a fake backdrop of trees outside the door. If any story deserved a location shoot, this was one. They could have had Wade in a real location and played up the suspense by having the police figure out where he was being held captive. The authorities could have been shown driving real cars, racing to save him. Maybe Wade could have escaped with Allen and Fay chasing him. They could have gotten away just in the nick of time as police arrived. But, as produced, there was no real suspense.

Frankly, I did not like Robert J. Shaw's writing for Search. It was the type of episodic material he had written back in the 60s on soaps like Love of Life. It seemed sloppy, ill-conceived, and hastily constructed. It was obviously cruelly exploitive, too, with no dramatic resonance.

I trust that answers your question!

[DRW50]

Thanks for all this detail. When I read that Fowkes was cast in the role I did wonder if he could play a dark role.

It sounds like a very grotty and downbeat story. This is the type which make viewers leave and not come back.

Shaw was the guy who went on to write the Ice Princess story at GH, wasn't he?