Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[danfling]

I wonder what happened to Ellen Spencer? She was the original Janet Bergman on Search for Tomorrow.

[danfling]

I remember that, in the 1980s, I saw the film Alphabet City. The lead male star was Vincent Spano.

I attended a lot of movies in those days. For me, the main attraction of that movie was to see Ray Sera, who had been written off The Edge of Night as Eddie Lorimer.

I told my class that I had seen the picture and that Vincent Spano was in it. Several of the female students were familiar with the work or Mr. Spano on Seach for Tomorrow. Who did he play, and what was his storyline?

[Paul Raven]

Billboard review September 1951

Slow- motion emoting is the chief flaw of CBS' new video soap opera, Search for Tomorrow. A soap series, of course, is traditionally wordy, ai compared to the equally traditional "action- packed -drama" policy of Westerns. However, this package is not only wordy, it's also ponderous. The actors pause significantly after every word, in what seems to be an effort to extract every second's worth from each sentence. This technique might be rewarding with a Bernard Shaw opus, but the dialog on Search for Tomorrow is far from Shavian. In fact, some of it on the show caught would have benefitted from a real speedup performance, particularly on line pick -ups.

Although the series concerns the Barron family (father. mother, married son and 25 -year -old daughter), the episode opened with a lengthy static closeup of a conversation between a lunch counter proprietor and a young doctor, a newcomer to town in search of a pianist for his newly opened civic recreation center. The counter man suggested the Barron girl, and it was obvious to any loyal soap fan that a romance would be brewing between the medic and the fern on future shows. All in Stew Having established the doe as a suitably tweedy hero type, pipe and all, the scripter dropped him abruptly and moved on to the Barron home, where everybody was in a stew. Unlike most radio soap operas, this show doesn't carry an opening description of past events, so it was difficult to tell the heroine front the heels at first. Mother Barron (Bess Johnsen) was in a well -bred pet over the fact that daughter (Sara Anderson) had been hanging around the aforementioned lunch counter, and the program ended on a mild note of excitement, when the latter threatened to. leave home.

Acting was in the usual melo manner of daytime radio drama, although Tom Poston managed to be remarkably natural and likeable as the counter man, Mike Reilly. Philip Huston, a collar ad type, was handicapped in his medic role by the fact that the script called for him to feed his face during the whole scene. He had an air of desperate concentration, as tho he were mentally timing each bite, to he'd be able to pick up his next line. The demonstration commercials for Spie and Span cleasner and Joy, a liquid for dish washing, were both on film. The former plug featured a toothy young lady who praised her product with the same vigor that Jack Smith sings a song.

[DRW50]

Thanks.

I wish we could see that. It would be fascinating seeing Tom Poston in that type of role. And to see more of the Barrons.

[amybrickwallace]

Me, too. I've always loved Tom Poston, God rest him.

[DRW50]

Maree ad about 5 minutes into this.

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[amybrickwallace]

Thanks!! I love Maree. A while back, I had written her a fan letter and she so graciously responded. I also told her via FB that my cousin's daughters were all fans of Sam & Cat, the Nick show where she played the grandma ("Nona"). She said - and this is without me asking!! - she would love to send all three of them a cast photo of S&C and not only would she sign all three photos, she would inscribe each one to each of the girls. Needless to say, all three girls were beyond thrilled - and I sent a photo of the three of them holding up their treasures, all smiles, to Maree.

Three million cheers to people like Maree who has a multigenerational fan base!!! No wonder she is loved so much. God bless her!!!

[DRW50]

Monika, you've probably already seen them, but I finally found the disc I did 3-4 years ago of the short 1979-1980 clips someone had on their channel before it was removed. They've never gone back up so I've decided to put them up myself. Not the greatest quality, but watchable. They have an annoying logo from my free download program at the time, but it's somewhat small.

Several of them have Liza and Liza/Travis. One has Liza singing.

[amybrickwallace]

I saw them - thanks!!

[NothinButAttitude]

Carl, thanks for those SFT clips.

So odd that you posted them when I've been reading weekly synopsis of SFT on Tumblr as of late. My perception on certain characters have changed. John Wyatt for one. From what little I was able to find on Jennifer/Eunice/John at first, I felt bad for John but reading the synopsis, he was a d-ck. Even though he had no part in Jennifer's crime, a part of me wishes that we went to jail.

From the few episodes from 1980 I've seen, I liked David, but reading up on him, he seems like a prick. I guess his tryst with Cathy and eventually pairing him with Renata softened him.

Jo frustrated me a lot too. Yes, she was meant to be a salt-of-the-earth character, but did she always have to sacrifice her own happiness for others? I wish she would've been selfish at times when it came to her love life. She always seemed to roll over and take the high road. Admirable, yes. But infuriating too.

And Peter Simon must've always played drip, whiny characters because Scott seemed like a whiny character too. Just like they later made Ed.

[DRW50]

I haven't seen much of the show so I can't say, as synopses don't tell the whole story, but I get the feeling the actors likely did a lot to make the characters seem more gray.

I have to admit Val Dufour doesn't really do much for me though.

Anyway, for anyone who wants to see them (sorry Monika - I couldn't remember if you'd seen these before or not).

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Edited June 15, 2015 by DRW50

[DRW50]

Liza/Sherry sings in clip #7 - what a gorgeous voice Sherry had. What a talent.

This Travis and Liza stuff seems so cheesy, in one way, but they have such chemistry and they sell it with all their heart.

[DRW50]

I found two more from that channel.

Can anyone tell me who all the people are in this clip? I know Sunny and Janet, and one guy is named Buck.

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And can you tell me who played Scott's son Eric (?)?

[Paul Raven]

In that clip,Sunny is talking to her father Ted.Sunny's sister Laine is in the scene with Buck.The guy staring at the painting is Liza's brother Gary.

This was all the Corrington's work. They did a great job of bringing in new characters and tying them to established characters,but the new structure they put in place was quickly dismantled.

Whu Laine Adamson was dropped so quickly is a mystery,She was the mother of Stu's great grandson.

And Chris Lowe played Eric for many years.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

Thanks!

This is the last of the clips I had saved (I think - there may be one more around somewhere). I'm glad I found this one again as it's one of the only glimpses of Steve I've seen on Youtube.

My heart breaks every time I see Sherry Mathis. So gorgeous.

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