Return To Peyton Place Discussion Thread

[ZoeTate]

Kathy Glass was excellent as Allison. Her ability to cry was amazing. She did amazing stuff during the return home/Benny Tate storyline. She worked particularly well with John Levin the little boy who played Matthew Carson. I would say her stuff on the witness stand was on par with Judith Light's OLTL performances, it just didn't get soap creds because the Daytime Emmys were in their infancy. She also had to play zombie Allison after the fire at the cabin and she had an eerie ability to do the 'blank stare' that was not laughable.

Pamela Shoop I liked, but her Allison was more of the healthy Southern California girl than Glass. She had a sweet presence. I think she would have done ok with the heavy emotional stuff but I don't think she would have topped Glass.

Of course the Glass (and Susan Brown for that matter) deal with both of them losing some of their hair from the blond bleaching is one of the reasons Kathy freaked out and wanted out of her contract. She had a bleeding ulcer and was very Mia Farrow like in going up aganist the NBC execs who wanted her to stay as Allison. Finally as with Mia, they released her because she would have been too much trouble to keep. Her rep as an actress didn't suffer considering her stints on OLTL and The Drs.

[DRW50]

I didn't know that about the hair dye. That didn't help cause the bleeding ulcer did it? That's awful.

[DRW50]

August 1973 TV Dawn to Dusk.

[Chris B]

Julie Parrish looks so strange in those last pictures as Betty. I recall Barbara Parkins wearing outfits like that towards the end, but it's still jarring. I need to see her in action to truly judge.

[ZoeTate]

Barbara Parkins has a great Facebook page where she answers questions, is quite funny and candid about her career. I asked her about RTPP and Julie Parrish and she pretty much said she adored the way Julie played Betty, but was not fond of the Lynn Loring version, and yet she was a friend of Lynn's. I agree - Lynn was too shrill and the show wanted to make Betty the Uber Villanesss rather than the complex character Parkins created and Parrish followed suit with.

[DRW50]

That's great. I'm glad she is so nice to fans. So she watched RTPP?

You probably already saw this, but even Lynn Loring said she thought they had been stupid to fire Julie Parrish, and that they'd only hired Lynn as a stunt.

[ZoeTate]

Oh yes Lynn was dead on. See Patti Tate grown up - and now she's a bitch! It was pretty jarring.

[DRW50]

Who were your favorites on the show?

[ZoeTate]

I loved Kathy Glass as Allison, I thought as stated before, she was perfect as Allison. It was strange to hear Allison call Connie and Elliot 'Mom' and "Dad' as Mia's Allison never did that, it was always Mother and Father! I thought Ron Russell was very good - and good looking as Norman. He had that sort of sweetness Chris Connelly had. I thought the stand out male actor was Joe Gallison as Steven. His longing for Betty was heartfelt. Mary K. Wells was a great Hannah Cord, a bit different from Ruth Warrick's characterization and yet just as strong. MK Wells always looked 1000 bucks in the role, great costuming for Hannah. I felt Bettye Ackerman was sort of overwrought as Constance and was thrilled when Susan Brown took over the role. Susan had been extremely popular on Bright Promise (which of course had RTPP's timeslot before cancellation) so it was a stroke of genuis to cast her.

Ben Andrews was very good, too, as the creepy Benny. I remember Benny 'took' Matthew Carson and threateningly sent Matthew's ball cap to the Carson indicating he had him and he wanted to exchange him for Allison. Matthew had thought it was all just an adventure but the incident really flipped out Allison who felt she had to protect her family from Benny.

Margaret Mason was deliciously evil as Selena, which was a change for the character. Selena and Betty became fast friends.

There were some duds in the cast. Stacy Harris died during the show's run, but I thought he was a poor Leslie Harrington. Larry Casey was cute as Rodney but didn't seem very forceful. Yale Summers who I knew from Dakatari (which was in reruns at the time) was a bit better. I had heard Dennis Cole was considered to play Rodney ( I think he and Ron Russell would have been good as brothers, somewhat of a similarity) but Cole's agent did not want him doing a soap at that time. I think he would have made a great Rod.

[DRW50]

Thanks.

Do you think the show was getting better as time went on or did you understand why they canceled? Should they have been given more time?

[ZoeTate]

I was glad RTPP ended somewhat happily with Allison and Rod together, Betty back with Steven, etc. But I missed it - I had loved the nightime version when I was very young and getting to see those characters again, five days a week was great.

I think NBC expected more than the 7.0 rating it was getting with RTPP after Days, The Drs. and AW were delivering big numbers, especially since it aired right after AW. All that being said, I instantly became a fan of How To Survive A Marriage. I liked Jennifer Harmon, Fran Brill and it was nice to see little Suzie Davidson as Lori Kirby.

Back to RTPP, I wish they had brought Stella Chernak's character back to wreck havoc. There was an actress who reminded me of Lee Grant - Michele Carey - who could have played Stella on the daytime version and injected something into the show. I also wish they had Allison write her book and see how it would have affected her parents, Rodney, etc. because the book would have probably have to be about her father being in prison, her mother's masquerade as a married lady when she wasn't. That could have been great drama.

[DRW50]

It's too bad they weren't more patient; they should have remembered their other soaps were starting to falter at this time.

I'd love to hear your comments on How to Survive a Marriage too.

I have some stuff on both these shows but it's always tough to find but I will enjoy posting as I know you're reading.

I wonder if they should have asked Lee Grant if she could come on for a while. I guess this may have been around the time she was on Fay, or in some movies, but she might have considered a brief run.

[Sedrick]

From what I've gathered, despite some issues, the show was improving and could have succeeded, but when Lin Bolen took over as head of daytime, she wanted her pet project on the air PRONTO, so she swung the ax at RTTPP to give the timeslot to her concept drama.

[DRW50]

That's too bad. The show could have been a long-running soap if they'd waited. Considering the problems they seemed to have in developing HTSAM they could have waited a little while, maybe replaced Somerset with HTSAM.

[ZoeTate]

I thought it was cool that How had a Jewish family and I loved the Chris/Fran friendship. Tricia O'Niell was glamorous and cool as Joan, but all Joan seemed to do was wait for Peter to come home and give him a drink. The character had potential because we saw Joan's restlessness.

Rosemary Prinz was good as Julie Franklin, but I would sometimes watch with my mother and all she could lament was 'I wish she was back as Penny' - it bugged her more that Peter Brandon (who played her bro on ATWT of course) was on How as Terry Courtland.

I can't fault Lin Bolen's idea, this soap was created with the housewife/career woman in mind. I think it copped out. Chris and Larry should never have re-married. Michael Landrum was replaced - why? He was a fairly good actor and a good looking guy. He looked like a LARRY. Lynn Lowry had some of that Jaime Lyn Bauer sultriness and she provided the stark contrast to Chris Kirby.

And there was the inexplicable switch from Prinz's departure where she had star billing, to giving that to the very minor character of Monica Courtland. Starring Joan Copeland as Monica Courtland and I believe Monica was billed past Chris, Larry, Fran, Dave, Peter, Joan on the show. I guess Copeland saw her chance...

Was Lin Bolen having a thing with Paul Rauch while all this NBC drama was going on? It would have seemed typical of him.