Hell this book is downright perverse and perverted. More disturbing than Valley of the Dolls and Helter Skelter.

I guess I didn't understand it fully at age 12.

At some point PP should have switched to a I hour format and played once a week at 10pm. It was too hard to schedule 2 half hours, especially when ABC didn't have strong and compatible lead ins. For example Tues @10 in Fall 68 up against CBS Newshour and the second half of the NBC Movie. It might have got a second lease on life there.

THE SUN-TELEGRAM Saturday, Dec. 21, 1968 Death Nears For Peyton Place on TV

ROB THOMAS ! HOLLYWOOD (AP) - Next month "Peyton Place" cuts back to one chapter a week on television. At the end of the season, the long-run serial will; shuffle off the network, leaving a number of plots still tangled. As it must to all TV series "Peyton Place" will soon be breathing its last, consigned by anaemic ratings.

Paul Monash, the man who conceived the series and saw it through the five years and 500-plus episodes, had this feeling about the end-"It's like watching an old friend die. You know it's a terminal disease, and that makes your friendship more precious than ever. But you keep your emotional distance in order toprepare yourself for the loss." He has no regrets. After all, "Peyton Place" has had a good, long ride on ABC. The viewing public took immediately to the innovation of a continuing story on two nights a week. The success was such that the network added a third night, which seemed to some critics as being a bit greedy.

The third chapter was later dropped, and now the second, one. Monash complained about how that was done: "ABC kept us on Monday opposite 'Laugh In' and 'Lucy' instead of Wednesday, where we were doing pretty well. That seems to be a sign that the network is abandoning the show, except in skeletal form. No show can hope to do well opposite 'Laugh-in'."

Can "Peyton Place" be saved? "The only thing that can do it Is an avalanche of mail," said the executive producer. Switching the metaphor, he reported, "so far there has been a current, but not a flood." He added his own diagnosis of the show's ills: " 'Peyton Place suffered from a virus that is bound to infect this kind of show. The longer it goes on, the more complicated the plot becomes. After we had done 250 shows, the viewer who tuned in and tried to follow the plot was apt to be fairly well confused. "I have seen no survey on this, but I suspect that the bulk of our viewers have been watching the show since its beginnings. The others drifted away, and not, enough new fans have been added. "It's the fault of the form. Actually our shows this season have never been better; they're more vital, alive and contemporary But, we've succumbed to the erosion of five years of being on the air."

ABC were clearly over trying to save the show by late 1968, but it'd be interesting to know if the production pace slowed down to accommodate the once-a-week airings, or if they kept filming at the pace of two episodes a week schedule. If it's the latter, it just goes to show that they were trying to cut money spent on it and just extend the run until the fall season could kick in with new programs.

BUFFALO COURIER-EXPRESS, Sunday. July 16, 1967

Dan Duryea Joins 'Peyton Place'

Film Veteran Plays a Villain-of Course By VERNON SCOTT

HOLLYWOOD They are giving "Peyton Place" a shot in the arm this season with the addition of Dan Duryea to the cast. In recent months the twice weekly evening soap opera — at 20th Century-Fox they prefer to call it a "continuing story" — has bogged down somewhat With lackluster smalltown life. Now, enter Duryea, a scalawag who deserted his wife 18 years ago and returns to raise a little hell with the already troubled community. A movie and television heavy for 20 peat's, Duryea is an old hand at generating revulsion in audiences.

HE ENTERS the ABC-TV series as Eddie Jacks, the ne'er do well husband of Ada Jacks, the female saloon keeper of the show. "He's a flashy, charming con man, whom I've played before," Duryea said with a grin. "He's light, happy, villainous, broke and he spells trouble.Joining a series after it's been on the air three years isn't exactly the easiest assignment for an actor. But the part is really interesting, and I've already played more good scenes in four weeks than 1 have in the past four years."

SINCE his own "China Smith" series left the air years ago, Dan has been doing well as a guest star, racking up more than 100 appearances on everything from "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" to "Robert Montgomery Presents." "But a funny thing has happened to the guest star business," he said. "At first they offered good money to movie actors to lure them into TV. In the old days 'Wagon Train' would pay $7,500 a week. "NOW THE TOP salary is about $3,000 or maybe $3,500 for most shows. Television has cut its guest star budget in half. So we work twice as hard, in twice as many shows, for less money."

Rather than buck the continuing trend of sliding salaries in the guest department , Duryea Joined "Peyton Place" for top dollar. "The nicest thing about joining the show was the warm reception I got from the rest of the cast. Most of them have been working together for months and years," he said.

"I FELT LIKE the new boy on the block, but not like an outsider. They've bent over backward to make me feel at home and help get the character established. "I thought I'd research the show by reading synopses of past episodes, but all they did was confuse me by the tremendous number of characters and situations."