Peyton Place

[DRW50]

They've only released the first season of Peyton Place on DVD, right? I tried to get it on Netflix and there was a long wait, then suddenly they became unavailable.

[saynotoursoap]

Peyton Place did not have "seasons". Like daytime soaps, it was telecast all year with no reruns, ever. Technically, the freshman year ran through the first week of September 1965. Shout has released two DVDs so far. The second ends in April 1965. The series' first year should be complete with 2 additional DVDs -if they are ever released. Shout is negotiating the rights, but the studio feels sales were not good enough with the initial release (though Shout was happy with the response).

[All My Shadows]

Wow. The thought of all of this stuff...sitting around, collecting dust...it sucks that 20th Century Fox would probably object to your posting of those episodes. They obviously have no plans for them.

PS: Pleasantly surprised to find your new Storm and Search episodes. As soon as the Super Bowl goes off, I'm watching 'em!

[Chris B]

On one hand, it was smart of Shout! to start buying series only partially in case it's a flop, but in the case of Peyton Place it kinda backfired on them because Fox isn't happy with the sales. I think a place like Shout! is the way to go for soaps, but nobody really cares enough about soaps to pursue it. The Manufacture On Demand idea is good too.

I was looking at the UCLA archive and they seemed to have years of GH and that was the 60s. I think there are more episodes of all the soaps but since no one cares, how would we know? I'd always hoped Love Is A Many SPlendored Thing, Where the Heart Is and Return to Peyton Place were around in some form. Those are three classic soaps (besides Y&R) that I dream of seeing. The 70s in particular is the most fasinating period for soaps, IMO. I was sort of proved right after watching Ryan's Hope.

I figured this would happen. I didn't know dead characters returned, but I figured people like Martin Peyton, Connie & Elliot and Hannah Cord would be brought back with no explanation. And I think they ignored Mike Rossi's new wife and family and pretty much anything going on at the end of the series. The only way they somewhat acknowledged the continuation aspect is by having Alison return to town.

I totally agree. Knots and Peyton Place were such a step above the other primetime soaps. Both took their time and focused on the characters. I love that something like Val's babies really was a major focus for almost three seasons. Networks wouldn't have that patience today. The entire story would happen in half a season. I never expected RTPP to be as strong as the primetime series which was a hard act to follow.

Just from pictures I could tell they had problems casting Alison. The girl from the 85 movie was pretty spot on though. Dead ringer and even had the same hairstyle. Shocked that she could actually act as well. Now with Connie I do wish the original show did something more with her. I hate how due to ethics standards they instantly dropped the romance with Rossi due to Elliot's arrival. Why not at least play a love triangle? She had good chemistry with Rossi.

Interesting what you say about Betty. I knew that would be a hard act to follow. Alison and Betty are such multi-faceted characters and actually very unique as well. Norman and Hannah should be difficult to recast too.

[EricMontreal22]

What's so frustrating---and I know Shout shares our frustration, is what the freak else is Fox doing with these episodes? It's not a situation where they have lucrative sales elsewhere... They aired them on the Romance network but have they even repeated them elsewhere?

Saynotoyoursoap--without seeming desperate, what can I do to convince you to encode an episode of Return as your next youtube upload?

[EricMontreal22]

Connie's romance with Rossi was dropped, due to ethic standards? Umm--which exactly? They disapproved of middle aged love triangles? I did feel that story was dropped ridiculously fast, and Rossi suddenly having unsympathetic speeches to Connie didn't help.

[Chris B]

I wonder this about these soaps too. Why not just Manufacture On Demand? They do it for lots of little primetime shows, why not at least try the existing daytime soaps? You can't lose money if you make it after someone purchases it! Or put the episodes online either for free with ads or via a price. Some money is better than nothing. It's really silly. Like when SOAPnet wanted Santa Barbara, but couldn't negotiate a good price because of the music. How much money did they end up with now? Not a damn dime.

Not sure if they'd view it the same way, but they got after him for uploading an episode of the original series, so they'd probably complain. I've been a PP fan since before I was a soap fan. I thought I'd never see the original series and now I have the entire series. I'm hopeful that one day I'll eventually see at least one episode of RTPP. The tide will turn for soaps someday.

Connie had a child out of wedlock. They had two choices: punish Connie and turn her into a vixen or quickly marry her off to Alison's father so their heroine isn't illegitimate. You know how it worked back then Eric!

Edited February 8, 2010 by Chris B

[saynotoursoap]

Chris, in addition to local syndication airings, Peyton Place aired on the USA Network weekday mornings in 1983-84. I still have videotapes of those episodes. However, for the most part, it has gone unaired for years and years, which is sad because it is such a well-written series. Everything about the series exudes class, and it remains so until late 1968.

BTW, Chris. I have uploaded an episode of Love is a Many Splendored Thing on my Youtube channel. Did you not see it?

Eric, I WOULD upload Return to Peyton Place, as well as the syndicated version of Valley of the Dolls from 1994. Unfortunately, copyright issues prevent me from doing so at this time. As I wrote before, I intentionally did not advertise the RTPP promo. I hoped it would slip by unnoticed. Perhaps this will change. I simply do not want to deal with legal hassles and risk my account being canceled. If I am forced out by Youtube, I will not create another account. I do not have the time, so I am cautious about what I do place online. Also, I am not supposed to have those RTPP episodes. I obtained them through rather dubious means, and I would like to protect my source, as future rarities are forthcoming.

I do want to let everyone know I appreciate the support and interest I get. I am so pleased to share these things with all of you who truly appreciate vintage serials. I love reading your posts. You all are the best.

Edited February 8, 2010 by saynotoursoap

[Chris B]

I'll have to check your YouTube page. I do recall seeing two episodes of the show. One with Donna Mills and a kidnapped baby and one where Leslie Charleston is in a car accident. I also recall seeing Beverlee McKinsey and John Karlen, not sure if it were a third episode or in one of the previous two I saw. Another short lived show that seems good is The Young Marrieds. I have maybe two episodes of it and it seemed ahead of it's time. I really need to watch your Secret Storm episode. I've only seen that show from the 50s and it seems so interesting. Marla Adams character sounds legendary. I have to ask a quick question about the Valley of the Dolls remake. Was it more like a daytime soap or primetime one? And was there really nudity? Was it any good? I'm surprised the original series didn't do more for Barbara Parkins career. She is truly a goddess.

I'm so glad you've been posting on this board. It's nice to have another lover of classic soaps here. Since WoST died it's been hard to talk with people about classic soaps. I wish there were still a portal to just focus on classic soaps.

[EricMontreal22]

Exactly. It's like that with all soaps on DVDs--even releasing a best of set would surely make them some profit?

Re PP--well I don't think Shout! could afford to license 500 or whatever episodes without knowing it would sell--btu it has put them in a bind. It just seems mean spirited of Fox not to release it (I was hoping Shout or someone would pick up Knots Landing if indeed they aren't releasing anymore--the way they're now doing Facts of Life since the major label dropped it--but I guess that won't happen).

I'm shocked they haven't come down on the sellers of those complete DVD sets then (and thank god the quality is decent--I've heard horrible things about the semi fraud company--who goes by diff websites most of them with TVDVD in the title--who advertise cheap complete sets of Knots, Dynasty, etc) So Fox owns Return to PP as well?

Some of the Return plots do sound hackneyed even by soap standards, but I still wanna see it. I know the producer said that they always felt like the "dirty little show" next to One Life to live (funny as only a few years later One Life ws seen as very non traditional) which was a family soap and that they should have been allowed to retool as more of a family centric show. Which is odd cuz PP, for all its shocking qualities at the time--and I know it was shocking (called by Carson a "Television orgy" etc)--really feels pretty "family" based at heart.

Honestly, I think I'm so used to modern soap conventions (and modern attitudes, though I thought I was pretty good at relating to the dated society stigmas) that that didn't even cross my mind!

At episode 59! (thanks for posting the airdates )

[SFK]

Perhaps they should team up with Amazon Video On-Demand. Are you all familiar with Roku? We own one and have bought quite a few seasons of TV series (as well as movies) through Amazon and watch them digitally on the Roku (and if you have Netflix, you can stream many of the movies in your queue on there as well). It's perfect for a minimalist like me who doesn't like the clutter of a million dvd cases as it's all stored digitially on the Roku and can be burned to dvd if we so choose. But this could at least eschew the cost of packaging all of those PP dvds. As it stands, a season costs the same as it would on hard copy dvd but you also have the choice of downloading individual episodes for a dollar and change. Maybe PP could offer at least two or three episodes for the price of one, but I'm sure most folks who are interested in PP would buy whatever "seasons" were offered in their entirety anyway.

[EricMontreal22]

I had to wiki Ruku, but that makes a lot of sense for me--for any of these shows that have even 200+ episodes, let alone 10,000. (Isn't it funny how DVDs now seem like clutter when before they were a miracle compared to VHS--I always wonder about a Dark Shadows fan who has all the commercially released video tapes and how those must stack up to the DVDs...)

[EricMontreal22]

Reading articles about the 80s primetime soap boom (post Dallas), it's interesting many say the reason that after PP finished it took so long to do another full on nightime serial wasn't so much that PP fell so far in the ratings, or the flop of those other serials like The Searchers or Executive Suite, but that PP had been such a dismal failure when it came to attempts to sell it into syndication. This is why, David Jacobs says, he was told with Dallas and Knots to have at least one self contained storyline in every single episode--into their third or so seasons.

[EricMontreal22]

The New York Times is littered with articles and reviews of Peyton Place, from the 60s on. Sadly, I no longer have a subscription to them and for non subscribers most of the older articles, including 80% of these, will only let you see the first paragraph. Does anyone here have a full subscription?

Oh and one paragraph I can see confirms what was said on here about Girl from Peyton Place being planned in 1965:

A.B.C. Plans New Show on 'Peyton Place' Theme; Actress Will Be Shifted From Original Series in Fall Schedule

By VAL ADAMS

February 5, 1965, Friday

Section: business financial, Page 63, 650 words

" The Girl From Peyton Place," a spin-off from "Peyton Place," and "Gidget," a comedy series, will be among the new television shows next season on the American Broadcasting Company network.

A few ones that you can read all the way through:

A great recent piece about the show when the DVD sets came out last Summer, with quotes from Parkins, etc is HERE

A negative review of the 1985 Next Generation tv movie is HERE

I'd love to be able to read all of this 1965 Suds for All Seasons article: "IRRESPECTIVE of any possible influence on the gross national product the nighttime television serial has made its mark -- and the mark could grow larger. Last week the Columbia Broadcasting System decided to present a twice-a- week evening serial that will be a spin-off from its daytime soap opera, "As the World Turns.""

Or an article about integrating the town "Will the Blacks say too little too late?"

Or a review the week it premiered: "ALLISON, Constance, Betty, Mike Rossi, Rodney, Catherine and Leslie, seven frustrations with but a single thought, ushered in a new television era last night, soap opera in the evening."

[EricMontreal22]

No spoilers... yet.

After taking a 2 and a bit week break from Peyton Place (I was starting to hum the theme song in the shower, and have dreams with that dramatic cliffhanger music), I got into it massively this weekand went through the last 15 eps in the Shout! second DVD box set in three days. WOW. The way nearly every fragment of all the storylines has come together in surprisingly but perfect ways, hitting theclimax of so many long held secrets has been phenomenal. Seriously some of the best soap I've ever seen--and also surprisingly moving. Terrific, terrific stuff. (So I'm now at Ep 65, but my bootleg copies of the full series just arrived--I couldn't wait after hearing Shout is having trouble getting anymore--and I'm debating diving right back in or taking another small break... The only problem with the show, if this is a problem, is they're so good at laying out their stories, in true classic soap fashion, that just when you think you've reached the end of a chapter, there's already another story or mystery nearly in full gear! With some 450 episodes left, that could take up a lot more of my time than I should allow it It's hard for me to just watch one episode a night...)

One thought I had though... It's funny, so many of the daily writers of Peyton Place went on to write daytime soaps, but usually with very little success (many of them are known to be some of the worse headwriters). Robert J Shaw, Peggy Sloane, Theo and Mathilde Fero, etc... Nina Laemmle is listed as story editor on all of these first 65 episodes, and I believe she wrote a notoriously lame period on LOfL or SFT or Doctors or something... Yet the writing on PP is SO great, sophisticated and moving in terms of dialogue (loved the use of Melville's Billy Budd in a recent episode), but also expert in the way it's plotted and in the way new characters are seamlessly woven in (I just was introduced to Rita Jacks, and to realize she's the daughter of the Tavern owner was a mini revelation)--maybe they just couldn't cut it headwriting solo for a daily soap...