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Tin O'Connor talks about Eliot Carson and PP

When you got the regular role on Peyton Place, did you decide immediately that you would relocate to Los Angeles?

Yeah, I was making a commitment to stay out there. I was travelling so much, back and forth, that I decided just to go and do it. At that time, I had a house on an island in a lake in New Jersey.

Really?

It just came up, and my wife and I decided that it sounded like a good idea. We were apartment dwellers and always had been in New York, and this sounded great. It was about an hour out of town, and a long bus ride. I just loved it, the water, the summer and the winters. In the winters we could walk across because it would be frozen. It was our own island, a small island only large enough for one house.

Tell me about your character on Peyton Place, Elliot Carson, and your approach to the role.

Initially, as it came on, he was in prison and he was just being released, but he was not really guilty of what he was charged with. He was a true blue kind of fellow who felt that what he found in terms of Allison and Constance, the love he felt there and that they felt back, and the family feeling that he had, put him in such a positive ground, that he was a force for good. He was there for what he stood for, in the way he wrote his stories and how he ran the newspaper. That was all sort of brought out with his father. His father and he both worked at the newspaper, and had a lot of everyday conversation about what was happening in Peyton Place. So the discussions were a great deal about self-improvement. He was always kind of nagging himself that he could be better.

Elliot had a subtext of anger that was there at the root, and could begin to surface at any time. He really had no in between. His experience of the time he spent in the penitentiary, and his survival in the penitentiary, I think gave him a different sense of being. Although he deeply appreciated where he was and understood what he had, and he did not want to lose it, he wasn’t a person to be bullied. And a couple of shows did come up with that, where that was demonstrated.

You worked more with Dorothy Malone, who played your wife, than with anyone else in the case. What do you remember about her?

I liked her. She was nice, and she was a pro. She’d come from films into this, and I think there was just this little bit of adjustment for her into television. Dorothy had an Academy Award, and she was a very good actress. I seemed to work well with her. We didn’t have a great deal going between each other, but it wasn’t anything that was uncomfortable.

Did you and Dorothy Malone choose to leave the show in 1968?

No, we were written out. They dropped the characters. The problem, as I understood it, was ABC. The cost of the show, after three and a half years or more, was going up and up and up. ABC had a contract they wanted to stay with, and Twentieth [Century-Fox] was beginning to lose money on making the show, as popular as it was. They looked downstream a ways, and just slowly began to release Dorothy and myself and others on the show, and change the format of the show. And within a year it died, it was dead.

When Peyton Place went to three half-hours per week, Fox added a second unit, so that multiple episodes were shooting at the same time. Did that make it more difficult?

We went back and forth, from whatever set to the next, whenever we were needed and whenever we were called. It was really crazy, and very, very difficult to do. We had to be on top of three scripts at a time.

Did you meet with the writers at all, or have any input into how your character was scripted?

No. Maybe the other actors talked with them, but I liked what was done with [my character], and I just kept pushing it. They seemed to write to the person that I thought this guy was. And if I wanted to do something, I just simply did it, and took the dialogue that way, with me.

I remember the first scene that I had on the show. I was in prison and I was talking through the bars. I think it was to my father, [played by] Frank Ferguson. We had this very long scene, which was this character’s introduction, and there were an awful lot of nuances in it. The way it was written was one way. The way I played it [was another]. I can’t remember which director shot it, but he was rather happy with what I did that he hadn’t seen, that element in it that I was introducing. I smiled through it, teased it, and I would indicate just via looks that the character was so strained and had so much internal controversy.

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Thanks for that interview. It's a bit worrying when it comes to those later episodes. Although a good number of cast members remained, I wonder how much they'll have to do, particularly Norman and Rita. So many new characters, two families, are brought on. Characters like Connie, Elliot and Martin Peyton were so important and they should've found another way to save the budget. Connie and Elliot are just delightful once Alison is written off. They've finally been brought back to the frontburner and are interesting and relevant. And Dorthy Malone is looking great. I dread their final day and also the final day of Leigh Taylor Young. She's a terrible actress today, but was AMAZING before the botox.

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Just crossed the 70 episode point. It's too bad SHOUT couldn't have ended at ep 68 instead of 65 and it's a natural pause in the story--like we had 35 or so eps earlier when Fall became Summer and we jumped forward a few weeks--now it's Spring from Winter (which is good, with the amazing weather we're having here, I was starting to feel strange watching a show with so much snow and Winter :P ).

Anyway we've jumped up to a certain wedding which seeme dinevitable but I liked how the proposal, etc, happened "during the jump". Also, already we're introduced to the wealthy Shuster (sp?) family who has taken over the Mill--Doris Schuster is played by the gorgeous Gail Kobe in full snob mode--it's so great to see her in front of the camera since most of what I know about her is as a soap producer (I believe she started at Return to PP interestingly). And we have a new young minister, who I assume will become more a part of the story than just marrying people...

As Chris mentioned before, even though these characters were introduced suddenly, it was done as usual for PP so well that it feels like they always existed, either in peyton Place or just outside in Chicago or wherever. Excited to see new faces, and where the show seems to be going.

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I continue to be blown away by this show. Anyone who likes character based, compelling, classic soap and hasn't checked it out by now, is missing out (of course they're prob not reading this thread...)

I mentioned the change in seasons with the show... Well I admit when I started the new eps, I sorta thought maybe some of the momentum was gone. Paul, a character I loved, was gone, the huge murder mystery which fueled in many ways all the earlier episodes had been concluded (very well I must say--and we didn't even get a cliched court case like I expected), etc... But last night I ended up watching ten (!) episodes back to back until I saw the sun starting to rise and realized I needed to go to bed to get at least a couple of hours before work. If anything I find the show more fascinating and compelling than ever--not one of the stories (even the deaf girl) bores me, evry single scene has a new character or story revelation. I love Claire Morton (a smart, dignified and extremely talented female doctor in 1965 on tv? wow), I love the Shusters, especially the fascinating Doris (I'm certain her daughter saw her do something bad...), love the Reverend and his childhood ties to the community, love Allison not being as happy with her reunited parents as she expected to, love Norman finally acting out, oh and LOVE the handsome, mysterious, slightly sinister Stephen Cord who just showed up (which means Ruth Warrick's Hannah Cord can't be far behind!) and how he and the still unseen Martin Peyton seem to be puppetmastering the entire village...

TERRIFIC stuff. On ep 81, and prob will watch another half dozen tonight... lol

Edited by EricMontreal22
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I know how that is. Now that it seems SHOUT won't be able to lease more episodes anytime soon, I hate to say it but I was glad that good quality DVDR bootlegs are easy to find at a cheap price--I just couldn't stop at episode 65.

But I keep telling myself I'll take a break and get into the other things I have on DVD (including tons of Dark Shadows, etc, etc) but... it's just so hard to stop when it's still so good...

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Yeah it's hard packing all these soaps in. I feel like i should buy them in case I can't find them, but I never have time to watch. Right now I'm mainly doing Port Charles and Peyton Place. Then I rotate in short-lived soaps and re-watching Melrose Place and Dallas, but VERY slowly. Of course I have my current soaps which I mostly FF or simply delete in the middle if it's not interesting. It's amazing how I make time, but if something is good then I can find the time.

Eric, I can relate to those 10 episode Peyton Place marathons! Now I'm more restrained and try not to do more than two a day, but it's hard.

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I've been remarkably good at avoiding spoilers, but... I remember you said you were into the 200s and it was still high quality soap--which is great, though I admit a small voice in my head keeps hoping it'll stop being so great so I'd stop watching, at least for a bit :P

What kinda bugs me, when I try to find reviews of the show from the 60s was, despite producer Monash working so hard to avoid the "soap" tag (it's a "TV novel", etc, etc :rolleyes: ) the critics treated it like a soap from the start--which, espcially means in the 60s, they didn't give it any respect. When really, the level of writing AND acting is miles ahead of so much 60s TV I've seen--and the subtle and honest way they deal with subjects. I especially love (and wish modern soaps would get back to this) the way no one is painted as TRULY bad. Even the villains get sympathy and you always know WHY they did what they did. It's very very real that way, and refreshing even 45 years later.

I have PP, and then Dark Shadows and some Knots I wanna get to, as well as rewatching Twin Peaks--and I watch AMC and OLTL daily :P And a couple of primetime shows (will be fine till my beloved True Blood comes back :P)

Edited by EricMontreal22
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Since moving into my own apartments I never bothered with cable because I can easily download my shows and have my collection of bootleg soaps. Now in my third apartment I finally got cable and I find that I barely use it. I record my current soaps, but watch very few primetime shows. My TV is mostly off.

As for the quality, it definitely holds up. Some fans had told me it went downhill when it went to color, but it's just as good if not better. Heavy focus on Connie and Elliot, not just being Alison's parents (which Dorthy Malone complained about). Martin Peyton is a force and the entire Harrington household is just fierce. Hannah Cord is a goddess and Steven is just the jolt that Betty and Rodney needed. Rita and Norman are getting big story in the color episodes as well, which totally shocked me. Hell, even Rita's mom Ada is being weaved into the latest umbrella story which I wasn't expecting.

The best example of this is George Anderson. I LOVED that character and felt for him. Julie was also very tragic as a result of his problems. The whole Anderson family was so tragic because by todays standard they didn't do anything wrong. Maybe they weren't rich and Betty (gasp!) had sex before marriage, but was she really a bad girl? No. They were good people destroyed by society. I also hate how Betty got that tag yet Rodney remained the golden boy.

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I admit, a part of me wishes Betty woulda become the primo bitch a modern primetime soap woulda made her. Yet... being true to the character and how Parkins plays her, this is much more satisfying (and I LOVE hating head nurse Chaoutte--however you spell her name). I also love the dynamic between Ada and Rita--love both characters and am glad they're used more.

I've only heard that the last year, when Connie (and her fake eyelashes) and others left, suffered... Yes George (who I guess I've seen the last of) is THE classic example of this. I think Spelling woulda made him such a horrific abusive/molestor of a character, but Monash and crew really make you feel for him and understand how his family feels--the mix of emotions.

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I flipped through one of the final episodes and you could definitely tell things had changed. Everyone had full on hippie outfits and were talking in horribly dated slang (probably dated even then!) and the look of the show wasn't as lush and glamourous. I finally got to see the black family which was an interesting surprise. The actors are so good that I can't see it being a total disaster. I'm sure the writers didn't fully follow through (probably due to the network),b tu what little I saw of the story seemed interesting. I wonder who they'll be friends with or will they be completely segregated. I know the teen was partners in a science project with a white girl and it caused a huge uproar, lol. I can't even imagine.

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There's a clip online of a psychedelic "cream" type real band playing two songs at the teen hangout (blanking on name) in the final year--and the camera angles are crazy for the show. But it's... interesting :)

Besides PP had some hard shoes to sell--they came at a time just when America was really getting into the sexual revolution--what is genuinely shocking in 1965, by 1968 is already tame. They prob needed a whole new soap (or a cheezy Summer spin off?) to address the changes, but tv wasn't ready for that.

Edited by EricMontreal22
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