Lovers and Friends/For Richer For Poorer Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

Thank goodness they all went on to bigger and better things - with Richard Backus later becoming a soap writer after his acting days were over.

[soapfan770]

Happy 45th anniversary to this long lost soap. It’s too bad the show outright flopped and not much is available at all of it. Who knows what NBC Daytime would have looked like if Lemay’s show had actually succeeded with both casting and in better writing.

[Joseph]

since i revisited Christine Jones can someone tell where i could find any scenes of her as AMY? i'm really curious

[Joseph]

actually Any footage at all besides this???

 

I read the entire thread and saw you shared a few links, none accesible now, did anyone get to keep anything???

Edited April 25, 2022 by Joseph

[Joseph]

I Would Appreciate Very Very Much an answer PLEASE!

[dc11786]

Online, I’ve only seen the clip you have posted. The Paley Center in New York has the premier episode of “For Richer, For Poorer.” Amy and Austin are seen towards the end welcoming Rachel Cory for a visit.

[Joseph]

oh gosh i wish i could see it, maybe if i visit the States someday

[Joseph]

I found this promo for the show's relaunch in the middle of those other commercials

[j swift]

It's one of the soapist troupes to have characters casually talk to the 8X10 headshot of their loved ones.  How'd they get the photo? When it was posed for? Who knows?  But, they've always got one lying around the house.

[DRW50]

Thanks @Joseph

@j swift Yes that trope always gets on my last nerve. 

[dc11786]

If it was any other character, you can at least think that Bill, the professional photographer, took the shot.

[j swift]

I think this is such an interesting point because affiliate scheduling is also what doomed Generations.

Now, I've only read the summaries of FRFP, which admittedly were neither entertaining nor innovative.  However, SOD blamed casting and writing choices for the demise of FRFP, but as is often the case, creative forces are only one element in a show's cancellation.

If we've learned anything from the current state of NBC daytime, than we know that if soaps were cancelled merely because they were poorly cast or written DAYS would have been gone a thousand times by now...

Edited July 30, 2022 by j swift

[Joseph]

the frustrating truth,that show has seen better times, i wish there was a way to it go back to human drama intead of OTT Science Fiction all the time

[Paul Raven]

NbC' s failure with L&T and FRFP examined in hindsight lead in so many directions.

NBC had failed to launch a successful soap since 1965. Hidden Faces, Bright Promise, Somerset, Return to Peyton Place and How to Survive a Marriage had all bitten the dust in the previous decade.

Meanwhile ABC has launched All My Children, One Life to Live and Ryan's Hope and CBS The Young and the restless.

So there seemed to be some default in NbC's skills in that area.

Debuting a new soap from behind was never going to be easy and the 12.30 timeslot had 2 soaps in place, so why NBC thought they had a chance, especially  expecting Rauch and Lemay to handle L&F as well as the 1 hr AW.

Then to take the show off the air to retool and come back with a new title and not much else, and then to use the 1pm slot that they hadn't programmed for decades..

Maybe at that point The Doctors should have been moved to 12.30 or 1 and L&F/FRFP moved into the 2.30 slot.

What do other think?

[dc11786]

Central casting for "For Richer, For Poorer" was lackluster. In the little that has popped up, Darlene Parks and Tom Happer lacked the gravitas to carry the story, which was generic at best and overdone at worst. The story shifting to Richard Backus as Jason Saxton with Julia McKenzie as Laurie Brewster Hamilton was a smart move, but it should have been done to work on finding someone strong to play those major roles. Christine Jones and Rod Arrants are strong actors, but they were pretty much sidelined. I think Jason vs. Austin was an interesting dynamic and Jason marrying Megan as this sort of naive, innocent was interesting, but this wasn't the original concept of Megan. 

The show did try some things that I wish would pop up. While the gang storyline seems very trite, I would have liked to have seen the pairing between Paco and Wendy Prescott, Edith's goddaughter. This seemed like an attempt to replicate the type of stories "All My Children" was telling. I think Jason arranging for one of Austin's clients with a hooker would have been an interesting sequence as well. I also would love to see more of the affair between Laurie and Jason. 

What's really crazy to me is how the significant batch of the show's run is overlooked. The show shifted in the final months to Tessa and Lee as one of the lead couples which was such a bizarre idea. Also, Connie Ferguson's amnesia and her involvement with Dennis Romer's Dr. Roy White seems to be a rather significant thread. None of this is overly exciting to me, but its just interesting that its overlooked.