Love Is a Many Splendored Thing

[amybrickwallace]

Vincent Baggetta also filled in for Gerald Gordon as Dr. Mark Dante on GH - either in 1982 or 1983.

[DRW50]

Bibi Besch tells a story about a rape scene she filmed on the show.

 

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[Vee]

I adored her in The Wrath of Khan. Still sad her cameo in Star Trek VI - happily involved with Captain Kirk again, only for him to be called away on his diplomatic mission - was unfilmed due to budget and time.

[DRW50]

 

I never knew about that. That's a shame. It would have been a nice ending for both characters. 

[Vee]

Both films were written and directed by Nicholas Meyer, so he wanted to bring her back. The script is around. But Paramount was nickel and diming the final film because they wanted to make the anniversary release date, and because Star Trek V had underperformed - they also felt the Next Generation movies were the future.

[DRW50]

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No clips with this, sadly. Someone in the comments said it was from 9/8/72. No real way of knowing I guess.

[Paul Raven]

Dec 1976

For the past year rumors about homosexual characters characters on soaps have been making the -rounds.

 According to one producer, gays will never be portrayed portrayed on afternoon television. "Love of Life's" Tom de Velliers insists: "Daytime television is a very special medium. It would be impossible to have a homosexual story line. We have the time to get into some very heavy love scenes. How could we possibly present a loving gay couple and not show them loving?

 "If we did present an intimate love scene between the same sex, I wouldn't want to be in the office when the phone started ringing."

When Tom was associated with the now-defunct, "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing," a gay story line was hinted. "We considered probing the situation with the Betsey Chernak character. We just got into the story line when we decided we better get out," said Tom. '

[Khan]

Unfortunately, the same issues regarding presenting "loving gay couples" persist to this day.

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[robbwolff]

Someone posted a fascinating article about LIAMST on one of the Facebook groups. It addressed some of the storylines that were planned should the series had continued. One indeed involved Betsy and was inspired by the movie "The Children's Hour." The article said Inga Swenson had been cast to play a protagonist in the storyline.

[danfling]

I believe that CBS had a hidden same sex romance on The Edge of Night in 1964 with the characters of Eve Morris and Kitty de Sena.

 

Eve was a theatre owner who was in love with Malcolm Thomas, a reporter for the Monticello News.  Malcolm met and fell in love with Elaine "Cooke" Pollock.  They decided to marry, but they kept it a secret.  Each was allowed to ONE other person.  Then, when they decided to let everyone know, Malcolm had to tell Eve.  She grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed him to death.   Cookie came into the room after Eve fled, and she was accused of killing him.

 

Kitty was an actress who worked in Eve's theatre.  She cooperated in every way with Eve in trying to conceal the crime. 

 

Later (after a trip to Mexico and a marriage for Eve), the truth was revealed in court.  Eve said that she had killed the wrong one, grabbed the scissors (a court exhibit), and tried to kill Cookie.

 

I believe that Kitty was in love with Eve, and that was the motivation behind her being an accomplice.

 

Constance Ford played Eve; Valerie French played Kitty; Edward Kemmer played Malcolm; Fran Sharon played Cookie.

[Paul Raven]

Any appearance by Constance Ford gave off lesbian vibes...

[dc11786]

In regards to the projected storylines on "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," the other two storylines detailed in the article involved the return of Mia Elliott and Pete Chernak's love life.

 

(1) In the Pete Chernak storyline, Angel would hope that Pete would move on after she died with a nurse, Meg. Once Angel died, a romance between Pete and Meg would occur, but Pete wouldn't return the love that Meg had for him.

 

(2) In the other storyline, Mia Elliott would return to town after several years away. During the time, Mia would have married and had a child. While serving as a medic during the Vietnam War, Mia believed that both her husband and her child had been killed. Later, Mia learned that her child was alive and that she was determined to locate her child.

 

I wonder if de Velliers is referring to "The Children's Hour" storyline and misremembering how that played out or if they had intended to do another storyline with Betsy earlier on. 

 

Someone once said online that Doug Marland intended to reveal the character of Tom Carroll on "The Doctors" was gay, but it was later stated that he was a child abuser instead. 

 

[dc11786]

I meant to mention this when I posted about the other proposed storylines, but it's interesting to see what must have been Ann Marcus' first attempt to tell the Vietnam story. Later, the story would be pitched at "Days of our Lives" (with Chris Kositchek) and then finally play out with Tony Alphonso on "Love of Life." I imagine Marcus must have attempted to tell the story on "Search for Tomorrow." I wonder who she planned on telling it with?

[amybrickwallace]

Shawn Campbell (Ricky Donnelly) is now appearing as Billy Allison Aldrich #4 in Retro TV's rerun cycle of The Doctors.

[danfling]

Actor Robert Milli, who was in the premiere cast of Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, has passed away.

 

He also appeared on Another World, One Life to Live (2 roles), The Guiding Light, and All My Children.