I didn't see a thread for this on its own.

This was the soap which was said to have changed daytime drama forever, with the emphasis on "youth." Of course it started out as something which would, sadly, not change daytime, a tale of a mixed-race woman and her interracial relationships. Then moving towards making daytime superstars out of David Birney, Leslie Charleson, and Donna Mills, this show also helped launch the careers of Paul Michael Glaser, Michael Zaslow, Beverlee McKinsey, Andrea Marcovicci, and Bibi Besch, among others.

It's too bad the show didn't go on longer. At least, unlike some other soaps of that era, we have some episodes available.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZQ1uxKl6NY

How I wish that these early episodes had been preserved!

I had never known that Phil and Helen had lost a child.

I notice that Tom is called a "widower."    Was he hiding the truth about Martha, or did the show change the storyline later?

@Vee @vetsoapfan @Paul Raven @danfling @jam6242

Thanks @DRW50!

I had only thought that Love Is a Many Splendored Thing was the third daytime drama for Ms. Beesch.  (The Secret Storm, The Edge of Night, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing - She appeared on Somerset later.)

What were the other two shows on which she appeared?

Thanks @DRW50.

 

I love her.

During the time that the late Michael Hawkins was playing Mark Elliott #3, which actresses were playing Iris and Laura?

Edited December 17, 20231 yr by danfling

I am exchanging email with someone who went to UCLA & read the bible Irna Phillips wrote for LIAMST.

Quote

"Anyway … the Bible that Irna wrote for LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING is at UCLA … and there were a few other shocking storylines that the network got cold feet about. Remember this was 1967, before Roe v. Wade, and she intended to do a backstreet abortion story with one of the young female characters. She wanted to address the dangers of illegal abortions. But none of that made it to the screen. Also, she had characters worried about nuclear war, and none of that made it to the screen either, probably because it was a bit depressing/grim. But you do have to give Irna credit, she was a visionary who was always trying to stretch the genre in new important directions. If only today’s head writers were half as courageous!"

 

Ms. Phillips had used abortion as a storyline for the first time on Another World when character Pat Matthews had an illegal abortion.  I don't think that NBC had all of the reservations that CBS seemed to have.

9 hours ago, danfling said:

Ms. Phillips had used abortion as a storyline for the first time on Another World when character Pat Matthews had an illegal abortion.  I don't think that NBC had all of the reservations that CBS seemed to have

from the creation of another world

“While the AW bible may have revealed nothing about Pat Matthew's pregnancy and abortion, according to Elana Levine, as the story unfolded, NBC censors requested a number of script changes. Some were to insure medical accuracy: making clear that the cause of Pat's sterility was the infection that resulted from the abortion, not the abortion itself. Others addressed Pat's level of responsibility for the situation, with one NBC censor warning against her being portrayed as "totally innocent or blameless." While this placed responsibility on Pat for her sexual behavior, not the unjust societal expectations of young women, Levine points out, "it also attributed to her some agency, even sexual agency—'good' young women who got themselves in such situations were not mere victims of duplicitous men."

Levine goes on to say that while these changes were likely made to provide NBC cover from being seen as endorsing immoral or illegal behavior, "they also resulted in greater ambiguity about the causes of Pat’s troubles—did she make bad choices or was her situation an impossible one to navigate? If the latter, what made it so untenable? The openness of soap storytelling invited such questions."

”

On 2/7/2024 at 11:27 AM, danfling said:

Ms. Phillips had used abortion as a storyline for the first time on Another World when character Pat Matthews had an illegal abortion.  I don't think that NBC had all of the reservations that CBS seemed to have.

Yes, Dan, exactly so! 

And, I wanted to add in case anyone is in LA & wants to go read some of Irna's papers. From that same email correspondence ... "All the early production notes for the series are at UCLA, and I had a chance to go through the materials (they are non-circulating materials, so you have to schedule hours in one of their archive libraries, where it is freezing cold, to get access to the materials that can only be read at tables in a specific room. However, they do allow you to put in requests for photocopies, at a fee of course, if you want copies for research purposes. I pretended I was about to write a book on Irna Phillips, so that is why I got access to the materials."

Edited February 10, 20241 yr by Donna L. Bridges

Don't think we've ever seen Brooke Mills as Iris. Here with Sam Wade who was recast later on.

Poor Brooke-got so far as doing publicity shots and then dumped for Leslie Charleson.

Edited October 7, 20241 yr by Paul Raven

Great find.

Posting here as this is closer to the right timeframe...is the Ivory ad with Beverlee McKinsey at the start of this video already well known? I can't remember if I've seen it before.

 

The only reason why Beverlee McKinsey's taller than the other women in that commercial is because of her hair.

At around 2 hours and 22 minutes you get a minute or two of the show. I think this is a fragment from an episode that may have already been on Youtube years ago but I may be completely wrong.