Love Is a Many Splendored Thing

[danfling]

Probably with Scott Phillips.   As I recall, he had been to Viet Nam when he was introduced on the show.

[danfling]

I read that Vicki Viola appeared on this show in 1970.

 

I was thinking that it was probably a mistake and that she had played the mother of Jock (John Karlen)  in 1967.   If not, who did she play?

Edited November 20, 2019 by danfling

[Paul Raven]

According to Slick's Soap Hoppers entry, Ms Vola played Mrs Johnson.

[danfling]

John Karlen, who played Jock Porter in the early months of this show, has passed away.

[Paul Raven]

 

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by Paul Raven

[jam6242]

 

[RavenWhitney]

 

amazing woman, great scoops from her tenures on the different shows.  

[danfling]

The characters of Lily and Nancy Garrison were written off the show and seldom mentioned again.    

 

Also written off was Margaret Garrison (the legendary Flora Campbell).   The writers should have kept her and introduced a sibling or two of Spencer.

[Paul Raven]

Some mentions of storylines that never came to pass.

 

No Secrets - Soap Opera Tells All At End

Friday was a tearful day for soap opera fans. All of a sudden, everything was all over. "Where the Heart Is" and "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" wound up their stories, said their goodbyes to CBS and left the air for good. Even here in the office, it was sad. A few gals, on-the-sly soap addicts, gathered 'round our tiny black and white to see whether Betsy, the doctor, would marry Joe, the social worker on "Love is A Many , . ." Even my sister, whose set doesn't pick up the show too well, called the office to listen to the parting moments over the phone.

 

If you missed it, here's how the continuing story met its moment of discontinuation: the close-knit families of Donnally and Chernak, around whom the series has spun for the past five and a half years, gathered together to celebrate the wedding of Dr. Betsy Chernak and her beau, Joe. It was a happy time of rehashing memories and cementing facts. Laura, who had long wanted a child in episode after episode, had finally adopted a baby boy. Iris, who had for weeks agonized over telling her husband that their new baby wasn't his, decided to remain forever silent.  And Angel, suffering from a terminal disease,stocially faced the end with the utmost bravery.

 

As the guests at the reception quietly stole away in the show's waning moments, the character of Will Donnelly, the patriarch of the clan, faced the home audience and made the farewells on behalf of cast and crew. For Linda Wendell, watching the taped show in her New York office with the "Love Is A Many ..." cast, it was a sad moment. : "We were told Feb. 12 that the show had been cancelled," said the young producer of the ex-soap. "I called my writer, Ann Marcus, who was recuperating from major surgery in Los Angeles and we were both very upset. We decided to think about how to end the story, and a few days later, we'd both come to the same conclusion: we'd end on a positive note with the families together. Angel was already dying and there was no way we could reverse that."

 

Mrs. Wendell took over the producer's , duties in December and had big plans for her show before she learned of its cancellation. . - , : "I was changing the policy, for one thing," she report- ed. "I wanted to move things quicker. They'd spent about a year on what we called the 'rape and tape' storyline, and that was too long. There's an old theory that people only watch 2.5 times a week, but we were going to gear to the positive and move like gangbusters." ' Story plans were firmed up through July. ' "We had three ideas which would have been so interesting," Mrs. Wendell revealed. "We had secured Inge Swensen, a wonderful actress, to play a nurse and we were going to follow a "Children's Hour" type theme, eventually working in a conspiracy against Betsy.

"Angel was going to tell Pete to remarry after her death, but our story was going to find him rejecting the nurse Angel had urged him to marry. This nurse, Meg, has , been in love with Pete on the show and the story would find her in a broken heart situation.

"And, lastly, we'd decided to bring back the Eurasian girl who was one of the main characters when the series began. She was going to be returning to the United States to look for her child - she'd been a doctor in Vietnam and had thought her husband and child were killed. She was to find out that her child had been adopted and was in this country a custody case would have resulted."

 

It's all might-have-been speculation now. The ratings -a system Mrs. Wendell doesn't consider entirely representative of the audience had dropped and the show was given walking papers. Two months after stepping into the bosses' shoes, she was forced to tell the bad news to 80 people -cast and crew. "The whole group had such a warm relationship with one another. It was more than just a job. I have every confidence that each of the cast will do well they'll be scattered to the four winds and will probably never work together again."

 

Brett Halsey (Spence Garrison) will travel to Paris and Rome for movie work, the producer reported. Al Stratton, who played Tom Donnally, will also do a movie. Vince Bagetta (Pete Chernak) has already been secured for a play with Valerie Harper (of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show") and Joseph Campanella. Andrea Marcovicci (Betsy) and Leon Russom (Joe), real-life sweethearts, will remain in New York for stage work. And so on. Everyone has plans. . And Mrs. Wendell? "I've got a seven-month-old son," she said." And I'll take some time off and rest for a while. I've got some -things pending." Still, the. demise is sad. Like a real-life soap opera,maybe?

[Paul Raven]

Some photo memories, some of which may have already been posted.

 

 

 

[ClassicsSoapFan]

Is LIAMST the only soap that began with orchestrated music and then switched to organ music? I have heard both but I remember Eddie Layton doing the music at the end of the run on CBS.

[danfling]

I only remember the organ accompaniment, but I did not watch the initial episodes.

 

As you probably remember (being an Oakdale lover), As the World Turns switched to orchestrated music, but then suddenly switched to piano music.     Later, the orchestra returned.

[amybrickwallace]

Between this show and GH, Leslie Charleson guested on Happy Days in 1975. She played a young divorcee who intrigues Richie.

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[danfling]

I remember the episode.   During that period, she also was often a guest star on many prime time series.

[amybrickwallace]

She said in an interview with SOD that she was Ron Howard's first on-screen kiss, but didn't he kiss Cindy Williams in American Graffiti? Unless LC meant to say his first TV kiss. I don't know.