Love Is a Many Splendored Thing

[ClassicsSoapFan]

I remember the piano music. I liked it.

[jam6242]

Andrea Marcovicci and Leon Russom in two drinking and driving PSAs ads from 1972. 

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[danfling]

David Birney, the second actor to play Mark Elliott, has passed away.   I think that this was on this past Sunday.

[Paul Raven]

In Oct 72 the show began taping 2 episodes a day for several weeks so they could take a 3 week break from Friday 20th Oct.

The reason for this is that the studio needed to be altered for use on Election Night.

[DRW50]

I just saw this now. Thanks for posting. I guess there's even more of an impact as she and Leon were a couple at the time. Very moving. 

[Paul Raven]

San Antonio Express

San Antonio, Texas

17 Sep 1967, 

Milli Hangs Out Doctor’s Shingle NEW YORK 

Robert Milli hangs out his shingle as Dr. Jim Abbott in “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing,” having “interned” for the role by playing a doctor on two other television shmvs. “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” premieres as a daytime drama Monday, Sept. 18 from 1-1:30 p.m. in color on Ch. 5. In addition to his previous doctor roles, Milli played an “acidhead,” or user of LSD, on an episode of “The Defenders.” As a result, he says lightly, “I have administered dramatic medicine, and I have taken it.” “I don’t know how all this will help me look more ‘doctorly’ in ‘Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.’ But is that important?,” he asks, turning serious. “And, anyway, what do doctors look like? “If it means can I look properly grave at the right time, can I deal tenderly with problem patients or can I keep my sense of humor in the midst of adversity, then I would say the answer is: ‘I think I can.’ “But my confidence comes not merely from having played doctors before but, for what it’s worth, from the sum total of my acting experience.” “Please,” he smiled, “I don’t mean to sound pretentious. I’m really very modest about my achievements. On the other hand, the most that any actor can bring to a new role is the experience he has learned from all of his old ones.”

Milli's acting experience, which began at the University of Maryland, has been extensive and extremely varied for a young man of 32. It ranges from stage work in many theaters over the country to important roles on Broadway and television. The handsome dark-haired actor played Horatio to Richard Burton’s “Hamlet” in the recent: Broadway production which was specially filmed on stage. He portrayed Alexander, the sculptor, in “A Severed Head,” and recently played a “repeat performance” at his alma mater, the University of Maryland. “I returned to play the title role in ‘Hamlet,’” Milli says. “It was a sort of tenth anniversary performance. I had played the same part there when I was a student. “I was older this time, of course, and I seemed to have grown into the part. At least that’s what my wife says, and I'm ham enough to take her word for it. Milli describes his wife, the former Mary Jane Mulligan, whom he met when they were both students at the university, as “my severest critic, which is exactly what I think a should be.” 

[danfling]

It is a strange coincidence that Mr. Milli was involved on the premieres of two soap operas in the 1960s in which his character was featured in storylines of interracial romance!    On the first (Love Is a Many Splendored Thing), his character was written off (although Dr. Abbott returned a number of years later), and on the second show (One Life to Live), he was replaced in the role (by Nat Polen).

 

[Paul Raven]

Variety reports that CBS will be mounting a 3 week publicity campaign beginning June 17 1968 to draw viewers to the show, which was struggling against The Dating Game and Days of Our Lives.

Joe Hardy and Don Ettlinger were the newly appointed  team behind the introduction of Spence Garrison and almost a dozen new characters with the thrust being the choice between personal and political ambitions.

There will be plentiful daytime and primetime promos.

Irna Phillips departed in Nov 67 and her storylines were dropped.

[Paul Raven]

Judson Laire/Diana Douglas

[danfling]

Ira and Jane Avery did not suceed Irna Phillips?    Or, did they replace Don Ettinger?

 

[dc11786]

I thought I read Ira and Jane Avery wrote scripts for Phillips and assumed the roles of headwriters after she left once they wrote out Mia Elliott in February, 1968. It always sounded like the Averys were intended to be interim writers since they had already been working on the show. I wonder now if Jane and Ira weren't simply working off Irna's projections.

 

[danfling]

It is usually said that Ira and Jane Avery were much better than Ms. Phillips and that it was their writing that put the show on the map.    They killed Phil Elliott and paired his widow Helen with Tom Donovan.  They concentrated on the Iris-Mark-Laura triangle.  They did away with the Mia character, Dr. Jim Abbott, all of the abortion storyline, and Laura's calling to be a nun.

I know that the couple divorced.   She refused to collaborate with him.   (This may have been after they left the show and wrote NBC's The Doctors.)  CBS wanted them to hire them as co-writers, but she refused to work with him.

Was Don Ettinger their replacement?

Which writer(s) created the Garrison family and the proposed/changed gay Andy storyline?

Which writer(s) created the Hale family?

 

[FrenchFan]

I am trying to find some scripts from the James Elward collection including some LIAMST. It might give us some more information.

I wish I could fine Jane & Ira Avery scripts somewhere.

[danfling]

He (James Elward) was a writer for these shows: The Doctors, The Secret Storm, The Young Marrieds, Strange Paradise.   I was not aware of his work on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.   Thank you for the information!

 

[dc11786]

I believe Ettlinger replaced the Averys, but there is so much lost soap opera history that it wouldn't surprise me if there was someone else in between. Don Ettlinger and Joe Hardy had worked together on "Flame in the Wind," which became "A Time for Us." Hardy had co-created that show with screenwriter Raphael Hayes. The setup for the Farrell / Reynolds clan and the Garrisons was very similar. On the prior show, Jason Farrell was the older patriarch and head of a publishing company (wasn't Chandler Garrison also a publisher) who had a younger second wife, Rita Lloyd's Leslie Farrell who was a terrible flirt (similar I believe to LIAMST's Jean Hurley) and there was a grandson Steve who was torn between two women (much like Chandler's son Spencer). I may be wrong on Hardy and Ettlinger crafting the Garrison clan. I suspect, without looking, that I probably speculated earlier that the Averys had created the Garrisons because of the characters seemed like they would have fit well into Averys upper middle class Woodbridge from their time on "The Secret Storm."

I don't know how long Joe Hardy was at LIAMST but I wonder if the working class Chernaks weren't something he was involved with as they a very ethnic sounding name like the Skerba clan did on "Flame in the Wind." 

No clue who wrote what, but I suspect Ettlinger couldn't have been there too long if he ended up at "Secret Storm" some time between 1969-1970. 

 

Good luck. I think the best source for the Averys "Storm" work would be the Elward collection. I think there is another script writer from "Storm" that has a collection (Milton something) who may have written during their era. I tried several years back to know avail. The Averys had two daughters who married in the late 1960s / early 1970s. Maybe they would have something left of their parents' writing legacy, but maybe not. 

Does the WGA keep record of their holdings for the public? I know Claire Labine told me she intended to donate all of her material for "Ryan's Hope" to the WGA West upon her death. 

Edited June 11, 2023 by dc11786