1 hour ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

a while back, i heard an interesting theory about why irna left the show so early. in the past, this source had played fast and loose with facts about irna’s life, so i always took what he told me with a grain of salt. but, he said his source was the late warren swanson, an attorney who also worked with irna as a writer on ‘world turns, so it’s worth considering.

in 1966, after working with irna for 10 years, bill bell left to take over as headwriter at “days of our lives.” irna took his departure as a personal betrayal, and the two never spoke again. under bell, days’… ratings went up — a lot — so fred silverman decides to counter with a new soap. silverman told me that irna agreed to create “love is a many splendored thing” as a personal favor to him, as well as a chance to create a show that was not under procter&gamble.

but, did she also a chance to take bill bell down a peg? irna’s unfinished memoir, “all my worlds,” ends in late 1963, so we’ll never know. but, that’s what swanson told my less-than-reliable source. and having researched irna’s life for more than 10 years, i find it does have a certain ring of truth.

of course, in the first few months, not only did liamst never come close to beating days…, they were losing almost half the audience of ‘world turns. according to warren swanson, when irna she wasn’t going to beat bell, she lost interest, and when the network demanded she change the two storylines, she saw an opportunity to extricate herself from the show.

It's interesting & it adds a dimension but it really is splitting a hair. Bottom line, once they refused to go forward with those 2 storylines, she was outta there. 

Also, and this may just be piling on. But I believe that she was quite cognizant that doing LIAMST pushed her over into doing work for the third of 3 networks. She & Fred Silverman were the first to work for all 3. But, once she'd done it, she didn't have to keep on doing it. 

Very interesting that she was angry with Bill Bell and absolutely sounds like her. 

Just now, Donna L. Bridges said:

It's interesting & it adds a dimension but it really is splitting a hair. Bottom line, once they refused to go forward with those 2 storylines, she was outta there

true — but i suspect that if it hadn’t been those two storylines, she would have found another reason to leave.

and, this may be an unpopular opinion, but i gotta say i think cbs made the right call re those storylines. by all accounts, they were unpopular with viewers, and, and yes,  i’m award that a good deal of tha pushback on mia was likely due to anti-asian bias, i also think there may have been conservative catholic viewers who objected to the nun storyline. 

but, as one of the variety articles referenced upthread notes: cbs was on the verge of cancelling the show. so, change the storylines or cancel the show?

1 hour ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

true — but i suspect that if it hadn’t been those two storylines, she would have found another reason to leave.

Oh, yeah, I knew that was your point!! And, you might be completely correct! 

1 hour ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

and, this may be an unpopular opinion, but i gotta say i think cbs made the right call re those storylines. by all accounts, they were unpopular with viewers, and, and yes,  i’m award that a good deal of tha pushback on mia was likely due to anti-asian bias, i also think there may have been conservative catholic viewers who objected to the nun storyline. 

I am sure there would have been Roman Catholic pushback! 

1 hour ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

but, as one of the variety articles referenced upthread notes: cbs was on the verge of cancelling the show. so, change the storylines or cancel the show?

To me it is just like P&G saying they were going to let Pete Lemay do a gay story way back when & then after preparations were made, pulling the greenlight. It's not that they didn't go forward with the controversial issue, it's how they went about it. So to me they never should have gone along in development as if they were going to do this, that they were already squirrelly about. That's just leading the creative types down a garden path which is going to fall right off a cliff! 

And, endgame, always drop the story & try to save the show. 

Ms. Philips had worked for ABC twice in the 1960s:  developing Peyton Place and editing storylines for A Time for Us.

3 hours ago, danfling said:

Ms. Philips had worked for ABC twice in the 1960s:  developing Peyton Place and editing storylines for A Time for Us.

Okay. That's interesting. Thanks. So much for that theory. 

Dan, Look! 

In 1964 ABC put Irna on the payroll as a special consultant for its primetime soap PEYTON PLACE. By taking that job, Phillips was the 1st to receive paychecks from shows running on all 3 networks.

I knew but I forgot I knew! So funny. My memory is like evil twins. One is laser sharp focus & remembers amazing things. The other is like HUH? What do you want? Leave me alone. 

Edited August 13, 20232 yr by Donna L. Bridges
combine 2 posts

Apparently Irna quit the show about a month after it went to air, so unless she expected it to be #1 in its timeslot in the first few weeks, the theory that bad ratings were the motive doesn't ring true. And LIAMST was not losing half of ATWT audience.

i think its more likely that there was pushback about the 2 stories and backtracking from the execs . Irna could see where this was going and quit.

 

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

Apparently Irna quit the show about a month after it went to air, so unless she expected it to be #1 in its timeslot in the first few weeks, the theory that bad ratings were the motive doesn't ring true. And LIAMST was not losing half of ATWT audience.

i think its more likely that there was pushback about the 2 stories and backtracking from the execs . Irna could see where this was going and quit.

according to a variety article you posted upthread, liamst’s share was under 30. in the 60s, atwt was pulling shares as high as 60 — sound’s like half.

curious about where you heard that  irna quit the show a month after its debut. 

Edited August 14, 20232 yr by wonderwoman1951

5 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

according to a variety article you posted upthread, liamst’s share was under 30. in the 60s, atwt was pulling shares as high as 60 — sound’s like half.

Yes in the mid 60's ATWT was getting shares in the 50's but by 67 it had settled down a bit, as competition increased from Let's Make  A Deal

2 weeks ending August 6 1967/ 2 weeks previous/coverage -  a few weeks before LIAMST thing debuted

1. As The World Turns  10.9/39 (11.5/41) 99.3

10. Let's Make A Deal 8.6/31 (7.5/27) 86.7

At 2pm

9. Newlywed Game 8.7/33 (8.7/33) 97.8

17. Days of Our Lives 8.0/30 (7.4/28) 95.6

20. Password 7.9/30 (7.8/30) 98.0

 

Variety October 11th 1967

In its 2nd week Love Is A Many Splendored Thing had a 7.6 to be beaten by DOOL 8.3

So doing roughly what Password had been doing. However I suspect the demographics would have been better. A 7.6 would probably mean around a 27 share so not half of ATWT rating or share.

5 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

curious about where you heard that  irna quit the show a month after its debut.

Variety Feb 7 1968 ' ...Miss Phillips quit the new serial 'Love Is A Many Splendored Thing' back in October, P&G asked her to return to "Guiding Light'.

Ms. Phillips had written Another World when the ratings were poor.   Poor ratings were nothing new to her.   I doubt that these ratings on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing would have phased her or been the sole reason to leave the show.   But interference from others would have.

I had not known until this morning that acter/writer Ed Moore had created the role of Dr. John Hale on this show.

Mr. Moore was a terrific actor in my opinion!   He played a role on Love of Life (which I did not see) and was later on Loving as Steve's father.   I thought that the show (Loving) used him very effectively, but I would have liked it if he had been utilized even more!    He later was cast to play Mary Tyler Moore's husband on a primetime CBS comedy, but he was replaced by a bigger-name star.

Message from Robert "Bobby" Hennessy regarding his LIAMST role:

"I have a fairly good recollection of LIAMST. (Not a lot of other stuff!). That soap was one of the first big jobs that I was in the running for. I recall being screen tested with Donna Mills for the role that ultimately went to Shawn Campbell. He and I competed for many roles in those days and we each won our share. It was a friendly competition. Then I did a background-type of part on the show prior to getting the role of Paul Monroe on WTHI. Then, of course, The Doctors.."

I don't know how the casting of another performer in the Ricky Donnolly role would have made, but there was a STRONG resemblance to me between Donna Mills (Laura) and Shawn Campbell (Ricky).   I bet that had a lot to do with the selected cast.

@danfling   I don't know why I didn't ask Scott before today ... Here is Beverlee in LIAMST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjr5dmFwftg

Berkley Harris who she married is also in this with her. 

 

 

Edited September 12, 20232 yr by Donna L. Bridges
more info

Donna, that actress in the opening scene with Ms. McKensie is Sasha von Schurler.  She was the late wife of Paul Avilla Mayer. 

The role of Ramona the nurse was created for Ms. von Schurler to play, but she did not appear on Ryan's Hope.   I am not sure why she decided not to play the role.

She did appear, later, as Jane (Brooke's birth mother) on All My Children.

16 hours ago, danfling said:

Donna, that actress in the opening scene with Ms. McKensie is Sasha von Schurler.  She was the late wife of Paul Avilla Mayer. 

The role of Ramona the nurse was created for Ms. von Schurler to play, but she did not appear on Ryan's Hope.   I am not sure why she decided not to play the role.

She did appear, later, as Jane (Brooke's birth mother) on All My Children.

Thank you for the information. It is just amazing to see Beverlee so young.