This is from the January 1972 Afternoon TV.

room, coming at you through the air - a voice you've heard as a child only through loudspeaker s in a dark theatre (and recently on late night movie reruns), is another unbelievable experience. Then what's more, it says your name and chats easily with you as a friend. It's like having Mother Goose pop out of the pages, telling you to call her Mom. It shakes you up. The illusion remains in your subconscious while the reality is moving around, talking to you.

And the reality has changed, a little. The boyish giant is in his 30's and has grown a beard. That's unsettling. I wanted him to be Peter Pan - a Darryl that had been frozen at say, sixteen, uncomplicated, with only minor problems, and just at the dawn of sex. (If sixteen sounds a little late to be just at the dawn of sex, you'll have to take it up with Louis B. Mayer in the next world. That's the way he wanted it and that's the way it was. It threw some of us out there in the dark for a few loops, I can tell you.)

Well, Darryl has certainly passed the dawn with flying colors. He is married to one of the most scrumptious dishes I have ever met. Her name is Pamela, and she is an actress-model-mother charmer. They've been married at least nine or ten years, because there are two minor Hickmans walking around. Damian is a quiet boy of about eight, and Justin is five.

"We've let Justin choose whatever he wants to eat all day because it's his birthday. It was pizza and ice cream for lunch. Tonight he's getting steak and potatoes and chocolate cake and some more ice cream, I think." That was a combination of Pam and Darryl talking. And in between all those special orders from Justin, this beautiful model-wife-mother-cook found time to whip up some terrific steak tartate to nibble on while chatting.

"I put in olive oil instead of egg to make it hang together. I think it works." It certainly does. "Do you mind if I sit here and listen while you're interviewing Darryl?" Who could say no to such a question in such a voice from such a mouth?

Darryl, now aware of being interviewed, put on a being-interviewed expression. But the smile broke out again.

"Hey, I talked to Freddie Bartholomew today on the phone! He's been with an agency handling TV producing for about fifteen years now, and he loves it. He was about ten years before me at MGM, so we never knew each other. He doesn't miss it a bit either." Either?

"Well, you know, that was something I did as a kid. And I've come more and more to feel that acting was part of my childhood. I'm really not too thrilled about it any more. I took over for Bob Morse in 'How to Succeed' for over a year. Then a couple of years ago I did 'George M,' the national company, and during the run I hurt my back. I think that finally cured me.

"I've written a play since you and I worked together, and I'm excited about that. Then I started thinking about my life. I needed something I wasn't getting...like money, for instance" - the quick, warm smile - "no, other things, too. I needed an anchor."

"Burt Brinkerhoff is a friend of mine and the director of 'Love of Life." he t told me there was an opening for associate producer of the show, and I got the job. I worked with Freyda Rothstein who produces, a great and talented girl.

"Then, after about eight months, there was, as they say, a little shakeup at CBS, and I got kicked upstairs. My title is now General Program Executive, and my two babies are 'Love of Life' and 'Where the Heart Is.' I can't remember when I've been so happy in my work. I love the people...my boss is Paul Rauch who oversees the whole daytime scene, and Tony Converse handles a couple of the other shows in an equivalent position to mine. They seem to be happy with me, too, which makes me feel even better. I think I'm finally finding myself, discovering abilities I never suspected before. Every day is different and absorbing."

The doorbell rang. Darryl and Pam looked at each other.

"Who's that?"

"You go, I'm being interviewed."

She went. "It's the tailor! Hello, Mr. Wolf. My God, Darryl, did you make an appointment with Mr. Wolf today and forget?"

I had been looking for an opportunity to concentrate on the steak tartare. So while Pam extolled Mr. Wolf's excellent and very reasonable work - "Only $200 for that suit!" - I ate.

"Darryl just hates to shop and it was always a chore to get him out to buy clothes. Mr. Wolf comes to the house with the material, you choose, he takes measurements, he goes, he comes again, you try it on, he goes, finishes it, delivers it, and Darryl never has to leave the house. It's marvelous. Oh, look at the lining of that jacket! Isn't that gorgeous? Darryl, you've got to have a tie made of that. Wouldn't it look smashing when you open the coat? I bet it would be very cheap, too. What, Mr. Wolf? Twenty dollars?"

Mr. Wolf shook his head and smiled while he mulled it over a moment. Then the quiet pronouncement. "Fifteen."

"Great," Pam said. Then, in a little aside to me, "I get him to spend more on his clothes so I can buy some for myself without him being able to complain that I spend too much on clothes."

It sounded a little like French logic to me, and I was about to say that maybe if she'd suggested a price of ten dollars for the tie, Mr. Wolf might have said five. But I kept my mouth shut. They seemed so happy, why spoil it with niggling doubts?

When the fitting was over, there was a great deal less steak tartare around, and Darryl settled back into the the role of CBS exec at home being interviewed.

"We have a long-range story line that extends about six months into the future on our shows. We keep about a month ahead in the breakdowns...they're scene by scene outlines of a script. You know, who's in them, what they'll talk about...the shape of the script without any actual dialogue. Then we try to keep two weeks ahead in the playing scripts themselves. From the outlines to the final scripts there are story conferences, motivation changes, whatever a script needs."

It all sounded like the old days at MGM with people sitting around a table throwing out ideas for the next Gable classic.

"Not really. The writer of one of my shows is in Los Angeles, and the other lives in Westchester. It doesn't really make any difference whether they're 30 miles away or 3,000, because it's all done by telephone. And when the scripts are sent in, we often get mail delivered faster from the West Coast than from Westchester."

To think of a favorite character's future, his life or death, perhaps, being decided coldly on the telephone, with not so much as a wet eye visible to mark his doom, seemed so impersonal.

"Only the bad people die, anyway. The good ones hang around for a long time. If you're lucky, for twenty years and more. The villains are fascinating but short-lived. They meet all sorts of violent ends. And the good people can be involved in the after-effects of those climaxes for months. Sometimes the good characters do leave town, or get married and live in Europe, or even die gently and slowly of some incurable illness over a long period.

"But you have to be careful. If you kill off a good character irrevocably, you've ruined your change of ever bringing him back again. You never know in the years to come when the character who seems superfluous now may be just the one you need to get things going again. But usually, if we decided to kill off a good character, we have him turn bad first. That gives us a few months of good conflict, changes viewer sympathy, and reshuffles relationships among others."

We suddenly realized that all our eyes were wet, and smoke was filling the living room. "Oh! The steaks are burning" Darryl rushed out onto the terrace, the door to which he had left open. Little Justin's last requested meal was rescued from charcoal immolation, but was definitely not going to be rare.

That was my last image of Darryl Hickman, the bearded boyish giant. An image worthy of MGM's old scriptwriters. I could hear the ghost voices at the conference table.

"Hey, how about a hilarious scene where Darryl tries to cook and nearly burns the house down?"

- BARRY GRAEL

I remember Darryl Hickman from the movie 'Leave Her To Heaven' when Gene Tierney watches as he drowns.

Pamela his wife,is of course Pamela Lincoln,who played Felicia on LOL and Doreen on TD.They divorced in 82.

Paul Rauch was at AW in 72,so he must have moved shortly after this interview.

How long after this was Gene Bua gone?

Tony Converse looks like Jim Henson.

Darryl Hickman was also in some of the later Our Gang movies.

I wonder if he had anything to do with Bartholomew being at CBS Daytime.

Edited September 4, 201114 yr by CarlD2

Rauch was on the record as wanting to cancel LIAMST, LOL and WTHI during this period. He was allegedly behind the downsize in pay to David Birney in 1970 that caused Birney to leave LIAMST.

Trish Stewart's husband, Mike Ogiens, was also a CBS player coming up at that time. He had produced game shows for Chuck Barris and then he got bumped to CBS Daytime Head West Coast. Interesting how it all seemed to stay in the family.

Killing off Gene Bua was a terrible, terrible mistake for LOL.

How long after this was Gene Bua gone?

Very shortly, Carl. Gene was killed off as Bill on Love of Life in January 1972. This article was probably written circa October 1971, as there was about a three month lag between the issue date (January) and the stories.

Thanks for the info, saynotoursoap. Did his death have a big impact on ratings (good or bad)?

Rauch was on the record as wanting to cancel LIAMST, LOL and WTHI during this period. He was allegedly behind the downsize in pay to David Birney in 1970 that caused Birney to leave LIAMST.

At least they didn't do what he wanted...although I guess they did ultimately cancel two of them a year later.

I never understood why they were stingy with David Birney when he was becoming a big draw for them. And did his departure also cause Leslie Charleson to leave?

I think Leslie missed Donna and David. She was best friends with Donna and living with David. She also said in a magazine article she knew it was time to go when she did something like 27 shows in a row and one morning getting ready for work she took a shower after she had put her clothes on! Leslie and Donna also were the envy of the other young ingenue types at CBS because they had a deal where they had to be used as guest stars on primetime shows. Leslie appeared on Wild Wild West and Mannix and Donna was on Dan August and Gunsmoke, so both girls had their foot in the door to casting directors 'knowing them'. Leslie did change her billing to Leslie Ann Charleson which I thought was strange.

Thanks for your help. I was going to ask a few questions in the LIAMST thread.