@watson71 The P&G logo appears at the end of the episodes starting in late March or early April, 1984. I believe P&G assumes production responsibilities around the first year's anniversary. In the meantime, P&G was the primary (and possibly only) advertister. The financial logistics for the show got a bit of press because not only was P&G and Ted Turner's WTBS involved, but there were also private investors. It seems like there was quite a bit of financial mismanagement with some suggesting that it was intentional on the part of the producer, but I am not sure if anything went to court.
@slick jones I found an article stating that the full name of Charles Hill's character was Elwood T. "Woody" Thorpe.
In watching episodes of Another Life, I have gotten very nostalgic about The Catlins, which was always the soap that had so little presence on line given how long it ran and that it aired during the VCR era. The little we see doesn't seem anywhere near as strong as Another Life, but we also don't really have anywhere near close to a stretch of consecutive episodes to see how the day to day build was. in looking through this thread, I was reminded of how disappointed I was in that August, 1983, episode which was probably under a month into Steve Lehrman's run as headwriter. I do wish more of that period was available when Sam Smiley and Lehrman each were in charge of the show. Smiley said he had kept material, but I don't know what his family did with it when he passed. Unfortunately, I think a lot of it was saved on his computer which I imagine wasn't saved.
The closest we have to a continuous run is about 6 or so episodes from late November - December, 1984. By that point, the show is mostly LA and NY with a few Atlanta stalwarts mixed in. It's a decent show, but I know the numbers were not great. In December, 1983, it was reported the ratings were around 240,000 households.
I don't hold out hope we will get much more than a few episodes here and there, but I need to get better at saving what does come up. I could kick myself for letting the Tony Wright episodes come and go without saving them. Also, I have spent the last day trying to find a post saynotoursoap/jon made about the show, before realizing he made it on danfling's old soap opera board. I remember he referrred to the show as a "Southern fried soap opera" and complimented elements of it while acknowledging its faults.
I did stumble on some new information (or maybe its stuff I forgot), but there were two sets of pilot episodes. The first pilot was filmed in early 1981 and shown to P&G in April, 1981. The next set of pilot episodes were filmed in June, 1982. I believe the June episodes were actually used, but I am not sure.
Sam Smiley came on in the fall of 1982 as the consultant during the development phase and then was in charge of story. Sam Smiley wrote (at least) 48 scripts which would put him into June, 1983. Sam's script writing team included Claudia Johnson, Craig Brown, and his wife Anne Smiley.
Producer Chris McIntrye stated in an article that he wrote the story for Steve Lehrman (at least initially) and that Lehrman developed the outlines. I wonder if that's why Lehrman didn't stay. I know in later shows (in 1985) McIntrye gives himself onscreen credit for the shipping storyline so I don't think this process continued until the end. Though, Smiley also commented in an article how television is a director and producer genre from his experience with The Catlins.
For Marilyn Martin's son, if he ever pops in again, his mom might appreciate this. I suspect it's from the opening episodes even though it was attached to a December, 1983, article
Also, a shot of David Frizzell (as himself) who appeared as himself and sang at the local honky-tonk bar, The Lucky Seven.
And since I mentioned Sam Smiley and his computer
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