ALL: Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[John]

Pacific Lives

[Clark Still]

I’m wondering the same thing. Ones like Union Place you could slightly tweak to reflect current day, everything else stays true to the concept. Put them out on the Internet/streaming services, we don’t need NBC, CBS, ABC anymore to get great soap ideas to the masses.

 

My only question is: would there be any pushback from using some of them? I’m sure a Union Place revamp could possibly see issues with the Labine family unless you break bread with them, since Claire came up with the concept/bible and all of that. I could be wrong, but it’s something that a young writer who would be interested in getting this out would possibly have to deal with

Edited January 26, 2018 by Failsafe

[dc11786]

Labine was still shopping around "Union Place" in some form or another at least a year before she passed. I heard her and Kate Mulgrew speak at an event benefiting a theatre group Claire was involved with in Connecticut. When Claire was asked about "Union Place," Claire gave some details, but admitted she couldn't say much but that a mutual friend was helping. When Mulgrew asked who, Claire stated it was "OD," who I assumed was Rosie O'Donnell. 

[cassadine1991]

Seriously? Wow. Wish someone got a hold of it. Wonder where she would want to air it?

 

 

 

Is Claire's daughter still alive?

 

[Paul Raven]

Feb 1955

Irna Phillips and Agnes Ekhardt (Nixon) developing half hour soap for Fall 55 premiere with Ted Corday producing.

Tentative title 'Journey's End'. This evolved into 'As The Earth Turns' which debuted April 56  'As The World Turns'

Edited June 17, 2018 by Paul Raven

[amybrickwallace]

 

Yes. I had a sweet note from Eleanor and she enclosed a couple of RH photos. I had actually written to Claire, but Eleanor explained that the letter had been misplaced under other correspondence and wasn't recovered until after Claire passed. Eleanor assured me that Claire had read my letter and had every intention of replying but passed on before she could.

[cassadine1991]

What's Eleanor been doing these past few years?

[amybrickwallace]

I'm not sure, but she wrote in the note that her mother had indeed received and read my letter with the intention of replying, but it got lost under other mail and papers. It wasn't found under after Claire had passed.

[Paul Raven]

1954

King's Castle

Chicago based producer/director Alan Fishburn, serial writer Bess Flynn and Dallas Jones, president of studio that bears his name are behind 'Kings Castle' a syndicated 15 min daily syndicated serial. The plan was to film up to 15 episodes every 2 weeks using local talent.

Flynn was behind radios 'Bachelors Children' and planned a TV version to air behind 'King's Castle'

 

[Paul Raven]

ABC

1981 2 hr TV Movie pilot 'Golden Gate'

Set in San Francisco, telling the story of the Kingsleys, an influential Nob Hill family involved in publishing.

Jordan, estranged son, returns after 8 years to save family newspaper 'San Francisco Bulletin'.

Financial ruin threatens the family after stroke suffered by publisher and patriach Thomas.

Cast

Jordan... Perry King

Jane, his mother... Jean Simmons

Thomas his father... Richard Kiley

Natalie his sister ...Mary Crosby

Johnny, Jordan's son ...Eric Copeland

Karen, the Kingsley maid... Melanie Griffith

Claire McCartney, works at the paper, wants Jordan as her husband... Cheryl Paris

Richard Byrne, attorney for the paper... Peter Donat

 

Guest cast

Candy Martin ...Robynn Douglas

Monty Sagar... John Saxon

Bess McCartney...Maggie Blye

Frank Nightingale...Tim Thomerson

Harry Stillwell...Jason Evers

 

Producer...Lin Bolen

Wrriter...Stirling Silliphant

 

Edited June 17, 2018 by Paul Raven

[te.]

"Dark Mansions" was originally developed as a potential tv series described as a cross between "Dynasty" and "Dark Shadows". Produced by Aaron Spelling with Joan Fontaine as the draw, it was eventually re-tooled into a tv movie and shown on ABC during the summer. It got pretty bad reviews from what I can tell.

[Paul Raven]

Dark Mansions was a primetime soap pilot.Originally Loretta Young was announced as star,but for whatever reason,she dropped out and Joan Fontaine too her place.

 

It was not picked up and aired over summer, as aTV movie.

 

From IMDB

 

The opening credits leave no doubt "Dark Mansions" is patterned after "Dark Shadows" - but, surprisingly, "Mansions" isn't like the successful supernatural-dominated "Shadows" of 1967-1970. Instead, it revisits the show as it played out during the more lackluster years of 1966 and 1971. This show has the Gothic tone of writer Art Wallace's original concept, which producer Dan Curtis steered the show back toward, in 1971. Taking the vampires, werewolves, and witches out of "Shadows" proved to be fatal, so "Mansions" may seem like puzzling pilot. But, it's also a shadowy version of the then successful "Falcon Crest" (actor David Selby did "Crest" and "Shadows"; writer Robert McCullough did "Crest" and "Mansions").

 

So, "Mansions" begins with star Linda Purl (as Shellane Victor) arriving as an authoress, to work on the biography of reclusive matriarch Joan Fontaine (as Margaret Drake). The character's name "Shellane Victor" is likely an homage to original "Shadows" protagonist "Victoria", who was originally named "Sheila". Like legendary golden-aged actresses Joan Bennett ("Shadows") and Jane Wyman ("Mansions"), Joan Fontaine assumes the role of a wealthy family matriarch. Note, Jean Simmons fit the bill in the 1991 run of "Dark Shadows", which makes it a Joan/Jane/Joan/Jean quartet. (Play other name games at home).

 

Anyway, Ms. Purl is the spitting image of the dead "Yvette" (rhymes with "Josette"), who plunged to her death over the seaside cliffs, where the two "Drake" family mansions rest (but not in peace). The mystery of what really happened to "Yvette" is the ABC-TV movie pilot's main storyline. Widower Michael York (as Jason Drake) is also Fontaine's favorite son, and a potential romantic interest for Purl.

 

Other family members (and suspects) include: Mr. York's bratty blonde daughter Nicollette Sheridan (as Banda Drake), his bratty blonde son Grant Aleksander (as Nick Drake), adopted "old house" castaway Paul Shenar (as Phillip Drake), his sexy wife Lois Chiles (as Jessica Drake), their blind clairvoyant daughter Melissa Sue Anderson (as Noelle Drake ), and hot-blooded son Yves André Martin (as Cody Drake). Blue-collared Steve Inwood (as Jerry Mills) and Raymond St. Jacques (as Davis) are significant outsiders.

 

There are too many characters, and too much back-story, in "Dark Mansions" - although, admittedly, it all would have served a TV series well (had this "pilot" sold). The locations, sets, and overall setting is beautifully done; and, as photographed by Paul Lohmann and directed by Jerry London, they are the film's greatest strength. The cliff-side dwelling is how the original "Dark Shadows" might have looked, with a bigger budget. Watch for especially representative scenes as characters walk along the cliffs, with waves crashing in the background. And, if the house looks like "Collinwood", it's because it is the house (Greystone) picked to serve as "Collinwood" for both the 1991 and 2004 versions of "Dark Shadows".

[j swift]

I follow a Classic Soap Digest News Tumblr, and they reported on the development of Dark Mansions often in the Breaking News Section.  There were a number of recastings prior to filming and I think it was the first project that Grant Aleksander was cast in once he left GL.

 

The pilot was on YT and a kind assessment would be to say that it did not hold up well to the passage of time.

[SteelCity]

I wonder why FOX, or the now defunct UPN or WB got into soaps, of the daytime variety. Or the CW. FOX could even get something later in the evenings.

[Titus Andronicus]

Fox did run Tribes in 1990.