ALL: Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Paul Raven]

52 Fifth Avenue

Proposed series of a weekly half-hour soap opera. Action follows Irish immigrant Maggie Gregory and the Vandervelt Family of Fifth Ave., where she becomes a housemaid.

Land Where My Fathers Died AKA American Story AKA Pilgrims’ Pride AKA The Brandons of Birch Hill AKA Haven on the Hill

Unsold pilot for a proposed weekly half-hour serial drama. Action follows the
Emery (Brandon in early draft) family in post WWII Ashurst New England, in the family home, Birch Hill.
Concept may have been re-worked for the 1958 short lived serial From These Roots by Pickard and Provo.

[Contessa Donatella]

 

https://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/11/soaps-hope-claire-labine-interview-part_11.html#more
We Love Soaps: Because of your experiences with ONE LIFE TO LIVE and GUIDING LIGHT?
Claire Labine: Yes. I clearly was doing something wrong and I don’t know what it was. You get tired after awhile. If you say, “This is what we want to write and this is why we want to write it, and this is why we think it’s good,” and then there isn’t a positive reception, why beat your head against a wall? That’s basically where I am with the whole thing. We did a couple of developments that I love but nothing has happened so far. There’s one that has some life in it I believe, but we’ll see.
We Love Soaps: Can you tell me about that one?
Claire Labine: No. I’m sorry.
We Love Soaps: Okay. Can you tell me more about the show that you and Matthew were developing at the time you left GENERAL HOSPITAL?
Claire Labine: It was about two families in Brooklyn, a white family and a black family. The black family was a family of musicians based loosely on the Marsalis family, all of whom were jazz musicians in one way or another. Then there was a madcap radio talk show host who fell in love with one of the daughters of the entertaining family. It basically was about the common wall between the brownstones, how to preserve it as a symbol of why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along, and how these families came together. They liked each other, they respected each other, but there were real problems. It was fun playing the complexities. We laid out three years of story. It was called UNION PLACE. I still love it. I believe it would speak to the mood of the country right now. I regret that we didn’t get to write it a lot. Every time Matt and I look at it, it’s just alive for us. I doubt anyone will do it. But I love that one.