On 1/25/2019 at 1:08 PM, Paul Raven said:

John Pickard/Frank Provo, writers of Concerning Miss Marlowe, From These Roots, The Doctors and Love of Life as well as radio soaps have their papers housed at Thousand Oaks Library.

 

Included are proposals for a TV version of their radio soap "Wendy Warren" in the 60's and scripts and synopsis for 'Mary Worth' 1971.

Also included are TV proposals, some of which may have had soap opera overtones

Kenyon's Wife

Leading Lady

Royal Bay

Sentinel Square

Way of Love

Girl Alone 

52 Fifth Avenue

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.

On 1/24/2018 at 1:45 PM, Clark Still said:

I’ve always wanted to know more about Union Place. Here’s a section of an interview where Claire Labine talks about it

 

 

John asks: I've read that you had developed and pitched a new soap to CBS during the years when you were away from RH. Was this an earlier version of what almost became your GH spinoff in the mid-90s, or was it something else? Can you tell us about it?
Claire Labine: Yes.  There were two, actually.  The first was one of the ones that could be a novel.  It was set on a horse farm in Kentucky.  It was called CELEBRATION. And it’s still around and it’s still alive.  The other was HEART & SOUL (aka Union Place). HEART & SOUL was about two families, one black, one white, both show business families.  The black family was three generations of jazz musicians.  Next door was a theatrical family.  The Brooklyn community was a big part of it, as well as a local radio station, some very colorful characters.  Matt (Labine) and I really loved it.  We had the first go around with it with ABC, then NBC, then ABC again.  
 

 

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.

Broadcasting Magazine (May 5, 1980) : Future US-Next TV : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

From a May 1980 Broadcasting issue:

Meredith Broadcasting in association with Alan Sloan Inc has committed itself to produce series of five half hours in soap opera form, "designed for youngers 11-14 and their parents." Programs, yet untitled, "will deal with problems teen-agers face in their relationships with peers and parents," with script topics reviewed in advance by teachers, psychologists and others. First episode is to air on Meredith's five TV's in September and ground broadcaster also anticipates syndication. If successful, idea is to go to full-fledged series. 

I've talked about Bill Gunn and Ishmael Reed's Personal Problems a number of times over the years, including when it first got unearthed and screened in NYC maybe 15 years ago. Belatedly, here's an essay Ishmael Reed did for the Criterion Collection a few years back outlining the show/film's various iterations.

I believe you can still stream PP for free on Kanopy.

Edited October 8Oct 8 by Vee