Black avant-garde writer-director Bill Gunn's direct-to-public television soap opera Personal Problems (written with playwright Ishmael Reed), which I first wrote about long ago, now has been fully restored (albeit still in rough video quality) and is available to watch in two parts for free on streaming courtesy of Kanopy.

 

You can obtain a free Kanopy subscription and watch ten films or programs per month from their very impressive collection by simply giving it your local library card information (I got a digital library card online from my local one in ten minutes) and watching it on your computer or TV/device via the Kanopy app.

 

 

Edited October 1, 20187 yr by Vee

Thanks!

 

This was news to me from 1984

Edited November 4, 20187 yr by j swift

33 minutes ago, j swift said:

 

This was news to me from 1984

I recall Soap Opera Digest talking about both shows. Star Crossed was about rival families in the auto industry and their children who fell in love ala Capitol. So this article appeared in 1984? For some reason, I recall Soap Opera Digest reporting on the shows in 1983. I think they were being primed for a September 1983 premiere.

Paul Rauch must have amassed a fortune in holding deals over the years.  It's the greatest con in Hollywood: get paid to write a treatment, get paid not to sell it elsewhere, and never actually have to produce anything.  Also, Fred Mustard Stewart sounds suspiciously fictional; although I'm sure someone will reply that he wrote for daytime for a decade.

Edited November 4, 20187 yr by j swift

I don’t know about writing for soaps but I recognize Fred Mustard Stewart’s name as a novelist, whose books were made into films and mini-series.  “The Mephisto Waltz,”  and “Ellis Island,” come to mind.

touche @jam6242 

September 1962

Syndie Serial Shoots in N.Y

. Shooting of "The Fragile Link," TV serial aimed for the syndication market, begins Monday in New York City, Henry G . Saperstein , president of Television Personalities , announced  Skein will be produced b y VHF Productions as an half-hour across the board for adult daytime audiences. First release is set for early January. Executive Producer is Richard Rector.

Variety May 1954

Packagers Gros and Baer preparing two soapers scripted by John Haggart -'A Woman to Remember' and 'Look for the Woman'

An  earlier soap had aired titled "A Woman to Remember' - not sure if  any connection between the two.

Is it safe to include Castleton here now? The cast of Passions mentioned during their fan festival two summers ago that a spin off was in the works to have Colton Shires return and focus on the younger set in Castleton where Charity and Faith lived but no more info has been revealed since and I imagine they dropped the idea?

July 1964

ABC-TV's Tom Moore and Colgate evidently can't see eye to eye about spotting Colgate's new daytime serial, Time of Challenge, into the network's 3: 30 to 4 p.m. strip this fall. Colgate likes to control its program when it can and Moore isn't disposed to go along. Challenge, written by Peer Oppenheimer, would follow General Hospital. Colgate owns The Doctors, currently on NBC-TV. Some hope may be held out to Colgate: ABC-TV wants to survey the whole field of daytime product availability before locking-in the fall schedule and there's always the possibility of a change of attitude over the course of a month.

I may have posted this in the old thread....

 

from the June 1970 Afternoon TV   :

 

A black soap opera was being shopped to National Education Stations. The cast was to be:

 

Jonah Rhodes     Bernard Ward

Jean Rhodes   Yolanda Bryant

Sergeant Vines     Milton Lane

Funky Frank, local tavern owner     Ira Rogers

Marco Rhodes     Nol Tinner

Maybelle Rhodes        Suki

On 12/26/2018 at 10:31 PM, Riverdalefan1 said:

Is it safe to include Castleton here now? The cast of Passions mentioned during their fan festival two summers ago that a spin off was in the works to have Colton Shires return and focus on the younger set in Castleton where Charity and Faith lived but no more info has been revealed since and I imagine they dropped the idea?

 

Was this around the time the Salem High spin-off (Belle, Shawn and so on crew) was talked about? IIRC it was proposed to air on weekend mornings.

8 minutes ago, te. said:

 

Was this around the time the Salem High spin-off (Belle, Shawn and so on crew) was talked about? IIRC it was proposed to air on weekend mornings.

Sounds more recent, being that Colton Shires played Little Ethan. 

4 hours ago, Dr Neil Curtis said:

Sounds more recent, being that Colton Shires played Little Ethan. 

Yes, this was recent at the Passions Fan Event they had 2017 in LA.

 

4 hours ago, te. said:

 

Was this around the time the Salem High spin-off (Belle, Shawn and so on crew) was talked about? IIRC it was proposed to air on weekend mornings.

No but I recall that spinoff as well which was Harmony High (I suspect same concept as Salem High.) Reilly was on a roll back then because NBC also approached him about adapting the book “Hidden Passions,” prequel based on the soap set 20 years earlier, for primetime. So unfortunate none of these came to pass.