Harding "Pete" Lemay Dead At 96

[DramatistDreamer]

Sadly, I don't expect much (other than a glancing acknowledgement) from the soap "journalists".  No one in this now diminishing industry seems to want to defer to the greats of the past. 

It's almost as if they'd rather negate it so as not to acknowledge how far the daytime drama genre has fallen from its heights.

I think it's sad, especially since there is so much great history to be celebrated. Those daytime serials have a unique place in broadcast (both radio and television) history and a lot of it was damn good!

 

[Soaplovers]

While his brand of writing worked for the 1970s... it seems as if he struggled with his brief stints in the 80s on SFT, The Doctors, AW (with that it was because he didn't get along with Donna S),  and I guess his input in the 90s wasn't listened to (I guess his feedback about the City fell on deaf ears).  So I often wonder if he had trouble adapting to the changing nature of the soap opera model.

 

From what I've seen of his AW work that survived, it was a little too stage like for me.  I thought the plotting was flawless as well as the character motivation/development..but I think he cared too much about theater technique and not enough on charisma (what he did to Jacqueline Courtney was unforgivable).  If you love theater, than AW in the 70s was the show to watch.. but if you didn't like theater, than you were basically out of luck..and I think that is why GH eventually took off because it offered something people wanted... action/excitement (Marland and Falken Smith balanced that with the hospital concept until 1981).

 

 

 

 

[Faulkner]

I think that’s right. Many of them are still acting like Ron Carlivati is some Bill Bell-level talent. But I suppose it’s job security if they want their little scoops.

[soapfan770]

 

Heh, I remember us joking in the AW discussion thread on how the mid-1970's to 1981 AW opening sounded like Masterpiece Theatre music. Of course, AW was Lemay's Masterpiece Theatre hour, and I know the 1976 episode I've seen, written at Lemay's height was excellent and so well polished that AW really felt like grandiose theater production and a lot more intellectual that probably most other 1970's soaps at the time. 

 

I definitely overall agree with your assessment though. Even Lemay's own attempt at creating a soap(Lovers & Friends) failed quite fast, aside from a poor time slot it failed with an overemphasis on the expository.

[Paul Raven]

It's a pity none Lemay's other soap stints didn't last longer so we could compare his output from one show to the next.

There's no denying his success at AW which he maintained for most of the 8 year time frame.

 

He stayed away from murders/accidents/illnesses which even Bill Bell and Agnes Nixon used to stir the pot.

 

In the years AW had big numbers, it worked well in the NBC schedule. You had Days with it's particular style - family based, then The Doctors with the hospital based stuff and then the drawing room drama of AW so over 90 mins viewers had 3 very individual soaps.

[Soaplovers]

 

If that is true about staying away from accidents/illnesses. etc... I question why he was hired to head writer The Doctors where those things were the hallmark of the show

[Khan]

I think TD/Palmolive/Channelex hired Lemay for the simple fact that he HAD done so much good for AW, bringing the show high ratings and tremendous acclaim, two things which TD needed badly at the time.  It's just unfortunate that by the time Lemay began working on TD, he found both a network (NBC) and a production team (which included the sponsors) that was entirely too cheap and too self-defeating even to agree to his bigger ideas on how to fix the show.

[Paul Raven]

Maybe with The Doctors he would have been prepared to do more accident/illness plots stuff because it tied into the nature of the show.

[Soaplovers]

I think some writers, even talented ones, don't fit every show.. and I think perhaps The Doctors and Edge of Night were two shows Lemay's style wouldn't have fit onto.

[titan1978]

Maybe OLTL, ATWT, or GL would have been better fits.  I can’t imagine him on GH, or something like AMC or DAYS.  Well Days in the 1980’s.  Maybe in the seventies it would have been different.

 

But then again, until I saw what Labine did on GH I would not have thought her work would be right for the show, and it was.  But she had an EP that in her own words backed her up, supported her, and even included her input in things like casting.  And Above Riche, network people that also supported their visions.