The Holy Grail of Soap Collecting

[mikelyons]

I did a quick search in UCLA's TV & Film archive. They have five episodes of All My Children from 1971 (March 8, 16, & 24 and April 1 & 9) along with five episodes from 1973 (March 12, 20, & 28 & April 5 & 13). The 1973 episodes align perfectly with Erica's abortion as Roe v. Wade was decided on January 22, 1973, and with a six week lag time, Agnes would've had that storyline on the air no later than April 1973. The UCLA episodes - like their Where the Heart Is episodes (which also contain Search for Tomorrow) - aren't playable because UCLA doesn't have the right equipment. Maybe we should take up a collection drive. **sigh**

[depboy]

The American Heritage center in Laramie, Wyoming has the Frank & Doris Hursley Papers in their collection, that contains scripts, outlines and other documents relating to the Hursley’s work.

 

I contacted their staff and they generously sent me scans of the original GH story outline, the story projections for the show’s first six months, and correspondence between ABC New York and Doris Hursley.

 

They also have the Bridget & Jerome Dobson papers.  Their research room is open to the public, and you can go through the boxes. I have plans to go to the west coast next summer, and am trying to fit in a trip to Laramie.

[mikelyons]

It’s wonderful that they sent you scans of that documentation! I had to take photos of the stuff in Irna’s archive. The Bell archive makes you write everything by hand and the same with Agnes’ archive. 

One of the head writers of Search for Tomorrow has an archive just north of LA with years of documentation and scripts (the 60s, I believe). I hope to visit that one soon. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Wow, that anyplace would have people write documentation by hand in this day and age!  If soaps are serious about, at least preserving the legacy they still have, they must get with the digitization process.

[SteelCity]

I wonder if Christopher Goutman donated anything to CMU before he passed. That's local to me.

[robbwolff]

I believe Christopher Goutman is very much alive.

[Vee]

Not in our hearts.

[P.J.]

The Holy Grail for me would be seeing  ATWT's Bob and Kim hooking up. I still can't wrap my head around Kimmy being a lounge singer.

[vetsoapfan]

 

 I was just about to write the exact same thing, LOL.

[mikelyons]

I agree, but it's a copyright issue. ABC/Disney owns all of the intellectual property for AMC & OLTL (which they acquired in 1975); Sony (for all intents and purposes) owns it for Y&R (Sony owns approximately 75% of the show with the Bells at 24% and Corday Productions at 1%). Without their consent, the archives can't allow people to make photocopies of the outlines, scripts, etc. It's a hassle, but they can only allow what the rights holders allow.

That being said, the P&G soaps are a different beast. Most of their scripts, outlines, broadcast episodes before 1970 were never copyrighted by P&G and have fallen into the public domain. Since soap writers are work for hire, their ownership immediately passes to P&G, but if P&G let the initial copyright lapse and never filed the correct extension (I believe they would've had to do so in the 70s), those scripts, outlines, etc. are fair game for copying, photographing, and distributing. 

The UCLA archive holds about 5 episodes of ATWT from 1973. This storyline may very well be on one of those tapes which UCLA isn't able to play on their equipment. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

It's so weird how "precious" some of these soap production companies are with with their scripts when I have a library full of Academy Award winning scripts on my flashdrive.  When I was in grad school, I was able to easily get copies of scripts and Sherwood outlines for primetime shows from The Dick Van Dyke show, to I Love Lucy to Frasier and Scrubs. 

What exactly do these soap producers think we're going to do with a script of an episode of The Young and the Restless from 1977?

I can go get a copy of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night from French's bookstore or the complete works of William Shakespeare.  What makes soaps so special?

 

I swear, the daytime drama genre is just pushing their history toward complete and utter obsolescence.  There are but a few of us who still care about this genre and the industry is discouraging most of us to continue to care.

[mikelyons]

I agree with you 100%! 

Some movie studios have even begun selling their least popular movies through DVD on demand. Yeah, not everyone may care about that film, but the people who do can buy a legitimate copy that’s printed on demand on a DVD and the studio pulls in a few bucks. Easy. Simple. Why ABC and Sony can’t do the same is beyond me. Oh, wait...it’s because they don’t want to do it and they don’t care. Now if it were The Revolution or The Chew...

[SteelCity]

Nevertheless, I would like to know.

P&G soaps are in the public domain?! Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?!!

[DramatistDreamer]

I just saw a notice that the new One Day At A Time have sent all their scripts to be housed in the library of the WGA, which makes so much more sense.  You have to be onsite to access the scripts.  I wonder why more programs don't send their scripts to WGA for safekeeping. 

 

I always register mine at the East Coast division and when I was a grad student, I had an associate membership for only $17 a year.

 

It would be so much easier if the soaps had done this option, at least since the  early 1980s.  The soaps on the East Coast could've easily gone a couple of blocks and delivered one copy of the scripts once a week.  I mean the WGA has been around since the 1950s.

[Scrapple]

My personal Holy Grail would be the first soap story I ever remember seeing as a kid. It was The Edge Of Night, and it was the story that introduced the character of Nicole Travis. There was a crazy lady named Stephanie Martin, who pissed off EVERYBODY in Monticello, and , of course, was murdered. Nicole was arrested, but since the whole town wanted her dead, every character seemed to have their moment on the witness stand. Adam Drake represented Nicole, setting the stage for their romance. The day they revealed the killer, it was like "Who Shot J.R." for me.