Look into the past - 1975

[Paul Raven]

The first real romance that Brock got was Julia bit that was short circuited as Beau left.

As For Brock becoming a lawyer, it was probably a budget thing as much as anything else. Why bring in a day player when Beau was there and could fill that role?

Days did the same thing with Chris Kositchek in the 80's and I'm sure there have been similar examples over the years.

[FrenchFan]

Byrna organized a fan poll in 1977. Here are the results.

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[will81]

Nice. Thanks for that. Interesting that Days got best 1hr show since it was falling from grace at this point. Also many of these actors are not the usual crop winning fan polls. Was Doris Belack very popular?

[Paul Raven]

Just noticed that the Ellmans went straight  from Search for Tomorrow to General Hospital. 

I wonder what was behind that? Were they dropped from SFT and if so,why?

In turn, how did they come to be at GH?

Those backstage changes always fascinate me.

Search changed writers often during the 70's. The ratings were high so it is surprising they were always chopping and changing.

 

[will81]

I could find little on them, but it seems they were not there until the end of August and their scripts didn't start until mid-September. They were gone pretty quick too after only six weeks and replaced by the Hollands. Although if six weeks is Sep 23, then they must have joined in mid-late Aug. 

Here are the articles from

Aug 03, 1977 

Aug 27, 1977

Sep 23, 1977

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Okay I did a bit more research and this is my theory. SFT was in fifth for the 76-77 season. GH and ABC wanted writers they felt could turn around the show. Most likely Irving and Tex were the ones they went for or the ones they could get/afford? I think ABC was pretty desperate. Though they were obviously not the right fit.

Here is some more info from Aug 14, 1977. Before they joined

Edited August 23, 2021 by will81

[FrenchFan]

Thanks Will for the information and correction !

[will81]

No worries. Interestingly Terri left town the week of Sep 19, 1977. Which lines up with the above articles. So I am guessing that is the week the Elman's scripts started airing and I assume the Hollands stories were on screen six weeks later, the week of Oct 31, 1977. 

[j swift]

As they say in French, the more things change the more they stay the same, it is with some humor that we read a 1977 article about the Webbers taking over the show.  As I recall that was a criticism up until the mid 80s when Jeff left, but by then Rick had been recast and their sister was never mentioned again.  Then, of course, fans decried that Quatermaines took over the show, or that young characters were too often the focus, or the mob.  It just seems like GH had always had difficulty maintaining a balance between telling hospital based stories and expanding their world into the rest of Port Charles.

[will81]

Here is confirmation on dates about a previous HW shift from 1975 for Love of Life. From Claire Labine & Paul Avila Mayer to I assume Margaret DePriest. From April 26, 1975. 

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[Paul Raven]

Thanks for that. I am working on a headwriter list for various soaps and this specific info is invaluable!

[will81]

No worries. So Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer were the last HW's on Where the Heart Is and Tom Donovan and Jean Arley were producers of that show to the end. All of them moved to Love of Life and I wonder if they went straight from WTHI to LOL, meaning their first credited eps may be from Mar 26, 1973??

I could find no mention of Paul and Margaret Schneider, other than the UCLA script archive which suggests they started HW'ing LOL Dec 02, 1975 - Sep 17, 1976. This would make Margaret DePriest's run exactly 6 months long.

The first mention of Gabriel Upton (the next HW) is the week of the shows Anniversary in September 1976. So maybe those dates for Paul and Margaret are correct and Upton's first credited ep is Sep 20, 1976

Edited August 24, 2021 by will81

[FrenchFan]

Would you be willing to share and correct my mistakes when I post ? I tried to do some list years ago but ressources were not all available and I have some mistakes.

[Sean]

According to an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal published in July 1975, Labine & Mayer became headwriters of LOL in September 1973.  There was a writer's strike from early March through late June 1973, so it's possible they may have taken over directly from the scab writers (or an interim writing team post-strike). They signed with LOL the same week they formalized their development deal with ABC for what would later become Ryan's Hope:

 

[Labine and Mayer] wrote dialogue for CBS's "Where the Heart Is," later became its head writers while developing the ABC project. In September 1973 they became head writers for "Love of Life." They have resigned from those jobs, now that "Ryan's Hope" is a reality. 

....

Q. How long have you been working on this?

A. When "Where the Heart Is" was cancelled in 1973, our agent got us in contact with ABC. We had a couple of meetings and they said, "Hey, fellas, would you like to develop us a serial called 'City Hospital'?" And we said, "Not very much, thank you, but we'll think about it." So, we liked the "city" part a lot, and we came back with a big-city serial. So, they gave us what they call a development fee to sit down and work with an idea and to come up with a thing called the canvas, the basic characters and the situations in which they find themselves when the story begins. Plus, you write a projected long story, six months to a year. So you have the beginning of a show right there. In serials, you don't do pilots. You do bibles, or presentations. That was what we were hired to do. This does not mean that they are going to buy it, You just get paid for developing it. In August of 1973 we said we would like to write this bible, and the very next day CBS offered us the head writership of "Love of Life," an old, old show that had been on 22 years, I think. At that time, it was in very bad ratings trouble. When we left this year in May, the rating situation was much improved and we were very proud, though we were not solely responsible for that. While this was going on, we were doing the development deal for ABC. We had an "out" in our contract to do "Ryan's Hope" if it was bought. And it was, in March of this year.

Edited August 24, 2021 by Sean

[will81]

The strike started Mar 06, 1973 for most writers, but Daytime Drama writers didn't join until about Apr 12, 1973. Since writing for WTHI probably ended around Feb 73, I wasn't sure if maybe they moved over with Tom Donovan and Jean Arley. Thanks for clearing it up though. I know the strike ended late June 1973 but I assume all the Watergate pre-emptions probably kept Labine and Mayer's work from airing until about Sep 1973.

[amybrickwallace]

Same here. Something else I found fascinating was that during this time period, GH's writing team was helmed by three different married couples. (Are the Cullitons the only married couple currently writing in daytime?)