Soap Opera Story Bibles

[Soaplovers]

Dark Shadows...Shadows on the wall.  Used to be available for purchase and it was pretty detailed.

[Vee]

I still have it somewhere. It was quite a read, and watching the evolution out of some of the bible's concepts into some backstory (B. Hanscomb) or other characters (Ned Calder? etc.) who were much hyped in the early months of the show and then never really appeared or came together was also intriguing.

[Broderick]

Regarding the Y&R bible, Bill Bell goes into great detail about its structure during one of his interviews with the Archive of American Television.   He describes it as being "about 62 pages, maybe 72 pages" with the first "third or so" of the material being backstory of the characters.   The middle section contained character profiles.  Roughly "twenty pages, I don't know, maybe twenty-five pages" were story projection for the two years.   He had several copies (approximately 30) which he "passed around" to the network executives, and then "one by one, they finished reading and looked at me blankly, with no idea what they'd just read.   They didn't understand how these few pages could provide a year's worth of storyline.  They didn't understand the genre."   I paraphrased, but that's basically what he said.  

Edited April 7, 2021 by Broderick

[mikelyons]

As close as we'll get to the original theme from AS THE EARTH TURNS. This is from the original pilot, which was used to sell the show & never aired on television.

 

 

"…This, then, is the broad base of our storyline. We would like to stress the point of “AS THE EARTH TURNS” is not a melodrama. It is the story of people. It might well be said that the life of each of us is a serial story. Heredity and environment shape our destinies. As it is true for us, so it is true for the Hughes family. The experiences of these people are predictable as the changing seasons, and as unpredictable as nature itself. What happens to them to so many of us who are subject to the many influences, pressures, of everyday living in this particular era - an era that is breeding insecurity, feat, almost futility. But as long as this is a springtime and a harvest, as long as the earth turns, nothing is futile."

 

-------------------------------

 

This is from the original bible of THE EDGE OF NIGHT (originally known as WORLD WITHIN) by Irving Vendig. I copied all of the original misspellings, etc. to maintain the integrity of the documents.

 

My original paragraph on World Within 

Read:

PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS: “Everyone has a World Within --- a world he alone knows. We live ON a world that spins around the sun ---We live IN a personal world created out of ourselves --- the stuff we are.” Perhaps all I did was restate Hamlet. “This above all: To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Or ---- The late Perry Mason radio show: “...defender of human rights, champion of all those who seek justice.”

"In our presentation, we said “The World Within is the exciting love story of Mike Karr and Sara Lane...etc...”

"The excitement comes in part from Mike’s character, a great deal from Mike’s job. Because of what Mike is (his world within) and because of his occupation, he too is a “defender of human rights, a champion of all those who seek justice.”

Excitement and emotion will also come from Sara and her conflicts...her “world within”. Bother before and after their marriage will be a world touching but apart from Mike’s work - world. And so...while Sara will share Mike’s zeal to help the worthy underdog, her world is apart from his....these are facets of his work she can’t understand just as there will be home problems he can’t understand...and hence...as case after case develops...we will have a background of Sara and Mike’s lives, and their personal problems and adjustments which must be met and solved or delayed while Mike and Sara go about their everyday affairs...even as you and I.

"So, we return to the original concept for World Within (we never really wanted very far) which God know is a (( inclusive enough to embrace every human problem. Mike is a detective whose instinct is for the underdog. Because Mike is honest from the bones out, it’s a deserving underdog. We know he’s deserving because he seeks justice, is not afraid of justice, and because Mike is for Him. Because of Mike’s nature, and within the framework of his job, Mike will see the underdog gets justice, even if it means trouble and danger. Sara loves Mike for what he is. If he weren’t true to himself he couldn’t be true to her. But...she’s human, and there’ll be times when she wishes Mike could reserve a little more of his day for her.

"Paradoxically, there may come a time when Sara defends a person Mike doesn’t think deserves that much sympathy. As a specific example, there’s her brother Jack. Mike will do all he can for Jack...but when it appears Jack steps into trouble wilfully, Mike doesn’t feel Jack has the right to Sara’s infinite patience. In this specific interest, Sara is right --- for she’s had the chance to see things in Jack that Mike hasn’t seen. In the resolution of this particular sequence, both Sara and Mike will have learned a lesson, as a result, the world created by their love will be that much better...and so it will go all their lives.

Broadly, and story-wise, it seems to me that our story attack was right from the beginning, too. In an exciting, close-to-home story, we give Mike and Sara deep histories before they are married. After their marriage, we show their homelife and adjustment struggles against the background of a succession of cases that derive directly from Mike’s work.

"The case will be the basis of the sequence as it was on the Parry (sic) Mason radio show --- the important difference being that now we have protagonists who are people, and who have human problems that ca be followed as the case builds, develops, and is solved. The story won’t be told from Mike or Sara’s viewpoint exclusively...but from whichever viewpoint (at the time) gives the best dramatic or emotional view.

"To sum up, as in the Mason radio show we will meet a succession of interesting people with dramatically interesting problems...plus Mike and Sara...Mike and Sara who hold our story together and who are people in their own right, people who will continue to grow, adjust, make mistakes....learn from those mistakes --- in short --- people who are alive!"

Edited April 7, 2021 by mikelyons
clarity

[Lust4Life76]

That the world within the world Irna Phillips is creating is a nuanced representation of the world she lived in. And that the Hughes family is her "seed", and that despite the problems of the day "ATWT" was created, she is providing an escape, a celebration of the home, to take the viewers mind off of the problems of the day. What do you all draw from it? 

 

[mikelyons]

The "theme"/"baseline" from MA PERKINS:

 

“The ‘baseline’ of MA PERKINS is the Golden Rule. Another way of stating this is that every sequence demonstrates Ma as an active, although not interfering, practicing Christian. Truth, honesty, loyalty — doing unto other rather than doing others…these principles Ma believes are never to be compromised.”

I think she understood that the life of the housewife wasn't ideal, but she wanted to create a world where the ideal was attainable, although not without its own issues. Ruth Warrick said in her Academy interview that all of the couples were with the wrong people and that's part of the reason people identified and enjoyed the show.

 

------------------------------------

 

Episode #9 of SEARCH FOR TOMORROW (Second Revision) written by Agnes Nixon. She wove the theme of SFT into dialogue between Joanne and Keith.

 

Page 14

 

JOANNE: Keith, be reasonable.

KEITH: Me?…You’re not looking any father than your nose, Jo….There’s a lot more to it than just the day-to-day bills. A man had to think of the future - plan for tomorrow.

JOANNE: That’s what I’m thinking of too…We all search for tomorrow - because it holds the promise of happiness.

KEITH: Don’t you want it to hold the promise of security too?

JOANNE: Of course! But security is something inside yourself. You can’t buy it or sell it or put it in a bank.

KEITH: That sounds real fine when you say it… But I’m not so sure anymore, Jo….I’m just not so sure.

 

FADE OUT.

(MUSIC: BRIDGE)

(SECOND COMMERCIAL)

Edited April 7, 2021 by mikelyons
clarity

[Paul Raven]

Thanks so much for posting these snippets.It's great to read something new about these classic shows.

Incidentally,Irna uses the phrase 'springtime and harvest' in her summation of ATET.

She used that as the title of a little known radio soap in the early 40's which played on a few stations as a sort of pilot run but it was never picked up.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Paul Raven

[NothinButAttitude]

Crap! 

 

I forgot that a good portion of BBC's Eldorado's bible was online, but the site that used to have many of the character synopsis has gotten rid of them. 

 

I had them downloaded (too) on my old Mac computer but I wiped it clean after getting my new one. 

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[Mona Kane Croft]

Somewhere in a box, I have the original bible for "Another World: Somerset" (later retitled, Somerset).  The original is in the P&G archives in Cincinnati.  The archivist made a copy for me, when I visited around 1996.  If my memory is correct, the working title for the show was "Between Two Worlds."  And I recall the character Robert Delany was supposed to be murdered during the early weeks of the show. Of course, the character ultimately survived and later crossed-over permanently to the mother show, Another World.

  

Edited April 8, 2021 by Neil Johnson

[SFK]

Me too. The first bible was SO different from what made it to air. Not nearly as trite as the Capulets vs. the Montagues second bible. Most fascinating was the female lead, Merle, who lived with other young women in a rooming house. She was described as white passing with unique features among the other girls that tipped her black heritage. I’m assuming she would have eventually been tied to one of the political families, maybe a child of Sam Clegg or Mark Denning.

[Brolden]

 

Whoa! @mikelyons you are officially my new favorite person in the whole world. Thank you so much for sharing this. I've never seen this before!

[amybrickwallace]

I read the AW bible at AWHP and was completely sucked in. It's always been fascinating to me how what is written in an original presentation is often different from what goes on the air. Most of the AW characters presented in the original bible were either demarginalized or phased out that first year. I wonder what the show would have ultimately been like had they stuck more to the original vision.

[wonderwoman1951]

this 2018 post explains a lot about the creation of another world:

http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/creation.htm

[Paul Raven]

Thanks for directing us to that. Fascinating stuff.

Fred Silverman, now ABC's president, hired Gloria Monty and gave her 13 weeks to turn things around or he would cancel GH. Monty came on board, hired Anthony Geary as Luke Spencer, and paired him with Genie Francis's Laura. And the rest, as they say, is history.

 

For an article that set out to clear up some misconceptions re Irna and AW, the above statement does the same for Gloria Monty and GH.

Geary wasn't hired until  well after  Gloria's arrival by which time GH under Marland and Monty had rebounded in the ratings.

It was Scotty/Laura and Rick/Leslie etc that led the charge to the top of the ratings heap.

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by Paul Raven

[wonderwoman1951]

true — but ‘luke and laura’ remain the embodiment of the transformation of ‘general hospital,’ and its impact on soaps.