I have about ten scripts for it (#4, 9-14, 16-20). In addition, I have the drafts of episode #12-13 written by the original writers before Lakin took over. Rita Lakin reused a little bit of those episodes, but heavily rewrote them. In both versions, episode #12 is called Identity Crisis, but episode #13 was called The Naked Towers of Ilium or something of that nature. Wikipedia lists it as episode #20, but that is inaccurate. The last episode I have, #20, is called Uncoupled and deals the rift in Don and Helen Walling's marriage after the scandal of David Valerio's death and the episode ends with the couple agreeing to stay together for appearances. I've never really deep dived into them because they tended to be a bit dry, but that was many years ago. I also have a character bible for the show from the first set of writers. I don't think much of the show visually has popped up but may be a promo years ago. I do think someone who posted here years ago and use to post a lot on YouTube had it.
The Friday night slot was very short lived. While Lakin's team rewrote episodes #12-13, episode #14 was announced as the launch of the new soapier Executive Suite which was suppose to focus more on the interpersonal, romantic, and family relationships and less on the inner workings of the Cardway Corporation. Only a handful of episodes aired in the slot before it was cancelled at the end of January with episode #20 most likely in production already (I have the call sheets for the episodes as well). The show wasn't given time, but it was also ranking in the bottom two spots for the week for most of the Friday episodes.
When it was launched, the network said that Executive Suite was in response to the massive success of Rich Man, Poor Man the previous year. There were several other book related series that season which also didn't score well.The original production team was touting that they were airing up to 9 different stories in a single episode, which was probably too many. Also, the cast seems quite large. Lakin trimmed it down, extended the David Valerio story which was originally only 4 episodes (he appeared in 8), and then introduced Kim Hamilton as one of the board members wives.
I believe that Executive Suite's original slot was Mondays at 10, but that All in the Family and Maude were loved to a different slot
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dc11786 ·
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