shallotpeel-877-14891 Reviews

Hawkins Falls: A Television Novel (1950–1955)

BLOG 4 PAINTED DREAMS & HAWKINS FALLS

[10/10 · 11 April 2019]

BLOG 4 PAINTED DREAMS & HAWKINS FALLS

THE MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO WORLDS WITHOUT END THE ART & HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA (1997) Harry N. Abrams, Inc. The Soap Opera on Television Despite the success of the serial in magazine publishing, at the movies, and on radio, there was still resistance by television execs to use the form. One of the visionaries of early television, NBC president Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, felt the radio technique woudn't work in a visual medium because there was higher absorption and greater tension demands on television. Although prime-time entertainment was successful in 1948 with Milton Berle vaudeville on television; it took three more years for the soap opera to make a successful jump.

The DuMont producer David P. Lewis, searched for daytime drama that would allow the housewife "to turn away and go on peeling potatoes or knitting." Even Irna Phillips failed in her initial attempt, a reworking of her first radio serial PAINTED DREAMS, because she made no concessions to the visual medium. One piece from Chicago, known for its realism, HAWKINS FALLS, ran three months in prime time and four years in the afternoon. Cocreator was Roy Winsor. Daytime Versus Early Prime Time Whatever the ultimate root of the critical prejudice against the television soap opera, it is interesting to note that it existed from the beginning, even when daytime and prime-time dramas were much closer in tone and style. During the fifties, daytime serial and live drama shared many of the same aesthetic values: both emphasized psychology of character and the power of the revelatory close-up; both employed actors who had training in the theater and writers working in the realistic tradition of the Broadway problem play; both were performed live

Guiding Light (1952–2009)

BLOG 1 GL & AGGIE TRIBUTE

[10/10 · 11 April 2019]

Awhile back someone brought up a popular US daytime soap opera DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Melissa was a soap opera fan. I became a super soap opera fan. I have hundreds of soap opera books. When we lived in Brooklyn, NY, Melissa was an Editor for GUIDING LIGHT at SOAP OPERA DIGEST. DAYS OF OUR LIVES began to be broadcast on NBC in November 1965 & it is still on the air today. Back when I was a super soap fan, there were 14 soaps on the air. Today there are 4.

Melissa & I both had a favorite soap opera ANOTHER WORLD which was owned by Procter & Gamble & broadcast on NBC beginning in May 1964. It was cancelled on June 25, 1999. We met online as fans who were working to try to save the show. At that time I lived in Dalton, GA & Melissa lived in Brooklyn, NY. We came to meet in person & pursue a relationship. I moved to Brooklyn.

I was asked recently among some ANOTHER WORLD fans that I spend time with what my next favorite soap was after ANOTHER WORLD. Let's see if I understand the question. After ANOTHER WORLD, what is my next favorite soap? Next after ANOTHER WORLD is GUIDING LIGHT. Then, next after GUIDING LIGHT is AS THE WORLD TURNS. But, I have watched a whole array of soaps after ANOTHER WORLD went off the air in June 1999, which is when Melissa & I got together. As a matter of fact, immediately after that grievable loss of ANOTHER WORLD, I watched 8 soaps to try to fill the gap in my heart. Eight! I never watched YOUNG & RESTLESS. I didn't watch BOLD & BEAUTIFUL until many years down the road. I was very fond of the little half hour soap PORT CHARLES. There were other soaps at other times. I just missed ANOTHER WORLD like crazy. Didn't you?

I forgot to list SANTA BARBARA owned by Dobson Productions, broadcast on NBC, July 1984. GUIDING LIGHT was owned by Procter & Gamble & broadcast on CBS June 1952. AS THE WORLD TURNS owned by Procter & Gamble broadcast on CBS May 1964. PORT CHARLES was a half hour spin-off of GENERAL HOSPITAL owned & broadcast on ABC June 1997.

Besides DAYS OF OUR LIVES which just won Best Show Daytime Emmy 2018 there are 3 other US daytime soap operas still on the air today. YOUNG & RESTLESS owned by Columbia Pictures Television & broadcast on CBS March 1973. BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL owned by Bell-Phillip Productions & broadcast on CBS March 1987. GENERAL HOSPITAL owned by ABC Entertainment & broadcast on ABC April 1963.

Jill Hurst Melissa Scardaville What, if any, show was on the air before GUIDING LIGHT? Carol Sumilas Boshears Search for Tomorrow? Saw it as a grade schooler at lunch time. 15 minute show. Jill Hurst I think it was the first to move to tv from radio. ...hmmm, I need to refresh my memory. To be continued.

Carol Sumilas Boshears, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW owned by Procter & Gamble & broadcast on CBS September 3 1951 - December 26 1986 (moved to NBC March 1982 - December 26 1986.) In Henderson. Created by Roy Winsor with Agnes Nixon. Could have been subtitled "The Joanne Gardner Barron Tate Vincente Tourneur Story" for that character and the actress playing her, Mary Stuart, set the tone for the show's 35-year run. The show was top-rated 1952-1955. But, CBS and P&G had a serious dispute in 1982, where it limped along on NBC until its cancellation. The show did its first live episode since 1968 in 1983, claiming that the day's tape was missing, but many suspected it was a publicity stunt designed to mimic a similar situation in the recent hit movie TOOTSIE. The most publicity the show got that year was when Mary Stuart donated her ruffled apron from the first shows to the Smithsonian Institute.

In 1986 the McCleary brothers took center stage as Patti helped Hogan solve Stephanie's murder. There was not to be a 36th anniversary show. Instead there was a grand send-off at the end of 1986. At the end of the event, Stu asked Jo, "What is it, Jo? What are you searching for?" and she said, "Tomorrow, and I can't wait!"

Then, in a separate taped piece Mary Stuart thanked the fans for their love and devotion before the screen went to black.

At age 63, she ventured on with the role of a judge on ONE LIFE TO LIVE (1968) in 1988 for a year,

and then a longer-running part on GUIDING LIGHT (1952) in 1996, as Meta. This role lasted until her death from cancer in 2002 at age 75.

Mary's autobiography entitled BOTH OF ME was written in 1980 and also serves as a comprehensive history of "SOT.";

Hogan McCleary, David Forsyth played Dr. John Hudson on ANOTHER WORLD; Cagney McCleary, Matthew Ashford on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, Rebecca "TR" Kendall, Jane Krakowski played on ALLY McBEAL, on 30 ROCK, and on UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT, Marcia McCabe was Bunny Eberhardt a hit person (1995) on ANOTHER WORLD.

Mimi Torchin I think there was a soap called Hawkins Falls that predated GL.

Mimi Torchin Looking in the Schemering book, HAWKINS FALLS June 17 1950 - August 19 1950 a primetime Saturday night series; then April 2 1951 - July 1 1955 daytime on NBC

Elana Levine Hi all - there were a number of short-lived soaps that debuted before GL. The longest lasting was Search for Tomorrow. Irna Phillips even wrote one, called These are My Children (a remake of her radio soap Today's Children) that lasted for about a month in 1949! The networks and the sponsors were all hesitant about moving soaps to TV because they were so lucrative in radio and they feared losing that money.

Hi, Elana, thanks for making these contributions to this fun thread.

From the Schemering THESE ARE MY CHILDREN January 31 1949 - February 25 1949 NBC Based on Irna Phillips earliest autobiographical radio soaps PAINTED DREAMS and TODAY'S CHILDREN. Broadcast live from Chicago.

Shawn Reeves Are we talking about on the air on tv or the beginnings on radio? GL started on the radio in 1948. Shawn Reeves Most of the discussion is on TV, but, yes, GL and others were on radio before. Either is good fodder for discussion. Shawn Reeves Donna L Bridges if I remember correctly, GL started airing on tv in 1948 as well as still producing the radio broadcast. I'm going back to the research we did for the anniversary show. GL would broadcast on radio first in the day and than the actors would go down the street to perform the same show for live tv.

Shawn, thanks for adding that. It sounds right. Melissa Scardaville Hey all. There were between 360 and 391 soaps on radio. It's a little hard to categorize them in the early years. The first one where we have extensive documentation is "Painted Dreams." It aired four times a week, starting in 1930. While there were a few other radio serials, the next would be "Girl Reporter" and "Keeping Up with Daughter," which debuted in 1931. Melissa Scardaville Guiding Light was about the 100th soap opera to debut on radio in 1937. It aired on radio and television (as Shawn said they would tape the radio in the morning and tv in the afternoon.) GL transitioned to television in 1952 and ceased radio broadcasts. Melissa Scardaville Oh I should add - Painted Dreams was created by Irna Phillips. It was a 10 minute show based in Chicago.

THE MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO WORLDS WITHOUT END THE ART & HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA (1997) Harry N. Abrams, Inc. The Serial Comes to Radio Nearly all of the earliest radio programming was scheduled in the evening, because executives were concerned that housewives would not be able to concentrate on a program while performing their chores. One scholar called radio, "an evening, family and father-controlled entertainment." That changed as the home products manufacturer General Mills looked for ways to bring information into the home for women. In 1926 they created "Betty Crocker" to help with shopping. NBC created "The Women's Magazine of the Air" for genuine information and help. Procter & Gamble became a main sponsor & advertised 3 times per week.

THE MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO WORLDS WITHOUT END THE ART & HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA (1997) Harry N. Abrams, Inc. The Hummerts & the Serial Factory Frank and Anne Hummert provide a fascinating contrast to Irna Phillips. Frank Hummert had been working in copywriting and advertising when he noticed "the success of serial fiction in newspapers and magazines." In the early thirties, he decided to translate that serial narrative to the infant medium of radio. He wanted his radio dramas to accommodate the daily pattern of the homemaker, but at the same time to offer a release into the world of romance and fantasy - very different from the "real" world of Irna Phillips. He worked with his Assistant Anne Ashenhurst (whom he married in 1935) and writer Charles Robert Douglas Hardy Andrews to devise fantasies to help alleviate the boredom and repetition of housework. By the midforties the Hummerts were producing twelve serials a day and were operating what was considered a soap opera mill. They said "they were painting against the canvas of everyday life." "The Daytime Controversy " During the early forties there were more than seventy daytime serials on the air. The press mocked the tales and the cleaning products that were sold. The suffering on the airwaves was thought to be corrupting the human nervous system. Columbia University found two contradictory gratifications: first, pure escapism; and second, moral guidance. There seemed to be little difference between listeners and in non-listeners.

Agnes Nixon Tribute (Extended Version) The iconic creator of All My Children and One Life to Live, Agnes Nixon, is honored in this tribute to her career, her legacy, and the soap operas she made...

St. Elsewhere (1982–1988)

BLOG 10 ST. ELSEWHERE & THE WESTPHAL UNIVERSE

[10/10 · 9 April 2019]

Genre Medical drama, Serial, ST ELSEWHERE Created by Joshua Brand & John Falsey Developed by Mark Tinker & John Masius Starring

Ed Flanders David Birney G.W. Bailey Ed Begley Jr. Terence Knox Howie Mandel David Morse Christina Pickles Kavi Raz William Daniels

Norman Lloyd Cynthia Sikes

Ellen Bry Denzel Washington

Mark Harmon Eric Laneuville Kim Miyori Nancy Stafford Stephen Furst Bonnie Bartlett Bruce Greenwood Cindy Pickett Ronny Cox Sagan Lewis France Nuyen Jennifer Savidge Byron Stewart

Theme music composer Dave Grusin Composer(s) Dave Grusin J. A. C. Redford Country of origin United States Original language(s) English No. of seasons 6 No. of episodes 137 (list of episodes) Production Production location(s) CBS Studio Center Studio City, Los Angeles, California Running time 45-48 minutes Production company(s) MTM Enterprises Distributor MTM Television Distribution Group (1988-1989) 20th Television Release Original network NBC Audio format Monaural (seasons 1-5) Stereo (season 6) Original release October 26, 1982 - May 25, 1988

St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels as teaching doctors at an aging, underrated Boston hospital who give interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions. The series was produced by MTM Enterprises, which had success with a similar NBC series, the police drama Hill Street Blues, during that same time; both series were often compared to each other for their use of ensemble casts and overlapping serialized storylines (an original ad for St. Elsewhere quoted a critic that called the series "'Hill Street Blues' in a hospital"). St. Elsewhere was filmed at CBS/MTM Studios, which was known as CBS/Fox Studios when the show began; coincidentally, 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the series when it bought MTM Enterprises in the 1990s.

Recognized for its gritty, realistic drama, St. Elsewhere gained a small yet loyal following (the series did not rank higher than 49th place in the yearly Nielsen ratings) over its six-season, 137-episode run; however, the series also found a strong audience in Nielsen's 18-49 age demographic, a young demo later known for a young, affluent audience that TV advertisers were eager to reach. The series also earned critical acclaim during its run, earning 13 Emmy Awards for its writing, acting, and directing. St. Elsewhere was ranked No. 20 on TV Guide's 2002 list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time", with the magazine also selecting it as the best drama series of the 1980s in a 1993 issue. In 2013, TV Guide ranked the series No. 51 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. Contents

1 Overview 2 Main cast 3 Episodes 3.1 "Newheart" 3.2 "Cheers" 3.3 "Time Heals" 3.4 "After Life" 3.5 "Last Dance at the Wrecker's Ball" 3.6 "A Moon For the Misbegotten" 3.7 "Their Town" 3.8 "The Last One" 4 Allusions, crossovers, and homages 5 Awards and nominations 6 Film adaptation 7 Syndication 8 Home media 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links

Overview

St. Elsewhere was set at the fictional St. Eligius Hospital, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood. (The South End's Franklin Square House Apartments, formerly known as the St. James Hotel and located next to Franklin and Blackstone Squares, stood in for the hospital in establishing shots, including the series' opening sequence.) The hospital's nickname, "St. Elsewhere", is a slang term used in the medical field to refer to lesser-equipped hospitals that serve patients turned away by more prestigious institutions; it is also used in medical academia to refer to teaching hospitals in general. In the pilot episode, surgeon Dr. Mark Craig (William Daniels) informs his colleagues that the local Boston media had bestowed the derogatory nickname upon St. Eligius since they perceived the hospital as "a dumping ground, a place you wouldn't want to send your mother-in-law." In fact, the hospital was so poorly regarded that its shrine to Saint Eligius was commonly defiled by the hospital's visitors and staff, and is passingly referred to by Dr. Wayne Fiscus as "the patron saint of longshoremen and bowlers." (Eligius is neither; he is patron saint of numismatists, metalworkers, and horses.)

Just as in Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere employed a large ensemble cast; a gritty, "realistic" visual style; and a profusion of interlocking serialized stories, many of which continued over the course of multiple episodes or seasons. In the same way Hill Street was regarded as a groundbreaking police drama, St. Elsewhere also broke new ground in medical dramas, creating a template that influenced ER, Chicago Hope, and other later shows in the genre. St. Elsewhere portrayed the medical profession as an admirable but less-than-perfect endeavor; the St. Eligius staff, while mostly having good intentions in serving their patients, all had their own personal and professional problems, with the two often intertwining. The staff's problems, and those of their patients (some of whom didn't survive), were often contemporary in nature, with storylines involving breast cancer, AIDS, and addiction. Though the series dealt with serious issues of life, death, the medical profession, and the human effects of all three, a substantial number of comedic moments, inside jokes, and references to TV history were included, as well as tender moments of humanity.

The producers for the series were Bruce Paltrow, Mark Tinker, John Masius, Tom Fontana, John Falsey and Abby Singer. Tinker, Masius, Fontana, and Paltrow wrote a number of episodes as well; other writers included John Tinker, John Ford Noonan, Charles H. Eglee, Eric Overmyer, Channing Gibson, and Aram Saroyan. The cast of St. Elsewhere (season one)

The show's main and end title theme was composed by famed jazz musician and composer Dave Grusin. Noted film and TV composer J.A.C. Redford wrote the music for the series (except for the pilot, which was scored by Grusin). No soundtrack was ever released, but the theme was released in two different versions: the original TV mix and edit appeared on TVT Records' compilation Television's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3: 70s & 80s, and Grusin recorded a full-length version for inclusion on his Night Lines album, released in 1983.

Main cast Main article: List of St. Elsewhere characters

Along with established actors Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels, St. Elsewhere's ensemble cast includes David Morse, Alfre Woodard, Bruce Greenwood, Christina Pickles, Kyle Secor, Ed Begley Jr., Stephen Furst, Howie Mandel, Mark Harmon, Denzel Washington and Helen Hunt. Notable guest stars include Tim Robbins, whose first major role was in the series' first three episodes (as domestic terrorist Andrew Reinhardt), and Doris Roberts and James Coco, who both earned Emmy Awards for their season-one appearance as, respectively, a bag lady and her mentally challenged husband.

Ed Flanders as Dr. Donald Westphall David Birney as Dr. Ben Samuels (1982-1983) G.W. Bailey as Dr. Hugh Beale (1982-1983) Ed Begley Jr. as Dr. Victor Ehrlich Terence Knox as Dr. Peter White (1982-1985) Howie Mandel as Dr. Wayne Fiscus David Morse as Dr. Jack Morrison Christina Pickles as Nurse Helen Rosenthal Kavi Raz as Dr. Vijay Kochar (1982-1984) Cynthia Sikes as Dr. Annie Cavanero (1982-1985) Denzel Washington as Dr. Phillip Chandler William Daniels as Dr. Mark Craig Barbara Whinnery as Dr. Cathy Martin (1982-1986) Norman Lloyd as Dr. Daniel Auschlander Ellen Bry as Nurse Shirley Daniels (1984-1985, recurring: 1982-1983, 1987) Mark Harmon as Dr. Robert Caldwell (1983-1986) Eric Laneuville as Luther Hawkins Kim Miyori as Dr. Wendy Armstrong (1982-1984) Nancy Stafford as Joan Halloran (1983-1985, 1986) Stephen Furst as Dr. Elliot Axelrod (1983-1988) Bonnie Bartlett as Ellen Craig (1986-1988, recurring: 1982-1985) Bruce Greenwood as Dr. Seth Griffin (1986-1988) Cindy Pickett as Dr. Carol Novino (1986-1988) Ronny Cox as Dr. John Gideon (1987-1988) Sagan Lewis as Dr. Jacqueline Wade France Nuyen as Dr. Paulette Kiem Jennifer Savidge as Nurse Lucy Papandreo Byron Stewart as Warren Coolidge

Episodes Main article: List of St. Elsewhere episodes Season Episodes Originally aired First aired Last aired

1 22 October 26, 1982 May 3, 1983

2 22 October 26, 1983 May 16, 1984

3 24 September 19, 1984 March 27, 1985

4 24 September 18, 1985 May 7, 1986

5 23 September 24, 1986 May 27, 1987

6 22 September 16, 1987 May 25, 1988

St. Elsewhere ran for six seasons and 137 episodes; the first season (1982-83) aired Tuesdays at 10 p.m. (ET), with remaining seasons airing Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

St. Elsewhere was noteworthy for featuring episodes with unusual aspects or significant changes to the series' status quo. Some of those episodes included:

"Newheart" Original air date: November 9, 1983 - Dr. Morrison learns of the death of his wife, Nina (with whom he had an argument in an early scene of this episode), after slipping and hitting her head. Nina's heart is donated to a heart transplant patient - a patient of Dr. Craig. The poignant final scene of the episode finds Morrison entering the patient's room and, with a stethoscope, hearing the patient's new heart - Nina's heart - steadily beating.

"Cheers" Original air date: March 27, 1985 - St. Elsewhere ended its 3rd season with this TV crossover that found Drs. Westphall, Auschlander, and Craig getting together at that other Boston TV institution, the namesake setting of the comedy series Cheers. The scene, which was filmed on the main Cheers soundstage (Stage 25 at

The Young and the Restless (1973– )

BLOG 20 YOUNG & RESTLESS

[10/10 · 8 April 2019]

THE YOUNG AND RESTLESS LIFE OF WILLIAM J. BELL Creator of The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful by Michael Maloney with Lee Phillip Bell (2012) Sourcebooks Foreword by David Hasselhoff

As most of us were, Bill was introduced to soap operas by his mother. He listened with her to serial dramas including Our Gal Sunday, The Romance of Helen Trent and Life Can Be Beautiful, on the radio. "Mom would have soup and a sandwich and be waiting for me," he was quoted as saying in WORLDS WITHOUT END: THE ART AND HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA. Before long Bill was hooked. He was particularly taken with "The Guiding Light, created by Irna Phillips." Bill brought greater characterization and depth, for example, to Y&R's Victor Newman because the viewers learned that he had been left in an orphanage as a little boy. He created a financial empire so he could never be hurt again, becoming literally a "new man" in the process.

Bill's son Bradley, head writer and executive producer of B&B, followed in his father's footsteps by shedding light on the controlling Stephanie Forrester. Viewers understood the domineering matriarch more after learning that Steph had been physically abused by her father, while her mother Ann, looked the other way. "Bill himself would be poor material for a daytime character," entertainment writer Clifford Terry wrote in the Chicago Tribune in 1973. "After all, how tormented can someone be whose favorite word is 'nifty'"? Terry made this assessment about Bill noting that he didn't hold traditional positions like on-screen characters such as attorney Mickey Horton on Days or newspaper publisher Stuart Brooks on Y&R. "There's a little of me in most of the male characters I've created," Bill told veteran soap-opera journalist Dorothy Vine. "There's some of me in John Abbott, Jack Abbott, Eric Forrester and even in Victor Newman. I create characters to tell a story and when you do that you have to start with some of yourself so you can understand and motivate them." Bill's younger self can be found in two family-oriented and ambitious brothers whom he created for Y&R, Snapper and Greg Foster.

Bill Bell would have fit in perfectly on the TV series MAD MEN. He didn't have that dark edge that Don Draper has, but he always had that smile. -Thomas Phillips, Irna Phillips's son Bill Bell worked in the world of advertising before he became a soap-opera writer. Jerry Birn became Bill's lifelong friend but at first Jerry doubted that. They were at McCann Erickson, one of Chicago's top ad firms. Bill had something of a hot-shot reputation for writing comedy sketches and the ad copy he had written at WBBM-TV. Jerry didn't want to be "walking the plank to make room for Golden Boy Bill. And, believe me, there was always a Golden Boy "for a time". The boss had taken Jill had breakfast and in Venice get my parents seeing him fall. Bill revealed that he'd lied about his age to enlist in the Navy during WW2. Later, the conversation hit a bump in the road when they talked about salaries: Bill was making more. Jerry was too impressed. As impressed he flagged down. Jerry knew Bill was getting an episode. When Bill summoned and Margaret, delivered. Wild children. He had some of the occasions of the murdered. Writers' rooms he was diagnosing , their honey moon episodes.

Jill & Lee portrayed noble causes that they fought for. Standard Oil execs had suggestions that were sophomoric, amateurish and hopeless but Jerry thought they should go with them anyway. Bill did not agree. He told the Standard Oil folk that they could fire him but he wouldn't put their name on his work. Then he walked out. Bill would take a similar stance with NBC execs who tried to tamper with his storylines. Bill waited for CBS to fire him over the Standard Oil issues. Never happened. The head of the office got a letter from the ad director at Standard Oil applauding Bill and wanting him kept on the account. They were on for the kind of honesty and integrity that they go from Bill Bell. Bill was floored but he had one question, "Could he have a raise"?

When they weren't working, Bill & Jerry hung out at a local watering hole, the Bowl and the Bottle. Jerry got Bill started on martinis. They came up with the slogan, "The olive with the taillight," because they had pimentos in them. The agency passed. They pitched a food account to a female exec. When they finished she had one question, "How much experience did they have with food?" They got a laugh but not the account when they replied, "We eat." Television changed the ad world. Clients were able to promote their products in a whole new way. Standard Oil began running TV ads during Chicago Bears game broadcasts.

Bill was a traditionalist. He rejected the computer age, preferring to stick with his trusted typewriter. But, he did try to move from using traditional advertising storyboards to employing live models for presentations. Jack Tinker, a top-ranking writer at McCann Erickson, shot the idea down. Jerry and Bill were the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid of the ad world. That changed when Bill met his own Etta Place, TV personality Lee Phillip. Bill was knocking on Irna Phillips's door with one hand and with Lee's door with the other. Bill got down on one knee and asked Lee to marry him. Soon Jerry was his best man & planning was underway. The Christmas card Jerry got said, "The Bells Are Ringing!" Bill and Lee wed on October 23, 1954. Three hundred family and friends gathered to celebrate the wedding of William Joseph Bell and Loreley (Lee) June Phillip. Lee was the celebrity in the family long before Bill became an icon in the soap opera world.

Santa Barbara (1984–1993)

BLOG 2 SANTA BARBARA & EMMY WIN

[10/10 · 8 April 2019]

SANTA BARBARA Schemering, IMDb, Wesley Hyatt. Soap. Color. Hour. July 30 1984 - January 15 1993 created by Bridget and Jerome Dobson. Production Company Dobson Productions. NBC. Executive Producers: Jerome and Bridget Dobson; Jeffrey Hayden; Charles Pratt, Sr.; Mary-Ellis Bunim. Headwriters: Jerome and Bridget Dobson; Anne Howard Bailey. Producers: Steven Kent; Jill Farren Phelps; Leonard Friedlander; Directors: Gordon Rigsby; Norman Hall; Rick Bennewitz; John Sedwick; Gary Bowen; Andrew Weyman; Dennis Steinmetz. (2,137 episodes) SANTA BARBARA was NBC's last bid to compete against GENERAL HOSPITAL on ABC and GUIDING LIGHT on CBS. The show's early going was rough and included numerous changeovers in cast. Four actors played the pivotal role of C.C. Capwell within the first two years alone. The biggest controversy, however, arose in 1987 when NBC took creative control away from the show's producers, Jerome and Bridget Dobson, who spent three years trying to get it back. Perhaps in part because of these problems, SANTA BARBARA never really threatened the competition, although it did win three consecutive Outstanding Daytime Drama Emmys through 1990 and had a large international presence. . Santa Barbara revolves around the shock waves that ensue from Sophia Capwell's child by Lionel Lockridge, Channing, Jr. passed off as the second son of her husband, C.C. Capwell. Channing impregnates the maid's daughter, Santana, and as Sophia argues with her son about it, she accidentally shoots him to death. C.C. is furious at the loss of his son. Sophia flees the country, eventually returning disguised as a man, with the aid of second daughter Kelly. In the meantime, C.C. wants his new grandson, Channing's son by Santana, and to get custody of him, Santana is institutionalized. C.C. remarries that vixen too endearing to be a villain, Robin Mattson's Gina, and they adopt Brandon, Santana's baby by the late Channing. Santana tries to reclaim her son, but winds up with visitation rights. Brandon is happy with Gina as his mother, with his father being the man who was his grandmother's husband, but biologically not related to him at all. Gina and C.C. wind up divorcing, Gina remarries Mason, C.C.'s son by first wife Pamela. That marriage does not last, either. Sophia and C.C. reunite, but their remarriage does not last one year before they separate again. The enormity of Sophia's infidelity and the true paternity of Channing serve as the pretext for the disappearance of her most famous offspring, first daughter Eden. (Robin Wright left SANTA BARBARA for an extended period of time to play the lead of "Buttercup" in THE PRINCESS BRIDE.She was chosen by William Goldman, Rob Reiner and Cary Elwes out of thousands of ingenue's. NBC penalized by making her do without money she could have made off of it. She is remembered to this day as "Buttercup" in that cult classic.) While the extraordinarily popular actress who portrayed Eden (Marcy Walker) tried other roles in other productions, her absence was explained by her insanity at not being able to cope with the discovery of Channing's true parentage. CC Capwell is a multimillionaire who is very powerful and greedy man, who loves money and authority. His children are: Eden, Kelly, Ted, Greg and adoptive child Brandon. CC loves Sophia. Her children are: Eden, Kelly, Ted and Brick. CC's worst enemy is Gina. Gina is Brandon's foster-mother. She raises him. CC wants to do it himself. Brandon's real mother is Santana. Eden loves Cruz. Cruz is a policeman. Julia and Mason are divorced, they have a daughter Samantha. Lockridge family persecutes the Capwells. Minx Lockridge is an old lady, she is the mother of Lionel and Cassie. Lionel is in love with Augusta. They are a strange couple, just like Gina and Keith. There was an occasion while the Dobsons were being locked out of the studio when they won their first (of three consecutive Daytime Emmys but Bridget made it to the podium and began a gracious acceptance speech, while Jill Farren Phelps stood to her right looking glum.That's because she was the Interim Executive Producer and was thinking she should have been making that speech. Contrary to years of rumor, it was *not* a knock down- drag-out fight.It was just some decent "oneupmanship".(The Dobsons had previously had a spectacularly successful writing career on GENERAL HOSPITAL in the early 1970s. Bridget was the daughter of Frank and Doris Hursley, creators of the show. After maintaining good ratings on that show the Dobsons were snatched up by Procter & Gamble to spruce up GUIDING LIGHT. They worked w onders on that show for 5 years, then created miracles on AS THE WORLD TURNS, becoming the most sought after team of writers in daytime television.) Set in Santa Barbara, where the Dobsons used to live (except when they lived in Atlanta, Georgia) the drama traced the lives and loves of 4 families: the blue-blood Lockridges, the powerful Capwells, the middle-class Perkins, and the Andrades, a low-income Hispanic family. The serial opened with a party in 1979 where Channing Capwell, Jr. was murdered after an argument with his sister Kelly's fiance' Joe Perkins. The scene jumped forward to an engagement party for Kelly and the opportunist Peter Flint in 1984 where it was learned that Joe Perkins, Capwell's alleged killer, had been set free. The release caused havoc among the seaside community, particularly for Kelly Capwell, who was torn between Joe and her memory of Channing's death. The show was taped in new $12 million production facilities in Burbank. In its premiere week the glamorous new soap about Beautiful Blonde People ran opposite ratings-grabbing Olympic games; with its first episode only receiving a 4.2 rating and 13 share. The Dobsons soon found their footing with two dazzling anti-heroes: Lionel Lockridge, whose roguish charm was exceeded only by his penchant for mischief, and the envious, cryptic Mason Capwell, whose ironic self-knowledge provided the city with a one-man greek chorus, commenting dryly on all the drawing-room intrigue. By 1987, this delicious black comedy had become a cult hit and the slowly rising ratings began to reflect that status. SANTA BARBARA was superbly romantic in its star-crossed love story of the WASPy Eden and the Hispanic Cruz. In a great erotic fast dance, Eden shook her blonde mane like a stoned-out Lady Godiva. It certainly was dramatic (the death of Mason's "salvation," Mary Duvall, proved to be an extremely unpopular event with viewers-probably the biggest boo-boo in the Dobsons' career). "There is a slight bit of perversity in us. That's me. That's my husband. We're ambivalent people. We always strive for purity and always miss." (Robin Wright took a large amount of extra time off from playing Eden in SANTA BARBARA to star in the movie THE PRINCESS BRIDE.) There was the long-running romance of blonde Eden, a TV news anchor, and her dark handsome lover, lawman Cruz Castillo. He stayed with Eden until they wed in 1988. Also fascinating was Mason, a lush who felt his dad did not love him but who came up with plenty of comments on the goings-on around him, including his own troubled relationships with ex-nun Mary Duvall.) The manner of Mary's death-a "C" from the rooftop of the Capwell hotel fell and crushed her-struck some viewers as blackly funny and some as an example of poor taste, and prompted many to speculate on its possible significance.) In 1988 the emergence of some weird alternate personalities. Among the latter was Mason's other personality Sonny Sprockett, whom his girlfriend attorney Julia Wainwright, found living in Las Vegas, and Bunny Tigliatti, a transvestite involved with the mob who rented all of Gina's rooms when Gina made the former Lockridge mansion into a bed-and-breakfast. Dr. Zack Kelton was the "Video Rapist" who attacked several women including Eden. Mason and Julia had some ups and downs due to his personality problems. Julia dated environmentalist Dash Nichols. The love between Julia and Mason and between Eden and Cruz was about the only constant. In 1990 the Dobsons having regained control of the show, returned to make sense of the mess. NBC kicked the Dobsons out again early 1992 as it became the lowest rated soap. In October 1992 NBC announced its cancellation despite its continuing international popularity. The show aired in 48 countries, making it the most watched serial. (The final shot was of executive producer Paul Rauch stepping into the spotlight on a bare soundstage and rubbing out his cigarette butt.)

As the World Turns (1956–2010)

BLOG 7 ATWT 1966-70

[10/10 · 8 April 2019]

As the World Turns. The Complete Family Scrapbook. Special 40th Anniversary Edition. by Julie Poll. General Publishing Group. Los Angeles. copywright @ 1996 by Procter & Gamble Productions.

For the Hughes and Lowell families, 1966 to 1970 were tumultuous years of pain, hardship and triumph. Several Oakdale citizens fell victim to sudden and violent deaths, and young people struggled to find themselves amid family skeletons and against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s. Heeding Claire's advice, Ellen informed Franny Brennan that her services would no longer be needed once Ellen became Mrs. David Stewart. Franny responded with a vicious threat---she would tell Dan that Ellen was his mother. Desperate, Ellen grabbed a statue and hit Franny over the head with it, killing her. Ellen confessed to the murder without giving any reason for her actions. This tragedy resulted in a variety of reactions among the Stewart family: David was baffled and Paul was supportive and sympathetic, but Dan vowed to disown his family if David were ever to marry that murderess! Meanwhile, another adoptee was to learn the ironic truth of her heritage. Bill Holmes, on his deathbed, admitted to his adopted daughter, Amanda, that Sara Fuller was her real mother. Amanda was at peace with this knowledge but was held back from revealing it when she and Sara found themselves in fierce competition for Donald Hughes's affections. Sara tried to make Donald believe that she was selling out her interest in her dress shop so she could be a traditional wife to him. Nancy was so won over by the ch

Guiding Light (1952–2009)

BLOG 3 GL & CANCELLATION

[10/10 · 7 April 2019]

June 30 1952 - September 18 2009 Procter & Gamble CBS From the Schemering The longest-running drama in broadcast history, evolved from a radio soap about a minister and his flock in the 1930s and 1940s; to a fifteen minute television entry about the German-American Bauer family in the 1950s and 1960s; to a half hour drama about the romantic lives of Mike and Ed Bauer in the 1970s; to, finally, a triumphant hour celebrating the domestic interaction between various Springfield families in the 1980s. Created by Irna Phillips, THE GUIDING LIGHT began broadcasting on NBC's Red radio network January 25 1937. Supervision for Procter & Gamble was Compton Advertising Agency. Set in the fictional city of Five Points and introduced by organ music, the drama focused on Dr. John Ruthledge and the problems of his parishioners. The soap was inspirational in tone and frequently the whole show was given over to Ruthledge's sermon. These sermons, which taught that faith and patience brought happiness,proved to be so popular that a collection of them sold almost 300,000 copies. Originally broadcast from Chicago, the show was moved to Hollywood when Irna and her associates relocated to the West Coast. Then, in the late 1940s production was moved to New York and the setting of the drama was moved from Five Points to Selby Flats, a fictional suburb of Los Angeles, where the Bauer family lived. Similarly content was changed. The religious implications were gone. But, support of a close-knit family for crises became paramount. The Bauers were a first generation Germanic-American family with Old World values who struggled for a better life in the US.Among them were Mam Bauer, Papa Bauer, son Bill, Bill's wife Bert, Bill's sister Trudy and Meta, a feisty young woman who would cause trouble. Bert fought hard to keep the family together and became in a sense the "guiding light". Bill had become an alcoholic. Meta ran off & got pregnant by a cad named Ted who she murdered when he browbeat their child. Meta got off on a temporary insanity plea.

THE GUIDING LIGHT June 1952 Irna began broadcasting THE GUIDING LIGHT both on television and on radio but not simultaneously. (Fanlore has it that the networks were perpetually afraid of losing the radio revenue that they already had to take a chance on some television revenue that they didn't have and would take time to build up.) Irna assembled the cast at Liederkranz Hall for AM rehearsal & performance, live for television. Then they walked 5 blocks down to another studio & performed the same show for the radio audience. 4 years later they did away with the radio broadcast. While the show was being dually broadcast they moved the setting yet again, this time from California to the community of Springfield, somewhere in the Midwest. THE GUIDING LIGHT's successful transition from radio to television was rare. In the 1950s story, written by Irna & Agnes Nixon, focused on Meta's stepdaughter, Kathy. After Meta's husband died of cancer, Meta and Kathy both fought over Mark Holden, a business partner of Bill Bauer. In 1958 Kathy was killed in an automobile accident and CBS was swamped with protests. Irna answered fans with a form letter: "You have only to look around you, read your daily papers, to realize that we cannot, any of us, live with life alone ..." Meanwhile Bert tried to keep her marriage together. Agnes Nixon who had been Irna's associate became headwriter and THE GUIDING LIGHT flourished. This was the time that Agnes began to insert social and educational issues into the show. Bert Bauer's life was saved by early detection of uterine cancer. Mike Bauer married the scheming Charlotte Waring. (Charlotte Waring was played by Victoria Wyndham who later was Rachel on ANOTHER WORLD.) Agnes Nixon left the show to go headwrite ANOTHER WORLD IN THE MID 1960s. Writers during the next decade include: David Lesan, Julian Funt, Theodore and Mathilde Ferro, John Boruff, James Lipton, Gabrielle Upton, Jane and Ira Avery, Robert Soderberg, Edith Somner, James Gentile and Robert Cenedella. Color broadcast began spring 1967 with the show expanding to a half hour September 1968. The drama had not caught up with Irna's prote'ge's Agnes Nixon and Bill Bell. ALL MY CHILDREN and THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS both became immensely popular with a mix of social-issue oriented drama and youthful romance. In 1975 Jerome and Bridget Dobson took over headwriting duties at THE GUIDING LIGHT and successfully contemporized it over the next 5 years. 1977 took the show to a full hour and the Dobsons constructed intricate triangles and quadrangles - Alan Spaulding, unhappy wife Elizabeth, son Phillip, Jackie Marler (the natural mother of Phillip), Mike Bauer, Hope Bauer and Justin Marler. Roger Thorpe seduced Ed Bauer's second wife Holly and his third wife Rita and Ed's half-sister Hillary. Roger became the sexiest villain and the audience refused to let him die even after a decade of troublemaking. After a sensational trial for marital rape (a gambit the Dobsons would repeat on AS THE WORLD TURNS) Roger was "killed" by Holly only to pop up again a year later to terrorize both Rita and Holly. The brilliantly directed sequence where Roger chased Rita through a hall of mirrors the recording of Barbara Streisand and Donna Summer's duet "Enough Is Enough" won THE GUIDING LIGHT the Emmy as Outstanding Daytime Drama 1980. Roger finally met his fate on location in the Dominican Republic where he fell to his death off a cliff. The star turn of Michael Zaslow ran from April 1 1971 for 9 years till April Fools' Day 1980. (Viewers never saw the body.) In 1980 Douglas Marland took over as headwriter, creating the triangle of Morgan Richards, Dr. Kelly Nelson and Nola Reardon. Lisa Brown's Nola was so energetic and convincing that CBS began receiving the most intense "hate" mail of any daytime performer since Eileen Fulton 2 decades before. Marland deservedly won Outstanding Writing Emmy 1981. He then exploited Lisa Brown's comedic flair and formidable acting skills in a series of famous fantasy sequences. Marland then wrote an intense hair-raising split personality story of character Carrie Todd played by Jane Elliot. Producer Allen Potter dropped it and a furious Marland finished out the few months of his contract and quit. Pat Falken Smith came on as headwriter for a short time and tried to disentangle what had become a convoluted mess. With L. Virginia Browne as headwriter Grant Aleksander came on as Phillip Spaulding, Ed Bauer's son Rick, Phillip's best friend was pushed to the forefront and the ratings jumped up 2 points. But TEXAS team Richard Culliton writer and Gail Kobe producer took over spring 1983 with the show in a critical slump, they put the show on the comeback trail, focusing on the Bauer family, finishing the byzantine storylines, and introducing the most appealing young-love stories ever on daytime. Headwriter Culliton and later Pamela K. Long (also of TEXAS) transformed THE GUIDING LIGHT back into a *famiily* show constructing stories around 5 main families - Bauers, Spauldings, Chamberlains, Lewises and Reardons. The audience began to respond to a senior prom, a civil war themed ball, young lovers on the run in Manhattan, "The Four Musketeers", flesh and blood figures, etc. Krista Tesreau the hilariously spoiled Mindy Lewis, Bill's daughter, Judi Evans (who nabbed an Emmy) as rape victim Beth Raines, taken advantage of by her stepfather, other Beth's husband. Vincent Irizarry the pugnacious Lujack, Michael O'Leary the sensitive med student Rick Bauer (known now by one & and all still as Mikey!) most especially Grant Aleksander the flamboyantly alienated Phillip Spaulding, with all seeming poised for stardom. The first half of 1984 the show added 2 million viewers while its competition GENERAL HOSPITAL lost 5 million with Luke & Laura leaving. The show zoomed to the #1 spot in the ratings, with the finest daytime drama over the past 5 years finally, if briefly, becoming the most popular. The introduction of the exquisite Beverlee McKinsey (top-billed on TEXAS) as Alexandra Spaulding brought new critical and commercial interest to the show. In October 1984 the Bauer family endured a number of hits. Hillary Bauer was killed off. Her brother Mike was written off. Ed Bauer was recast. February 28 1985 Charita Bauer died, the end of an era. Jerry verDorn who played Ross Marler read the words, "The continuing story GUIDING LIGHT is dedicated to the memory of Charita Bauer, whose portrayal of Bert Bauer has illuminated our lives for over 35 years. The spirit of Charita Bauer, her strength and her courage, her grand good humor, her passion for life, and her humanity have touched us all. She has graced our lives at GUIDING LIGHT and will be with us always." The Lewises became Springfield's first family - the former Reva Shayne, married to Billy Lewis, later engaged to his brother Josh, then wed to patriarch H.B. and finally fell for Kyle Sampson, who claimed he was H.B.'s illegitimate son. Like Reva, GUIDING LIGHT was suffering an identity crisis. The lack of focus continued through 1986 with 5 headwriting regimes and a new executive producer. Joe Willmore brought back popular characters and performers - Christopher Bernau's Alan, Peter Simon's Ed, Robert Newman's Josh and Grant Aleksander's Phillip. And the "have-not" Shaynes were established - Hawk, Sarah, Reva, Roxie and Rusty. Headwriter Sheri Anderson's forte was young romantic pairings and intrigue. As GUIDING LIGHT celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1987 it was the end of one era and the beginning of another.

GUIDING LIGHT: THE COMPLETE FAMILY ALBUM SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY EDITION by Julie Poll with Caelie M. Haines INTRODUCTION by Jerry ver Dorn "I created GUIDING LIGHT with one fundamental theme in mind: the brotherhood of man." So wrote the show's creator, Irna Phillips, in 1937. Who could've imagined that that breathtakingly simple intention would carry the show to its

Another World (1964–1999)

BLOG 192 AW

[10/10 · 7 April 2019]

The Wonderful World of TV Soap Operas by Robert LaGuardia. Ballantine Books: New York. Copyright @ 1974 by Random House, Inc.

The authors of the daytime serials have the largest audiences in the world. Every week an estimated fifty million viewers are exposed to the wares of a select handful of daytime scribes. Nighttime television writers don't have anywhere near the same kind of exposure; their scripts are only aired once a week, and many more nighttime writers are hired to work on a single series. The daytime writer, however, must pay dearly for the prestige of having such an enormous following. "It's sort of a cross between being an F. Scott Fitzgerald and an Olympic athlete," says Agnes Nixon, who has had nearly twenty-five years' experience writing serials and currently heads "All My Children." "It's grueling work. You know you have to finish a certain amount of writing every day, so you must always be in tip-top physical shape. You can't stay up late or let yourself get run-down. I remember during the fifties there was a period when I was only doing one-shot live TV plays, like "Philco", and I could force the creativity by abusing my body -- drinking a lot of black coffee, working till all hours of the night. But when you write a daytime serial you don't dare do that; you wouldn't be in any kind of condition to write tomorrow's show." Since soap writers must produce their shows on a daily basis -- and so much of their time becomes absorbed in the creative process -- it is not uncommon for some of them to use their own lives as models for their stories. George Reinholt said very recently, "You know, I always had the strangest feeling that the story of Steve Frame has something to do with Philadelphia, where I grew up. Maybe it's Frame's misguided sense of class status." What Reinholt didn't realize was that Agnes Nixon, who created his story on "Another World," is a native of Philadelphia herself. Today, Steven Frame is being handled by Harding Lemay with subtle touches and changes that derive from Mr. Lemay's background. "When I was seventeen," says Mr. Lemay, "I ran away from home. I came from a poor family. When I started writing "Another World" two years ago, I discovered that Steven had almost no background at all -- he was sort of a mystery. I started giving him a past very much like my own. I decided he had run away from his home on a farm when he was just a boy and that many of his difficulties today arise from having never been properly understood when he was younger." Interestingly enough, Alice (Jacquie Courtney) now talks a great deal about needing to understand Steven better. Just before her recent death, Irna Phillips gave a rare insight in the the development of a certain character on "As the World Turns." In her characteristically raspy voice, Miss Phillips said, "Everyone asks me how I got the idea for Kim Reynolds on the show, because she certainly is an unusual character. She's really me -- at a much younger age. She's fiercely independent, as I was, and she won't settle for second best. She looks in the mirror and refers to herself as 'The lady in the mirror.' Well, that was her other self, which no one knows about: the true me, the person that I always hid from the world. She's having a child out of wedlock, which will only be hers. I adopted two children -- Kathy and Tommy -- without having a husband. We're both the same. And she's going to have that child to prove that a woman can do it alone." (Unfortunately, Kim never did. During the character's pregnancy, so many viewers wrote in disapproving of what she was doing that the producers decided to have Kim lose the baby. Even so, the character of Kim, played by beautiful Kathryn Hays, is probably the most poignant one Miss Phillips ever created for her daytime audiences.) For genuine impact on their audiences, writers of daytime serials must take seriously the parallels between real life and the fictional stories they are creating. Otherwise, with the mounting pressure of having to create episodes week after week, daytime stories become unbelievable, full of worn-out cliches'. However, one woman who has been writing serials for many years carries her concern for realism on her shows perhaps a bit too far. She calls her friends constantly to find out the intimate details of their lives -- all the ins and outs of how they felt while they were bedridden with an illness, the pain of childbirth, what might have caused the depression they were going through. This woman's characteristic line: "Oh, isn't life so like the serials?" Soap writing is by its very nature highly specialized. A typical head writer not only must invent story situations that should keep the audience enthralled, he must also worry about actors' guarantees and vacation periods. "It often becomes a problem of sheer logistics," says Henry Slesar, who writes "The Edge of Night". For example, in the middle of a heated quarrel between two rivals in a story, one of the actresses might suddenly decide to exercise an "out" option in her contract in order to do stock in Buffalo. Then the poor writer has to lose sleep in figuring out a logical way of sending one of the rivals out of town without interrupting story continuity. "As the World Turns" writers were always thinking of new places to send Penny while Rosemary Prinz was in and out of the show. But a greater difficulty is a purely creative one: maintaining the realism of day-to-day living in a soap town without (1) boring the viewer with realism in a soap that is too slow and uninteresting or (2) attempting to alleviate all the boredom of everyday life by becoming so melodramatic that the realism itself is shattered. The latter often happens, for instance, when writers, responding to their producers' please to geg the ratings up with more story interest, start making all the available females in their stories pregnant, or decide to threaten the female heroine with a murder rap. But these tactics would never be employed by the best soap writers. There are other things that superior soap writers just won't do. They do not brush off the arduous but necessary process of recap work by just inserting excerpts of speeches used in the preceding episode. ("Recap" is when David Stewart on Tuesday must tell Bob Hughes that Ellen got angry with Lisa on Monday, for the benefit of viewers who missed the show.) "You have to get around recap," says Henry Slesar. "It should always be given a new dramatic form so that you're not throwing it in the audience's face that a character is simply saying something to convey information. It has to be logical for a character to be saying such-and-such a thing at such-and-such a time." But even the most talented serial authors sometimes find themselves getting more involved with words than with characters. It just happens because of the continual pressure of voluminous script writing. Cliche's slip through. Actors are given wooden dialogue. Most writers realize this tendency toward occasional lapse ("I sometimes cringe when I watch a show wrote," says Henry Slesar) and don't mind that actors often rewrite their lines to make them easier to say. If the actors didn't do this, some scenes would collapse in cardboard dialogue. On the ninety-minute opening episode of "How to Survive a Marriage," the main characters of Chris and Larry Kirby were throwing some pretty dreadful cliche's back and forth. It marred a good show and seemed strangely out of place with the general tone of dramatic creativity. Finally, the producer Allen Potter, cleared up the mystery when he said that none of the actors on "How to Survive a Marriage" were permitted to rewrite the lines of the author, Anne Howard Bailey. "She's just too fine and bright a writer," he said. How are soap writers organized? Each of the fourteen daytime serials normally has only one headwriter -- although in a few instances there are two co-headwriters -- who is responsible for the whole story on his soap: from the general directions that it takes over a long period, to all the little details of day-to-day plotting. Every three to six months he submits to the producers and sponsors a story projection, some ten to thirty pages of intensive outlines of where a story is going. This is where the fun starts. The producer, assistant producer, sponsor, and advertising-agency representatives begin to pick at the poor devil's ideas like nervous birds attacking seed. Bruce Cox, who is Procter and Gamble's representative for "The Guiding Light" for Compton Advertising, says, "When we get the writer's story projection, we lock ourselves in a hotel room for days at a time and begin to go over every little detail of the writer's story projection with the writer -- what will work, what looks questionable. If someone objects to a story-line, the writer always has a chance to defend himself because he's right there. It's exhausting for him and for us." Irna Phillips used to describe these sessions with the executives as free-for-alls. After a second or possibly third draft, a story projection is finally approved. Then the writer begins to follow the outline, according to his own creative instincts, in his daily scripts. Says Henry Slesar, "The whole process of working with story projection is like looking down a long tunnel. As you drive through the tunnel you begin to see more detail." The head writer may write the scripts himself, or employ his own dialogue writers to convert his script breakdowns (Short synopses of what characters do and say on a particular day) into actual scenes with dialogue. The normal custom is for a head writer to write some of the scripts himself, and for his dialogue writer (or writers) to do the rest. The more subwriters a head writer employs, the less money he makes himself, for he is paid a set wage and then must pay his writers out of his own pocket.

Another World (1964–1999)

BLOG 139 THE CREATION OF ANOTHER WORLD

[10/10 · 7 April 2019]

THE CREATION OF ANOTHER WORLD Written By Eddie Drueding, 2018

Among the most persistent myths surrounding "Another World" is that its creator, Irna Phillips, was heartbroken when CBS had no room in its daytime schedule and the show went to NBC. However, when Lynn Liccardo, author of the Kindle Single, "as the world stopped turning...," posed the question to former Procter & Gamble Productions executive, Ed Trach, he told a very different story.

According to Trach, sometime in 1963, NBC approached PGP about Irna Phillips creating a new serial for them. AW was never offered to CBS, a fact confirmed by Fred Silverman, then head of CBS Daytime. Trach went on to reiterate that PGP had no interest in placing another serial with CBS. Silverman suggested that by expanding their daytime footprint beyond CBS, PGP hoped to improve their bargaining position.

It was the success of "As the World Turns" that made NBC so eager to sign Phillips. According to Trach, ATWT was drawing higher ratings than all but three of the shows in NBC's primetime lineup at the time. But Phillips's concerns about placing a new serial on NBC were well-founded. Prior to AW's debut in May, 1964, there had been 19 serials on NBC (beginning in 1949, with Phillips's "These Are My Children"). Only seven lasted longer than a year, including "The Doctors", which debuted in in 1963 as a daily anthology. When that format proved financially untenable, the show moved to weekly arcs. In March 1964, two months before AW's premiere, "The Doctors" became a daily serial.

Also false is the notion that Phillips created AW as a sister show for "As the World Turns." No mention is made of a connection to Oakdale in the AW bible, or in the very rough first draft of her unfinished memoir, "All My Worlds." However, she did reference the Hughes family in the bible as a way to bring her AW characters into sharper focus. And six months into AW, the character of Mitchell Dru left Oakdale for Bay City.

What Irna Phillips did understand was that ATWT viewers were the natural audience for AW. On the final page of AMW, she shared her clever -- some might say brilliant -- idea to reach them. In the fall of 1963, ATWT celebrated Grandpa Hughes' 70th birthday. The 150,000-200,000 viewers who included a return address on the cards they sent received a note a few weeks before the AW premiere, thanking them and letting them know about a new show on NBC. The gist of the promotion: "if you like the Hughes family, we think you'll also like the Matthews."

Bill Bell began writing for "Guiding Light" in 1956, moving to ATWT in 1958. He described co-creating AW with Phillips as, "a whole new learning experience," later admitting that launching a series with a funeral was too depressing. However, in AMW, Phillips seems to disparage Bell's involvement: "If I were to be asked why I gave Mr. Bell and a few other people who had absolutely nothing to do with the writing of scripts, part ownership of this program, I'm afraid the answer is almost too simple. As I've said before, I'm essentially a teacher and a teacher's function is not only to impart whatever knowledge she can to her students, but to give them whatever she feels will be a help to ensure, if she can, their future."

However, Liccardo notes that Phillips was writing AMW at the end of her life, after a decade filled with professional failure and personal loss, including Bill Bell's departure when he took over as Days of Our Lives headwriter after Ted Corday's death. Liccardo points out while Phillips is careful to note Bell's kindness to her children, just below the surface her sense of betrayal -- and anger -- is palpable.

In her research, Professor Elana Levine, author of the forthcoming "Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History," found the original documents that provided details on the shared ownership of "Another World." The show's official and legal agreement (dated 5/4/64) established that P&G Productions and Young & Rubicam would acquire rights to AW from Phillips, Bill Bell (the show's co-writer), Rose Cooperman (Phillips's private secretary), and Arno Phillips (Phillips' brother).

The agreement was for 268 consecutive weeks, but could be terminated at the end of shorter cycles within. Owners were to be paid $1,000/week royalties for the term of the agreement. A purchase price of $500,000 was set. Broadcast rights were for the US, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Phillips and her co-owners transferred their rights, title, and interest in "Another World" for $500,000 in a purchase agreement dated 4/10/67, to be paid in 11 annual installments between 1967 and 1977. Distribution: Irna Phillips - 39%. William Bell - 31%. Rose Cooperman 5%. Arno Phillips 25%.

According to Levine, what's significant here is that P&G did not own AW until 1967. Phillips and her partners did and they licensed it to P&G and their ad agency, Young & Rubicam, during that time. This may be the first time a creator owned their own soap, even as it was temporary and in P&G's hands from the beginning.

Towards the end of the AMW manuscript, Phillips discusses how she came to create "Another World." She says that the idea of writing a new and different kind of serial came to her when she found herself wondering about the possibility of using her own life as the basis of a serial, focusing it on an "illegitimate" young woman who'd been raised in an orphanage and who "lived most of her life in a world she created for herself." She'd always claimed to be a lonely child growing up, and would make up long and involved stories for her dolls to live out. She elaborated on the idea of alternate personal worlds to the psychiatrist she had been seeing for depression following a heart attack several years earlier

"This is the first time that I told the doctor that I had come to believe and that I still believe, always will, that to face reality day in and day out without escape, without surcease, would be impossible for any of us. I was sure we couldn't with any degree of sanity, live only in a world of reality. In a way the doctor agreed with me, in another way he didn't. It was difficult to accept that we have to learn to cope with a certain amount of reality. I knew he was right. I asked him if it was advisable that I start on a new serial. "Isn't that what you've been doing?" "I have a title, it's based on what we've been talking about." "Oh, a bit of fantasizing!" "Another World" was my answer. This then became the germ of the next serial I created and presented to Procter & Gamble.

"It would be difficult for me to say how long "Another World" seemed to be lying dormant before I even recognized it as an idea and began to think of it as a potential for a continuing drama. Bill Bell was working with me on "As the World Turns," and I have always had the habit of discussing my ideas with whomever I might be working. All told, Bill and I spent two Saturdays talking about "Another World" after which I proceeded to write the most informal, loosely put together presentation."

Phillips' original title for "As the World Turns" was "As the Earth Turns," but it was changed because there was a novel with the title "As the Earth Turns." The list of alternate titles came from copywriters from the Ivory Snow Group. Phillips went on to embrace the word "world," imparting it to three of her following shows ("Another World," "A Private World," and "A World Apart") as well as the title of her memoirs, "All My Worlds".

One day in the living room of Phillips' home, accompanied by her secretary Rose Cooperman and her writing assistant Bill Bell, she was joined by Bob Short (head of daytime television for P&G), Edward Trach (an ATWT supervisor), and a representative of the Young & Rubicam agency. (In those days, ad agencies often handled the production of the daytime dramas.) Copies of the presentation were on the card table along with sample scripts. Years ago, Phillips had spent $5,000 of her own money to finance the "Guiding Light" pilot and had never been reimbursed. Tonight, she informed her guests that they could see neither presentations nor scripts unless they optioned the program for $5,000.

"It wasn't the best presentation I had ever written or as good as others I would write in the future, but as I was told only matter of months ago, "We bought 'Another World' on your track record, not by what we read in the presentation.""

At first glance, the AW's bible reads like an overtly feminist serial. There are explicit references to "The Feminine Mystique," published in February 1963 by Betty Friedan. It explored the frustration felt by many American women in the late 1950s and early 1960s who felt locked in to the traditional gender roles of wife and mother. This sentiment is mirrored in the bible: "there's a question in the minds of many today whether the woman at home is really a fulfilled woman; or is she, as she's been pictured from time to time, forever seeking in one way or another - seeking to escape the boredom of being only a wife and mother." This is well represented in the character of Janet Matthews, a single career woman in her 30s. From the influences of her own early life, Phillips remained committed to traditional values and gender roles. As her bible goes on to say: "the business world in itself cannot bring a woman happiness and fulfillment."

But that is not the story that played out. And the storyline that did dominate the show's first year -- the relationship between Pat Matthews and Tom Baxter, which led to Pat's abortion and sterility, then ended with her killing Tom -- is nowhere to be found the AW bible. While it's not surprising that in 1963, ten years before Roe-v-Wade legalized abortion, Phillips would have anticipated that NBC would be reluctant to tell such a controversial story, according to Liccardo, "Concealing the true thrust of a story was vintage Irna, who often treated "the suits" like mushrooms: "Keep them in the dark an

Another World (1964–1999)

BLOG 19 AW EIGHT YEARS IN ANOTHER WORLD

[10/10 · 7 April 2019]

EIGHT YEARS IN ANOTHER WORLD by Harding "Pete" Lemay COPYRIGHT 1981

The show went off the air in 1999 after thirty-five years without ever getting back the ratings it had once had twenty-five years ago. I didn't watch it often. Despite their opinions about what I had originally written in this book, Procter & Gamble would still hire me from time to time, for short periods as headwriter, and for longer periods as story consultant for ANOTHER WORLD and for other soaps they produced. Vicky Wyndham was the only actor still on the show. Doug Watson had died in 1989. Connie Ford had died in 1993. Anne Meacham had died in 2006. Beverlee McKinsey and Irene Dailey had both died in 2008. They remain vivid in my memory of writing for them. I have enormous admiration for actors, since they are hanging out on a limb, working on material that can range from the mediocre to the remarkable. My wife Dorothy died after years of physical decline from alcoholism following Susan's first breakdown. We sold the town house on Nineteenth Street. We bought a garden duplex in a converted church in Greenwich Village. Until her health made it impossible we traveled a great deal mostly to England and France. Then in summers we'd stay on Fire Island. That was spent with grandchildren and longtime friends. But within ten years her health limited our activities severely. Six years after her death in 1994 I remarried. Gloria is a spirited beautiful gregarious woman who had a successful career producing radio and television commercials. She has brought me love and easy companionship. Five years ago we sold the beach house on Fire Island since we summer in Paris mostly now. Gone are the houses, gone with so much that once mattered to me. Of the twelve Lemays only three of us are left. My children, now in their fifties, live their own lives -very different from mine and very apart from me. The only world we control is the one we invent. I am back with books and plays. In the past ten years I have written five plays and I conduct classes in drama and fiction at the New School University in Manhattan. Now eighty years later I have that life again and am enjoying it

Another World (1964–1999)

BLOG 11 BLOGETTES

[10/10 · 7 April 2019]

"On the serial form" I believe with all my heart that this form is the most compelling and the most important form in television: the power of a serial to illuminate and to inspire, to help people in real, fundamental psychological ways, and to provide role models, to provide a sense of family if they don't have a family. All of that is overwhelming, and it's a tremendous responsibility. --Claire Labine, Creator, RYAN'S HOPE, former Head Writer, GENERAL HOSPITAL THE MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO WORLDS WITHOUT END THE ART AND HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA (1997) Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

"On directing" My job as the director is to tell the story. It's true of all of our jobs here--as actor, director, producer, or as writer. But particularly as a director, you really can't lose sight of the fact that you're not here to make pretty pictures unless that shot is telling the story the best possible way. If it's not, it's just so much garbage getting in the way of telling the story. --Gary Tomlin, Director, ONE LIFE TO LIVE. THE MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO WORLDS WITHOUT END THE ART AND HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA (1997) Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

"On plotting" Sometimes, when we are discussing ideas for future episodes, somebody will say something specific about a character, and I'll say, no, because I feel an innate sense of caution--don't do anything that cuts off future story. There's a tendency, when you bring on a new character, to say things like, "He has three daughters" because you want to flesh out the character. But don't have them say anything or do anything that limits the story and doesn't move the plot forward. I learned that from coming on GUIDING LIGHT after Doug Marland, whose characters had lots of family. --Richard Culliton, Head Writer, GENERAL HOSPITAL. THE MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO WORLDS WITHOUT END THE ART AND HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA (1997) Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

"On the power of soaps" There is a great need in human beings for other people's stories. You can follow a story for six weeks on a soap and learn a little something about different kinds of relationships, about life. I think young people tune in, and always have, because they are generally optimistic about life, and looking forward to romance and happy endings, which is just what soaps dwell on. --Harding Lemay, former Head Writer, ANOTHER WORLD. THE MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO WORLDS WITHOUT END THE ART AND HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA (1997) Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

"On comedy" For awhile, ANOTHER WORLD was known for its comedy. We were actually credited at one time for being the first soap to incorporate comedy, and that goes back to Gretchen Oehler. Gretchen was the wonderful actress who played this wacky maid Vivien Gorrow, from 1978-84, to Iris Cory Bancroft, then played by Beverlee McKinsey. She was a theater-trained actress and --I don't think it was intentional--she developed this comedic style on the show. The writers picked up on it, and soon the madcap antics of this very priim and proper Iris and her wacky maid, who was tripping over things and getting phone messages wrong, became hysterical. The audience loved it. --R. Scott Collishaw, Producer. THE MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO WORLDS WITHOUT END THE ART AND HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA (1997) Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

Another World (1964–1999)

BLOG 9 FAMOUS FANS

[10/10 · 7 April 2019]

Alice Barrett (Frankie Frame) discovered that movie superstar Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman, My Best Friend's Wedding) is an "Another World" fan. Barrett filled in for Roberts during rehearsals for the series finale of "Murphy Brown," on which Roberts was a special guest star. When Roberts finally arrived on the set, Barrett was surprised to find that Roberts recognized her as Frankie Frame. After giving Barrett a hug, Roberts admitted that she was thrown for a loop the day Frankie was killed off.

Famous Fans/AW Trivia

Tennessee Williams, who wrote such theater classics as "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," counted "Another World" as one of his favorite television series.

Famous Fans/AW Trivia

The legendary, singer-actress, Judy Garland, best known for her performance as Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz", was so thrown by seeing Constance Ford (Ada Davis) in the audience at one of her concerts that she had to take a break.