'The Guiding Light' (Summer 1966, #1 - Part 1)

[frankd1965]

The Guiding Light was my Aunt Rose's favorite Show.

[steffiphill]

OMG! How did you get this!?

[xxxpartydog]

I collect old soap eps. I've got about a full month from the summer of 66 that I'm planning on posting.

[steffiphill]

Thanks for sharing and keep them coming! The more the merrier! }:-)

[gymnastix]

Do you have any of "Search For Tomorrow" from 1967-72?

I'm especially interested in episodes featuring Robert Mandan ("Sam Reynolds"), Joan Copeland ("Andrea Whiting"), Dino Narrazano ("Len Whiting"), Leigh Lassen a/k/a "Natalie Israel" ("Patti Tate Whiting"), Ken Harvey ("Doug Martin") and Peter Simon ("Scott Phillips").

[xxxpartydog]

I've got a run of SFT from approximately the same time-frame as the GL eps. Once I run through all the GL eps from this period I have, I'm planning on posting the SFT ones. They do feature Sam, Andrea, Len, & Patti (but it's Melissa Murphy and not Lassen).

[gymnastix]

OK, then "Andrea" may also not be Copeland, as two other actresses--Virgina Gilmore & Lesley Woods, the latter briefly in 1967--played that part before Copeland, who played it longest (1967-'72) & best.

Actually, I have one video of "SFT" with Murphy, a Christmas episode from '66. Murphy does look like Lassen (which is probably why Lassen was cast), who played "Patti" the second longest, next to original Lynn Loring.

At least you have videos with the original "Sam" & "Len," which is something.

[xxxpartydog]

I'm thinking it must be Gilmore, then, because I'm almost certain that it's not Lesley Woods. I will say that Gilmore is *very* good in the role. Truthfully, those SFT eps are far more engaging than these TGL eps (at least IMO). Also, I *really* like Murphy as Patti.

Off the top of my head, characters in the episodes I have are Joanne, Stu, Marge, Sam, Len, Patti, Bob, Emily, Andrea, & Nick (there may be others, but I think these are the key ones).

[gymnastix]

The videos of soaps from the late '60's/early-to-mid '70's are the most difficult to obtain. That's because the networks re-used their videotape (the technical term for which I used to know, but which escapes me at the moment) stock for all live programming, which is also why so few daytime game shows of that era survive.

[gymnastix]

If one sees game shows from this era, it's either because they were preserved on kinescopes or are syndicated episodes. A good example of this is the original, Peter Marshall-hosted "Hollywood Squares." The daytime eps. have all but disappeared, but there are several of the syndicated eps, which ran in most markets early evenings.

I've also read the ABC run of "Password" was taped over for the early years of "Family Feud." Sad how recklessly TV networks treated their heritage.

[gymnastix]

"Eunice" ("Jo's" sister), as played by Ann Williams, would also be in your '66 "SFT" episodes. In real life, Williams was a good friend of Judy Lewis, who played the longest-running "Susan Ames Dunbar Carver" on "The Secret Storm." Williams & Lewis used to horseback ride together.

Lewis was also the daughter of Loretta Young & Clark Gable, a fact which she discovered as a young adult, having been raised to believe she was Young's adopted daughter. Lewis also directed "SFT" in the early '80's.

[gymnastix]

Williams went on to play some character on "Edge Of Night" after her contract was up on "SFT." I always thought she was perfect as "Eunice," because she even bore a resemblance to Mary Stuart, as did Melba Rae ("Marge Bergman") for that matter.

Williams died quite young, still in her 50's or early 60's, from cancer as I remember. I recall a period when she was briefly replaced in the role of "Eunice" but came back, a fact which delighted both my Mom and I.

[xxxpartydog]

After Williams left SFT when the writers had Eunice murdered by Jennifer (played by Morgan Fairchild), she appeared on Edge as Margo Huntington in the late 1970s. Margo ended up murdered.  I think Williams died not long after her role as June Slater on 'Loving'. June's husband Garth was played by John Cunningham who'd previously been on SFT as Janet's husband Wade Collins.

[gymnastix]

I thought "Jennifer Pace" had actually shot another woman at "Doug Martin's" cabin at the lake, thinking it was "Eunice?" I recall there was a woman wearing a large sun bonnet, in a rowboat across the lake from where "Jennifer" (the sniper) was perched.

But then some episodes later, in a very dramatic scene in which all the viewer first saw was a pair of legs walking in and dropping a suitcase, the camera panned up to reveal a still-alive "Eunice Gardner Webster Twining Martin Wyatt."

[gymnastix]

The problem is--I can't recall the name of that character who "Jennifer" actually shot, thinking it was "Eunice."

But perhaps "Jennifer" did kill "Eunice" eventually (and later), in a period when I wasn't watching "Search" regularly? Do you recall how "Jennifer" killed "Eunice?"

[gymnastix]

Actually, now that I think of it, perhaps that first, attempted murder of "Eunice" wasn't by "Jennifer," but by a guy named "Karl Devlin," who was a disgruntled employee of some magazine at which "Eunice" worked, owned by "John Wyatt." Sometimes one gets storylines confused from these soaps which aired so long ago.

[gymnastix]

Another interesting tidbit is both Williams & Bob Mandan were in the cast of "Applause," the musical adaptation of "All About Eve" which won Lauren Bacall her first Tony, in the role played by Bette Davis on film. Williams played "Karen Richards," the best friend of "Margo Channing" (played in the film by Celeste Holm), while Mandan played the part of the producer of the play within the musical. I have the CBS broadcast of this featuring the London cast, but only Mandan remains from "SFT."

[gymnastix]

I've really gone off-topic here, but it is your video's page, after all. Perhaps after you upload those "Search" videos, you may copy & re-paste these "SFT"-relevant comments there? I won't mind, because they contain helpful info. for your viewers.

[gymnastix]

I'm still hopeful some video of "SFT" from the "lost era" will surface one day. Perhaps some grandson of a secretary to an assistant director or someone will find some canisters in an attic or basement--who knows?

[gymnastix]

I would love for you & everyone who hasn't to see just how good Copeland was as "Andrea Whiting," especially a courtroom scene in which she gave a tour de force performance as what must surely be ranked a definitive account of a nervous breakdown! No small wonder she was the real-life sister of playwright Arthur Miller.

[GOPMom]

I recently posted in response to another SFT video that I would LOVE to see that courtroom scene with Andrea, which I still remember even though it was nearly 40 years ago. It took about the last 20 minutes of one day's 30-minute episode, and was so dramatic that they replayed it as the first 20 minutes of the next day's episode. I've always wondered, did they tape and replay it, or did the actress have to perform it again live?

[gymnastix]

My Mom never did live to see the resolution of that "Sam"/"Jo"/"Andrea" storyline. She died when I was just 11 years old, but I kept watching "Search" for and because of her, for several years after.

[gymnastix]

And I've often wondered if it was merely coincidence that Bob Mandan's most famous role (on the ABC-TV, soap opera satire "SOAP") was a character named "Chester Tate," the surname the same as then that of the character ("Joanne Tate") his theretofore best-known character ("Sam Reynolds") had romanced on "Search For Tomorrow?"

[gymnastix]

One last question, my friend--have you any videos of "The Secret Storm" from 1966-70? Just FYI, I communicated with Judy Lewis, which is how I know some background about her friendship with Williams, though I did recall reading about it in "Daytime TV," a now-defunct, soap publication.

[gymnastix]

Yes, "Search" was very engaging, you are so right!

It almost breaks my heart that today's soaps have so deteriorated into a virtual fashion show of mannequins, with very uninteresting plots & storylines, and bodies that couldn't act their way out of a paper bag!

Soaps used to be a training ground and ancillary occupation for serious, theatrical and aspiring film actors--not merely an outpost of modeling agencies.

[GOPMom]

I would LOVE to see those episodes! We used to come home from school to eat lunch every day and began watching SFT with my mother and grandmother. I first got interested in the Patti and Len storyline -- can't even remember now what it was about -- and I never really got over the breakup of Joand Sam (he "died" but later came back when she was with someone else, I think?). Plus I remember Peter Simon as Scott -- I saw here on youtube that he just came back to GL as Ed!

[gymnastix]

There were also ones circa 1972 featuring a young Susan Sarandon as "Sara Fairbanks," who played half of a hippie couple that kidnapped the series' lead character, "Joanne Gardner Barron Tate Reynolds Vincente (later Torneur)," as played by Mary Stuart, when her character was suffering a psychosomatic blindness.