Courtesy of French Fan at SON.
Guiding Light
Written by: Bridget & Jerome Dobson
Produced by: Allen Potter
Rita's old flame Greg Fairbanks arrived and sexually tempted her. Lucille reminded Brandon that he dropped her after she agreed to raise Amanda, who is actually Alan's daughter, although Alan doesn't know it. Amanda snared Ben in a Washington motel, but assured him it's a no-strings relationship. The French patient's bullet wounds healed. Alan and Hope grew closer to each other on the island. Ross handled Jackie's legal affairs and showed a physical interest in her, and in Amanda. Floyd was a bit jealous that Mark seems smitten with Lainie. Rita realized she has problems with Ed. Lucille refused to tell Ben and Amanda why she visited Brandon, bat approved of their joint trip together.
Holly slugged Gail, who insisted Holly be her prison "slave' after Peter nixed having an affair with Gail. Alan softened under Hope's influence and they made love on the island. The mysterious French patient is undeniably Roger, who had flashbacks of Holly shooting him and of arranging with Dr. Moreno for a “fake death”. Rita resisted Greg and consulted with Sara about handling her sexual problems with Ed. Lucille admitted to Amanda that she and Brandon once had an affair, but didn't tell her the rest of the story. Mike gave up the search for Hope. Floyd felt "haunted" in Roger's old apartment. Brandon refused to tell Lucille who Amanda's real mother was.
Roger was released from the French hospital with his “new” face. Alan and Hope were rescued. Alan learned that Jackie had miscarried. Jackie and Mike were suspicious of what transpired on the island between Alan and Hope. Holly refused to be Gail’s prison slave, and Peter feared for Holly’s safety. Lainie canceled a date with Mark after Katie returned and admitted she’s crazy for Mark. Ross snatched a kiss from Jackie while inspecting the Wexler property. Eve and Rita argued about Rita being tempted by Greg, and Rita was stailed from admitting her sexyal inadequacies to Ed. Moreno and Alan refused to help Ralph financially.
Lucille refused to summon help for Brandon who passed away after whispering the name of Amanda’s mother in Lucille’s ear. Alan suspected Lucille knew something about Brandon’s death. Hope told Mike she was leaving town to avoid further contact with Alan. Mike made Ross a partner in his law firm. Katie realized Mark may have been spending time with Lainie. Justin and Elizabeth made plans to marry next week. Alan learned Dr. Moreno had moved leaving no forwarding adress.
Alan followed Hope to London. Jackie was upset to see Alan and Hope's photo in a London newspaper. Roger also saw the photo. Ross learned Amanda will inherit valuable stocks from Brandon and made a play for her. Lainie's become very attracted to Ed.
Love Of Life
Written by: Jean Holloway / Ann Marcus
Produced by: Cathy Abbi
Steve noticed that Vanessa had the blahs after a trip with Bruce. She realized Steve is interested in her. Kim told Tony that he fathered a child that she gave to a priest in order to get the baby, Tron, out of Vietnam. Wes agreed to marry Gina if he can ditch her once the baby's born. Bambi was upset by Tony's strange behavior but Paul consoled her. Mia kept Betsy's messages from Ben.
Gina went into convulsions after taking a home remedy to induce abortion that Christie gave her. Tony and Kim couldn't find anyone to help locate Tron. Kim stood in the shadows and wept during Bambi's wedding rehearsal. Wes had the guilts for reneging on marrying Gina.
Bambi went into a trance and Paul hospitalized her after Tony ran from the wedding. Tony ran to revive Kim who tried to gas herself to death. Ben and Mia succumbed to their desires. Betsy showed pregnancy symptoms. Amy got sweet with Steve.
Tom and Meg spent a night togethen while Liane resisted Andrew’s advances. Elliott and Betsy’s divorce hearing is set for next week. Paul saw Tony with Kim. Van sensed Steve’s attraction to her while Amy moved in on Bruce. Ray said he’d see Wes before pressing statutory rape charges against him on Gina’s behalf.
Paul told Bambi that Tony and Kim Soo Ling left town together. Bambi remembered that Tony had loved a Vietnamese woman who saved his life. Kim and Tony searched San Francisco for their child.
One Life To Live
Written by: Gordon Russell & Sam Hall
Produced by: Joseph Stuart
Brad went after Karen but she didn't report the rape because of Jenny. Samantha and Mick got along famously, but Tina decided she wants a piece of Mick's action. Karen drowned her sorrows at the River Rat, then injured a stranger’s lecherous paws. Katrina guessed that Karen was raped and Brad hustled to keep Katrina quiet. Dorian had Gretel take over Pat's tv show since Pat's ill. Maggie teased Adam that she had a scheme to reunite him and Pat, but Maggie intended to snatch Adam for herself. Ed convinced Edwina not to write a yellow story on Karen, who refused to confide in anyone, especially Will.
Joe learned he's deathly ill after asking Becky and Richard to return from Paris. Maggie acted nicey-nice to Pat but fantasized stealing Adam. Joe rehired Edwina who realized that Gretel is her competition for Herb's affections. Dorian hired Ellen, Mario's former fiancee, who noticed that Mario didn't remember where they planned to spend their honeymoon. Fran was upset that Mick is breaking training because of Samantha. Mick reluctantly agreed to do a health spa commercial for Dorian. Mario questioned Brad about Karen who retreated from everyone.
Joe tried to tell Viki that he’s terminally ill but was stymied because of their anniversary. Tina complained to Joe that she lost Mick to Samantha. Matt realized the game Maggie was playing with Adam. Tina made a date with Jamie, who’s in cahoots with Judd who is vengeful since Tina once jilted her. Ivan comforted Faith that hed never allow “them” to take her away. Brad laid into Peter for getting too close to Jenny. Karen slipped that she had reason to despise Brad. Brad’s pawnbroker informed Brad that Jenny’s ring and pearls have been sold.
Mario beat up Brad after realizing that Brad raped Karen. Adam caught onto Maggie’s schemes to win his affections and moved back to New York after bidding Pat farewell. Becky Lee arrived in town but Richard’s still in Europe. After Kevin’s third birthday party, Joe told Viki that he had but a few months to live.
Dorian returned from a cruise. Joe lost his vision. Clint Buchanan agreed to take over Joe's editorship at the Banner.
Ryan’s Hope
Written by: Claire Labine & Paul Avila Mayer
Produced by: Claire Labine & Paul Avila Mayer
Jill and Frank overheard Rae and Seneca discuss their schemes to keep Jill and Frank apart. Roger flared at Dee for interfering in Nancy's and Pat's relationship. Pat got drunk over Nancy and Adam. Joe introduced Siobhan to a godfather-type pal, Mr. Novotny. Jill cancelled her San Francisco trip, now that she and Frank are reunited, but Rae swore vengeance.
Rae pretended to give up Frank to Jill gracefully, but secretly convinced Seneca not to file an alienation of affection suit until Rae comes up with a better scheme. Adam admitted his love for Nancy who ran to Pat. But Pat is convinced he and Nancy are washed up unless they marry immediately. Johnny questioned Joe about his reputed crime-lord uncle, and Jack investigated.
Johnny warned Dee to button up for taking credit for Pat and Nancy’s bust up. Rae arranged with reporter Lewis to take compromising photos of Jill and Frank. Roger was arguing with Dee about neglecting their home when he was called to tend Tom who fell and had an attack. Joe’s Uncle Tom told Jack the crime reputation has been manufactured by the press.
Tom checked into the graveyard while Roger feared his wrong diagnosis of Tom’s head injuries caused his death. Delia’s commodites broke. Dan Fox informed her taht her stocks are on a downhill slide. Rae sent Jack a list of her contacts who nominated Frank to the Senate planting another copy in Jill’s files. Johnny worried Siobhan and Joe’s affair would reflect badly on Frank’s career.
Frank told Jack he knew nothing about illegal campaign contributions and such, then confronted Rae who denied sending Jack the letter. Joe told a bewildered Siobhan that he had to stop seeing her.
Search For Tomorrow
Written by: Joyce & John William Corrington
Produced by: Mary-Ellis Bunim
Travis went running to Italy after David told him something mysterious about Renata. John overheard Stephanie chew out Ted for not keeping Todd away from Wendy. Janet refused John's request to call a board meeting about Ted gambling stockholder's money on oil deals. Tony (Antonio) led David to a village where David found Renata’s birth records. Helene plotted to take advantage of Carolyn's blindness. Lee urged Sunny to have more fun in her life and that be can provide it.
Helene used sleeping potions and voodoo dolls to bring Marc and Carolyn together and thereby ruin Marc because of Gary. David found Renata working at a Catholic hospital and convinced her to meet with Travis about her "secret." Jo maintained separate bedrooms with Martin in New Orleans. Eric returned and cautioned Wendy about rushing into sex with Todd. Ted refused to sell his oil leases to Lee and Janet warned Ted about using company money without her approval.
Mignon’s detective photographed Travis having a suggestive “reunion” with Renata. Helene convinced Mignon she could use her psychic powers to keep Liza away from Travis. Todd returned to college after Wendy insisted they couldn’t sneak around and they split. Jo admitted to Martin that theur vacation together was a thrill. Lee made it clear to Sunny that he wants an affair. Travis had David take Renata to Henderson and keep her presence a secret until she can claim the “name that’s rightfully hers”.
John demanded Stephanie call for Ted’s resignation after telling her Ted’s oil investments with Collins money could go bad. Tante Helene gave Carolyn hallucinogenic drugs. Liza was convinced Travis wanted to marry Renata after she saw Renata in his arms.
Travis told Liza that Renata was his sister. He said that Mignon would be destroyed if she knew his father had stayed in Europe with Renata s mother, letting Mignon think he'd died during the war.
The Young And The Restless
Written by: William J. Bell
Produced by: William J. Bell & John Conboy
Lorie accused Lucas of trying to kill Lance by sending him to revolutionary Santo Domingo. Derek thought Suzanne is drinking heavily and ran to tell Jill he'll always love Jill. Kay finally "appeared" in front of Brock and admitted she's pretending to be dead to uncover Suzanne's schemes. Nikki fretted that Greg doesn't want to start a family immediately once they're married. Leslie returned and Lorie realized she's concerned for Lance's welfare.
Kay admitted to Brock that she's so grateful to Liz for showing her a different way of life since living "undercover” Stu thought she should give Derek his freedom to run to Jill. Nikki was so moved that Liz accepted her as a future daughter-in-law that she told Paul she couldn't see him again, even though he admitted his love. Lorie convinced Leslie to stay with Lucas so that he won't have reason to feel antagonistic toward Lance.
Greg and Nikki honeymooned in their new apartment but she fretted about their finances.
Chris kept her pregnancy to herself after learning she'd come in contact with one of Snapper's patients who had German measles. Chris hasn't had the childhood disease. Jill demanded the house and half of everything Stu owns as a divorce settlement.
Derek told Lorie that he was remarrying Suzanne. Chris left town to think but didn't tell Snapper she's pregnant and has no immunity to German measles.
Showing posts with label Search For Tomorrow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Search For Tomorrow. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Hall of Fame: Douglas Watson
Douglas Watson
2009 Soap Opera Hall of Fame Inductee
2009 Soap Opera Hall of Fame Inductee
- Dr. Clay Carroll, The Nurses
- Dr. Robert Wallace, Moment of Truth
- Walter Haskins, Search For Tomorrow
- Dr. Lloyd Phillips, Love of Life
- Mackenzie Cory, Another World
A character actor since 1950, his most notable roles were in the movies Julius Caesar (1953), Sayonara (1957), and The Money Pit (1986). He was also one of the most acclaimed actors on the New York stage, acting in several Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. In addition, he played on such daytime dramatic dramas as Moment of Truth (1965) (a Canadian serial), Search for Tomorrow (1966-1968), Love of Life (1972-1973), and Another World (1974-1989).
Before his acting career began, he received two Purple Heart awards and a Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in the Air Force during World War II.
After the war, he toured as Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor and made his New York debut in 1947, personally selected by Eugene O'Neill to play Don Parrit in The Iceman Cometh.
His theater career quickly took off with a Theatre World Award for his performance the next year as Eros in Antony and Cleopatra. In 1949, Watson won the Clarence Derwent Award for That Lady opposite Katharine Cornell, and the next year he topped Variety's New York Drama Critics Poll for The Wisteria Trees opposite Helen Hayes. A number of critically acclaimed roles followed in the 1950s, including Romeo opposite Olivia de Havilland's Juliet, Eben Cabot in Desire Under the Elms, Christian de Neuvilette in Cyrano de Bergerac, the title role in Henry V, Mr. Harcourt in The Country Wife opposite Julie Harris, Ralph Touchett in Portrait of a Lady opposite Jennifer Jones, Brian O'Bannion in Auntie Mame opposite Constance Bennett, and the title role T. S. Eliot's The Confidential Clerk.
Celebrated for his outstanding performances in a series of Shakesperean productions, Watson broke into motion pictures in 1953 as Octavius in Julius Caesar opposite Marlon Brando's Mark Antony. Four years later, he was reunited with Brando in the film version of Sayonara. During the 1960s he continued his Shakesperean award-winning theater streak, appearing in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and Othello. He appeared in a number of non-Shakesperean roles, including King Henry VIII in A Man For All Seasons, Herald in Marat/Sade, Teddy Lloyd in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Zoe Caldwell, and the Major General in The Pirates of Penzance.
After two decades of busy stage work, Watson starred in his own daytime serial, Moment of Truth, in 1965. He played Dr. Bob Wallace, a psychiatrist, in this ill-fated, Canadian produced entry. Then he was seen as Walter Haskins on Search For Tomorrow for awhile, followed by a stint in 1972 as Dr. Lloyd Phillips on Love of Life. Nancy Marchand who would later appear with him on Another World portrayed his wife, Vinnie.
In 1974, he joined the cast of Another World. On Another World, Watson portrayed Mackenzie "Mac" Cory; the third actor to play the role, he had replaced Robert Emhardt. Watson earned the Another World role after a critically-acclaimed turn playing Kent in King Lear at the 1974 New York Shakespeare Festival.
As the doting father of the spoiled Iris, who found his match in the fiery Rachel, Watson quickly garnered notice inside the industry for his alternately charming and volatile performances, resulting in two Emmy awards for Outstanding Actor in 1980 and 1981.
Although Mac was busy enough for a dozen men (three marriages to Rachel, a poisoning administered by his wife Janice, a hostage kidnapped for weeks, a plane crash survivor who wandered for days on frozen tundra), Watson found time for other projects besides soaps during the 1970s and early 1980s. He appeared in the film Ulzana's Raid with Burt Lancaster and repeated his stage performance in The Trial of the Cantonville Nine in the film version. In 1973, after starring as Don Pedro in the highly praised Joe Papp production of Much Ado About Nothing, he repeated the role in a television production. He also appeared on Broadway in the musical Over Here with the Andrews Sisters and in the revival of The Philadelphia Story.
As if acting with Dame Judith Anderson in Medea, dancing with Martha Graham in several of her premier works, and singing with The New York City Opera were not enough, Watson also managed an equally impressive home life. From November 28, 1942 to his death, he was married to Harriet Eugenia (Genie) Clark. The Watsons had three children: Larkin Douglas Watson, a construction engineer; Celia Strome, a national award-winning poet; and Randall Forsberg, an internationally recognized expert on world armaments and the originator of the Nuclear Freeze Movement.
Watson died on May 1, 1989 from a heart attack at the age of 68, just a few days short of Another World's silver anniversary. His character on the show also died shortly afterward. Douglass Watson is interred at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Hall of Fame: Agnes Nixon
2009 Soap Opera Hall of Fame Inductee
- Writer, Woman in White
- Co-Creator/Head Writer, Search For Tomorrow
- Writer, As The World Turns
- Head Writer, The Guiding Light
- Head Writer, Another World
- Head Writer/Executive Producer/Creator, One Life To Live
- Head Writer/Executive Producer/Creator/Story Consultant, All My Children
- Head Writer/Creator/Story Consultant, Loving
- Co-Creator/Story Consultant, The City
- ABC Daytime Overall Story Consultant
- Agnes Eckhart, All My Children
- Agnes Eckhardt, One Life To Live
- Aggie, All My Children
Often termed the "queen" of contemporary soap opera, Williams Agnes Eckhardt Nixon, better known simply as Agnes Nixon, was born December 10, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. She is often called the most respected and influential writer in daytime drama. She is best known, and most honored, for introducing social issues into the soaps.
Shortly after her birth, her parents divorced. Nixon's mother returned to Nashville with her. They lived with Nixon's grandmother and invalid aunt. Her grandmother was said to be a difficult woman, and Nixon's mother strived to give Nixon as normal a life as possible. As a child she cut out pictures from comic stips such as Etta Kent and Tillie the Toiler, and played with them as if they were paper dolls, moving them about and creating her own variations of the stories. As she grew older she became enchanted with the novels of Louisa May Alcott, followed the serial Little Orphan Annie on radio, and took drama lessons.
Nixon was gifted and petite; a vivacious and beautiful blond. These attributes caused her to suffer a great deal of envy and spitefulness from her peers. She attended St. Cecilia Academy of Dominican sisters in Nashville. During that time, she studied privately with Eleanor Dubuission Fossick, who first identified her as gifted, and taught her "expression" and music. Nixon was "Miss Eleanor's" delightful protégé, and she wanted to attend Northwestern University. Her father, who had a company that provided materials for funeral businesses, refused to underwrite this, and instead wanted her to work for him. Nixon was distraught. She disclosed this situation to her teacher. "Miss Eleanor" told her to write to her father as though she had not received his letter refusing Northwestern, and tell him how wonderful he was and how all her friends were jealous that her father was going to pay for this. Shortly after, her father wrote her, saying "he was in a bad mood" when he wrote his letter of denial, and of course he would pay for Northwestern.
At Northwestern she majored in speech and drama. In her class were such luminaries as Charlton Heston, Patricia Neal, Martha Hyer and Cloris Leachman. She is said to have observed the enormous talent pool there, and instead of pursuing acting, opted instead to write.
She had been engaged to a young World War II pilot, Hank. Hank went missing in action. This was devastating for young Nixon. She dated again, and once had a semi-long distance relationship with a young Frenchman named Etienne. It was said to be fascinating to hear her prattle in French, long distance, with him. She was also friends with one of Hank's buddies, Robert "Bob" Nixon, an executive with the Chrysler Corporation. "Miss Eleanor" remarked to her that her eyes only sparkled when she spoke of Bob, and not when she spoke of Etienne. In the end, she married Bob Nixon on April 6, 1951. Together, they had four children. Her oldest daughter, Cathy Chicos, became a dialogue writer for All My Children. Nixon was loyal to her mentors, and visited "Miss Eleanor" several times during her last illness and attended her funeral. "Miss Eleanor" had directed seven roses be placed on her casket. The first six were for members of her family, and the seventh was for Nixon, symbolizing "All My Children" she had taught throughout the years. Nixon had always said she wanted to write the great American novel. She did this as a collaborative effort, and the book was made into a mini series in the 1980s called Manions of America. It is believed it was loosely based on her own ancestry.
While still at Northwestern, she sold a radio play, and to avoid working in her father's burial-garment business, went to see soap opera queen Irna Phillips with dreams of becoming a professional writer.
The formidable Phillips took Eckhardt's script and, to the shock of the young writer, read every word of it aloud. After she finished reading, Phillips turned to the trembling author and asked, "Would you like to work for me?"
Under Phillips' tutelage, Eckhardt began her job as a dialogue writer for the radio soap opera Woman in White at $100 per week.
Later she struck out on her own, free-lancing in New York during television's Golden Age of live drama -- a golden age that, she said, "lasted fifteen minutes." She wrote teleplays for Studio One, Playhouse 90, The Hallmark Hall of Fame, and My True Story.
In 1951, the same year of her marriage and move to Pennsylvania, she created the NBC soap opera Search For Tomorrow with Roy Winsor. She stayed with the series, writing the first three-month cycle. It became the first successful daytime television soap opera, and would for awhile hold the honor of the longest-running serial in the history of televison.
A few years later, she was reunited with Irna Phillips, and became a writer for The Guiding Light. After co-creating As The World Turns with Phillips in 1956, she became head writer at The Guiding Light in 1958. There she began her much-heralded "relevance" campaign, mixing social issues and education crusades into the story.
A friend of Nixon's had died from cervical cancer, and Nixon wanted to do something to educate women about getting a Pap smear. She wrote it into The Guiding Light by having the lead character, Bert Bauer, encounter a cancer scare. This storyline aired in 1962; Nixon had to work around some difficulties of getting this storyline to air, as she could not make use of the words “cancer,” “uterus,” and “Pap test”. However, after this storyline the number of women who took a Pap smear surged dramatically. The studio and Nixon both received numerous letters from appreciative women, some of whom said that the story had saved their lives by prodding them to seek regular checkups. In 2002 she received a special Sentinel for Health "pioneer award" for her work on The Guiding Light.
In 1965, Nixon, while on vacation in St. Croix, completed the first proposal/Bible for her future soap opera All My Children. Procter & Gamble at first optioned the series, but could not find any room for the series at the time.
Instead of shopping the new series around to another network, Nixon was convinced by the rejection that the new series wasn’t any good, she went back to TGL. P&G decided that Nixon might just be what the struggling NBC soap opera Another World needed and moved her over to head write the struggling soap. She took the job as a challenge. She met the challenge and ended up turning AW into a certifiable hit.
Her first order of business was getting rid of the previous writer's new family and returning the Matthews family to prominence. To accomplish this, she simply killed off the entire Gregory family in a plane crash. She then crafted a compelling storyline for Bill & Missy where Missy married the dastardly Danny Fargo (Antony Ponzini) out of convenience, was raped and impregnated by him, and then put on trial for Danny’s eventual murder, bringing Bill & Missy back together. Nixon also moved TGL characters Mike Bauer and young daughter Hope to AW and plunged Mike into a romantic triangle with rivals Pat Randolph and Lee Randolph while hooking up Lenore Moore (Judith Barcroft, and later Susan Sullivan), a former girlfriend of Bill’s and who’d been much more socially acceptable to Liz, with social climbing attorney Walter Curtin (Val Dufour). In the end, Nixon’s take on the show worked! Viewers couldn’t wait to see what twists and turns would befall the residents of Bay City and the ratings began to rise. Then Nixon would introduce two new characters and a storyline that would send the ratings through the roof.
She was intensely invested in a conniving character in her rejected soap opera named Erica Kane and wanted, if nothing else, for that character to see realization on screen. To this end, she created the character of Rachel Davis along with her long-suffering mother Ada. Rachel & Ada (Robin Strasser and Constance Ford) had been abandoned years earlier by Ada’s husband and Rachel’s father Gerald. Ada was determined to make up for the abandonment and indulged Rachel’s every whim, leaving the poor young girl immensely spoiled. A conniver and social climber of the highest order, Rachel set her sights on her doctor – intern Russ Matthews – and married him in secret. Shortly thereafter, Agnes introduced the wealthy and rakish Steve Frame (George Reinholt) who was taken with Russ’s sister Alice. As Steve & Alice fell in love, Rachel grew dismayed with the life of a doctor’s wife and took a liking to Steve. Before long, Steve had slept with Rachel (who was still married to Russ) and got her pregnant, but Rachel attempted to pass the baby off as Russ’s. The Russ/Rachel/Steve/Alice quadrangle was a smash! Viewers swooned to Steve & Alice, sympathized with Russ, and loved to hate Rachel.
Ratings skyrocketed. AW, once in danger of cancellation, was the first soap opera to break through CBS’s ratings dominance. For the 1966-1967 TV season, AW ranked 7th behind all of CBS’s soaps. For the 1967-1968 season, AW had shot up to 2nd, right behind ATWT.
Her success at AW didn’t go unnoticed. ABC, seeing the magic she’d worked, lured her away to create a hit soap for their own struggling line-up and Nixon jumped at the chance, leaving Irna Phillips and P&G for good.
ABC executives passed on the earlier program she created, but asked her to create a show that would reflect a more "contemporary" tone; that creation was One Life to Live. Nixon, "tired of the restraints imposed by the WASPy, non-controversial nature of daytime drama, presented the network with a startingly original premise and cast of characters. Although the show was built along the classic soap formula of a rich family and a poor family, One Life to Live emphasized the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the people of Llanview, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.
The real beginning for her presentation of issues in television soap opera was One Life to Live. In 1968 social structures and attitudes were changing, and One Life was rich in issue stories and characters: leads who were Jewish, up-from-poverty Irish-American, Polish, and the first African-American leads, Carla Gray (Ellen Holly), doctor-to-be, and Ed Hall (Al Freeman, Jr.). Gray's story, for example, had her develop from a character who was passing as white to one who embodied black pride, with white and black loves along the way, to antagonize racists. When Carla kissed the black intern she had become engaged to, one affiliate in Texas cancelled the program immediately. Ironically, when Holly and Freeman brought Carla and Ed back to One Life in the mid-1980s, they seemed out of place in by-then WASP-ish Llanview, Pennsylvania. "Color" in this era was created not by race, but by style, in the persons of the nouveau riche, Dallas-style oil family, the Buchanans. By the Democratic mid-1990s, however, interracial and Hispanic families had become central characters.
Agnes Nixon created One Life to Live for ABC in order to obtain the opportunity to write her "dream" story, All My Children. It all happened in 1970. Based on her success with OLTL, ABC decided they wanted the project P&G had passed on. AMC was more personal than OLTL, but social issues were still tackled: child abuse (again tied to a real organization in Philadelphia, and again drawing a strong and practical response); the Vietnam War; and the first legal abortion, Erica Kane's, in May 1971. Assuming the audience would be shocked, AMC's writers gave Erica a "bad" motive (she wanted a modeling job), and, following the abortion, septicemia (planned as educational as well as "poetic justice"). But Susan Lucci's fan mail cheered Erica on, and urged her to take the modeling job in spite of the objections of her then-husband.
Other issues pioneered by Nixon include political nonconformity, very rare in prime-time television, rarer still in daytime drama. When All My Children debuted in 1970, it featured Amy Tyler (Rosemary Prinz) as a peace activist. Next Nixon had the young hero, Phillip Brent, drafted against his will and later missing in action. Political pages in U.S. newspapers took note of a speech against the war by Ruth Martin (Mary Fickett), who had raised Phillip as her son: even the mothers on those escapist soap operas were against the war, the newspapers said. Fickett won the first Emmy given to a daytime performer, for her work during the 1972-73 season. In 1987, Agnes Nixon remembered simply, "I didn't feel that took so much courage. It was like a mother speaking. Like Friendly Fire." But Friendly Fire was not published until 1976. In 1974, Nixon turned to humanizing the Vietnamese, showing Phillip, in one of the few war scenes on TV soap opera, being rescued by a young Vietnamese (played by a man who had been adopted one of Nixon's friends).
Nixon's stories characteristically show both sides of the issues on which she focuses: of the teenage prostitute, the drug addict, even the wife beater. When she feels there should be no sympathy for the other side, she works toward empathy--as in the 1988 AIDS story in which she had a lead character, Skye Cudahy (Robin Christopher) become so irrational with AIDS fear that she almost killed Cindy (Ellen Wheeler). Nixon sees both sides, and usually has a third type of character--perhaps in a position similar to that of most viewers--who is pulled in both directions.
Characteristic of Nixon's soaps, AMC hooked young people and men. The focus on young adult characters included not only romance--and sex--but also their growing pains. AMC, from its earliest days, presented Erica Kane, the willful but winningly vulnerable teenager who, in the hands of Agnes Nixon and Susan Lucci, has grown through multiple lovers (usually husbands) and careers. She has found her "lost" father, a surprise daughter and in the 1990s--even some women friends. In the early 1980s, AMC's popularity soared as young people raced home (or to their dormitory lounges) at lunch time to watch the classic star-crossed romance of Jenny Gardner (Kim Delaney) and Greg Nelson (Laurence Lau). The issue was class: Jenny was from a troubled, lower-class family; Greg's mother, Enid Nelson, was Pine Valley's stereotypical snob. Equally popular were Angie Baxter (Debbi Morgan) and Jesse Hubbard (Darnell Williams), soap opera's first African-American super-couple.
Delaney and Williams, an Emmy winner, were given daytime drama's highest honor when they left AMC. Their characters were killed off so no other actor could play them. Jenny Gardner's kid brother Tad (Michael Knight)--flirting, cheating on girls, and otherwise adventuring--epitomized another Agnes Nixon gift to soap opera: humor, the "lighter" moment amid the Sturm und Drang. A waif-foundling, Tad is an archetypal character, his story a myth, or fairy-folk tale. He has two sets of parents. His biological parents consist of an evil father, Ray Gardner (dead since the 1980s), and a loving but ditzy mother, Nixon's famed comic creation, Opal Gardner. But Tad was raised by Joe and Ruth Martin (Ray MacDonnell and Mary Fickett, retired in the mid-1990s and replaced by Lee Meriwether), after his father abandoned him in a park. Joe and Ruth Martin are the central father and mother of AMC, and in folk-myth terms, they are the good parents, as steadfast as Tad's blood parents are unreliable and frightening.
Nixon's other archetypal creations include "tentpole" characters, usually older women such as Erica's mother Mona Tyler (the late Frances Heflin) and Myrtle Fargate (the late Eileen Herlie). Tentpole characters, says Nixon, are "the Greek chorus, in a sense ..., telling the audience how to feel."
Besides folk myth, Nixon also draws on the religious and mystical. One of her favorite tales is from the third soap opera she created (with the late Douglas Marland), Loving (ABC, 1983; later changed to The City). Archetypal good-bad twins Keith and Jonathan (John O'Hurley) battle, and in one twist, evil Jonathan, fallen from Golden Gate Bridge, returns with supernatural powers. Nixon says Jonathan made a pact with a devil. Wisely, the pact-making was not shown, and the evil one, though shown, was unlabelled--he left the Bridge area, slithering away as a snake. For this story, she cites as sources Faust and C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters.
Loving also allowed Nixon to break one of daytime's last taboos. That was her story of a father sexually abusing his daughter. Other shows had done similar stories but the abuser was always a step-father, never a blood relation. Nixon and Marland broke that taboo with the story of Garth Slater abusing his daughter Lily. Even with that story, it was only one of the many issues that Loving tackled in its first year and entire run.
Agnes Nixon, in her long and much-honored tenure as queen of soap opera, has created a treasure trove of characters and stories as rich as Aladdin's, tales from the deepest depths of our fears and the starriest heights of our dreams. She is indeed "the storyteller."
Through the years, she has been a member of the International Radio and TV Society; National Academy of TV Arts and Sciences; The Friars Club; and the Board of Harvard Foundation. She has been the recipient of the National Academy of TV Arts and Sciences Trustees Award, 1981; Junior Diabetes Foundation Super Achiever Award; Wilmer Eye Institute Award; American Women In Radio and TV Communicator Award, 1984; American Academy of Achievement Gold Plate Award, 1993; TV Hall of Fame, 1993; Soap Opera Weekly's Soap Opera Hall of Fame, 1994; Editor's Choice Award from Soap Opera Digest, 1996; and The Innovator Award (SoapsWEB), 2008.
She has received five Writer's Guild of America Awards; one primetime Emmy Award; five Daytime Emmy Awards, and numerous nominations.
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