Love Is a Many Splendored Thing is an American daytime soap opera that aired on CBS from September 18, 1967, to March 23, 1973. The series was created by Irna Phillips, who served as the first head writer. She was replaced by Jane Avery and Ira Avery in 1968, who were followed by Don Ettlinger, James Lipton and finally Ann Marcus. John Conboy served as producer for most of the show's run.

Beginnings and controversy

The serial was a spin-off from the original 1955 20th Century-Fox film, although its title omitted the hyphen found in the film's title. In turn, the film was based on the 1952 autobiographical novel A Many-Splendoured Thing by Han Suyin. The show was originally a coproduction of CBS and 20th Century-Fox's television division.

Love Is a Many Splendored Thing focused on lives and loves in San Francisco, California. Its title sequence showed the title over a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, with a slightly reworked rendition of the film's signature hit theme. In a rare move for daytime serials of the era, live shots of junk boats from Hong Kong were interspersed with pictures of the real San Francisco. In 1968, when CBS became sole producer and distributor of the show, its more well-known sequence was introduced showing just the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. A revised version of the theme song was played by Eddie Layton, the long-time organist at Yankee Stadium and a popular recording artist. Layton played the Hammond X-66 (then owned by CBS) throughout most of his time on the program.

Veteran serial writer and creator Irna Phillips was hired to adapt the film for television, picking up the story some years after the end of the film. In the beginning, the star of the show was Nancy Hsueh as Mia Elliott, daughter to the characters portrayed by William Holden and Jennifer Jones in the 1955 film. Mia left Hong Kong to study medicine in San Francisco, her late father's hometown, and there she became involved with two men: Vietnam War pilot Paul Bradley, and, later, Dr. Jim Abbott. However, CBS censors balked at an interracial love story between a white man and an Amerasian woman.

Broadcast history

Love Is a Many Splendored Thing owed its existence to CBS daytime head Fred Silverman, who openly favored serials over game shows. Its predecessor at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time was the original run of Password, which had run aground against NBC's serial Days of Our Lives and ABC's The Newlywed Game. However, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing struggled against its competition and could not maintain the viewers from its lead-in, the top-rated serial As the World Turns.

On September 11, 1972, CBS moved Love Is a Many Splendored Thing to 3:00&nbsp;p.m. ET. Procter & Gamble, which produced four of the network's serials, wanted its shows aired consecutively. CBS moved Guiding Light, which had been airing at 2:30&nbsp;p.m. ET since its expansion to 30 minutes in 1968, into Love Is a Many Splendored Thing<nowiki/>'s former 2:00pm timeslot and moved The Edge of Night from its longtime 3:30&nbsp;p.m. ET slot to 2:30&nbsp;p.m. to complete the request; the schedules of As the World Turns, which aired at 1:30&nbsp;p.m., and Search for Tomorrow, which aired at 12:30&nbsp;p.m., were unaffected and the network did not program the 30 minutes between those shows. Shortly before the time change, the show's subject matter was changed from a love story to political intrigue and blackmail. Despite having maintained fairly strong ratings throughout its run, averaging an 8.5 rating and 29% share, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing still struggled in its new timeslot of 3:00&nbsp;p.m. against two new competitors: ABC's General Hospital and NBC's Another World, which consistently won the timeslot. These same two soaps also competed against sister CBS soap The Secret Storm in this timeslot six years earlier. On February 12, 1973, CBS announced that Love Is a Many Splendored Thing would end its run on March 23. The Young and the Restless debuted the following Monday.

The lead characters on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing were recast multiple times. The departure of stars Charleson, Birney and Mills led to a revolving door of cast replacements, such as Bibi Besch. The show focused upon other characters, such as the strong-willed Betsy Chernak Taylor (Andrea Marcovicci), and complex storylines involving politics and blackmail, but its ratings failed to recover quickly enough to avoid cancellation.

Immediately after the cancellation, CBS moved the highly popular The Price Is Right into the vacant timeslot,

Executive producers

{| class="wikitable"

|- "

! Duration || Name

|-

| September 18, 1967 – March 23, 1973 || Charles Weiss and Joseph Hardy

|}

Head writers

{| class="wikitable"

|- "

! Duration || Name

|-

| September 18, 1967 – February 1968 || Irna Phillips

|-

| February 1968 – August 1970|| Jane and Ira Avery

|-

| August – September 1970 || Dan Ettinger

|-

| September 1970 – February 1972 || James Lipton

|-

| February 1972 – March 23, 1973 || Ann Marcus

|}

Legacy

The show is notable for its strong focus on young characters. Along with ABC's Dark Shadows, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing particularly targeted young viewers along with soap operas' traditional audience. The show predated the premieres of One Life to Live (1968) and All My Children (1970), two other soap operas that also attracted young audiences.

Organist Eddie Layton introduced the influences of jazz and pop music to the show's score in contrast to the heavy symphonic and theatrical organ style of more established soap operas. Later soaps would continue to move away from organ music to contemporary light orchestral and synthesizer-based scoring.

Surviving episodes

All 1,430 episodes of Love Is a Many Splendored Thing were recorded on videotape at the CBS Broadcast Center Studio #41 in New York City. As with most soap operas of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the show's tapes were routinely wiped for reuse. Although the master tapes were erased, some rare kinescopes of episodes remain in the possession of private collectors. Only seven videotapes of the series are confirmed to exist, archived as non-circulating copies at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The archived episodes were telecast on March 8, 16 and 24, 1971, April 1 and 9, 1971 and March 12 and 20, 1973.

A 1967 kinescope episode in the public domain episode may be viewed at the Internet Archive.

Awards and nominations

Prior to its cancellation, the show was nominated for four Emmy Awards:

  • 1971: Outstanding Achievement in Daytime Programming
  • James Angerame, technical director
  • Victor L. Paganuzzi, art director; John A. Wendell, set decorator
  • 1973: Outstanding Achievement by Individuals in Daytime Drama
  • Peter Levin, director
  • Victor Paganuzzi, scenic designer; John A. Wendell, set decorator

Ratings

  • 1967–1968 season: #11, 7.9 rating
  • 1968–1969 season: #8, 9.0 rating
  • 1969–1970 season: #5, 9.5 rating
  • 1970–1971 season: #9, 9.2 rating
  • 1971–1972 season: #9, 8.0 rating
  • 1972–1973 season: #14, 7.1 rating

Cast

thumb|[[Donna Mills as Laura Donnelly Elliott in 1967]]

  • Nancy Hsueh : Mia Elliott (9/1967-3/1968) original cast
  • Thomas Beirne III: Baby Billy (1970)
  • Robert Milli : Dr. Jim Abbott #1 (9/1967-6/1968) original cast
  • Ron Hale : Dr. Jim Abbott #2 (1/1973-3/1973)
  • Nicholas Pryor : Paul Bradley (9/1967-3/1968) original cast
  • Judson Laire : Dr. Will Donnelly (9/1967-3/1973) original cast
  • Grace Albertson : Helen Elliott Donnelly #1 (9/67-3/68) original cast
  • Gloria Hoye : Helen Elliott Donnelly #2 (3/1968-3/23/1973)
  • Leslie Charleson : Iris Donnelly Garrison #1 (9/1967-12/29/1970) original cast
  • Bibi Besch : Iris Donnelly Garrison #2 (1/4/1971-3/23/1973)
  • Donna Mills : Laura Donnelly Elliott #1 (9/1967-9/18/1970) original cast
  • Veleka Gray : Laura Donnelly Elliott #2 (9/21/1970-1/26/1972)
  • Barbara Stanger : Laura Donnelly Elliott #3 (1/28/1972-3/23/1973)
  • Robert Burr : Lt. Tom Donnelly #1 (9/1967-8/1969) original cast
  • Albert Stratton : Lt. Tom Donnelly #2 (9/1969-3/23/1973)
  • Shawn Campbell : Ricky Donnelly (9/1967-3/23/1973) original cast
  • Len Wayland : Phillip Elliott #1 (9/1967-3/1968) original cast
  • Sam Wade : Mark Elliott #1 (9/1967-3/1969) original cast
  • David Birney : Mark Elliott #2 (3/1968-6/1970)
  • Michael Hawkins : Mark Elliott #3 (6/1970-11/12/1971)
  • Vince Cannon : Mark Elliott #4 (11/15/1971-1/26/1972)
  • Tom Fuccello : Mark Elliott #5 (1/28/1972-3/23/1973)
  • John Karlen : Jock Porter (1967–68)
  • Judith Searle : Dr. Dorothy Knowland(1967)
  • Don Scardino : Andy Hurley #1 (1968)
  • Russ Thacker : Andy Hurley #2 (1969)
  • Paul Stevens : Steve Hurley #1 (1968)
  • Mark Gordon : Steve Hurley #2(1969)
  • Martin Wolfson : Chandler Garrison #1 (1968)
  • William Post Jr. : Chandler Garrison #2(1968–1971)
  • Terry Logan : Dr. John Hale (1968–1970)
  • Jane Manning : Jean Hurley Garrison (1968-1/31/1971; 3/23/73)
  • Michael Hanrahan : Spencer Garrison #1 (3/1968-4/1968)
  • Edward Power : Spencer Garrison #2 (5/1968-11/1972)
  • Brett Halsey : Spencer Garrison #3(12/4/1972-3/23/1973)
  • Susan Browning : Nancy Garrison (1968–1969)
  • Flora Campbell : Margaret Garrison (1969–1970)
  • Karl Light: Dr. Burger (1970–1973)
  • Robert Drew : Dr. Ellis (1969; 1971–1972)
  • Suzie Kaye Stone : Angel Allison Chernak (1969-3/23/73)
  • Jody Locker : Nikki Cabot (1969)
  • Beatrice Ballance : Kim Hale (1969–1970, 1973)
  • Paul Michael Glaser : Dr. Peter Chernak #1 (12/1969-6/1970)
  • Michael Zaslow : Dr. Peter Chernak #2 (6/1970)
  • Vincent Baggetta : Dr. Peter Chernak #3 (6/1970-3/23/1973)
  • Diana Douglas : Lily Chernak Donnelly (6/1970-3/1973)
  • Andrea Marcovicci : Dr. Betsy Chernak Taylor (6/1970-3/23/1973)
  • Beverlee McKinsey : Julie Richards (1970-3/1971)
  • Joseph Boley : Charlie (1970)
  • Carmen Maya : Elizabeth (1970)
  • Robert Drew : Dr. Ellis (1970; 11/71-1/28/72)
  • Berkeley Harris : Jim Whitman (1970-3/71, 3/1973)
  • Arthur Benoit Jr. : William Alex Garrison (1970)
  • James Burdge : Sam Watson (1970-1/28/1972)
  • Joseph Stern : Larry Hale (1969–70)
  • Stephen Joyce : Dr. Sanford Hiller (12/1971-1972; 1972–1973)
  • Peter White : Dr. Sanford Hiller (1972)
  • Constance Towers : Marian Hiller (12/1971-1972)
  • Christopher Pape : Tommy Hale (12/1971-1/31/1972)
  • Fred J. Scollay : Police Chief Rame (12/1972-1/1973)
  • Judy Safran : Maria (1/1971 to 10/1971)
  • Abigail Kellogg : Celia Winter (1/1972-1/1973)
  • Gene Lindsey : Dr. Doug Preston (9/1971-12/1972)
  • Sasha von Scherler : Sarah Hanley (1/70-1972; 3/23/73)
  • Don Gantry: Senator Al Preston (1/1972-9/1972)
  • Leon Russom : Joe Taylor (1/1972-3/23/1973)
  • David Groh : Simon Ventnor (1972-1/1973)
  • John Carpenter : Walter Travis (1972)
  • Andrea Grossman : Nicole Chernak (1972–1973)
  • P.J. Soles : Unknown (1973)
  • Betty Miller : Mrs. Taylor (1972-3/23/73)

References

Further reading

  • From Ma Perkins to Mary Hartman, Robert Laguardia,
  • The Wonderful World of Soap Operas, Robert Laguardia,