Love Is a Many Splendored Thing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing was a soap opera which aired on CBS from September 18, 1967 (replacing the former game show Password) to March 23, 1973.
Contents |
[edit] Beginnings and controversy
The show was a spin off from the original 1955 20th Century Fox movie. The title of the show was sans the hyphen used in the movie's title.
The show focused on lives and loves in San Francisco. The opening sequence of the show, in fact, was the title of the show superimposed over a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, with a slightly reworked organ music rendition of the movie's signature hit. Soap writer and creator Irna Phillips was hired to adapt the movie 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, but since her character was deemed too controversial, she was phased out within the first year.
CBS censors balked at an interracial love story between a white man, Paul Bradley (and later, Dr. Jim Abbott) and an Amerasian woman (Mia Elliott, played by Hsueh). Phillips explained to censors that such a story would be necessary as the Mia Elliott character was the daughter of Korean War veteran Mark Elliott and Dr. Han Suyin, born out of their love affair from the original movie. When they still refused, Phillips quit the show.
This is not to say that the serial did not court controversy after Phillips' departure. One of the characters, Sister Laura Donnelly (played by Donna Mills, Viveka Grey, and Barbara Stangler), tried to fight off carnal desires she had for a man, a move that proved to be very controversial and ended up necessitating the woman to leave the church due to this conflict. Mills, Leslie Charleson and Bibi Besch played sisters. Leslie played older sister, (Iris Donnelly Garrison) and their conflict over the character, Mark Elliott, (portrayed by Sam Wade, David Birney, Michael Hawkins, and the late Tom Fuccello) brought the show strong fan devotion as well as a spike in ratings. Other actors who appeared on the series and would go on to greater fame in daytime or primetime included Beverlee McKinsey, Andrea Marcovicci, Constance Towers, Judson Laire, Susan Browning, Vincent Baggetta, David Groh, Ron Hale, Paul Michael Glaser, Stephanie Braxton, John Karlen and Michael Zaslow.
[edit] Downfall
As happened to many other soaps, the lead characters were recast multiple times. Within a few years, star players Charleson, Birney and Mills were all gone, and even the recasts were then recast several more times. Talented replacements such as Bibi Besch could not make up for a sense of fatigue that the constant casting changes wrought. The program shifted towards other characters, such as the strong-willed Betsy Chernak Taylor(Andrea Marcovicci), and complex storylines involving politics and blackmail, but the show was not recovering ratings quickly enough for CBS.
When Love Is a Many Splendored Thing was canceled in early 1973, the writers of the serial did something rare for the genre: all of the ongoing storylines were wrapped up and resolved in the final episodes. The final sequence featured original cast member Judson Laire (Dr. Will Donnelly) thanking the audience for their loyalty. "I hope that you remember us fondly." Before that, Judson's character, Dr. Will Donnelly had just married a woman named Lily Chernak, whose daughter, Betsy had also got married.
[edit] Legacy
The show's greatest legacy is not from its storytelling or cast, but from the strong focus on young, fresh faces. Few soaps had ever made attempts to aggressively focus on attractive young people, and those that did had not fared well with the traditional daytime audience. Love did, at least for a while, and was a direct precursor to other youth-oriented soaps.
[edit] Surviving episodes
Only a handful of episodes of the series still exist; all extant episodes exist only in kinescope form.
[edit] Awards
Prior to its cancellation this 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
