Return to Peyton Place
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Return to Peyton Place is a 1959 novel by Grace Metalious.
Hoping to cash in on the phenomenal success of her first novel, the blockbuster hit Peyton Place (1956), Metalious penned a sequel centering on the life and loves of bestselling author Allison Mackenzie, who ironically follows in the footsteps of her mother by having an affair with a married man.
While Return to Peyton Place had many of the same soap opera elements of the original, it lacked its narrative style, and read like a hack novel that had been written quickly and without much thought in order to make a quick buck. Although it sold well, its total sales in no way approached those of its predecessor.
The 1961 film adaptation was a critical and commercial failure. Directed by José Ferrer, it lacked the style of Peyton Place in both its lackluster screenplay by Ronald Alexander and its cast of second-stringers, including Carol Lynley, Jeff Chandler, Eleanor Parker, Mary Astor, Robert Sterling, Luciana Paluzzi, Brett Halsey, and Tuesday Weld, hired to spare the expense of re-engaging the A-list actors from the earlier film.
A daytime drama entitled Return to Peyton Place aired on NBC from April 3, 1972 to January 4, 1974, but the soap opera was a continuation of the primetime television series rather than an adaptation of the book.
