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.
Contents
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. The network was also uncomfortable with a developing subplot in which Jim Abbott was implicated in the death of a young patient, the result of a botched abortion. Unwilling to compromise her story for CBS executives, Phillips quit the series, as the character of Mia Elliott was written out of the series in March 1968, never to be mentioned again. Phillips' resignation led to the end of Fox's role as coproducer and distributor.
In February 1968, Phillips was replaced by husband-and-wife writing team Ira and Jane Avery, who quickly refocused the series on two families, the Donnellys and the Elliotts. The Donnelly family was headed by widower Dr. Will Donnelly (Judson Laire), who had three adult children: Tom, a police lieutenant, Iris, a troubled college graduate and Laura, a fragile novitiate nun. The Elliotts consisted of wealthy Phillip and Helen Elliott and their son Mark (Sam Wade), a Vietnam War vet who was engaged to marry Iris but secretly desired her sister Laura. As with the Mia Eliott story, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing courted controversy again as Laura tried unsuccessfully to fight off carnal desires for her sister's boyfriend. A storm of controversy necessitated Laura's sudden departure from the church, and CBS dropped the storyline within weeks of Phillips' departure. However, the Averys continued to emphasize the conflict between two beautiful sisters who loved the same man, a plot that would bring the series strong fan devotion as well as a spike in the Nielsen ratings, and would drive the plotline for the remainder of the serial's network run.
Storyline synopsis
1967: Mia Elliott, daughter of late war correspondent Mark Elliott and physician Han Suyin, arrives in San Francisco to study medicine. Mia meets Phillip and Helen Elliott, her aunt and uncle, cousin Mark Elliott, her father's namesake, and sisters Iris and Laura Donnelly. At first Mia dates pilot Paul Bradley (Nicholas Pryor), but she later develops a serious relationship with Dr. Jim Abbott (Robert Milli). Laura Donnelly, also known as Sister Cecilia (Donna Mills), fights her attraction to Mark Elliott as she prepares to take her final vows. Iris, unsure of Mark's feelings for her and sensing Laura's attraction to him, begins to drink heavily and consort with sneering playboy Jock Porter (John Karlen). During an argument with Mark, a drunken Iris crashes their car, but both escape serious injury.
1968 : When it is revealed that Jock Porter paid Jim Abbott to perform an illegal abortion on girlfriend Terry Andrews, who later died, a disenchanted Mia decides to return to Hong Kong. Iris becomes emotionally involved with Jim, but the scandal surrounding Terry Andrews forces him to leave San Francisco for New York. Laura decides not to take her final vows and leaves the church for Mark, who ends his relationship with Iris and begins a career as an architect. Lt. Tom Donnelly (Robert Burr) helps Helen (Grace Albertson, Gloria Hoye) overcome her grief when husband Phillip (Len Wayland) dies suddenly, and after a short courtship, the two marry. Iris finds herself attracted to Spencer Garrison (Michael Hanrahan, Ed Power) a handsome lawyer/senatorial candidate trapped in an unhappy marriage.
1969: Laura and Mark (now played by David Birney) marry, and shortly afterward, Laura discovers that she's pregnant. Spence leaves his insidious wife Nancy (Susan Browning) for Iris, who also becomes pregnant. During a flight to Lake Tahoe, Spence and Iris' private plane crashes, resulting in a serious brain injury that leaves Iris blinded. Mark has an extramarital affair with Jean Garrison (Jane Manning), the stepmother of Spence, that is publicly exposed after Jean's ex-husband Steve Hurley (Mark Gordon, Paul Stevens) is murdered. Mark's trial for murder causes Laura to miscarry their baby and have a nervous breakdown. Later, learning that she can never carry another child, Laura instigates divorce proceedings. After Iris learns that her brain injury will cause her death within a year, she and Spence agree that their baby would be better off with childless Laura; however, the court rejects the adoption on the grounds that Laura will be a single mother. Iris persuades Mark and Laura to reconcile for the sake of her baby, and gives birth to William Alex Garrison (Arthur Benoit, Jr.). Andy Hurley (Don Scardino, Russ Thacker) works for the 'Garrison for Senator' campaign and falls in love with Nikki Cabbott (Jody Locker), a ballerina who later is revealed to be his illegitimate sister. They plan to leave San Francisco, but she drops dead onstage while dancing.
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 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 p.m. ET since its expansion to 30 minutes in 1968, into Love Is a Many Splendored Thing's former 2:00pm timeslot and moved The Edge of Night from its longtime 3:30 p.m. ET slot to 2:30 p.m. to complete the request; the schedules of As the World Turns, which aired at 1:30 p.m., and Search for Tomorrow, which aired at 12:30 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 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,
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
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