Love of Life

For other uses, seeLove of Life (disambiguation).

Love of Life
Main title card (1950s).
Created by	Roy Winsor
Starring	Audrey Peters Ron Tomme
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No.of seasons	29
No.of episodes	7,315
Production
Running time	15 minutes (1951–1958) 30 minutes (1958–1962, 1969–1973, 1979–1980) 25 minutes (1962–1969, 1973–1979)
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 24, 1951(1951-09-24)– February 1, 1980(1980-02-01)

Love of Lifeis an Americansoap operatelevised onCBSfrom September 24, 1951, to February 1, 1980.It was created byRoy Winsor,whose previous creationSearch for Tomorrowpremiered three weeks beforeLove of Life;he createdThe Secret Stormtwo and a half years later.

Production

Love of Lifeoriginally came fromLiederkranz Hallon East 58th Street in Manhattan. Mike and Buff (Mike Wallace),Ernie Kovacs,andDouglas Edwardsand the News,as well asSearch for TomorrowandThe Guiding Lightalso came from that location. The program originated at other studios inManhattan,but primarily at theCBS Broadcast Centeron West 57th Street and CBS' Studio 52 behind theEd Sullivan Theater.In 1975, the series moved to make way for anightclubthat became known asStudio 54.Until its final episode in 1980,Love of Lifewas taped in Studio 41 at the CBS Broadcast Center.

Format

Unlike most other soap operas,Love of Lifewas originally not split up into segments dictated by commercial breaks. Because the show was owned by packaged-goods giantAmerican Home Productsand merely licensed to CBS, all commercials were for AH products, and occurred before or after the show. In the 1960s, one commercial break was allotted around the middle of the program, but this was mostly to allow affiliates to reconnect with the feed after airing local commercials.Love of Lifeadopted the "five segments per half-hour" standard in the 1970s.

Broadcast history

See also:List of American daytime soap opera ratings

Love of Lifebegan, as most other television serials of that era, as a 15-minute program, airing at 12:15 pm Eastern (11:15 am Central). The program became so popular, CBS expanded it to 30 minutes on April 14, 1958, moving it to noon/11:00. During that period,Love of Lifegenerally placed in the ratings among the top six soaps in the 1950s and 1960s.

Starting on October 1, 1962, the episode duration was reduced by five minutes to accommodate a newscast.

To accommodate the new in-house serialWhere the Heart Is,starting on September 8, 1969, CBS movedLove of Lifeahead 30 minutes to 11:30/10:30, which put it against the highly popularHollywood Squares.As such,Love of Life's audience share dropped from fifth place in the 1968/1969 Nielsen's to 11th in the 1969/1970 season. This led to a major win for NBC in 1971 by havingHollywood Squares,Jeopardy!,and the serialDays of Our Livesreach the top five of all daytime programs. From this date, episodes again had a full 30-minute duration. On March 26, 1973, episodes were again reduced to fit a 25-minute slot to accommodate a newscast. By this time, CBS had assumed production from the original packager, AHP, as it had withThe Secret Storm.

CBScanceled its in-house soapsLove is a Many Splendored ThingandWhere the Heart Isin 1973, andThe Secret Stormin early 1974.Love of Lifemanaged to escape cancellation due to a brief rise in the ratings in the mid-1970s, which was due to Meg's return to the storyline. The show's ratings climbed as high as ninth, aboveGeneral HospitalandOne Life to Live,in the1975–1976 television season.

On April 23, 1979, CBS movedLove of Lifeto the 4:00/3:00 pm slot that had opened whenMatch Gamewas canceled. For this slot, episodes again had a full 30-minute duration, accommodating the whole slot. However, ratings plummeted upon relocating; an increasing number of CBS affiliates pre-empted the serial to show more profitable syndicated programming in the same manner ABC affiliates did toLove of Life'sformer CBS sister soapThe Edge of Night,which had been airing on ABC for the last four years, also in the 4PM time slot after being cancelled by CBS four years earlier due to the expansion ofAs the World Turnsto a full hour in December of 1975. In September 1979, a new, daily, syndicated version ofMatch Gamewas introduced; in some markets, the show was aired against or, on CBS affiliates, in place ofLove of Life.

Despite CBS moving the show to the 4:00/3:00 timeslot, some affiliates chose to air it at earlier timeslots in pattern with the other soaps. For example, inIndianapolis,then-CBS affiliateWISH-TVairedLove of Lifeat 3:30 (Eastern) while airingOne Day at a Timereruns at 4:00. ManyWest Coaststations, such as KNXT (nowKCBS-TV) in Los Angeles, did this, as well, keepingLove of Lifein tandem with the other soaps by airing it at 2:30 Pacific time, afterGuiding Light.Other stations, such as then-O&O KMOX-TV (nowKMOV) in St. Louis, kept the show in late morning at 11:00 (Central). Additionally, WDVM-TV (nowWUSA) inWashington, DC,chose to keepLove of Lifeat 11:30 while pre-emptingThe Price is Right.In the soap's home market of New York City,WCBS-TVaired it at noon.

Within 10 months, CBS realized that the 4:00 slot did not work forLove of Lifein light of affiliate tape-delays and pre-emptions, and subsequently cancelled the show. Its final episode aired on February 1, 1980. The following Monday,The Young and the Restlessexpanded to an hour, withOne Day at a Timemoving into the 4:00/3:00 timeslot airing in most markets followingGuiding Light.According to rumors, once CBS cancelledLove of Life,they intended to use the show's New York studio space for the1980 Winter Olympics,which took place later that month inLake Placid, New York.

Director Larry Auerbach said that he lamented the network's 4:00/3:00 slot choice on theCBS Evening Newsthe dayLove of Lifefinished airing, feeling that the slot was better suited to airing shows that appealed to kids after school.

Storyline

1951–1960

The original story was a morality play ofgood versus evil,illustrated by the interactions between two sisters,Vanessa Dale(originallyPeggy McCay) andMeg Dale(originally Jean McBride, from 1951 to 1958).Vanessa (often referred to as "Van" for short) was "the good girl". She stood up for what was right in life and in her community. Meg was the schemer and all-around "bad" girl, as well as the mother of "Beanie" (later "Ben" ) Harper, originally played by Dennis Parnell. While Van disapproved of Meg's actions, she still loved her and taught the audience the value of forgiveness which often involved Beanie, and his strained relationship with Meg, his mother. The show was painted black-and-white in this regard, which was evident in the tagline recited at the beginning of each of the earlier episodes: "Love of Life:The exciting story of Vanessa Dale and her courageous struggle for human dignity. "

The show changed directions when the character of Meg was phased out and the show changed locales; first set in the fictional town of Barrowsville, it moved to Rosehill, where it remained for the rest of the show's run.

The actress who originated the role of Van (Peggy McCay) left the show in 1955, and was replaced by actressBonnie Bartlett(1955–1959). Bartlett was subsequently replaced byAudrey Peters,who played Van for the rest of the run (1959–1980). Peters had an unusual debut – Bartlett had played the role of Vanessa up to Vanessa's wedding day. The next day, when Vanessa walked down the aisle, Bruce Sterling raised Vanessa's veil and revealed Audrey Peters. Peters admitted that, during the wedding reception scenes afterward, she did not know the names of all the characters who were interacting with Vanessa, so she called everyone "dear".

1960–1973

In the 1960s, most of the drama was focused on Van and her new marriage to Bruce Sterling (played byRon Tomme). The late 1960s involved attempts to shake up the somewhat staid atmosphere through campus unrest and a return of Vanessa's first husband, who had been killed off in the mid-1950s. Her ex-husband was an amnesiac going by the name of Matt Corby.Vanessa divorced Bruce to reunite with her first husband, outraging many in the audience who could not accept their heroine getting a divorce.

The other major story of the late 1960s involved Tess Krakauer and Bill Prentiss, played by real-life couple Toni Bull Bua and Gene Bua. Tess and Bill had the perfunctory tortured love story, including separations, children, and murder trials, until Bill died of a "rare blood disease" in 1972 and Tess left town in 1973.

1973–1980

Sammy Davis, Jr.,in a guest-starring role on the show, 1975

As ratings began to slide in the 1970s, Meg and her son Ben Harper were reintroduced. Meg was played byTudi Wigginsfrom 1974 to 1980. Ben, now an adult, was most notably played byChristopher Reevefrom 1974 to 1976 and later recast and played by Chandler Hill Harben from 1976 to 1980. Under the reins ofClaire LabineandPaul Avila Mayer,the show returned to the original "good Vanessa, bad Meg" theme. In one episode, Meg called her son's newborn daughter Suzanne a "bastard",one of the first times the word was spoken on daytime television.

However, Labine and Mayer left, and the show lost the original intended focus. Emphasis was increased on gritty story lines (for example, Ben, now played by Chandler Hill Harben, was nearly raped while in prison serving time for bigamy), but these were not warmly received by the audience, and the ratings dropped. The show occupied a vulnerable timeslot. Since the beginning,Love of Lifehad aired in the late morning – and few soaps had been successful when airing before noon. The show's ratings had been respectable but middling in the 1950s and 1960s, but dropped sharply in the early 1970s. In 1976, Rick Latimer (Jerry Lacy) and his wife Cal (Roxanne Gregory) welcomed a young vet Michael Blake (Richard E. Council) into their garage apartment. Michael's secret "crush" on Cal led to a vacation rendezvous and a fatal boating accident resulting from Blake's failed attempt to save Cal's son (Hank) from a sudden lake squall. Their son survived, but Blake drowned. Rick, Cal, and their son left Rosehill for Montreal to start a new life.

On April 23, 1979, in a last-ditch effort to saveLove of Life,CBS moved the show to 4:00 pm.Head writersJean Holloway andAnn Marcus' stories did not catch on with the audience.

Love of Lifeended its run with a cliffhanger on February 1, 1980. After testifying in a trial, Betsy Crawford (Margo McKenna) collapsed while leaving the stand. No other networks picked up the show, and the cliffhanger remained unresolved. The final shot of the series was of longtime directorLarry Auerbach,portfolio in hand, walking through the empty sets and out the CBS Broadcast Center Studio 41 gate, asTony Bennett's "We'll Be Together Again"played.

Cast

Actor	Character	Duration
John Aniston	Eddie Aleata	1975-1978
Tirell Barbery	Carol Raven	1954-1957
Bonnie Bartlett	Vanessa Dale#2	1955-1959
Richard Coogan	Paul Raven
Deborah Courtney	Cal Aleata	1974-1975
Tom Fitzsimmons	Price Madden
Steven Gethers	Hal Craig
Chandler Hill Harben	Ben Harper	1976-1980
Elizabeth Kemp	Betsy Crawford Harper	1973-1977
Ann Loring	Tammy Forrest
Jean McBride	Meg Dale	1951-1958
Peggy McCay	Vanessa Dale#1	1951-1955
Audrey Peters	Vanessa Dale#3	1959-1980
Nina Reader	Barbara Sterling
Christopher Reeve	Ben Harper	1973
Paul Savior	Rick Latimer
John Straub	Guy Latimer
Birgitta Tolksdorf	Arlene Lovett Harper	1974-1980
Ron Tomme	Bruce Sterlling	1959-1980
Tudi Wiggins	Meg Dale	1974-1980

Main Crew

• Larry Auerbach
• Heather Hill(unknown episodes)
• Robert Myhrum(unknown episodes)
• Robert Scinto(unknown episodes)
• Art Wolff(unknown episodes)
• Loring Mandel(1970–1972)
• Paul Avila Mayer(1973–1975)
• Claire Labine(1973–1975)
• Don Ettlinger (unknown episodes)
• John D. Hess (unknown episodes)
• Harry W. Junkin (unknown episodes)
• John Pickard (unknown episodes)
• Frank Provo (unknown episodes)
• Phyllis White (unknown episodes)
• Roy Winsor
• Louis Ringwald

External links

• Love of LifeatIMDb
• A film clipof an episode of "Love of Life" aired 22 May 1953is available for viewing at theInternet Archive
• An incomplete copy of the 22 August 1960 episode of "Love of Life" at the Internet Archive