Love is a Many Splendored Thing was a soap opera which aired on CBS from September 18, 1967 to March 23, 1973. Image File history File links Love is a Many Splendored Thing logo. ... For Philippine soap opera, see Teleserye. ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years). ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... March 23 is the 82nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (83rd in leap years). ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

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. 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the major American film studios. ... Love is a Many-Splendored Thing is a 1955 film which tells the story of an American reporter who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor, only to encounter prejudice from both of their families. ...

The show focused on lives and loves in San Francisco, California. 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 rendition of the movie's signature hit theme. In a rare move for shows at the time, live shots of junk boats from Hong Kong were interspersed with pictures of the real San Francisco, set to an orchestral version of the signature theme from the movie. In 1968, the show switched to its more well-known titles, with just the picture of the Golden Gate, and a retrograded theme moving from orchestral arrangement (which cost too much at that time) to an in-house organist. Nickname: Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates: Country United States of America State California City-County San Francisco Government  - Mayor Gavin Newsom Area  - City  47 sq mi (122 km²)  - Land  46. ... The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. ... A junk is a Chinese sailing vessel. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ...

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. She was replaced by Ira and Jane Avery, who were able to take somewhat minor characters and to create successful storylines around them. Irna Phillips (July 1, 1901 - December 22, 1973) wrote and created many of the first American soap operas. ... Amerasian is a term coined by author Pearl S. Buck, and adopted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, for a person fathered abroad by U.S. servicemen to women of Asian nationalities. ... Combatants United Nations:  Republic of Korea,  Australia,  Belgium,  Luxembourg,  Canada,  Colombia,  Ethiopia,  France,  Greece,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  New Zealand,  Philippines,  South Africa,  Thailand,  Turkey,  United Kingdom,  United States Medical staff:  Denmark,  Australia,  Italy,  Norway,  Sweden Communist states:  Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,  Peoples Republic of China,  Soviet Union Commanders... Han Suyin (Chinese: 韩素音; pinyin: Hán SùyÄ«n) (born September 12, 1917), is the pen name of Elizabeth Comber, born Rosalie Elisabeth Kuanghu Chow (Chinese: 周光湖, pinyin: Zhōu Guānghú). She is a Chinese-born author of several books on modern China, novels set in East Asia, and autobiographical...

That was not the only time the show courted controversy, however. One of the characters, Sister Laura Donnelly (played by Donna Mills, Veleka Gray, and Barbara Stanger), 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. Charleson played the 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. For other uses, see Nun (disambiguation). ... Laura Donnelly Elliott is a fictional character in the American soap opera Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. ... On the cover of Playboy, November 1989 Main title caption for Knots Landing. ... Portions of this article were also copied from: http://home. ... Leslie Charleson was born February 22, 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri. ... Bibi Besch (February 1, 1940 - September 7, 1996) was one of those talented performers whom fans often recognize by face, but rarely know by name. ... As Senator Letant in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. ... Michael Hawkins (born Michael Gainsborough on November 26, 1928 in Bedfordshire, England) is a British actor. ... Tom Fuccello is an American actor. ...

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. Beverlee McKinsey (born August 9, 1940 in McAlester, Oklahoma) is an American actress. ... Andrea Marcovicci (b. ... Constance Towers (b. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... David Groh (born May 21, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American film and television actor. ... Ron Hale is an American actor best known for his role on the soap opera General Hospital. ... Paul Michael Glaser (born March 25, 1943) is an American actor. ... John Karlen was born on May 28, 1933 in New York City. ... Michael Joel Zaslow (November 1, 1944 – December 6, 1998) was an American actor. ...

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 p.m. Eastern/1 Central was the original run of Password, which had run aground against NBC's serial Days of Our Lives and ABC's Newlywed Game. Despite the high hopes on the network's part (as CBS produced this show in-house), Love is a Many Splendored Thing struggled against that competition as well. After five years, CBS moved the show down one hour and changed the show's format to a mystery/drama, where NBC's Another World, one of daytime's most popular programs, finished it off seven months later. Silverman, Time, 1977 Fred Silverman (born September 13, 1937 in New York City) is an American television executive and producer. ... Days of our Lives (Days or DOOL) is an American soap opera. ... The Newlywed Game was an American television game show where newly-married couples answered questions to find out how well the husband and wife knew each other. ... Another World is a book by Pat Barker. ...

As has usually happened to network soaps, the lead characters on Love is a Many Splendored Thing were recast multiple times. Within a few years, star players Charleson, Birney and Mills all departed, and even those 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. Bibi Besch (February 1, 1940 - September 7, 1996) was one of those talented performers whom fans often recognize by face, but rarely know by name. ... Andrea Marcovicci (b. ...

When Love is a Many Splendored Thing was canceled in spring 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, Laire's character had just married a woman named Lily Chernak, whose daughter, Betsy, had also got married. 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

CBS replaced Love is a Many Splendored Thing with, via a scheduling shuffle involving The Price is Right, a new game, The $10,000 Pyramid. In an unusual conincidence, both the show's predecessor and successor were word association games created by the same man, Bob Stewart. The Price Is Rights US 35th season logo. ... Pyramid was an American television game show where contestants tried to guess a series of words or phrases, based on descriptions that were given to them, in the shortest amount of time. ... There are different people named Bob Stewart: Bob Stewart, a television producer. ...

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, which at the time mainly consisted of stay-at-home mothers/housewives. Dark Shadow, on ABC, was anthor soap opera which attracted a young audience. This show was the beginning of the movement of attracting young viewer along with soap opera's traditional audience. The show pre-dated the premeires of One Life to Live (1968) and All My Children (1970), two other soap operas which also attracted young audiences. However, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing lacked the guidence of creator/executive producer Agnes Nixon (creator of those two shows). The network kept hiring new headwriters and executive producers for its soap operas, creating a lack of continunity in the storytelling.

Surviving episodes

Only a handful of episodes of the series still exist; all extant episodes exist only in kinescope form. Kinescope (IPA: [], []) originally referred to the cathode ray tube used in television monitors. ...

Awards

Prior to its cancellation, this show was nominated for four Emmy Awards: An Emmy Award. ...

• (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