Peyton Place

Peyton Place, a prime-time program based on the Grace Metalious novel, was an experiment for American television in both content and scheduling when it appeared on ABC, at that time still the third-ranked U.S. network. Premiering in the fall of 1964, Peyton Place was offered in two serialized installments per week, Tuesday and Thursday nights, a first for American prime-time television. Initially drawing more attention for its moral tone than for its unique scheduling, the new night-time serial was launched amid a sensational atmosphere borrowed from the novel's reputation. ABC president Leonard Goldenson defended the network's programming choice as a bread-and-butter decision for the struggling network, and the moral outcry settled down once the program established itself as implying far more sensation than it would deliver. This prototype of what came to be known in the 1980s as the prime-time soap opera initially met with great success: a month after Peyton Place premiered, ABC rose in the Nielsens to number one for the first time. At one point, the program was so successful that a spin-off serial was considered. Both CBS and NBC announced similar prime-time serials under development.

Executive producer Paul Monash declined the "soap opera" label for Peyton Place, considering it instead a "television novel." (His term is, in fact, the one applied in Latin America, telenovela, and Francophone Canada, teleroman.) Set in a small New England town, Peyton Place dealt with the secrets and scandals of two generations of the town's inhabitants. An unmarried woman, Constance MacKenzie, and her daughter Allison were placed at the dramatic center of the story. Constance (played by 1950s film melodrama star Dorothy Malone) eventually married Allison's father, Elliott Carson, when he was released from prison, though his rival Dr. Michael Rossi was never entirely out of the picture. Meanwhile, Allison (Mia Farrow) was caught up in a romantic triangle with wealthy Rodney Harrington (Ryan O'Neill) and Betty Anderson (Barbara Parkins), a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Over the course of the series, Betty tricked Rodney, not telling him she had miscarried their child until after they were married; Rodney fled and found love with Allison, but Allison disappeared; Betty was married briefly to lawyer Steven Cord, but finally remarried Rodney. Other soap-operatic plot lines involved Rodney's younger brother Norman Harrington and his marriage to Rita Jacks.

The production schedule was closest to that of daytime soap opera, with no summer hiatus, no repeats, unlike any prime-time American series before or since. Within the first year, the pace was increased to three episodes per week rather than two, going back to two episodes per week in the 1966-67 season as the craze for the show declined. Several of the show's plot twists were necessitated by cast changes. Most notably, Allison MacKenzie's disappearance occurred when Mia Farrow left the series in 1966 for her highly publicized marriage to Frank Sinatra. The program never fully recovered from Farrow's departure, though news of the distant Allison kept the character alive. Some two years later a young woman appeared with a baby she claimed was Allison's--this timed with the release of Mia Farrow's theatrical film, Rosemary's Baby.

In 1968, Peyton Place underwent a transformation. Though some storylines were developed to accommodate more cast changes (Dorothy Malone left the show), many of the changes in the final season seem to have been in response to Goldenson's call for more youthful, "relevant" programming. One of the youthful additions was the leader of a rock group. Most significantly, however, an African-American family--Dr. Harry Miles (Percy Rodriguez), his wife Alma (Ruby Dee), and their teenage son, Lew (Glynn Turman)--assumed a central position in the heretofore all-white Peyton Place. Cut back to one half-hour episode per week, the show also was scheduled a half-hour earlier to appeal further to youthful audiences.

These drastic changes did nothing to revive ratings for the serial, which lasted through the spring of 1969. ABC brought it back for two years in the seventies as a daytime serial, and in 1985, nine of the original cast members appeared in a made-for-TV movie, Peyton Place: The Next Generation.

-Sue Brower

CAST

Constance Mackenzie/Carson (1964-1968) ....................Dorothy Malone  

Allison Mackenzie (1964-1966) ......................Mia Farrow  

Dr. Michael Rossi.......................................... Ed Nelson  

Matthew Swain (1964-1966).................. Warner Anderson

Leslie Harrington (1964-1968) ......................Paul Langton  

Rodney Harrington ...................................... Ryan O'Neal  

Norman Harrington ......................... Christopher Connelly  

Betty Anderson/Harrington/Cord/Harrington ....................................Barbara Parkins

Julie Anderson........................................Kasey Rogers

George Anderson (1964-1965) ................Henry Beckman

Dr. Robert Morton (1964-1965)...................... Kent Smith

Steven Cord.......................................... James Douglas

Hannah Cord (1965-1967)............................ Ruth Warrick

Paul Hanley (1965).................................. Richard Evans

Elliott Carson (1965-1968) .........................Tim O'Connor

Eli Carson .............................................Frank Ferguson

Nurse Choate (1965-1968)................. Erin O'Brien-Moore

Dr. Claire Morton (1965)......................... Mariette Hartley

Dr. Vincent Markham (1965)..................... Leslie Nielsen

Rita Jacks/Harrington (1965-1969).......... Patricia Morrow

Ada Jacks (1965-1969).............................. Evelyn Scott

David Schuster (1965-1966).................. William Smithers

Doris Schuster (1965)..................................... Gail Kobe

Kim Schuster (1965) ...............................Kimberly Beck

Theodore Dowell (1965) ............................Patrick Whyte

Stella Chernak (1965-l968) ..............................Lee Grant

Joe Chernak (1965) .......................................Dan Quine

Gus Chernak (1965-1966) .........................Bruce Gordon

Dr. Russ Gehring (1965-1966) .................... David Canary

John Fowler (1965-1966) ................................. John Kerr

Marian Fowler (1965-1966) ......................Joan Blackman

Martin Peyton (1965-1968) ................... George Macready

Martin Peyton (temporary replacement, 1967) ...................Wilfred Hyde-White

Sandy Webber (1966-1967) ...........................Lana Wood

Chris Webber (1966-1967) .........................Gary Haynes

Lee Webber (1966-1968)......................... Stephen Oliver

Ann Howard (1966) .....................................Susan Oliver

Rachael Welles (1966-1967) .............. Leigh Taylor-Young

Jack Chandler (1966-1967) ......................... John Kellogg

Adrienne Van Leyden (1967) ................... Gena Rowlands

Eddie Jacks (1967-1968) ............................. Dan Duryea

Carolyn Russell (1968-1969) ......Elizabeth "Tippy" Walker

Fred Russell (1968-1969) .............................Joe Maross

Marsha Russell (1968-1969) ......................Barbara Rush

Rev. Tom Winter (1968-1969) ........................ Bob Hogan

Susan Winter (1968-1969) .........................Diana Hyland

Dr. Harry Miles (1968-1969 )....................Percy Rodriguez

Alma Miles (1968-1969) ................................... Ruby Dee

Lew Miles (1968-1969 ).............................. Glynn Turman

Jill Smith/Rossi (1968) .............................. Joyce Jillison

Joe Rossi (1968) ................................ Michael Christian

PRODUCERS

Paul Monash, Everett Chambers, Richard Goldstone, Felix Feist, Richard DeRoy

PROGRAMMING HISTORY

514 Episodes

ABC

September 1964-June 1965   Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:00

June 1965-October 1965   Tuesday/Thursday/Friday 9:30-10:00

November 1965-August 1966   Monday/Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:00

September 1966-January 1967   Monday/Wednesday 9:30-10:00

January 1967-August 1967   Monday/Tuesday 9:30-10:00

September 1967-September 1968   Monday/Thursday 9:30-10:00

September 1968-January 1969   Monday 9:00-9:30/Wednesday 8:30-9:00

February 1969-June 1969   Monday 9:00-9:30

FURTHER READING

Litwak, Leo E. "Visit to a Town of the Mind," New York Times Magazine (New York), 4 April 1965.