Jerry Lacy in 1975 episode of Love of Life

[Gothick]

A very kind friend pointed me today to a complete 1975 episode of Love of Life.  I'm posting the link here for part 3 which features Jerry Lacy (also seen in other parts of this episode):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IITwr5NVLT0&mode=related&search=

The real excitement of this show for me is seeing the divine Tudi Wiggins shredding the scenery as uber-bitch Meg.  Just watch the fur fly!  I'm a huge fan of Tudi's work on Strange Paradise (will it EVER be released on DVD?)

G.

[David]

A guy in Alabama posted at imdb that he has Strange Paradise on DVD for sale.
I've been ordering from him & the quality is superb!

Email:
strangeparadiselibrary@yahoo.com

David

[Gothick]

Thanks for that tip!

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'd never seen Jerry Lacy on LOL, so this was a hoot. Thanks for the link.

(It was also interesting to see a young Christopher Reeve. I'd completely forgotten that he was even on that soap. But then, so many soap actors have gone on to much more high profile careers. Though one suspects the actress playing Cal (the lady in the car accident) might not have been one of them. To say her acting style seemed to be even beyond over-emoting might be an understatement.  :-   Though then again, as with the DS actors, she may have simply been doing what the LOL director encouraged her to do to, uh, "heighten" the scene.  )

I haven't seen Strange Paradise since its original run. And not to ruin things for people who've never seen it, but didn't Tudi Wiggins play the woman who emerged from the cryocapsule?

[Gothick]

MB, the woman who played Cal actually reminded me of Lisa Richards in Sabrina's more "out there" moments.  Since Richards obviously developed considerable chops (or at least became very widely employed after her work on DS), it's possible that this other actress also went on to better things.

Tudi Wiggins did indeed play Erica Desmond on SP.  In a subsequent storyline, she played another character, Helena Raleigh, and in true DS fashion, people kept mistaking Helena or actually ACCUSING her of really being Erica. It's a hoot!

We lost Tudi last year, as I think David posted.  I believe cancer was to blame.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

it's possible that this other actress also went on to better things.

True - which is why I added the qualification about the director. When it comes to soaps, especially soaps of the '60s and '70s, it's often the director's almost maniacal need to overemphasize the melodrama in the moment that makes the actors look like they wouldn't know subtlety if they came face to face with it. 

Tudi Wiggins did indeed play Erica Desmond on SP.  In a subsequent storyline, she played another character, Helena Raleigh, and in true DS fashion, people kept mistaking Helena or actually ACCUSING her of really being Erica.

Right. I'd completely forgotten about that!


Did Ron Sproat stay with the show for its entire run. I seem to remember the show taking a stylistic turn somewhere along the way, abandoning the island setting and some of the characters. I missed the Gothic atmosphere of the island...

[Gothick]

Ron Sproat only did a few weeks of SP, I believe.  But once Bob Costello arrived, around week 8, they added daily opening voiceovers that really gave the show a DS feel.  (For the last couple of months, the daily voiceovers were dropped.)

After week 13, the action shifted away from Maljardin ("Island of Evil") to Desmond Hall in Desmondton (which was supposed to be in the US, somewhere).  One of the characters even made a pilgrimage to Harvard University!

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

once Bob Costello arrived, around week 8, they added daily opening voiceovers that really gave the show a DS feel.

I'd completely forgotten about the voiceovers, too.

If the show ever does come out on DVD, I'll definitely have to reacquaint myself with it.    Though wasn't it released on VHS? But I'm presuming those are probably no longer available except from somewhere like eBay...

[Gothick]

Only the first twenty-one weeks were available on video.  It lasted a total of 39 weeks.  The last 13 weeks were by far the weakest.  Nearly all the shows were written by this one New York based writer (his name escapes me, but he later became quite big in New York soaps and I think became a protege of Agnes Nixon's) who just didn't have the right feel for the characters or the situations.

G.

[MagnusTrask]

Maljardin

Actually, literally that means "bad garden".

I watched the first episode of SP at least, when it was first shown.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Actually, used as a noun, mal can mean evil. It's as an adjective that it means bad or as an adverb that it means badly.    Plus as I recall,  it's a specific plot point in the show that its meaning is evil within the context of maljardin.    Maljardin is most probably intended to be an idiom, which as we know, does not take a literal meaning/translation...

[Midnite]

it's possible that this other actress also went on to better things.

Not on TV, anyway.  http://imdb.com/name/nm0183906/

[Sandor]

Thanks so much for the Jerry Lacy on "Love Of Life" connection, Gothick! Great clip.
And I'm embarrassed to admit, I saw that episode when it was first broadcast! I'd tune in to some "Love..." in the mornings on CBS. The actors on that serial did play over-the-top (like many of the DS actors), which is probably why it appealed to me. Wasn't Jerry Lacy's character having an affair with both the mother, Meg, and her daughter, Cal?! Scandalous. I think Christopher Reeve's character (Cal's brother) was a blackmailing bigamist, and no Superman. And Tudi Wiggins as Meg. She was always fun to watch - much like Grayson. As for those mid-70s fashions.... move over Ohrbach's! Scary stuff!!

-Sandor