Peyton Place (TV series)

Peyton Place was America's first long-running nighttime soap opera. It aired 514 half-hour episodes on ABC from September 1964 until June 1969. The show aired in black-and-white from 1964 to 1966 and in color from 1966 to 1969. Paul Monash, one of the people who adapted Peyton Place for television, hated the term soap opera, and instead wished that the show be called a television novel.

Each episode would begin with shots of the town, as well as shots of characters who were to appear in that night's action. When the show was in black-and-white, the announcer would intone "This is the continuing story of Peyton Place." In 1966, the announcer altered his message a little, informing the audience to the new change: "In color, the continuing story of Peyton Place".

Plot

The first stories were a blueprint from the 1956 book and 1957 movie of the same name. The premise was gossip spreading in a small New England town. In its first episode, Dr. Michael Rossi (played by Ed Nelson) came from New York to set up practice in town. The newspaper editor, Matthew Swain (Warner Anderson) told Rossi that people usually try to get away from towns like Peyton Place, not move to them. Matthew's niece Allison MacKenzie (Mia Farrow) had begun to fall in love with football player Rodney Harrington (Ryan O'Neal); she was smitten as soon as she had been given her first kiss. At the end of the episode, Allison's mother, Constance (Dorothy Malone) made it very clear that she disapproved of her daughter's newfound relationship with Rodney.

Rodney was distracted when he found his father in a passionate embrace with the mother of his girlfriend, Betty Anderson (Barbara Parkins), who was also the elder Harrington's secretary. He started anew with Allison as soon as he made it clear to Betty that he couldn't date her anymore. Betty was confused and hurt as Rodney did not tell her why he was dumping her.

In 1966, Mia Farrow left the series to focus on an acting career, and her recent marriage to Frank Sinatra. With Allison's departure, Betty was more or less allowed to have Rodney, as her main competition had left town. Allison's presence was still felt heavily in storylines, as she continued to be mentioned in dialogue. In 1968, a woman came to town saying she was raising Allison's baby.

As the show went on, new characters were shown, such as town patriarch Martin Peyton (George Macready), who was only referred to when the show began. Another principal character that entered Peyton Place in later seasons was Elliot Carson (Tim O'Connor). He fell in love with, and eventually married, Constance MacKenzie. In a state of marital bliss, they decided to leave Peyton Place (this was in sync with Dorothy Malone's wish to leave the show).

In the final year, Ed Nelson became the lead actor on the series, and many of the stories revolved around him. In the final episode, his character, Michael Rossi, was put on trial for a murder he did not commit. The show ended with the audience unaware as to the outcome.

Peyton Place in television ratings and schedules

When the show premiered in 1964, Peyton Place aired twice a week. Both installments of the show were Top 20 hits in the Nielsen ratings, and this inspired ABC to air the show three times a week starting in the fall of 1965. Many television historians, now, consider this move to be overkill. The season ratings for Peyton Place never rose into the Top 30 shows again, and the serial's production was dropped down to two episodes a week, accordingly. In 1969, with the show losing viewers with each episode, Peyton Place was only aired in one installment a week until the final episode was shown in June.

The show was one of the first seen on network television to talk about sex and infidelity in a frank manner. As such, ABC brass would only allow the show to be aired at 9:30 PM Eastern time, an hour in which many kids and teenagers were to be in bed. With the show in a ratings slump in 1968, the show was moved to 8:30 PM in order to get the viewers they had once shunned.