How to Survive a Marriage

How to Survive a Marriage was a soap opera which aired on the NBC television network from January 7, 1974 to April 18, 1975. The serial was created by Anne Howard Bailey, with much input from then-NBC Vice President Lin Bolen. The show's working title was From This Moment.

Related Topics:
Soap opera - NBC - January 7 - 1974 - April 18 - 1975 - Anne Howard Bailey - Lin Bolen

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Attempting to tell life from the point of view of women in a changing world, the show stirred controversy when the 90-minute opener had the first "nude" scene on American network television (the nudity was only implied, as both of the bodies were under bedsheets) between Larry Kirby and his mistress, Sandra. Larry and his wife Chris (Jennifer Harmon) soon divorced and while battling for custody of their daughter Lori, Chris entered the workforce. On Valentine's Day 1975, Chris and Larry remarried, and she then battled alcoholism.

Related Topics:
Nude - Jennifer Harmon - Valentine's Day - 1975 - Alcoholism

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Initially, the show starred veteran soap actress Rosemary Prinz in the role of Dr. Julie Franklin, a staunch feminist who counseled her friends on the joys of being an independent woman, only to decide that her life was truly complete by marrying a man. Prinz only agreed to stay on the show for a short time (as she had with All My Children several years earlier), and earned top billing, a three-day work week, and supposedly $1,000 a week, which was a big salary for a soap actress to earn in 1974. After six months Julie left town to marry Dr. Tony DeAngelo.

Related Topics:
Rosemary Prinz - Feminist - All My Children

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Another major story centered around Fran Bachman (Fran Brill) coping with sudden widowhood. Brill received over a thousand letters of condolence from viewers.

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The show did not profit from the large lead-in that the high-rated Another World provided, mostly due to its many attempts to be socially relevant, which usually took the place of traditional storytelling to which American soap viewers at the time were acclimated. How to Survive a Marriage was a distant third in the 3:30PM timeslot, behind Match Game on CBS and One Life to Live on ABC, and was canceled after sixteen months on the air. The next Monday, Days of Our Lives expanded to an hour and took the vacant half-hour left in NBC's daytime schedule.

Related Topics:
Another World - Match Game - CBS - One Life to Live - ABC - Days of Our Lives

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Famous alumni included Dallas TV series star Ken Kercheval (Larry Kirby #2), Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham (Joshua Browne), film actor Armand Assante (Johnny McGhee), and the late film actor Brad Davis (Alexander Kronos).

Related Topics:
''Dallas'' TV series - Ken Kercheval - Academy Award - F. Murray Abraham - Armand Assante - Brad Davis

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