The Best of Everything (1970)
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Debuting March 30, 1970. 12pm/11am Central, ABC.
One of three new daytime dramas debuting this day on ABC, along with ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ต and ๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต, ๐๐๐๐ had its origins in a 1958 Rona Jaffe novel which presented a group of twentysomething women working in publishing and living in low-end apartments while trying to make it in an expensive New York City. This sold to 20th Century Fox for adaptation into the 1959 film ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ with Hope Lange, Suzy Parker, Martha Hyer, Diane Baker, and Joan Crawford.
“๐ป๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐’๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ – ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐…”
Author Rona Jaffe also penned articles for Cosmo which tackled city life with a โsex and the single girlโ attitude. And yes, more than a few critics have noted Candace Bushnell and Darren Starโs ๐๐ฆ๐น ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ต๐บ plays like an updated version of Jaffeโs stories.
Adapted for TV by none other than James Lipton, and scored by Larry Rosenthal, the daytime soap brought the story into the 1970s, dealing with the ambitions, relationship struggles, and frank experiences (including hush-hush topics of pre-marital sex, affairs, and abortions) of four secretaries while navigating the prevailing societal expectations of the time. Linda (Patty McCormack), April (Julie Mannix, then Susan Sullivan), Kim (Katherine Glass), and Barbara (Rochelle Oliver) chafed under head editor Amanda (Gale Sondergaard) while mentored by the reassuring Violet (Geraldine Fitzgerald). Storylines included Barbara suffering with depression in the wake of the failure of her marriage, Kim being stabbed seven times and left for dead by an attacker who also laced some chocolate candies with LSD consumed by Barbara’s young Johnny, as well as your typical love triangles and other convoluted soap opera tropes.
This came at a time when ABC was still developing its network identity, throwing a lot of stuff against the wall to see what stuck, as well as at the height of the daytime soap genre, with a record-setting 19 daytime dramas that crowded the schedule on the three networks. Unfortunately, ๐๐๐๐ aired against ๐๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐บ on NBC at the height of its daytime popularity. It also suffered from ABC affiliates choosing to pre-empt the soap for their own newscast, seeing it occupied the noon Eastern timeslot. Series ran from March 30 to September 24, 1970; with either 114, 115, or 126 episodes, depending on the source you read. Although we have network promos and show intros, episodes are almost certainly lost to time and the then-common practice of ‘wiping’, erasing videotapes to reuse.
An additional connection I find interesting exists with the 1980s Satanic Panic through Rona Jaffe’s hastily cranked out 1981 novel ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐จ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐จ, adapted into a 1982 TV movie for CBS. Inspired by the real-world disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III, a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, Jaffe’s thriller explored a sensationalized, ultimately disproven narrative connecting D&D to suicides and Egbert’s disappearance specifically. ๐๐ข๐ป๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด remains an oddball entry outside Jaffe’s typical literary scope.
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