Marland Monday: Black Gold, Texas Tea
It’s spring!
But it’s also Monday and that means it’s…
Marland Monday!
Okay, we know the drill: I look back at the career of Douglas Marland. Something big happened in my life happened last week. I’ll write more about it later in this essay. But the past couple of weeks I’ve been stressed to the nines. My nails were (okay still are) a wreck. I kept refreshing my emails, waiting for news. Finally, I realized I wasn’t going to get answers anytime soon, so I ended up turning to a family. A family with issues. A family held together by love. And being dysfunctional. And oil.
Yeah, I watched old episodes of Dallas.
I have affection for the show. First off when I was allowed to stay up and watch it, it felt very grown-up. Okay, most of what they said went over my head, but I still felt like a grownup. I watched it to the bitter end. When I first started blogging, there was a blog topic of Shakespere’s King Lear. A friend encouraged me to write about it. I told her I hadn’t read King Lear, all I knew about it was it served as the basis for Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, and Dallas. I ended up writing about the latter. It became the first blog of mine that went mini viral. It shouldn’t be a surprise that I went back to Southfork Ranch, to hear J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) verbally abuse his wife Sue Ellen many times saying she was a tramp, a drunk, and an unfit mother. If I was a serious drinker I’d drink everytime Jock (Jim Davis) had to tell his sons “Break it up you two! Cool it, you hear!” and end up on the floor. But watching it reminded me of when having a rich Southern family from humble beginnings became a thing on daytime soaps. Even with our Mr. Marland.
When Dallas became a hit, suddenly daytime had to up its game. What better way to do this than to copycat what was popular? Suddenly everyone had a rich family with accents, ideally Southern. The Buchanans popped up on One Life to Live with eldest son Clint (Clint Ritchie) dating widow Vikki Roberts (Erika Slezak) On Search for Tomorrow Jo (Mary Stuart) married Martin Tourneur, who headed up a rich Southern family. She divorced him when he gambled too much which was a shock: Jo divorcing? The scandal! A spinoff of Another World was set in Texas with Iris Cory Carrington (Beverlee McKinsey) finding a lost love in the Lone Star state. What was it called? Texas.
Then there was the Lewis family on Guiding Light. People might not remember this, but they were created by… Douglas Marland.
First he introduced Trish, the only daughter Played by Rebecca Hollen, Trish was married to Andy Norris (Ted LePlat) who was physically abusive to her. One time he beat her up to Billy Joel’s “You May Be Right.” She dumped him, then received his eatery the Copper Latern in a divorce settlement, which she renamed The Hideout.
In dialogue between her and Alan Spaulding (Christopher Berneau) we found out she had a younger brother Josh (Robert Newman) a brother Billy, and her father was named H.B, short for Harlan Billy. Mother Martha died years before. Josh managed Floyd Parker (Tom Nielsen) singing career and flirted with many a Springfield lady.
In September 1982, Marland left when he had a dispute with the executive producer at the time. Nine months later, another head writer took over. Pamela K. Long who had acted in Texas and was its final head writer, decided to bring the rest of the Lewis family to Springfield. We got to meet Billy (Jordan Clarke) H.B. (Larry Gates) and spoiled Mindy (Krista Terseau) A couple of months later, we met Reva, Billy’s ex wife, played by Kim Zimmer. Both Zimmer and Reva became legends.
So here’s the deal: did Marland copy Dallas? Um, yeah. The Lewis family was in the oil business, had a patriarch who built the business from scratch. They were from Oklahoma, and that was okay with them. For many GL fans, there was resentment of the Lewis family because it felt like they took over the show from the Bauers. I’ve looked to see what the original intent of what Marland wanted to do with them but haven’t found anything.
I am going to let you in on a secret: we writers copy each other all the time. I’m not recommending it. It’s important to find your own voice in this odd world. But I can tell you this: when I read the Tillerman books by Cynthia Voigt, I was reminded of Madeline L’Engle and how she connected the characters to others, minus the witches and tesseracts. When I read White Oleander by Janet Fitch, her way of writing reminded me of Kate Braverman’s short stories. I later learned Braverman was one of Fitch’s favorite writers. Reading Liane Moriaty’s work I was struck by how similar it was to Marian Keyes. Again, Moriarty loved Keyes’ writing.
What does this mean? It’s one thing to copy. But eventually, you have to find your own voice. I did. And last week, an essay I wrote in 2015 helped convict a murderer. More on this later.
Tune in next week…
