Obit: Ed Nelson ("Peyton Place"), 85

[Mike Stroud]

From The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/a...ton-place-dies-at-85.html?ref=obituaries&_r=1

 

[bpatrick]

I remember that about a year before "Peyton Place" debuted, Ed Nelson (and a young Martin Sheen) appeared in an episode of "The Outer Limits" called "Nightmare," about a simulated war with a planet called Ebon, and which carried a strong antiwar message that might well have been heeded; the U.S. was up to its neck in Vietnam within a couple of years.

In 1969 Nelson was hosting a morning talk show on WABC. At the time ABC was encouraging (forcing might be the better word) its o&os to develop shows for syndication by ABC Films, which the cash-strapped network saw as a way to generate some additional revenue. Despite some interest around the country, Nelson's show never attracted enough stations to make it a "go"; the only one that did was "The Anniversary Game" out of KGO San Francisco, with host Alan Hamel and model Suzanne Somers (they later married; he became her agent and got her taken off "Three's Company" when he demanded a bigger raise than the producers were willing to give her).