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The Peyton Courthouse
(Ed Nelson) "Peyton Place" begins with Dr. Rossi arriving by train (a popular beginning for many American soaps of the 60's). Bet he wished he'd never set a foot off of it! From the start there was trouble. First he clashed with the town's elder doctor, Dr. Robert Morton. Dr. Morton didn't approve of these new-fangled doctors and their new-fangled ways. As a result, Dr. Morton's most important patient, Catherine Harrington, died. The catch was Mike was operating on her at the time. He had finally figured out what was wrong with her, but no one would trust him without Dr. Morton's backup. Dr. Morton continued to insist she was merely a bored rich woman. By the time Mike was allowed to operate, Catherine was too far gone. She croaked, Dr. Morton hid the autopsy results and Mike was charged with murder! He vindicated himself, natch, but no sooner had he succeed in saving his reputation than he lost his romance with Constance MacKenzie when her long lost love returned from 18 years in prison (He was wrongly accused - of course!)
Mike Rossi's love life was not to improve. He then became involved with beautiful Claire Morton (Yes, Dr. Morton's daughter). She, too, was an accomplished doctor who had been marriued to a famous physican named Vincent Markham. Just as their romance heated up, Vinnie crashed (Literally) back into town and stole her away. Next came Stella Chernack, a bio chemist from the wrong side of the tracks. As Mike was from a NYC tenement the two clicked at once. But Stella was a lady with a past and a lot of lying to do!
After Stella left town, Mike fell for lovely, tortured Ann Howard. Ann was a nurse who had blinded a local boy as a girl - at least that's what everyone told her. Mike got as far as proposing this time. Then Ann fell to her death. So along comes Rachel Welles. Rachel was a patient (Dr. Rossi lowered his standards each time!) They had strong feelings for one another, but Mike simply couldn't deal with the age difference. Eventually, Rachel lost her mind.
Finally, Mike met Marsha Russell. This time, at least, things ran in reversed order, as Marsha started out married to an abusive lout named Fred. But she broke free and she and Mike lived happily ever after, until...
Fred was found dead. And once again, the finger pointed unjustly at Dr. Michael Rossi...
(Ryan O'Neal) Handsome Rod was the golden scion of the Peyton family; his father's favorite, his grandfather's favorite, both the idol and the envy of his younger brother, the flame in the hearts of Betty Anderson and Allison MacKenzie. As the show began, Rodney found himself falling in love with the fragile Allison, but his courtship was cut short when he discovered that Betty was pregnant with his child. Betty soon lost the child in an accident, but didn't inform Rod, so they eloped. It wasn't long until Rodney found out the truth and he and Betty were divorced. Rodney then pursued Allison with a vengence, though he remained strongly attracted to the much earthier Betty.Then Rod became embroiled in his brother's romance with Rita Jacks. Rita had an abusive ex-boyfriend named Joe Chernack, who physically bothered both her and Norman. Rodney decided to interfere and get Joe to stop. Big Mistake.
First he made the epic error of going to Joe's house and telling Joe's sister, Stella, that he was looking for him. Then, while fighting with him, Joe keeled over dead. Stella promptly informed the police that Rodney had told her he was going to "kill" Joe and Rod was promptly arressted and charged with murder. Rodney - despite the bigger-than-life presense of his grandfather, Martin Peyton, blowing into town to help him - was found guilty! Only when Stella was forced to recant her testimony was Rod set free.
After this Rodney became a bit of an oddball. He decided to quit college and work in a garage. He broke off with Allison in a vague and strangely cruel manner. He gave in to his lust for Sandy Weber - but made it clear he was only interested in her for sex. He became attracted to Rachel Welles but did nothing about it. It's small wonder his grandfather was forced to come up with a diabolical plan to jump start his grandson's life by remarrying him to Betty.
After Rodney and Betty married, things settled down and he went into business with Norman and Rita. Then Jill Smith came to town with a baby she claimed was Allison's. Rodney wanted custody, as did Allison's dad, Elliott. The most bizarre aspect of this storyline was that Rodney fully accepted that the child was his - evidently Allison hadn't been all that frigid!! Even more bizarre, Elliott and Connie hardly batted an eyelash at the news, either. Obviously the writers knew the child was not going to end up being Allison's, but still...
Shortly after, Rodney grew bored and went off to college. Betty stayed behind to "pack things up". It took her half a seaon and then the show was cancelled, obviously sparing Barbara Parkins a decision she didn't want to make (Ryan O'Neal had left the show).
(Tim O'Connor) What a boring man! He started out well enough; returning to Peyton Place after serving 18 years in prison for a crime he had not committed. He wanted to prove his innocence and reclaim the woman he had loved. It turned out his wife (who was not the woman he had loved) had been murdered by Catherine Harrington. Leslie Harrington had known but had said nothing. They were never on very good terms after that. After Allison came to terms with the fact he was her father (that took a while), he and Connie were married. Soon after the vows were exchanged, Allison was struck by a car, went into a coma and came out of it with partial amnesia - she had forgotten the part that he was her father. This time she dealt with the news REALLY bad and had a complete breakdown (during which she cut her hair). Elliott saw her through, however, and then decided to build a boat and sail around the world! Connie, who was never very keen on this idea, delightfully announced she was pregnant and Elliott decided to settle down with his job as editor of the town paper (a job he had taken over from the other most boring character on the show, Matthew Swain).
Before Connie could give birth, that darned Allison suffered another nervous breakdown and left town. Elliott became obsessed with finding her but was as successful at that as he was at being interesting. The child, a boy, was born. They called him Matthew (Obviously in the hopes that he, too, would grow up and become a boring editor of "The Clarion").
When Rachel Welles came to town in possession of Allison's bracelet (which he had given her), Elliott was convinced she knew more than she was telling and was harder on her than anyone. Of course, Rachel did know more than she was telling, but Elliott went about discovering the truth in his usual boorish fashion and succeeded in driving another young girl round the twist. Rachel's final scene with Elliott was a beauty (a rare chance for Tim O'Connor to show his talent, as well) and Elliott should've just gotten into the car and driven off with her, so useless was his role from that point on.
After the fight with Rodney for the custody of "Allison's" baby, Elliott and Connie left town.
(Susan Oliver) Of the three truly sad stories in "Peyton Place" (Allison's, Rachel's and Ann's), Ann Howard's was the saddest.
Ann Howard returned to town desperate to prove that she was innocent of the horrendous crime she had been accused of as a young girl - that she had pushed a boy, Chris Weber, off the bluff and blinded him. Chris Weber, who had also returned to town for a summer holiday from college, really didn't know who had pushed him and made an effort to be polite to Ann - much to the disgust of his elder brother, Lee, who had been the one who had seen Ann give the shove. Steven Cord had also been present. It seems a group of children were playing on the bluff and began to make fun of Ann. The teasing had gotten a little nasty and Ann had lashed out and pushed Chris over the edge. Everyone had backed up Lee's claim to this effect, but as Steven thought about it he couldn't recall actually seeing Ann do it, either. He decided to help her prove her innocense.
Ann pestered Chris a bit too tirelessly and soon Chris was desperately trying to avoid her, so much so that at one point he fell off a dock. Lee rejoiced at this and claimed Ann was trying to finish the job! When she continued to bother Chris in the hospital (Where she worked as a nurse), Mike Rossi was forced to suspend her. Though Mike not only believed in her innocense, he had fallen deeply in love with her, as well. Forced to confront his own demons, Chris realized who had shoved him. It hadn't been Ann. It had been Lee!
Exonerated at last, and engaged to handsome Mike Rossi, things looked good for Ann. Then her father died. Upon his death, Ann and Steven discovered they were twins and had been seperated at birth. The natural assumption was that Hannah had given her up and kept Steven. Both of them wanted to know why, but Hannah refused to discuss it. Ann confronted Hannah, who utterly rejected her. Ann ran from the house back to Mike's cottage, which ironically sat atop the very bluff Chris had fallen from. On her way she was once more acosted by the odious Lee Weber on his motorcycle, threatening her to leave town or else. Hannah pursued her as well, deciding to tell Ann "something she needed to know".
Ann stood at the edge of the cliff. A little ways down was the ledge that Chris had landed on. Ann was not so lucky. Her body was discovered, crushed among the rocks far below, by Allison MacKenzie.