FRIDAY HALL OF FAMER - THE METALIOUS MULTIVERSAL

Back in 2009, when the Inner Toob blog was celebrating its tenth anniversary, we inducted a new member into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame every week, with each month divvied up into four categories – League of Themselves, As Seen On TV, Toons, and Locations.

It’s been a while since we inducted a location into the Hall; I think the last time was 2017’s tribute to Las Vegas, in memory of those who were murdered at that open air country music festival. 

So I thought as the year draws to a close, another location would be a perfect candidate for the Hall.  And since I want to celebrate Multiversals during December, I wanted a location which not only existed in Toobworld, but in other meta-fictional universes as well. 

And one such location came easily to mind – especially since we inducted one of its residents into the TVXOHOF as the December monthly showcase just last week – Constance MacKenzie of ‘Peyton Place’.

Peyton Place is a true Multiversal location – first introduced in BookWorld, then in two versions of the Cineverse (due to recastaways), and in two different TV dimensions: Earth Prime-Time and Toobworld2.

In all of those worlds, Peyton Place is a fixed point in Space, always in the same location, not vaguely located somewhere in the South/Midwest like Hooterville.  It’s definitely in New Hampshire.

From Wikipedia:
While never mentioned explicitly by name, the novel does make several references that suggest Peyton Place is located within the state of New Hampshire: Vermont can be seen from across the Connecticut River; Lake Winnipesaukee is a short drive from the town; nearby New England town is called White River; a character is spoken of as attending the New Hampton School for Boys; and several mentions are made of a lake called Silver Lake, of which there are three located in New England, all in the state of New Hampshire, in the cities of Harrisville, Hollis and Madison.

Here’s a quick summary of each of the Peyton Places…..

BOOKWORLD

Peyton Place is a 1956 novel by Grace Metalious. The novel describes how three women are forced to come to terms with their identity, both as women and as sexual beings, in a small, conservative, gossipy New England town, with recurring themes of hypocrisy, social inequities and class privilege in a tale that includes incest, abortion, adultery, lust and murder. It sold 60,000 copies within the first ten days of its release and remained on the New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks.

The novel spawned a franchise that would run through four decades. Twentieth Century-Fox adapted it as a motion picture in 1957, and Metalious wrote a follow-up novel that was published in 1959, called Return to Peyton Place, which was also filmed in 1961 using the same title. The original 1956 novel was adapted again in 1964, in what became a wildly successful prime time television series for 20th Century Fox Television that ran until 1969, and the term "Peyton Place" – an allusion to any small town or group that holds scandalous secrets – entered into the American lexicon.

An NBC daytime soap opera, titled Return to Peyton Place, ran from 1972 to 1974, and the franchise was rounded out with two made-for-television movies, which aired in 1977 and 1985.

Return to Peyton Place is a 1959 novel by Grace Metalious, a sequel to her best-selling 1956 novel Peyton Place. 

O'Bservation - Because visuals are not involved, BookWorld is a world of the mind.  The characters who continue on in the sequel can be accepted as being the same from the original novel.

THE CINEVERSE I
Peyton Place is a 1957 American film drama from 20th Century Fox in color by De Luxe and CinemaScope. It was produced by Jerry Wald, directed by Mark Robson, and stars Lana Turner and Hope Lange. In co-starring and supporting roles are Lee Philips, Lloyd Nolan, Diane Varsi, Arthur Kennedy, Russ Tamblyn, and Terry Moore. The film is based on the bestselling 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.

The storyline follows the residents of a small fictional New England mill town in the years surrounding World War II, where scandal, homicide, suicide, incest, and moral hypocrisy belie its tranquil façade.

THE CINEVERSE II
Return to Peyton Place is a 1961 drama film produced by Jerry Wald and directed by José Ferrer. The screenplay by Ronald Alexander is based on the 1959 novel Return to Peyton Place by Grace Metalious. The film is a sequel to Peyton Place.

The film centers on the life and loves of bestselling author Allison MacKenzie, who follows in the footsteps of her mother Constance by having an affair with a married man, her publisher Lewis Jackman. This film version has nothing to do with the plot of Grace Metalious' novel of the same name. Allison's trip to New York to meet the editor of her novel and the names Allison MacKenzie, Constance MacKenzie, Michael Rossi, Selena Cross, Roberta and Ted Carter are all that remains of the author's sequel to "Peyton Place". The movie's plot bears no resemblance to the plot of the novel. Grace Metalious may have already been seriously impaired by heavy drinking to have consented to let Hollywood completely rewrite the plot of her novel.

TOOBWORLD
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964, to June 2, 1969.

Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in black-and-white from 1964 to 1966 and in color from 1966 to 1969. The first color episode is episode #268. At the show's peak, ABC ran three new episodes a week. The program was produced by 20th Century Fox Television. A number of guest stars appeared in the series for extended periods, among them Dan Duryea, Susan Oliver, Leslie Nielsen, Gena Rowlands, and Lee Grant, who won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Drama for her role of tough-as-nails Stella Chernak. The series served as the springboard for such performers as Mia Farrow, Ryan O'Neal, Barbara Parkins, Christopher Connelly, David Canary, Mariette Hartley, and Lana Wood.

TOOBWORLD2
Return to Peyton Place is an American daytime serial which aired on NBC from April 3, 1972 to January 4, 1974. The series was a spin-off of the primetime drama series Peyton Place rather than an adaptation of the 1959 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.

The storylines from the daytime show were a continuation of those from the primetime series. Both James Lipton and Gail Kobe worked as writers on the series during its run. Frank Ferguson (as Eli Carson), Evelyn Scott (Ada Jacks), and Patricia Morrow (Rita Jacks Harrington) reprised their roles from the earlier series.

Selena Cross, a major character in the original novel and the films both it and its sequel inspired, had not been included in the primetime TV series because her storyline was considered too risque at the time. She was a featured character in the daytime soap.

O'Bservation - All of those summaries are from Wikipedia.

As with Constance MacKenzie, the town might be a Multiversal but we’re technically celebrating the Peyton Place of Earth Prime-Time.  It was the location from the prime-time series and two sequel TV movies.

So another location in the TV-GPS is now part of the Hall and the residents don’t even have to move!

BCnU!