Daytime Serial writing is a mysterious craft. Soap operas are a basic part of our entertainment environment. Turn on your TV on any weekday afternoon and, voila, there they are. But very few people know how they got there or what it took for them to arrive.
Because of that, I'm proud to present this case history of an episode of the now-cancelled ABC series Port Charles. Although I can't be certain, my suspicion is that this is the first time a soap opera outline and teleplay have ever been put out there for new writers to learn from. For this coup my thanks go out to an old friend, Parke Perine.
Parke's been a writer for about thirty years. When we met he was Associate Producer of The Rookies, a primetime series in the early '70s. This means his job was to be in charge of post production on the show. But Parke, who began his career as a singer/dancer/actor (and met his wife when they were both in the chorus of the same Broadway show), wanted to write, and Bill Blinn, creator and Producer of The Rookies gave him his chance. Since then Parke has written episodes for Automan, Finder of Lost Loves, Highway to Heaven, Knots Landing, and a host of others, including (surprise!) Port Charles.
As former Story Editor of Port Charles, Parke has all kinds of inside dope he's probably saving for a book of his own. He also has copies of every outline and script he worked on as either writer or editor, and the following episode is one of those. You'll notice that there are no "Revised" anythings. When you're turning out forty-plus pages a day there's very little time for revision. But there's always time for thought and skill and passion, as you are about to see.
Outline
Teleplay
