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| - The show was usually run for 25-30 minutes (the last five minutes was usually given over to a mid-morning newsbreak with the late Douglas Edwards, when it moved to 4 PM EST, it went back to 30 minutes). The premise was the story of two sisters, one good, one bad. The good sister, Vanessa "Van" Dale (Peggy McCay) was always searching for human dignity and was upright and compassionate. On the flip side, her sister, Meg (Jean McBride) was the show's main villain. She was always greedy, amoral and grasping and was always wanting to marry for money. The series was set at various times in two separate municipalities. The first was a town called Barrowsville, New York, where we first met the Dale family, father Will (Ed Jerome); mother Sarah (Jane Rose, Joanna Roos, Valerie Cossart); and their daughters, Vanessa and Meg. Both sisters had been through many romantic and legal heartaches, although Meg often flaunted her disgraceful acts into her family's face. While Meg initally married a wealthy man named Charles Harper and had a son, Ben (played as an adult by Christopher Reeve and Chandler Hill Harben), she would cheat on him every chance she got, while living in New York. (Charles often had Van as a sounding board, and would often complain about what Meg was doing to him and their son) Van, on the other hand, was initally married to Paul Raven (Richard Coogan), an attorney who had defended her in a murder trial. Van herself had moved to New York, mainly to keep an eye on her troublesome sister, and to give Beanie (as Ben was known at the time) a semblance of someone who loved him. Paul was killed (supposedly) in a plane crash pursuing his scheming brother in-law, Jack Andrews, one of Meg's later husbands. (Charles had finally had enough of Meg's antics and divorced her, stating that she was "the greatest actress on any stage", something he clearly did not mean as a compliment.) Paul Raven (this time played by Robert Burr) would eventually reappear in 1970 while in the new locale of Rosehill, still as an attorney (under the alias of Matt Corby) who defended younger characters, Tess Krakauer and Bill Prentiss (Toni Bull Bua and Gene Bua) for the murder of Tess's husband, John Randolph (Byron Sanders). He would be killed (for real this time) in a prison riot, where he had been sent for killing his wife, Evelyn Corby. The second locale of the series, and the locale which the series ended at, was the upstate New York community of Rosehill. This occurred when Tom Craythorne, an attorney who had been the failed victim of a palimony suit filed against him by a spiteful Meg, befriended Van and introduced her to a friend of his, Bruce Sterling (Ron Tomme), a teacher at Winfield Academy, a school in Rosehill. Van moved there from New York City and fell for Bruce and eventually married him. (Van was later played by actress Bonnie Bartlett and then lastly by Audrey Peters, who played her through the series end) In spite of dealing with her husband's ex-mother in-law, Vivian Carlson (Helene Dumas); her stepdaughter, Barbara Sterling (Nina Reader, Lee Lawson, Zina Bethune)'s various escapades; infidelity on Bruce's part; and various other trials, Van and Bruce were soulmates and stayed together through thick and thin. They even took in Stacy Corby, the daughter of Matt Corby (Van's first husband, Paul Raven) as their ward.They were still married when the series ended. Van was considered a woman of such goodness and caliber that a woman named Maggie Porter (Joan Copeland) wanted her husband, Link (Gene Pellegrini) to marry Van after she passed on. However, she went back to Bruce. Link married Tammy Forrest (Ann Loring), Van's old friend from New York City, and after some chicanery from the late Maggie's twin sister Kay (again Joan Copeland, this time wearing a blond wig), settled into domestic happiness until Link died of a heart attack. Sometime after Van moved to Rosehill, Sarah moved from Barrowsville, a long time after Van and Meg's father, Will, died, and got remarried to Alex Caldwell (Fred Stewart), Rosehill's pharmacist. (When Fred Stewart died, so did the character of Alex Caldwell) After his death, Sarah was stricken with a brain abcess and was near death herself. Her wish was that she wanted to see her daughter, Meg, who had been incommunicado for many years. Van and Bruce investigated and had found out that she had last married a man named Edouard Aleata (John Aniston). Van wrote her a letter, but it was intercepted by Meg's grown daughter, Caroline Aleata (Deborah Courtney, Roxanne Gregory), who, like her half-brother, Ben, had been unloved by her mother. Van, Bruce and Sarah welcomed Cal with open arms. Some time later, Meg (now played by Tudi Wiggins) and her son Ben moved to town. Sarah was happy to see Meg, and she recovered from her illness, but was saddened to see that Meg was still as grasping and greedy as she had ever been. Ben was a money mad scoundrel, due to his mother's warped character, who was in love with Betsy Crawford (Elizabeth Kemp; Margo McKenna) who was his half-sister's best friend; but what nobody knew was that Ben was already married to one Arlene Lovett (Birgitta Tolksdorf). He fell for Betsy and was promised a half million dollars if he married her by his mother. However, she amended the rules and had him promise to be a good husband for six months before he received his dowry. Meg and Carrie Lovett (Peg Murray) were not trusting of Ben, and it was proven for good reason. (Carrie was also a good friend of Cal Aleata and Betsy Crawford.) Meg, meanwhile, fell for Jeff Hart (Charles Baxter), the totally corrupt mayor of Rosehill, and after a torrid affair, which caused Van to clash with Meg over morals again, married the evil man. However, even she had wised up after a time. After his crooked schemes were revealed by the rest of the family (including Meg), Jeff had planned to leave town (the evidence was there that he would have been convicted and impeached from office), but before he left, he raped his stepdaughter, Cal, to exact revenge on Bruce, Van and the rest of the family. His son, David, caught him in the act and then something snapped inside of him, and he shot his father dead for what he had done. He had a total emotional breakdown and went into the sanitarium. Meg then fell in love with Bruce's former son in-law Rick Latimer (Jerry Lacy), even going into business with him. He ended up falling for Cal, and Meg, angered at that, used her money to keep him in his place. He was ordered to break off with her, and when he didn't, she told Cal about what they had done. Rick, at least having the grace to be ashamed of what happened, confirmed what Meg had told her. Cal was angered at both of them and drove off in a car. She crashed it and was injured. At Van's request, Edouard, the only father Cal had ever known, came to town to help his stepdaughter through her rough time and then proceeded to tell Meg exactly what he thought of her. (While he did not get along with Meg, due to their acrimonious marriage, he truly liked and respected Van) Meanwhile, Ben revealed the bigamy to Betsy, who was angered and sickened, and threw him out, despite giving birth to their daughter, Suzanne. In one of the show's most famous episodes, Meg finally saw the extent of Ben's deviousness, values she had instilled in him. She completely erupted, beating him in a fit of rage, and sunk to the floor calling her newborn granddaughter, Suzanne, a bastard. This was the first time the word was uttered by anyone, good or bad, in daytime television. This also showed how complex Meg really was. Meanwhile, Cal and Rick patched things up after Rick threw Meg's money back in her face, and he married Cal. Cal proved herself to be an excellent stepmother to his son Hank and the three left Rosehill for good. Many actors have been showcased on the series over the 29 years it was on the air, and there were many alumni that came from the show. Notable alumni include Bert Convy; Ja'net DuBois; Christopher Reeve; Irene Cara; Marsha Mason; Paul Michael Glaser; Bonnie Bedelia; Jennifer Bassey; Barbara Barrie; Robert Alda; Damon Evans; Dana Delaney; Ray Wise; Nancy Marchand; Mark Pinter; Jessica Walter; Roy Scheider; Joan Copeland; Jerry Lacy; Jane Rose; Peggy McCay; and Audrey Peters. Unlike most shows which often tie up their storylines to give the viewers a proper ending upon coming to the series end, Love of Life did not do this but ended them on a definite cliffhanger note when Betsy Crawford (Margo McKenna) faints on the witness stand, during Ben Harper's trial for assaulting her.
- Long-running Soap Opera, which ran on CBS from 1952-1980. Love of Life focused on heroine Vanessa Dale and (in the words of the announcer in the early years), "her courageous struggle for human dignity". Many storylines throughout the years contrasted the heroine Vanessa with her bad-girl sister Meg.
* Cliff Hanger: The show ended its run on an unresolved cliffhanger, during the murder trial of Ben Harper; after testifying at the trial, Betsy Crawford collapsed...and the show faded to black.
* Dramatic Half Hour: Expanded from 15 minutes in 1958. Averted for much of its run, though; due to the show's mid-day timeslot, the show ran for 25 minutes for a good deal of its run to allow for a 5 minute newscast.
* Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Meg was obviously the foolish one while Van was quite clearly the responsible one, in fact up to the point that Van was a Parental Substitute for Meg's son, Ben.
* Hey, It's That Guy!: In his first role, Christopher Reeve played Ben Harper in the 1970's.
* Keep Circulating the Tapes: Given that the show was presented live in its early years and the network policy of wiping of videotapes until late in its run, the show has very few surviving episodes.
* Long Runner: Ran for 28 years on CBS, from 1952-1980.
* The Other Darrin: Like most soaps, many characters were recast over the years. Notably, the main heroine Vanessa Dale was played by three actresses over the years (most notably by Audrey Peters for most of the show's run).
* Screwed by the Network: Love of Life spent most of its life in the late morning or noon timeslot, where it fared reasonably well until the late 1970s. CBS moved the show to 4:00pm in April 1979; like the previous time slot occupant, Match Game, the show experienced affiliate clearance issues and steep declines in its ratings. The show was cancelled 9 months later in February 1980.
* Soap Opera: Literally; in its early days, the show was produced and packaged by American Home Products.
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