Peyton Place: The Next Generation

Peyton Place: The Next Generation (1985)

Another attempt to bring the 1960s primetime serial back to network television

Date of release
1985-05-13
Runtime
1h 37m
Genres
Drama, TV Movie
Director
Larry Elikann
Collection
Peyton Place Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

Peyton Place: The Next Generation is a 1985 American made-for-television drama film directed by Larry Elikann. The film premiered on NBC on May 13, 1985. The film is based on the 1964–1969 television series Peyton Place and the plot is set twenty years after the original series. The film contains many of the original cast members, and there were hopes of it inspiring a television series, but such a program was never made.

Production

In June 1984, it was reported that executive producer Michael Filerman was in charge of the TV film Peyton Place: The Next Generation, and that writer Rita Lakin was penning the script. Filerman revealed that Barbara Parkins, Ed Nelson, Ruth Warrick and James Douglas had already showed interest in reprising their role.

In December 1984, it was announced that production was set to begin in February 1985, with a cast including Parkins, Leslie Nielsen, Nelson and Warrick. Whereas Parkins refused to appear in the show's precedent TV film Murder in Peyton Place (1977), she "was quick to agree to the reunion show." She admitted that she did not like the first script, until several rewrites were made in December 1984.

Filerman believed that they were "going to capture a big audience that fondly remembers the series and the excitement it created at the time." He also explained that there were too many actors in the original series to bring back in the film. As with Murder in Peyton Place, Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal were not approached to reprise their roles, because the crew thought that they would not be interested and that they "would've cost too much."

Actor Christopher Connelly, who had a large role in Murder in Peyton Place, had only little to do in this film, to which Connelly publicly has exclaimed his disappointment. Most of the attention went to 'the new generation', which included Deborah Goodrich, Bruce Greenwood and Marguerite Hickey. Parkins recalled that filming with her former colleagues was "strange", and said that it was "hard work in a strange atmosphere."

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