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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Drama
    Drama TV Shows - 1950s 3 Mins Read

    First Love

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    1 9 5 4 – 1 9 5 5 (USA)
    388 x 15 minute episodes

    Produced in Philadelphia and set in the fictitious town of Harrison, this live daily NBC serial examined the tumultuous marriage of newlyweds Zachary (Val Dufour) and Laurie (Patricia Barry) James and their relationships with their good friends pilot Chris (Frankie Thomas) and his wife Amy (Rosemary Prinz), and with Laurie’s parents Paul (Mel Ruick) and Doris (Peggy Allenby).

    Weak-willed Zach worked as an engineer at a jet engine plant where his nemesis was scheming Wallace Grant (Henry Stanton), who seized every opportunity to aggravate Zach, especially when he discovered Zach was having an affair with Priscilla “Petey” Cummings (Rita Fredericks) and made it known to Laurie.

    Laurie and Zach separated in early 1955, and she accepted a job offer in Washington DC. While Zach confided his sad situation to his sympathetic friend and co-worker Quentin Andrews (Frederick Downs), Laurie began seeing an attorney called David (Bob Courtleigh), but circumstances eventually took her back to Harrison and her husband.

    Newcomer Tony Morgan (Peter Cookson) had a fling with Petey and was planning to leave town with her – until she turned up murdered.

    Zach, who had collapsed in her apartment, became the prime suspect of investigator Bruce McKee (Jay Barney), though Laurie was sure of her husband’s innocence, and with David’s help, she searched Petey’s apartment and found proof that exonerated him and generated suspicions that Wallace Grant may have been the real killer.

    Tragedy struck in late 1954 when Chris died in a test flight, leaving Wallace Grant to make a move on the widowed Amy. She moved out of town briefly, returning to marry Bruce McKee before the show ended – even though he had to deal with the possibility that a recently arrived girl in Harrison named Jenny (Barbara Myers) might be his biological daughter.

    Laurie went to work at a dress shop, and Zach returned to the jet engine plant.

    Zach’s father, Matthew (Paul McGrath) arrived in town and started working at the plant too while wooing Leona (Nancy Pollock). But in the last major storyline, conniving Jack Doyle (Court Benson) broke into the plant and fatally wounded Matthew. Zach survived the attack and saw Doyle arrested, and in the show’s final episode he and Laurie were hopeful that they might be heading for a less eventful new year.

    Zach James
    Val Dufour (1)
    Tod Andrews (2)
    Laurie Kennedy James

    Patricia Barry
    Chris
    Frankie Thomas
    Amy
    Rosemary Prinz
    Paul Kennedy
    Mel Ruick
    Doris Kennedy
    Peggy Allenby
    Wallace Grant
    Henry Stanton
    Priscilla “Petey” Cummings
    Rita Fredericks
    Quentin Andrews
    Frederick Downs
    David
    Bob Courtleigh (1)
    Dean Harens (2)
    Tony Morgan
    Peter Cookson
    Bruce McKee
    Jay Barney
    Judge Kennedy
    Howard Smith
    Mike Kennedy
    John Dutra
    Jenny
    Barbara Myers
    Matthew James
    Paul McGrath
    Leona
    Nancy Pollock
    Jack Doyle
    Court Benson

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