First Love

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