Hidden Faces (American TV series)

Hidden Faces is an American soap opera that aired on NBC from December 30, 1968 to June 27, 1969.[1] The series was created by Irving Vendig, who also created the serial The Edge of Night. The serial focused on a law firm that was dealing with a high profile murder case throughout its 127-episode run; the main romantic angle had the firm's senior partner, Arthur Adams, becoming involved with client Kate Logan, a female surgeon accused of murder, which Adams and partner Nick Turner acquitted her of. Charles Fisher was the producer of the program, which was an in-house NBC production.[2][3]

Hidden Faces
GenreSoap opera
Created byIrving Vendig
StarringConard Fowkes
Louise Shaffer
Tony Lo Bianco
Stephen Joyce
Linda Blair
Gretchen Walther
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes127
Production
ProducerCharles Fisher
Running time30 minutes
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseDecember 30, 1968 (1968-12-30) –
June 27, 1969 (1969-06-27)

The show was a production of NBC, and was the only NBC-owned soap opera at the time. (The network was later to own How to Survive a Marriage and to purchase The Doctors from that show's sponsor, Colgate-Palmolive.)

The show's leading stars were Conard Fowkes as Adams, Gretchen Walther as Logan, and Tony Lo Bianco as Turner. Others in the cast included Linda Blair, Robin Braxton, Ludi Claire, Betsy Durkin, Joseph Daly, Rita Gam, Lloyd Hollar, Stephen Joyce, John Karlen, Nat Polen, Roy Scheider, and Louise Shaffer.[4]

Broadcast history

Hidden Faces replaced Let's Make a Deal at 1:30 p. m. (12:30 Central) after disputes between NBC and Let's Make a Deal packagers Stefan Hatos and Monty Hall caused the game/participation show to move to ABC. Facing the ABC Let's Make a Deal and CBS' As the World Turns, Hidden Faces performed poorly and, in an unusual move for daytime serials in that era, was cancelled after only six months in favor of the Bill Leyden-hosted game You're Putting Me On. With almost all of the fans of Let's Make a Deal's following their show to ABC, Hidden Faces could not get a foothold among viewers, since soap opera fans instinctively preferred the then-top-rated As the World Turns. Hidden Faces was the first of eight programs that NBC put in the timeslot of Let's Make a Deal between its departure and the expansion of Days of Our Lives to an hour on April 21, 1975. Of those eight shows, only Three on a Match lasted longer than a year.

An episode of this program may exist, due to a scene being uploaded to YouTube in Feb. 2023, albeit most tapes of the series were erased by NBC, per the standard practices of that time.

References
  1. Schemering, Christopher (1987). The Soap Opera Encyclopedia (2nd ed.). Ballantine Books. pp. 139–140. ISBN 0-345-35344-7.
  2. Erickson, Hal (2009-10-21). Encyclopedia of Television Law Shows: Factual and Fictional Series About Judges, Lawyers and the Courtroom, 1948-2008. ISBN 9780786454525.
  3. LaGuardia, Robert (April 19, 1983). "Soap world". New York : Arbor House – via Internet Archive.
  4. Copeland, Mary Ann (1991). Soap Opera History. Publications International. p. 269. ISBN 0-88176-933-9.
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