Peyton Place: Part Two
Starring: Barbara Parkins, Mia Farrow

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Product Details
Actors: Barbara Parkins, Mia Farrow
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Number of discs: 5
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Shout! Factory
DVD Release Date: July 14, 2009
Run Time: 810 minutes

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Following closely on the widely anticipated release of Part One comes Peyton Place Part Two. This ABC show introduced such taboo topics as extramarital affairs, unwed teen pregnancies, family betrayals, mental illness and even murder to 60s America primetime TV, and in the process became not only a ratings giant, but an enduring symbol of the era it represented. Featuring the widow Constance MacKenzie (1950s melodrama star Dorothy Malone), her innocent daughter Allison (Mia Farrow), the wealthy but troubled Rodney Harrington (Ryan O'Neal) and others, Peyton Place is as compulsively watchable today as it was 40 years ago. Part Two includes 33 half-hour episodes in a deluxe 5-DVD box set.

"The Continuing Story of Peyton Place", March 24, 2009
By Terry Richard "Terry Richard" (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada) - See all my reviews

Shout! Factory is releasing "Peyton Place-Part 2" even before Part 1 is out, so this confirms to us that the studio is dedicated in bringing back this blockbuster soap via DVD format. I for one am very happy. "Peyton Place" was never released commercially through VHS, and this marks the first time the series has ever been on DVD. The serial has also been rarely seen through television during the last several decades. The only time I recall when "Peyton Place" was on was in the late 1990's when Romance Classics aired it, but unfortunately the channel went off the air before the entire library of shows were broadcast. Those episodes that did air were jumpy and scratchy. Now thanks to DVD we will see "Peyton Place" the way it should be shown; in crystle-clear digital format.
This boxset contains 33 30 minute episodes, uncut, without commercials. The reason the studio is releasing the boxsets in "Parts" is because the serial did not run from season to season, but rather was broadcast like a continuing soap opera. "Peyton Place" ran continuously for 5 full years, every week, with a brand new episode, and it never aired reruns, or had a summer hiatus period; it ran straight through the summer with new shows. The serial is the only primtime series to ever air with all-new shows for its entire run, and no other show has ever done this since.
The first year was the show's best as Ryan O'Neil and Mia Farrow played star-crossed lovers Rodney and Allison. Things got worse for them as Betty Anderson, played by Barbara Parkins, pursued Rodney.
"Peyton Place" is regarded by most soap opera critics as being one of the best network serials ever broadcast, and it gave way to other primetime shows like "Dynasty". Even "Peyton Place" star Dorothy Malone stated in 1985 that "Dynasty" was her favorite all-time serial.
The serial was based on the 1957 Lana Turner film of the same name, that received a whopping 9 Academy Award nominations, but winning none. That film, was in turn, based on a novel written by Grace Matalious in 1956. ABC bought the television rights, and in conjuction with 20th Century Fox, produced this television version. At first ABC was going to air an American adaption of Britain's "Coronation Street", but later felt audiences wouldn't warm up to the working-class storyline. The network even hired daytime soap opera creator/writer Irna Phillips, widely regarded as the "Queen of Soaps", to be a consultant.
514 episodes of "Peyton Place" were produced, and the show ran from September 15, 1964-June 2, 1969, and it even spawned a daytime serial, that was only moderately successful, called "Return to Peyton Place", that ran on NBC from 1972-1974. Two TV movies also aired after the mothershow went off the air; "Murder in Peyton Place" aired in 1977, and in 1985 "Peyton Place-The Next Generation" was broadcast on NBC.
Sit back and enjoy a true classic televison program. They don't make soaps like this anymore!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001XW7ID6/?tag=imwan-20

And of course I've got the original Pan paperbacks by Grace Metalious.

Oddly I've never seen this.

I think that the show was more popular as a punchline and pop culture touchstone than it ever was as something to watch. It was shorthand for sordid adult entertainment.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Sad to say, Grace Metalious' literary descendants are thriving. I just tell myself that by stocking that stuff we're subsidizing the better things we do at the library....