Celebrityq&a Ryan O’Neal

Q: During the recent tribute night to Ryan O’Neal on Turner Classic Movies, several mentions of “Peyton Place” were made. Can you tell me what that was?

A: It was a television series that brought initial fame to O’Neal before his 1970 movie performance as Oliver Barrett IV in “Love Story” took his popularity to an even higher level. Based on a best-selling novel by Grace Metalious about a scandal-ridden town, “Peyton Place” had been made into a 1957 movie first, then it was turned into a prime-time serial that ABC aired several times weekly for a while. It started in 1964 with two new episodes per week, then went to three episodes in 1965 and then back to two, until it ultimately was reduced to one episode weekly toward the end of its run in 1969. O’Neal was cast as Rodney Harrington, whose romance with Allison MacKenzie (Mia Farrow) helped make O’Neal a darling of fan magazines. Rodney already had a girlfriend in Betty Anderson (Barbara Parkins), generating a love triangle that certainly captured public interest. Farrow left the show after a couple of seasons to pursue a film career that notably included the 1968 thriller “Rosemary’s Baby.”

For O’Neal, “Peyton Place” was a longer job, and he stayed just about until the end of its run. He had made the movie “The Big Bounce” (1968) with fellow “Peyton Place” co-star — and, for several years, wife — Leigh Taylor-Young while he was still on the show, but his subsequent film “The Games” (1970) had even bigger significance to his career. It was written by Erich Segal, also the writer of “Love Story”; he suggested O’Neal for the latter picture, which couldn’t have hurt in terms of the actor landing the Oliver role.