Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (film) later inspired a television soap opera in 1967, though without the hyphen in the show's title. A widowed Eurasian doctor Han Suyin (Jones) falls in love with a married-but-separated American correspondent Mark Elliott (Holden) in Hong Kong, during the period of China's Civil War in the late 1940s. Although they briefly find happiness together, she is ostracized by the greater Chinese community. After losing her position at the hospital, Suyin and her adopted daughter go to live with a friend while Mark is on an assignment during the Korean War. They write to each other constantly. She receives word Mark
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (TV series) movement of attracting young viewers along with soap opera's traditional audience. The show pre-dated the premieres of "One Life to Live" (1968) and "All My Children" (1970), two other soap operas which also attracted young audiences. However, "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" lacked the guidance of creator/executive producer Agnes Nixon (creator of those two shows). The network kept hiring new head writers and executive producers for its soap operas, creating a lack of continuity in the storytelling. Also a legacy of the show was the music style of Eddie Layton, being more jazz and pop flavored, as opposed to