Titus Andronicus

That's wild. The clips look to be 1987-88 and everyone is presented so ... romantic, including Harper Devereaux.

 

The song is Don't Give Up by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. It didn't chart in Italy and didn't do that hot in the U.S., which makes me curious about who decided on that.

John Considine joined Another World by late May 1974. The wire articles were way more interested in his theatrical family background than anything else. Y&R wasn't even mentioned.

 

Finding anything on early Y&R casting is pretty much nil in regular newspapers of the time. Robert Clary got most of the individual publicity when it started. Tom Hallick also got some attention. 

 

After that, Brenda Dickson's signing resulted in a couple of small articles.

 

I've also given Australian archives a try, to see if perhaps marketing might have been handled differently considering Y&R had already been on a year before airing in Australia. Here are some nice color photos for an article announcing its debut.

I've checked. Cooper's mentioned in cast lists for television and movies being aired on TV, but her profile wasn't enough to merit mention joining Y&R.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, I can quickly go through Cooper's autobiography on Internet Archive.

 

Cooper said she was contacted by John Conboy in early 1973 while vacationing in Hawaii. She said she was offered a three-year contract*. Cooper said she asked Conboy when he wanted her to show up. He said tomorrow. This is the same story as Conboy offering her a contract and specifically said to be early 1973 and she said she immediately made the flight.

 

Unfortunately, Cooper's memory doesn't seem reliable in the least.

 

* In a handful of 1970s articles, Cooper said it was a six-month contract.

From a May 2, 1976 New York Daily News story/interview with Cooper:

"Miss Cooper joined the cast of 'The Young and the Restless' in the fall of 1973, six months after its premiere."

 

That, of course, does not say her episodes began airing then.

 

A handful of 2013 tribute articles also give her start as November 1973, which I'd assume is where everybody has picked up that date.

John Black was inspired by Jason Bourne.

Shane Donovan always had bits of James Bond, but they went as far as to have him do the helicopter rescue in Miami wearing a tuxedo.

 

The Edge of Night, of course, was supposed to be Perry Mason, but CBS and Erle Stanley Gardner had a falling out. 

2 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Hello again Eric!

 

Guiding Light had elements of Rebecca with Quint, the mysterious gentleman and Mrs Renfield severe housekeeper of the Thornway Rd mansion.

 

AW ripped off Misery with Felicia kidnapped by a disgruntled fan.

 

As did Days with Shawn Douglas being held captive by Jan in a cage.

Patsy Pease

Gloria Loring sang a good bit on Days. The clip's long gone off YouTube, but one of the best scenes ever was the death of Tod Chandler and the news spreading via phone calls to everyone in different locations. You never heard the calls, but the characters were silently on the phone as Loring sang Here, There and Everywhere.

 

At the same time that everybody else had a rock and roll singer, Days tried to make one out of Bo Brady. Thankfully that didn't last long.

20 hours ago, Franko said:

Slowly but surely, the Seattle pieces are falling together. I think that'll be my new goal, determining when Search stopped airing in that market.

 

I have a subscription to a newspaper archive site that contains the Seattle Daily Times, but it's only uploaded through end of the 1984.

 

Search was still airing on KING at the end of December 1984.

ABC soaps do seem like they're more intact, but on the other hand, ABC didn't have the penetration that CBS and NBC did. ABC wasn't around as much in rural-ish areas and so their soaps were moved around or incompletely aired by stations with secondary ABC affiliation.

Where I'm from didn't have a full ABC station until 1982. The station went out of business 10 years later and it was another decade until local ABC existed again. 

Vivian Alamain with Phillip Kiriakis.

A bit more out of Augusta at that time.

 

WJBF ran All My Children until about May 2, 1977, then switched its 1 p.m. slot with Divorce Court. (An article later that year said it hadn't been seen locally since April, so the listings might be off a few days.)

 

All My Children returned to WJBF August 29, 1977, part of the switch in network affiliations that saw WJBF go exclusively ABC instead of being primary ABC and cherry-picking NBC programs. WATU got the NBC affiliation after years of trying.

 

On August 28, 1977, one day before the switch, The Augusta Chronicle wrote about the situation with All My Children:

After suffering from severe dizzy spells, Kitty died of an unspecified terminal illness, leaving Linc a grieving widower. Phil survived his gunshot wound, but little Philip ran away and got kidnaped and now he's living with Chuck. Joe and Ruth are happy and are about to adopt their foster child. Erica has made a pitch for Tom, who has opened a restaurant to compete with Nick. Chuck has decided he is in love with Donna, and Kate's old friend, Harlan Tucker, has moved to town with his daughter, Ellen Shepherd.

 

These events all have taken place since April in Pine Valley, setting for ABC's No. 1 daytime drama, "All My Children."

Bud Kloss, the show's producer, and three of its stars were in Augusta recently to tape a program bringing Augusta viewers up to date on what has happened in Pine Valley during the recent months.

 

The special Augusta update program came about because a Fort Gordon-based viewer wrote to ABC. She was thrilled the show was returning, but was dying to know what happened to the characters in the interim. It appears that Kloss, Kay Campbell, William Mooney and Peter White were the ones who filmed the special.

I've uncovered an interesting situation that played out in the Augusta, Georgia, area in the mid-1970s. Soaps featured in what was happening.

 

WATU was an unaffiliated station from 1968-70 that occasionally broadcast some NBC material. Some because WJBF carried material from both ABC and NBC and the arrangement back then was - at least from NBC - was that if one of its networks didn't want certain programming, it could be offered to unaffiliated stations. NBC changed this policy in late 1970 without giving WATU much of a heads up, forcing it to change programming abruptly, causing chaos in its schedule. It went off the air shortly after because its advertising revenue died in the aftermath.

 

In 1971, the FCC ruled that if an area had three television stations, each had to carry only one network. WATU came back on the air January 14, 1974, wanting to be an NBC station. Initial plans were to start running a full NBC lineup April 1. NBC was to welcome it to the fold as an affiliate once it reached 6,000 primetime viewers. It did so by the end of May, but NBC refused.

 

On January 28, 1974, this is what the daytime schedule looked like in the area: 

 

WJBF (Augusta GA)
9 a.m. Barbara Walters; 9:30 One Life to Live; 10 Password; 10:30 Jeopardy; 11 The Wizard of Odds; 11:30 Hollywood Squares; noon local news; 12:30 Split Second; 1 All My Children; 1:30 Let's Make a Deal; 2 Days of Our Lives; 2:30 The Doctors; 3 Another World; 3:30 General Hospital; 4 Trooper Terry; 4:30 Gilligan's Island

WRDW (Augusta)
9 a.m. Carousel; 9:30 3 on Match; 10 Jokers Wild; 10:30 $10,000 Pyramid; 11 Gambit; 11:30 Love of Life; noon Young and the Restless; 12:30 Search for Tomorrow; 1 Secret Storm; 1:30 As the World Turns; 2 Guiding Light; 2:30 Edge of Night; 3 The Price is Right; 3:30 New Match Game; 4 Somerset; 4:30 Gomer Pyle USMC

WATU (Augusta) Started broadcasts at noon each day
Noon Jackpot; 12:30 Baffle; 1 movie; 2:30 Phil Donahue; 3:30 How to Survive a Marriage; 4 Dinah's Place; 4:30 movie

 

How to Survive a Marriage was not picked up by WJBF, which freed it to run on WATU. WATU dropped it from the lineup that fall.

 

Later that year, WATU field a suit against WJBF because it was still running an ABC and NBC schedule. The suit was dropped in 1975 and WATU was supposed to get a full NBC lineup May 1, but that still hadn't changed over in November 1976, when The Augusta Chronicle ran a big story November 14 about how confusing the television lineups were there.

 

WJBF was still cherry-picking NBC programs to go along with its ABC lineup, but because it wasn't running a full lineup of either, when a new show was announced for NBC or ABC viewers had to meticulously search TV listings to see when or if anyone had it. 

 

WATU was of course still ticked to not have the NBC lineup it had wanted in early 1974. Soaps were a major reason for its anger, according to the Chronicle:

 

"But channel 26 [WATU], the new kid on the block in the television marked, still does not carry the complete NBC program lineup because of a contractual agreement between Channel 6 [WJBF] and the NBC network that allows the ABC affiliate to carry five NBC shows - the early morning "Today Show," the late night "Tonight Show," and three afternoon soap operas, "Days of Our Lives," "The Doctors" and "Another World.""

 

Later in the article:

"As for the afternoon soap operas [WATU's production manager] charged that Channel 6 "has a monopoly on daytime viewing" because it carries three NBC soap operas in addition to all the ABC soap operas."

Augusta's third channel, WRDW, was primary CBS, but openly cheered for WATU because of its own issues with WJBF. Before it became primary ABC, WJBF had been primary NBC and there wasn't a third channel. WJBF and WRDW both claimed secondary ABC affiliations and battled for the shows.

 

After WJBF became primary ABC, both networks took on secondary NBC affiliations. Thus, WRDW carried Somerset in its daytime lineup for most of its run, though Another World was airing on WJBF. After running at 4 p.m. (see above lineup), it moved to the 1 p.m. slot in February 1974 after the ending of The Secret Storm. TV listings indicate it aired on WRDW through September 24, 1976 then moved to WATU on September 27, finishing its run there.

 

WJBF claimed the contractual obligation with NBC is why they continued to cherry-pick the programs. It finally agreed to give up its NBC shows in 1977 and not renew its contract, going full ABC lineup Aug. 29 and allowing WATU to get all of the NBC shows it had been wanting for so long.

 

Friday, Aug. 26 Augusta-area daytime

WJBF
10 One Life to Live; 10:45 General Hospital; 11:30 Family Feud; noon The Better Sex; 12:30 Ryan's Hope; 1 Divorce Court; 1:30 Days of Our Lives; 2:30 The Doctors; 3 Another World; 4 Edge of Night; 4:30 Mickey Mouse

WRDW
10 Here's Lucy; 10:30 The Price is Right; 11:30 Love of Life; noon My Three Sons; 12:30 Search for Tomorrow; 1 Young and the Restless; 1:30 As the World Turns; 2:30 Guiding Light; 3 All in the Family; 3:30 Match Game; 4 The Andy Griffith Show; 4:30 Star Trek

WATU
10 Sanford and Son; 10:30 Hollywood Squares; 11 Wheel of Fortune; 11:30 Anybody's Guess; noon Shooting Stars; 12:30 Chico and the Man; 1 Gong Show; 1:30 PTL Club; 3:30 The Little Rascals; 4 Bozo the Clown; 4:30 Laurel and Hardy

 

Monday, Aug. 29 Augusta-area daytime

WJBF
11:30 Family Feud; noon Second Chance; 12:30 Ryan's Hope; 1 All My Children; 2 Divorce Court; 2:30 One Life to Live; 3:15 General Hospital; 4 Edge of Night; 4:30 Mickey Mouse

WRDW
11:30 Love of Life; noon news; 12:30 Search for Tomorrow; 1 Young and the Restless; 1:30 As the World Turns; 2:30 Guiding Light; 3 All in the Family; 3:30 Match Game; 4 Gilligan's Island; 4:30 The Little Rascals

WATU
11:30 Anybody's Guess; noon Shooting Stars; 12:30 Chico and the Man; 1 Gong Show; 1:30 Days of Our Lives; 2:30 The Doctors; 3 Another World; 4 PTL Club

John Stamos posted a few old backstage photos last night.

 

 

Another big problem of the special is that soaps were treated as one singular thing. There was no labeling of clips, much less anything to let anyone stumbling in know that Luke and Laura were a completely different show in a completely different time as Marlena levitating off the bed.

 

It's befuddling that telenovelas weren't mentioned at all, or that nearly nearly every nation with a network has tried soaps at some point. And you've got Carol Burnett, why not talk about her show's sendup of soaps, As the Stomach Turns? 

I like breakup of segments. I took notes during the program and came up with this to have started it off:

 

Some clips, narration about soaps' importance over footage of fans picketing cancellations and/or  Days after fans believed Marlena was killed by the Strangler. Melody Thomas Scott's quote about her fanmail being 100% positive with an unwed pregnancy in 1981 was really strong.

 

2 minutes ago, Alan said:

I wasn't expecting much, but this "documentary" was so scattershot. There was no sense of chronology or coherence - it was disorienting to watch. This wasn't helped by the zoomed-in 4:3 ratio clips, many of them apparently ripped from youtube.

 

...

 

What if the producers imposed some narrative and chronology on this special:
 

 

3 minutes ago, Aback said:

Don’t forget sports teams!

 

And they actually totally ignore the one thing in that area soaps have actually influenced: pro wrestling.

This has been so, so bad. The Luke and Laura segment has been the highlight and that's not saying much. The direction is all over the place. The clip quality is atrocious and there are too many people to say the same things. The segments are running way too long to say nothing.

NSFW.

 

 

I theorize that the 1985-86 Days Pawn storyline was changed when Drake Hogestyn was cast or soon after.

 

Was Robert Poynton always intended to be a transitional actor in the role? Hogestyn wasn't cast until, I think, November 1985, just as the story was starting to air. I think when they cast Hogestyn, they knew they had their Roman, though he didn't film until January.

 

If I remember correct, Steve saw the bandaged Pawn in Miami before surgery, but he sure didn't know who he was when he picked him up off the side of the road when he escaped from Victor a month or two later.

18 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Back to Pat Falken Smith and Days.

In addition to Stefano's obsession with Julie, Roman's younger brother Marcus was going to be involved with Melissa Anderson and there was a Di Mera sister Vanessa who would be involved with Mike Hortin I believe,

Edward Mallory said he was approached to return as Bill.

 

They got as far as Roman mentioning Marcus Aurelius by name, but it's been years since I've seen the clip and I can't remember the context at all.

Leah Laiman created Tribes.

Thanks for the reminder. I've had a few I've been meaning to post.

 

September 1956

Everyone was on Central Time, but only KFVS was on Central Daylight Time. Everyone else was Central Standard Time.

KFVS (Cape Girardeau MO) - Valiant Lady, 10; Love of Life, 10:15; Search for Tomorrow, 10:30; Guiding Light, 10:45; As the World Turns, 11:30; Brighter Day, 2; Secret Storm, 2:15; Edge of Night, 2:30.

Times different than the standard schedule for the majority of these.

WSM (Nashville TN) - Modern Romances, 3:45 p.m.; Went on air at 1 p.m.

WMCT (Memphis) - No soaps. Went on air at 1 p.m.

WHBQ (Memphis) - No soaps. Went on air at 1 p.m.

KSD (St. Louis) - Modern Romances, 3:45 p.m. Went on air at 2 p.m.

Modern Romances is not listed on the standard Fall 1956 soap schedule, so it seems to have been discontinued at about this time.

KWK (St. Louis) - Brighter Day, 3; Secret Storm, 3:15; Edge of Night, 3:30. Went on air at 2:30 p.m.

WREC (Memphis) - Brighter Day, 2; Secret Storm, 2:15; Edge of Night, 2:30. Went on air at 1 p.m.

 

October 1973

WCYB (Bristol VA) - Days of Our Lives, 2; The Doctors, 2:30; Another World, 3; Return to Peyton Place, 3:30; Somerset, 4.

WKPT (Kingsport TN) - All My Children, 1; General Hospital, 3; One Life to Live, 3:30

WJHL (Johnson City TN) - Love of Life, 11:30; Young and the Restless, noon; Search for Tomorrow, 12:30; As the World Turns, 1:30; Guiding Light, 2; Edge of Night, 2:30; Secret Storm, 4.

 

July 1955

WMAZ (Macon GA) - Search for Tomorrow, 11:30 a.m.; Guiding Light, 11:45; Brighter Day, 3.

Was not airing Valiant Lady, Love of Life or Secret Storm.

WSB (Atlanta) - Concerning Miss Marlowe, 2:45 p.m.; Way of the World, 3; First Love, 3:15;  The World of Mr. Sweeney, 3:30; Modern Romances, 3:45

These were all an hour ahead of the standard schedule.

 

December 1966

WRDW (Augusta GA) Love of Life, noon; Search for Tomorrow, 12:30; Guiding Light, 12:45; As the World Turns, 1:30; Edge of Night, 3:30; Secret Storm, 4.

WJBF (Augusta GA) Days of Our Lives, 2; The Doctors, 2:30; Another World, 3; Dark Shadows, 4; General Hospital, 4:30. 

WJBF had secondary ABC status and ran a portion of its soap schedule.

Spotted in clickbait:

 

Anita Dobson (EastEnders) married Queen guitarist Brian May. Shannon Tweed (Savannah, Days) spent many years as Gene Simmons' partner before finally marrying him.

 

I also hate to be the first one to mention Robin Thicke's parentage.

December 1953

KVTV (Sioux City IA) - Love of Life, 11:15; Search for Tomorrow, 11:30. Went on air at 10 a.m.

KELO (Sioux Falls SD)  - No soaps. Went on air at 4:30 p.m.

WOW (Omaha) - Hawkins Falls, 10 a.m.; The Bennetts, 10:15; Three Steps to Heaven, 10:30; Follow Your Heart, 10:45. Went on air during weekdays at 7 a.m.

KSTP (Minneapolis) - Hawkins Falls, 10 a.m.; The Bennett Story, 10:15; Three Steps to Heaven, 10:30; Follow Your Heart, 10:45. Went on air at 7 a.m.

WCCO (Minneapolis) - Valiant Lady, 11 a.m.; Love of Life, 11:15; Search for Tomorrow, 11:30; Guiding Light, 11:45. Went on air at 7:15 a.m.

KMTV (Omaha) - Valiant Lady 11 a.m.; Love of Life, 11:15; Search for Tomorrow, 11:30; Guiding Light, 11:45. Went on air at 8:45 a.m.

 

August 1957

KLEW (Lewiston ME) - Love of Life, 12:45; Brighter Day, 2:30; Edge of Night, 3:30; Search for Tomorrow, 4:15

No As the World Turns, Guiding Light or Secret Storm. Soaps are oddly broken up and none air at the usual times.