will81

Are you referring to the blonde bob? I don't know what happened in mid 1995 but going ultra blonde and super straight started becoming a thing that would go on through the remainder of the 90's. Even Heather Locklear and Courtney Thorne-Smith went even more blonde in season 4 than they had been previously. The one that got me was Julia Louis Dreyfuss. She went super straight around 95 after years of the curls or waves.

Yeah I didn't like what they did to Vivian. She became a caricature and a joke. Also once Carrie and Mike became a thing the whole Carrie/Austin story had been going on so long without them having much time together that I simply lost interest in them ever getting back together. Even now I could care less if they are a couple or not.

I think the writing was stacked against them but I also felt Diedre had changed the way she played Marlena and Wayne had not changed the way he played Roman. I agree he would not have fit into the campier OTT Days. Eileen had barely been there before the tone of the show switched so she had time to adjust and she seemed to be able to shift Kristen either way. Her performances during her return melded the more down to earth factor with a slight nod to the previous incarnation of the character, very slight, just enough for Kristen to still feel like Kristen. I remember the writing for her was better than everything else that was going on at that time. At least on her first return. Definitely the dialogue she got was better. I wonder about Isabella too. Would Kristen have even been brought on? Would JER have had Isabella fall under the Kiriakis spell the way Kristen did with the DiMera's? Or would Isabella have moved elsewhere? I can't really picture her as part of the show past the time of the affair to be honest. I can only see her leaving town once the truth came out.

Speaking of Kristen/John/Roman/Marlena One of things I remember is Wayne and Diedre just didn't have the same chemistry anymore but Drake and Dee were off the charts, which honestly made whatever Wayne and Dee once had seem like a distant memory. When Eileen came on, she and Drake had strong enough chemistry, even if it wasn't as strong as Drake and Diedre. It was still good and worked well. I never ever saw Kristen as anything more than a distraction, even before she went full DiMera. If NBC or anyone from the show wanted John/Kristen, they were going to be disappointed. I never saw them together long term, granted I didn't expect the turn of events we got, but as soon as Kristen doubted John's innocence and hid that letter I think we all knew the show was gearing up for a J&M reunion.....eventually The other thing is and what doesn't get talked about very often, Eileen and Dee had quite a strong and fascinating chemistry too that was just as instrumental as John/Marlena or John/Kristen. There was always a tension between them that was great to watch and was another reason that trio worked so beautifully and the Drake/Dee/Wayne trio did not. Wayne just didn't fit well with that pair and Eileen did. Even 12 or so years later when she returned it was all still there.

Y&R often had issue remembering what time of day it was. Some scenes in the same episode would take place at different times of the day/night. This was supposedly only an issue in the 90's but I am sure I remembering it hapening in the 80's eps as well.

In 1985? Not a chance. Y&R was regularly hitting #1 and CBS was not going to let it go. They had probably already asked him for another show at this point. I doubt NBC could have offered anything better than what Sony or the Bells had at CBS at that point. Unless Sony wanted both their shows on one network for some reason, I can't imagine any reason a move would occur, and even then I would be more willing to imagine Days moving and not Y&R.

My apologies if this has been posted before

Thanks for that. I think it must have been four. Kay Lenard, E. Wilson, Elizabeth Harrower and Joyce Perry. I know Harrower was there until she became HW of Days, but she seems to have returned almost immediately after her stint there. Perry was gone in early 74 and Wilson seems to have only been there for a few months. Not sure about Lenard, maybe she and Perry quit about the same time. Yes Bell once said at a certain point he couldn't tell the difference between one of his scripts and one of Alden's. The protege method was a good one and had Sony/CBS not interferred, Alden may still be writing Y&R to this day.

True. I think too that reporting for anything pre 70's is rather sketchy, since the interest in ratings and other facts regarding soaps was low. Even anything pre-90's is still sometimes difficult to get a handle on even with higher interest and all the soap magazines and such being around. Looking at the seasonal ratings, during 60-61 ATWT was only half of a ratings point ahead. This suggests to me the race was a much closer one week to week during this period. In 61-62 ATWT zooms ahead of GL by almost 2 points for the overall season, so it seems more likely the uninterrupted run occurred around 1961 but maybe around summer or after.

That's a pretty big leap from ATWT to GL though. Would Nielsen be that much different?

So I have never seen the title of Executive Head Writer before. I assume this means Nixon was able to focus on other things and wasn't techinically HW'ing the show, but kept an eye on the show and could maybe over rule any decisions McTavish made? Is it generally assumed McTavish's first run was heavily monitored by Nixon?

I remember Janice Lynde wanted to work with Jeanne and was hoping they would find a way for them to interact. Kay may have had a brief scene with Lorie when she was going after Phillip, but never been able to find out for sure. Of course she did share scenes with both Lorie and Stu but not until 82/83 Jill definitely had scenes with Ashley, tons of them, and Traci too. She also had a few scenes with Paul in 1991 when she hired him to find out about Dina's absence from GC the last 5 years She had plenty of scene with Dru as well, as she hated Dru and didn't want her as a model at Jabot

Hi all I just came across these articles. Not sure if these have been seen before or discussed, so forgive me if they have First two from Apr 27, 1995 and another from Oct 21, 1992

From Daytime TV two weeks ending May 13, 1973 1. As The World Turns 10.4 38% 2. Another World 9.9 35% 3. Days Of Our Lives 9.7 35% 4. General Hospital 9.6 34% 5. The Doctors 8.8 34% 6. The Guiding Light 8.5 31% 7. The Edge of Night 8.2 32% 8. Search For Tomorrow 8.1 33% 9. All My Children 7.9 30% 10. One Life to Live 7.5 27% From Daytime TV two weeks ending Mar 03, 1974 1. As The World Turns 10.7 30% 2. Days Of Our Lives 10.5 34% 3. The Doctors 10.2 34% 4. General Hospital 10.2 31% 5. Another World 9.6 30% 6. All My Children 9.5 31% 7. One Life To Live 8.9 26% 8. The Guiding Light 8.1 27% 9. Search For Tomorrow 7.6 27% 10. The Edge of Night 7.2 24% The Top 5 Game Shows 1. Match Game 74 11.1 34% 2. Hollywood Squares 9.8 40% 3. The Newlywed Game 8.9 29% 4. Jackpot 8.7 32% 5. The New Price Is Right 8.7 27% From Daytime TV Two weeks ending Apr 28, 1974 1. As The World Turns 9.7 36% 2. Days Of Our Lives 9.3 33% 3. The Guiding Light 8.9 32% 4. The Doctors 8.8 33% 5. Another World 8.7 30% 6. General Hospital 8.6 29% 7. All My Children 8.1 31% 8. One Life To Live 7.9 27% 9. Search For Tomorrow 7.4 31% 10. The Edge of Night 7.1 38% Top 5 Gameshows 1. Match Game 74 10.1 35% 2. The Price Is Right 8.2 29% 3. Hollywood Squares 7.7 36% 4. Jackpot 7.3 32% 5. Let's Make a Deal 7.0 26%

Yeah I just added a couple people as well. Be good to keep it all in one place so it is an easier reference than going through 700 pages here, haha. So I might just make sure I keep a link to it handy

I also have Joyce Perry listed and an E. Wilson as well in Joyce's script archive for episodes from 1973 - 1974. Not sure who E. Wilson is.

Not that I know of. Here is the writers thread Mikelyons started last year

Hi all I found an article on Rosemary Prinz from 1968 that mentions her final airdate will be June 14, 1968 before she was to start a new play. For anyone who keeps track of cast airdates

Honestly Brenda was amazing as Ashley during that story. She was nailing it. But I hate this story so much. She was literally the only thing holding it all together. I wish she had stayed, at least a few more years.

Not that I know of. The only other show I have her listed on is The Doctors in 1978 - 1979

I didn't even get to see those years but still prefer them. I grew up with the 80's/90's, which still had some good things going for it, and I consider it the silver age of soaps. I think the day that white Ford Bronco screamed down a Los Angeles highway was the beginning of the end. I would say O.J/Melrose Place/JER Days all led to the death of daytime serials and those three events all hit their stride around the same time 94 - 96. I will give an exception to Y&R, only because I know Bell's illness would have contributed to that shows decline and he would have been getting symptoms by 1995 at the latest.

Well the claim was Don Chastain's story projection was so off the rails they fired him, but Linda Grover was killing people every week from synopsis I was reading. So I can't imagine what Don had come up with.

Maybe this was temporary. I guess shows fluctuated a lot more back then. I looked up the synopsis and not a whole lot was happening. Susan was still waiting to go to trial and Bill was in Pine Grove plodding along. I think the action heated up more once the trial got going and Mickey and Laura started getting closer which was just after this ratings period. I would be interested if the show rebounded toward the end of summer.

No worries. Mary Stuart once said every writer in town wrote for the show at some point. Yes it is unfortunate as that ultimately led to its demise I think. In the 50's and 60's there were not that many HW's, but during the 70's the show changed hands so many times. Though the shows ratings were losing ground in the late 60's/early 70's it rebounded in 1974 when Ann Marcus took over, but she left to do Mary Hartman and the show began sinking again. Then when the Corringtons took over they managed to at least stabilise the ratings, but then they left to create Texas. Apparently Linda Grover and John Porterfield are the ones that did the most damage in the shortest amount of time, and it seems the show never really recovered before CBS cancelled it. NBC was hardly the place for the show to flourish either.

I have updated the writing list to the end of the CBS run with the additional information below Joyce & John William Corrington - Sep 11, 1978 - May 09, 1980 article states the Corringtons were hired and began writing from Aug 14, 1978. it also mentions it takes roughly a month for their scripts to air. Since they are both mentioned as HW from Sep 15, 1978 I would assume they started airing that week, which is one month after they were hired. The week of Sep 25 they axed Slesar's first addition to the show Chance Holliday Linda Grover & John Porterfield - May 12, 1980 - October 03, 1980 Lynda Hirsch announced their first air date Gabriel Upton - October 06, 1980 - Mar 27, 1981 She was announced as taking over temporarily around Sep 09, 1980 by Jon-Michael Reed, and again by Lynda Hirsch Oct 06, 1980. I assume that was her approx start date. NY Daily News announced her end date Harding Lemay - Mar 30, 1981 - Until strike. The strike started Apr 12, so an approx end date would be May 15, 1981 Don Chastain - May 18, 1981 - Mid December 1981 (approx Dec 11, 1981) Don stated he was writing the show for seven months before he was let go, so he most likely was writing during the strike, and he was fired the day after he handed in his first long term story projection. He had been working from a previous story projection (Harding Lemay??) Apparently his Hong Kong material was still airing when John and Millie's shows began. John Burnett & Millie Taggart - Mid Dec 1981 - Mid Jan 1982 Both were announced in Nov as new HW and Mary Stuart held a party for new producer Fred Bartholomew, they were in attendance Ralph Ellis & Eugenie Hunt - Mid Jan 1982 - Mar 26, 1982 Announced around Dec 11 as taking over with Millie Taggart, Courtney Sherman Simon and Nancy Ford as dialogue writers. They were still there when the show left CBS