Franko

We're now up to the "Beef up The Banner" storyline that was talked about in at least one 1991 issue of Soap Opera Digest. I'll be curious if it actually goes anywhere, or if it's just filler for the end of the Rauch run.

I don't want to start or continue a prolonged fight, but I will say that while there is nothing wrong with having an all-purpose conversation about soaps, I think that it goes against the years of show-specific conversation that these show-specific threads have had. Anyway, I watched the Jan. 29, 1980, episode, getting a kick out of Dee & Ian living it up at the Italian disco. And "Rise," of all songs, playing.

With a brief turn as Alden Enterprises secretary in between.

I almost didn't include the possession in my roundup of Reilly's hypothetical '80s run, but I could also see a story like that being dragged out during the '88 writers strike.

Over on the '90s ratings thread, I wondered about what would happen if James E. Reilly started writing for Days five years earlier, in late 1987. I thought about it initially in the sense of if the ratings rise would have happened sooner, and what it would mean to NBC Daytime as a whole. Now I want to talk about the idea of Reilly 1.0 plots playing out with or being tweaked for the late '80s and early '90s cast. Like Diana being the one buried alive. Anjelica stealing Adrienne's embryo. Eve drugging Frankie to have his baby and getting punched out years later by Jennifer. Kayla getting possessed. Isabella getting involved with her lookalike and their identical siblings.

It makes me wonder what would have happened if Reilly wrote for Days in the late '80s. Would the rising tide effect have happened with Another World and Santa Barbara? Would we have gotten a variant of Aremid or Passions instead of Generations, or as the Santa Barbara replacement? (There's other implications, which I'll save for the classic Days thread.)

"'Santa Barbara' is 1 of 2 daytime casualties at NBC" (Sept. 30, 1992, L.A. Times) Acknowledging the unprofitable economics of its daytime programs, NBC will turn some time periods over to its affiliates as part of a major overhaul of its schedule. The move, the second time in a year that NBC has cut its daytime programming, is the strongest evidence yet of the network’s retrenchment efforts in the face of stiffer competition from syndication, cable and other networks. NBC will drop its struggling afternoon soap opera “Santa Barbara” on Jan. 15. It will also cancel its medical advice show, “Doctor Dean.” Both shows ranked near the bottom in daytime ratings. In the last several years, NBC has cut back a third of its daytime programming, to four hours from six hours. The decision to drop “Santa Barbara” was prompted last week when John Rohrbeck, president of NBC-TV’s stations division, refused to continue carrying the soap opera after key affiliates in Boston, Philadelphia and St. Louis dropped the show, sources said. Affiliates will be handed back the 11 to 11:30 a.m. time period to fill in with syndicated shows. Network executives are still pondering how to fill the “Santa Barbara” 3 to 4 p.m. slot. Among the replacement shows apparently under consideration are an expanded version of “Classic Concentration,” a youth-oriented game show, and a talk show hosted by Sassy magazine editor Jane Pratt. The cancellations underscore the rapidly changing economics of daytime television, which only a few years ago could account for up to 70% of a network’s profit. Traditionally, daytime programs cost much less than prime-time shows to produce and attracted healthy advertising because of their success in reaching a largely female audience. But in recent years, the daytime marketplace has become increasingly crowded, with syndicated shows pulling viewers away from the weaker network shows. “NBC has been hurting in the daytime race,” said Bill Croasedale, president of national broadcasting at the Los Angeles-based ad agency Western Media. “They have been running a really poor third against ABC and CBS.” NBC’s problems have been compounded by the fact that impatient affiliates, facing their own financial pressures, are no longer willing to stick with ratings losers when they can acquire more profitable syndicated shows on their own. NBC, which had been the prime-time ratings leader for five years before being bumped into second place by CBS this last season, is now retrenching from several ambitious expansion plans launched in recent years. Network staffers have been buzzing for several weeks about an “October surprise” that could entail further cutbacks and might include the long-anticipated “strategic” transaction hinted at by NBC’s parent, General Electric. As for syndicated talk shows that debuted in fall 1992, there were Vicki Lawrence and Jane Whitney's shows. Jane Pratt was actually between shows at the time of the above article. She went from FOX stations to Lifetime, then was done by 1993. (If Jane Pratt had stayed, it's interesting to consider what that would have meant for Ricki Lake.)

I'm going to hate myself for asking, but what was it?

Speaking of Carmen Duncan, I was just thinking about how well she and Victoria Wyndham played this scene.

I just realized that the 30th anniversary of Winter Heat nearly went by unacknowledged. In retrospect, it is kind of a pity that Days didn't get one or two more primetime specials in the '90s. Maybe they shouldn't have aired alongside the Soap Opera Digest Awards?

I was going to snark about Olivia's storyline borrowing so much from Fatal Attraction, and while there was some obvious cribbing (killing Robin's pet, kidnapping her from school), it wasn't as drawn out as I remembered.

Maybe it's a fool's errand, maybe I'm being a buttinsky, but I'm creating this thread as an all-purpose space to post about anything related to soap operas in general, or related to more than one show, performer, etc. I'm not interested in fighting, I'll just say that it's been frustrating to watch threads that have been cultivated and expanded upon over the years devolve and sometimes lose their purpose. I'll start by mentioning one of my favorite things, catching a soap clip "in the wild." Like how the common room TV at the start of Cocoon just happened to be tuned to DOOL. Or how Meryl Streep flipped past SFT (specially Michael Corbett as Warren) in Heartburn.

Can we declare Andre's/The Medicine Man on The Doctors as a fern bar? We know that Ryan's Bar wouldn't be.

That is, when they weren't trying to emulate ER or NYPD Blue.

Marlena in the pit was the Friday cliffhanger for Oct. 30, 1992. That storyline lasted through Friday, Dec. 11. Well, technically Marlena was rescued on the 9th, but there was an aftermath to deal with.

Now I'm curious about the men who were considered for Garrett before Ken Howard.

What a fun idea for a thread! ERICA KANE (AMC) Highest Point: Leading the "An American Beauty" campaign for Sensuelle. Lowest Point: The Woman of the Year meltdown.

Great choices! It might also be nice to get someone playing Dougie as an adult, paying his respects to the father he never knew.

Don Frabotta as Dave, for starters.

One more from the pre-Days days.

Damn. I almost wanted to believe it would never happen. Much love to Susan during this trying time.

Not too long ago, I wondered what would have happened if they moved Mitch to Knots Landing starting in 1982-83, after he had divorced Lucy (and as Gary and Val were divorcing). Ultimately, they didn't need another young man, since they had Chip (and it's not like Kenny was getting a plethora of airtime), but it was still a thought I had. There actually was at least one scene which all but acknowledged that anything Lucy had with at least Val was gone. Karen was worrying about being estranged from one of her kids and asked Val about the last time she talked with Lucy. Val admitted it was so long ago, she couldn't remember.

Just seeing the news now. I tell you, it's eerie ... I mean, here we are, having been talking about her (and she's certainly not a talk about once and move on kind of person, that's for sure).

In case anyone was just dying to know, the reruns of Full House and Home Improvement involved D.J. getting her learner's permit and Tim being visited by an old college buddy (Christopher McDonald).