Franko

I think it comes down to SB having such a strong identity. At its best, the show wasn't trying to be idiosyncratic, eccentric and a little outrageous. It just was and that's what people respond to.

Believe it or not, The Doctors' cancellation inspired a sketch on Late Night with David Letterman. (Runs until 9:40)

 

And the conclusion:

 

Still searching for exact air dates for Alice, but I stumbled across two clips I'd never seen.

The first is of Tony, Liza, Greg and Jenny hanging out, close to the accident (and just over three months before Marcy started on Santa Barbara):

 

The second is Liza letting Tony know that it's Jenny, not Greg, who got in the accident (mid-August, apparently):

 

Oh, and now I've found Alice's first day (Monday, September 24 -- Marcy started on SB on Friday, September 28)

 

Oh, you just *know* Adam and Bruno will be doing lots of staged flirting.

Good to know. Has Retro gotten to the 90-minute episode yet?

 

 

 

 

saynotoursoap, from July 2010:

"In March 1976, The Doctors aired a highly publicized 90 minute special in which Gerald Gordon, immensely popular as the mercurial Dr. Nick Bellini, raced back to Madison to save the life of Althea after she tumbled off a ladder and crashed through a plate glass window. The following year, with Marland as writer, the serial expanded to one hour for its anniversary episode, in which Jada Rowland joined the cast as Carolee. The anniversary episode also debuted the new opening title sequence of cast drawings and re-orchestrated theme music. None of it succeeded. The Doctors continued to lose ground to The Guiding Light, making a major ratings comeback on CBS."

 

Later that month:

"Ratings for The Doctors held just fine until ATWT expanded to an hour, and the Dobsons took over Guiding Light. The time changes at CBS and NBC caused the ratings for all of NBC's soaps to fall, with Days and The Doctors taking the hardest hit initially. The drop in ratings really wasn't reflective of the writing."

 

From August 2011:

 

NBC did plan to expand The Doctors to an hour.

 

In 1974, Another World was the highest rated soap on NBC, and Paul Rauch could sell snowcones to Eskimoes, so AW was given the first trial 1 hour episode for its anniversary in May 1974. It was the highest rated episode of any soap opera that week, so plans were quickly made to expand the series permanently. Days of our Lives was the #2 soap on NBC and was also given a 1 hour trial episode which aired in November 1974. Once again, it scored very well in the ratings, even higher than normal episodes. That led to its planned expansion shortly afterward.

 

However, by the time Days expanded, The Doctors was beginning to slip in the ratings. The Pollocks were leaving, and the stories had become repetitive and not as fulfilling. NBC held off for a while with its possible expansion and finally, in late 1975, the network decided to produce an expanded trial episode for The Doctors. Margaret DePriest pulled out all the stops for the 90 minute special that aired in March 1976. Fan favorite Althea plunged headfirst through a plate-glass window in a very well performed stunt. Rushed to Hope Memorial with bleeding on her brain, Matt Powers sent for Althea's former husband Nick Bellini. TD fans had been waiting impatiently for a year and a half for actor Gerald Gordon's return. Despite heavy promotion and giving the audience a tense, exciting episode, the ratings failed to budge.

 

NBC gave the show one more chance the following year. For its 14th anniversary episode, there was a special hour-long episode penned by Doug Marland. Again, the storyline was very dramatic, as Ann Larimer prepared to marry Steve Aldrich just as Carolee escaped from the private sanitarium and made her way back to Madison. The series also debuted re-orchestrated theme music and the Y&R style logo. Unfortunately, the ratings were the usual middle of the pack numbers instead of a significant bump. At that point, NBC abandoned the idea of expansion altogether. It really would not have made sense, because once ATWT expanded to an hour in December 1975, Days suddenly saw its ratings dipping, too. Before that, The Doctors may have stood a chance, but by 1977, NBC was well on its way to losing its once powerhouse schedule. 

 

 

I want to say the anecdote about Steve Fletcher's renaming is in the One Life to Live trivia book.

 

Why was Nina a servant for the Chandlers? Was it some sort of humbling myself to give my life purpose sort of thing, or was she on the outs with Palmer? And while we're at it, did Benny and Phoebe have a falling out?

Was NBC or Colgate-Palmolive responsible for the creative merry-go-round? Six executive producers ... eleven writing teams in seven years!

I never would have guessed she had that singing voice. The Christmas episode from 1974 always made me think she sounded like Carol Kane.

Interesting. I'm sure NBC preferred VW as Rachel and Justine (it matches the "OMG, the leading lady gets to be nuts" factor of Deidre and Marlena's possession), but now I wish Christine Jones had returned.

I shouldn't assume, but maybe Bill & Doug in jail, or Tommy Horton and one of his Army buddies? Not a long-term thing, but just a situation that happened.

From a 1987 Diva von Dish commentary about parties for SOD:

"Oakdale's specialty is the birthday party. The younger set celebrates theirs every year and for some strange reason, the whole town is invited. While the entire cast is deft at establishing the party mood, I'm not sure that if I were Lily Walsh or Dusty Donovan I would want everyone in town who was over thirty at my birthday party*. Of course, Lily and Dusty don't have friends their own age. And I suspect budget cuts at Procter and Gamble prohibit anyone from calling Rent-a-Friend. So what do we do? To simulate genuine party activity, like dancing, I suggest renting clips, old or new, from the archives of Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Somehow I can't imagine Dusty Donovan rocking out; he'd be afraid of offending the Moral Majority. Holden is too uptight to let his backbone slip. Casey Peretti can definitely cut a rug and I'm sure John and Lucinda can show Bob and Kim a thing or two when it comes to modern dance techniques**, but we need more." 

 

*I'm pretty sure she lived for that.

**Please, if anyone in that town was into dirty dancing, it was Lisa.

I think kitchen sink drama appeals to audiences, but the idea of saying it's "like a soap opera" carries too much stigma and stereotyping right now.

4 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

Richard Dreyfuss had his own CBS drama in 2001 or so. I don't think it lasted a whole season.

The Education of Max Bickford did make it to 22 episodes. I guess since it was on Sundays at 8, they were willing to wait before lowering the ax.

 

What crashed and burned in the fall of 2001 was Danny, starring Daniel Stern. Two episodes (at 8:30 Friday, after Ellen's short-lived comeback sitcom) and out.

Judy Garland, The Judy Garland Show

Julie Andrews, The Julie Andrews Hour and Julie

Faye Dunaway, It Had to Be You

 

Talking about Dawn on the roles that didn't survive recasts thread got me thinking about Monty 2.0.

 

I'd always heard about a wave of characters/actors leaving the show and a new wave arriving, and thanks to curlyqgrl's summaries, I think I have the the final tally. It was really more like three waves. 

 

Monty's first day back, according to Wikipedia, was Wednesday, Feb. 13, 1991. Her last day was Friday, Jan. 24, 1992.

 

First Wave:

Out:

Katherine Delafield (Edie Lehman, 11/26/90)

Shep Casey (Bradley Lockerman, 12/21/90)

Rita Lloyd (Kim Terry, 1/10/91)

Lucy Coe (temporarily, for Lynn Herring's maternity leave, 1/29/91)

Broxton (actor name?, 2/1/91 it appears)

Simone Hardy (Stephanie Williams, 2/12/91)

Carla Greco (Laura Harring, 2/14/91?)

Frankie Greco (Robert Fontaine Jr., no clue on date, but presumably around this time)

Cheryl Stansbury (Jennifer Anglin, 2/14/91?)

Colton Shore (Scott Thompson Baker, 2/26/91)

Charlene Simpson (Maree Cheatham, 2/26/91)

Dawn Winthrop (Jennifer Guthrie, 2/27/91)

Eric Jackson/"Edge Jerome" (Mark St. James, no date given, but presumably late February-early March)

Nurse Jessie Brewer (Emily McLaughlin, 3/1/91; not a writing decision, but notable)

Decker Moss (Michael Watson, no date given, but presumably early March)

Larry Ashton (Hugo Napier, 3/22/91; back for a few days in July)

 

In/Back:

Jenny Eckert (Cheryl Richardson, 2/13/91)

Mac Scorpio (John J. York, 2/18/91)

Bill Eckert (Tony Geary, 2/19/91)

Fred Eckert (William Boyett, 2/20/91)

Angela Eckert (Carol Lawrence, 2/20/91)

Sly Eckert (Glenn Walker Harris Jr., 2/20/91)

Finian O'Toole (Arte Johnson, 2/22/91?)

Harlan Barrett (Michael Cole, 3/7/91)

Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring, 3/12/91)

Paul Hornsby (Paul Satterfield, 3/18/91)

 

 

Second Wave

Out:

Fred Eckert (William Boyett, 5/31/91)

Angela Eckert (Carol Lawrence, 6/5/91; back for Jenny and Ned's wedding in February 1992)

Frisco Jones (Jack Wagner, 6/11/91)

Ned Ashton (Kurt McKinney, 8/30/91)

 

In/Back

Nancy Eckert (Linda Dona, 5/28/91)

Dominique Taub (Tawny Fere Ellis, 6/4/91)

Leopold Taub (Chip Lucia, 6/6/91)

Connor Olivera (Michael Lynch, 6/24/91)

Simone Hardy (Stephanie Williams, 6/25/91)

Cesar Faison (Anders Hove, 6/26/91)

A.J. Quartermaine (Gerald Hopkins, 6/26/91)

Nurse Sheila something-or-other (actress name?, 6/26/91 it appears)

Julia Barrett (Crystal Carson, 6/27/91)

Susan Hornsby (Irina Cashen, 8/21/91)

 

 

Third Wave:

Out:

Nancy Eckert (Linda Dona, 10/14/91 -- whodunnit storyline for another month)

Felicia Jones (Kristina Wagner, 11/5/91; back in May 1992)

Dominique Taub (Tawny Fere Ellis, 11/14/91)

Finian O'Toole (Arte Johnson, 11/21/91?)

Harlan Barrett (Michael Cole, 11/22/91)

Leopold Taub (Chip Lucia, 12/5/91)

Cesar Faison (Anders Hove, 12/5/91)

Anna Devane (Finola Hughes, 12/17/91)

Susan Hornsby (Irina Cashen, 12/27/91)

Anna Devane (Camilla Moore, 1/20/92)

Cesar Faison (Anders Hove, 2/25/92)

Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers, 2/25/92)

David Langton (Jeff Pomerantz, 3/23/92)

Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring, 3/27/92)

 

In/Back:

Ned Ashton (Wally Kurth, 9/9/91)

Dr. Eric Simpson (Brandon Hooper, 9/18/91)

Edward Quartermaine (David Lewis, 11/26/91)

Dominique Taub (Shell Davidson, 12/3/91)

Jason Quartermaine (Steve Burton, 12/19/91)

Anna Devane (Camilla Moore, 12/20/91)

David Langton (Jeff Pomerantz, 1/13/92)

Holly Sutton (Emma Samms, 1/16/92)

Cesar Faison (Anders Hove, 1/17/92)

Nikki Langton (Camille Cooper, 1/30/92)

Victor certainly went into a new direction posthumously.

Ooh, do Augusta Dabney next!

I think Leslie Woods wins this category, having worked in soaps from the radio era all the way up to 2001. She also appeared in three out of the big four nighttime soaps (no Dynasty) and her penultimate role was (fittingly) in Nurse Betty. 

 

4 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

Roscoe Born has to make this list...RH, OLTL, SB, AMC, DAYS, Y&R, GL, The City. I read somewhere a few years back that he wanted to appear on B&B and GH, as he had never been on those soaps.

Maybe he could appear in the final episodes of both, like he did on OLTL.

I suspect not. What I wonder about, though, is what was going through Gloria Monty's head during this time.

 

According to Waggett's Soap Opera Encyclopedia, she was fond of having a successor right on the heels of the departed. By the time Luke was gone for good, Robert was the leading man. With Robert and Holly gone, was she pushing for Frisco and Felicia as the marquee couple, or was it always in the cards to bring Robert back? I know Anna was intended for Dr. Buzz before clicking with Duke.

3 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

What year was The Chateau introduced? How long was it around?

If I'm not mistaken, The Chateau was introduced in 1970 as Nick Davis' place. I want to say it was gone for good after the gas pipe explosion in 1987 (?).

 

 

Nevertheless, the Chateau lived on into the '90s in at least one corner of fandom -- it was the "location" of the "How to Host a Murder" party game.

 

Now, when did The Goalpost disappear? Just prior to the Chicken Shack showing up?

Vetsoapfan, could you shed some more light for me about what made Sharon unique? I'm imagining her as not too far off from Amy Vining, but I have the feeling that's not doing Sharon justice. I did love Amy, BTW.

Julia turned 24 in June 1975.

If nothing else, I hope Susan and Roya at least met. Maybe Susan could have jokingly told her the Rosemary Prinz, "Don't get stuck here," story. Were AMC and Loving at the same studios? 

And, of course, Miss Inch in The Parent Trap. "Let the punishment fit the crime ... the punishment fit the crime."