mikelyons

You're welcome! I debated for a long time whether to tell that story, but it felt like the right moment and the right space. One last thing: Every single script for AMC and OLTL have been archived and digitized at the University of Pennsylvania. If you call them and ask about they, they'll tell you that they don't have them. However, a ton of researchers quote cite them as did the 25th anniversary AMC coffee table book. If I ever get in, I'll be sure to document Erica's first moments on screen. Not bibles, but complete scripts (that I know of) exist in archives for: AMC* (see above) OLTL* (see above) B&B Y&R DAYS GH ATWT (Irna's archive has most of them thru 73 when the P&G Collection takes up the slack through the 90s) SFT (The majority of the first decade or so is in Irving Vendig's archive at Boston University, including Agnes' first thirteen weeks of outlines and scripts.) LOVING (I'd guess this exists, but the Nixon family has them as they many of them aren't in Agnes' archive.)

Here are the soap opera bibles I've either read, researched, seen, or know where they are: AMC: It reads like it was the original presentation bible meant for P&G. As I mentioned before, Erica isn't mentioned once, but the Martins and Tylers are very much established. It gives a wonderful insight into the world Agnes was creating in the mid-to-late 60s. This bible can be found in Agnes Nixon's Northwestern Archive and Bill Bell's UCLA archive. ATWT: This bible is well worth a read as it was for the first half-hour soap opera and you can see how Ted Corday, Irna Phillips, and Agnes Nixon really worked hard to elevate ATWT into something special. There's a ton of backstory on the original characters and the intention for the show is clear. This bible can be found in Agnes Nixon's Northwestern Archive and Irna Phillips' vast archive at the Wisconsin Historical Society. AW: To be honest, I found this bible slight and unimpressive. To me, it feels a bit thrown together for the network. This bible can be found at Irna Phillips' vast archive at the Wisconsin Historical Society and Bill Bell's UCLA archive. B&B: The language is beautiful and you're instantly drawn in, but if you know the early history of Y&R, it does read like a rehash of Y&R for the 1980s. This bible can found found in the Bell UCLA archive. CORONATION STREET: ITV keeps an archive of everything pertaining to the show and the bible hasn't surfaced. Interestingly enough, an early iteration of the show called SEVEN, BESSIE STREET which established the world of the show when Tony Warren originally pitched it to the BBC exists, but the contents of it haven't been made public. After SEVEN, BESSIE STREET was rejected it was re-worked into OUR STREET (which was rejected by the BBC) and FLORIZAL STREET, which was bought by ITV and renamed CORONATION STREET. DAYS: From what I recall, theme and intention were big aspects of the DAYS bible. It's worth a read to see how a simple family soap opera has morphed over the year. This bible can be found at Irna Phillips' vast archive at the Wisconsin Historical Society and Bill Bell's UCLA archive. EDGE OF NIGHT: This bible is thrilling to read as it was created contemporaneously with ATWT, our first half hour soaps. It can be found in the Irving Vending collection at Boston University. EMMERDALE: A small number of early scripts from EMMERDALE are in Kevin Laffan's archive at the University of Leicester. It is unclear if the original bible is part of that collection. GH: I haven't read it, but I believe it is in the Hursley/Dobson papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society. LOVE OF LIFE: This bible is in John Hess' archive at Dartmouth. It's a simple document which provides the bones of the show, which they kept to until Hess left the series. LOVING: This bible is quite clear on the show it is meant to be and the show it became. All of the major moving parts are here. I don't believe the Rescotts were included in the bible. It's a good read and not very long. This bible can be found in Agnes Nixon's Northwestern Archive. OLTL: This bible is missing in action. I do not know where it is as it hasn't shown up in Agnes' archives or anywhere else. RYAN'S HOPE: This bible is missing in action. As far as I know, Paul Avila Miller and Claire Labine's papers have not yet been entered into an archive. SFT: It took me years to track down the SFT bible written by Agnes Nixon because it is missing from her archive and you can't find it by searching online. I found it to be a wonderful document which P&G and Roy Winsor leaned on heavily after they fired Agnes. The SFT bible and ALL of Agnes' original outlines for the first 13 weeks are in the Irving Vendig Collection at Boston University. You cannot make copies or take photos of these documents...you are watched like a hawk. Trust me, they are there. I have read and touched them! How they got there is another story for another day. SUNSET BEACH: The first 29 scripts are in Aaron Spelling's archive at Boston University. I don't know if the bible is there. It could be and wasn't logged by the archivists. Y&R: Apparently, no one has seen the original bible for Y&R since it was pitched to Screen Gems and CBS circa 1972. Where it is, is anyone's guess? Kay Alden may have a copy or the Bell family. Maybe one of the executives at CBS took it home, put it in a drawer, and forgot about it. I'm hoping it surfaces one day at a rummage sale in Los Angeles. I hope this helps!

Generally, nothing is scanned in by the archive. When you make a request for copies of documents (if the archive does it), they will charge you a nominal rate to scan each page and email it to you. In effect, researchers pay for the digitization of their archives. It's a bit archaic, but it makes plenty of financial sense. Why pay for it out of pocket when a researcher will pay us to do it? Additionally, the ALL MY CHILDREN bible is at Northwestern University and the Bell Collection at UCLA. In that iteration of the AMC bible, Erica Kane is never mentioned. Not once. Not even a character called "Susan". There may be additional drafts of the AMC bible with Erica in it, but it hasn't surfaced yet. The earliest mention of Erica from Agnes' Northwestern archive is by Tara in Episode 1. According to an outline by Agnes' Northwestern archive from Episode 10, we finally meet Erica. She has just received her car from her father and drives Tara and Phil home. This could very well be the infamous "Hollywood & Vine" episode, which we may have only seen edited for A DAYTIME TO REMEMBER, not in its unedited state.

I don’t know if Hulu or ABC has ever released GH’s streaming numbers. I do know that when Hulu announced they were going to remove Coronation Street years ago, people had a fit and they reversed their decision. I’d bet GH does just fine on Hulu.

I think the cancelation of AMC and OLTL in 2011-12 along with the OPRAH going off the air decimated ABC's daytime line-up. ABC hasn't recovered. I do believe that NBC and CBS halted whatever plans they may have had to get rid of their remaining soaps after seeing three legacy shows lost in the span of a few months. At this point, it's "cheaper to keep her". From the Sony leak, it seems that Y&R and DAYS' numbers go up by 50% or more when they factored in online streaming, SoapNet viewings, iTunes downloads, and the like. The shows are probably healthier and more profitable than anyone would care to admit. I don't see these four shows going solely to streaming - the networks will not want to give that time back to their affiliates and lose out completely - but they will be anchors in their streaming future.

Considering how hard it is for networks to successfully replace a soap, they'll leave them where they are. It was once said that once a soap falls below a 1.0 rating, it's out the door. Well, they continue to outperform most of their daytime compatriots, so as long as they make more money in ad revenue than their licensing fee, the four remaining soaps will stay on the air. It's too risky to replace Y&R or DAYS with a "celebrity" talk show or lame game show. They have a reliable audience in an age of deep fractures. Do whatever you can to keep it.

I know the title is long and awkward, but bear with me. I was recently telling someone how much I loved OLTL in the Labine era, but I was terribly turned off when Jill Phelps took over. I stopped watching for about a year or two, tried to get back into it, but I always felt like someone had ripped the heart out of the show. People would always tell me about the great things the show was doing in its final years, yet I never reconnected with OLTL. AMC is also on this list. I stopped watching with the rape of Bianca. When I tried to tune-in based on whoever was head writer, I'd see Bianca with that child and I just couldn't stomach it anymore. I've always loved Y&R, but the minute Kevin put on that chipmunk head, I turned it off. Ever since then, I'll try to watch Y&R if I'm home during the day, but it feels like watching someone you once loved acting totally out of character. It feels like nothing about the Y&R I once loved even exists anymore. At least we'll always have "Nadia's Theme". EMMERDALE was a soap I loved, but the influx of Dingles simply ruined the show for me. I tried to re-connect with the show, but the rape of Victoria Sugden was the final straw. Ugh. It felt like shock for the sake of shock. I turned it off after that.

Before SEARCH FOR TOMORROW premiered, there was a big behind the scenes talk about whether or not to use cue cards or if they should only use actors two days a week to get them to rest. One of the producers from Compton insisted that ANY actor worth their salt could learn dialogue without cue cards because that's what they're trained to do! This producer went on to say that if theatrical actors in repertory companies can memorize three different Shakespearian plays to perform every day, a soap opera actor can memorize a few ten page scripts every week. Needless to say, SEARCH didn't get cue cards.

Which soaps did you try to watch multiple times, but you could never get into them? For me, it was GUIDING LIGHT (although I find the 60s episodes quite engaging) and CORONATION STREET. I know but shows are institutions, but halfway through an episode, I would get restless and turn them off. I'm still trying to watch CORONATION STREET, but it's never connected with me and I don't know why. It's well-written, well-acted, and perfectly produced, but it never sticks. I've tried to watch DAYS, but it never, ever stuck. I'm always think, "I must have missed A LOT!" What about you?

Eric Braeden uses cue cards. They cut around it.

They should've caught COVID in that "house". End of. Bring back the Sugdens. Bring back ANYONE else. They're the reason I stopped watching a show I loved.

Colleen's issues with food on Y&R circa 2004-5. They briefly mentioned it at Crimson Lights when she was spending time with Lily and some mean girls commented if she needed that much foam or whatever in her drink. It would have been a beautiful storyline involving Colleen, Brad, and Traci, but it was dropped without a second thought.

I completely disagree. From the time Erica discovered Mona's body through the funeral, it was a heartbreaking storyline. Erica took Mona for granted, screamed at her, brushed her off, and relied on her since their first episode together. Moreover, Lucci and Heflen were scene partners for 24 years. All of that was beautifully captured in Erica's grief. Over the top or not, Lucci's portrayal at Erica's loss of her beloved mother truly resonated with me. I'll take this over a demonic possession any day of the week.

Ellen Holly's 1971 ONE LIFE TO LIVE contract from Creative Horizons:

I'm TOTALLY with you on this one! People forget that two of the highest rated scripted shows of our time, DOWNTON ABBEY and THIS IS US, are steeped in realism. And, guess what? They were runaway hits! Imagine, telling stories about real people who don't have memories implanted in their pinkie. Wasn't there an article that came out in the late-70s (maybe 78) that said the cost savings of an hour and a slight increase in ad rates really didn't seem to justify an hour? I believe one of the arguments was that by restricting ad revenue to a few half hour slots made the show more valuable in the long term. If Lever Bros. couldn't advertise on a P&G show, but could in the next half hour slot, it would be more money than them being locked out entirely from a 60 minute P&G show.

Third-ing making soaps a half hour. The hour hasn't worked very well. Half an hour is great; you're in and out. I also support mixing up the number of weekly episodes. The Archers produced six episodes a week pre-COVID and now they're doing four. Hollyoaks is five a week; EastEnders varies. It's doable. Your audience doesn't care. Just don't waste their time with crap.

One piece of realism that is missing from US soaps and is slowly fading from UK soaps are the celebration of birthdays, anniversaries, deaths, etc. I've always felt that marking those life events in terms of a daily story helps ground the soap in terms of place and time. Characters aren't vaguely 35 forever. Life happens. People grow and evolve. I suppose it's hard to say Character X is 35 when they've aged their child from 5 to 25 in five years.

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That's correct. From what I recall, Pine Valley wasn't located in Pennsylvania until at least 1990. After that, all of the ABC soaps had their cities aligned with a state. Pine Valley was a grey area in that it was a pre-Revolutionary War hamlet within an hour of New York City. That's a great fact about Genoa City and Milwaukee! I never heard that before, but it makes a whole lot of sense. Kay would live by the lake and everyone else would live in the city. Nice catch, @soapfan770

Pine Valley, Llanview, and Corinth are near each other on Philadelphia's Main Line. Agnes Nixon even used the Welsh naming system Main Line families used for their houses for OLTL's Llanfair. OLTL's Center City is a stand-in for Philadelphia. Pine Valley is based on Rosemont, PA, the same town which would later inspire the town in Pretty Little Liars. If I recall, Llanview and Pine Valley are separated by the Llantano River with Corinth being nearby. I'd bet Corinth is a stand-in for Bryn Mawr, PA, home to the university of the same name on the Main Line. Exterior shots of Llanview from the 1980s opening were from Harrisburg, PA. The homes and houses featured as establishing shots for Pine Valley were located in Princeton, NJ and a town in Connecticut I'm blanking on right now. I believe estates in Long Island were used as stand-ins for Corinth at the beginning of LOVING. Genoa City is a tiny town in Wisconsin and does look like where the down at heel Fosters would have lived with the Brooks living in wealthy Lake Geneva. There is a local TV documentary produced about Y&R's relationship with Lake Geneva and Genoa City. I only saw it once and haven't been able to locate it since, but it provides an interesting window into the people who "inspired" that world. From its inception, Chicago was supposed to serve as the closest "big city" to Genoa City, but now Genoa City rivals Chicago for the number of multinational corporations and billionaires! Once Y&R "grew up" Genoa City became Pittsburgh, which is where establishing shots and location filming were done for many, many years. Around 2004, they showed an establishing shot of the Chancellor Mansion which was a mansion located outside of Pittsburgh. I don't know if it's ever been shown again. The Los Angeles of B&B bears no relation to the real Los Angeles or even Beverly Hills, save for establishing shots of the city. Harmony, New England from PASSIONS never had any real sense of place. I'd guess it was meant to be Salem, MA due to its heavy use of historical witchcraft. Irna's soaps almost always took place in towns in and around the Chicago region. Agnes' took place in Pennsylvania.

Whenever you see an actor pop-up on recurring for a few performances a year, a lot of the time the show is helping the actor to they can keep their health insurance. You have to work a minimum number of days to keep the great SAG-AFTRA health insurance, so it can be a win-win for a lot of soaps and actors. I believe around 2006, Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall were earning about $10,000 per episode with three episode a week guarantees. One reason Heather Tom is rumored to have quit Y&R was because they wanted to cut her guarantee. I believe Martha Bryne was let go of ATWT because they wanted to cut her pay, which I believe she agreed to, but she wouldn't let them cut her guarantee. It's always been said Susan Lucci was the highest paid soap opera performer. I'd be curious to know if that included her pay from AMC or her other deals and business interests. If they kept her big salary on the AMC books, it could have inflated the budget. I'd be curious to see an ABC Daytime soap opera budget. Hell, I'd REALLY be interested to compare budgets from Sony and P&G!

Thanks for sharing these!

The Lords (OLTL) were said to be based on the Annenberg publishing dynasty (TV Guide, etc.).

The original SEARCH FOR TOMORROW guarantees called for an actor to appear 2 times during a 13 week cycle, except for Mary Stuart. She appeared in every show for $1,000 a week. Generally, most American soaps will use a weekly guarantee, while UK soaps use a yearly guarantee due to larger casts. An actor on a UK soap is promised a set number of yearly episodes (a minimum of 50) as part of their contract. Sometimes UK actors with lower lower guarantees are well-paid, but want to do a ton of theatre, outside projects, etc. If I recall, B&B and Y&R use a yearly guarantee (pay or play) versus a weekly guarantee. I have a 2009 test option for a DAYS actor which sets forth the following: Year 1.) $1,350 for an average of 1.5 guaranteed performances per week; Year 2.) $1,450 for an average of 1.5 guaranteed performances per week; Year 3.) $1,550 for an average of 1.5 guaranteed performances per week; Year 4.) $1,700 for an average of 2 guaranteed performances per week. Direct language from the Corday/DAYS option contract regarding cycles: "Corday shall have three (3) options to extend Player’s engagement and the term of this Agreement (the “Term”) for periods of thirteen (13) weeks each, followed by six (6) options to extend the Term for periods of twenty-six (26) weeks each. All such options are separate, dependent, irrevocable, and consecutive and are exercisable by Corday in its sole discretion. The initial period together with the periods covered by the three thirteen (13) week options are herein referred to collectively as the “first contract year”; the periods covered by the first and second twenty-six (26) week options are herein referred to collectively as the “second contract year”; the periods covered by the third and fourth twenty-six (26) week options are herein referred to collectively as the “third contract year”; and the periods covered by the fifth and sixth twenty-six (26) week options are herein referred to collectively as the “fourth contract year." "The option for each subsequent period shall be automatically exercised unless notice of termination is given by Corday at least four (4) weeks (with respect to thirteen [13] week cycles) or six (6) weeks (with respect to twenty-six [26] week cycles) prior to the end of the then current period. During the Term (on a one-time basis), a cycle may be increased or decreased by a period not exceeding four (4) weeks in order to conform to periods of Corday’s network agreement." Most soaps are crafty about how they use an actors guarantee. If an actor only has a 2 episode guarantee, but appears in less than half of that episode, the show considers it a half of performance (hence the 1.5 in the above option agreement). In theory, an actor could appear in half of four episodes to create a 2 episode guarantee. DAYS has been using the half episode trick since the 60s. Cars to and from the studio are usually done as a courtesy to actors who have a very early call time. Several actors on Y&R who were first up had town cars provided to and from Television City. Jeanne Cooper was always scheduled to start around 10AM-11AM as a courtesy to her and the production coordinators stuck to this. Generally, all perks are negotiated by your agent.

I've often thought that the lack of realism on US soaps has allowed them to become odd relics of our times. They are often divorced from reality, science, or plausibility. As much as I love a good evil twin or baby switch, the soaps seem to have lost their way in terms of relating to their audiences. Upon watching a few old episodes of THE GUIDING LIGHT and AS THE WORLD TURNS, I had a feeling of community, being part of a larger world, and watching people you might know or see in town. I'm all for fantasy and escape, but isn't it possible to escape into well constructed realism, too? I'd love to know what you guys think, one way or another.