mikelyons

No, Bill Bell never wrote for the radio iteration of THE GUIDING LIGHT. By the time he started in soaps, he wrote solely for television.

Hubris, indeed.

Say it again! They let Ashley Bashioum (sp?) go as the original Mac over contract negotiations. No other actress was able to capture to nuance or fire of Mac as Ashley. Y&R lost David Tom and Heather Tom in the same period. Heather Tom left because they thought they could low ball her and she'd never walk...until she did. Christian Le Blanc's contract was up after Heather's, so they gave him everything he wanted and now we're stuck with Michael!

Today's episode (well, what I saw of it) was great. I loved when Mamie learned from John and Ashley that Dru had been arrested. I bet Mamie's internal dialogue was, "Oh Lord, this girl's embarrassed me in front of these white people!" 😉

She and Bill Bell, Jr. have been living it up on a yacht in the Mediterranean for most of the year recently. They're just fine. Haha

Nina was a wonderful, fully rounded, complex, and interesting Bell creation who changed and evolved over time, but never lost her edge (like Heather Tom's Victoria). She is missed!!

Almost every random episode I've watched from 1987-1999 features Cricket Blair. I rolled my eyes as she tried to keep up with Jeanne Cooper in today's (5/5/2020) classic episode. I can only imagine how viewers and actors felt at the time! Terry Lester was perfect as Jack. Arrogant, lovable. What a great actor! I agree with Phillip and Danny being a couple. That would've been scandalously fantastic! Maybe Phillip started drinking so much because everyone wanted him with a girl named Cricket (*eye roll*) when he had all of those illicit feelings for pool boys and Danny.

Exactly. Isn't DAYS still the most watched show on the NBC app/Peacock? Yes, the revenue from VOD and AVOD isn't as big as network, but with constant replays and compounding over a year, it adds up. I'd bet the soaps are making way more money than ABC, CBS, or NBC would care to admit to justify their budget cuts. As for writers, Kay Alden was one of the highest paid - ever. She was making about $10m per year. That may have included all of the sub writers, but those writers are usually employed by Bell Dramatic Serial Company, which is why it was really hard for LML get fire Minardi Slater, Esser, etc. Irna was making $250k per year from her 15 minute radio soaps during the Depression and into the 1950s. In the early-1980s, the networks were paying writers about $250k to simply CREATE a daytime serial, of which many were never picked up. It makes sense when you hear some of the big names who were hired to create a soap, but, those shows were almost always let on the dustheap.

$0.84. If I recall correctly, Susan Lucci was the first soap actor to earn $1m per year starting in the 80s. I would think this was around the time Capital Cities bought ABC, thus making ABC part of a larger corporation with greater resources. I do believe she made the most of any actor on daytime until the budget cuts. Drake Hogestyn was making $10,000 per episode on DAYS before the budget cuts in the early-2000s. Eric Braeden, Melody Thomas Scott, Peter Bergman, and Doug Davidson were the highest paid actors on Y&R well into the early-2000s clearing between $750k-$1m+ per year. Jeanne Cooper was making around $750k per year during this time due to a smaller guarantee than the other four. I wouldn't be surprised if Lauralee Bell was making close to Cooper. I've been told that the "core-four" at B&B (Moss, McCook, Flannery, and Lang) were making $1m per year in the early-2000s. It wouldn't surprise me if a bit of their pay came from international licensing fees to keep the CBS' licensing fee at a reasonable level. Also, Brad pays his actors well, even when they're under contract and off-screen! It's been reported that actors have been brought back to B&B, paid $250k-$500k for six months to a year, dropped after three months, and Brad pays out the rest of their contract. I wish I knew more about the P&G soaps & their budgets. I've been searching for years!

That sounds like bad community theatre!

Last time I heard, their budget had settled to $60m per year. I wouldn't be surprised if it was $50-$55m right now, but that's a guess, based on what I'm seeing on screen.

All right, let's talk budgets! When SEARCH FOR TOMORROW and LOVE OF LIFE launched in 1951, their budgets were $8,750 a week ($437,500/year). By 2014 or so, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS' budget was $100m per year, one of the highest in television, and then fell to $80m per year. (For context with another highly rated daytime show, OPRAH was produced for $50m per year.) (Note: I found Y&R's budget in documents from the Sony hack.) It appears ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE cost $40m to produce (each) per year by the time they were canceled (that $80m went to KATIE). DAYS' budget has been about $750k per week ($37.5m/year) for a while now. What other hard budget numbers (weekly/monthly) do we have or know?

The Christine/Paul storyline was Kay Alden, not Bill Bell.

Yeah... I'll need to use a VPN, lest I sign up for CBS All Access...which is still the stupidest name for a streaming service...

Does anyone have today's episode of Y&R (4/28/2020)? Newsom interrupted after the first half of the show just as I was super invested... *sigh* I'm thisclose to calling his office to ask them to interrupt The Talk or Dr. Phil. 😑

Oh, yes! That's Daisy! I noticed it, too!

I really wish my governor would interrupt DR. PHIL instead of classic episodes of Y&R. 2/3 of the way through the ball, here comes Newsom... *sigh*

Jack forces Jill to present Dru with a modeling contract, much to Jill's chagrin. Olivia confides in Neil about tests. Christine gets an offer from her law firm as Michael makes an unwanted advance.

I've always wanted to see the ball. I love how they used the characters in costume for the ball as the inner illustrations for the Y&R 25th Anniversary book.

Haha. I grew up in an ABC Daytime household. My best friend would lend me her Y&R tapes so I could catch up and SOD helped, too!

I watched the classic episode tonight and it was an absolute treat. Victor, Nikki, Jill, Dru, John, Neil, Jack...Miguel!!! This episode showed the best of soap opera. What a soap can be and what it should be. The production values were top notch. The writing was par none. The dialogue was perfect. This is the Y&R I’d watch for half an hour before tuning into AMC. How I miss it...

The LA market's broadcast of today's episode was interrupted three times. If anyone has the full episode, I'd love to see it...or I'll have to check CAA.

Yep, that was the "Genoa City Theme". Such a great episode.

Anything from 1973-78 would be most welcome. They could easily slot a half hour episode into their hour long slot without cutting a single word and having an actor pad the other two or three minutes of air time.

+1,000 You can say that again. I remember when they slightly toyed with giving Colleen an issue with food in a scene at Crimson Lights. It would have been a great story, but, ya know... 🙄