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I agree.... CBS was the best bet.  If we could turn back time!   

Who are your favourite heroines from Edge?    Mine were Nancy Karr, Nicole Travis Drake, Liz Hillyer Fields, Laurie Ann Karr,  Phoebe Smith, April Cavanaugh Scott, Deborah Saxon, Jody Travis and with her transformation.... Raven Alexander Whitney!

Oh.....  I don't know if you would consider her a heroine but I loved Babs Micelli.    Leslie Ann Ray really playes Babs so well.  I cried when Babs was murdered.  Oh!   And Lucy Martin.  Loved her as Tiffany Whitney!  

I wish Terry Davis had stayed longer.   I was hoping that April and Raven could have been like Viki and Dorian on OLTL or Jill and Katherine on Y&R.  The loss of Terry Davis, Tony Craig, Denny Albee and Frances Fisher weakened Edge in my opinion.  I was thrilled that it pushed Sharon Gabet and Larkin Malloy front and center but with the loss of Henry Slesar as head writer the show lost it's backbone.  Given time and shoring up affiliates I think Edge would have survived.... but we will never know.   

1 hour ago, beebs said:

Higher clearances for the same ratings, I'd venture.

I agree... not great ratings on NBC.   I don't think NBC would have picked it up though.  They had a full slate in the afternoon.   Another World was an hour form 3:00 to 4:00 and Somerset was still on at 4:00 to 4:30.   I think the 4:00 time slot was doomed for any show... soap or game show because of less expensive syndicated shows.  

I guess we will never know.   Edge never recovered from the 1972 time slot change debacle.   

I thought the actors from the Mansion of the Damned storyline were all just short term contracts for that specific storyline.  I read that Kim Hunter and Bruce Gray signed contract extensions because Henry Slesar wanted to use them for the Deborah/Steve/Owen triangle and the Margo Huntington murder.    My memory is fuzzy but I think that is how it went.

Part of me wishes that CBS hadn't cancelled Edge and just moved it to 3:30 again.  With the affiliate clearance issue getting worse every year it was on ABC, I don't think it really ever had a chance.  I think considering it's low clearance in many markets Edge performed very well.   I asked Lois Kibbee about the ratings in a letter many years ago and she said that the markets that carried Edge, it's ratings were very good.

12 hours ago, VanessaReardon said:

I found a gem that I forgotten I had. It pretty much confirms my belief that it was a myth that GL hit #1 in 1984. Yes, GL beat GH for 3 weeks, but GL was not the number 1 soap. 

Thanks - there’s so much more coming in the future months. I have tons of stuff in my basement that will flesh out the ratings. I hope to sort through that info during the winter and post it. I have many weeks of ratings from the mid 80’s onward that will fill in the gaps between the Daytime TV monthly ratings. 

I'm looking forward to all your ratings info!   Thanks for the above clipping too.    That finally puts to bed the "Guiding Light hit #1 in 1984" debate.  I love this site!

I had forgotten that Days was doing so well in 1986!  Thanks so much Vanessa Reardon for posting these!  

17 hours ago, antmunoz said:

SFT?  Hmmm. That’s a tough one. 
 

Mary Stuart is accused of being a diva many times, usually by producers and P&G execs, in her autobiography, BOTH OF ME. But was she?  Maybe.  Co-star Anthony George thought so at least once, according to her own book. 
 

Ann Williams allegedly told her kids that Mary got her fired from her role as Eunice due to Ann’s popularity. I don’t think Mary had that kind of power, though. Ann doesn’t receive a lot of mention in BOTH OF ME, however.  Mary was her son’s godmother, I believe.  (Mary apparently did get at least one male love interest fired.)
 

Marie Cheatham, according to entertainment writer Nelson Aspen (who worked behind the scenes and on-camera on SFT), trash-talked the writers one day and was gone the next, replaced by Louise Shaffer. It was not a good recast, especially of an actress who originated a role a decade earlier. It hurt the show and the character was killed off.  Wonder if firing Cheatham was the culmination of years of diva behavior?
 

 

 

 

That's interesting!   I have Mary Stuart's book in paperback somewhere.  I'll have to reread it.   I do love me some Anthony George!    

I read back in the day that Mary Ellis Bunim was wanting to kill off Jo and Mary Stuart went above her head and was spared by P&G so Mary Ellis spitefully killed off Ann Williams because Ann and Mary Stuart were good friends.    Interesting!!

I always wondered what happened with Marie Cheatham!  A foolish move on the part of the higher ups!  I love Louise Shaffer but she was never Stephanie for me.   I wonder Marie would have stayed until the end of the show if she hadn't been fired......

Thanks for sharing!!

On 5/16/2019 at 7:56 PM, titan1978 said:

I love scenes with HBS’s Margo and Barbara.  I wish I had been a viewer then.

 

I loved Nora on OLTL but I really loved her as Margo with Greg Marx as Tom.  YouTube has been good to soap fans.

I loved HBS and Gregg Marx too on ATWT.   They were magic.  Sorry to see both of them leave the show.  

Does anyone remember anything about Donald May (Adam Drake - The Edge of Night) being difficult at the end of his "Edge" run and was fired?

It was big soap news in 1977.   I remember him being very vocal about not pairing up Adam and Nicole (Maeve McGuire) again.  He wanted

Adam to stay with Brandy Henderson (Dixie Carter).  I think Donald and Dixie were dating at the time.  I don't know if there were other issued

behind the scenes.   

Where there any divas on Search for Tomorrow, Love of Life or The Edge of Night?

15 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Or if CBS had held on to EON and programmed it at 4pm as ABC did. It would have had a much stronger lead in and probably better coverage,

Top 10 daytime ratings among blacks Jan- Feb 88

1. Y&R 18.3

2. AMC 17.8

3. OLTL 16.2

4, ATWT 14.2

5. GH 14.2

6. GL 13.1

7. B&B 13.0

8. TPIR 12.8

9.LOV 10.6

10. SB 8.6

I would have loved to have seen Edge stay on CBS!   In 1975 Match Game was huge at 3:30 and maybe the kids would have stuck around for Edge.  It was only 3 years since the move to 2:30 for Edge   I always wondered why CBS kept it at 2:30 it's ratings dipped so badly..... 

I wonder what might have happened if The Edge of Night had moved to ABC in September 1975 instead of December 1975 and had secured the 3:30 time slot with the same affiliate clearances as the other ABC soaps.  Where might they have been in 1981-1982?  They were almost neck and neck with As the World Turns and Search for Tomorrow in January 1982. 

On 8/5/2019 at 4:10 PM, SoapDope said:

 

I always wondered why Guthrie never did another long soap gig ? i know he died in the 90's and people rumored about what was the cause of death. SSF should have been more discreet.That would have been around the time of Anita Bryant.

Funny but I didn't think that Richard Guthrie was gay.  I  had hoped but when I saw the picture of the ballerina in his article I thought my gaydar was off.   It's such a shame that back then and even now somewhat, that gay actors need to be concerned about coming out.  I'm sure rereading these old articles (Thanks again!) we can read between the lines. 

Chandler Hill Harben was so hot!   He also was kind enough to post episodes of Love of Life on YouTube.  So happy to see their last opening credits.  I thought it was so classy. 

Thanks so much!   I can lose myself on YouTube for hours watching old soap credits.

Thank you so much!  Your posts bring back many happy memories!  I too got rid of all my soap magazines from the 1970s and 1980s.

The Edge of Night was my first love!  I wish there were episodes for all the shows as they have for The Doctors and rerun them on TV.

What a shame that the episodes were "wiped".  I wish private collectors would make them available some how.

Thanks again!

Is there any video footage of the opening and closing credits for Lovers & Friends?  I've heard audio and it's the same theme as For Richer For Poorer but I have never seen video footage.

I wish I could see the first episode.  Surely P&G saved that!

Thrilling to see Edge of Night at a 6.3 in October 79.  Imagine how much higher their ratings could have been with a higher station clearance.   

I loved it when Playgirl used to do spreads with soap opera actors.   Victor Webster (Days) was divine!   Robert Kelker Kelly (Days & AW) too.  

I wanted more out of the Jean LeClarc (AMC).   Some magazine was supposed to have nude pictures of George Reinholt too but I never did track them down.

On 1/15/2019 at 4:57 PM, pdm1974 said:

+1

 

Their furry chests were awesome!

Just my type!  

On 1/11/2019 at 6:59 PM, Khan said:

 

Yes.

 

There's only one man on daytime who STILL could make my toes curl, and that's Philip Brown (ex-Buck, LOVING/THE CITY; ex-Brian, KNOTS; ex-Neil, THE COLBYS; ex-Steve, SFT; et al).  I saw him again recently on a commercial and...uh huh....

 

 

I read that, too.  God bless Bev, but I don't think that would have worked.  Chris Bernau always found the humanity within that character.  He could make me care about Alan even when Alan was behaving abominably toward others.  I think Daniel Davis' interpretation would have been too smarmy and Snidely Whiplash-esque, much like Ron Raines' version became.

 

OTOH, I wouldn't have minded DD putting in a short-term appearance as Eric Luvonaczek (sp?).  I think he could have played the struggling (musical) artist/sniveling heel very well.

Thanks for that about Gregg Marx.   I had always hoped he would return to Days after he finished on ATWT.  

Phillip Brown was a hunk for sure!  I didn't see him when he was on SFT but there were great shirtless pics of him with Maree Cheatham.

Joseph Barbara and Hank Cheyne on AW also curled my toes!  

On 1/11/2019 at 8:11 PM, katie_9918 said:

 

I "knew" about Bernau and Crothers, but Gentry too? Damn, I never would have guessed that one. And I'm guessing Datalounge was right about Paul Stevens? I've found that I can't help thinking his performance as Brian Bancroft has a kindness to it that had to have come from the actor himself.

 

I hope they all found fulfillment and happiness during the time they lived. I know this is a very naive statement, but it just seems such a waste of who they were that they felt they couldn't be who they were (and not without reason at the time).

 

 

 

I stand corrected there. Like I said, I have no idea why I even started wondering about him. Maybe it was Michael Hudson I was getting vibes from? If so, I'll be the first one to stand up and point and laugh at myself.

 

 

I hope they found fulfillment in their lives as well.  I think in the 60s and 70s soap stars lived more privately without the glare of the media.   I hope that helped.    

I always lusted after Paul Stevens on AW.   So handsome!  There were so many good looking men on the soaps.  Anthony George 

was another... Robert Gentry, Chris Bernau, Joel Crothers, Michael Corbett. They didn't call it love in the afternoon for nothing!

Is it confirmed that Gregg Marx is gay?   Another dreamboat!