Broderick

John Conboy was always convinced if a storyline wasn't working very well, or if a scene dragged a bit, someone needed to deliver their lines nekkid.

It happened kinda slowly. Sue Ellen was pregnant with John Ross over several episodes in the 1978/1979 season. There was a short-term arc about Pam's pregnancy that culminated in that tear-jerker "Lost Child" episode, in which Pam lost her baby and Bobby's little sidekick-boy moved to Wyoming. They were beginning to do more and more "two-part" episodes in 1979/1980 that concluded with "to be continued ...", including the episode in which Digger Barnes died after admitting he'd killed Hutch McKinney years before. By the very end of the 1979/1980 season, in "A House Divided", they'd pretty much decided they were a true continuing drama.

Well, there was PLENTY for everybody. They'd show Nikki wiggling around on-stage to Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby", and then Cash would be auditioning a line-up of new male escorts. ("Okay, guys, let's have a look at all of you without your shirts on.") And then Lorie Brooks would meet with her attorney but forget to wear her bra. And then Snapper & Chris's air conditioner would break, which would inspire Chris to suggest getting a better apartment, but Snapper would just shuck off his shirt and say, "We'll get by, Babe." (I attributed most of the gratuitous skin displays to John Conboy, but Bill Bell was clearly pretty complicit.)

I feel sure that's what he had up his sleeve when he kept making such a point of mentioning "Todd's in seminary, preparing for the priesthood." The Thorn Birds novel was MUCH discussed in 1977 and 1978. Bell started crafting his Williams family in 1979, and by that time the novel was being drafted as a two-hour movie starring Christopher Reeve, then Robert Redford, then Ryan O'Neal, and then it was announced it would be reworked entirely as a miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain. It was constantly in the entertainment news in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and with Bell's previous interest in Marie Horton's celibacy requirements, it was a pretty good bet he planned to tell the tale with young Father Todd. [And I'd have preferred that story over "Clare Lawrence is in a coma" or "April has a twin sister" or whichever story ultimately took its place.]

It's hard for me to remember the timing of the switchover, exactly. Steve Williams left town for good -- was it SPRINGTIME of 1981 ? -- after Peggy Brooks jilted him at the altar. The Bayou storyline was beginning to take shape simultaneously. Andy Richards -- if I remember right -- started out as a bartender at the Bayou before ultimately transitioning to Jonas's club, where he worked with Paul Williams and Danny Romalotti. I'm not sure if Paul and Andy had actually crossed paths yet, when Steve Williams bit the dust. But I'm sure Bill Bell could see immediately that with Steven Ford's Andy Richards character, he had himself a handsome, fresh-faced, young leading man type character who wasn't burdened with all that (ridiculous) "virginity" nonsense that had plagued the Steve Williams character from day one. (And Andy Richard came with a *bonus* -- "President Ford's son is on Y&R!")

😂 If they were, they were sorely disappointed! "Make love to me, Paul, for I am your spiritual mother!"

It seems they were mostly lost due to not-so-great casting. And a couple of lousy storylines. While I appreciate the "concept" of Steve Williams -- the yuppie guy saving himself for marriage and is kind of do-gooder like Brock (who was soon to depart) -- the storyline with Steve refusing to boink Peggy Brooks during their engagement was a bit silly. Wasn't she the same girl who couldn't be a "real wife" to Jack Curtis because she'd been raped and because Jack was divorcing his plump wife to be with her? But a few years later, she magically transformed into a horn dawg who was begging Steve for sex, and then prancing around butt-nekkid under her fur coat so Jack Abbott would pork her. After that embarrassing mess, it was probably wise to cut Steve from the cast. And Bill Bell clearly wasn't terribly interested in Patty once Lilibet Stern left. (In hindsight, Andrea Evans really wasn't TOO bad, but at the time, I thought she was horrid and was ready to see her go as well.) [I expect the purpose of Todd Williams was to tell some version of the 1977 bestseller The Thorn Birds, about a young priest wrestling with his chastity vows. But with Steve making a hasty exit in 1981 and Lilibet Stern bolting a couple of years later, that probably put the nail in Father Todd's coffin.] Bell was probably wise to notice that the real chemistry and most accessible storyline potential lay with Paul, Andy Richards, and Amy Lewis, switching from the Traditional Williams Family to the Detective Office Family.

I expect that's kids getting out of school for the summer & checking out Y&R to see if the hour-long expansion is as bad as they've heard. And yep, sure enough -- it is. They'll turn it back off. lol.

On 12/8/1978, look at Y&R way down at #8 (although there's only 1.2 difference in #1 & #8, as the ratings are so close that week. Six different shows have an 8.0 to an 8.3)

Yes, and she specifically commented that one of the reunions seemed poorly organized, inspiring her to skip it. As it turns out, it WAS poorly organized, annoying a number of fans, some of whom had come from overseas to attend it. If those fans left with a sour impression of the cast, it didn't affect her, as she'd (wisely) skipped it. I believe she reached a point in life many years ago where she doesn't feel compelled to do things that don't appeal to her.

I think too much is read into Victoria Principal's "stand-offish" behavior with the rest of the cast. Every quote I've ever seen her from her about Dallas (and about her co-stars) is fairly positive, even if she sometimes expressed disappointment with the writing. I've never had the impression that she disliked the cast -- simply that she came to work, did her job, was pretty nice about it, then went home and did her own thing instead of trying to immerse herself in Dallas 24/7. (While the others were clowning around on the set and going out to dinner together, she was dealing with a musician who had a serious drug problem.)

Gosh, should've remembered that one. They buried Pope Paul VI in August and then had to bury Pope John Paul about 33 days later!

Yes, if there was some special event (such as the U.S. Open coverage around Labor Day), sometimes Eastern Time and Central Time would get an episode that couldn't be shown on the West Coast. Maybe the West Coast got it later in the day, or maybe it was just skipped entirely. That would sometimes happen if the US Open Coverage started at 1:00 Eastern and ran until 5:30 Eastern. Such a schedule wouldn't preempt Y&R and Search for Tomorrow on the East Coast and Central Time, but would obviously preclude the shows from being seen in Mountain & Pacific Time.

My understanding is there's a limit on the number of "breakouts" (or uncounted episodes) they can air in a single season. If they know in advance the rest of the line-up is going to be preempted, such as for the U.S. Open back in the day, they might have one new episode of one series that aired in select time zones and was preempted in other time zones due to the Open coverage. Or maybe that episode would air in all of the time zones, but would play to a limited audience due to the rest of the line-up being preempted. That would be an example of one they would ask Nielsen NOT to count.

I doubt Nielsen ever really accurately captured the popularity of the shows in dorms and student unions. Their whole ratings system was geared toward "households", and I never believed their "households" reflected the sheer number of college students who were watching. You could probably take those Top 4 shows and double their numbers, and still not even be close to the eyeballs that were watching in colleges & universities during the lunch hour and the early afternoon.

There really wasn't much "eventually" to it. Its rapid rise really began after the first year. I believe it finished the 1972/1973 season in dead last place (#17), as it had only aired for 6 months that season. By the end of the 1973/1974 season, it was in 13th place, then 9th for the 1974/1975 season, and then a solid #3 for the 1975/1976 season, behind only As the World Turns and Another World, and it was in striking distance of both those shows. As others have noted, it was written by a fairly young man who had 15-20 years of experience in the industry and who knew what people liked. It was a polished, slick, stylized production, with attractive actresses and actors, it had "hip, modern" music, and it introduced topics that hadn't been explored before on daytime (mostly of a sexual nature). But underneath all of that, it was as old-fashioned as you could get -- basically just a dusted-off version of a 1950s Irna Phillips show, with more contemporary storylines and dialogue, moody lighting, and a leisurely, languid, laid-back California-style pacing that drew you in and made you listen to what they were saying. Watching the show in its half-hour days was a fairly "hypnotic" experience that completely differentiated it from anything else on television at the time; yet it never strayed far from a formula that had worked for 20 years. It was simply the right product for the right time. There's no question that it faltered for a couple of years after expanding to an hour, but once it regrouped, you'll see it rapidly rise right back to the top where it had been prior to expansion.

lol. That clip didn't last very long on YT. But it was fun to see!

I agree completely. As "suave" and "smooth" as early Y&R appeared to be, it was nothing more than a traditional 1950s Irna Phillips soap, updated with a youthful early 1970s "contemporary vibe".

When the show went to an hour in 1980, it became a LITTLE bit harder to "ignore it completely". She'd occasionally catch the last few minutes or the first few minutes. But of course it was still "horrible", as it featured a female stripper (Nikki), a male stripper (Cash), an older lady (Kay) paying a younger male prostitute for sex, and the perpetually bouncing breasts of Lorie Brooks "who evidently can't afford to buy herself a brassiere". Once some of the perceived "seediness" was zapped away (about 1982), she started watching it along with the rest of the the CBS line-up if she was at home. I still vividly remember her reaction when she walked through the living room & saw Tyrone in whiteface. "That poor little girl can't tell he's Tyrone?" lol.

My mother wouldn't watch it when she was home during the day. She kept it on CBS if she was in the house, but when "that awful show" came on, she turned it off. I learned early on that was the one to watch, lol.

First thing that jumped out at me. Maybe they hadn't recovered from the "CBS time switch" where all of that demo was supposedly depleted.

I believe World Turns was hurt by DEMOS, more than by any other factor. There's a book on soaps (written by Robert LaGuardia) that was published right about the time of these ratings -- late 1977, early 1978. LaGuardia closes his book by saying an "unprecedented number of young viewers have recently entered the daytime audience", and the shows primarily benefiting from this influx of young viewers, in his opinion, were All My Children and The Young and the Restless. In fact, he goes on to note -- direct quote here -- "The Young and the Restless and All My Children are currently all the rage on college campuses, where young viewers tend to relate to the characters on these two shows." We can see the proof of his assertion clearly in the ratings for the final week of December 1977. During that particular week, winter break from school was occurring all across America, and younger viewers were at home, taking control of their parents' TV sets. What's #1 & #2 that week? AMC and Y&R. The next week, school started back, and those younger viewers returned to campus, where their viewing wasn't being monitored by A.C. Nielson, and the parents at home switched back to As the World Turns and Another World, propelling the more traditional soaps back to the top. As the "influx of younger viewers" continued into the late 1970s and very early 1980s, we saw All My Children continue doing extremely well, along with One Life to Live, and of course General Hospital, which underwent a huge transformation in 1979. We also saw The Young and the Restless at or near the top of the ratings in 1979 and 1980, up until its somewhat disastrous transition to an hour, which temporarily zapped away the momentum it had been gaining for the past 7 years. I don't necessarily believe World Turns was "abandoned" by its viewers. I believe the viewers of the older P&G soaps were simply dying off slowly, and the younger viewers, who were entering the audience at a fast rate, were more interested in the ABC shows and the Bell shows.

Yep, that's the "weekend cottage" on Lake Geneva that was pointed out to me. During the time they owned it, their "weekday house" was a large, expensive unit in a high-rise on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. I bet they made a KILLING when they disposed of their properties in the Midwest, then bought wisely in California and made yet another killing.

The business with the "blood Abbott clause" was probably a good story for Eileen (in theory), but it wasn't handled very well, and I do expect it hastened her decision to call it quits as a contract actor on the show. I'd imagine the budget cuts were also a factor. No reason for her to sign a new contract at a smaller salary, tie herself to the show full-time, and get lousy storylines in return. She doesn't seem to mind working when she feels like it, lol.

Those folks have always had really nice houses. Bill Bell was always fairly dismissive of his "weekend cottage" at Lake Geneva. A few years ago, I was up there and saw this two-story 1920s mansion with a red-tile roof on the south shore of the lake. I commented to the folks I was with, "That's sure a pretty one." It looked to be about a 15,000 square foot house, and it had a tremendous amount of lake frontage (about 100 yards, it looked like). The response was, "Oh that house is Casa del Sueno; it belonged to this guy who wrote soap operas. His wife had a talk show in Chicago. They moved to California in the 1980s." Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who that was.