Broderick

"After exhaustive research and discussions with the Colgate team, it could only be determined that those tapes were reused by NBC back in the day and thus, the beloved final two years of The Doctors no longer exist."  

Pfffftt.  Let's rephrase that.  "After exhaustive research and discussions with the Colgate team, it could only be determined that those tapes do NOT belong to Colgate-Palmolive, and we do NOT have the funds to enter into into negotiations with NBC to purchase the rights to air them."  

I expect those tapes will "miraculously reappear" if NBC decides there's money to be made in digging them out of their own storage facility and digitizing them.  

I *guess* #6 is about as low as Y&R will go before ultimately beginning its climb back to #1.  

MUCH has been written about the phenomenal success of Y&R and the ABC shows in the late 1970s, but I often forget how well Search for Tomorrow was performing, only to be kicked to the curb by CBS less than three years later.  

On 7/2/2023 at 11:16 AM, Soaplovers said:

Alexandra Moltke stated how she managed to get out of her contract with the show.  Apparently it wasn't due to pregnancy difficulties..but not being paid for all the episodes she had a voice over for and didn't actually appear in the episode....her lawyer told her this.

I've often wondered how the voiceovers were done -- whether she had to go to the studio daily to do them, or whether she recorded several of them at a time, on a day when she happened to be there.  

On 6/21/2023 at 7:59 AM, Beetle Bailey said:

In 1979, both Joe Riley and Dan Stewart were killed off their shows.  When OLTL aired Joe Riley's funeral, it felt raw and real,  it was like the audience was able to grieve along with Llanview, while Dan Stewart's funeral was so stiff.  It seemed to me as if the writing was too caught up in being dignified rather than mourning the loss of this important character.  Dan Stewart was the love of Kim's life, Kim was too stoic.  And this was the contrast between the two shows.

I wasn't a big fan of 1970s World Turns, though it was often playing in our living room.  I remember Dan's funeral pretty vividly, and how composed Kim was for the sake of Betsy.  It struck me as being shockingly real.  (But I was too young for anyone's demo, so my opinion didn't matter lol.)     

10 hours ago, kalbir said:

You liked the era that resembled a modern day western as opposed to the era that was more corporate.

Oh, yeah.   What appealed to me about the show was "nouveau rich folks who live on a ranch".

We'd often see Bobby or Ray SWEATIING outside after rounding up calves, and people would do "mundane" jobs indoors, such as Miss Ellie cooking chili in the kitchen for the Ewing barbeque.   They were people whom rural Americans, whether Southern or not, could relate to.  They might have a fancy Lincoln Continental, Mercedes, and Corvette in the driveway, but they were often seen doing "normal" things around the place that anyone -- millionaire or not -- would do on a farm.       

8 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

Why not? Do you need me to press the play button on your remote?

I guess I probably DO need you to press my button.  lol.  Seriously, I just haven't gotten around to watching them again, but I will.  In my opinion, these were the best years of Dallas.  

3 hours ago, will81 said:

I think the lead up to Jill marrying Stu and the aftermath of Lorie finding out Leslie was pregnant with Lance's baby and almost having the baby in GC might have drawn people in.

It may have played out better than it reads

This was absolutely compelling  material to many of us.  

On one hand, you're thinking, "It's inevitable Jill will marry Mister Brooks.  He represents everything she lost when Phillip Chancellor died -- a father figure, combined with financial security."   And on the other hand, you're thinking, "SURELY, the harlot won't do this to her own mother.  Jill is an awful person, but she won't REALLY marry her mother's boyfriend.  Will she?  And if Jill does this terrible thing, will Liz finally wash her hands of Jill once and for all?"  (Very frequently, Liz was the only person in town who attempted to justify Jill's horrid behavior; that could potentially come to an end.)   

Every single beat of this storyline was playing on-screen.  

Kay Thurston considered Liz Foster to be her best friend.  If Mrs. Thurston would simply "release" Derek from his (reluctant) marriage to Kay, then Jill would drop Mister Brooks in a New York minute to be with Derek, ensuring Liz and Stuart's happiness.  But we all knew how Kay Thurston's mind worked -- she was FAR too vain, selfish, and cruel to release Derek from their marriage, as Kay wanted a younger man (like Derek) in her bed.  So in a very real sense, it was Kay's self-pitying vanity that would ultimately lead to the breaking of sweet Liz Foster's heart. 

Brock Reynolds was Jill's best friend.  Would Brock talk Jill out of marrying Mister Brooks, even though it would ultimately lead to Kay losing Derek Thurston and potentially becoming a drunk again.  

Lorie Brooks was about ready to snatch Jill's hair out of her head.  Lorie had been the kind-hearted "voice of reason" four years earlier, who leaned on Stuart Brooks to keep Jill's name out of the Chronicle during Phillip Chancellor's death and the Phillip Chancellor Foster paternity trial.  Lorie's patience had come to an end, and she was kicking herself for EVER giving Jill the benefit of the doubt, now that Jill was pulling the same stunt -- a pregnancy scare --- on Stuart Brooks that she had pulled earlier on Phillip Chancellor. 

Suzanne Lynch was the loose cannon in ALL of this. She wanted Derek Thurston for herself, and we assumed she'd pull any stunt in the world to make sure Jill Foster was removed from the competition pool, by lying, omitting facts, and concealing information to make sure Jill married Stuart Brooks and left Derek alone.  If Suzanne succeeded in this endeavor, then how on earth would Suzanne then get rid of Kay Thurston?   

Also, keep in mind the ages of all these characters -- Stuart Brooks was 48.  Liz Foster was 49.  Kay Thurston was 50.  They were the same age that Nick Newman & Sharon Newman are right now.  The decisions those three characters were about to make in early 1979 would impact practically the entire canvas -- all four of the Brooks girls, the Foster boys, and of course Jill.  All of the younger characters had a "stake" in the game. 

Everything on Y&R was clicking in early 1979, and Bill Bell was doing his best to postpone the network's demand to expand the show to an hour, because Bell knew what he was doing, and he didn't want anyone ordering him to do it differently.  

23 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

I went back to view those episodes. They look great n HD especially since they are from 78 and 79.

I've not seen them in High Definition yet, but they were awfully pretty in "plain ole TV" back in the day.  

People aren't running around looking for emeralds in a jungle or making billion dollar deals.  They're sitting around the swimming pool discussing a trip to the stockyard.   Or riding around in a convertible.  Or feeding a horse.  Just regular stuff, which is what made that show seem somewhat relatable.  

25 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

 Seeing guys shirtless onscreen was just gravy considering how great the storylines were.

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.  

11 hours ago, GLATWT88 said:

When did Dallas officially switch over to multi-episode arcs? 

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.  

5 hours ago, kalbir said:

Hahaha.

I best believe the following summer the boys were checking for Nikki climbing the pole.

4 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

More like the next shirtless hunk.

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.)     

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

Re Todd, Bill Bell wanted to do a forbidden love story with Marie Horton on Days when she was a nun, so maybe he was hoping for the chance to do that with Todd Williams.

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.]  

32 minutes ago, kalbir said:

I wonder if Bill Bell used Andy to replace Steve in the brother-type role for Paul. 

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!")  

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

The kids weren't checking for the cult storyline.

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

On 6/16/2023 at 6:54 PM, Paul Raven said:

It's a pity the Williams family got lost during the 80's and was reduced to Paul and Mary.

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.  

5 hours ago, JoeCool said:

 Strong Y & R. 

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)  

1 hour ago, te. said:

The only reason she'd do a reunion would be for fun and while the interview section on stage wouldn't be too bad, sitting down for a meet and greet for several hours sounds like my idea of hell. 

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.   

13 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

Victoria sent flowers with a message saying how she has good memories of Dallas

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.)  

16 minutes ago, YRfan23 said:

Aha!! That’s the mystery we needed Y&R was preempted in October!  I can’t thank you enough!!!

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.      

19 hours ago, YRfan23 said:

Thank you so much for these continuing posts!  
 

@Broderick@vetsoapfan is it confirmed that the term “breakout” refers to an episode that is repeated? I’m referring to Y&R and OLTL that don’t have Monday 9/4/78 as “preempted” but basically said that episode didn’t reflect the ratings, unless some affiliates got an episode that day and some didn’t? 

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.   

42 minutes ago, kalbir said:

So ABC summer momentum carried through the fall. This must be when ABC took off with the college crowd, students watching between classes in lounges/dorms.

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.     

14 hours ago, Planet Soap said:

What do you all think it was about Y&R that eventually made it perform so well for new soap in the late 70s into the 80s?

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.