Jdee43

https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/19/archives/nbctv-trying-an-hourlong-daytime-proliferation-is-noted.html NBC‐TV Trying an Hour‐Long Daytime Soap Opera By Les Brown Oct. 19, 1974 When daytime soap operas moved from radio to television in the early nineteen‐fifties, they retained the accustomed 15‐minute format. In 1956, the networks found 30 minutes to be more suitable. Now, NBCTV is preparing to expand one of its long‐running daytime serials, “Another World,” to a full hour every day, beginning next Jan. 6. If the innovation proves successful, NBC program executives expect that other serials will adopt the 60‐minute format and that in time it will become standard for daytime melodrama. NBC also plans to experiment with a one‐hour episode for two of its other soap operas, “Days of Our Lives” and “The Doctors.” The serials — which came to be called soap operas in the radio era because they were favored advertising vehicles for soap companies — have diminished in number in recent years because game shows have proved more popular with women in the 18‐to‐49 age group that advertisers of supermarket products are most eager to reach. Lin Bolen, vice president of daytime programs for NBC‐TV, acknowledged that the network was violating an old show business principle by tampering with a hit, but she said the 10‐year‐old serial was being expanded to an hour in hopes of rejuvenating the entire genre. She pointed out that during the last five years, despite numerous attempts by all three networks to establish new daytime serials, only one, “The Young and the Restless” one CBS‐TV, has developed into a success. Proliferation Is Noted Soap operas require 18 months to two years on the air to prove themselves, while game shows succeed or fail in a matter of weeks, Miss Bolen noted. She cited this as the reason for the proliferation of quiz and panel shows on daytime television. The NBC schedule has seven game shows in a row, followed by five serials. Two of the serials, “How to Survive a Marriage” and “Somerset,” are not hits by commercial television standards, and one of them will be canceled to allow for the expansion of “Another World,” Miss Bolen indicated. “We are reasonably convinced that the daytime viewers have become more sophisticated in recent years and that, what formerly satisfied them in the 30‐minute sketch form no longer does,” she said. “A complaint has been that the stories progress too slowly, that too little happens from day to day.” The 60‐minute form would facilitate both story and character development, and the longer scenes will be played out in a single episode instead of being strung over several days, she added. “To make serials interesting, we have to do something daring,” Miss Bolen said. “I hope this is the coming thing.” The case for the longer soap opera was made on May when NBC offered a special one‐hour edition of “Another World” in celebration of its 10th anniversary on the air. The episode scored the highest Nielsen rating of any daytime program that week. The serial is packaged, and sponsored by Procter & Gamble and is taped at the NBC studios in Brooklyn. Among its regular featured players are Jacqueline Courtney, Irene Dailey, Hugh Marlowe, Beverly Penberthy, George Reinholt and Michael M. Ryan.

My experience has been pretty much the same unfortunately I wouldn't mind going back to paying 2.99 a month, for a quality stream, occasional customer service, and the hope that the rest of the episodes will be put up eventually. Now all those things seem to be gone

Has anyone found, since going free, that the video quality of the playback on the site has declined?

Watching the show, I think Mark Arnold was completely miscast as Joe. How about Jack Wagner as Joe Perkins in 1984? Or Jack Wagner as Joe Perkins in 1991? That would have made much more sense in terms of the kind of character Wagner ended up playing. Joe would have had tons of reasons to be pissed off. I never bought Wagner as Warren or liked what they turned Warren into to fit Jaxk Wagner.

I just watched episode 89 from 11/30/84. The show is finally trying to pick things up with Mason, by having him be accused of his brother's murder. It doesn't really make much sense as to why his sister and father would take the word of a lowlife that Mason was guilty, and why Mason would then suddenly start acting as if he were really guilty, but much about this show just doesn't make sense. Episode 89 features the first knockdown verbal fight between Mason and his father. It would have been so much better if Peter Mark Richman were still in the role of CC. Charles Bateman just didn't have the gravitas or the menace. Richman I believe could punch his son and pull a gun on him; with Bateman, it all just comes off as pretty ridiculous, he's so not believable.

Santana and CC were so icky in 1984. It was unnessary for the show to try that again in 1991.

I had no idea that Lin Bolen was the inspiration for the Faye Dunaway character in Network either! No doubt she was a more interesting character behind the scenes than those on-screen on any of her shows! Here's a photo of her that ran with her NY Times obit, where she's on the set of The Doctors in 1972.

Maybe he just does it for the Twitter responses, for a sign that people still care?

I think the main problem Santa Barbara had in 1984 is that none of the characters are especially interesting, memorable, or even likeable. They all are so generic and boring that it's hard to care or be invested in any of them. Augusta and Lionel come the closest to breaking the mold. It's crazy to see Mason, who later becomes interesting, being such an unlikeable non-entity in these early episodes. He could just stop appearing, and no one would care or notice. Robin Wright is so beautiful, but boy her character sucks, especially after Dane was fired; the character is so grating. It's the writing.

I've gotten up to episode 85, 11/26/84. Louise Sorel and Nicholas Coster are really carrying the show. I'm just stunned by the lackluster writing. In this episode, two storylines have their climax, and there are no pay-offs whatsoever. One is Joe being exonerated, a story that goes back to the first episode. You'd think this would be exciting, with Joe finding the killer or something. But no; instead, Peter, who just got shot trying to kill Joe, now reveals that he was there at the time of the murder and can vouch that Joe didn't do it. Everyone believes this, and this clears Joe. It's so silly and anticlimactic. The writers keep giving Peter things that come out of no where, ruining the character. They also have lost interested in Joe; he's not even in the episode where he's cleared. Both characters are dead 3 months later. In hindsight, they should have gotten rid of both of them in the earthquake. The second story that climaxes is the "adventure" of the 4 teens buying a haunted hotel, fixing it up and trying to run it, all the while being harassed by their teacher Ray Walston. I felt so bad and embarrassed for My Favorite Martian Ray Walston; through a comedy of errors, he's caught with a hooker. This is his last appearance and the last time we see any of this. It was all supposed to be "funny," but what a waste all around. The show had no idea what do with the younger characters. The show in general has no idea what to do. The show in 1984 is not working.

It's great that they've made it all free, but I wonder what incentive now do they have for finishing this project and putting up the rest of the episodes.

Wow Unbelievable. She was such a fundamental part of the show in the 1980s and 1990s. Their treatment of her, and other female vets, from 2002 on was so disgusting and disrespectful. They've been trying to make it up to Genie recently, but they never really made it up to Jackie

There's a major updating of the site, with new photos for all the years and new thumbnails on all the episodes. Also, a couple of missing episodes have been added!! These are ones that aired on Retro TV but were not on the site before! One was 2/14/68; it's now up, making February 1968 complete! Also 8/1/68 has been added! There are still episodes mislabeled -- 2/24/68 is 12/24/68; 9/25/68 is really 9/26/68; 9/26/68 is really 9/27/68. There are also some episodes that aired on Retro that are still not up, like 1 from April 1968, 6 at the end of June 1968, 8/5/68, the real 9/25/68. However, the fact that they've added any new episodes to the site is encouraging! The quality of the playback on the updated site is a little jerky. Hopefully that will improve!!

I'm watching from a Samsung smart TV. I'm not surprised to see the app disappear for me, as it hasn't worked on my TV since last summer. I think The Doctors streaming free is a mistake, a glitch on their website, that they will no doubt be correcting shortly.

It looks like itsrealgoodtv has done away with its app. To watch, you need to go directly to the website, itsrealgoodtv.com. The Doctors has its own section on it. Interestingly, at the moment, it's not behind a pay wall! You don't have to sign in or anything; you can watch all the episodes for free! There doesn't seem to be commercial interruptions either. It doesn't look like any new content has been added. What was there is still there, but now it's up for free! Don't know how long this will last for.

I got to watch the wedding of Nick and Althea. It was a bit anticlimactic. If anything, it showed how miniscule the show's budget was. It's too bad they couldn't make it really special and shoot on location, in a real church or outside. Instead they built a nondescript church set with aluminum folding chairs as pews, and then had the reception in a cramped set that looked like the hospital lounge redressed. In what felt like filler, they have the minister go on and on, giving the longest, most impersonal marriage rite possible. Nick and Althea look miserable and don't even look at each other when they say their impersonal vows. I don't know if that was a conscious choice on the part of the actors for their characters, or just poor direction. Speaking of poor direction, someone should have told Lydia Bruce that the little girl at the wedding is supposed to be her daughter. Bruce goes by her like she's a stranger. Equally weird, they have Greta hanging out with and being held only by Jody Lee and then Steve, people who her parents aren't particularly fond of or hardly know that well! Matt barely acknowledges Greta, and Maggie not at all! Watching this, Nick was totally right! They should have just had a small wedding, or eloped, or even just got married in his lab. It would have been more personal and romantic, and more in keeping with the show. The show, with its budget, just couldn't deliver on a big splashy wedding.

On Monday night, the Buzzr subchannel aired a 1974 episode of To Tell the Truth that had a segment featuring Ira Avery, head writer of The Doctors, among other soaps, both on TV and radio. He was plugging a gothic mystery he had just written under the pen name "Mavis Hathaway" called "What Evil Lurks." Apparently it was acceptable at the time only for women to be the authors of gothic novels. It was ok for men to use their real name for soap writing though. I think I read an article way back on this thread where The Doctors executive producer Allen Potter criticized the writing of a recently departed writer, and it seemed likely that that writer was Ira Avery.

Elizabeth Hubbard was one of the great ones. Her performances always had truth to them. She was always present and engaged. And she was incredibly charismatic. We're lucky that her run on The Doctors survives and is available for viewing. She's one of the main reasons to watch it.

Why didn't Harding Lemay get a longer stint back in 1988? Penny pinching from network execs? Swajeski came cheaper? Did Lemay want to stay?

Rita Lakin was great. It's been posted before, but here she is talking about her time on The Doctors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsM2yA_rMy8 The show lucked out getting a primetime writer of her quality to write for it for two years. It's interesting that she took the job not knowing what she was in for; it turned out to be more work than she thought, especially since they wouldn't give her other writers. She said they were looking for a nighttime writer to save the show, and all it took "was a little good writing." "Writing for it was so simple." A shame no one who followed her had the same philosophy!

It's a shame that they are not doing more to celebrate The Doctor's 60th Anniversary. In particular, this would have been an excellent opportunity to release the rest of the episodes to their website. I sort of wonder now if we will ever get to see the rest of the episodes.. I guess we should be thankful for what we did get, 12 full years of the show.

One of the most random moments I've seen on the show is in episode 77 where veteran film and TV actor John Ireland briefly pops up playing himself as a victim of the earthquake. I wonder what was behind that. He's literally shoved aside once Eden and Cruz appear, in an unintentionally hilarious foreshadowing of what's to come on the show. Santa Barbara 1984 seemed to really want to court veteran prime-time TV and film actors, for either a few appearances (Alejandro Rey, Phillip Abbott), or for a few weeks stay (Virginia Mayo, Ray Walston). They also had Dame Judith Anderson, Paul Burke and Peter Mark Richman as regular cast members, all long time performers.

I've only seen Bateman in 19 shows so far. He is an improvement over Paul Burke, but Burke was so bad, that's not really saying much. Bateman is stiff and wooden. His scene before the earthquake, where he's harassing Santana and having a fist fight with Mason, is so bad, I wouldn't have minded seeing him killed off. Or, since the character is important, maybe just put into a coma. They do that anyway a year later. Getting rid of CC would have at least given Mason a storyline. It's 16 weeks into the show and Mason still doesn't have one!

I finally got to see the earthquake, starting with episode 76, 11/12/84. They really should have just gone ahead and killed off most, if not the entire cast, and start the show over again. That would have been interesting. Instead they just continue with the same lukewarm stories, and kill off only one person, John, played by Robert Allen Browne. Granted, he was probably the weakest actor on the show (and that's saying something!), but there was so much more deadweight they could have gotten rid of. Ted, Danny, CC (ruined by multiple recasts), Joe, Peter should all have been killed. I'd rather have seen Joe go in the earthquake, then the exit they ended up giving him. Under Dane, the character of Joe was the star of the show. I don't quite understand why they would recast him with Mark Arnold. In no way does Arnold have the kind of charisma about him that screams star, like Dane had, where you'd build the entire show around him. They probably should have just retired the character of Joe with Dane, have him disappear in the earthquake or something.

My favorite actress from 1970s Young and Restless is Trish Stewart. It doesn't look like she's participating in anything though? I know she's long retired, in the 1980s, but I thought maybe they'd want to reach out to the original cast. Has anyone heard anything?