Jdee43

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/05/business/the-media-business-for-nbc-stress-in-the-afternoon.html For NBC, Stress in the Afternoon Oct. 5, 1992 By Bill Carter The plot line may not have enough intrigue or sex appeal to make it as a soap opera. But NBC's daytime programming is certainly a story of a relationship under stress. The relationship in question is between NBC and its stations, and the stress for the network has been so great that Warren Littlefield, president of NBC Entertainment, said, "As far as daytime goes, we're not really a network anymore." The change in NBC's daytime status is symptomatic of the widespread changes that have affected the television business as a whole, Mr. Littlefield said. Though the erosion of network control over prime time has received most of the attention, other parts of the television industry have been equally or even more affected, with each network having to concede that new approaches are needed. Problem in Daytime "The time for network arrogance is over," he said. "Every network has its own problem area. CBS's position with its late-night programming is similar to ours in daytime, and ABC isn't a network at all after 'Nightline.' Our problem area is daytime." Mr. Littlefield said most NBC stations ran the network's daytime programs either out of sequence from the way they are scheduled or not at all. "Only 14 percent of the stations carry the shows live as we feed them," he said. To deal with its daytime problems, NBC is seeking a partnership with its affiliated stations to create new daytime programs. John Rohrbeck, whose main job is president of the network stations division, has been put in charge of daytime as well in order to involve the stations more closely in daytime programming. In the latest example of NBC's daytime problems, the network announced last week that it was canceling "Santa Barbara," one of only three soap operas still on NBC. The show had struggled in the ratings for its entire run and had little prospect of improving because so many NBC stations pre-empted it. "We would have liked to keep it going," Mr. Littlefield said. "But the stations were telling us to wake up. They said, 'If you don't abandon the show, we will.' " Mr. Littlefield said NBC was projecting a $15 million to $20 million loss on "Santa Barbara" this year. The hourlong soap opera will be replaced with other network programming in January, but in the same announcement NBC said it was also dropping another half-hour daytime show, "Doctor Dean," a health advice show, and would not replace it. Instead, that half-hour of time will be relinquished to the stations. NBC has now reduced its presence on weekdays to four hours. Until 1991, NBC had 5 1/2 hours of programming. CBS still has 5 1/2 hours, while ABC has also cut back in recent years to 4 1/2. Even without its weakest hours, NBC runs a very distant third in the overall daytime ratings to CBS and ABC. This is a costly position for NBC to be in. Advertising support for daytime network programs remains strong, totaling about $1.1 billion in revenue this year. But the profit goes to CBS and ABC. "Daytime is only marginally profitable for NBC," Mr. Rohrbeck said. Tumbling Ratings Each of the other networks has a separate executive in charge of daytime programs. Mr. Rohrbeck said that managing daytime programming as well as the NBC stations division made sense because "the daytime business has undergone such a radical change." While the average three-network annual rating in prime time had declined to a 34.1 at the end of last year from a 50.1 in 1980, the falloff in daytime has been roughly comparable: to a 13.3 last year from a 19.6 in 1980. (The value of a ratings point changes every year; currently, one ratings point represents 931,000 households.) But the daytime falloff was proving much more costly to the networks in the mid-1980's. The total advertising revenue for daytime reached about $1.3 billion in 1985, but by 1988 it had fallen well below $1 billion. Advertisers cooled to daytime because they started to believe that the majority of the once-ideal daytime audience, young women, had entered the workplace and were thus unavailable to watch television. ABC and CBS set out to change that impression by showing that working women still watched daytime television in large numbers. The two networks cited evidence that a large percentage of women worked part time or on weekends, and pointed to statistics showing that daytime soap operas were recorded more often by viewers than any other programs on television. By 1990, the daytime advertising marketplace had turned around, with revenues jumping 19 percent in one year. Both CBS and ABC have widely popular soap operas like "The Young and the Restless" and "General Hospital" that reach millions of young women every week -- and provide large profits for each network. NBC has only one soap opera, "Days of Our Lives," among the top 10 daytime programs. Filling an Hourlong Hole In the short term, NBC plans to fill the hourlong hole left when "Santa Barbara" disappears with the other staple of network daytime programming: game shows. But in the long term, Mr. Littlefield said, the network wants to give the stations what they most want: a talk show that will effectively lead into the syndicated talk shows -- like "Oprah" and "Donahue" -- that mostly fill the afternoon hours before local newscasts. "Talk with an edge is what's working out there," he said. NBC will use its cable channel, CNBC, and its New York station, WNBC, as a kind of laboratory to develop possible talk shows. Mr. Littlefield said Star Jones, a former assistant district attorney in Brooklyn who is now legal correspondent for NBC News, would host a talk show similar to "Oprah" that would run first on CNBC, then WNBC. If it succeeds in those places, it will be moved to the network. Mr. Littlefield said NBC had to be committed to filling the four hours it has left in daytime, both because the stations cannot afford to buy that much syndicated programming and because the network needed to maintain a presence in daytime to help feed viewers into prime time. "The promotional base of daytime is worth $30 million to me," Mr. Littlefield said. "The stakes for us are still huge in daytime."

Disappointed that there's no mention of making older episodes available, from the 1960s through 1990s. Also sounds like they are going to continue to pretend that they are on broadcast TV and make episodes using broadcast TV standards? I would have thought that that wouldn't work for streaming, but apparently it does? So no radical retooling of the show from what it was on broadcast TV the last few years?

I was wondering, which is considered the better era, the Agnes Nixon/ Robert Cenedella years (1965-1971) or the Harding Lemay years (1971-1979)?

I just finished watching October 1968. It was probably one of the strongest months the show ever had. Everything was working; no character or story was unwatchable. Matt and Maggie are back to normal. Lydia Bruce has settled right in, fitting in seamlessly at this point, looking great in a much more flattering hair style. Althea and Nick are top notch. Steve and Karen are good and miserable. The month is complete on the website; the episodes are just mislabeled. The Doctors was preempted 5 times in October because of the 1968 World Series, on 10/2, 10/3, 10/7, 10/9, and 10/10. The website has these preemptions as occurring on 10/14, 10/15, 10/16, 10/29, and 10/30. There's an episode on the site that was never rerun on Retro TV during its first rotation through the Doctors back in 2015, 10/31/68. It features just Nick, Althea, and Penny, and ends with Nick deciding to go through with a big wedding after Penny tells him that she changed all the arrangements to try and give her mother something nice to remember after the death of Buddy. Nick and Althea really got some great, character based writing at this point. Their conflict is simple and believable, over the size of the wedding; and the resolution is a call back to their history. Very nicely done. There's also a blooper at the end of the episode labeled 10/23/68 (it really should be labeled 10/25/68). As everybody is yelling "surprise" at Althea for her bridal shower, James Pritchett accidently drops a paper ornament on top of Elizabeth Hubbard's head! He mouths "I'm sorry!" Elizabeth Hubbard, pro that she is, just continues on as if nothing happened, never acknowledging it!

Cruz is so incompetent; hard to take him seriously whenever he tries to do his job. The show screwed up by not getting a strong actor for Warren from the very beginning. John Allen Nelson was likeable, but there was no way he could handle any of the deep, dramatic stuff. Having Warren cast correctly from the beginning might have stopped the show from being all about the Capwells, and kept some Lockridges around full time.

It's amazing how hollowed out the show had become by 1987. The only thing left from the Agnes Nixon years was Ada/ Rachel, while the only thing left from the Harding Lemay years was Mac/Rachel.

Peter Mark Richman was my favorite CC from Santa Barbara 1984. Too bad they couldn't get him to continue. I will never understand how Paul Burke was so, so bad on Santa Barbara. He wasn't like that when he was the lead in Naked City and 12 O'Clock High, primetime shows of the 1960s.

If you want to feel a little bit of what it was like, go watch The Doctors or Dark Shadows, daily and with no spoilers. By some miracle, runs of both shows exist and are available for viewing. I think the golden age of soap opera, and all daytime, was 1966-1976. For me, it's all about the writing. It's a shame that in the 1980s and 1990s, the networks didn't invest more money in the writer's room and try to lure more primetime writers to daytime. See what Rita Lakin did for The Doctors or Henry Slesar for The Edge of Night. Also a shame that networks interfered with the writers they did have, rarely letting them do their own thing, like the writers of the 1960s and 70s had the privilege of doing.

It's a shame Gerald Gordon didn't stay to the end. Instead he turns up on General Hospital doing a watered down version of Nick Bellini that never takes off. Why did Gordon leave? Did GH offer him more; was he going where the money was? Or was he tired of NY? NBC should have tried expanding The Doctors to an hour, before trying to do more Another World spin-offs, and especially before expanding AW to 90 minutes. Was there any definite reason as to why NBC never did expand The Doctors to an hour? 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 would all have been good years to do it.

As others have mentioned, NBC's first attempt to add a soap to their core 3 after 1968 was Hidden Faces. It ran at 1:30pm, right before Days. It lasted 6 months, the first half of 1969. It performed so poorly in the ratings that NBC would not put another soap in that slot for the next 5 years, going with game shows instead. The 1:30pm slot was really tough, with Let's Make a Deal on ABC and As the World Turns on CBS, the latter the highest rated daytime drama. Giving up putting soaps before their core block, NBC tried putting new soaps after it, first with Bright Promise at 3:30pm in the fall of 1969, running immediately after Another World; then the Another World spin-off Somerset at 4pm starting in the spring of 1970. The ratings of Bright Promise and Somerset were never as high as the core 3; in fact, not even close. Did NBC ever consider having Somerset run at 3:30pm, right after Another World? It seems like Somerset got slightly higher ratings than Bright Promise. So people were tuning out right after Another World, and then some of them were coming back for Somerset. Was expanding Another World to an hour in 1970 ever considered? I wonder how things would have been different if instead of creating Somerset, they just expanded Another World to an hour from 3-4pm.

How wrong is to say that Harding Lemay's Another World was perhaps a bit overrated? Or that Lemay spent a few years too many in Another World?

I think the best part of Santa Barbara 1984 is Louise Sorel. She really gives it her all! The show really outdid itself in finding beautiful people with very minimal acting skills. Another one is Jonna Leigh Stack as Summer Blake. Given the character's fate, the writers probably shouldn't have made her Gina's sister, but rather a family friend. There's a scene in the middle of episode 72 where she's standing in the Lockridge living room in a two piece bikini; can't believe they got away with showing that much skin!

The itsrealgoodtv site has slightly reordered The Doctors pages, overall making them a little bit worse IMHO, as all such reorderings seem to do. Even so, they haven't added any missing episodes or corrected any of the mislabeled ones. I hope they will do something to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary! Maybe they can finally upload the show's last 3 years?! I'd also love to see more of 1967 if possible, especially Rita Lakin's material!

Santa Barbara's "official" network time slot was always supposed to be 3pm. Individual stations could choose to air it whenever they wanted though. For the first half of 1984, NBC had The Match Game - Hollywood Squares Hour at 3pm. For the second half of 1984, they had Santa Barbara in that time slot. Both shows were pretty dreadful. Perhaps they would have had more success by debuting Santa Barbara as a half hour show at 3pm, and keeping the Match Game portion of the MG HS Hour for a half-hour Match Game at 3:30pm. That might have allowed Santa Barbara to stabilize, and they could always have expanded it to an hour in the late 80s whenever the new Match Game ran its course. But instead, it seemed like NBC was wedded to the rule that whatever show was airing at 3pm had to be at least one hour. They kept to this from 1975, when Another World expanded to an hour, all the way to the end of Santa Barbara's run in 1993, when NBC gave back that hour to its affiliates to program. NBC losing the 3pm hour in 1993 meant that Sunset Beach had to go to noon when it premiered in 1997, pretty much condemning that show to low ratings and eventual cancellation.

Since NBC Daytime is no more, and NBC has become the first of the big 3 networks to no longer air scripted daytime drama, perhaps a thread to commemorate it, celebrating what went right and analyzing what went wrong? I would venture to say daytime drama on NBC was at its best from 1966-1968, when they just had 3 shows, all at 30 minutes: Days of our Lives at 2pm; The Doctors at 2:30pm; Another World at 3pm. Perhaps the pinnacle of that era was 1968, with Bill Bell, Rita Lakin, and Agnes Nixon at their respective shows. Was the quality of NBC daytime dramas ever as high again?

I like Cynthia Watros, and she is a good actress, but unfortunately it's hard to look at her sometimes with the work she has done to her face. Most people have lines under their eyes, and the skin tone of the area under the eyes matches that of the rest of the face. Is there anything that a make-up artist or a lighting set-up can do to make her look more natural?.

I remember watching these episodes back when they were being uploaded on the AOL soap classics channel. Robert came to town looking to connect with his son, threatening to stir up trouble for Clarice and Larry. But none of that ever happened, and he just left town after a few episodes. It was a strange return. He was mentioned later as being married to Olivia, but he was never on screen at the same time she was; she came on after he left! Late 1980 was a messy time for Another World. A lot of plots and characters were left up in the air, or made sharp 180s, or were just dropped with no resolution. I think this was a period where they were going through a head writer transition. The only story that was carried to a true resolution and had continuity was the main one with Rachel/Mac/Mitch.

I recently watched the 1976 film Marathon Man. It co-starred Marthe Keller. Could you imagine someone like Keller playing Karen Werner on The Doctors? That would have been amazing. I think the producers always erred by not getting an actress for Karen who actually had chemistry with David O'Brien. That would have made their pairing much more watchable and believable. I think Laryssa Laurent had chemistry with Matt, but not with Steve. Steve had chemistry with almost everyone, everyone except Karen. It's strange that out of all the ladies, it's Karen they pair him with.

Here are the missing and mislabeled episodes on the itsrealgoodtv site for July through September 1968: July 1968 is complete on the site Thursday 8/1/68 -- not on the site; aired on Retro TV; in the clinic, as Karen and Matt try to explain, Maggie just won't listen Monday 8/5/68 -- not on the site; aired on Retro TV; features just Matt and Maggie and their crumbling marriage; starts and ends with Matt alone at the motel Tuesday 8/27/68 -- not on the site and never aired on Retro TV; missing or the show was preempted that day or the next day; Days of our Lives might have been preempted on Wednesday 8/28/68 Friday 9/6/68 -- not on the site and never aired on Retro TV; missing or the show was preempted that day; Another World might have been preempted that day too Friday 9/13/68 -- is labeled on the site as 9/12/68 Part 1; actually never aired on Retro TV during its first run through; features Carolee's reaction to Karen telling her that she and Steve just got married Wednesday 9/25/68 -- not on the site; aired on Retro TV; features the return of Phillip Townsend and Steve bawling out Mike Thursday 9/26/68 -- labeled on the site as Wednesday 9/25/68 Friday 9/27/68 -- labeled on the site as Thursday 9/26/68

Watching the September 19, 1968 episode, it's great to see Lydia Bruce finally with a flattering hairdo. They've had her hair so matronly since she's started. She looks so much younger here. Nice too that they have her acting more like Bethel Leslie's Maggie. Speaking of hair, I can't believe they did a story about Jody Lee Bronson having to cut his hair in order to get a promotion. They even have Nick and Mike mistake Jody Lee for a woman. Talk about being on the wrong side of history; in just a few years, everybody will have their hair looking like Jody Lee!

I would love to see whatever they have of 1963-1967. It would be great to see how Matt, Maggie, Althea and Nick all started out. Here's hoping they haven't abandoned the project, and that they bring it to it's completion!!

Early Mason is such a loser. Santana and Veronica barely stand him; they only pretend to be friendly to get what they want. His father barely tolerates him, and his mother can't be bothered to give him the time of day. Hard to believe his character is going anywhere.

There was no back and forth between Bethel and Lydia. Lydia started appearing one day and that was it. Going by the airdates on the itsrealgoodtv website, Lydia's first airdate was Wednesday, May 15, 1968. Bethel's final airdate was Friday, May 10, 1968. I thought Bethel's final episode was a fitting tribute to Maggie and Matt's relationship; loving, adult, and understanding. With that in mind, what follows in June, July and August with Lydia in the role didn't make much sense to me. I can definitely see recasting Maggie as an example of taking a character in a new direction, in this case, making the character more neurotic, less stable, less confident. Perhaps the nail in Bethel's coffin was when Kathleen Murray was temporarily playing the role of Maggie from March 5, 1968 to March 19, 1968, "due to" what they said on air was "illness." I thought Murray played the role more shrill and neurotic, less stable, centered, and wise. Maybe after seeing Murray's performance, the producers decided that that's the direction they wanted to take Maggie in. Presumably Murray was acting from scripts intended for Bethel. I guess with Lydia Bruce, the producers had the best of both worlds. Lydia could play Maggie as Bethel did, strong, wise, sarcastic, confident, kind (if the producers ever gave her that material, which seemed rare in her first months). Lydia could also play Maggie as Kathleen Murray did, weak, shrill, neurotic, unstable, self-centered (which is what it seemed the producers were initially going for with her).

I think the scene you're talking about is in this clip, starting around 2:50.

Ava, Dane and Julie were all very pretty people. What Ava and Dane had, and what Julie didn't, was charisma. What Dane had, and what Ava and Julie didn't, was chemistry with everyone. They should have given Dane more of a chance, and Ava too. Charisma and chemistry can overcome bad acting, especially on a soap. Watching the first 14 weeks, it's hard to believe Mason would ever become a popular, lead character. He's given absolutely nothing to do.