Max

I did not know that Jerry verDorn had passed away. That is heartbreaking to learn.

May Anne Heche rest in peace. As others have indicated, she was certainly the best Vicky and Marley AW ever had. She gave AW a much-needed shot in the arm after that soap had so many missteps in 1985, 1986, and the first half of 1987. And the show was never the same after she departed in 1991. This has been a very tough year when it has come to deaths of soap stars. Though the circumstances of her death were very different, I was also tremendously saddened when the great Kathryn Hays passed away earlier this year.

I thought that it was a likely possibility that the long period of time in between AMC's experimental, hour-long episodes and that soap's permanent expansion to 60 minutes was due to Agnes Nixon's objections (and/or reservations). However, I never knew the lengths to which ABC went to convince her to agree to the hour-long expansion. That is a really fascinating bit of information.

Unlike the finales for AW, GL, and ATWT--all of which had serious flaws--I consider SFT's finale to be the gold standard. (Full disclosure, I've never watched the final episodes of RH and Texas, both of which were also heavily praised.) It nicely wrapped up the storylines of the current characters and, even more importantly, had such a touching final scene with Jo and Stu. That said, I wouldn't say that SFT's final episode was perfect. I could have done without the scene in which, after some villain (whose name I don't recall) was arrested, that character had the following line of dialogue (before drinking a glass of wine): "To the McClearys...They won, in the end." Honestly, that line was a needless reminder of how much the McClearly brothers (who granted, at least were portrayed by talented actors) were shoved down viewers' throats during SFT's final years. But a bigger reason why SFT's finale wasn't perfect was that it would have been nice to have had returns of many classic characters from the past. In SFT's defense, perfection wasn't realistically possible: not much time passed between the cancellation announcement and the finale, the show was only 30 minutes in length, and the then-current characters did need to have their stories wrapped up. But in a perfect world, if you didn't have some of the constraints that SFT's writers and producers had (say, for instance, had SFT had the luxury of an hour-long final episode), how might you have improved upon the finale? I'm curious to read people's responses to this question.

I realize that this is very belated, but I wanted to apologize for the way I upset some SON members back when the AMC/OLTL cancellations and reboots happened. I do want to say that I really haven't changed the way I feel about the cancellations and reboots. Thus, I still think the reboots (while OK) weren't anything great, that they were unlikely to succeed due to the fact a large time period elapsed between their debut and the final ABC episodes (which meant the reboots were probably going to have trouble attracting casual viewers of AMC & OLTL), and that there were unethical businessmen who were taking advantage of the situation for their own financial gain (e.g., the people who ran Prospect Park and the executives at Hoover, the latter being a company which I believe never did anything to help AMC & OLTL when the reboots actually were airing). From a business standpoint, I can still understand why AMC & OLTL were cancelled. For reasons most know, the AMC cancellation was the easier decision for ABC to make, and the less controversial one at the time. The OLTL cancellation was extremely controversial due to its being in better financial/budgetary shape and due to its very impressive rise in the ratings after the cancellation announcement was made. However, I can understand why ABC cancelled it due to its lackluster ratings during the few years preceding the cancellation. Of course, because of OLTL's post-cancellation rise in the ratings, ABC should have reversed its decision and uncancelled the show. This last point was one I seldom mentioned, and I am sorry about that. (However, it is possible that ABC did want to reverse its decision to cancel OLTL but couldn't because of contractual obligations it had already made with Prospect Park.) As is evident from what I wrote in the above paragraph, I'm not apologizing for the way I felt (and still feel) about the cancellations and reboots (because nobody should apologize for his or her sincerely held opinions). What I am truly sorry about is the fact that I went on ad nauseum about the topic. (I should have stated my feelings on the subject a few times, at most, and then moved on to discussing other things.) My behavior upset a good number of posters and showed a real lack of sensitivity as so many were mourning the loss of both shows. For what it's worth, I've probably watched OLTL more than any other non-P&G soap. The show had many positives, and it is very regrettable that its demise meant the extinction of NYC soap operas. I was (and still am) critical of the Cartini era, but the mistakes they made could have been fixed simply by firing them.

You do make a good point, one which I had thought about. I also realize that ABC actually found success in the 1:30 to 2:00 timeslot from 12/30/68 to 12/26/75, when Let's Make a Deal occupied that slot. However, I do think that by 1974 or so, the prospect of a rival network airing a soap opposite of ATWT wasn't the dreadful thing it once was (as ATWT, while still # 1, had ceased to be as popular as it was at its zenith). And that was very likely an important reason why from 12/1/75 to 3/2/79, the entirety of DOOL competed with the entirety of ATWT from 1:30 to 2:30. (OLTL, of course, had yet to become a smash hit as of 1975 in the way that DOOL had by that point, so this is a somewhat flawed argument. But I do stand by the point that a soap competing against ATWT had become a considerably less daunting task than it once was.) Nevertheless, given the risk of competing against ATWT, I would have thought it best for OLTL to occupy the post-AMC timeslot at some time other than 1:30 to 2:00. As of 7/7/75, AMC assumed the 12:30 to 1:00 timeslot, so I would have had OLTL air from 1:00 to 1:30. It's certainly possible that ABC seriously considered doing that but chose not to, either because it really wanted RH to air during that half hour and/or because the network was already making long-term plans to expand OLTL and GH. (It's probably a safe assumption that in 1975, ABC already was hoping and planning to have AMC expand to 60 minutes, given that AMC aired experimental, hour-long episodes the week prior to RH's debut. Though I am getting off-topic, I am curious as to why close to two years passed before AMC finally did expand to an hour on a permanent basis; I'm guessing it was because Agnes Nixon had mixed feelings, or worse, about the prospect of AMC expanding.)

Thank you for your kind words. I think that OLTL would have become a big hit quite a bit earlier had ABC not waited so long to give it the post-AMC timeslot. In fact, it is quite puzzling as to why ABC aired AMC and OLTL so far apart from each other for many years. Based on data I found at the Daytime TV Archive website, the following is a partial history as to when ABC aired its soaps in the Eastern Time Zone: (Note that times not listed were devoted to non-soap programming. And I'm sorry for the awkward spacing, as what should be single-spaced is double-spaced and what should be double-spaced is quadruple spaced. I tried and tried to get around this problem, but I was unsuccessful.) 01/05/1970 to 03/27/1970 01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - All My Children 03:00 P.M. to 03:30 P.M. - General Hospital (timeslot held since 12/30/1963) 03:30 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - One Life to Live (timeslot held since 07/15/1968) 04:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. - Dark Shadows (timeslot held since 07/15/1968) 03/30/1970 to 09/25/1970 12:00 P.M. to 12:30 P.M. - The Best of Everything 12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - A World Apart 01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - All My Children 03:00 P.M. to 03:30 P.M. - General Hospital 03:30 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - One Life to Live 04:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. - Dark Shadows 09/28/1970 to 04/02/1971 12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - A World Apart 01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - All My Children 03:00 P.M. to 03:30 P.M. - General Hospital 03:30 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - One Life to Live 04:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. - Dark Shadows 04/05/1971 to 06/25/1971 12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - A World Apart 01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - All My Children 03:00 P.M. to 03:30 P.M. - General Hospital 03:30 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - One Life to Live 06/28/1971 to 06/27/1975 01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - All My Children 03:00 P.M. to 03:30 P.M. - General Hospital 03:30 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - One Life to Live 06/30/1975 to 07/04/1975 12:30 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - All My Children (one hour trial episodes) 03:00 P.M. to 03:30 P.M. - General Hospital 03:30 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - One Life to Live 07/07/1975 to 11/28/1975 12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - All My Children 01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - Ryan's Hope 03:00 P.M. to 03:30 P.M. - General Hospital 03:30 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - One Life to Live 12/02/1975 to 07/23/1976 12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - All My Children 01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - Ryan's Hope 03:00 P.M. to 03:30 P.M. - General Hospital 03:30 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - One Life to Live 04:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. - The Edge of Night* *Note that on 12/01/1975, EON aired a special, one-time-only 90-minute episode, airing from 03:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. GH and OLTL were pre-empted that day. 07/26/1976 to 12/31/1976 12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - All My Children 01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - Ryan's Hope 02:30 P.M. to 03:15 P.M. - One Life to Live 03:15 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - General Hospital 04:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. - The Edge of Night 01/03/1977 to 04/22/1977 12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - Ryan's Hope 01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. - All My Children 02:30 P.M. to 03:15 P.M. - One Life to Live 03:15 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - General Hospital 04:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. - The Edge of Night 04/25/1977 to 01/13/1978 12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - Ryan's Hope 01:00 P.M. to 02:00 P.M. - All My Children 02:30 P.M. to 03:15 P.M. - One Life to Live 03:15 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - General Hospital 04:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. - The Edge of Night 01/16/1978 to 06/24/1983 12:30 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. - Ryan's Hope 01:00 P.M. to 02:00 P.M. - All My Children 02:00 P.M. to 03:00 P.M. - One Life to Live 03:00 P.M. to 04:00 P.M. - General Hospital 04:00 P.M. to 04:30 P.M. - The Edge of Night

If you look at the history of daytime soap ratings on Wikipedia, and assume that what is written there is correct, this is actually an easy question to answer. For the sake of discussion, I'll define a successful/long-running daytime soap as The Doctors or any program that lasted longer. This means that there have been fourteen successful soaps. Before I comment on each of these soaps, what is really apparent is that--in virtually all cases--it would take at most five years to determine if a soap was a commercial hit or disappointment (if not outright failure). The biggest exception to this "five-year rule" was OLTL, which didn't become a smash hit until the tail end of the 70s. (Obviously, being sandwiched between AMC and GH played a big role in helping OLTL. But the decision to make Llanview into Buchanan Country--and the popularity of those characters--was also an important factor.) GH also took longer than five years to become a huge hit. Below is an analysis for each of the fourteen long-running soaps: *All My Children: This show had terrible ratings during its first few years. But it moved into the middle of the pack during the 1972-73 Season and was ranked # 5 during 1974-75. *Another World: In spite of all that I've read about NBC wanting to cancel the show during its infancy, it seemed to have respectable, middle-tier ratings during much of its first three years on the air. AW became a smash hit during the 1967-68 Season, when it shot up to # 2. *As the World Turns: This soap had a very poorly rated first season on the air, but it was # 2 during the 1957-58 Season. It began its long run at # 1 (albeit tied with SFT) the following season. *The Bold and the Beautiful: This soap had respectable ratings from the start (I believe always besting AW). It was # 6 for the 1989-90 Season and # 5 the following year (obviously showing that it was able to build an audience in a way that Capitol never did). *Days of Our Lives: As was the case with AW, I've read much about how NBC seriously considered cancelling this show during its infancy. During its first three seasons, it was ranked # 10, which obviously wasn't all that good, though I'd hardly say that was a terrible showing for a new soap (given the sheer number of soaps on the air back then). The 1968-69 Season was the breakout year for this show, as it rose to # 5 (albeit in a tie with Love of Life and The Doctors). *The Doctors: This show was lower rated than GH during its first few years, which had to be embarrassing given that ABC (at the time) was considered a subpar network relative to NBC and CBS. But The Doctors' fortunes turned around, as it became the # 5 soap during the 1967-68 Season. *The Edge of Night: EON was a hit from the beginning, with a rank of # 4 for the 1956-57 Season. *General Hospital: GH pretty much had mid-tier ratings during its infancy, which was impressive given that it was/is an ABC soap. For much of the 60s, however, it didn't seem to be showing growth potential. However, that changed in the early-70s, when it became # 6 during the 1970-71 Season and # 2 the following year. *Guiding Light: I have no idea how long it took GL to become a hit on the radio, but it must have had a turbulent ratings history, given that (I believe) it was cancelled three times, only to come back on the air. GL appeared to do very well making the transition to television: It was ranked # 4 for the 1951-52 and 1952-53 Seasons and # 2 during 1953-54. (Note that Wikipedia only lists four soaps for the 1952-53 Season, but I have my doubts if that was an accurate number, given the eight soaps for the prior season and the ten soaps for the 1953-54 Season.) *Love of Life: This was ranked # 2 during its first year on the air, so it was a hit from the beginning. *One Life to Live: Like its sister soap AMC, it had horrendous ratings at first. (The early-70s were a very rough time for ABC soaps apart from GH, and AMC and OLTL were very lucky to avoid cancellation, as they could have met the same fates as The Best of Everything, A Word Apart, and Dark Shadows. I'm guessing that ABC kept AMC and OLTL over those other shows because of the network's faith in Agnes Nixon.) But for much of the 70s, OLTL had respectable, though not great ratings (which nevertheless likely meant that OLTL was still earning a decent profit for ABC). Per Wikipedia, OLTL's massive boost in popularity can be witnessed by the fact that it was ranked # 7 for the 1977-78 Season, # 6 for 1978-79, # 4 for 1979-80, and # 3 for 1980-81. *Search for Tomorrow: This was the # 1 soap for the 1951-52 Season and remained that way for several years. *The Secret Storm: It did not take long for this soap to become a hit, as it rose to #5 for the 1954-55 Season and # 3 during the 1956-57 Season. *The Young and the Restless: This soap, like AMC and OLTL, had a terrible first year. But it did not take long for it to experience an astonishing rise in popularity, going from 17th (and last) place during the 1972-73 Season, 13th place during 1973-74, 9th place during 1974-75, and 3rd place during 1975-76. The 1980-81 Season was the only year since then that Y&R fell out of the top five (with a 6th place ranking that season); I believe that the ratings dip that year was attributable to the difficulties of adjusting to its then-new 60-minute length. (Perhaps Y&R's ratings problems were the main reason why CBS decided to shuffle its daytime lineup in June 1981, moving Y&R from 1:00-2:00 to 12:30-1:30, ATWT from 2:00-3:00 to 1:30-2:30, and upsetting P&G by moving SFT from 12:30-1:00 to 2:30-3:00.)

A lot of liberals, along with the relatively few anti-Trump conservatives who remain, truly believe that none of what Christie is doing is sincere. Rather, they think that his criticisms of Trump are purely self-serving. Here's an article that echoes this sentiment: https://www.thebulwark.com/the-biggest-bully-is-a-half-decade-late/ I'm really not sure if Christie is genuine when he criticizes Trump, but I do think that Christie was one of the few individuals in Trump's orbit who cares about other people. To be honest, Christie's prior sycophancy towards Trump surprised me, since Christie (at least during his first term as governor) fashioned himself as somebody who could well work with Democrats, including President Obama; that's such a huge contrast to how Trump was the birther-in-chief and to how Trump was completely unable to work with Democrats when he was president. IMO, having somebody with Christie's intellectual heft challenge Trump in a presidential primary is a good thing, since there are so few other Republicans even willing to go as far as Christie. (Out of all the Republicans who may run for president, the only ones who have gone further than Christie are Larry Hogan and Liz Cheney. But both of these individuals face even greater odds of getting the nomination. And in the case of Hogan, he is not nearly as well known as Christie.)

Chris Christie has a new book out today, and he's been making the rounds promoting it (and also promoting what appears to be a likely 2024 presidential candidacy):

On AW, Mac Cory's last air date was on 5/10/89, and yet Carmen Duncan's Iris remained on the show until 9/19/94. I think that Duncan was a very talented actress and am glad she remained on AW for that long. But I find this to have been a (pleasant) surprise, given how much Iris' relationship to her father drover her story.

I have serious doubts that GH spent many, if any, weeks as ABC's lowest rated soap in the era that immediately preceded Monty. For the 1975-76 Season, GH had a 7.2 rating compared with 7.1 for OLTL, 6.7 for EON, and 5.7 for RH; while ABC probably cut RH some slack due to it being a new soap, the weeks during the 75-76 Season when EON was on CBS were also taken into account when computing that average rating. Over the next two seasons, the ratings gap between GH and EON only got larger: in the 1976-77 Season, GH averaged a 7.0 rating compared to EON's 6.2, while the 1977-78 averages were 7.0 for GH and 5.2 for EON. GH was certainly underperforming AW during this time, and was likely also underperforming its CBS competition as well. So perhaps ABC was going to cancel GH in spite of it not being at the very bottom of the soap rankings. However, I would think that GH would have been safe so long as EON was still on ABC, though perhaps EON's demos were better than GH's (or perhaps ABC was planning a dual cancellation of both GH and EON).

Over the years, I've read on the internet that Gloria Monty took GH from last to first place. (Perhaps my memory is faulty, but that is what I recall.) I just searched through this thread, and it's certainly possible that I missed something, but I don't see any statistic showing GH dead last, though I know that many of the rating lists only showed the top ten soaps. Based on the following season averages posted on Wikipedia, it doesn't seem like GH spent many, if any, weeks in last place: *1976-77 Season: Ranked 10th out of 15 soaps, with a 7.0 rating *1977-78 Season: Ranked 9th out of 14 soaps, with a 7.0 rating *1978-79 Season: Ranked 2nd out of 14 soaps, with an 8.7 rating *1979-80 Season: Ranked 1st out of 13 soaps, with a 9.9 rating Is it possible that the "Gloria Monty took GH from last to first place" statement was one of those mistaken beliefs that people held onto for a long time (similar to how people erroneously believed that GL was #1 for a few weeks in 1984)?

I very much applaud the work of the January 6 committee, but I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that Trump will never be brought to justice for his criminal behavior that day or for anything else. I really, really had high hopes that Trump would get his comeuppance when the Muller report was released, yet Trump emerged unscathed. Yes, that was the fault of cowardly Republicans, but it still doesn't erase my anger at Trump's perceived ability to seemingly get away with anything (and my pessimism about things going forward). This may be an absurd belief, but I do think that apart from his GOP sycophants, Trump won't be brought to justice because it would be too "traumatic" (for a good deal of Americans) to have a former president go to prison. Having a former president face that kind of punishment is a far different matter than if we were talking about former vice presidents, governors, or members of Congress. Obviously, I hope that I am wrong in what I just wrote, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Ohio turning so solidly red has been one of the most surprising political swings of the last decade, as it was the quintessential swing state for over 100 years. The long-time swing state of Iowa has seen an even more rightward shift. On one hand, that may not be so surprising given the state's demographics. On the other hand, Iowa had been considerably more Democratic than Ohio. I personally believe that Georgia will become the next Virginia or Colorado, in the sense that it won't be long before Georgia is solidly blue. While I think that Republicans will still win statewide elections in Georgia, such victories will be few and far between (such as this year's VA elections or when Cory Gardner won a narrow Senate race in Colorado in 2014). What's a real question mark, IMO, is just how much further Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and (to a lesser extent) Minnesota will drift rightward and how much more favorable Texas will become for the Democrats. I already think that Arizona is a lean-Democratic state, but I don't see it completely following Georgia's transformation; instead, I think that Arizona will become a lot like Nevada politically.