Khan

How about "all of the above," lol? The ones you've posted/talked about, the ones like the one @Vee posted, too. (I just thought the entire campaign was too poseur-ish, too "try hard," know what I'm saying?) I especially hate those like the one you posted, @carolineg, featuring JY's Lucky as "rebel," or whatever. They all attempted to make the characters on ABC soaps appear to be so cool and relatable. But, if you ask me, ABCD's characters had become so maladjusted across the board that, IMO, they were the literal opposite of cool and relatable. If I had done that campaign, I would've been a lot more straightforward. For example: a picture of whoever was playing OLTL's Todd at that time, with the word "rapist" underneath. GH's Sonny? "sociopath." Carly? "gun moll." And why, for [!@#$%^&*]'s sake, is it in the same color scheme as a [!@#$%^&*] taxi cab? Were they paying homage to the old sitcom "Taxi" or something? It's stupid! Oh. My. God.

What was happening on OLTL the week of 11/21-11/25/77 for them to jump to #3? Was it a heavy Karen week?

Wait, when did he write that, lol?

Of course, I'm extremely biased, because Justin Deas is my third all-time favorite soap actor (after Larry Bryggman and Michael Zaslow), but I'd say it's a toss-up between his work w/ Margaret Colin on ATWT and his later work w/ Robin Mattson (ex-Gina) on SaBa. In both cases, Deas was paired with an actress who was brilliant and witty and not at all conventional. IMO, that is the kind of actress who can bring out the best in Deas, who is himself unconventional in terms of the choices that he makes in his acting. (It's why I will campaign for him to join GH as Jane Elliot's (Tracy) love interest until GH is cancelled or I am banned from SON, whichever comes first, lol). I realize Deas isn't everyone's cup of tea (hi, @Mitch64, lol!), but I love that he refuses to "play it safe" in his work. I've always said I'll forgive a multitude of sins except the cardinal sin of boring me, and Deas rarely, if ever, bores me.

IKR, lol?

Yes! But, as I've said before, nothing else for them makes any sense.

Wait, you've never heard about his star-making role in the movie "Disorderlies"?

I can't even figure out how that teaser tied in with the premise for GH. Like, instead of a bunch of random doors that looked like they were borrowed from a community theater, why not have him enter through the ER doors instead? Don't worry. Now that Drew is as much as gone.

I agree. But I think that one SOW article we read re: "Manhattan Lives" was correct: NBC's affiliates had lost whatever faith or patience they had in the show and gave up on it. Did they give up on it too soon? Maybe. But I don't think there was anything the network could have done to convince them otherwise. Poor AW. That show tried and tried and tried to move the needle again, but it was like no one apart from their most diehard fans even cared anymore. I want to die for him and for everyone else who was forced to participate, lol. Even those yellow-and-black promos that ABCD actors had to do after Disney had purchased the network weren't as embarrassing. If NBCD had been smart, or smarter, they could have figured out how to steal "Clarence" away from CBSD. Just imagine him promoting DAYS ("Don't blink, Marlena, and don't look away!," lol.)

So many childhood memories dwell within this photo. It's funny, though, how Frank Valentini's GH currently employs about six times that many actors.

You're correct on all counts, @beebs. Especially about NBCD's slate of game shows holding up the rest of the lineup until they inevitably faded. Imagine for a moment, though, if NBC, and not CBS, had brokered the deal that brought Y&R to their lineup in '72/'73. Would NBCD's fortunes have been different? Lin Bolen, as well, had a chance to counter ABCD with HTSAM, but from what I understand, the show was DOA, thanks to bad writing. Oh, totally, lol! NBCD's marketing always has been such an embarrassment. We laugh and roll our eyes at DAYS' current promos today, but were campaigns like "It Will Excite You!" or "I used to be hot [!@#$%^&*] on that ABC soap, but now I'm at DAYS and I'm loving the difference (until ABC offers me more money and better storylines)!" any better, lol? Even their "Love in the Afternoon" campaign, which happened years before ABCD's, was so low-rent and low-energy, it was more like "Snooze in the Afternoon." And OMG, when Pat Falken Smith and her team returned to DAYS after working on GH! That was an excellent opportunity to put together a brief montage of some of PFS' past work on DAYS with the v.o. saying, "The writers who wrote all that great stuff you loved on that other show? Well, they've come back home - to DAYS! And you're gonna REALLY love what they do next!" So what does NBCD's marketing department do instead? After inadvertently giving GH more advertising by mentioning their name, they gather some of DAYS' older stars together (and NOT the younger ones, who might have appealed more to ABC viewers) and have them stand on risers and smile for the camera like a damn high school show choir! Anyways.... You might get away with suggesting DAYS and SaBa were tonally similar, but AW, too? Girl, no, lol! To me, AW always was like ATWT and GL's cousin who shopped at TJMaxx instead of Bloomingdale's or Macy's. It might have tried to be hip like the other soaps on NBCD, but it never could stop being just another, meat-and-potatoes P&G soap in its' heart. As for whether SaBa also was "too niche" for the mainstream audience, I would say SaBa was "too niche" in tone, if not in content. IMO, SaBa always was more irreverent and tongue-in-cheek than even the ABCD soaps. And I think it's quite telling that, after trying for most of its' run to siphon viewers away from GH, SaBa (and the Dobsons) gave up toward the end and tried to steal away GL's audience instead, hiring both Pam Long and Kim Zimmer, phasing out many of the Capwells and Lockridges and rebuilding the show around the blue-collar Walker clan. IOW, after trying to be the anti-dote to the P&G shows, SaBa decided to be like the P&G shows instead. I agree. There never was any tonal threads that could connect AW, DAYS and the other shows on NBCD's lineup meaningfully. In fact, if you were a typical NBCD viewer, it probably was quite jarring to go from a show like AW, which was so traditional and down-to-earth that it could be almost journeyman-like; to DAYS, where couples were jetting off to exotic locales in search of prisms and [!@#$%^&*] (to say nothing of the madness that went down in the '90's, lol). I mean, how do you build an ad campaign around that and everything else on the lineup? "NBC Daytime: We're Random as [!@#$%^&*] And We Guess We're Okay With That?" JER and PASSIONS are what happens when you, as a network, give creative autonomy to a reclusive individual with deep-seated psychological issues, who then creates a show that is so god-awful and that will never appeal to anyone older than the age of 12. At the very least, you are dooming your entire lineup to the kind of existence that NBC's daypart has to this day. ICAM, @carolineg. You know NBCD was making a mistake in trying to align AW more with DAYS when even JFP was like, "Nah," lol.

Especially when everyone has acknowledged, once and for all, that Luke raped Laura. Who wants to remind everyone else or be reminded that Daytime's Greatest Romance began with a sexual assault on the floor of a sleazy disco?

I think that one big problem for NBCD was that it never had a core demographic. CBSD always had the older, conservative viewers, while ABCD, after struggling initially, made inroads with younger and more urban ones. Where did that leave NBCD? I know the network attempted in the '80's and '90's to be the alternative to the other two with SaBa, GEN, SuBe and PAS, but I think those shows were "too niche" to be sustainable in the long run. Another problem for NBCD was that the network itself never was independent the way CBS and ABC had been in years past. Instead, NBC always has been a property of one conglomerate or another; and because of that, it's always had to brook more corporate interference in their day-to-day operations than the other networks have had to. Finally, it's always been my impression that NBCD has long had a more contentious relationship with their affiliates than CBSD and ABCD have had. They have literally no control over when or how each affiliate schedules their shows in ways that benefits NBCD the most; and the affiliates flat-out don't like much of what the network offers them to run, or trusts them. I know soaps once were so profitable that they helped keep the networks afloat in other places, but if you told me that wasn't exactly the case for NBCD - that, in fact, NBC's primetime, news and even children's programming divisions always have been bigger moneymakers for them than their soaps - I wouldn't be a bit surprised, lol. Ironically, @beebs, there was talk in the '70's of spinning off Doug and Julie - but into a new soap, not a sitcom. Like I said, DAYS and NBCD always has been spinoff-crazy, lol.

When they had over-the-hill Nick banging some chick (forget which one) on the floor of some nightclub, I officially was done with him. That kind of [!@#$%^&*] is something his son, Noah, should have been doing, not him.

According to Wisner Washam's We Love Soaps interview, he wouldn't agree to stay with AMC when the network expanded it to an hour unless they agreed to double the number of sets and characters. About the only story that Bridget Dobson has told that I believe to be 100% accurate is why her parents initially were reluctant to let her write for GH. Dobson says the Hursleys wouldn't let her do it, because they thought she was a "party girl" and that her sister, Deborah, was more responsible than she. That's probably true. Of course, when they finally gave her the chance and she (Bridget) proved she had inherited Frank and Doris' storytelling abilities, they probably were beside themselves. Hence, their (alleged) reluctance to watch any of her and her husband's work.

You have to take what Bridget Dobson tells others with a tremendous grain of salt. I love her and think she is a brilliant writer and person, but I'm also well aware that the lady has issues. More than likely, P&G saw how the Dobsons had modernized GL and felt they could do the same for ATWT, regardless of where each soap placed in the ratings.

"...but I like to focus on love..." Nah, bro, you like to focus on self-love. There's a difference.

I know that L.A. itself played a crucial role in the storyline where little Mike Bauer, upset about all the attention being given toward his newborn baby brother, "Billy," ran away from home. IIRC, they searched for Mike in several, well-known parts of the city before finding him in (I think?) Griffith Park.

I think even Eric Braeden (whom God continues to bless everyday!) and Melody Thomas Scott likely have resigned themselves to the fact that Victor and Nikki are "for keeps," no matter how many more times the show might split them up between now and whenever one or both appear on Y&R for the last time. Not to mention, sad, pathetic and kinda creepy, in a "Lifetime Original Movie" sort of way. If the writers are intent on keeping Nick and Sharon forever young and star-crossed, then - here's a thought - why not recast them both with younger actors?

That's why I stopped watching any primetime or other specials that are "devoted" to the soaps. There's always this attitude that these events are doing soaps an enormous favor by giving them tributes and whatnot, and that soaps should be grateful whatever crumbs of recognition that they get from the "mainstream" or "legitimate" industries.

If it isn't GH's Steve Burton refusing to play an arc where his brain-damaged character (Jason Morgan) finally retrieves his lost memories, it's that eternal frat boy, Joshua Morrow, refusing to be reunited with the only on-screen romantic partner his dull ass has ever made sense with. What is it with these soap actors and their overinflated senses of self, anyway? Do these guys actually believe they're working in an industry that is still thriving and relevant, or that they matter at all to anyone who isn't involved in daytime? Have they become so comfortable financially that they have forgotten the days when they were lucky to land even a part-time gig parking cars or busing tables at some fancy, over-priced restaurant? At this moment, there are grown ass men who are literally handling cow [!@#$%^&*] for a living, who would trade places and gladly with bastards like Morrow and Burton. STFU, Josh, about what you never want for your character again. Just show up on time, say your [!@#$%^&*] lines and GO. HOME.

Unfortunately, @carolineg, that's all I know. You know, when you think about it, the NBC soaps are the ones that always generated the most spinoff talks in the media. You never heard about ABC being as desperate to spinoff AMC or GH (although, they would eventually, with PC) or CBS being desperate to spin off Y&R or B&B. But NBC? As soon as DAYS or AW or even THE DOCTORS was doing even slightly well in the ratings, it was "Let's see who we can spin off from this show!". It's crazy.

I agree. Oh, please, he probably complained about having too many lines on "Out of This World," too. I agree. Me neither!

I remember that there even was talk of spinning off Calliope (or Calliope & Eugene) onto their own "comic soap," which would have been disastrous, IMO. If anything, I would have spun them onto a primetime sitcom, which would have been a real first for daytime, lol.

Another actor might have played Mac Cory either as an old, greedy letch or a domineering tyrant.