kalbir

Week of September 26-October 2, 1983 was the season premieres for all the primetime soaps. Dallas - The Road Back: Miss Ellie is sedated after the fire. Bobby and Pam grow closer. Sue Ellen learns the truth about the accident and swears off drinking. Dynasty - The Arrest: Mark Jennings saves Alexis and Krystle from the burning cabin. The police find there are multiple suspects but arrest Mark. Fallon tries to find out more about Adam's first case with the toxic chemicals. Falcon Crest - Cimmerean Dawn: Accused murderer Julia prefers jail to Falcon Crest. Dr. Michael Ranson arrives. Melissa faces her father's murderer. Knots Landing - The People vs. Gary Ewing: Gary fights his indictment for Ciji's murder. Abby makes marriage plans. Karen awaits news from Diana. Mack searches for Chip. @Soapsuds a request for you, week ending April 21, 1985. I don't think it was posted before. A pivotal week in CBS primetime history. Thank you

@SoapDope Also The Simpsons "Who Shot Mr. Burns" referenced it was all a dream.

@yrfan1983 I don't think Chase got a proper exit story, just disappeared without an explanation. Bill Bell then replaced Chase with Ryan.

Because of it was all a dream?

Did your mother eventually change her mind about Y&R?

Malcolm/Neil.

I wonder what grandmas BITD thought of Y&R. It must have been scandalous and shocking to them.

Casey was introduced as the new doctor in town (from the 1978 recaps it seems as though she was brought on to be a Chris Brooks replacement) and her troublemaking younger sister Nikki followed not long after. Casey left in 1981 while Nikki remained. Casey made on-and-off appearances from 1984-1989 but she got replaced as the go-to doctor by Scott and later Olivia.

I remember William R Moses from Melrose Place when I was a teen and he scared the crap out of me. It's quite jarring for me to see him as this golden fairy tale prince character. In a way Cole was like an early 1980s version of 90210 Brandon.

GL had a bit of cast purge in the early months of 1991. Grant Aleksander, Beth Chamberlin, Kassie DePaiva (then Wesley), Robert Newman, Michael O'Leary all left. That cast purge also overlapped w/ the HW change from Pamela Long to Nancy Curlee.

IIRC Robert Newman 1991 exit story was that Josh thought he saw Reva on a news segment from Italy and moved there to track her down.

Did Cliff ever have a genuine love? Maybe Afton. IIRC he too was alone at the end of the original series.

Days is an interesting case. It's three most definitive eras are the Bill Bell years, the supercouple years, and Reilly's sci-fi years. The years in between each of those definitive eras are not really remembered it seems. Late 1970s/early 1980s ABC set the template that Days took to a whole other level in the supercouple years.

I'd say the huge rise of ABC shook up both CBS and P&G. Then the February 4, 1980 CBS soap schedule change didn't help either.

That makes sense. P&G was old and busted, ABC was the new hotness.

@Soapsuds Wow, you're starting the tanking era.

Late 1970s was ABC huge rise and P&G shows tanked. Did viewers suddenly switch over from P&G to ABC, or did ABC get a whole bunch of new viewers? Y&R was going strong in the late 1970s but would stumble in 1980 after expanding to one hour and changing time slots.

Once again Y&R reads 10% good, 90% garbage time. It's that same holding pattern since the end of the 50th anniversary episodes.

This whole Cameron arc is giving me bad Lifetime movie energy.

@Soapsuds The highest rated episode of the series was February 19, 1982: Family Reunion, rating 25.2, 3rd for the week. Lana Turner's first appearance.

In terms of finish in the weekly ratings, yes. Both of those episodes finished 2nd behind Dallas.

The abrupt ending of the war crimes storyline derailed all of the momentum that had built over the run of the series. Signs of tanking started showing during the final 10 or so episodes of the 1984/85 season. Quite the contrast from Knots Landing, where I thought the final 10 episodes of the 1984/85 season were that show's peak. I also think the late season tanking is why the Spring 1985 cliffhanger is not as well-remembered as Bobby's car accident, Royal Wedding Shootout, and Val's babies. But a good number of them had a death count. You didn't like the season 3 cliffhanger?

Those two weeks in May 1985 must have been a crazy time to be a primetime soap fan.

The most egregious race change recasting was Keesha, a character that was implied to be African-American but was originally played an actress of Puerto Rican heritage and then recast with an actress of Italian heritage.