kalbir

I brought this up in the Primetime Soaps thread, but I wonder if there's a connection between Les Moonves moving up the ranks at Lorimar and the CBS big three primetime soaps salary dumping mostly their long-time female cast members when they went into budget mode.

CSI was CBS's biggest hit drama since Dallas. The CBS primetime mess era was from when Dallas fell out of the Top 10 to the start of Survivor and CSI. Since Dallas ended, only three CBS dramas have lasted 15 or more seasons: NCIS (19 and renewed for 2022/23, its 20th season), CSI (15), Criminal Minds (15). NCIS: Los Angeles was renewed for 2022/23, which will be its 14th season, tying Dallas and Knots Landing.

CBS tried so hard to make the new dramas they launched in the second half of the 1980s work, but the ones that managed to have multiple season runs never showed any signs of growth. Every article I've found says The Cosby Show and Roseanne tied for #1 in 1989/90.

@Khan Agree. The Cosby Show was the start of NBC's 20 year dominance of Thursday night, and it was a killer show that pretty much destroyed everything in its path, time slot wise and overall, until I'd say Spring 1988. 1984/85 Magnum, P.I. fell out of the Top 10. ABC made numerous changes to Thursday 8 pm because nothing was working. The Cosby Show finishes the season at #3. 1985/86 Magnum, P.I. fell out of the Top 30 and the following season CBS moved it to Wednesday 9 pm. ABC made numerous changes to Thursday 8 pm because nothing was working. The Cosby Show finishes the season at #1. 1986/87 CBS moves Simon & Simon to Thursday 8 pm and it falls out of the Top 30. CBS then redoes their Thursday lineup numerous times because nothing was working. ABC schedules one season and done news program Our World. The Cosby Show finishes the season at #1. 1987/88 CBS schedules new drama Tour of Duty which doesn't finish in the Top 30 and the following season it was moved to Tuesday 8 pm. ABC made numerous changes to Thursday 8 pm because nothing was working. The Cosby Show finishes the season at #1. 1988/89 was the writer's strike delayed season. Roseanne was the breakout hit of that season and it was the first show to threaten The Cosby Show's overall dominance. The Cosby Show still finishes the season at #1 though. 1989/90 Roseanne tied The Cosby Show for #1. 1990/91 Fox moves The Simpsons to Thursday 8 pm. The Cosby Show falls from 1st to 5th. 1991/92 The Cosby Show falls from 5th to 18th in its final season.

Agree. After being off track from Fall 1994 through the first half of 1997, Y&R really rebounded during the second half of 1997, and that rebound lead to the amazing 25th anniversary year. 1998 was the last year I consider Y&R to be truly excellent.

@SoapsudsThat week was the second episode of The Cosby Show and the first episode of Murder She Wrote. The Cosby Show was the breakout hit of 1984/85 and it pulled up the rest of NBC's Thursday lineup, plus it saved the sitcom genre and NBC on the whole. Murder She Wrote was probably the surprise hit of 1984/85. Little did we know at the time that Murder She Wrote would carry CBS through some pretty rough years from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.

That storyline was part of Michael's redemption arc from villain to anti-hero. Christine and Michael should not have been placed in each other's orbit romantically after the sexual harassment/attempted rape from a decade earlier. On a totally shallow note though, CLB glowed up in 2002. That's another glow up we have LLB to thank for 🤣

Y&R is such a mess right now, it makes me sad.

Nikki's best or worst (depending on your point of view) parenting move was the wicked witch bedtime story to little Victoria. That lead to little Victoria telling Ashley "you're the wicked witch. Please don't take my daddy away."

Y&R has been broadcast in France since 1989, they started w/ 1986 episodes. France current episodes are from Summer 2019 according to "Les Feux de l'Amour" in France: Summary of episodes broadcast on TF1, actors, characters, news of the series... - Soap-Passion.com

So Nikki was the OG ho turned housewife?

There was a 1978 episode on YT where Casey mentions her kid sister but Nikki wasn't seen in that episode. I think Casey was introduced as the new doctor in town, and troublemaking younger sister Nikki arrived shortly after.

@Chris B Season 5 is where it starts to venture into Miami Vice territory.

1980-1982 was a messy era. Thankfully things stabilized by 1983 and we had that amazing run through the first half of 1986.

CBS already ended aging dramas in 1984/85 (The Dukes of Hazzard) and 1985/86 (Trapper John, M.D.), and in 1986/87 they should've ended another. The dramas that premiered from Fall 1985-Fall 1989 which had multiple season runs never really showed any signs of growth, hence the aging dramas lasting longer than they should have. Of CBS's Fall 1985-Fall 1989 dramas, who would've thought Jake and the Fatman would last the longest (5 seasons).

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was huge from 1999-2002, and in that same era we got Greed and Weakest Link.

Did ABC get to the level where Monday Night Football and Home Improvement were basically keeping it afloat?

Noah hasn't had any story of relevance since his late 2000s SORAS.

Another divorce for Sharon would be ridiculous. I say have Rey killed in the line of duty, and widowed Sharon rebuilds her life in the aftermath. Then she can turn to either Nick or Adam.

We all know how Victor calls people he doesn't like/trust by their full name.

The regime changes almost overlap w/ the trajectory of the series. Season 1, good start. Seasons 2 and 3, the peak. Season 4, still good but signs of tanking were showing. Seasons 5 and 6, tanking. Season 7, tanking but signs of going off the rails were showing. Seasons 8 and 9, off the rails plus budget mode. Maybe it's me but I thought venturing into James Bond territory during seasons 2-4 w/ the international crime group and war crimes storylines were attempts to shed the Dallas with grapes reputation, but that wasn't the way to go about it. I guess any series in the 1980s where the focus was on family/business conflicts was going to get compared to Dallas.

EB's first episode and Christmas 1981 top my wishlist.

More garbage time, yuck. We are one year away from Y&R's 50th anniversary.

The aftermath of Blade's death and discovering Rick's deception was Brenda Epperson's exit story. It looked liked Ashley was going to have another emotional breakdown but instead she left Genoa City for three months.

Second half of 1994 through first half of 1997 was the off-track era. It overlapped w/ the aftermath of OJ and the huge rise of Reilly's Days. Y&R almost got beat by Reilly's Days in June 1997.