Paul Raven

Week of Aug 3-7 1981. ABC 10.0/34 its highest ever daytime rating for the 11.00-4.30 time period CBS 6.8/24 NBC 4.0/14

Jonas/Leslie 'Pris' There would have been a lot of unhappy posters if the internet had been around then. That story went nowhere. One of Bill's misfires. Jonas/Leslie 'Pris' There would have been a lot of unhappy posters if the internet had been around then. That story went nowhere. One of Bill's misfires.

Flamingo Road ranked #55 in Season One. It's ABC opposition Hart to Hart was #31 and the CBS Tuesday Movie was #47.

8th annual Daytime Emmy Awards ABC May 21 1981 2 hr ceremony 12.8/44 1980 on NBC for 90 min 6.6/24

Yes Noah's club is a sight to behold. Has it been used much? on the subject of sets, has there been a continued culling? Have the following sets been used recently? Sharon's cottage Devon's penthouse Bill and Lily's apartment Victoria's House

Fair enough, but I think the whole whimsical theme is way past its use by date. IRL unless a business has somehow captured a particular market, they would have to update after more than 20 years. The basic floorplan is fine, although I puzzle about the door from the back area-people seem to come and go . i guess if you order and pay at the counter its Ok. Otherwise they need some new furniture and decor. Maybe if CL served some light meals there would be more of a reason for it to be so heavily used. This is CBS #1 daytime drama, surely they could pump some extra $$ into the production. I'm not sure how the budgets work but dumping Chelsea would free up some cash?

Couldn't agree more. Same as people constantly visiting the dated and empty Crimson Lights. Surely there is some creative way of getting around this. To me it is distracting and takes me even further out of the story.

Jimmy McCallion Young Widder Brown Jimmy Davis 1942

When a Girl Marries, by Elaine Sterne Carrington, an CBS at 12:15 today and every day except Saturday and Sunday, sponsored by the Prudential Insurance Company. The average person can't understand haw a writer can turn out a daily serial script, day after day, year in and year out, with never a break. Elaine Sterne Carrington has reduced the whole job to a science. She works from Monday morning through Thursday noon, starting at seven in the morning, not doing just one script a day, but trying to do as many in one working day as she can. She keeps about three weeks ahead of the broadcasting studio at all times -that is, the episode of When a Girl Marries that you hear today was written by her three weeks ago. Besides When a Girl Marries, of course, she also writes Pepper Young's Family. An exceedingly vigorous person, Mrs. Carrington hates to lie in bed late in the mornings, but when occasionally she gets behind in her work she forces herself to stay there, dictating to her secretary, until she has caught up. It's a form of self - discipline. All of her scripts are dictated by Mrs. Carrington to a secretary, typed out and then gone over once more by the author; then mailed from her Long Island home to the advertising agency in New York which produces the program. All summer long Mrs. Carrington stays at her country home on Lang Island, refusing flatly to come to town. In the winter she and her husband and two children, Patricia and Bobby, move to their house in Brooklyn. Mr. Carrington is a prominent New York attorney, and the two children, 14 and 10, are editors of their own magazine, "The Jolly Roger," which has a subscription list of 300, mostly to celebrities. Other important members of the Carrington country home are the police dog Flash, the cat Red Davis, and a young goat named Alcibiades, who loves to eat cigarette butts. In New York, when Mrs. Carrington's scripts arrive, they are interpreted by a cast that includes Noel Mills as Joan Field; Joan Tetzel as her sister, Sylvia; Irene Winston as Eve Topping, Joan's best friend; John Raby as her sweetheart, Harry Davis; Ed Jerome and Frances Woodbury as her father and mother; Marian Barney as Mrs. Davis; Bill Quinn as Tom Davis, and Michael Fitzmaurice as Phil Stanley - who is the closest thing to a villain When a Girl Marries has. There isn't much melodrama in Mrs. Carringtan's plots, because she believes in real life characters who might be the people next door. Noel Mills, Joan Tetzel and Irene Winston are three of radio's prettiest young actresses, and having them all in one program creates a field day far CBS studio attaches. At any rehearsal you'd be surprised at the number of technicians, engineers, page boys and even vice presidents who find errands to take them into Studio 3.

Written by Peggy McKay (supposedly) for Who's Who in TV and Radio 1955 People are always talking about " women's" magazines and " women's" radio or television shows,as though women weren't people. Sometimes I get the feeling there are supposed to be two kinds of entertainment—"good" and "what women like." I'lI take exception. Daytime television serials do lean heavily on sentiment and trouble, but I think of the TV soap opera as a kind of daytime novel. It's got to have a love story and a family—people the audience can identify with. The people mustn't be sophisticated, nor cruel, nor hard, and a woman must always be the strongest character. She must suffer heroically. In, a way it's a harmless outlet for the urge to gossip. Women like to be concerned about people, and if they miss a show they can always ask the lady down the block. " What happened to so-and-so'?' It isn't so much that women like trouble, either, as that it makes their own lives seem easier. No matter what happens, the heroine does survive, and the audïence trusts her to find a way out that they approve of. In " Love of Life - I play the part of a career girl- Not a particularly ambitious, get- ahead type, but a girl who works to support a family. She's a cartoonist, got a job on the paper during a gambling exposé in town, walked right into the gambling dens. She's kind of direct, and the newspaper thinks she's wonderful. Her husband's a lawyer, going in for himself, so she's helping out. She can't have a child, so they're adopting one—it's the child of Vanessa's husband's former wife, but not of Vanessa's husband. The child is deaf and dumb, psychologically so. We'll be working with this situation for quite a while. Other problems are the kind that happen to members of the audience all the time. Proof that Vanessa is real to her audience comes in letters I get saying, think of you as a friend, someone I could trust." To be on a TV show is like visiting people in their homes; they talk to you as though you were real neighbors. People come up to me in the street, in Central Park, upstate, and greet me as Vanessa. There's one thing about daytime drama I'd like to say, too. People used to make fun of being on soap operas. But we have tried so very hard to make them as real as possible that more and more performers realize TV soap opera is a good place to be. There's a great satisfaction to an actress in playing the same role three times a week, and letting it grow. And, in a funny way, we on the show have got to know each other so well that the family repertory feeling is very rewarding. Even actors who comes in for short parts find it pleasant. " Nice to be here with you people," they say.

Top Television Shows for the 1981-1982 Season 1 Dallas 2 60 Minutes 3 The Jeffersons 4 (Tie) Joanie Loves Chachi 4 (Tie) Three's Company 5 Alice 6 (Tie) The Dukes of Hazzard 6 (Tie) Too Close for Comfort 7 ABC Monday Night Movie 8 M*A*S*H 9 One Day at a Time 10 NFL Monday Night Football 11 Archie Bunker's Place 12 Falcon Crest 13 The Love Boat 14 (Tie) Hart to Hart 14 (Tie) Trapper John, M.D. 15 Magnum, P.I. 16 Happy Days 17 Dynasty CBS dominating Friday as Falcon Crest debuts and all of its Friday shows now in the top 20. Same for Sunday with all 6 shows in Top 20. Tuesday is an ABC sweep with all but Laverne & Shirley Top 20. Joanie Loves Chachi played Tues 8.30 for a 4 episode tryout. ABC moved it to Thurs @8 next season where it died. Probably would have been better to leave it Tues and let it grow and hopefully replace Happy @8. Mash, Magnum and Dynasty all holding their own with no great help from lead ins.

The Jeffersons Debuts Jan 75 [email protected] in b/w All in The Family and Mary Tyler Moore 74/75 Jeffersons is #4 AITF #1 For the 75/76 season Jeffersons moves to Sat @ 8 as AITF is moved to Mon @9 75/76 Jeffersons #21 76/77 Begins the season Sat @ 8 but midseason moves to Wed @ 8.30 following Good Times Ranking # 24 77/78 Sat @9 then Sat @8 Out of the Top 30 78/79 wed @8 then Sun @ 9.30 Out of the Top 30 79/80 Sun @9.30 #8 behind Alice #6 80/81 Sun @9.30 #6 behind Alice #7 81/82 Sun @ 9.30 #3 behind Alice #5 82/83 Sun @9 #12 behind Gloria #18 83/84 Sun @9 #19 behind various sitcoms 84/85 Sun @9 behind Murder She Wrote - began fading , losing its timeslot to movies and not holding onto MSW lead in. Moved to Tues @8 and cancelled. Interesting that for a couple of seasons it outrated its Alice lead in. I guess viewers watched the first half hour of opposition movies and if they weren't interested switched back to CBS.

Michelle Stafford in her current go round as Phyllis. Those acting tics were always there but she amped it up x1000 in recent years,

Variety Dec 1980 Rodeo Drive NBC . Produced by Don Ohlmeyer exec producer at NBC Sports, who was expanding into other fields. Described as a Dallas like serial about a Beverly Hills patriach who runs a major studio. One son is an actor, one a studio exec and the third a lawyer. 4th child is a daughter who runs a Rodeo Drive boutique. NBC put up development money for a script but it didn't seem to go any further.

If only Y&R could have bitten the bullet and thanked Amelia Heinle for her portrayal of Victoria, wished her well and recast with Gina Tognoni instead of wasting GT on Phyliis...

Regis' NBC show was always 30 min .It ran from Nov 30 1981 to April 9 1982. His LA show was an hour.

NBC was a mess in the early 80's. In July 1980 they averaged a 5.0/20 over the previous 14 weeks compared to ABC 7.5/29 and CBS 6.5/26 In its debut week NBC's David Letterman 90 min morning show had a 2.6/13 compared to a 3.6/18 for the 3 gameshows it replaced. NBC obviously hoped it would build but that never happened. The week of Letterman's debut NBC could only manage a 4.5/18 daytime rating.

Martha Greenhouse One Life to Live ??? at least 4 episodes May/June 1980

Even though Eileen is at least ten years older than TSJ she looks fine with him.

When most soaps went to an hour that was the end of counterprogramming and variety in daytime. ABC grabbing LMAD was a coup for them, even if they had to agree to Monty Hall getting some primetime specials which they usually threw away in undesirable slots.

Thought I'd get the thread back on track by posting some ratings from the 70's! March 73 1 ATWT 10.6 2 Hollywood Squares 10.3 3 AW 9.7 4 DOOL 9.5 5 GH 9.4 6 Newlywed Game 9.2 7 Lets Make a Deal 8.9 8 Jeopardy 8.8 9 TGL 8.7 10 TD SFT Split Second all 8.6

variety May 1980 ABC proposes GH spinoff dealing with the young doctors of the hospital. That is the earliest mention I have seen of that project. Also ABC is developing a serial out of 'Bell, Book and Candle' a play and Kim Novak/James Stewart movie of the 50's. That project later turned up as an NBC proposal.

GH and OLTL both went to an hour on the same day Jan 16th 1978.

NBC announced plans for Flamingo Road to be revamped into a daytime serial in the 3pm slot. May 82 The disappointment over the daytime schedule was reflected during the affiliate meeting with the network by one representative who inquired about development plans there. The network's answer was that several serials are in development, based variously on Flamingo Road,Scruples, Bell Book & Candle, a supernatural theme, and "glossy magazine" setting. Obviously a lot of the roles would have to have been recast which, as you say,would have diluted the appeal. Maybe Barbara Rush, Stella Stevens, Woody Brown might have been persuaded to continue but I can't see the rest of the cast doing a daytime soap.

Leslie Charleson was hired before Gloria took over as was Doug Marland. I do not believe that Ms Monty ever directed Live of Life.