Paul Raven

Beth Ehlers - the 'Barbara Stanwyck of soaps'...if only she'd realized... Kinda sums up AW's lack of direction in the 80's.

In the 1986-87 TV season, CBS came up with the idea of a crossover between 'Magnum, p.i.' and 'Murder, She Wrote'. Michael Eisenberg of CBS told 'Newsday', "'Magnum' has more viewers who are male, teens and children, while 55% of 'Murder, She Wrote's' audience is women. This could bring more women to 'Magnum'. If this works, you'll see more such crossovers." Robert Swanson of 'Murder, She Wrote' and Jay Huguely of 'Magnum, p.i.' "worked very closely together. Obviously, the tough part for Jay Huguely was to put together the first part, the 'Magnum' episode, so it looked like a 'Magnum' and, at the same time, to bring in Angela as Jessica so that she looked good. I had the easier job. I had to make sure with the 'Murder' episode that we had four or five characters, as always one of whom would turn out to be the murderer, while doing justice to Tom Selleck as Magnum." Jay Huguely mentioned, "All along, adjustments were being made to suit the two lead characters. 'Magnum' is pretty much straight action-adventure regularly, with a big climax. In this case, because of Jessica Fletcher, our show had to be somewhat more complex and cerebral even with all the action." 'Newsday' reported, "When their scripts were finished, Swanson and Huguely found they still had more to do. Since the shows won't be sold together when they're sold into syndication as reruns, each hour episode had to be complete in and of itself." B. Donald Grant of CBS told 'Knight-Ridder Newspapers', "The key to these things is to create a certain amount of linkage between these shows in the minds of the viewers."

Odd Angela would say that as the show was a hit right out of the gate. Sometimes,on air talent are several steps removed from ratings and such so she may be misremembering or not properly informed. Apart from MSW CBS only launched Charles in Charge (which went on to be a syndication hit) Dreams (with John Stamos) and the ill fated Cover Up (Jon Erik Hexum shot himself on set).

Well CBS did place it Sunday @8 so they must have had some faith in it. Probably feeling that it would flow nicely from 60 Minutes. The competition was kid oriented action/adventure Hardcastle & McCormick (ABC) and Knight Rider (NBC) In Wk 1, MSW ranked 9th, Knight Rider was 10th and Hardcastle was 32nd. The following week MSW was 10th but Knight rider fell to 32nd.

So the hospital, police station, and various other workplaces must be being renovated also...

Rockabye was the first of the CBS Sunday Movies that followed MSW. Crazy Like A Fox and Trapper John were not holding the 60Min/MSW leadin and being beaten by movies on NBC and ABC so CBS decided to get into the act. That week MSW was 3rd 28.5/40 and Rockabye 4th 25.3/38. Love how those promos tried to jazz up the show by showing fights, bodies falling from windows etc with cuts to Jessica showing various expressions. The only action bit they called find for her was rushing to answer the phone! I was probably her hairdresser cancelling an appointment..

Thanks for posting those interview snippets. I can understand that the show had become moribund with a lot of 'old' characters but the problem was the new characters were nor very interesting. Pat Falken Smith showed when she returned how to spark the show with new characters. Rabin claimed Guthrie and Eure had a future on the show but that never eventuated. Wesley claimed NBC canned him because he was gay.Did the same happen to Guthrie? Never read that Laemmle was doing long term story. Perhaps she took a leave due to her daughters death and there was a mutual agreement not to return?

Y&R has so many long running characters that need to be rested. Billy, with multiple recasts and awful stories should have been dropped at some point.

Donald Linahan Search for Tomorrow

Wk 1 89/90 1 26.1/44 N Cosby Show 2 24.7/38 A Roseanne 3 24.1 /39 N Cheers 4 23.5/42 N Golden Girls 5 23.0/38 N Sister Kate preview 6 20.7/32 A Doogie Howser, M.D.. special 6 20.733 C Murder, She Wrote 8 20.3/33 N Sat. Night Live. 15th Anni. 9 19.6í31 N Matlock 10 19.5/32 A Who's the Boss? 11 19.3/36 N Bob Hope's Lucy 12 19.2/32 N Unsolved Mysteries 13 18.6/33 C 60 Minutes 14 18.4/29 A Chicken Soup 15 18.1/31 A Growing Pains 16 17.8/30 N Hardball special 17 17.026 C Murphy Brown 18 16.4/30 N Amen 19 16.3/29 A NFL Monday Night Football 20 16.226 C Major Dad 21 15.924 C Famous Teddy Z 21 15 9/24 C Island Son special 21 15.9/25 N NBC Monday Movie 24 15.6/25 N Nutt House 25 15.3/27 N NBC Friday Movie 26 15.2/24 A ABC Sunday Movie 27 15124 C Designing Women 27 15.1/28 A Full House 29 14.6/25 A Free Spirit special 29 14.6'23 C People Next Door 29 14.6/25 A Perfect Strangers 32 14.4/26 A China Reach 32 14.4/23 A Doogie Howser, M.D. (Wed.) 34 14.3/23 N ALF 35 14.0/22 N Hogan Family 35 14.0/22 C Jake and the Fatman 35 14.0/27 N 227 38 13.9/25 A Family Matters 39 13.8/23 C 48 Hours 40 13.7/22 A Young Riders, special 41 13.6/23 C Newhart 42 13.5/24 C Island Son 43 13.3/24 N Midnight Caller 43 13.3/24 A Thirtysomething 45 12.8/23 C Dallas 46 12.7/21 C Wolf special 47 12.6/23 N Baywatch 47 12.6/23 A 20/20 49 12.1/21 A PrimeTime Live 50 11.818 N My Two Dads 50 11.8/12 C Wiseguy 50 11.8/19 A Young Riders 53 11.5/21 C Paradise 54 11.0/18 C Top of the Hill 55 10.8/17 C Rescue: 911 56 10.4/17 A Free Spirit 56 10.4/19 C Snoops 58 10.2/15 F Married...With Children 58 10.218 C Tour of Duty 60 10.0/18 A Life Goes On 61 9.8/16 A MacGyver 62 9.7/16 C Peaceable Kingdom 62 9 7/17 N Quantum Leap 62 9.7/15 F Totally Hidden Video 62 9.7/17 C Wiseguy. Wed 66 9.6/16 F America's Most Wanted 67 8.9/15 N Sister Kate 68 8.7/14 A Homeroom 69 8.6/14 A .Mission: Impossible 70 8.1/13 C Wolf 71 7.6/15 C Sat. Night with Connie Chung 72 7.5/12 F Alien Nation 73 6.8/13 A ABC College Football 73 6.8/11 F 21 Jump Street 75 6.6/12 N ALF Takes Network 76 6.5/12 F Booker 77 6.3/12 F Cops 78 5.6/8 F Open House 79 4.4/8 F Reporters 80 3.6/6 F Tracey Ullman Show 81 3.0/5 F Beyond Tomorrow

Never heard of this - tell us more...

Madlyn Rhue was dealing with MS that confined her to a wheelchair.From Wikipedia She also performed a recurring role in Murder, She Wrote, said to be her last television role.[8][10] Angela Lansbury created a role for her when she heard that Rhue was at risk of losing her insurance because she could no longer work enough hours.[11] The role would have been written differently to suit Jean. I'm sure her 'Jessica' would be more quirky and comedic and no Cabot Cove. More likely a suburban widow. What does Jean say about the role in her interview?

That makes sense. I just read up on the show and yes, cheaper guest stars were used to combat costs, so it addressed both issues. When Angela's Corymore took over production of the show, they were set for life. Several family members worked on the show and her son and stepson secured deals with CBS.

As idiotic as that name is, it is the kind of thing modern moms would do. Gets you a lot of likes on your socials.

Back to MSW. Was it a fact that in the final seasons, the guest cast was a lot less'starry' due to budget cuts ?

Funny I thought the same thing. Betty as a nurse or maybe a Waltons/Little House type wife would have been more believable and offscreen perhaps not as bitchy as Sue Ann but nonetheless with an edge to contrast her fictional character.

And she was Barbara Bel Geddes respected stage actress. The likes of Donna Mills or Susan Sullivan who came from daytime soaps and other primetime gigs were not deemed worthy.

Did Betty play a Sue Ann type character or was she softer? I guess the Undercover Woman premise was meant to be part of the humor as Betty is along way from Angie Dickinson. The videotape is a surprise as viewers were used to MTM shows being filmed. Anyway, Betty had a couple of weeks of good numbers but once the season was truly underway, CBS was clobbered by the NBC Monday movie which was feeding off the Little House lead-in. When CBS programmed an Elvis special at 8pm (#2 for the week) Betty jumped back into the Top 10 but that was it. It then swapped timeslots with lead out Maude before being dropped. CBS which was suffering on Tues as Three's Company was hurting MASH moved its Tues 9-11 shows to Monday and put in a movie on Tues. That immediately worked and MASH was saved and prospered Mon at 9 till it finished. Maybe if Betty was put Sat @9 it might have stood more of a chance in the familiar MTM slot.

Could you elaborate? That show seemed to have hit written all over it. CBS scheduled it for Mon @9 and early ratings were good. WTH happened???

No misunderstanding there I totally agree. Just because Angela wanted some retirement funds didn't preclude her from wanting to put out a quality product. In fact , that dedication from all involved ensured MSW resonated with audiences. That prejudice against certain programmes was around for years. Look at Peyton Place. Lee Grant was awarded because she did a guest stint whereas the regulars, who turned in some amazing performances, were shut out. This was at a time when there were virtually no women on primetime TV drama.Barbara Bain won for Mission Impossible. She was great but Dorothy, Barbara etc were also deserving. Same with the nightime soaps in the 80's.The women got some meaty roles but were never acknowledged due to the snobbery around that genre.

I think Cosby and the producers insisted that ADW play at 8.30 as evidenced by the fact that it never moved from that timeslot, when other 8.30 and 9.30 slots were used to launch and build new shows that could move to other nights to bolster ratings. I would imagine that Family Ties was expected to drop in the ratings by moving from behind the #1 show.It did far better in that timeslot than previous comedies and probably skewed much younger than MSW. That was one off due to a presidential address interrupting programming that night. Dynasty has already been thrown to the wolves that season at 9pm Thursday. Knots was still quite popular.

Was that because he wanted a younger woman as his love interest? That's what I've read in the past. Maybe he realized if he played with women in a similar age group he would probably not be front burner. His role had been diminishing for some time but at least he had been offered a story.

Thanks for clarifying. When AW debuted 'You take Me Away' theme in 87 how was the ending handled? I remember a 'rocky' theme music playing that had no relationship to the opening.Was that all that was used?

Ok .How do you recast Geraldine Page??

Poor Doris only found out that she was signed to do her series after her husband died and being the professional that she was she gave it her all. I think that dear Marty had worked his way through most of her money and she had to do the show to get back on a stable financial footing. the day production finished she leapt for joy and headed for the hills. She was also mentioned in a Falcon Crest spinoff set in a SF ad agency, although this probably went as far as a vague proposal sent her way which she promptly rejected. It would have been great to see her back in the 80's as she looked great. The most we could hope for is some TV movies about an animal loving lady crime solver. Why not? She had earned every cent by that time. How many times did we see movie stars talking about taking on a series because they loved the idea of the stability, or the scripts were so good etc when really they just wanted(needed) the bucks.