Paul Raven

To add to your workload ! Jesse Royce Landis Donald Linahan Pat Conwell Gary Hudson Michael Carvel Thanks in advance.

It's always difficult when there is such a solid lineup for the network to know when to make changes that will revitalize the night before it fades. CBS moved MASH but had the Jeffersons ready to fill the gap. Then AITF was moved till 9pm Mondays and Jeffersons took over at 8pm. But the night was weakened by Doc at 8.30. And when MTM departed things went awry. Bob Newhart was moved to 8 and Jeffersons to 9pm with We've Got Each Other at 8.30 and Tony Randall at 9.30 and suddenly CBS Saturday was severely weakened .It took years for them to be competitive. ABC launched LoveBoat/Fantasy Island and NBC had a rare hit at 8pm with Chips. Maybe CBS should have put Betty White at 9pm Sat instead of Mon. That show started strong on Monday but soon weakened and was cancelled. Has anyone seen it? Was it any good?

It was always cool when EON, SFT and Y&R would play the vocal version of the theme over the end credits. I remember Search did these fairly often in the late 70's but for the others it was quite rare. I wonder why and when the vocal theme was used?

Maybe someone needs to start a Murder She wrote thread. I wonder how the show would have done with Jean Stapleton in the lead. It would have a totally different feel for sure. MSW saved CBS on Sunday. All their 70's sitcoms found there way to Sunday night-Archie Bunker, Alice, The Jeffersons and One Day at a Time and with the 60 Minutes lead in, they thrived. Any attempts to slip in some new shows to build a hit failed (Gloria, Goodnight Beantown) But they were aging, MSW came along and revitalized Sunday night.

The following week CBS aired People's Choice Awards Thurs 9-11 , filling the Knots timeslot and on Friday Wizard of Oz 8-10, pushing Dallas to 10pm, taking Falcon Crest timeslot. The week after CBS debuted 'The Missippippi' Fri @10 and it was an immediate hit. Thurs @10 saw 'Tucker's Witch' take Knots timeslot. It had bombed earlier in the season Wed @10 and was given another chance.

They would have had to recast. Wasn't it Thom's choice to leave? Had Phillip stayed on would he and Nina re-united? Would he marry Cricket? A lot of Nina's stories could have been played even with Phillip around.

The Y&R style ending with a character closeup held tight and slowly fading is really classic soap so that's a vote from me. Expanding on that a bit, can we also talk about end credits (when they properly existed) Do you prefer 1. Credits rolling over the logo of the show eg Day's hourglass, a lighthouse (GL) floating clouds (SFT) etc 2. A scene (or scenes) continuing as some soaps used to do eg characters continuing a conversation with music overlay 3. Montage of scenes from that day's episode 4. Other

Which shows the mindset of TPTB. It worked in 1983 ! Let's keep doing it!

Couple that with weight gain/balding and a desire to 'youthify' the cast led to Mart's axing.

Sept 27 Some highlights Mon won by CBS Square Pegs/Pvt Benjamin (Little House NBC won 2nd half hour)/Mpvie 'Drop Out Father' Tues won by ABC Happy days/Laverne and Shirley/3's Company/Hart to Hart Wed won by ABC Tales of Gold Monkey (beaten by Real People NBC) /Movie 'Money on the Side' Thurs won by CBS Magnum PI 2hr ep/Knots Landing (beaten by Hill St Blues NBC and 20/20 ABC) Fri won by CBS Dukes of Hazzard/Dallas/Falcon Crest Sat won by ABC TJ Hooker/Love Boat 2hr Sun won by CBS 60 Minutes/Archie Bunker/Gloria/Jeffersons/One Day at a Time/Trapper John(Beaten by Matt Houston/Movie 'Smokey and the Bandit 2 ABC and Bob Hope/Johnny Carson specials NBC)

Billy has insomnia. May I suggest as a remedy he watches the CBS daytime series 'The Young and the Restless'. Guaranteed to put you to sleep...

Kidnap you and replace you with a double who rapes your wife?.Forgiven and forgotten Arrange to have your rival's husband poisoned to frame yours? No worries, in fact it's kind of a turn on for the poisoner and victim who are inching towards each other. Try to murder the man who ran over your daughter? Go work for him. Get someone a job that they were free to turn down but chose to take and ended up loving it? Unforgiveable!

Jeffrey Meek Santa Barbara Joe Perkins cast but replaced by Mark Arnold before he began taping.

Yes the LOL move seemed a deliberate move to hasten it's demise. This is a show that played at midday/11.30 for its entire run.To expect viewers to follow it to 4pm was a big ask. Also a lot of stations didn't take the 4pm feed so there was even less chance of ratings growth. Edge of Night suffered from a timeslot change in 1972. Since it's debut it ran at 4.30 and then 3.30 which suited the format-many men and students watched and the show was Top 5. Then P&G pressured CBS to move it to play with ATWT and GL and the ratings immediately dropped and never recovered. By the time ABC moved it to 4pm the damage was done.

I really liked Callie /Cathy Podewell. My memories are fuzzy but yes, maybe she could have been a little smarter written. Giving JR an illegitimate child was a natural and it probably could have happened sooner. Never liked Sue Ellen and Valentine lingerie. That was dead end that took her out of the Ewing circle. She should have got involved in something that could affect Ewing Oil-maybe some environmemtal thing. Same previously with Lucy and Mitch. Lucy should have married a businessman involved in the oil business.

1966/1967 NBC made changes that dramatically changed the fortunes of all 3 low rated soaps. DOOL Bill Bell is lured from ATWT to take over.He develops the Mickey/Bill/Laura story,Susan/Julie/David and Marie/Mark AW Agnes Nixon moves from TGL. Ditches the Gregory family,and introduces Rachel and Steve among other changes TD Rita Lakin becomes headwriter and ratings jump. Steve/Carolee/Karen.Althea/Nick By 68 NBC was competitive in those timeslots

Not a fan of Tudor Style.All that dark wood . Looks like she had the Y&R set decorators do the interior. Someone noted in the comments that Elizabeth Scott the realtor is probably her daughter.

The 3.30 pm timeslot seemed to be the death zone for NBC soaps in the 60's and 70's. They had a solid competitive block of soaps (Dool, TD ,AW) from 2pm till 3.30 pm but could never build on that with a 4th soap. They tried Bright Promise, Return to Peyton Place and How to Survive a Marriage but no dice. It wasn't until AW expanded to an hour that they had success in that slot.

Y&R 1980 Expanding to 60 min and changing timeslots put Y&R to the test. The ratings fell but Bill Bell perservered and creatively and ratings wise things got back on track.

What? Once again the idiots in charge show their total disregard for the essence of Y&R. All stories should be played out at Crimson Lights, Society and the Goopy Parasol. If this continues we might see homes for other characters as well.

They can now write the show as a series of dream sequences where stuff actually happens.

Despite attempts over the years, soaps in the morning have never worked. Having said that, many parts of the country saw the soaps earlier because of time zones and daylight savings, so I guess those folks were used to watching Y&R at 11am or whatever.

Wk 2 72/73 season 1. All in the Family (CBS) 31.6 55.0 2. Friday Night Movie ( "Valley of the Dolls ") (CBS) 26.9 46.0 3. Bridget Loves Bernie (CBS) 26.7 45.0 4. Flip Wilson (NBC) 25.0 41.0 5. Hawaii Five -O (CBS) 24.6 36.0 6. NBC Monday Night Movie ( "With Six You Get Egg - roll") 24.5 37.0 7. Maude (CBS) 23.9 38.0 8. Mary Ty/er Moore (CBS) 23.5 39.0 9. Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC) 23.2 39.0 10. lronside (NBC) 22.9 35.0 11. Adam -12 (NBC) 22.0 36.0 12.NBC Saturday Movie ( "The Thomas Crown Affair ") 22.0 38.0 13. Cannon (CBS) 22.0 38.0 14. Sanford & Son (NBC) 21.9 38.0 15. Medical Center (CBS) 21.7 32.0 Rating spread of next 15 shows in listing went from low 20's to high I 8's: 16. NBC Sunday Mystery Movie ( "McMillan and Wife ") 17. NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie ( "Madigan') 18. CBS Thursday Movie ( "The Professionals") 19. ABC Sunday Movie ( "The Out of Towners ") 20. Bob Newhart (CBS) 21. Lucy Show (CBS) 22. Mannix (CBS) 23. Gunsmoke (CBS) 24. FBI (ABC) 25. CBS Tuesday Movie 26. Bold Ones (NBC) 27. NFL Football (ABC) 28. ABC Wednesday Movie of the Week 29. ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week 30. Mission: Impossible (CBS) Next 10 shows in list had ratings point spread ranging downward from low 18's to 17: 31. Paul Lynde Show (ABC) 32. Search (NBC) 33. The Rookies (ABC) 34. Dick Van Dyke (CBS) 35. Carol Burnett (CBS) 36. The Partridge Family (ABC) 37. Temperatures Rising (ABC) 38. Laugh -in (NBC) 39. Little People (NBC) 40. Brady Bunch (ABC) New shows falling below 40th position with general point spread in ratings between high 15's and mid -13's: CBS's M *A *S *H, Sandy Duncan Show, Bill Cosby Show and The Waltons; NBC's Ghost Story.

Yes these were the season debuts. The previous week, while some shows were debuting (Cosby/Golden Girls and others) to get sampled, CBS aired reruns of Dallas/Falcon Crest -probably the previous season cliffhangers- which ranked 43rd and 46th. Will post them if I find them.

Oct 96 The playing field for late night opened -at least, temporarily -last week when Fox announced that it will retool the new 13 Bourbon Street for a prime time, rather than an 11 p.m., time slot. The network had planned to release the show -about a group of youths living in a funky New Orleans hotel -in January, marking its latest foray into the late -night circuit. But Entertainment President Peter Roth, whose first month on the job has included the cancellations of prime time shows Lush Life and Love and Marriage, said "we're convinced the show can be a prime time hit." 13 Bourbon Street will debut sometime next year. Over at Fox, the late -night potential of 13 Bourbon Street certainly appeared uncertain. Affiliates, especially those owned by Fox, reportedly were unhappy about having to give up lucrative late -night advertising time to the network. Some also thought that the series, developed under John Matoian, didn't show promise.