Paul Raven

You're right Somerset was cancelled to make way for Lovers and Friends but NBC decided to place L&F at 12.30 to lead off it's soap lineup. I wonder if L&F would have done any better at 4pm? NBC had no luck expanding their lineup beyond Days,TD and AW. They tried Hidden Faces, Bright Promise, Somerset,Return to Peyton Place, How To Survive a Marriage, Lovers and Friends, For Richer,For Poorer,Texas ,Search for Tomorrow and then Santa Barbara,Sunset Beach and Passions. About 30 years of trying...

Thanks for posting. Roy Thinnes made a big impact on GH. He was cast on Long Hot Summer for ABC primetime and then The Invaders. I think he left to do LHS and then came back? Not sure of the timeline.

I don't believe that Lovers and Friends was ever shifted to 4pm From an article at the time NBC also said it would begin running Chico and the Man next Monday (May 9, 12:30 -1 p.m.), replacing new soap opera, Lovers and Friends (with 3.0 rating and 12 share in first 64 episodes), which "will go on a summer hiatus," according to NBC. The Gong Show was scheduled at 4 pm all through 77, having been moved from 12.30 when L&F premiered.

Around 1965 Love Of Life almost moved to NBC. P&G wanted to place All My Children at noon and create a 1 hour soap block-AMC/SFT/TGL but American Homew Products, sponsor for LOL, dug in their heels as they did not want LOL to shift to the less desirable 11.30 am slot. NBC offered AHP the noon slot but CBS gave in and LOL stayed on the network in that timeslot.

Re Lilia Skala Variety has her into SS in June 65 so either the above dates are incorrect or this was a different role?

Well Susan was actually a Burke and her parents were on the show in the 60's but then disappeared. It's so annoying that writers don't bother to address these family ties. Some mention by Susan at some point about her parents. I proposed at some point that there could have been another Lowell, Ellen's younger brother. He could have played some of Dan Stewart's stories in the 60's rather than the drastic and ultimately destructive aging of Dan. Then when Dan reached adulthood in the 70's,Ellen would have had more to do. On the subject of the quads, they were a wasted opportunity. They didn't all have to return at once, just like the Snyders appeared one at atime. Their names bothered me - Nancy, Greg , Maria, Lowell. Lowell was a good choice, but why not Claire(after Ellen's mom) James (after Ellen's dad) and Daniel after her deceased half brother) All much more meaningful and tied to history.

Fred Stewart Edge of Night 1965

Variety reported that several producers were vying for the NBC 2pm timeslot that ultimately went to Days of Our Lives. Colgate-Palmolive thru the Ted Bates Agency proposed 'Crystal' by Orin Tovrov, who was writing C/P's other soap'The Doctors'. Failure of Ted Bates to sell the show saw C/P drop the agency which meant they no longer made money off The Doctors. Lever Bros proposed 'Masterson's Valley' by Robert J Shaw. They granted NBC full say over program content but no deal. General Foods thru Universal proposed an update of 'One Man's Family' which had run on radio for years and had TV runs in the 50's. P&G proposed 'All My Children' which had previously made the rounds at NBC and CBS. To think what might have been...

In May 1965 Irna Phillips appeared on Chicago Tv (Irv Kupicnet) to express her displeasure over P&G not allowing her to write 'significant negro portrayals' on ATWT. She said she had been trying to get P&G to budge on the issue but they would not allow 'racial angles' or politics on their shows. She claimed P&G had been 'liberal and permissive' otherwise but when she proposed a story of divorce seen through the eyes of a young Negro child P&G nixed it. She asserted she would like to integrate her shows, but refused to use Black performers as 'fillers'. There were currently no Negro performers on the show as she couldn't use them as she wanted. P&G had stated that on the contrary they had encouraged producers to shape story without regard to color.

Donald Buka Love of Life 'government agent' 1965

In 1965 Emily MacLaughlin and John Beradino fought and won to be credited on every episode.At that point union rules specified cast list must be run at least once a week. Emily was on a yearly contract and John had signed on for five years. Guess they fought this together and producers decided it was a small price to pay to keep them happy. MacDonald Carey got credit on every Days ep and I think Joan Bennett did also on Dark Shadows. At some point Mary Stuart was credited on every Serach ep. Those 60's eps of The Doctors also list a certain actors in every ep.

Guiding Light Dr Walters Charles Randall 1965

Nov 65 Following a quick decline in the ratings of Peyton Place, other primetime proposals were shelved. CBS dropped a Sunset Boulevard twice weekly serial which Stirling Silliphant was writing for Paramount. as well as East of Eden, based oh the book and movie.

In a Variety article about Strange Paradise, it was mentioned that one of the motivations for going forward with the show was the the success of Dark Shadows as a 7pm serial in Cincinatti. The local ABC affiliate did not take the show so an independent station aired it in the evening to great rating success. The ABC affiliate then took it back at first opportunity.

Strange Paradise originally titled Garden of Evil.

Martha Greenhouse Love of Life 1969

Will Hussung He joined in September 1969

Sept 22 - 26 1969 Love of Life had just been moved to 11.30 against Hollywood Squares on NBC to make way for Where The Heart Is at noon. In the first quarter hour LOL 6.5/35 HS 6.5/35 In the second quarter hour LOL 7.4/36 HS 7.7/37 That was below Dick Van Dyke's numbers in that timeslot but LOL had more women watching. At Noon,Where The Heart Is edged out Jeopardy with a 37 share v 36 share for Jeopardy. In it's first 3 weeks WTHI had a 35 share, a 32 then a 37,so off to a strong start.

According to a Variety article from 1972, at the time P&G managed to get all of it's soaps in a block on CBS. they were pressuring NBC to move Somerset to 3.30 following AW now that EON was not airing in that slot on CBS. NBC refused saying that Return to Peyton Place had built to a 30 share in that slot and they were happy with that.

Jan 24 - 28 1972 1. Hollywood Squares NBC 11.5 2. General Hospital 11.5 3. As The World Turns 11.4 4. Newlywed Game 11.1 5. Days of Our Lives 10.3 6. Jeopardy 9.0 7. Sale of The Century 9.8 8. The Doctors 9.7 9. Edge of Night 9.7 10. Another World 9.5 11. Let's Make A Deal 9.5 12. Dating Game 9.5 That was the highest rating ever for Hollywood Squares and second week in a row as #1,Also highest ratings ever for Jeopardy, Sale of the Century and best rating for Concentration in 10 years and Three on A Match in 4 years.

Sept 25-29 1972 NBC 7.4 ABC 7.3 CBS 7.0 ABC did not program 10-11.30 at that point. Somerset was leading the pack at 4pm with a 7.1 v ABC Love American Style reruns 6.0 and CBS Family affair reruns 4.3 So at one point Somerset was a ratings success.

I wonder if all this cost cutting extended to the writers and producers or were they still pocketing the big bucks? It seems odd that they could just propose a 50% pay cut, aren't there some kind of union rules that would protect them from such drastic reductions?

Did Lily have to don the sexy underwear to please her man?

ABC won the daytime ratings for week ending Jan 9 1972. It was it's second weekly win in a row. ABC 8.7/29 NBC 8.0 CBS 7.7 Top 4 1. General Hospital 2. As The World Turns 3. Newlywed Game 4. Hollywood Squares None of ABC's afternoon programs ran 3rd in their timeslots.

The first 2 90 min specials on ABC 'Honeymoon Suite' and 'This Child Is Mine' won their timeslots. ABC pre-empted gameshows for these and the results were: Honeymoon Suite 9.9/33 This Child Is Mine (with Rosemary Prinz and Robin Strasser) 10.0/35 Of course they cost far more than the game shows to produce. ABC continued with more 90 min specials and CBS followed suit but I think ratings dropped as the novelty wore off and ultimately it was just not cost effective.