Paul Raven

Sharon has had more work done on herself than her business...

Looking at that week Father Murphy was #27 beating Happy Days and Laverne& Shirley. Those sitcoms were weakening finishing 18th and 20 th for the season. But Father Murphy was the first show that provided any sort of competition. In Wk10 of the 81/82 season FM took the time period ranking #20 while HD was #30 and L&S #23 which I think was the first time ABC had lost that time period with regular programming since 1976. So no small achievement for NBC and Father Murphy. FM again won its timeslot in Wk 18. But NBC decided to move the show to Sundays @7 to fill that difficult timeslot. The momentum was lost as FM performed poorly up against 60 Minutes and Bret Maverick didn't do as well against ABC on Tues. NBC returned Father Murphy to Tues @8 for 82/83 but it performed poorly and was replaced by The A Team which became a hit and finally beat Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley on a weekly basis. Had NBC not moved Father Murphy it might have grown further and provided NBC with another much needed hit show.

Wasn't Eric's 40th anni set at TOTT? So 2020. That dumb story where some insignificant stalker mistook Victoria for Amanda and stabbed her among Noah's photo tribute to TGVN.

Maybe The Embers?

CBS must have known that those aging sitcoms on Sunday had a shelf life but it was difficult to tamper with. In 82/83 they made the first move by introducing Gloria with Sally Struthers which finished 18th but was cancelled. I guess the whole show never gelled and it felt old fashioned and too dependent on the Bunker connection w/o using it. There seemed to be BTS issues. Gloria displaced One Day At A Time which moved to 9.30 with The Jeffersons, rather than Alice the new 9pm lead in. That seemed to work OK with TJ finishing 12th down from 3rd and ODAAT finishing 16th down from 10th. Not bad considering they were another year older, but dropping nonetheless. The real loser was Alice displaced from Sunday and moved to Wednesday a night CBS had struggled with for years. Alice had to do all the heavy lifting, surrounded by new shows and up against 2 strong competitors The Fall Guy and Facts of Life. Within weeks Alice was dropped and taken off the schedule. There was no room elsewhere. Not a good position for last season's No 5 show to be in. Later in the season it was Monday night after MASH finished up but didn't work and CBS did better with MASH repeats. Then it went to Sunday @8 as CBS moved Bunker to Mondays. Again the ratings were soft. CBS moving Archie Bunker to Mondays where it flopped. So by the end of the season Bunker, Gloria were gone and Alice was weakened. Goodnight Beantown was introduced into the mix and didn't take off. CBS Sunday was going into freefall.

It was almost overkill in many cases. In hospital scenes, nurses etc were scurrying about, checking charts and having confabs. It was distracting. It was like now they had the money they were gonna spend it! The soaps had to compete but it was a vicious circle. The more they became popular, the budgets had to go up and so they needed those ratings points more than ever. Revamps were commonplace and soap actors became 'stars' who could demand more money and hold the shows to ransom in a sense. Soaps ended up costing more than ever to diminishing returns. And when advertisers began to pull back in the late 80's the whole system started to collapse.

I wonder at what point Irna changed the direction and structure of the show in anticipation of the move to television? Irna was enthusiastic about TV and talks about TGL becoming a TV show may have been in the works for quite awhile. Irna might have been thinking along those lines, knowing TV meant fewer characters and sets. So the decision to pretty much focus on the Bauers.

I'm glad the subject of sets came up w/o me initiating it. Joey's apartment was a total miss for me. It definitely looked like Andre's redressed which says to me we may not see it again. Basically a space with no proper entrance, just doors , a sofa, an oddly placed table with 2 chairs and some random light fixtures as well as ugly decor eg the urn and the pedestal . It looked cheap and thrown together. Overall the sets and set decor has been a mixed bag. There are not enough sets for starters. The country club and Orphey Gene's are fine. Same with Eva and Ashley's apartments as they are supposed to look basic. Martin/Smitty's place is fine. Uptown doesn't look upscale enough with the green walls and as for the airport terminal/mall coffee shop... The casino back room is awful. The Dupree house needs a study off the main room. Nicole got an office off her living room but the 'hero' set is confined to one room. And I'd love to know the purpose of that door to the right of the window-a closet? And the floor plans don't make sense. Nicole's and Bill's living rooms have the entrance in the center with no front door, just a corridor and the fireplace to the left. Too similar. Soap sets are usually by necessity quite cramped but clever designers have given the impression of more space by suggesting other rooms, creating specific areas etc Hopefully there will be improvements.

I believe the Jonas set was totally new in 1979 when Leslie went out of town, They then had Leslie 'transform ' the Allegro into a replica of Jonas' out of town restaurant when he moved to GC the next year. That then formed the basis for Gina's when she bought it from Leslie. They obviously preferred the newer set over The Allegro and twisted the script to make that happen. Maybe the same thing will happen today and somehow Sienna's LA bar will turn up in GC.

Superman Part 2 aired the following night and was #1 for the week. CBS would have to be pleased with its Sunday line up holding up so well and withstanding heavywight competition like Superman. Poor NBC suffered on that Sunday with a 3hr TV movie 'The Day The Bubble Burst'about the Wall St crash of 1929. It ranked 64 the for the week. Kings Crossing had an easy timeslot Sat @8. The competition was Disney on CBS and One of the Boys/Harper Valley on NBC. Disney that week was 'Cat from Outer Space' Pt 2 but as an anthology the ratings varied and if Kings Crossing was any good it should have done better. Maybe the timeslot was wrong for this type of show or it just didn't appeal. TJ Hooker replaced it and immediately began winning the timeslot, so viewers were looking for something to watch on ABC-just not Kings Crossing. CBS 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' aired Thurs 9-11 replacing Knots Landing/Nurse for that week. WW111 Pt 2 aired Monday night and was a rare success for NBC, with only Real People it's other Top 20 entry. 21-30 21 Little House NBC 8-9 Mon 22 House Calls CBS 9.30-10 Mon 23 That's Incredible ABC 8-9 Mon 24 Silver Streak CBS 9-11 Sat 25 Facts of Life NBC 9-9.30 Wed 26 Dynasty ABC 10-11 Wed 27 Father Murphy NBC 8-9 Tues 28 Laverne & Shirley ABC Tues 8.30-9 29 Diff'rent Strokes NBC Thurs 9-9.30 30 Gimme A Break NBC Thurs 9.30-10

Fridays got even stronger for CBS once Dukes and Dallas moved up an hour and Falcon Crest was added. Incredible Hulk never got the numbers of Dukes/Dallas. But the latter lineup was kept too long till ratings softened.

I think in some instances she was told to go with looks or charisma over talent eg when the recast Morgan they deliberately went with a 'California Blonde' type even though her acting was subpar and she was nothing like Kristen Vigard. Allen Potter admitted as much saying she would need an acting coach but the 'energy' was there. Probably the same with the Jackie recast. Told to go with pretty over substance.

Is this Leonard Valenta any connection to the P&G director? He did some acting early on before becoming a director.

Yes. She was sick and unable to attend. Y&R is as cheap with the kids as it is with everything else.

Patty can have scenes with Mary, Carl, Paul, Steve and Todd. All apparently alive and well. Or did they intimate once that Mary had passed? Everytime Josh dips into the past it's a disaster. eg the creation of Jordan and Claire, bringing back Cole and killing him off, pyscho Cameron,Matt back from the dead, Allie, Aristotle/Cane, bring back Heather and killing her off, bringing back Leslie as an extra and so on.

And guess what -at some point Patty will hold some characters hostage!!

Please do. This is detail that isn't available anywhere else. SON posters are the best!

AW resurrected the character of Elena, mother of Cecile, who had become a leading lady of the show at that time. And they cast Maeve McGuire, who had been super popular as Nicole on Edge of Night throughout the 70's and was returning to daytime after a few years away. Just over a year later Elena was written out.

Chelsea heading off to Copenhagen? Madison will be busy at work, probably making connections/friendships. What would Chelsea do all day in a syrange country with no family/friends? Given Chelsea's personality it's a recipe for disaster. I could see her sulking, getting possessive etc if Madison wasn't there 24/7 I'm sure Chelsea would be able to visit a few times or they rendezvous mid point for a long weekend etc. She should realize that it would be healthier for both of them to have some time apart. The depiction of the relationship hasn't been ideal. What do they actually have in common and how do they spend their time together? It's hard to get invested.

I was watching SFT from 1960 on YouTube and 2 characters met up at a coffee shop. It was a wall and a booth and looked fine. BTG could put up a fake wall behind the booths at OG's or Uptown and redress the tables and voila a meeting place for Randy/Hayley etc But the mystery remains as to why they are not shooting outside the studio...

Yes Susan has a had some very good work done. She is 79! I'm always puzzled why some women look great and others end up looking way too overdone. Is it just the wrong surgeon, or other factors?

Yes I'm really not sure what was the point of having Bill BFTD. Sure it provided some short term drama, but it didn't seem to go over well and Bill was off the show again in less than ayear. If they wanted to add some more Bauers eg Hillary there were probably other ways of doing it. Use the time that Mike was off the show in the early 60's for example to give him a son.

Thanks @Soapsuds Those Feb 2 ratings were an anomaly as CBS showed a 3 hr Shakeseare production. Viewers switched in droves to the opposition with the ABC sitcoms hitting best numbers of the season and even a dud like Circle of Fear doing well. NBC were reluctant to break up the Sanford/Chico duo but had they moved Chico to 9 they could have introduced new sitcoms at 8.30 and 9.30 which would have benefited the overall schedule as NBC had no other sitcoms and that was pretty much what gave CBS and then ABC the winning edge.

@Soapsuds Thanks as always. Glad to see some new 60's ratings. ABC having a great week Jan 4-10 with 7 of the Top 10. Were the opposition showing repeats and ABC's schedule was new episodes? Was that a practice at that time or did the networks just run new episodes every week then switch to repeats?

It's interesting to see Irna transitioning to the Bauers, who will be the mainstay for years to come. All the original characters from the revamp slowly disappear and the Bauer's take centre stage. I wonder why this happened? Why were the Bauer's not there from the beginning?Irna had a complicated story set up with Ray, Julie etc Maybe she felt the story had been told and she didn't want to go any further with those characters? The Bauers seem to be similar to the Schultz family that Irna introduced when Lonely Women was revamped as Today's Children earlier in the 40's.