Paul Raven

Soap Scoop By Connie Passalacqua

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" may be the famous message sent by Mark Twain to the Associated Press in 1897, but its contents are most applicable to the fate of "Search for Tomorrow," daytime's lowest-rated soap opera. To both counter rampant cancellation rumors and possibly revive the 34-year-old show, a new production team, headed by executive producer David Lawrence, was brought in two months ago. "I'm delighted that in the last six-to-eight weeks,the ratings have gone up two share points, so what we've been doing can't be wrong," says Lawrence. "At least we're going in the right direction." He attributes the gain to the new headwriting team, Pam Long and Addie Walsh.

Both came to "SFT" from a lengthy, successful stint on "Guiding Light," where co-headwriter Long (a former actress  on "Texas") cooked up outrageous but highly original and entertaining plot lines. "Pam and Addie are an extraordinary and well-matched writing team. Pam's inventive and passionate and gets all wrapped up in ideas, and Addie, who's organized, gets them into shape."

Lawrence is also pleased the show's focus has switched to the activities of the three McCleary brothers Hogan (David Forsythe), Cagney (Matthew Ashford) and Quinn (Geoffrey Meek). Lawrence is an old friend of "SFT," having started his career there as a Procter& Gamble supervisor in 1960. He's spent the past 14 years in Hollywood producing miniseries ("The Key to Rebecca") and TV movies ("Consenting Adult ) through his own production company, Castle Colombe Productions Inc.

He also co-owned, wrote and produced the memorable movie anthology series "That's Hollywood." Lawrence says that he's at various waiting periods concerning work on an upcoming ABC-TV movie, a Broadway musical and a Peter Sellers retrospective for a British company. But when these projects get moving he intends to stay with "SFT," delegating authority to others in his company for his ongoing projects.

"So many people have come and gone from my position that it would be heartless for still another person to leave," he says. "And there's no use kidding ourselves, if the show goes into a decline now, we're finished. But if we can hold (the ratings) we have now and gradually build on them to add (another ratings point) as I intend, then I think the future of the show is good.".

Re Alex North. Could Samantha have been posing as Marlena when Alex met and married her. Maybe Sam with her low self esteem and other issues felt more confident as Marlena-the more successful twin. Could that have worked with some tweaks?

Another idea-have a young woman turn up at some point turning out to be Samantha''s child-giving Marlena a surrogate daughter.

Tara gets life imprisonment for tax fraud while others who committed criminal acts wander freely through GC.

The lack of Tara mentions is a perfect example of characters being ignored and creating gaps in the story.

The Tara character was poorly written and the stiff actress didn't help but have her serve some time then recast if necessary. There are a lot of possibilities with her back-the Harrison situation, and a possible love interest for Nick-with Victoria against it . Maybe a friendship with Phyllis and a romance with Daniel-lots of roads to take.

Somewhere down the track she will turn up, kidnap Harrison and turn psycho for a Josh one month sweeps story.

Staats Cosworth

Right To Happiness Jack Townsend 1956

Lorenzo Jones 1945

My True Story 1956

Elaine Stritch

Rosemary   Jocelyn Meadows 1948

2 hours ago, EdibleFlowers said:

Why won’t Tonya return? What’s the story there?

She simply stated that she enjoyed her time at Y&R but has no interest in returning for cameo appearances. 

Re Mamie. this has been a failing of Y&R (and all soaps) for years. Characters who have  family connections and have been important to the canvas are pretty much forgotten once they leave, with nary a mention.

If Mamie had have been mentioned at least, let alone make some appearances over the years her return would have had more impact. 

Now I know budget and availability come into play also, but Mamie being at Neil's funeral,a Xmas visit  etc creates a feeling of family and history. A Xmas card to the Abbots etc

I think it was Agnes Nixon whoo said too much mention of past characters drags the story down and short visits can make viewers think the character is back for good but I disagree. Appropriate mentions/visits add to the story.

Michelle approved that pic?

I'm getting Janice from The Muppets vibes...

This was the passage from the book which took aim at Erica Slezak

Erika Slezak neatly summarizes the change in the variety of characters to
be found on OLTL, "We don't have poor people in Llanview. We don't
have any more black people in Llanview. We have no ethnic people. No,
this is now a story about rich people and richer people. We're all haves
now."
Since we were the only blacks/ethnics, the reference was clear. I was shocked
by the gracelessness of the remarks. With scant credentials overall and virtually
none in the New York theater, Slezak had walked into a solidly established hit
that black theater performers had played a significant role in making into the
success that would line her pockets with millions.

However Erica was lamenting that fact not celebrating it. But Ellen didn't quote that part of the article either through ignorance or design.

The fact that it supposedly aimed for and appealed to a teen demographic speaks volumes.

There was no way NBC wanted its 3pm serial to be a teen soap. That only came about because of the juvenile writing.

With nothing else to boast about NBC trumpeted its success in the 11-17 demo. But I would wager, with many products, teens change their habits and later on don't want to be associated with anything to do with their younger selves.

This Moment of Time
Writers  John Pickard/Frank Provo

Show was a hybrid of Pickard and Provo’s Wendy Warren and the News and Concerning Miss Marlowe. It incorporates characters from both, and the five scripts  are virtual duplicates of the five scripts in the unsold TV version of the popular radio series Wendy Warrenand the News. Set in 1966 with Julie Allen, a TV personality,who we see both in front of the camera as a newswoman and in her personal life.

1977 Wings of Love
Aaron Spelling Productions.
 Proposed daytime soap opera about love among stewardesses and pilots, and
their families and friends.

 PRODUCER:Aaron Spelling Douglas S Cramer (executive);
WRITERS: Stephen/Elinor Karpf,
 

1976

The Glass Heart AKA To Love and Be Loved

Larry White Productions,Columbia Pictures Television. WRITER: Gabrielle Upton

 A soap opera about Tamara Tabor, her troubled family, and the Rolling Hills Hospital

A Girl Named Jo AKA Girl Alone

Writers -  John Pickard/Frank Provo
 A proposed daily soap opera. Tear-jerking saga of a Midwestern girl named Jo Merrill, come to New York to be an actress. Mentions Wendy Warren and the News radio program, so was probably proposed soon after the close of that show (1958).

Sharla AKA Beggars and Choosers
. PROD. CO.: EMI Television. •
Unsold mini-series follows seventeen years of the life of Sharla Taylor, daughter of Hungarian immigrants, making it big in the world of professional beauty.
 SCRIPT DATE: 03-02-1978.
WRITER: Hess, John D.; Nixon, Agnes.

More info on Agnes Nixons primetime soap originally scheduled to air June 77 but dropped at the last minute. seems at this point (march 78) they were trying to fashion it into a miniseries.

Although it appears Rick was recast at that time earlier in the thread we have this

On a scene by scene basis, there are often well written,acted and directed moments.

The overall problem is the bigger picture. The long term stories-everyone hates the business shenanigans, takeovers and job switches,all of which don't seem to have any tangible effect. 

The lack of sets, extras -no offices or support staff to give these corporations some semblance of reality. People living in the same hotel room and visiting the same eateries,sometimes twice or more on the same soap day.

Costuming is pretty poor-women's clothes look generic and men's seems non existent. All the men get around in dark colored cheap looking clothing.

I could go on. This is the #1 daytime show and looking at the numbers ,outdraws a lot of primetime stuff. 

They need to get rid of Josh, hire a new EP/headwriter and find some extra $$ for production. Wishful thinking...

And just to show that everybody has their own reality-this comment from another board

LOVE this actress. And based on the passionate viewer reactions her character regularly generates, she CLEARLY is effortlessly effective in selling ‘Entitled Ice Princess/Daddy’s Girl/Meanie to Adam/Business Sucess but Relationship Loser,’ and blah-dee-blah… I think Amelia H. is sooooo talented – and an integral part of the whole YnR cast. She keeps Victoria Newman ALWAYS a great, soapy draw for me.

It would have been fun to see Jamie, Julia's daughter come to work at Newman. A way of honoring the past. Julia could make pop in visits if Meg was willing.

Guiding Light

Jacqueline   "Jackie" Scott Marler Spaulding Marler

                    Cindy Pickett    1976-80

             Cynthia Bostick  1979 (temporary)

                     Carrie Mowery  1980- July 82

Dr. Matt Davenport    James Carroll    Dec 1982 - Jan 83  former boss and lover of Maureen Bauer; doctor, Nola

Martin Bruhner   Clement Fowler    March - May  1983  patient +BBert; taught Rick German

Lucien Goff       Andreas Katsulas ? 1982 - April  1982   One eyed man that was after Alan Spaulding

Ben McFarren  

                    Stephen Yates March  1976- ?   January82

The Paducah Sun 29th October 1976

 Actor doubles work in 'soap' By DAN LEWIS

Joe Sirola and the producers of a daytime soap opera, "Somerset," seen weekdays at 3 p.m., aren't taking any chances on the possibility the show may continue. At the moment, the NBC network reportedly is considering abandoning its six-year-old show because of anemic ratings. But should the serial survive or move to another network, as has been reported, both Sirola and the producers are prepared for any and all eventualities including Sirola's unavailability should some other offer arrive. Sirola will be seen in the series, as Fred Harrington, the kind-hearted, friendly do-gooder who, in reality, is the big boss of the underworld (only the show's fans know this) through Nov 1.

To accomplish this, even though his services were required in Hollywood, while the show tapes in New York, Sirola worked double-time for two straight weeks. He trudged out to NBC's Brooklyn studios every working day in that period and taped two shows a day. In the desperate effort to keep the show alive, the rest of the company was willing to do double time with him to get his scenes on the shelf before Sirola returne to Hollywood for the "pilot season."

Sirola is the veteran Broadway actor whose rich, resonant voice was his gold mine in a unique behind-the-camera career. His voice is the one heard on literally thousands of commercials.His face rarely was seen. He was in such demand through the years, that his annual income, he confides frequently, ranges from $250,000 to $500,000 a year. The voiceover bonanza permitted him the luxury of picking his spots. Theater was a first love, but, in time, Sirola yielded to the Hollywood fascination of television.

A number of great appearances in dramatic series led to his own starring role in a very short-lived series, "The Montefuscos," which lasted exactly four weeks on NBC last season. But it didn't take Sirola long to find his way into another series. He became the manager of the magic club in Bill Bixby's series, "The Magician," which, although not renewed, has been drawing good ratings as an ABC late-night rerun series. ' Sirola also continued to be in big demand for commercial voiceovers.

Love of Life

Alan and Barbara Sterling. Not seen in the last 10 years of the show.

`All That Glitters' falters in ratings. Lear show's numbers are off in three top markets after fast start, but there is not total unhappiness,

Norman Lear's controversial soap opera satire, All That Glitters, after solid first week sampling in the Nielsen overnights in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, has dropped off in all three markets, tumbling particularly severely in New York.

Glitters, according to researchers at WPIX(TV) New York, which plays the series each weekday evening from 11:30 to midnight, started off its first week (April 18 -22) with a 5.1 average rating and a 16 share. From April 25 to 29, it fell to a 4.1 rating and a 12 share. And for the week of May 2, Glitters managed only a 3.3 rating and 9 share. That's only a shade higher than the numbers WPIX was getting for the umpteenth reruns of The Honeymooners, the old Jackie Gleason half hour.

If Glitters doesn't rebound, WPIX sources say the station will be forced to cancel it, on the theory that anything below a 5 average rating would drop the rate -card price (now a reported $1,000 a minute) too low for WPIX to make a profit on it

KCOP(TV) Los Angeles' statisticians say that Glitters, which KCOP strips at 8 p.m., went from an 8 rating and 11 share for the premiere week of April 18 to a 6 rating and.9 share the next week to a 4 rating and 6 share the third (and most recent) week. But, in mitigation, Pete Schlesinger, the KCOP program director, says that the networks have frontloaded specials in the last two weeks to take advantage of the May sweeps and that he expects Glitters' audience to grow in June.

"The networks orient their programming to children at 8 o'clock," Mr. Schlesinger says. "We've got the adult show that's perfect counterprograming, so we'll get a higher concentration of the 18 -to -49 year olds."

On WFLD -TV Chicago, Glitters, at 10:30 every weeknight, kicked off with an 8 rating and 16 share average for April 18 to 22. It fell to a 5 rating and 11 share from April 25 to 29. But the show appears to have at least temporarily stabilized, hanging on to a 5 rating and 10 share for the week of May 2. "We're delighted with the numbers," says Dave Kenin, the program director of WFLD -TV, despite the fact that Glitters runs fifth in the time period, with WMAQTV Chicago's Johnny Carson network talk show (which averages about a 13 rating and 27 share) and WLS -TV Chicago's combination of off- network cop shows, made for TV movie reruns and specials (which average 11 ratings and 23 shares) number one and two at 10:30.

4 hours ago, Beachstorm said:

I told myself that the bedroom Nikki was trying to take a nap in HAD to be a guest bedroom. That bed was so small, there is no way she would fit in it with Victor. It wasn't even a queen size bed; a double at most.

Victor and Nikki's bedroom would no doubt be a huge suite with sitting area and a four-post, king-sized bed, not a small room with only a double-bed and two nightstands. LOL

They could have just put Nikki on a chaise lounge up against a wall to suggest she was in part of  a grander room. Again just some imagination and ingenuity needed.

27 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Are we supposed to pretend that Jill and Tucker were never married? Watching Jill interact with this Tucker, it’s really hard seeing them as ever being married. It makes no sense.

It’s odd.

Jill and Tucker were never married.

As Tonya won't return, should Y&R cast a new 50 something actress to come on for a few days to play Olivia? With Mamie back it would be the right time, and her presence would help with Nate's characterization.

Olivia was always a pretty serious character, dedicated to medicine and I could see Nate under pressure to be a doctor. They could explore that and have Olivia realize that unintentionally she had put expectations on her son.

And now Chance,who has always been involved in  law enforcement is moving to corporate...

Also Nikki's bedroom looked as cheap as fluck.

13 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

if they had transitioned Nate away from the work of performing actual medical procedures and into the administration of medical care or even have him gravitate to the field of biotechnology. He would likely spend more time in an office, in front of a computer poring over algorithms and spreadsheets.

An office??? Ain't gonna happen....Nate would be at a table at Society just repeating 'biotechnology' in every scene.

Thorn Birds was a biggie!

ABC -TV wrote another chapter in the history of television mini-series last week when it aired its 10-hour adaptation of Colleen McCullough's best-selling novel, "The Thorn Birds." Expected to capture around a 40 share of the national viewing audience, Thorn Birds powered past this season's other major mini-series, Winds of War, and finished its run with an average 41 national rating and 59 share. It was the first major mini -series since ABC's first, Roots, to have substantially built its audience from first night to last. Competition from the other two networks was virtually flattened on all four nights of the ABC broadcast, but although ABC picked up four -tenths of a rating point in its season -to -date average and came within one -half of a rating point of first- ranked CBS -TV, network researchers predict the season, scheduled to end in about two weeks, has been all but won by CBS.

Thorn Birds, which ran Sunday through Wednesday (March 27 -30), not only outperformed Winds of War in its national rating, but it did so episode for comparable episode. It takes its place behind Roots, which averaged a national rating and share of 45/66, as the second-highest rated mini-series of all time. Winds, now displaced from second, averaged a 38.6/53.

On its opening night, Thorn Birds averaged a 39.5 rating/55 share, surpassing the first night of Winds (39/53) to become the highest-rated first episode of any mini-series. It also broke Winds' opening night record for capturing the highest number of households for a first episode by attracting 32.9 million homes per average minute. The number of homes using television soared that night to 69.8 million, up from 63.7 million the Sunday before and 62.1 million a year ago.

Episode two's national average (42.4/59), surpassed Winds' second-episode average (40.2/54) by five share points and broke another record by capturing an average 35.3 million homes per minute. HUT levels averaged 70.8 million, 4% higher than the previous Monday's 67.8 million.

Tuesday's episode three captured a 43.2 ating/62 share, compared with a 38.7/54 for Winds, part three, and attracted an average 35,990,000 homes per average minute. It ranks as the fourth highest-rated network entertainment program of all time, behind CBS's final episode of M *A *S *H, CBS's "Who Shot J.R." episode of Dallas, and episode eight of Roots.

Thorn Birds' Wednesday finale averaged a 43.1 rating/62 share nationally, one-tenth of a rating point below Wednesday's performance. Doubling ABC's typical Sunday -night ratings to an average 32.8/47, Thorn Birds knocked nearly seven rating points from CBS's average Sunday night ratings performance and more than four from NBC's.

On Monday, ABC averaged a 36.1 rating/51 share nationally, while on NBC, a rerun of the movie, Prom Night (11.8/16), finished more than six rating points behind the usual performance of the NBC Monday Night Movie (17.4/26). CBS's regular lineup finished nearly five points below its norm, averaging a 13.1/19 for the night.

On Tuesday, national ratings fell short of doubling for the third consecutive night for ABC (34.8/50), but left CBS (10.8/16) with seven rating points fewer than it normally captures on Tuesdays (17/26). NBC, which pitted the second half of the two-hour pilot of its new hit series, A Team against the first hour of Thorn Birds, finished the night about a rating point ahead of its usual Tuesday- night performance, averaging a 15.2/ 22. The A Team repeat, which averaged a 26.4/39 in its premiere as a lead -out from the Super Bowl, averaged an 18/26 its second time around.

Thorn Birds' Wednesday night performance left CBS's lineup, which included a rerun of the movie, Scavenger Hunt (10.2/ 14), with an average national rating and share (10.4/14.6) five rating points behind its norm. NBC's series lineup (11.6/16.3) came in six points under par.

Overall, Thorn Birds captured an average 34.9 million homes per average minute and replaced Winds of War, which averaged 32.1 million homes per minute over seven days, as the top ranked mini -series for household delivery. All four episodes finished among the top 11 network entertainment programs of all time. ABC researchers estimate it reached 110 million people.

Probaly J&J are involved with something along these lines

The Boston Bulletin is a weekly newspaper with local coverage in the Allston-Brighton, Northend, South Boston, Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Roslindale and Hyde Park neighborhoods.

Only the Top 5 scoring more than a 3 a week average. Everyone else below 9th is on 2 a week or less.