Paul Raven

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

It's unclear from my brief persual of the book when Steve became aware that he had a different father, before or after Nick's death.

Pretty sure it was after.

Nick's dying wish that Steve and Betsy not get involved -what was that about? Odd thing to think about when you're dying and even odder that it would be acted upon.

What was the background to that?

5 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I'd argue Hill St. Blues, LA Law, and St. Elsewhere, although most involved with them would probably have retched if you called them soaps.

Those shows had soapy elements but we all know they were not soaps.

To fit NBCs brand I guess  their soap should have been urban,maybe  a little gritty and daring.

Sisters was a relative success.Did it fit the NBC brand?

On 11/25/2023 at 3:19 AM, Khan said:

Similarly, TEXAS and SaBa never should have premiered at sixty minutes each.  (Same goes for SuBe and PASSIONS). 

Only NBC ever tried to debut a 60 min soap and each of the 4 attempts failed.

However, launching a 30 min show was no guarantee of success either see Loving, Pt Charles, The City , Generations etc

Only B&B survived.

The whole premise of Texas was flawed. The setting gave it a poor man's Dallas feel and anyone tempted to watch would be major dissapointed if they were expecting any of the flavor of Dallas.

Taking away Iris from an already flailing AW and then changing the character was also a bad move for both shows.

Seeing how the Corringtons were New Orleans based and had already incorporated that flavor into SFT, why not launch a new 30 min soap 'Orleans' based there?

Thanks for reviving this topic. i just whiled away half an hour revisiting.

Soaps first wedding of black characters OLTL Ed & Carla 1973

Brian and Claudia

Very prim and proper.The Lauren of today would be showing a lot more skin and glitter.

One (of many!) nit pick I have is the character's name. 

What 70 yr old woman would be named Jordan? It just seems odd to me-it was not a female name back in the 50's.

Don't think it took off the 80's.

A divorcee living in the KL cul de sac would have been interesting and timely. Constance McCashin would have nailed it with John Pleshette as her ex who always wanted to get back together. A lot of story to explore there.

Laura making forays into the dating world, getting a job etc

Also  have Richard as a friend of Sid's working at Knots Landing motors to keep him in the story.

And also to add extra spice, have Kenny and Ginger living together rather than married.The first ep could show them deciding to co-habitate .But  Kenny and Ginger's motives would be different,and that could be explored.

That would have been a bit out there for 1979. 

On AMC,didn't Erica grow close to Myrtle after Mona died? I guess literally and figuratively, Myrtle became the stable mother figure Erica turned to.

On SFT, Jo fostered a teen boy Bruce who grew into adulthood throughout the 70's. In a sense he took the place of Jo's son Duncan who was killed off as an infant in the 50's and would have been that age by the 70's.

B&B

I recall Sally Spectra dressed as a man to infiltrate Forrester? Can't find a pic.

Y&R

Christine disguised herself as Kelly something at one point. I wasn't watching at that point. What was the story?

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

At the same time, KL in season 1 wasn't sustainable and had to evolve.  It was given ample amounts of time until it found its groove.

Nowadays the show would have been canceled a few episodes into the first season.

Agree that having 4 married couples was limiting.

And the self contained episodes were eating up too much story. Karen's possible affair, Laura's rape etc could have gone on several episodes.

However, I don't agree that the the show would be cancelled. Knots ratings were inconsistent. Ep #1 was 23rd for the week,then 14th, 36th, 30th,14th , 38th and so on.

Not great but not cancellation worthy, neither then or now.

6 hours ago, danfling said:

The article failed to mention my favorite ABC program, The Edge of Night.

ABC did not own Edge of Night, so I wonder how much influence Jackie Smith could have? Not as much obviously,and I guess that's why Edge was always neglected .

2 hours ago, j swift said:

Because it sucks that a genre created to sell household products constantly implies that no woman's life is complete without a child. 

An interesting sideline to that is that there were several women on soaps who were portrayed as heroines, an ideal to look up to but never given children even though they were married and able to bear children

Van on Love of Life married Bruce and was saddled with stepchildren, yet never had any of her own.

Nancy on Edge of Night-again had a stepdaughter but she and Mike never had a child.

Maggie on The Doctors had a daughter then found true love with Matt but no kids with him.

What about Carla on OLTL? 

There are probably more.

And then there were those women who were written as unable to bear children -Penny on ATWT, Alice on AW. Why were they 'punished' in that way?

We had to endure the Diane return and now this.

Digging into the past shouldn't mean coming up with dumb retcons that resurrect dead characters.

Interesting to see if Eve has more longevity than Allie.

And the explanation as to why Jordan has waited decades for revenge, which at this point consists of gathering the Newmans together and poisoning them.

What about when Bill Bell had Victor spank Nikki for her misbehaviour?

A lot of things that wouldn't fly today went through w/o comment because it was a different time. Simple as that.

That is what some people fail to understand by constantly judging things by today's standards .

ABC's Daytime Performance Has Shone Since Jackie Smith Arrived

By TOM JORY NEW YORK (AP) Jacqueline Smith says she was a bit nervous when she took over as vice president for daytime programs at ABC three years ago last March. "I'd worked in daytime before, but mostly children's programs," she recalls, "and now I was responsible for all of these shows. "I looked at what we had on the air. Brain tumors all that predictable stuff that had been the bread and butter of the daytime serial since radio. And I wanted to liven things up."

ABC has, since Jackie Smith took over, become the No. 1 network in daytime by a comfortable margin. And though she's reluctant to take all the credit, the fact is the most successful shows in the ABC lineup "General Hospital," "All My Children," "One Life to Live," "Ryan's Hope" have soared in the ratings during her tenure. Through July, the four shows were the highest-rated in daytime , with "General Hospital" reaching an average of 4.84 million women in the desired 18-49 age group.

In the week of Aug. 18-22, the most recent for which figures are available, 'General Hospital" had 40 percent of the audience opposite "Guiding Light" on CBS with 25 and NBC's new "Texas" with 16. In that same period, the network's daytime lineup averaged 34 percent of the audience for the entire week, compared with 27 percent for CBS and 16 for NBC.

ABC now has been the highest-rated network in daytime for nearly three years. "I've tried to look back and say, 'How did all this happen?'" Ms. Smith says. "Spicier stories. And streamlining, I think. "Agnes introduced the faster format," she says, referring to the legendary Agnes Nixon, who created both "One Life to Live" and "All My Children." "We've taken that, and gone in the direction of suspense, high suspense, rather than the kitchen sink variety of story. "And then we've been aggressive in promoting our product."

Jackie Smith's career in broadcasting began with a book on educational television called "TV The New Teacher." She later was a writer-producer at KPIX-TV in San Francisco, where she won three George Foster Peabody awards for children's programming. She came to New York as director of on-air promotion at WPIX-TV, and joined CBS in 1963 as executive producer for daytime programs. While at CBS, she initiated the network's award-winning Children's Film Festival.

Ms. Smith spent three years as director of special projects for Warner Brothers Television, and returned to CBS in 1974 as director of special programs. At ABC, she is responsible for development and production of all daytime series, and she clearly enjoys her job. "I think we're entering a Golden Age of Daytime' she says, with characteristic enthusiasm, "when the audience will no longer accept stories that do not have energy and humor."

"General Hospital" is. in a sense, the showcase series in ABC's daytime lineup. "There was a story line on 'General Hospital' some time ago," Ms. Smith says, "where a man was tampering with the brakes on someone else's car. That doesn't really have much fantasy and emotion to it. We're talking there about crazed people. "Now we have two of the series' leading people, Luke and Laura, on the run. searching for answers to a mystery. And if they are successful in their search, they will have the ammunition to unmask a very heavy villain. I don't believe in the history of daytime we've ever had a story like Luke and Laura."

On 11/23/2023 at 4:40 AM, Donna L. Bridges said:

classics like Sho-Gun, The Thornbirds & Bare Essence. 

To me that was a campy type comment. Hence my reply.

In May 89,after a 10 yr stint as VP of NBC daytime Brian Frons departed and Jackie Smith, who headed ABC daytime  from 77-86, was brought in to fix things.

I'm surprised Frons lasted that long, when NBC had limited success all those years. Who knows, if they had shown Frons the door earlier, maybe NBC daytime might have had more success?

What do you think NBC could have/should have done in the 80's to improve their fortunes?

1 hour ago, BoldRestless said:

she also finds a group of guys in the woods but they're high and can't help her

That would be a scene worth seeing. I can picture a frantic Nikki trying to get through to those guys.

I can imagine the stoned guys dialogue-

"Man, that crazy chick is freaking me out. She's really sending out some bad karma"

"Hey pretty lady, you need to catch some cool vibes' etc 

Search for Tomorrow

Prof. Jim McCarren      Mike Shannon     Dec 1971- Oct 73 Lauri's English  professor       married + Lauri Leshinski Phillips .Died in car accident on honeymoon.

Mitch Farmer         ???               July 1974    former fiance of  Paula Markham,who returned to Henderson finding Paula now engaged to Stu. Stu forced Paula to face her lingering feelings for Mitch and she and Mitch  left town together.

Michael Kendall    Tom Sullivan  April - Sept 83  Son of Lloyd  Blind piano player, fell in love with former hooker turned singer, Jenny Deacon and adopted her daughter, Andrea, a diabetic. Married Jenny and left town.

Dr. _______ Facciola             Conrad Bain    1971 Janet Walton's doctor when she is hospitalized during her pregnancy.

On 11/23/2023 at 8:19 AM, lucaslesann23 said:

Jordan and Claire reveal their motives.

That is going to be interesting...

13 hours ago, allmc2008 said:

Matt allowing Maggie to practice; Don allowing Marlena to Practice; Stuart Brooks encouraging his daugther, Leslie's, career aspirations; Adam being okay with his wives having careers.

 

Ummm, men allowing women to have careers ? 

On 11/23/2023 at 4:40 AM, Donna L. Bridges said:

classics like Sho-Gun, The Thornbirds & Bare Essence. 

When I think of classics Roots, Holocaust and Malibu come to mind.

7 hours ago, lucaslesann23 said:

Yes, still on contract according to the credits.

We have learned that Y&R credits can't be trusted. Unless she got the Kate Linder contract deal.

On 11/22/2023 at 1:55 PM, j swift said:

@Paul RavenYes, but the term Lichtenstein Dilemma is not just about a long-lost kid, as much as it is about a woman who uncharacteristically became an instant mother as they aged up.

I guess Stephanie on SFT would fit that criterion.

She had Wendy but they wanted a new young male so why not rewrite Stephanie's past.

Maggie on Days was given a long lost daughter, never mentioned in decades and an egg baby(the dreaded Daniel) 

A pity that Cole/Victoria flashbacks can't be used, especially with the story they appear to be telling.

And Neil/Victoria was erased the minute they broke up.

Kinda like Jack/Sharon years later.

1 hour ago, lucaslesann23 said:

I think at the time because They just hired and rehired Michael graziadei and Trevor St John. Someone had to go to pay for them.

Melissa Claire Egan?