Paul Raven

Desert Sun, 5 June 1981 NBC hunting for daytime viewers

By TOM JOHY Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP)

With ratings on the tumble and affiliates threatening to jump ship, NBC canceled that bold experiment in daytime TV, “The David Letterman Show,” last Oct. 20, and began a steady climb toward respectability. NBC’s share of the audience has increased since ‘Letterman’ left the air from 16 percent of the folks watching TV during the day to 20 percent. ABC, in the meantime, has lost three points, from 31 percent of the audience to 28, while CBS’ share has dipped from 28 to 26.

No one blames Letterman himself for NBC's near-disaster. The talented comic recently won an Emmy as outstanding host of a daytime variety series “Obviously, there’s been some sort of mixup,” Letterman quipped as he accepted the award and remains under contract to the network. “The pressure the stations put the network under was enormous," said Irv Wilson, an NBC vice president responsible for daytime programming “If we hadn’t canceled the show, the stations might have canceled out on us.” It was the kind of headache NBC’s president, Fred Silverman, didn’t need. Silverman has had his hands full since taking the job in the summer of ’7B, trying to lift the network from the prime-time cellar. But that’s another story. “I think it was a terrific idea to do that kind of show,” Wilson said in reflection “I just don’t think Letterman’s appeal was to the morning audience. But you don’t know until you try.”

NBC tossed a couple of new game shows, “Las Vegas Gambit” and “Blockbusters,” into the Letterman’ void, and the two have been at least moderately successful. In the meantime, Wilson and the people who work for him were determined to upgrade the remainder of the daytime schedule. “We hit a low point when Letterman’ was canceled,” Wilson said. “The two games that we put in there are sound, interesting programs and seem to be doing well. "We felt that the best thing the network could do was let the schedule settle in, then try to make the shows better improve the writing, improve the production.”

Among other things, NBC dumped Bill and Joyce Corrington as head writers for “Texas,” the daytime serial introduced with fanfare last August opposite the ABC supersoap, “General Hospital.” “Texas” recently has shown some sign of vitality, though “General Hospital” remains tops in the afternoon field with 37 percent of the audience in the 3-4 p m. slot to 15 percent for the NBC soap “Days of Our Lives,” 1-2 p.m., is NBC’s highest-rated afternoon show, with nearly a quarter of the audience in its time period. “I think what we have is better today,” Wilson said, “and I think the ratings show that the tactic is beginning to pay some dividends.”

Now, with momentum clearly a factor, NBC will test something new, a program called “Wedding Day,” in which couples will exchange marriage vows and share other events like the bridal shower, bachelor party and reception with the TV audience. “Wedding Day” will be broadcast in the “Password Plus" timeslot, 11:30 a.m.-noon EDT, June 8-12. “I think the show plays exactly to the audience we are looking for,” Wilson said, “and it’s going to be an interesting trial.”

Desert Sun, 6 June 1986

Soap opera writer pens comedies in his spare time

LOS ANGELES (AP) As a soap opera writer, Frank Salisbury earns his living putting words in other people’s mouths. Salisbury, who writes the dialogue for two episodes a week of the NBC daytime serial “Santa Barbara,” has been writing soap opera dialogue for the past 15 years. His credits include “The Guiding Light,” which brought him an Emmy award, “General Hospital,” which won him an Emmy nomination, “As the World Turns” and ABC’s prime-time serial “Dynasty.” In his spare time, Salisbury turns out yet more dialogue in the form of stage plays. But for contrast he writes comedies rather than the angst and suffering of the soaps. His play “The Seagulls of 1933” won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award. He has another play, “Shooting in Scotland,” which he hopes to have produced on Broadway. Soap operas consume so much material most are now an hour long that they require a platoon of specialized writers. “Santa Barbara” has three head writers, a script editor, three breakdown writers and four dialogue writers. ABC’s “General Hospital” has 15 writers, making the credits look like those of “Star Wars.” Salisbury said he’s always pleased when an actor follows his dialogue precisely, but he’s also resigned to the fact that most actors merely use the script as a blueprint and change the words.

3 hours ago, Khan said:

I tend to look at 1994-1997 as one of those periods when Y&R was still delivering consistently, but nothing on a whizz-bang level like when the George Rawlings or David Kimble storylines were still going.  It wasn't bad, it wasn't NOT bad, it was just chugging along.

Unlike other shows that would have a murder mystery every year or some new villian, Bill Bell probably felt it was more effective to space those kind of stories out and rely on the more'mundane' type plots, laying the groundwork for something more explosive to come.

I'm sure Bill had Kevin's mother named Victoria, fully knowing she would be revealed as Victor's at some point.

To ignore the MS is quite irresponsible. It should never have happened in the first place, but it did so should be referenced quite regularly.

How did the idea of Iris being adopted  come through at the time?

It seemed a bit out of the blue-one of those major plot points that had never been mentioned before eg I forgot to mention that i had been married before until my ex turns up.

The move from live tape to editing had taken hold by the 80's and therefore the style of storytelling changed.

It was more restrictive for live tape as scenes by necessity had to be longer-it was too difficult to change sets/scenes.

But tape became more cost effective and easier to use, so we had quicker scenes and more 'mini cliffhangers' as scenes that would have previously been say of 6 minute duration  got broken up into 3 2 minute scenes.

This was also a general trend in TV-watch some 70's shows and scenes feel overlong.

Did Hill St Blues have an influence here with multiple characters and stories cutting back and forth?

20 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

co-EP, Remember Me 1995

co-EP, While My Pretty One Sleeps 1997

co-EP, Let Me Call You Sweetheart 1997

co-EP, Moonlight Becomes Her 1998

They were all based on Mary Higgins Clark novels.

Have they learned nothing from saddling Nikki and Paul with Dylan?

Giving Victoria a grown daughter doesn't work for me. She already ignores her other children. And there is going to have to be a lot of explaining as to why it's taken this many years for it all to be revealed.

Having Cole return would have been enough.

Reading the transcript where Victoria chooses the name Eve after Cole's mother-a psycho who tried to murder her dad-so sweet! 

10 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I only recall because of a funny anecdote that Colleen Zenk told about taking over the role and basically spending the first few episodes going around apologizing for what the character had done under a different actress. I guess even then the character had started to become something of a troublemaker.

Apart from a short lived romance with Tom Hughes I don't think original Barbara had much story.Maybe she was opposed to her mom getting involved with Bob. But really I have never even seen any mention of her apart from stating she was Jennifer's daughter. So I can't imagine what Colleen's  Barbara would have to apologize for.

12 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

A while back there was discussion about the NBC affiliate in the San Francisco area not airing AW. I posted about it elsewhere. I knew a friend had lived there & watched the show but she is no longer online. So, today I got a reply from an AW fan who says she's lived & worked in San Francisco since 1983. This is what she said: 

 

I would hardly expect the NBC affiliate to tell their viewers to turn to another channel

If they were loyal fans, surely it wouldn't be that hard to find out the show was airing in their city?

Cole's comeback is way overdue-a pity the writing probably won't be  there. See Cameron and JT, Stitch etc

With so many vet characters, the only way to keep them viable is to dig into their pasts. Cole  was married to both Ashley and Victoria so the triangle can be revived.

Makes more sense for the characters than falling in love again (with either a newbie or matching them up with someone already there) and have them carry on like they haven't been married 6 times previously. 

1 hour ago, lucaslesann23 said:

Bette Davis?

Fasten your seat belts....Bette Davis in All About Eve.

30 minutes ago, Errol said:

Why oh why, can't some network executive wake up and realize that only soaps will thrive in today's markets? The second highest-rated talk show (syndication) is Kelly Clarkson with just 1.3 million viewers. GH, B&B and Y&R get over 2 million DAILY.

This was a similar sentiment to what Sally Sussman was saying when she returned to Y&R in 2017. Soaps were being treated as destined for the scrapheap whereas at the time Mad Men, critical darling, was pulling in fewer viewers than Y&R.

Just the right producing/writing teams could have kept the viewership steady.

The concept is good-it's a pity they didn't take more care , instead of Colleen having to vamp it up backstage while somebody filmed it on their phone.

Start with the music and a globe spinning in closeup-the hand stops the globe and the camera pulls back to Colleen in a chair on the GCAC set with a soapy smirk on her face and eerie music playing. All lit and photographed to flatter her.

Colleen looks amazing btw. When I read she was 70!

Michelle, this isn't about you. Sounds like she wants to shoehorn Phyllis into all of this...

1 minute ago, BoldRestless said:

Nothing?! Why, I bet Aunt Jordan owns a huge multinational conglomerate, she'll be killed off and leave the company to Nikki, to be merged with Newman-Kirsten-McCall-Locke enterprises in a board meeting at Crimson Lights. But who will run it? Adam, Victoria, or Nick?!

 

Would you call THAT boring? I bet they will even text about the merger from the Athletic Club bar and discuss it over drinks at the jazz club! This story could change everything!

Brilliant! You really get the show. You have the vision to be Y&R's next headwriter..

Don't forget that there will be multiple job shifting happening as top execs are poached from one company to another.

Kudos to Y&R-this story seems to be getting a lot of attention.

However, it will probably amount to nothing.

I get a feeling Cole will be innocent in all of this.

If Claire is Eve I will personally lure Josh Griffith to an isolated cottage and keep him captive.

54 minutes ago, JoeCool said:

When Monty returned to GH in the 1990s when it was slipping and ABC sought her help, the same tactics she used with success in the 1980s did not work and she was fired. Monty failed to evolve and adapt and did fully see why strong characters and stories always win.

When Monty came back I believe she stated that the 80's action adventure/couples formula was passe and the way forward was a more gritty, issues based approach.

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

n fact, besides directing 2 failed soaps & 1 successful soap, Gloria Monty directed a number of Movies Of The Week. That is one of the influences seen, for example, when Luke & Laura went on the run. 

Gloria directed Secret Storm for years, so hardly a failed soap.What are the shows you are referring to?

What MOTW did Gloria direct?

PATRICIA ESTRIN

FOR RICHER, FOR POORER            Megan Cushing    Jan - May 1977

ANOTHER WORLD                         Joan Barnard      June  1977- May 78

SEARCH FOR TOMORROW    Dr. Jamie Phillips Larsen Adams     June 1980 -81

COLEEN ZENK

AS THE WORLD TURNS      Barbara Ryan Stenbeck St. Clair (Stenbeck via Gunnar Munson Munson Dixon Munson Montgomery Stenbeck Coleman September  1978 - September 2010

Fresno was repeated on CBS in 89 in July and again flopped badly, pretty much the bottom shows of the week.

I guess it was repeated to try and recoup some of the investment, but even hit mini series repeated badly which was a downside of the genre.

I didn't find any record of it being shown in 87 and it seems unlikely they would repeat a flop show so soon.

So now we've seen aunt Jordan I'm more convinced than ever that the whole story will be some retcon maybe loosely based on a past event.

'When we met the Newman's on that vacation and drunk Nikki caused my beloved husband to be crippled for life, Victor thought paying us all that money would suffice. Now that Jonathan is dead I will make the Newmans pay for what they did!'

A poster on another site was claiming this new set was Sharon's cottage redressed!

It is a nice cottagey set, if not a little over decorated. Maybe bits and pieces of other sets have been used. There are echoes of the Williams house with the door and staircase and the windows look a bit like the old Rawlins/Carlton house-who knows?

One think I liked was the sofa-a contrast to the cheap bulky number in the Chancellor set.

3 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Today is Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, and it is an important day for soaps because from Sunday, Nov. 16, 1986, to Thursday, Nov. 20, 1986, six one-hour episodes of the parody miniseries FRESNO were broadcast on CBS, two episodes per night for three nights.

Fresno did not play 2 episodes a night for 3 nights.

It began with a 2hr ep on Sunday and then 1 hr Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs.

After an OK start on Sunday following Murder She Wrote, ranking 13th,Monday's ep , pulled a 15.2/22, which put the show in 36th place. (Parts three, four and five finished 50th, 52d and 51st, respectively.

Fresno was a floppo.

 SUNDAY DISPATCH,Pittsburgh  FEBRUARY 25 1979

A bold and innovative step in network history takes place when "Another World , becomes television's first 90-minute drama series this Monday. Four years ago last January, "Another World became the first one-hour drama in daytime television when it expanded from its 30-minute format. Despite the obvious pitfalls and dangers that accompany such a daring move, most insiders are betting that the venture will succeed.

Michael Brockman, Vice President Daytime Programs, NBC boasted "Another World production team made the transition to 60 minutes so easily and so successfully that we are extremely confident it will enjoy a similar success with the new format." Paul Rauch, executive producer of Another World" added. "Our talented cast and production people are excited about this development which will once again thrust 'Another World' into the role of a pioneer in the industry.

It is expected that Another World" will carry at least 40 regular contract players in addition to extras and bit players. Some familiar faces from cancelled shows who will join the cast include BRUCE GRAY (Ex. Neil Chapman, High Hopes") and CHRISTINE JONES ("For Richer. For Poorer"). Also JOE HINDY will portray "Burt McGowan in the expanded series.

Understandably, the show will have to use bigger sets, more actors and faster-moving story lines. There will be a special emphasis on location shooting which will increase the possibilities for more varied physical action. All this will enhance the program and reward loyal Another World fans with action-packed entertainment and high drama. Although production emphasis has been centered on keeping the viewer entertained, much care has been taken to keep the actors from collapsing after a long, rigorous, workday. Actors will be divided into a morning and an afternoon group to tape scenes out of sequence.

In this way an actor does not have to be on-call all day to complete his shooting obligations. After the complete days shooting, the scenes will be rearranged in proper sequence before airing, using the show's new. Sterling tape editing machines. Always noted for its quality performances and performers, Another World has won a total of four Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Daytime Serial in 1976. The series has also earned numerous awards from television magazines for writing, directing and acting.