Paul Raven

From earlier in the thread

Feb 70

Marshall Karp was out as Daytime VP to be replaced by Michael Eisner.

Under his tenure. Karp oversaw the launch and cancellation of The Best of Everything after a very short run, A World Apart struggling, resulting in the dismissal of Irna and Katherine Phillips and Dark Shadows falling in the ratings.

Eisner's first move upon taking over was cancelling Dark Shadows and replacing it with Password. One other contender was The Reel Game which had been running in primetime, but it was decided Password was more familiar to audiences.

On 8/16/2023 at 6:05 AM, Donna L. Bridges said:

Lin Bolen, NBC VP picked AW as first for expansion. It was the network's idea, plan, scenario because they had the most to gain - increased ad revenue. Rauch got on board. Lemay got on board. They did not fight against it like Nixon, Bell & Labine did. But it was not their idea. 

From Lemay's book

Early in 1974, I was approached about writing another of the six soaps produced by
Procter and Gamble. I resisted that but expressed an interest in expanding “Another World” to a daily sixty-minute format instead.

The sponsors and producer started complicated negotiations with the network and countered strong opposition from the ambitious young woman vice-president in charge of daytime programming. The show had long since led the network’s daytime ratings (and quite often led the ratings on all three networks), which made her reluctant to change its format. Procter and Gamble persisted and, certain that they would prevail, Paul and I made plans to enlarge the cast from twenty to over thirty and to widen the range of cultural and economic milieus in the story.

Well we have two versions as to who initiated and supported the expansion. 

I wonder how Doug Marland felt to see GL doing so well at #3 when he was still toiling away at Loving ?

48 minutes ago, watson71 said:

Surprised that AW didn’t get a more of a bump during February sweeps.

That storyline of Mac presumed dead-viewers knew that wasn't going to happen. It didn't come from anything built up and had no long term repercussions. So just a location shoot and some fake drama.

10 hours ago, 1974mdp said:

When was the last time we saw this much of Esther within one month?! I always enjoy her appearances because the character reminds me of the 80s when I first started watch the show as a kid. I hope with Crimson Lights we get to see her a bit more than we have the past years.

Quite odd when Esther has been hauled out for a handful of appearances each year.

Happy for Kate though.

ABC had neither the finances or affiliates to mount a daytime schedule in the 50's.

Mickey Mouse and Bandstand were used to try and mount late afternoon programming block includinng 'Do You Trust Your wife? 

Finally in Oct 58 they mounted a full daytime schedule including Liberace, Day in Court and Beat the Clock. All pretty cheap and cheerful. But no soaps.

They got close to airing a soap called Hope Springs with a western format but it was dropped at the last minute.

The nearest they got to a soap before GH was Road to Reality which dramatized group therapy sessions.

June 1989

The continuing drama of continuing dramas

Once mighty prime time soap has slipped in ratings and is, for now, exclusive province of CBS

In 1985, a quarter of the top 20 prime time network programs were episodic melodramas, better known as prime time soaps. CBS had capitalized on the tremendous success of Dallas with a spin-off, Knots Landing, and another offering, Falcon Crest. ABC had countered with Dynasty and Hotel, then later the Dynasty spin -off, Dynasty II: The Colbys. Today, Hotel and The Colbys are history, and with the departure of Dynasty from ABC this year after nine seasons, CBS, with Dallas (entering its 13th season), Falcon Crest and Knots Landing,claims the only remaining prime time soap operas on commercial network television.

Once the owner of a reserved seat in the Nielsen Rating's Top 10, Dallas has been finding its numbers slipping. At the same time, prime time dramas such as L.A. Law and thirtysomething are using variations of the continuing storyline in their reality  based scripts. Does the remaining prime time soap producer see the borrowing of reality based elements as the solution to further erosion of the soap genre?

"Dallas has done well by moving closer to a reality based format," said Lorimar Telepictures President David Salzman, who oversees the production of Dallas, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest. "When we took Dallas to Russia, it reflected what Ameri- can businessmen may be facing in dealing with the new openness of glasnost. But we must never forget what makes a show successful. People are naturally attracted to stories of wealth and power." "The wealth of Dynasty, The Colbys and Hotel brought in the glitzy settings and costumes- that's past its peak," suggested Knots Landing executive producer David Jacobs. "I think for a while during the Reagan years it was O.K. to be ostentatiously wealthy and glitzy. All of a sudden it has been distasteful in the post- Boesky era," he said, referring to Ivan Boesky, who was indicted for insider trading.

For the classic prime time soaps that remain, however, the ratings peak may have passed as well. Dallas finished the first run 1988 -89 season with an average 15.4 rat - ing/26 share, down from two years ago's potent 21.3/34 average. In the 1986 -87 sea- son, Falcon Crest scored a 17.4/25 average; this year it recorded a 12.5/22. Knots Landing was the only one to show improvement, scoring a 16.1/28 average for the 1988 -89 season, following a 15.8/27 average the year before.

Although the soap genre may be slipping somewhat, other serial dramas have pickedup on the continuing story lines, or "arcs," pioneered in prime time by the likes of Dallas. "L.A. Law has an advantage of using less than five episode arcs," said Dallas executive producer Leonard Katzman. "They have adapted the soap formula into their program, except in a smaller arc. We find that most of the story that we try to tell usually goes over a five- or six -week period. It may be that viewers don't necessarily want to have to stay involved episode after episode with what is transpiring throughout the arc. That's why we introduced story summaries at the beginning of each new episode, so viewers can catch up on the storyline if they missed the previous episode."

"Look at thirtysomething [which employs continuing story lines]. It finished 47th in the ratings," Jacobs said. "It's not that the genre is changing, it's the varied stories and characters that are changing. At some time, thirtysomething is going to find itself reaching for the more sensational melodramatic stories because you run out of the other stories. Knots Landing had smaller, everyday stories, that's what separated it from the pack. Finally, we had to make it a little more sensational to keep it exciting. The reason Knots Landing survived, and is going to survive all the others, is the fact we have kept those characters reality - based."

"I would say the television drama has gone through some evolutionary changes," Salzman said. "Where prime time drama had been fairly homogenized in the past, Hill Street Blues and Dallas came along and introduced whole new forms to television. They showed the audience that television can come in a 31 -flavor variety. With remote control and multichannel viewers, they tired of the vanilla flavored, predictable programing of the past." "Cable television has made it tough to compete," Jacobs said. "You can't do an action -adventure on network television, against a [Sylvester] Stallone or Mel Gibson movie on cable. You can do a sexy show, but you can't compete against a Kim Basinger on the Playboy Channel. Whatever the erosion, how many shows last that long? Dallas has had an incredibly long run, as have Knots Landing and Falcon Crest. I don't think of it as an erosion of a genre. A show sometimes just gets old and tired."

July 87

Lifetime cable network has purchased 127 off- network episodes of Falcon Crest from Lorimar Television, a spokesman for Lorimar said. Lifetime plans to launch the series on Monday, Sept. 21. The hour long series, set in the Napa Valley, Calif., vineyards, will be seen weekdays at 8 p.m. (NYT), Lifetime said.

According to Charles Gingold, Lifetime vice president of programing, Falcon Crest "will be a strong addition to the entertainment side of our fall lineup. This high profile program, featuring formidable female leading characters, a celebrity packed cast, ex- citement and intrigue, appeals to Lifetime's highly defined audience of contemporary women."

Falcon Crest is an Amanda & M.F. Production in association with Lorimar Television. It currently airs on CBS, and has been renewed for the next season. Prior to its latest move to Lifetime, Falcon Crest was in syndication for about six months last year, getting clearance in 130 markets. However, according to a Lorimar spokesman, the series was "pulled" because the ratings were "not up to par."

Nov 87

The Lifetime cable network has made several changes in its lineup, effective today (Nov. 2), including a complete revamping of its prime time weekday schedule. The three off network hours, Flamingo Road, Jack and Mike and Falcon Crest, which ran from 6 to 9 p.m., have been replaced by Kay O'Brien, Family (returning to Lifetime's schedule) and Lady Blue. Falcon Crest will move to the daytime schedule at 11 a.m

August 85

At NBC Entertainment, Brian Frons, vice president of daytime programs, said that producers of the third -placed network's shows have changed their emphasis, with action and adventure being accented to bring in younger audiences. NBC has five shows in development for the 10 -11 a.m. NYT hour on its schedule. Frons also said NBC is "taking a hard look" at the future of Search for Tomorrow (12:30 -1 p.m. NYT). In all, he said, bringing NBC back in ratings will require "drastic improvements" from 12 :30 to 4 p.m. "That's where the money is," he said in reference to advertising dollars, "and that's where there's softness in the competition."

Such softness, he said, was a reference to the effect a hit such as ABC's General Hospital could have on a daypart that is not prone to change easily. NBC has reported that it is the only network that gained female viewers 18 years of age and older from Oct. 1, 1984, to May 24, 1985, going from 3.59 million during the same period a year ago to 3.72 million this year, a gain of 4 %. For the same period, CBS slipped from 5.16 million to 4.96 million, a decline of 9%, and ABC from 5.07 million to 4.69 million, a decline of 7%.

Frons said that the strength of NBC's schedule was in its two "powerhouses" - Wheel of Fortune (11 -11:30 a.m. NYT) and Days of Our Lives (1 -2 p.m. NYT) -adding that the success of the schedule depends on Days: "Whither goes Days goes the afternoon lineup." As for the progress of Santa Barbara, which finds itself in a tough position (3-4 p.m. NYT) opposite General Hospital on ABC and Guiding Light on CBS, Frons reiterated NBC Chairman Grant Tinker's willingness to give the show a two -year trial.

3 hours ago, Neil Johnson said:

I get it.  But when somebody does something right, I'm thankful for that.  

 

Fair enough...I just couldn't resist.

Interesting developments.

I wonder if Duncan Stewart was always intended to be short term or things didn't work out behind the scenes.

Jim Hobart is quickly on the scene, however.

Lesley's back story is all about the crib death of her child. Not about Laura.

On 8/28/2023 at 4:47 AM, Neil Johnson said:

This will be interesting.  I'm glad you seem interested in verifying the information.  So much incorrect information gets passed around from message-boards and websites.  Now, some of it has even been published in books, and it is not accurate.  So keep up the effort.  

The irony...

DEBORAH STEINBERG SOLOMON

THE DOCTORS AND THE NURSES Mary Simms

BEVERLEE McKINSEY

THE DOCTORS AND THE NURSES Eileen Moore

JORDAN CHARNEY

THE DOCTORS AND THE NURSES Barry

CARL LOW   

THE DOCTORS AND THE NURSES Dr Moore

AL FREEMAN, JR.

THE DOCTORS AND THE NURSES Bellboy

This may have been posted before. The interview where Janice disses her role.

DAILY FACTS, Redlands, Calif. Friday, December 20 1974  Janice Lynde tells all.Soap opera actors try to keep sane By VERNON SCOTT HOLLYWOOD (UPI)

At last, a major secret of the acting dodge was revealed when Janice Lynde let the cat out of the bag about daytime television soap operas. The actors cry to keep from laughing. For years critics and other scientists have pondered the significance of the painful expressions on the faces of soap opera stars when the camera zeroes in on them for long, long dissolves. Miss Lynde, star of "The Young and Restless" daily on CBS, let slip the answer the other day.

"Those painful looks, the expressions of anguish are real," she said. "It hurts because we're trying so hard to keep from laughing. It's all we can do to keep from cracking up." Miss Lynde, a leggy blonde beauty with blue eyes and a sense of humor, is aghast at the words she must read daily. But the sudsy show provides her a good living and an opportunity to work every day. Her role as Leslie Brooks is cast in the tradition of the longsuffering serial queen.

"Leslie is not a normal woman," said Janice, a native of Houston, who plays an inhabitant of Genoa City, Wis. "I've been playing Leslie a year and a half. She is a concert pianist who wants to become a pop singer. She's shy and introverted and at the age of 24 Leslie is still a virgin. "Come to think of it, no one has really made a pass at her since we've been on the air.

She's been kissed twice by her boyfriend, but she refuses his. proposals of marriage." If Leslie sounds normal compared to other soap heroines, hang on, there's more. "Leslie was in a mental institution for 11 months of the show. She was molested by a lesbian there and a male nurse tried to rape her. Actually, I think she was better off outside the institution.

"But she went out and performed a couple of piano concerts and made enough money to buy a nightclub. That's where things stand today." Janice says daytime television gets away with some subjects that are forbidden in prime time, adding, "We're allowed two 'damns' a week in the dialogue." As a sop to sanity Janice has decorated her dressing room with an enormous banner that reads, "Logic is Dead." "Much as I make fun of the soaps, it's probably the nearest thing in this country to British repertory theater," she said. "Nothing I could do on the stage or in movies from now on would frighten me." She has starred on Broadway in "Applause," "The Me Nobody Knows" and "Butterflies Are Free," and appeared on "Mannix," "The Odd Couple," "Barnaby Jones" and other television shows as a guest star.

"One of the reasons I got the part in 'The Young and Restless' is that I really do play grand piano and when I was 14 I was in the Van Cliburn competition for best young concert pianist. "But I don't like playing the piano and I only keep it up because Leslie plays now and then on the show." The piano, however, is all that Janice has in common with poor old wacky Leslie..

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle 1966 Feb 6 Page 127

Robert Gentry currently portrays Intern Ed Bauer on "The Guiding Light." The Ed Bauer part started in November with another actor filling In until Gentry finished a movie.

First I have heard of this. Does anyone know the actor who played Ed Nov 65-Feb 66?

Edge of Night

Dec 1990

ABC RESTRUCTURES TV GROUP Swanson, Beuth divide up programing duties of departing Brockman

With Michael Brockman out as head of daytime, late night and children's programing, executives at ABC say program changes are almost certain to occur in some of those dayparts, particularly daytime.

Last week, ABC restructured the network television group. Dennis Swanson, president of ABC Sports, assumes responsibility for daytime and children's programs as well. Philip Beuth, senior vice president, ABC Television Network Group, assumes responsibility for late night programs. He will continue to oversee Good Morning America.

In an interview last week, Swanson suggested strongly that the The Home Show, which kicks off ABC's daytime at 10 a.m., would be canceled. "We've got to take a look at how we start our day," he said. "That has been a weakness and we have to see if we can improve that time period. "We need to find the most effective programing we can put in there." The show is a distant second in the ratings, behind CBS's hour -long game show, The Price is Right.

A little over a year and a half ago, ABC, in an unprecedented move, split off three entertainment dayparts into a separate Hollywood -based division run by Brockman, who had been recruited from CBS, where he had been in charge of the same dayparts. At the time of the reorganization, ABC executives said it was being done to enable newly installed ABC Entertainment President Robert Iger to focus exclusively on prime time. The thinking also was that daytime, which yields the highest profit margins of any daypart, needed full -time attention for two key reasons. First, the network daytime revenue pie was shrinking, from about $1.6 billion in 1985 to $1.2 billion in 1989. Second, ABC was losing ground to CBS fast. By the time Brockman took over at ABC, CBS had already taken over the daytime household ratings lead and had closed to within one rating point of the key women demographics. And since Brockman's arrival, CBS has narrowed the gap even further -to within about a half a rating point in the key women demos so far this season.

ABC's share of daytime viewing, and revenues, continue to shrink. Season to date (through November), ABC's average daytime rating is off 13% to a 4.6. (CBS is off 2% to a 5.5, and NBC is down 16% to 3.1.) According to Broadcast Advertiser Reports (BAR), for the third quarter of 1990, ABC's share of daytime revenue dropped to 35% from 38% the previous year. CBS's share of daytime revenues rose a percentage point to 36% and NBC's climbed two points for the same period to 29 %.

9 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I can never remember if that's the place Jo and Stu ran in the '50s or another place.

Jo and Arthur ran the Motor Haven. Stu worked at Westside Autos for many years,

I don't think he and Jo worked together until they opened Hartford House around 1976.

Bumping this up now that JASON47 has new info.

@JAS0N47 there is a Ratings from the 50's thread that I started but haven't updated since 2020.

I'm going to bump it up and hopefully you can add your info there so that everything is in the correct place.

Thanks again for all your hard work.

@te. Thanks for posting. Never saw that episode before.

Les Damon went through 2 cigarettes in one episode.

Wasn't Henderson House just the local hotel?  All the columns was supposed to suggest some sort of open area beyond? 

Anyway, always good to see a classic episode. And to think that by 12.45 that was it for the actors unless they were in the next episode and had to stay for rehearsal.

The tack house set is back on Monday!

So it looks like Mariah/Tessa will be featured for a few weeks,at least.

In her book Mary discusses that she always got that special credit. She says she didn't request it, it wasn't part of her contract, it was just understood.

But when the Hursleys arrived, their 'written by' credit took precedence as they had it in their contract for it to be first in the credits. She was now just top of the cast list.

I wonder if from then on, she had it in her contract?

9 hours ago, kalbir said:

 Fans of supercouple era Days that I know split that era into the Bo/Hope years (1983-1987) and the Steve/Kayla years (1987-1990). We know Steve/Kayla 1988 wedding got Days to #1 over Y&R. It will be interesting to see where Bo/Hope 1985 wedding ranks.

Shane and Kimberley were in the mix also so it will be interesting to see the numbers for their 87 wedding.