Paul Raven

Do my eyes deceive me? Are the iconic plates that sat behind the sofa for years at the Newman Ranch making an earlier appearance in the clip from 75? Someone must have seen their potential and decided to write them back in years later. And Jen, if I had the choice b/w Bruce and Stu I'd be sticking with my hubby. Bruce is kinda creepy to me.

Los Angeles ratings 5 weeks beginning October 15 1980 KABC General Hospital 7.8/31 7.4/30 7.0/28 7.7/29 7.6/32 KCOP Tarzan 2.2/8 2.2/9 3.1/12 2.2/10 2.7/11 KHJ Ironside 2.4/9 2.1/9 2.6/11 1.8/7 2.5/11 KNBC Texas 3.2/12 2.9/12 3.1/12 2.9/10 2.6/11 KNXT Guiding Light 3.4/13 3.5/14 4.0/16 2.9/10 3.4/14 KTLA Hour Magazine 2.6/10 2.4/10 3.1/12 2.2/9 3.4/14 KTTV Let's Rap/Jetsons 2.9/12 3.2/13 2.1/9 2.0/9 2.2/9

I'm pretty sure Peacock is struggling financially,but if Days is doing what's needed to be done, it would be nice if the show got a budget upgrade and the crazy production schedule was revised. They'd be getting a better quality product that in turn might attract more viewers. Wishful thinking.

In May 82 ABC announced Agnes Nixon's new show (Loving) so that had over a year of official development. They also announced Young Loves of GH but that never got off the ground.

Mike Powers on The Doctors I think holds the record for most recast -10. Tom Bergman was lurking also. That must be Ray Bellaran who played Tom from age 12 (in 1971) until 77 when John James arrived as an older Tom.

Fantastic to see that episode. In recent days we've also had a new Brighter Day clip. Do hopefully there is more to come. Nice to see Stu make mention of Marge. Those little touches were appreciated by long time viewers. Jo was being brave. Tony had died in June. Notice how Mary got lines in that episode while others were mute. You don't have the star lurking in the background! Surprised they bothered to give Mike a wife and kids. He could have easily have said they had to stay at home but good they didn't. Lucy Lee Flippen played Mrs Kaslo. Mike returned later when Steve was ill but a different actor. Who was playing Bruce? I expected to see Joel Higgins. Bruce had been engaged to Liza earlier that year. This must have been Rick Lohman's debut as Gary. Obviously the wedding continued next episode(s) and other characters got scenes.

This is surely a budget move as much as anything else. With Ron having headwrote OLTL and GH he would be able to command a good salary, and Cwickly and Ford must be cheaper. They probably wrote days during the strike and the numbers didn't drop and there was no huge backlash to their stories so it was an easy move to save $$$ and drop Ron.

Thanks @DRW50 interesting episode with Mitchell Dru the only speaking part. I remember the publicity for EON when Donald May did the same but it was done years before on TBD, admittedly for 15 min rather then 30.

Thanks @MissPalmer for the share. I guess that is a couple of weeks in. Mae Clarke is there as Nurse Marge and she was soon dropped and her role of older grumpy nurse was taken by Lucille. Also there is an ABC Films credit at the end. ABC Films was the syndication arm of ABC and that credit was not used on the daily network episodes,right? So this must have been part of a syndication package for overseas showings?

I wonder how the 16 affiliates were chosen? Broadcasting March 14th 1982 Washington goes Hollywood -or vice versa Film crews and promo teams convened in Washington last week to tape segments of Capitol, the new CBS soap opera to be launched Friday, March 26, with a one -hour prime time special from 10 to 11 p.m. The new daytime drama portrays the fates and fortunes of two prominent political families, the McClandlesses and the Cleggs, who have been enemies for generations and now face new rivalry on the Washington battlefield of political and personal affairs. To herald the new series, camera crews representing 16 CBS affiliates followed the Hollywood set to the nation's capital for a week of on- location scenes, socializing, press conferences, dinners and an elaborate reception at the Phillips Collection. The show stars veteran actor Rory Calhoun, along with Carolyn Jones, Ed Nelson and Constance Towers. It is produced by John Conboy, winner of eight Emmy awards and producer of The Young and the Restless. The special one -hour introduction was directed by Corey Allen. After its March 26 prime -time launch, Capitol will air every weekday from 2:30 to 3 p.m.

At one point her daughter Katherine seemed to be involved in a biography. I think I posted somewhere in the thread that she posted an ad in Variety asking for anyone who wanted to be involved to make contact. I'll see if I can unearth it.

@Khan like that idea of combining Julia/Emma. Just found out that Bethel Leslie/Gerry day wrote the Season 1 ep Victims.They co wrote Secret Storm at one point and of course Bethel had several soap roles. Forgot that Emma was pregnant .Who was the Dad?

@JWDrama1980 The Baby Game was ABC's 2pm game show, not NBC. It ran after Newlywed Game and was followed by Children's Doctor,5 min info tips and then GH at 3pm. That listing incorrectly lists Baby Game as Channel 4 instead of 7. I assume The Doctors aired on CH 4 that day.

I guess that as she got older the roles dried up. Maybe she preferred NY to LA, where all of primetime was centered. Also, was there a personal element- a partner based in NY?

Variety ran a story on the show in Nov 81. A summary. The show had made little ratings impact since its debut,running on about 60 stations and attracting no national advertisers. When it was removed from the last 30 minutes of 'The 700 Club' 15 stations dropped it. There was feedback from CBN's big financial donors that the show wasn't explicitly religious enough. As a result , in October several producers and writers were dropped. An example was given of the new focus - a nee'r do well character is laid up in hospital fighting cancer and a heart attack. Another character suggest a prayer to Jesus -there's a ray of light and miraculously he rips off the IV and bandages and he's cured , good to go. Former writers say the show has gone off the deep end, But CBN claims it's 'more authentic'. Dropped were Gerald Straub, creator, now assistant producer at General Hospital,Roy Winsor writer/producer who helped create Love of Life and Secret Storm and Bob Aaron, exec producer and former NBC exec regarded as one of the best programmers in the biz. Aaron stated he resigned because he didn't feel he could deliver what they hoped for in the changed format. He promised entertainment with no preaching and with the change in direction he was happy for someone else to take it on. Aaron said that about 150 episodes had been produced at a cost of just $80,000 a week, with a network half hour costing around $250.000 a week, but the quality was there, although the message was different. He was told by CBN officials after 2 months on the air that reviews had been good and more stations were coming on board but that ratings were disappointing and contributions were falling off. That's when Bob Slosser exec veep and CBN board member was called in by Pat Robertson, CBN chairman. Slosser had no producing experience. Slosser said he was unhappy with the writing and storyline. He didn't need the ratings to tell him changes had to be made. Referring to the 'miracle' he stated not everything would be that explicit and there would be ebb and flow. The religious segments would be more authentic,but it wouldn't be a strictly religious show. The new writers were Dallas and Joanne Barnes and David Hummel was promoted from within CBN to exec producer. Variety believed the loss of Aaron, Straub and Winsor meant the show had lost credibility. Straub said that CBN didn't understand the genre, taking time to develop characters. They wanted something overtly Christian and in the end there was the financial squeeze and a need to placate contributors. Winsor felt the move to supernatural stuff was dangerous as they had put together a good show, a Christian serial in the sense that it showed family morals without preaching. He says that suddenly Aaron, a Catholic and himself, Episcopalian and two writers were dropped because they were not 'born again'. It was a shock and a disappointment. Winsor said they had the opportunity to do something wholesome as a balance to what the networks were offering -a kind of 'Ma Perkins' thing but obviously Robertson did not feel it was representing his ministry. WPIX NY had been running AL at 12.30 but moved it to 11.30 am as it was not performing. Programming VP Richard Hughes was adopting a wait and see approach as to how the values of the show would be portrayed in a more explicit way. WCIX Miami shows AL at 11pm and is sold out locally having attained 'quite a following' with virtually no audience reaction to the more religious approach.

@te. thanks for posting. re Jimmy - I think he was mentioned more than seen and maybe when Irving Vendig left he was forgotten about until the Hursleys rewrote him as a nephew in the early 60's and wrote him out. Odd that such a loving couple as Stu and Marge would never mention him again. Jimmy could have come back older and given the Bergmans some story options. It's annoying when the writers don't follow up on things viewers remember. All of that was done live-quite an achievement to have the set changes, chroma key etc . Love when Jo was driving and the steering wheel position would have had her and Patty off the road in seconds. Little Janet was giving me The Bad Seed vibes in that get up.

1981-82 Season Mini series Ratings Nothing spectacular in content or ratings that season. I think only Marco, Manions and Valley of the Dolls were 6 hrs. The rest of the new content were 2 part 4 hr series. 1. World War 111 (NBC) 21.5/33 2. Marco Polo (NBC) 21.3/36 3. Valley of the Dolls (CBS) 20.7/32 4. Family Reunion (NBC) 20.0/30 5. Inside the Third Reich (ABC) 19.5/32 6. The Best Place to Be (R) (NBC) 18.9/31 7. Manions of America (ABC) 16.6/29 8. The Rules of Marriage (ABC) 14.6/24 9. From Here to Eternity (R) (NBC) 14.1/23 10. East of Eden (R) (ABC) 13.9/34 11. Moviola (R) (NBC) 11.9/20 12. Blind Ambition (R) (ABC) 11.2/21 13. Sophisticated Gents (R) (NBC) 11.1/19 14. Freedom Road (R) (NBC) 8.1/15

LA 3 weeks Oct 29 - Nov 17 1980 12-1pm KABC All My Children 7.7/36 7.3/34 7.9/39 KCOP Movie 2.1/10 1.2/5 1.3/6 KHJ Don Lane 0.7/3 0.3/2 0.7/4 KNBC Days Of Our Lives 4.3/19 4.2/19 4.2/21 KNXT Young and Restless 2.2/10 2.4/11 2.4/12 KTLA Bonanza 2.2/10 2.4/11 1.9/9 KTTV Movie 1.7/7 1.2/10 1.4/6 WOW @Y&R! The hour format was not liked in LA.

Was the fact that Gary and Val were shoehorned into the original KL concept meant that Kenny and Ginger were edged out? Was the original concept 3 couples? With Gary and Val being the hook via a Dallas spinoff, they needed major airtime and story so Kenny/Ginger paid the price.

DOUG SHEEHAN PILOT Heaven Sent NBC aired April 12 1981 (not sure when it was made) With Jack Gilford, Ilene Graff, Doug Sheehan, Ron Contreras, June Dayton, Dick Balduzzi, Nora Morgan, Christopher Brown.An emissary from Above gives three young candidates who failed to make it into Heaven a second chance by sending them back to Earth to re-spark a romance between two former lovers.

Gong back... EON Mike Karr and daughter Laurie Ann Secret Storm Peter Ames was a good Dad to Susan, Jerry and Amy AW Jim Matthews SFT Stu Bergman Janet and Tom

@JAS0N47 I get it now. Sorry for the confusion. Re Days and contracts. Was it standard practice for every new contract role to be recurring at first or were there exceptions? Was it a standard period before an actor went on contract or differ for each? When did that practice finish? I guess Days did this so if an actor didn't work out Days wasn't stuck with them onscreen for 13 weeks. or have to pay them for that time if they were replaced sooner. Did it work that way? Were there any recurring roles that did not go contract with the original actor? On the actor side, actors could leave if they weren't happy for any reason, but also weren't guaranteed a regular gig unless they were accepted by TPTB. And Days faced the possibility of losing someone they liked in that recurring phase. Did any other soap use that recurring/contract system?

Requests Sandy Ward Barbara Tarbuck Silvana Gallardo Sherri Alexander Catherine Larson

Following up on the Chicago ratings where ABC soaps were dominating. By 5.30-6pm this is how things were looking over 5 weeks Sept 15-Oct 17 1980 WBBM CBS News 11.7/25 13.1/26 12.0/25 12.1/21 11.4/23 WFLD Sanford & Son 8.7/19 9.4/19 8.8/18 7.7/16 9.1/19 WGN Welcome Back Kotter 8.7/18 8.9/18 10.2/21 9.6/20 11.6/24 WLS ABC News 8.3/18 9.0/18 7.6/16 8.8/18 8.2/17 WMAQ NBC News 7.4/16 8.2/17 7.8/17 8.4/17 8.7/18 And the pattern was repeated at 6 but at 6.30 NBC showed Family Feud which shot them to #1 in the timeslot, with CBS News moving to #2 So it looks like Chicago was a CBS news town.

The original story was that Iris would discover that Sylvie was Jewish and they would deal with anti-semitism as Iris would not be happy. No doubt Iris would accept it all in the end as a message to the audience but again P&G and,or NBC got cold feet and dropped it. Lemay was obviously using his power eg high ratings to push more 'controversial' stories but kept getting shut down. Maybe another factor in his burn out. They even weren't happy with older woman/younger man romances ie Sylvie/Dennis so gay or Jewish plots had no hope.