watson71

In my YouTube feed, a 1951 episode of Suspense, an anthology series that ran on CBS, appeared this morning. The episode features 30 year old Douglass Watson (Mac Cory) as a killer who follows a woman home on a stormy night.

Was the character of Rachel rehabilitated and did the audience by into her living happily ever after with Mac? Cass may have matured but marrying Lila who was a cheap imitation of Cecile- both spoiled and self-centered- was a quick way to wrap up the show. At least having Cecile on the canvas from 96-99 would have made more sense to long term viewers.

First, TPTB never put Nancy Frangione on a contract when she returned in Fall 1995. In the closing credits she was always listed with the recurring characters. They also did not place Cecile in the opening credits that debuted in March 1996 because she was a recurring character- and not on contract. Then, the writers gave Cecile two poorly written story arc. First, they tried to rewrite history and say that Cass, not Sandy, was Maggie's father. Long time viewers who were watching the show in 1982-83 knew that Cass wasn't even in Bay City at the time and Cecile went back and forth on whether Sandy or Jamie was Maggie's dad. Next, Cecile hired Rafael to "kidnap" Maggie so that she could get ransom money from the Corys to help her with her money troubles. Again, another poorly written story. In early Summer 1996, Cecile left Bay City never to be heard from again. Frangione deserved better than this. TPTB should have kept Cecile on the canvas. She- not Lila- should have been the one to marry Cass in the AW finale.

They should have had Iris and Cecile in the scene with Grant in Tanquir in the last episode plotting their revenge against all the people in Bay City who wronged them. Definitely would have been fun to briefly see them together.

I belive there were papers located inside the Red Swan that stated that Paulina was Mac's long lost daughter.

If DW/Mac had lived, I wonder how they would have reunited Mac and Iris? I suspect that something would have happened where Iris helped save either Rachel or Amanda from some kind of peril and Mac would have been greatful.

Lemay's last episode was in mid-November, however I don't think Swajeski's episodes started airing until late-November or early-December. Maybe the writers worked from an outline that had already been written by Lemay. It has always been stated, but never proven, that Swajeski borrowed heavily from a long term bible that Lemay had written for the show. If this is the case, it would be interesting to read it to see how much Swajeski borrowed from it. The Red Swan mystery was clearly a Swajeski storyline since no one could have predicted the sudden passing of Douglass Watson.

AW's Best Thanksgiving Episode- 1988 This episode featured the famous Mac Cory speech: Well, everybody... It's been a hard year to get through for many of us. Yet, here we all are, for Thanksgiving. And together. I'm very happy Iris is with us after all those years. And as I look at Jamie, Matthew, Amanda, Sam, and then Alexandra, I am grateful for the awareness of the sheer munificence of life as it keeps on rolling on despite our little problems. Sharing our lives with our friends and our family is far stronger than anything that world out there can do to us. Today especially, though indeed every day, Rachel and I our truly blessed. Our riches are at this table with us today. [Looking to the viewer] As indeed you are in our hearts every day. And so I give you, all of us, I give you life!"

CHiPS aired in the 3:00 PM timeslot from April-September 1982. Fantasy- a combination American game show and human-interest show co-hosted by Peter Marshall and Leslie Uggams aired in the timeslot from September 1982 to October 1983. It was replaced by The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour from October 1983 to July 1984 when Santa Barbara debuted.

The ratings from 5/83 to 6/83 show where Days of our Lives and Another World finally start to rise in the ratings after disastrous ratings in the early 80s. Days was heavily featuring the Marlena and Roman pairing and about to introduce Hope and Bo as a future supercouple. The ratings rose from a 5.3 to 6.8 in one month. After 12 years, Another World fired long time executive producer Paul Rauch and replaced him with Guiding Light's executive producer Allen Potter. AW was about to kick off the Alma Rudder murder mystery and was reuniting Mac and Rachel before their August double wedding with Sandy and Blaine. The ratings rose from a 4.2 to 5.5 in one month.

Courtney was good in 1984-85, TPTB just didn't give her a lot to do. Her best material was right before she left the show in 1985 when she was Rachel's doctor after she was shot and had amnesia. Rachel wanted nothing to do with Mac when she had amnesia, even moving out of the Cory mansion. TPTB should have revisited the Mac/Alice relationship at this time with an Alice/Mac/Rachel triangle. Instead, they wrote Courtney off the show. TPTB missed a tremendous opportunity.

Why was CBS so quick to get rid of Search for Tomorrow? Based on the late 1981-82 ratings, SFT ratings were on par with its lead-in As the World Turns, sometimes even getting better ratings than ATWT. CBS really mishandled this situation. I can't believe that P&G was too happy having ATWT being the lowest rated soap on CBS either, or Another World's steep decline and the expensive flop that Texas became on NBC during this same time period.

I think it would have faired better had it stayed on CBS between ATWT and GL than it did on NBC. It probably would have lasted until B&B premiered. If the ratings were good, there may not have been a B&B.

During this time was the Soni/Solita multiple personality storyline with Will Jeffries. They were looking to cash in on the Lewis fortune, and Jeffries kidnapped Marah, and later married Mindy Lewis before falling off a cliff to his death. The story was convoluted, and both Soni/Solita and Will Jeffries were suddenly gone from the show after eating up a large amount of screen time. Rick Bauer became engaged to Fletcher's sister, Dr. Meredith Reade. Meredith had a fling with Phillip and became pregnant with his baby. Rick was suspicious that the baby was not his, and Meredith had a miscarriage and left town. This caused a rift in Rick and Phillip's relationship. Also, Reva and Billy's son Dylan arrived in Springfield, got Harley pregnant. Reva was also pregnant and after her delivery suffered from post-partum depression and drove her car off a bridge in the Florida Keys when Kim Zimmer left the show.. The combination of characters eating up storytime then leaving the show, the repetition of the pregnancy plot device, and Kim Zimmer leaving is what probably contributed to the ratings drop in 1989-90.

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There is a tremendous difference between 1981-82 and 1983-84. Part of the difference was the switch in producers from Paul Rauch to Allen Potter. By 1981-82, Rauch was beginning to outstay his welcome after making AW a success in the 70s. In Spring 1983, Potter was transferred from GL to AW. Potter was AW's original producer in 1964. I think he greatly improved the show, and it was very watchable during his tenure in 1983-84. I wish he hadn't retired at the end of 1984. In 1985, AW would again lose its way under producer Stephen Schenckel, and we were back to 1981-82 all over again in terms of storylines.

The Flintstones are coming to MeTV on September 30th- 59 years to the day that they premiered on ABC. The Flintstones will air at 6 PM. https://www.tvinsider.com/803489/the-flintstones-tv-return-metv/

Loving these articles @vetsoapfan ! By chance do you have any articles on the P & G soap changes in 1980-81, where P & G got rid of veteran stars on all of their shows and revamped the themes and credits for all of their shows in an attempt to compete with the "hipper" ABC soaps that were stealing viewers from the P & G shows. I imagine that in pre-Internet days, that longtime P & G fans were not happy with all these changes.

Interesting to note in the Publisher's Memo was that reruns of The Love Boat, The Jeffersons, and Alice were pulling in higher ratings than many of the soaps during 1980. An early precursor of things to come later on as soaps would be canceled as fans tuned to a multitude of cable channels and the Internet for their daily entertainment. Also, did NBC heavily promote Texas before its debut with print, radio, and nighttime TV commercials? Did it receive as much promotion as the Editor's Note states?

How long into Texas' run did they change the show's logo? The logo in these early episodes looks very amateurish compared to the Texas flag blowing in the wind with the gold Texas script lettering.

From July 1980 to November 1980, Another World went from a 7.8 to a 5.6 rating. In the December 1980 ratings, Texas bumped AW out of the top 10. Days and AW had a total ratings collapse. Also, I never knew that TEXAS ever beat AW in the ratings.

Yes, it was awful writing. AW could have utilized SORASED Cory and Jeanne Ewing and Kevin Thatcher along with teens Matthew and Josie in 1988. Remember the brother and sister, Kevin (how ironic) and Tracy Julian, who were involved in the Matthew and Josie in the teen chat line storyline. Tracy was played by future 90210 star Gabrielle Carteris. The show even introduced a father for Kevin and Julian named Frank. He was played by John Spencer who would later go on to success on The West Wing. Later in 1988, AW cast Luke Perry (90210) as Kenny a frat boy who was a border at the Frame family farm who liked Josie. The roles of Kenny and Kevin Julian could have easily been a SORASED Kevin Thatcher or Cory Ewing.

The last time Kevin appeared on AW was in May 1986 at Sally's funeral. After that the character was forgotten....

Regarding Aunt Liz, I never understood why TPTB wrote Irene Dailey out of the show from June 1986 to November 1987. When Dailey returned in November 1987, she was placed on recurring status, I wonder why they didn't do this in June 1986 to keep the character in Bay City. Her last airdate was May 4, 1994 on AW's 30th Anniversary episode. They should have kept her around on a recurring basis until the end of the series. JFP probably would have gotten rid of Aunt Liz during her tenure in 1995-96. Given JFP's record at other shows, she probably would have tried to get rid of Mac (Douglass Watson) and Ada (Constance Ford) if they hadn't passed away and were still on the show in 1995-96.

Julia's death was unnecessary. Another member of the Matthews family killed. Within two years, both Julia and Sally would be killed off AW. If Julia remained on the show, at least her parents Susan and Dan could have returned to Bay City giving Liz some additional airtime. Also, at one point, didn't the writers play around with bringing back Liz's son, Bill, who died in a boating accident in California?