watson71

7 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

When did both events happen? 

The return of Jacqueline Courtney to AW happened on the 20th Anniversary episode on May 4, 1984.

9 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 2/6/84-2/10/84 & 2/13/84-2/17/84:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 2/20/84-2/24/84 & 2/27/84-3/2/84:

Surprised that AW didn’t get a more of a bump during February sweeps.  The Cory jet had crashed over the Canadian tundra, and Mac Cory was presumed dead only to show up alive in the Friday cliffhanger on February 10th.  This episode is when Sally met Catlin as well.

3 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 11/21/83-11/25/83 & 11/28/83-12/2/83:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 12/5/83-12/9/83 & 12/12/83-12/16/83:

The week of 12/5/83, AW passes Capitol for the first time in the ratings.  This was the aftermath of Jennifer Thatcher getting killed in a car crash and the revelation that Kevin Thatcher is Sally Frame’s son.  Carl Hutchins will arrive in Bay City for the first time during Christmas week.

4 hours ago, beebs said:

We are now about four months into the Labines returning to RH, and....yikes. Something wasn't clicking with viewers, and station clearances have dropped. I know it hasn't been unusual to see AW neck and neck with RH in the past, but they're in a danger zone now, especially up against a resurgent Y&R. it'll be interesting to see how much more damage occurs once PFS takes over as headwriter in the fall/RH moves to noon.

During this time, AW has gotten rid of Paul Rauch as EP and replaced him with GL’s Allen Potter.  He will stay at AW until the end of 1984.  While he never moved AW out of 8-9 place in the ratings, he did produce a much better AW than what we have previously seen the past few years from Rauch.  Potter was AW’s first producer when the show premiered in 1964.

27 minutes ago, Efulton said:

I will have to listen to Stephen’s episode of Linda’s podcast again because I do not recall them discussing Nancy.  What did they say?

Go to the 11 minute mark- Stephen discusses how Paul Rauch hired him to play Cass and his screen test with the brilliant Nancy Frangione.  He says that Nancy was a cheerleader for him when he started on AW.

4 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

I am sorry to have to tell you that Nancy Frangione has died. Aug. 18, 2023. She was 70.

I remember her this way. 

 

RIP She was a great actress and added so much to AW every time she visited Bay City.  Nancy was yet another overlooked AW actress at Emmy time.  She certainly at least deserved an Emmy nomination.  Linda Dano and Stephen Schnetzer discussed Nancy on her podcast.  I’m just sorry that they never got her on that podcast or any other podcast/interview since she was an important part of AW history.

48 minutes ago, JAS0N47 said:

The earliest articles I could find in archives have columnist Gary Deeb breaking the Texas cancellation news on October 14, although NBC didn't make its official cancellation announcement until 11/16/82:

Thanks so much- I knew the shows ended on 12/31/82.  I was wondering how long NBC gave both to wrap up from the cancellation announcement to the last show aired.

Hit Man and Just Men did not last long on the schedule, but Betty White did win an Emmy for game show host for Just Men.

Also, if NBC had given AW, not Sunset Beach, the 6 month extension in 1999, AW, Somerset, and Texas all would have aired their last episodes on 12/31.

Does anyone know the exact date when NBC canceled Texas and The Doctors?  Their new daytime lineup debuted the first week in January 1983.

The week of October 18th, AW had another big event in Wyoming after San Diego in March and the Bel Aire Towers collapse in July.  In Wyoming, Buzz had kidnapped Blaine, and Sandy had to rescue her.  At this point, P&G was still spending lots of money on AW, but the viewers just weren’t there.

8 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 7/12/82-7/16/82 & 7/19/82-7/23/82:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 7/26/82-7/30/82 & 8/2/82-8/6/82:

The week of July 12 was when AW had the elaborate cave in at the Bel Aire Tower construction site that trapped Rachel and Steve. A slight increase but no real growth for the show.  I wish we could see these episodes on YouTube.  So far they have not popped up there.

On 8/14/2023 at 8:43 PM, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/8/82-3/12/82 & 3/15/82-3/19/82:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 3/22/82-3/26/82 & 3/29/82-4/2/82:

The week of 3/15, AW featured the location sequence in San Diego with Mitch trying to kidnap Matthew and take him to Mexico.  AW improved from a 4.4/16 to a 5/18. The next week it dropped back to a 4.5/16.

What was the date of the GL episode in August 1981 where Nola confesses to Kelly that she lied about the baby?  

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

It becomes apparent that he & Lucy were overlapping. Who knew 1981 would be such an NBC puzzlement.

Lucy Johnson was the VP of NBC Daytime who revamped the schedule in January 1983.

14 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

The romance with Ken, I felt, never worked anyway. 

Every time I saw Ken Jordan on the screen all I thought of was David Thatcher

1 hour ago, j swift said:

So, if we could travel back to 1984, our advice to NBC would be to follow whatever CBS did during the Olympics. Don't spend the money on the remotes, because they won't have a significant effect (and SOD reported that the rain in New York messed up the production schedule for AW) and, hold Santa Barbara's premiere (and their very expensive floors) until the fall.  Hindsight is 20/20.

Hindsight is definitely 20/20.  NBC and the production companies were definitely spending money on their soaps. But the ratings were not helped by ABC airing the Olympics.  
 

On a side note, here is an interesting piece of trivia- on the premier episode of Santa Barbara at the 18:00 mark, the reporter is played by Margaret Impert.  She was the actress who played Rachel on AW briefly between Robin Strasser and Victoria Wyndham.

20 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

On Days in 1984, those were the weeks that Bo and Hope's New Orleans adventure started.

Both DAYS and AW featured remotes the week SANTA BARBARA premiered.  Bo and Hope in New Orleans and AW featured a remote that was filmed at Coney Island where Cecile was kidnapped as she entered the tunnel of love.  This would be the end of Nancy Frangione’s contract appearances as Cecile.  She would return in late October 1984 to wrap up the storyline and would make several more guest appearances in 1986, 1989, 1993, and 1995-96.

4 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 10/1/79-10/5/79 & 10/8/79-10/12/79:

 

As we get more ratings posted, would this be the last time that AW would score a higher rating than DAYS?

6 hours ago, GLATWT88 said:

Needless to say that AW was more costly than the other soaps that were performing at the same level. With NBC never getting daytime quite right after the mid 70s, it probably felt more secure holding onto AW in its schedule than completely destroying what was left. I personally feel that AW was allowed to go on as long as it did because NBC just couldn't seem to get it right and because there was such love and care for it. 

AW stayed on the air 19 years with not so good ratings.  The quality of the show was not reflected in the ratings.  P&G and NBC  allowed Paul Rauch to stay as EP into the Spring of 1983.  They should have gotten rid of him long before that.  Allen Potter cleaned up the show in record time and there was a jump in the ratings, but not enough to move it out of the middle of the daytime ratings.  
 

From Harding Lemay’s brief return as headwriter to when Mac Cory died, AW was excellent, but again the ratings did not move.  The show was relatively stable at this time with Michael Laibson as EP for 6 years and Donna Swajeski and Peggy Sloane as headwriters.  Again, no movement upwards in the ratings.  NBC still supported the show at this point, giving AW not DAYS a primetime airing before the Daytime Emmys in 1992.  In 1993, NBC canceled Santa Barbara and let AW continue, despite SB winning 3 Emmys as best show.  I think that NBC started losing faith in AW in 1995, after JFPs stint with her focus on the hospital and police station failed to move the ratings.  Once NBC executive Charlotte Savitz was named EP in 1996, she dismantled AW piece by piece. She shouldn’t have been able to stay until November 1998.  By the time Chris Goutman arrived, the damage was done.  He could not fix in 6 months all the damage Savitz caused.  Goutman’s stint as EP was practice at AW to send him to ATWT.  His first years there were successful, but we know how that ended as well…

At this point in the ratings, AW was six months into the 90 minute episodes.  The Doctors ratings were almost identical to AW’s ratings.  Did it ever occur to anyone at NBC to just expand The Doctors to an hour rather than take the risk with Texas in 1980?

5 minutes ago, MichaelGL said:

Impressive numbers for Guiding Light

The ratings for GL are the first few weeks when Beverlee McKinsey joined the show as Alexandra Spaulding.

4 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

Yes, but the ratings list a big gap, so I couldn't figure out why. I thought maybe it was a weather delay. The only other thing I could think is that they went to Local News due to a weather delay, but when I checked the newspapers, CBS experienced a power failure at the game, which caused a 43-minute blackout from 316-359PM. So, that's why there was no rating on CBS for those 43 minutes. 

So GL could be said to have been preempted that day by 17 minutes of NCAA Football and 43 minutes of a black screen!

November 25, 1983 was the Friday after Thanksgiving, so a football preemption was most likely what happened.

6 hours ago, JAS0N47 said:

7/25/83-7/29/83:

Search 3.4/12

Days 6.4/20

AW 6.2/21

 

8/1/83-8/5/83:

Search 3.5/13

Days 6.3/20

AW 5.7/19

 

No bump. Search had .1 higher rating from the previous week. Days & AW dropped from the previous week.

Thanks so much for the info- surprised that DAYS and AW dropped the week of August 1st.  Interesting that AW was .2 points from DAYS rating the week of July 25th.  We will have to see if this is the closest AW was to being NBCs top rated soap again.

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Oh, yes, good thoughts all. My personal list of "Never Won an Emmy" begins with Beverlee & VW. 

Also add that Carmen Duncan deserved an Emmy nomination as Iris in 1989 when Mac confronted Iris about being The Chief and when Rachel told her that Mac had died.

Other AW actresses that also deserved Emmy nominations in the 1980s were Constance Ford (Ada) as supporting actress and Anna Stuart (Donna) and Nancy Frangione (Cecile) gave just as good, if not better performances, than the often nominated Susan Lucci.

@JAS0N47 How did the NBC shows do the week of August 1-5, 1983?  Bo and Hope were on fire on DAYS, AW had the expensive remote with the double wedding of Mac and Rachel and Sandy and Blaine, and SEARCH aired their live episode after the “infamous” and well publicized missing tape.  I would imagine the shows saw a bump in the ratings during this week.