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beebs

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Posts posted by beebs

  1. Well, at @kalbir's request, I've come back to do the season + summers for the 1990-91, 91-92, and 92-93 seasons.

    1990-91  
    1 . Y&R 8.0 (0.0)
    2.  GH 6.3 (-0.7)
    3.  AMC 6.0 (-0.3)
    4.  ATWT 5.9 (+0.1)
    5.  B&B 5.6 (-0.1)
    6.  OLTL 5.3 (-0.7)
    6.  DAYS 5.3 (-0.1)
    8.  GL 5.2 (-0.1)
    9.  AW 3.9 (0.0)
    10.  SB 3.1 (-0.4)
    11.  LOV 2.9 (-0.4)
    12.  GEN 2.3 (-0.2)

     

    1991-92  
    1 . Y&R 8.3 (+0.3)
    2.  AMC 6.8 (+0.8)
    3.  ATWT 5.7 (-0.2)
    4.  GH 5.6 (-0.7)
    5.  B&B 5.5 (-0.1)
    5.  GL 5.5 (+0.3)
    7.  OLTL 5.3 (0.0)
    8.  DAYS 5.2 (-0.1)
    9.  AW 3.9 (0.0)
    10.  SB 3.0 (-0.1)
    11.  LOV 2.7 (-0.2)

     

    1992-93  
    1 . Y&R 8.3 (0.0)
    2.  AMC 7.2 (+0.4)
    3.  B&B 5.9 (+0.4)
    4.  GH 5.8 (+0.2)
    5.  ATWT 5.7 (0.0)
    6.  OLTL 5.6 (+0.3)
    7.  GL 5.3 (-0.2)
    8.  DAYS 4.9 (-0.3)
    9.  AW 3.2 (-0.7)
    10.  LOV 2.8 (+0.1)
    11.  SB 2.6 (-0.4)

     

    A rare era of ratings gains after so many years of decline. Unfortunately, as we're all aware, short-lived. Y&R stays consistent while Agnes Nixon and McTavish revitalize AMC (before McTavish's hubris derails everything), gaining 1.2 in two years. ATWT hits #3 in 1991-92 despite losing 0.2 (such is the state of things at that point, with ABC and NBC soaps struggling). DAYS bottoms out in 1992-93, dipping below 5.0 for probably the first time since probably their first year.

    Shocking to see OLTL's continued collapse into 1991. The fact they'd lost viewers every year since 1987-88, dropping from 7.4 in 87-88 to 5.3 by 1990-91 before FINALLY stabilizing once Rauch was finally given the boot, Gottlieb really did manage to re-energize things, at least in the short term.

    Monty really messed things up at GH, helping them lose 1.4 during her time there, before Riche was able to quickly start turning things around with Bill Levinson and Maralyn Thoma (pre-Labine, of course). OUCH at AW's drop in 1992-93 at the end of Swajeski's run. I wonder how much of that drop was due to her stories sucking, how much was the other NBC soaps' declines, and how much was OLTL's recovery.

  2. 12 minutes ago, Lye-C said:

    Blake shouldn’t be denied a new role to play just because his last character tanked. Same with Emily O’Brien. Days has quite a few good actors in terrible roles who should be given new roles (this does not apply to Rob Wilson who is awful).

    I don't remember Nick tanking, but I don't think it's good for the long-term viability of any show for actors to change roles over and over on the same show like they change socks. You disagree, that's fine. I'm not going to debate you.

  3. 12 minutes ago, Cheap21 said:

    any connection to Nick? Is that a twin or lookalike cousin?

    NOPE! Just yet another random character that's played by an actor who's recently played a different major role on this show. Because nothing matters!

    To add insult to injury, Ron even added a "cute" little "you look familiar" scene when Everett first arrived between him and Gabi, which would've been fine if it weren't the face of her abusive ex- who she had to kill to get away from. But you know...

  4. 41 minutes ago, Franko said:

    Great choices! It might also be nice to get someone playing Dougie as an adult, paying his respects to the father he never knew. 

    it would be a fabulous catalyst for some new stories, if done correctly. I'll try to leave my cynicism about the realities of this at the door, but there's possibilities!

  5. 1 hour ago, kalbir said:

    Did Bill Bell write the original Doug/Julie storyline?

    If so it means Bill Bell created one of the first supercouples yet he wasn't big on supercouples in the 1980s on Y&R.

    Yeah, the initial story began in 1970, so it was all Bell (and eventually PFS) that guided the story. I appreciate Bell not wanting to forever retread ground he'd already covered in that way. While a successful formula for DAYS in the 80s, it can easily (and did) become contrived, and I suspect Bell wasn't much a fan of formulaic writing.

  6. 5 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

    Yeah, I noticed that someone in the comments section commented on her Daytime Emmy and Tony awards. I guess mentioning the Tony awards might have been a bridge too far, at least they specified that she won her maiden Primetime Emmy.

    I definitely sent in a snarky comment about the daytime Emmy "apparently not being a REAL Emmy" which they didn't post, so I get the feeling there were more people who were less than pleased than what we're seeing.

  7. 5 hours ago, Lye-C said:

    I can’t stand seeing Passions or JER criticized.

    Well then, you're gonna struggle around here cos with that way of thinking, you'll have about 70% of this forum blocked by the end of the month. 

    39 minutes ago, carolineg said:

    Lol at that Genie/Drake ad.  It doesn't age well, but I actually wonder if it was cool at the time.

    @FrankoWhat story was the 1990 ad promoting?  I can't remember this at all.

    It's giving "we've discovered computer effects with a green screen and we're very excited about it!"

    The 1990 ad is probably just promoting a one-off Halloween episode, as I don't think it fits into any ongoing stories from that period that I can recall.

  8. 1 minute ago, carolineg said:

    Yes!  Their ideas were never cohesive.  All these soaps were a bit too niche like you said (maybe not SaBa, but it had a lot of behind the scenes issues and never found the exact footing).  You could never pair the lineup completely together.  I think the marketing was off a lot as well.  Passions and Sube had big lead ups, but it was always silly to watch those 80's ads for AW, Days, and Santa Barbara like they all had the same tone if that makes sense?

    Also, hi @beebs!  Nice to see you!

    Hey @carolineg! Thanks, I know I've been pretty absent for awhile 😅

    NBC really never did have consistent tone after the 70s, I agree. And the fanbases of each of their shows would be resistant to ANY attempt to align "their" show with any of NBC's other shows, particularly in the 90s when NBC was trying to refashion AW into DAYS-lite with the Justine stuff and the Lumina mess (not that I disagree with the outcry, in this case). Very much a case of them seeing a viable idea for a show and hoping it stuck, regardless of whether it worked for their lineup.

    I suspect part of it was not having nailed down a strong writer to any of the shows to cultivate this identity, despite having Nixon and Bell in the 60s and 70s. ABC took on Nixon as their figurehead to set the tone for their soaps, and CBS took on Bell (obviously taking the reigns from Irna Phillips and P&G). If NBC had maybe nailed down the Dobsons (if SB had performed better, naturally), or Lakin, it might have worked out better for them.

    The closest NBC came to this was with Reilly, but we all know how THAT turned out.

  9. 1 minute ago, Khan said:

    I think that one big problem for NBCD was that it never had a core demographic.  CBSD always had the older, conservative viewers, while ABCD, after struggling initially, made inroads with younger and more urban ones.  Where did that leave NBCD?  I know the network attempted in the '80's and '90's to be the alternative to the other two with SaBa, GEN, SuBe and PAS, but I think those shows were "too niche" to be sustainable in the long run.

    Another problem for NBCD was that the network itself never was independent the way CBS and ABC had been in years past.  Instead, NBC always has been a property of one conglomerate or another; and because of that, it's always had to brook more corporate interference in their day-to-day operations than the other networks have had to.

    Finally, it's always been my impression that NBCD has long had a more contentious relationship with their affiliates than CBSD and ABCD have had.  They have literally no control over when or how each affiliate schedules their shows in ways that benefits NBCD the most; and the affiliates flat-out don't like much of what the network offers them to run, or trusts them.

    I know soaps once were so profitable that they helped keep the networks afloat in other places, but if you told me that wasn't exactly the case for NBCD - that, in fact, NBC's primetime, news and even children's programming divisions always have been bigger moneymakers for them than their soaps - I wouldn't be a bit surprised, lol.

    Ironically, @beebs, there was talk in the '70's of spinning off Doug and Julie - but into a new soap, not a sitcom.

    Like I said, DAYS and NBCD always has been spinoff-crazy, lol.

    FIGURES! LOL They couldn't help themselves!

    I think it's interesting, because, thinking about what niche NBC filled when they were successful during the late 60s and early 70s, and it seems clear that they were initially the home of younger, more progressive viewers, but once Bell left DAYS, Nixon left AW, and Rita Lakin left DOC, ABC sort of...scooped the audience NBC had been cultivating. This left NBC sort of floundering after that. They didn't really have a stronghold market in daytime to latch onto the way ABC and CBS did.

    NBC had made their name on game shows, and once that bubble burst in the late 80s, there wasn't much to prop up the daypart.

  10. 2 hours ago, Khan said:

    I remember that there even was talk of spinning off Calliope (or Calliope & Eugene) onto their own "comic soap," which would have been disastrous, IMO.  If anything, I would have spun them onto a primetime sitcom, which would have been a real first for daytime, lol.

    It's funny, because I have somewhat facetiously bandied about to friends about how I wished they'd spun Doug & Julie off into their own sitcom in the 80s, rather than drop the characters completely. Have them move away to start a new club in a new town with Robert, or something. Bo & Hope can come pop in on occasion etc. 

    Considering Bill Hayes' warmth and levity, and SSH's comic timing and dry wit, they could easily carry a sitcom on their own, and if DAYS was no longer interested in keeping them around...

  11. 16 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

    Re Days.

    So Ann Marcus did bring up the ratings over Summer with Days at #4 and #3. Interesting to see how that goes in the second half of the year.

    GH slumping.

    Yeah, these numbers explains a lot of what happened in 1978. Ann Marcus gave DAYS a real jolt, presumably because of the Sam/Marlena story, so I can see why she lasted as long as she did in the head writer spot, but she couldn't sustain the momentum.

    As for GH, they didn't look like they were doing so badly until the summer hit, and now they're some weeks only above EON. ABC's cancellation threats make a lot more sense now. The Pollocks may have been popular on The Doctors, but they were tanking GH, and would be out by September, with Richard & Suzanne Holland filling in for a month before Irving & Tex Elman come over from SFT for another month. Then Marland arrives at the end of the year.

    CORRECTION: looking at the Daytime Serial Newsletters, it appears Irving & Tex Elman arrive first in September 1977, and are out by mid-October, replaced with Richard & Suzanne Holland. Marland isn't credited as headwriter until some time in January 1978.

  12. 4 minutes ago, kalbir said:

    In the daytime, The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune were time slot rivals and I'm pretty sure The Price is Right was killing Wheel of Fortune.

    Yeah, and again, a 7.8 with only 67% coverage is EXCELLENT numbers. Tom Kennedy did a great job hosting this version and giving it something of a unique energy vs. Barker's show, and I think if there had been more of a push with individual affiliates to air this version against WOF/J!, or possibly expand it to an hour to combat the pair, it might have lasted longer, so I don't know why affiliates would be dropping it if it was doing this well.

    I suppose we'd have to take a look at the numbers a little earlier into 1986 to see how well it was holding up as the months wore on, but these numbers did genuinely surprise me, considering how the 1985-86 Syndicated PIR is generally viewed as a flop by all accounts.

     

  13. Fascinating to me that the Tom Kennedy Price Is Right was deemed a flop, but had excellent ratings considering only having 67% coverage. I feel like, with a good push to individual markets, it really could have taken off as a strong competitor to the WOF/J! juggernaut.

  14. 6 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

    SFT at this time was being written by Irving Ellman and there didn't seem to be anything particularly compelling going at that time to account for the rating.

    This would've been the aftermath of John Wyatt's trial for Eunice's murder. I'm sure a lot of that is residual excitement from that storyline, at least.

    I dug up the Daytime Serial Newsletter for the month of April to be sure. There seems to be some excitement with Liza, if nothing else.

     

    Quote

    Search For Tomorrow

    Written by: Irving & Tex Elman

    Produced by: Mary-Ellis Bunim

    Liza Kaslo was unable to reach her husband before she took off for New York with her modeling manager, Woody Reed, because Steve was on his way to Australia to do a concert tour with Kitty Merritt. Steve finally talked to Cindy French at the Collins house and was told that Liza was going to New York and he assumed that she was mad at him. - Kitty had arranged several incidents trying to break up Steve and Liza. Steve refused to return to Henderson because his career as a musician was finally taking off and he only wanted a little trust from Liza. - The private plane crashed at the end of the runway sending Liza, Woody and the pilot to the hospital. The pilot was dead on arrival. The hospital was full of emergencies from a factory explosion that spreaded to nearby homes and everyone was pressed into service. Stephanie Pace helped with the nursing and Bob Rogers told Amy Carson that her internship started immediately. Woody had broken wrist and ribs. Liza had damage to the right eye and the surrounding bone. She had a concussion and was in shock. There was a blood clot on the eye and a laceration to the cornea. They hoped the optic nerve wasn't severed. Dr. Wexley repaired the eye and a plastic surgeon reconstructed the smashed bone. They sedated her to keep her as quiet as possible.

    When Greg Hartford, retired surgeon, and Jo Vincente heard about the emergency, Greg offered his services, but all the patients had already received care. Stu Bergman accused, "You're always too late!" Greg returned to the Inn much later very drunk. He told Jo that Stu might be right. Although he and Stu's sister Louise had decided to marry secretly over his family's objections, when he was trying to rescue Louise from drowning, he thought for an instant that if he couldn't save her he wouldn't have to make the decision and could be a doctor. This had haunted him ever since. Jo had come to the conclusion that she cared deeply for Greg, but Stu warned Greg that he was out to prevent Jo's involvement with him.

    Dr. Gary Walton discovered that his sister's eye was hemmorhaging, but they got it stop-ped and had to wait several days to see the results. Amy and Bruce Carson had been trying to locate Steve through the musicians' union. Liza didn’t want Steve to come because he felt sorry for her. Kitty heard Steve sing the song he wrote for Liza and wanted to record it on her new album. Steve finally relented and let her sing it. He got the first plane out of Sydney when Amy reached him.

    Woody was feeling very guilty about insisting that Liza fly with him, but was assured that it was an accident. He tried to give Liza a positive outlook on being able to fight the feeling that she would never have vision in her right eye. Dr. Wexley removed the bandage and although her vision was blurry, she could see. Every day would improve it, but she had to wear a patch. Woody was kissing Liza good-bye, insisting that she was still his beautiful model, when Steve arrived with flowers. She doubted that he really tried to call her and thought he was in love with Kitty and only returned out of pity. She was moving to her mother's and told him that their marriage was over. Steve tried to see her the following day and was told by a nurse that Liza had left word that he was not to visit. Steve asked Janet's help and she agreed to talk to her when she got home. Steve said he went to Australia to work and tried to call, but was returning to his old apartment and would get a job in Henderson. He would never do anything again that could come between Liza and himself. Janet said it might be too late.

    Scott Phillips had asked investigator David Sutton to try locating Ralph Heywood who was supposedly trying to find work in the Southwest. Scott was still Eric's legal guardian and had offered to adopt him because Ralph wasn’t a stable influence. Scott was taking Eric on a vacation to take his mind off things and asked his wife to go along. Kathy wanted to, but had several court appearances scheduled. They both felt that it was important that Scott take Eric anyway.

    John Wyatt had lost many clients even though he was acquitted. Scott mentioned this to Stephanie Pace and she transfered her business to him and persuaded other friends not to withdraw their business from John. Wade assured him that he would always have the Collins Corporation as a client. Stephanie asked John's advice when Wade suggested that she return to nursing. The nursing supervisor told Stephanie that it would not be good to have her on the staff because she had donated much money to the hospital and didn’t really need the job. This could lead to disagreements, but she hired her because she was a good nurse.

    Amy’s big problem was finding a babysitter so that she could begin her internship. Cindy French told Gary Walton that she felt uncomfortable at his parents and wanted to move out after she found a job. Gary suggested that Amy hire her. Bruce objected because he felt she had a bad reputation, but agreed to try her. Cindy was happy, but told Amy that when she was fully recovered, she would be leaving town. She thought that Gary felt responsible for her and she might be falling in love. She didn’t want to stand in Gary's way and she knew that Dr. Thurston didn’t like Gary's association with her. Gary was caged before the hospital board for a hearing on his reinstatement. Dr. Thurston again questioned Gary on his personal affairs but Gary refused to discuss them. Doctors Wexley, Rogers and Collins were on Gary's side, but he felt that the cards were stacked against him. He was elated when he heard he was on the hospital staff again. Janet and Cindy arranged a celebration at the Collins home in honor of his reinstatement.

    David Sutton was lunching at the Inn when a man shouted at him that David ruined his marriage and his whole life with his snooping. David was crestfallen as he told John and Greg that the man was right. He had been hired by the man's wife to investigate his activities because she suspected that he was having an affair. David found that he was, but knew that the man was ready to break it off. He told the wife and she used it to obtain a divorce. Greg said David was only doing his job and should not feel guilty becaus of it. Greg couldn’t understand why John didn’t give up his law practice and do something else as he could barely support his office.

    David told Kathy Phillips that he was leaving Scott's firm as investigator and she suggested that he take the Bar exam and become a lawyer as he had intended to be. When he finished law school he wanted something exciting so he joined the FBI and then the United States Marshall's Office. He felt that he had been destroying lives and couldn’t stand the pressure any more. It had been eight years since he graduated and he wasn’t sure that he could pass. Kathy thought that he was very bright and with her help could take the upcoming exams in July. Kathy and Scott had a lot of faith in him.

    As Liza was preparing to go home, she had a fainting spell and the x-rays showed that she had a hematoma that had to be relieved immediately before she suffered a stroke. Dr. Coulter asked Greg to consult and felt the surgical procedure he recommended would save valuable time, but Greg refused to assist. The hematoma is relieved, but they had to remove the temporal bone that had been badly fragmented. There was no chance of repairing it again and Liza was in no shape to replace it then. Plastic surgery was impossible for some time because of two such serious surgeries. It was almost certain that she would be disfigured. Informed of Liza's condition by Janet and her marital status by Liza herself, Woody told Liza he loved her.

    Kathy wondered if the lack of a child of their own was hurting their marriage. She and Scott wanted to adopt Eric but only had him on a tentative basis.

    Jo and Amy tried to show Bruce that the animosity he felt for Cindy was due to his fear that she would usurp some of Tori's love. Bruce was an orphan and felt the need for total family love.

     

  15. 3 minutes ago, kalbir said:

    April 25, 1977 All My Children expands to 1 hr.

    ABC new daytime schedule (ET) starting w/ soaps until the end of the day 12:30 pm Ryan's Hope, 1 pm All My Children, 2 pm $20,000 Pyramid; 2:30 pm One Life to Live, 3:15 pm General Hospital, 4 pm The Edge of Night. 

    New soap time slot rivalry As the World Turns vs. All My Children vs. Days

    ABC next and final soap expansions were One Life to Live to 1 hr and General Hospital to 1 hr on January 16, 1978.

    Guiding Light going strong, it's expansion to 1 hr a little over 6 months away.

    That explains DAYS' haste to oust PFS to some degree as well. Knowing her stories weren't working, and knowing an incredibly-strong AMC was to go up directly opposite them, I'm certain there was some major panic behind the scenes.

    Seems everyone's in a bit of springtime freefall at the moment, though ATWT and GL are keeping their numbers up rather nicely in spite of it all.

  16. 7 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

    Edmonton Journal Jan 15 1993

    Soap icon asked to leave Days of Our Lives plays leave CONNIE PASSALACQUA United Media Hollywood

    Days of Our Lives has asked the liveliest of soap icons, Susan Seaforth Hayes (who plays Julie Williams), to leave the show. Hayes came back to Days of Our Lives two years ago (without her on-screen and real-life husband, Bill Hayes, who had played Doug), after a six-year absence. Doug and Julie were, of course, the soap supercouple of the early '70s, as the Hayeses mixed sexual sizzle with real love, creating a long-term, genuine sense of bonhomie with the show's fans. In 1990, NBC hyped Seaforth Hayes' return to Days of Our Lives with wealthy, "divorced" Julie supposedly set to be the adversary to evil Victor Kiriakis (played by John Aniston). Instead, spunky Julie became a sounding board for the show's often-mundane younger characters.

    Her rightful slot on the show was taken by Louise Sorel (who plays Vivian Alamain), who arrived a year ago after playing fabulous vixen Augusta Lockridge on Santa Barbara. Most soaps don't have room for more than one woman in the fifty-something range. What a shame! Seaforth Hayes came back as fiery as ever and looking great. But stupidly, Julie was hardly ever used in the story, which squandered Seaforth Hayes' talent and sparkle. Julie is, of course, a key member of the show's core family, the Hortons, whose presence goes back to the show's first episode in 1965.

    Also leaving Days of Our Lives for personal reasons, is Patsy Pease. Since coming back to the show alter tending to the serious health problems of her baby son, Russell. Pease had been starring in a splashy story line that has been meant to he the daytime equivalent of The Three Faces of Eve. Her three identities have been Kimberly, Lacey and Clare. Taking Pease's place will be multisoap veteran Ariane Chase, who, as Ariane Munker was best known for her portrayal of walking headache Marianne Randolph (1975-77) on Another World. Mari Dusay (who formerly played Myrna Clegg on Capitol) filled in for Louise Sorel on Days of Our Lives recently, after Sorel injured her back during a trip to New York Cily. Dusay, who's also great at witchy roles, is said to be a major contender for the role of Alexandra Spaulding on Guiding Light, a role that was vacated last summer by the incomparable Beverlee McKinsey. Just when are they going to cast that role? This is currently the best back-stage cliffhanger in the soap world. Hey, Seaforth Hayes might be a fair choice!

    Before Reilly spun Vivian right off the edge, I had forgotten how similar her character had been to what Julie had been in the past, and to what they likely were expecting Julie to be upon her return. Marj Dusay's short run really highlighted the dangerous vixen energy Vivian was meant to have, and it's really unfortunate they didn't have much of a place for Julie in this era, other than to be Milquetoast Molly's sounding board.

  17. 16 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

    When did Bill Bell cut ties with Days completely? I know for some time PFS had pretty much free reign but Bill was dictating long term stry.

    I wonder if Days falling ratings were the result of Pat taking complete control and not having Bill's input-hence the dark stories lacking Bill's unique touch.

    Officially, Bell was credited into 1978, but you can definitely tell the difference in tone after the switch to the hour in 1975, which is about when Bell said in his TV Archives interview (I believe, again, correct me if I'm wrong) he stopped providing projections for the show, which he'd left PFS with when he left to create Y&R.

    I will say, just based on what I've read, PFS does take the reigns pretty quickly after Bell left in 1973, as she almost immediately introduced some new characters and involved them heavily in story -- Neil & Amanda, specifically, are introduced very suddenly and are involved in meaty story almost immediately upon their arrival, which is jarring if you'd followed the story to that point, where Bell took pains to introduce new characters very slowly and carefully, the shift in style is very noticeable, even just in write-ups.

  18. 1 minute ago, Khan said:

    Looking at your summary of events, @beebs, I think PFS should have done one of two things: either wrap up the Trish storyline as quickly as possible, or develop another, lighter storyline to counter-balance all the heavy melodrama that was going on at that time.  The Don/Marlena/Sharon storyline might have been okay, but dealing with Trish's mental breakdown on the heels of Mickey's feels like too much.

    Did PFS leave DAYS voluntarily the first time, or was she fired?  If she was fired, then I think NBCD might have acted too hastily.  Yes, the ratings were down, but there wasn't any need to panic yet, since PFS had proven she could do better.  The network could've just given her time to figure out what needed tweaking and then let her tweak it.  (Again, Pat, I would've wrapped up Trish's story sooner rather than later).

    IIRC, PFS was fired, as Betty Corday had been, according to Ann Marcus, been trying to get Ann Marcus on board for awhile. I think the combo of all of this, plus Mike sleeping with Linda, the David/Valerie/Brooke story, complete with Adele Hamilton and her alcoholism (as well as David's and Valerie's dad Paul's), were some extremely weighty material on a show that hadn't really been quite this heavy before, and it was weighing everything down. I agree, the DID story should have (and ultimately was) wrapped up quickly, though I don't think what AM replaced it with was much better.
     

    Ultimately, Sharon shifted FAST into becoming deranged and obsessed with her friend/painting partner Julie, and was hastily shuttled off-canvas by her suddenly-appearing husband after confessing romantic feelings for Julie. Leaving Don and Marlena free for...Sam to lock Marlena in Bayview and take over her life even though Sam looked and sounded nothing like Marlena.

    The stories were definitely well-crafted, but you're right that there was absolutely no levity in any of the stories on the show at the time, and the only semi-happy event to occur during this period was Doug & Julie's wedding, which was back in October '76, so I think the real error in PFS' judgment was to wrap up that story with very little on the frontburner that was resonating with viewers to replace it. Honestly, to me it would've been a good time to draw Maggie back to the farm and fall for a muscled farmhand that took her mind off her struggles with Mickey, just SOME kind of levity to balance out everything else going on.

    PFS seemed to want every story to be deeply psychological and intense, which is great for Emmy reels and the like, but not every story can be ripped-from-the-headlines (or the medical journals, as the case may be), hyper-realistic dramas. Not in such an ensemble, daily format. The fatigue sets in fast, and I can see why a lot of folks switched over to ATWT or Family Feud as a result.

  19. Well you can definitely see why NBC pulled L&F so quickly with those numbers. YIKES.

    This is at the tail end of Pat Falken Smith's run as HW at DAYS, and something isn't working anymore. Around this time was a HEAVY focus on Patty Weaver's Trish killing her pervy stepdad, then developing DID so she didn't remember doing it, and setting up Sharon Duvall as something of a sex-crazed spoiler for Don & Marlena, while Mickey continued to recover from his mental break from the previous year. Even just writing this out, you can tell how very heavy the stories were at this time, and I'm sure it was starting to get a bit much for the audience. By the middle of the missing Fast Nationals week (4/20/77 according to the ever-amazing @JAS0N47's website), Ann Marcus would take over and make some really quick, sometimes jarring story and character shifts.

    It's slightly surprising to see GH be threatened with cancellation with such middling numbers. They were really only about a half point below OLTL and RH at this point, so it seems a bit strange that ABC had its neck on the chopping block when it wasn't honestly doing much worse than its competition, what with AW not pulling in particularly strong numbers at this point either.

  20. Weird seeing DAYS' ratings ticking upward during Palumbo's short run, considering how tepid a lot of his stories were. Jack and Jennifer and the con artists are a total mess, while the hunt for John's True Identity of the Week kinda worked (for me anyway), the downplaying of the John/Marlena/Roman/Isabella quad in favour of the focus on the Torres mob family was a bizarre choice. The Alamains seem to just meander during this period, antagonizing everyone with little rhyme or reason to it. I believe the Lombards and Lisanne Gardner are introduced around this time as well. 

    How the show was netting actually reasonable numbers around this time is kinda beyond me.

  21. 1 hour ago, Khan said:

    I don't think the show was ever the same after Janet dumped Natalie down the well.  The ratings were back up, but, IMO, Megan McTavish's work was so gimmicky and not at all in keeping with the show's best years.

    Beyond gimmicky, it was MEAN. The energy in a lot of scenes and confrontations just had such nasty energy to them, I've felt a visceral discomfort watching them. For example, Erica and Travis fighting over Bianca made me particularly uncomfortable. I can understand the need to show how divorce can bring out the ugly monsters in people, but it honestly just made me feel like neither of these unhinged people deserve this child, instead of feeling pathos for anybody involved.

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