beebs

Having said this though, the ratings in its last year at CBS were up a half-point from where they'd been the previous year. I think viewers were just adjusting to the new timeslot the previous year, and likely in a year or two, the show probably would've been getting ratings in the 7s again with a stable writing/production team. It still strikes me as devastating how trigger-happy CBS had always been about cancelling their soaps needlessly. Granted, this is likely the reason why B&B has succeeded on the level it has, as it wasn't replacing anything especially low-rated and was in an optimal timeslot where viewers were already tuned in. But I can totally see what you mean about SFT being toast once B&B was ready, though I wonder if B&B would've happened at ALL if CBS had stuck it out with SFT.

I think most of the problem there was that NBC was interfering so much that no one with a name would touch the show anymore after Lemay was out. It said so much about the network's priorities and their level of patience (ie. little to none) for any character-based stories to build up that could've resuscitated the show's fortunes. Why bother risking your rep on a show that would dump you just as your stories were building up in earnest?

OHHH yea. They were getting a 1.6 in their last season and being pre-empted by so many stations (it was airing at 12PM Eastern at the time), it wasn't worth keeping AT ALL from a business perspective. NO soap had ever finished a season with ratings that low before. Unfortunately, I think it had way more to do with a terrible timeslot than anything to do with story.

According to this one source I found (can't remember the name of it, but it's the one that compiled all of the network TV schedules over the years for Wikipedia), virtually every NBC soap in the mid-70s got its own 1hr special (save Somerset, which I guess was too far gone by then for them to bother with). Even How To Survive A Marriage got a trial 1-hr episode in '75, if I recall. Also, Joe Stuart was on the Tomorrow Show episode about soaps that was on YouTube, which aired about a week after DAYS expanded to an hour, and he mentioned that NBC brought up the expansion for The Doctors just after AW had expanded. He said he was against it then, mostly because the logistics sounded horrendous (and using the production model they used at the time for 30-min episodes, I'm sure it would've been), but I think once DAYS had done it, the method had been refined, and at this point he was ready to make the leap to an hour, though at that point the network wasn't so sure.

AMC basically exploded from a bottom-rated soap to the middle of the pack in the seasonal ratings out of seemingly nowhere around '73, I think a lot of it would've been down to Erica's abortion and the fact it was essentially the only network programming on at 1:00pm at that point. By '73 they were competitive with the top-rated soaps. Interesting to see how EDGE was still able to pull out a big rating now and again, even though The Doctors' was in what would become their best-rated year. What were the stories that year that brought them those ratings, I'm curious? The thing that stands out the most to me is just how volatile everything is. Even when EDGE was in the Top 5, some weeks it could fall below #10. Imagine the kind of panic the networks would have with things being like that now.

+1 She was irritating me so much I almost had to turn it off, I couldn't take anymore. They were well eager to get rid of Ann Williams in the 70s, weren't they? Seems bizarre since it essentially left Jo marooned in a familial sense.

Such a Frons thing to do. Criticize the public for enjoying something. Obviously NBC wasn't TRAINING their viewers the right way *wags finger*

If I remember correctly, there is a YouTube user that posted a 100+ part series on Carl's redemption storyline that aired from about 1993 onward. That should give you at least SOME idea of the changes that happened under Sloane. IMO, the show became the televised equivalent of white bread about that time, decent, inoffensive but bland, and if you weren't already hooked during Swajeski's era, Sloane's era wasn't gonna hook you on at all.

One thing I DID leave off though! I firmly believe that Where The Heart Is should've been left alone to run in a midday block with LIAMST and Y&R. It would've absolutely become the backbone of CBS down the road from a demos POV. WTHI still comes across to me like the kind of soap that had was just a few years ahead of its time, and had CBS been able to handle the criticisms thrown at it, with Labine & Avila Meyer running the show it would've eventually become a monster.

Absolutely. EDGE being the best example of this. If P&G had left well enough alone I'd say that Edge would still be on now and we wouldn't have an hour of LMAD to contend with. Some of the others I'm not so sure though. I don't think SFT, ATWT or GL sustained any real lasting damage from the moves. I think SFT's real damage was from the one-by-one hacking off of Jo's proverbial limbs in the 70s when they got rid of all of Jo's blood relatives, all in a desperate attempt to woo young viewers. I think SFT had problems, regardless. The "one woman's struggle" angle the show was stuck with hurt them in the long run. I honestly don't think that even under the best of circumstances that SFT would've lasted on CBS past the mid-90s. It was simply too narrow a focus for any soap in that day to really thrive while appealing to their base market, and by then the network would've been crying "younger younger!" at them until they were blue in the face. I don't believe it was possible in the 90s to have a soap focussing on an elderly woman. It would've been very interesting! But the networks wouldn't have gone for it.

Considering how full ABC's schedule was at that time, the only option would've been NBC who were incapable of keeping the soaps they DID have from spiraling out of control (which spoke more to problems with the network than anything else). I think if they had chosen LOL, they would've put it in the 12:30 slot. I hypothesize that CBS would've canned SFT in '82 anyway, and as soon as Y&R moved into that 12:30 slot, any headway LOL would've made at NBC would've vanished and they'dve been off the air by 1984 at the latest. I don't think any amount of good story could've helped that show at NBC. MAYBE at ABC if it were put back in the morning, but then it would've run into Price and I don't know that running opposite Price when they were pulling in ratings in the 8's would've been much help either. CBS had a very strong lineup, but when the weaker pieces of that lineup were pulled away, you really saw how strong CBS was as a BLOCK, not necessarily the individual shows (with the obvious exceptions of Y&R, ATWT and GL).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsM6x--1lYU Though she clearly has no clue how to pronounce "wings" in french, it's still pretty epic, IMO.

Is TeleNext's Youtube channel going down too? I've been watching AW on there recently and they're up tp Oct 1992 right now.

Suddenly this promo makes a lot more sense (apologies if it's already been posted). This show sounds absolutely brilliant, loving all the info you have on SS, this is brilliant stuff. Thanks so much for sharing with us all, Brent!

The is absolutely fascinating stuff. The Doctors was always a mystery to me, and as a fan of NBC soaps, I always was curious about this show. Fantastic to see so much information and history about this show.