I saw these posted at another board.

Week of 12/21/92

1. The Young & the Restless 8.6

2. All My Children 7.4

3. As the World Turns 6.2

4. The Bold & the Beautiful 6.0

5. General Hospital 5.8

6. One Life to Live 5.7

7. Guiding Light 5.6

8. Days of Our Lives 4.6

9. Another World 3.1

10. Loving 2.7

11. Santa Barbara 2.5

Sigh the good ole days of AMC

How wonderful is it seeing ATWT at #3? Such a shame Douglas Marland passed away, the show hasn't been the same since he left. Now that I've seen episodes from him I see why people rave about the show so much. Hogan, Pasanante, etc. can't come close to holding a candle to him.

Looking at old ratings is depressing...

*tear*

I saw these posted at another board.

Week of 12/21/92

1. The Young & the Restless 8.6

2. All My Children 7.4

3. As the World Turns 6.2

4. The Bold & the Beautiful 6.0

5. General Hospital 5.8

6. One Life to Live 5.7

7. Guiding Light 5.6

8. Days of Our Lives 4.6

9. Another World 3.1

10. Loving 2.7

11. Santa Barbara 2.5

You could see from those numbers that B&B was reaping the benefits of both the Sheila Carter crossover that happened during '92 and '93 (IIRC), and the fact it was sandwiched between Y&R and ATWT. GL was as high as 5th during 1992. Yet for both ATWT and GL, 1993 would be such a fateful year.

Furthermore, NBCD's numbers (as they had been 10 years earlier) were looking very poor indeed. Both Days and AW apparently lost even more viewers in the second half of 1992 and Santa Barbara's fate had already been sealed.

It'd be good to have more of these classic ratings threads, because the topic does lend itself to interesting discussion on where soaps got things right and wrong in those days.

Those were the good old days where AMC was not only the critical darling of ABC but of the daytime world

Wow. Relatively speaking, Days was so low in the standings. And yet I -- and my entire college dorm -- were GLUED to the show. John & Marlena. Victor & Kate. OriginalAustin, OriginalBilly. Carly & Lawrence. *big sigh*

SB must have been broadcasting its last show around this time.

GH must have been in transition. It was haemoragging its cast from the Gloria Monty years of crime-fighting/FSB. Soon it would have Claire Labine... and Brenda. And Sonny. All of which I loved -- at the time.

The overall ratings kicked ass, though. How I wish we could see some of these levels today -- even though a lot of the shows really do not deserve ratings like this. AMC at 7.4? ATWT at 6.4? WOW.

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How wonderful is it seeing ATWT at #3? Such a shame Douglas Marland passed away, the show hasn't been the same since he left. Now that I've seen episodes from him I see why people rave about the show so much. Hogan, Pasanante, etc. can't come close to holding a candle to him.

Amen to that. And the show could still be great if they would just follow the damn creed but no, they want to go off and do their own thing and ruin the show, one character at a time

Those were the good old days where AMC was not only the critical darling of ABC but of the daytime world

I know! AMC was definitely the crown jewel. I wish ABC still treated it that way (with care). Looking at these ratings, AMC was almost 2 full points ahead of GH. Come back to us, Felecia Behr! She would put Fronz in his place.

Y&R was still kicking ass

--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Chris B @ Dec 11 2006, 03:02 AM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->How wonderful is it seeing ATWT at #3? Such a shame Douglas Marland passed away, the show hasn't been the same since he left. Now that I've seen episodes from him I see why people rave about the show so much. Hogan, Pasanante, etc. can't come close to holding a candle to him.

Amen to that. And the show could still be great if they would just follow the damn creed but no, they want to go off and do their own thing and ruin the show, one character at a time

If all the soap writers would just follow Douglas Marland's creed all the shows would be 10 times better than the crap we get on a daily basis.

I know! AMC was definitely the crown jewel. I wish ABC still treated it that way (with care). Looking at these ratings, AMC was almost 2 full points ahead of GH. Come back to us, Felecia Behr! She would put Fronz in his place.

It was SO the crown jewel of daytime. This was about the time I was jizzing my pants at 11:59am everyday over the anticipation of a new episode.

*sighs* that was probably inappropriate...lol

It was SO the crown jewel of daytime. This was about the time I was jizzing my pants at 11:59am everyday over the anticipation of a new episode.

*sighs* that was probably inappropriate...lol

Whether it was inappropriate or not it was the truth. Sadly no soaps can get us that excited today. LOL

Just to remind people of what Douglas Marland's Creed was. Here it is.

How Not To Wreck A Show

by Douglas Marland

Watch the show.

Learn the history of the show. You would be surprised at the ideas that you can get from the back story of your characters.

Read the fan mail. The very characters that are not thrilling to you may be the audience's favorites.

Be objective. When I came in to ATWT, the first thing I said was, what is pleasing the audience? You have to put your own personal likes and dislikes aside and develop the characters that the audience wants to see.

Talk to everyone; writers and actors especially. There may be something in a character's history that will work beautifully for you, and who would know better than the actor who has been playing the role?

Don't change a core character. You can certainly give them edges they didn't have before, or give them a logical reason to change their behavior. But when the audience says, "He would never do that," then you have failed.

Build new characters slowly. Everyone knows that it takes six months to a year for an audience to care about a new character. Tie them in to existing characters. Don't shove them down the viewers' throats.

If you feel staff changes are in order, look within the organization first. P&G [Procter & Gamble]does a lot of promoting from within. Almost all of our producers worked their way up from staff positions, and that means they know the show.

Don't fire anyone for six months. I feel very deeply that you should look at the show's canvas before you do anything.

Good soap opera is good storytelling. It's very simple.

Douglas Marland is considered by many as one of the greatest head writers ever. Marland was a former head writer of As The World Turns, Guiding Light, and General Hospital. He worked as a writer on Another World and co-created Loving. He won multiple Emmy awards and Soap Opera Digest awards. Marland, a former actor, loved daytime. He passed away on March 6, 1993. This article was published in the April 27, 1993 issue of Soap Opera Digest. Thanks to SEW for providing a copy of the article.