Some Soaps to Axe Previews to Cut Costs!

[LeClerc]

I should have mentioned I have long felt they should get rid of previews. I don't think they encourage people to tune in as much as they encourage people to not tune in if they don't see their faves in the previews or if it reveals the outcome of a cliffhanger (okay, who am I kidding... soaps don't do cliffhangers anymore...).

I just don't get how 1) this is going to save any money if it doesn't cost much (which it shouldn't) or 2) if it does cost alot, how?

Bring back opening credits that don't feature the characters and therefore don't need to be updated (although, again, I don't understand how updating openings is a major expenditure).

[MarkH]

Amen to that! To go really old-school, we could have an announcer at the beginning ask "On today's show, will Carly finally find the happiness that has so eluded her with Holden? Can Luke and Noah still find the shards of their broken romance? And will Paul Stenbeck again do grievous harm?"

I know that is radio-days...but I think it would be fun in a kitschy way, and would cost little.

That MUST stop. It MUST stop. We can all totally keep 100% up to date IN ADVANCE with those spoilers. Savvy viewers can figure out EVERY BEAT from those spoilers...with spoiler pictures, you can even see how the scenes are laid out. THAT MUST STOP. They are killing the golden goose, which so RELIES on people actually TUNING IN tomorrow.

I agree that good cliffhangers is the way to go. But not "car brakes screech as opposing headlights loom brighter in the windshield, and his eyes open in horror". At least not every day.

Here is a classic one I just read: Lisa (ATWT) apparently had a hysterical pregnancy that made it ALL THE WAY TO A CEASARIAN SECTION! So, back then, everybody thought she was about to have a baby. So, on the Friday episode, the doctor opens her up. His face registers surprise (in whatever way they did it back then), and he turns to his nurse. "Nurse, there has been a terrible mistake!" he says. Fade to black.

The audience stewed, SPOILER FREE, till MONDAY. That is 100% more fun than any gunfight or car crash or whatever. And if the soaps could actually SURPRISE us like that again...it would regenerate enthusiasm.

My guess is that it is for either ABC or P&G.

But, you're right, it probably costs little. My guess is that it costs a proportion of an FTE.

So, let's say it takes half of a person paid $90,000/year (plus fringe...which would bring us to about $120,000) to do these previews. This includes watching the episodes, figuring out the tags, "cutting" and editing together with voiceover. On many networks, captions also have to be added.

So, when you put it all together, it really is a TRIVIAL proportion of the budget. And that should tell you something...

When they are starting to try to save $60,000 here and $60,000 there, they are in DIRE straits.

I'm involved in organizational budget cutting now, and it is legendary that cutting supplies and pencils and so forth doesn't have a meaningful impact on budget. You HAVE to go for the big ticket items....which are ALWAYS personnel. For soaps, this will include all manner of behind-the-scenes and in-front-of-camera folks.

When they're starting to shave away at $60,000, that signals that these budgets are now DOWN TO THE BONE.

No wonder so much of what makes it to the screen is dreck. They don't have the money to do anything anymore...and it shows.

[LeClerc]

And now it makes sense. Duh, should have thought of that.

[MarkH]

I think your point is the critical one.

This is NOT a major expenditure. The fact that they are down to this shows how DIRE the budgets are.

We have a real-world example. It now costs $$ to check a bag on an airplane. That is RIDICULOUS. But the fact that the airlines are needing to eke out every DIME they can shows what DIRE straits they are in too.

You can therefore assume that soaps and airlines are now in roughly comparable economic health. That says a LOT. Times are really bad, now....

Yup. Every dime matters now. You can think of it as the stage JUST BEFORE "Chapter 11" or "receivership". This is probably exacerbated by our current economy...I'm sure that ad dollars are down everywhere, beyond declining viewership.

Can't you just feel the end coming? For me, the ground rumbles like an approaching train. (Sorry Sylph for continuing to use cliches).

[Khan]

True, lol. But you know they don't call it show business for nothing!

[AddictedToSoaps]

Oh please. What an awful idea.

[P.J.]

Me too!!! I hated the half-time previews that had for a couple of years, and I hate tomorrow's previews that consistantly give too much away.

I'm not sure what they cost, but someone has to sit around and do the work...and since in ATWT's case, they're consistantly not enticing anyway, it's a waste. Ours are usually only twenty seconds, but we occassionally get one (usually for next week) that's almost a minute, that's time they can use for story. Sometimes it almost feels like a lazy way of filling up the show, which I think is crazy when the average show is only 37 minutes or so anyway.

[Sapounopera]

You know what? This is a great idea. These previews ruin all the fun, you see which characters are on the next episode and you can figure out what is going to happen.

I also think it's time for shorter and more traditional soap openings. I like B&B's short version, Y&R should drop the actor names and ABC needs to create different openings for each show. AMC should got back to their original one, GH should have the ambulance and OLTL could go back to the clouds or the champagne opening.. lol

Too many previews and spoilers have killed the soaps. Imagine one soap going spoiler-free. That could work.

[Khan]

You know what seems strange to me? You'd think, as...conscientious (sp?) as TPTB are about keeping everything as concise to possible these days to avoid viewers wandering away (and of course, to have more time for ads), they would find the more "traditional" soap openings more attractive.

[MarkH]

My understanding is that, contractually, Y&R can't drop the actor names.

Eric Braeden found the lack of names disrespectful, and negotiated to have (his?) put in.

What I'm not sure is whether he negotiated to have all those names put in (unlikely), or whether other actors followed suit (hence, the limited set of names in the opening), or whether TPTB realized (politically) that they couldn't just credit Braeden. But Braeden is not going to drop his demand.

Faces have been a part of the openers on Y&R since the beginning...so they would actually be losing something by dropping them (relative to their history).

[sheilaforever]

They do it like every second month for one day or so. It sure is Brad Bell's cost sensitivity which keeps B&B from doing previews...

Killing day-to-day previews is a smart move. Previews for big events however are necessary - you can't do a stunt which goes totally unnoticed by the audience.

As for the opening debate: I love that Y&R credits it's actors. B&B should have never added the character names and just go by using the actor names individually.

[soapluva]

Are they serious ? How much does a 20 second clip cost ?

[jcar03]

Probably costs more then we think.

[XxTaraXx]

I wish they would. GH's credits give me a seizure.

I always loved that DOOL just had the hourglass and Macdonald Carey's voiceover.

[Faulkner]

AMEN AMEN AMEN...I've long hated the openings with actors in them (except for GL's early '90s one, which I thought was unusually clever and only required clips from the shows and not special shoots.)