Edge of Night (EON) (No spoilers please)

[Khan]

IIRC, Henry Slesar remarked once how no one had interfered with how he actually wrote the show until it switched networks. Ironically, though, P&G fired Slesar while ABC wanted to keep him (hence, his stint as HW at OLTL).

[amybrickwallace]

When did he write OLTL?

[danfling]

During the Paul Raunch era, the late Sam Hall and the late Peggy O'Shea wrote One Life to Live. She left the show,and he was hired to co-write with Sam Hall. Mr. Hall and Mr. Slesar co-wrote the show for about a year.

[robbwolff]

I've seen a couple sources online that say he was there from July 1982 to June 1983. I tend to doubt that since he left Edge in May 1983.

[amybrickwallace]

If Henry Slesar had remained headwriter, do you think it would have made any difference in the show's ultimate fate?

[danfling]

The show should never have replaced Henry Slesar. The person who should have been replaced was the executive producer, Erwin Nicholson.

[NothinButAttitude]

I've been watching a lot of the 1982 clips and I had to ask:

For long-term EON fans, did Gunther give you creepy but hot vibes like he gives me? I should be totally repulsed by him but I find the late David Froman super hot. Mitzi was a fool for not jumping his bones.

[robbwolff]

I never really got the creepy vibes from the second incarnation of Gunther, and was never repulsed by him. It was the first Gunther and his evil ways that repulsed me.

[Khan]

Probably not. EDGE's only real problem on ABC was the affiliate clearances or lack thereof. According to the EON Homepage, I think, because EON aired in a late afternoon/early evening slot, many affiliates either aired it in different time slots (usually late nights) or not at all. But where it DID air in the regular slot (4/3 pm, I think?) it often performed quite well.

Again, according to EON Homepage, ABC was actually quite reluctant to cancel EDGE but they weren't willing to assume production costs in order to keep it on the air. P&G, OTOH, wanted to cancel the show for the simple reason that continuing to produce it was costing the company too much money.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Khan

[NothinButAttitude]

I'm beginning to notice a trend with P&G going back and looking at various situations. It was always them that wanted to end these shows. Not the networks. Just pisses me off that they didn't wanna sell them.

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks for the thoughtful answers, everyone. Slesar/Nicholson had to be the longest-running HW/EP team in soap history, right? They had several years on AW's Lemay/Rauch.

[sungrey]

Part of the problem was some of TPTB at ABC, and maybe a few of the younger people at P&G, wanted Edge to have some of the same "on the run" or younger stories that GH had, in order to hold on to some of GH's audience.

The big hole in that way of thinking was many markets didn't air Edge directly after GH at 4:00. I know in our West Michigan market, it was aired at 10:30 on a one-day delay.

[amybrickwallace]

Good news - my friend is uploading all the EON episodes he has from 1982 to 1984, and he has a boatload of them. PM me if you want the link to his channel (you can never be too careful).

[victorlord75]

Exactly the same time slot it had in Northeastern Pennsylvania during its ABC run. During the late 70s and 80s, it was all about youth, but, to Edge's credit, the older characters who were still left did get air time, like Mike and Nancy Karr.

[amybrickwallace]

From what I read, my home market of Cleveland didn't even air EON at all in its last years on ABC. Akron did, though.