25 years ago

[David V]

For starters, here were the season ratings for Season 1983-84

It's astonishing to think that a soap, even then, could get double figure ratings but General Hospital did exactly that. This was still part of the Golden Age of ABC Daytime, but the dominance had lessened somewhat after the early 1980s. The success of both it and All My Children evidently had a halo effect on the rest of the lineup back then- One Life To Live got strong ratings throughout the decade, Ryan's Hope had solid ratings to '82 or '83 and even the now ailing Edge of Night managed to stay afloat at the time. (Of course, we needn't mention that back in 1981, the week of Luke and Laura's wedding saw GH, AMC and OLTL all get astonishingly huge ratings, RH also did very well and EON outrated any NBC soap...)

Young and the Restless was by now CBS' top-rated soap, and its gradual ascendency to the top of the ratings began more or here. In fact, Y&R was unique in that it made major changes around 1982, and benefited from it thereafter! Guiding Light was riding high- Reva among others helped keep it in the spotlight that year, rewarded with strong ratings. As The World Turns had lost its position as not only the top-rating soap but also CBS' highest-rating soap at the end of the 70s, prior to its revival under Douglas Marland. CBS' newest soap, Capitol, was also enjoying decent ratings before its gradual demise.

Both Edge of Night and Search for Tomorrow, former CBS soaps, were essentially on their deathbed as their ratings had sunk to rock bottom, and large numbers of affiliates dropped them. SFT's viewership was half or less than half of what it had been on CBS, while EON was dying a slow and painful death with its fate all but sealed during 1984.

Loving had premiered the previous year, and during 1984 a change in timeslot with Ryan's Hope meant that Loving's ratings would improve and remain fairly steady for the remainder of the decade- whilst effectively signing the death warrant for Ryan's Hope, whose numbers never recovered and in fact sunk to lows amazing even by today's standards.

Probably one of the most notable developments around 1983-84 was the miraculous recovery of NBC, or at least two of its soaps Days of Our Lives and Another World. Both shows had suffered a catastrophic collapse in 1980, the reasons for which have been explained elsewhere. But joining in on the supercouple phenomenon allowed Days and AW to record a marked increase in ratings over the year, having been in the toilet at the start of the decade. These two shows along with Santa Barbara would give NBC a very good lineup, and they nearly got it right...

[AMCHistory]

I recently interviewed a former star of AMC who too saw 1984 as a turning point for AMC and ABC at a whole. For AMC, he pointed out this was when the wildly Kim Delaney and Marcy Walker left the show. They were loved by the audience. Marcy's departure was last minute. Kim's character, Jenny, was killed off and their was a big audience backlash. Not having these two leading ladies did leave a void. I guess to a lesser extent, the show also suffered from the recasting of Nina Cortlandt, another leading lady and beloved character.

Also, keep in mind ABC covered the 1984 summer Olympics in LA. ABC closed the NY studios, shows had pretaped abbreviated 40 minute episodes. People were trying to catch AMC and GH in between events at different times of the day. YR just moved a 1/2 hour earlier. Viewers began to watch the extra 1/2 hour of YR and sticking around, missing AMC. NBC countered by premiering Santa Barbara at the same time, with Marcy on cast. ABC was loosing viewership, and I guess the golden age was coming to a close.

[Dan]

1984 was a hit-and-miss year for GL. At the beginning of the year, the show was on fire. The "Four Muskateer" story with Beth/Phillip/Mindy/Rick was so popular and well-written that scads of young people joined the audience. The character of Reva was beginning to heat up storytelling and the show also added that Grande Dame Beverlee Mckinsey as ALexandra Spaulding. The great storytelling of Pam Long and Richard Culliton propelled the show to #1 in the ratings for three weeks in May, beating a Luke and Laura-less GH.

In a sense those three weeks were the turning point. Then, the show began to make some terrible mistakes. The show wrote out popular actor Don Stewart who played one of the Bauer brothers, Mike. Then, a mystery story involving Annabelle and Tony's new house degenerated into a ridiculous revisionist story involving the Spaulding patriarch Brandon, despite his having died ON SCREEN. During that story, they killed off the popular Hillary Bauer, Bill's daughter with one of his many mistresses. Not to mention the fact that Peter Simon left the role of Ed Bauer and was replaced by Richard Van Fleet, who is possibly one of the least popular Ed Bauers and that Hope Bauer was written out a few months before. Many GL-ers point to that time period as the 'beginning of the end.'

With the Bauers all gone, GL, in essence, became The Reva Hour for the first time, which it would remain off and on until the present.

[Mitch]

That was an interesting year and I would love to hear what was going on backstage (though I have to say the show was number 1 for three weeks in the summer, not May.) The show was ON FIRE, The Bauers, the Reardons, the Spauldings and the Chamberlins were all represented and intertwined and the intro of Reva and the Lewis added another layer (and wasnt as hokey as it reads on paper.) Then I think Culliton left the show and Pam Long began her long descent into self-indulgence as the Lewis and Reva pushed the Bauers aside and they totally wrote the Reardons out. What had become a show about several families interacting in a "soap realistic," way, became a piece of crap with a dumb mystery that did nothing but killed a Bauer, and then the final nail was the "infinity," storyline and the deluge of Kyle Sampson and his people..(and Reva..Reva...Reva....) I dont undestand why TPTB didnt take a look at their mistakes, when the quality went down the ratings did too, and correct them..but it went on for at least two more years.

That was a bad year all along for GL, it was the year Charita Bauer died (and Long and the producer took a freakin year to address her death, and then it was over in a few episodes.) However, ATWT was just about to get a renaissance with Marland and the focus returned to the Hughes family (which makes it even more stupid that GL didnt follow suit and focus on the Bauers and the rest of the families and less on Reva and drug cartels.)

[DRW50]

Is it true Elvera Roussel was given the alcoholism story and fired as some warning to the cast as to what could happen to them?

I've wondered exactly why Marsha Clark was fired. Hillary was a popular character, and wasn't this at a time when the show's women in her age group like Nola and Annabelle were obviously going to be leaving when their contracts were up? Then she had that grisly exit. Did someone dislike her? Or was this all just a way for Pam Long to make everyone see this was her show now? Is this also why Trish was written out, because Pam didn't create her (and couldn't reinvent her the way she did Josh)?

They focused too much effort on actors who were obviously going to leave as soon as they could. Judi Evans, Grant Aleksander, Vincent Irizarry, Robert Newman, all gone by the end of 1985. The stories became more and more absurd and viewers were repulsed. I think the work from Jordan Clarke, Larry Gates, Kim Zimmer, Maeve Kinkead, Krista Tesreau, and other Lewises helped ground the storylines, as much as possible anyway, and this is probably why the Lewises remained such a popular family even when key actors (Newman, Clarke, Zimmer) had departed at one time or another. The stories themselves seem to be ridiculous, from the little I've seen (the crazy man living with Reva, Infinity).

When Long left, didn't her replacement, Jeff Ryder, make things even worse? One of them brought in Johnny Bauer and his father and sister, as a half-hearted way to make up for the Bauer losses, but none of them stuck (Johnny was the most popular but even he didn't last the decade).

Was 1984 when Genie Francis and Tony Geary were gone from GH for good (at that time) or when they were brought back for a guest appearance? Was GH bleeding viewers at this time?

1984 was when Paul Rauch took over OLTL, wasn't it? Or was that 1985?

[Mitch]

I never liked Roussell's Hope, she was a chubby little nothing. Rousell could have taken the alcholic story and ran with it, but she wasnt very good. I think both Long and the producer at that time wanted to reinvent the show, but [!@#$%^&*], look at the ratings people, I think they went from Number 1 to like six or seven after the changes. Ryder did make it worse, much worse but Long left the show as a piece of [!@#$%^&*]...Reva parachuting in a fur coat into an amish barn, another illegitimate kid for Brandon, only this one was like, in his 20's at the time and a magician, Ed operating drunk and then lying about it, a recast Phillip who was had none of the conflict that GA's Phillip had...Roxie Shane having a split personality, and the poor girl playing her couldnt act her way out of a paper bag. It interesting that Long's second tenure really was good.

I dont think Ryder brought on the Bauer cousins...it was another writer and Pam Long came on and since she didnt like the Bauers, put a stop to it. Frankie D was going to be Johnny's bro, but she made him a Cooper..which was interesting, as she wrote of the other blue collar family and then created one in almost its exact likeness (i.e. Frank was Tony Reardon and Harley was Nola.) I would love to read what Long had to say about that time, what her decisions were, why she did it.

Poor GL, out of all the shows, this one seemed to be screwed over more by TPTB's egos (Long, Kobe, JFP, McTrash, Rauch and now Wheeler.)

[DRW50]

Conboy would probably go in the ego category too.

It's strange how the Reardons could go from being as prominent as they were to dying out after a few years. I didn't even realize Bea was on the show for as long as she was until I saw her in a clip from 1986 or 1987. I guess the Reardons weren't so much a family as they were strong personalities who were popular with fans (Tony, Nola). Once they left, and Maureen was recast, the family seemed to become irrelevant. I started watching the show around the time Chelsea was around (she used to sing all the time), and yet even now I sometimes forget she was on the show, or that she was a Reardon. The earlier Reardons seemed to have much more heart. Then Bridget came along, but she never had a chance to form a family because Maureen died, then they distanced Matt and Bridget, and McTavish ignored any of the many attempts which could have been made to forge a bond between Nola and Bridget. Since McTavish worked with Lisa Brown for some time on GL, it's even more ridiculous how badly she wrote for Nola.

I don't know what Eva's Hope was like on a daily basis but I'm not blown away by her in the clips. I think they should have recast instead of writing her out. Then later on it's almost as if she never existed, even when Alan-Michael came back.

The recast Ed probably didn't help viewers. I'm surprised they went ahead with their plans to write out so many Bauers right after Peter Simon left.

I wonder if they would have had a bigger backlash to recasting Mart Hulswit today, since he'd been on the show for so long. Or if viewers knew it was his time to go.

I also didn't understand why they made Floyd into a psycho, instead of just having him leave town like his sister did.

[Mitch]

Bridget and Maureen had an incredibly close bond. I remember the scene where Nadine tells Bridget that Mo died...killer scene!! I actually think that the Reardons were one of the most realistic families on the show, they would fight but they always stuck up with each other and reconciled.

After Charita Bauer died the show had a huge hole in it and I don't know why they didnt bring back Bea to fill it, at least in the interim. I know Long was talking about bringing back Meta during her second tenure...would have love to see Stuart in the role ten years before she filled it...she played Meta as filling Bert's role but not as soft and cushy, Meta could kick ass when needed.

I think Floyd became a psycho as Brown left and I have a feeling it was to punish her...(or your leaving, guess what, your husband is out of a job.) Floyd in love with Beth and killing someone, that came out of nowhere and not in a good "oh man I didnt see it coming but it makes sense." way.

McTavish..geez, she had so much potential, she brought back Amanda and Nola and then screwed it all up. The show was ripe to be a cohesive whole at that time,where the Bauers/Reardons and Lewises were so interconnected that they could become a whole extended core family, with the Spauldings on one side of the spectrum and the Coopers on the other. But she screwed it up and the show became even more disconnected. Ed was totally obscurred (AM going to Buzz for advice instead of Ed??) and the relationships were diluted (Michelle calling Nola "Mrs. Chamberline, when Nola was her aunt, and Chelle calling Van the same thing when she grew up with Van being her mom's best friend. ) I do know that she wanted to pair Nola with Ed, (which I think could really have worked) until PS pitched a fit...so the dummy was left without a storyline and left the show.

I gotta say, I never liked Matt the first time around (HATED Mattessa) but like him now. The actor has the style which matches the format and he looks freakin hot for a middle aged guy. They flirted with him and Blake which would be hot.

Your right, Conboy was right up there. Actually, he was one of the worst villians of the piece, he bankrupt the show and tried to make it into a new Edge of Night (and brought the dreaded Brad Cole back.)

[rangethatrover]

I haven't even read those ratings but If I remember correctly, GL did VERY well in 1984-85..

OLTL hit is lowest ranking/rating in years and Paul Rauch was brought on soon after. By 1987 the show hit #1 (for a week) and top 3 until 1990.

And based on the clips I have seen (some entire episodes) fron Youtube, OLTL looked like a HUGE SNOOZEFEST in 1984. Even reading breakdowns of the year it is terribly boring. All that Alex Crown/ mob garbage. Yuck.

Was Y&R # 1 in 1984? I thought it was #3.

Why am I typing before reading. If I am wrong I will edit.

[EastMA2]

I'm going to add my unpopular recollection about GL in 1984. Range, YES, Y&R was #1 in 1984. In fact, Y&R was #1 during the 3 weeks that GL beat GH in the ratings. GL did NOT hit #1 in the ratings in 1984.

I think that misconception started with Christopher Schemering's book. I believe he stated that GL hit #1 for 3 weeks, and there were also other inaccurate things in his book.

Yes, GL beat GH for 3 weeks in mid 1984, but GL was never #1 during those weeks. Y&R was #1 for each of those infamous 3 weeks.

[rangethatrover]

But I was right, Y&R was # 3 in 1984 (Well the 83-84 ratings in the link.)

Did Y&R occasionally hit # 1 in 1984???

I believe GL hit #4 in the 84-85 season (unseating OLTL) which then led to the overhaul at OLTL..

Was 84-85 the year for GL with that whole Mindy/Phillip and Judi Evans ( I am sorry I don't remember her name) and some other dude? I always read that that storyline was very popular.

I thought Y&R did not hit #1 permanently until 1987 or so when it began alternating with GH for #1-

And by 1988 or 1989 I think Y&R was the official #1 soap --

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think quite a few soaps squeezed out occasional weeks at #1 during GH's ratings reign in the 80's. I do recall hearing that AMC, ATWT, Y&R, and even DAYS had certain weeks atop the ratings chart back then. I believe OLTL even went to #1 the week Vikki was in heaven.

Y&R tied GH for #1 during the 1987-1988 season, Y&R took the lead outright in the 1988-1989 season and had been there ever since.

[David V]

Richard Culliton moved from GL to AW during 1984 and was there for the remainder of the year.

John Conboy had initial success with Capitol but I believe the show's final couple of years were really, really bad.

[Steve]

I think Taylor Miller's departure was a bigger deal than Marcy Walker leaving. Both Nina and Liza were recast by actresses who simply didn't catch on, but Nina was a more important character at that time, imo. Jenny's death had the most impact, though. It was just shocking to those of us who didn't buy the soap mags and had no clue it was coming!

I would love to know how Culliton got along with Pam Long and the new producer, Gail Kobe. It was stupid for them to wait so long to address Bert's death and the show really fell apart. I loved the Reardons and it never made sense to me that the show brought on the Coopers as the new poor family when they already had a popular one. Imo, GL didn't begin to recover until Robert Calhoun and ironically Pam Long took over in, I think, 1988 or 1989.

[kalbir]

Y&R moved to its current timeslot (12:30 pm ET, 11 am CT/MT/PT) on June 8, 1981. Y&R's rise to the top was helped alot by having The Price is Right as its lead in. I think Bob Barker himself even said something along the lines of "if it weren't for us, Young and Restless would be Old and Lethargic".