P&G musical chairs in 1995

[David V]

Another of my musings of various points in soap history.

In 1995, P&G played a form of "musical chairs" with its three shows ATWT, GL and AW. The Executive in Charge of Production at the time was Kenneth L. Fitts, who'd replaced Edward Trach the previous year. Here we'll examine the impact on the shows and the long-term rammifications.

At the time Laurence Caso was EP at ATWT as he had been since 1988, Jill Farren Phelps had been at GL since 1991, and John Valente had been EP at AW since 1993 (when Michael Laibson left).

As The World Turns

For two years after Douglas Marland's death, ATWT was in a way running on autopilot. I think at the time it was reasonable to expect a "come down" in quality for the show since nobody could have filled Marland's shoes then- although certainly no one imagined just how gruesome that decline would be, and we haven't even got to that point yet. Keeping the show afloat and not deviating too much from that vision was the main task. Juliet Law Packer and Richard Backus had taken over as joint HWs, both of whom had worked under Marland and had the task of continuing and wrapping up his storylines and introducing characters he'd planned in advance. (Carly is thought to have been one such character, though it hasn't been verified) Richard Culliton had taken over as HW early in the year, and showed his ability to write an excellent storyline with the John/Lisa medical malpractice storyline, for which the show got an Emmy nomination.

However, that year Laurence Caso was replaced as EP by John Valente who came over from AW. Valente began to change things by getting rid of actors like Scott DeFreitas (Andy Dixon) and Patricia Bruder (Ellen Stewart), the latter having been on the show since 1960- moves that upset fans greatly. Of course, to top it all off, Culliton was replaced by Stephen Black and Henry Stern, new to Daytime even though they'd written for Falcon Crest prior. And the rest is history- they proceded to desecrate the show, to the extent some people were even calling it the worst show on TV, totally unthinkable a few years prior. And the viewers responded by switching off.

Guiding Light

JFP had generally done well in charge of GL but for two things: the departures of Beverlee McKinsey (Alexandra) and Ellen Parker (Maureen Bauer), the latter's especially controversial despite netting Parker an Emmy win for her work. For the first few years at least, the quality of the show was very good and while still not that bad, the later JFP years were from recollection not quite up to that level. So JFP gets moved from GL to AW, and in Michael Laibson took her place, a twist of irony given Laibson had been in charge of AW a few years prior.

Megan McTavish became HW. Sure, she'd had a highly successful first stint at AMC, but she was in the right place at the right time- a high-rating show and strong EP in Felicia Minei Behr. Not surprisingly, in a sign of things to come from her, MMT couldn't replicate the success of her first AMC stint, ratings sunk and critics weren't impressed.

Another World

The dizzying turnover of HWs and EPs at AW is well documented and it says something that the Laibson/Swajeski period was the most stable of its last 20 years. John Valente had taken over as EP in 1993, but I'm not sure what AW fans' consensus on him is. Anyway, he was moved over from AW to ATWT while JFP moved over from GL to AW.

The main strength of AW was in its strong character focus, you only got AW if you got the characters. This changed under Phelps, who changed the show's focus to plot-driven storylines which flew in the face of what AW was about. However, this may also have been dictated by network pressures- NBC wanting the show to be as much like Days, which was the "in" thing at the time. And she repeated her mistakes on GL by killing off Bridget and Frankie- and the latter's death received universal condemnation for the brutality with which it was carried out.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to see the irony of female writers and producers, namely JFP and MMT, being responsible for violent misogyny on our screens!

The Aftermath

Let's give P&G some credit here. The 1995-96 period was extremely damaging to all three of its shows, but P&G realised what was happening, which was especially the case with ATWT whose annus horribilis was being roundly panned by both fans and critics, all in the show's 40th year! They responded by firing Fitts and replacing him with MADD (whose own actions were controversial), and instigating a spring cleaning of all three shows- Valente, Black and Stern were all fired, and the PTBs at GL and AW were gone too. Not that any of those shows improved to any great extent over the next year. It was damaging because it laid the foundations for AW's cancellation, and both ATWT and GL have not truly attained quite the heights they once did.

At least back then, and prior, people running soaps were usually quick to remove the really bad writers and producers from the show before they did too much damage. These days, they are far slower to react if at all. Holding down a job for a long time in such an industry is somehow considered a success, no matter how bad it is. But it asks the question- how much has P&G done for its soaps in the last 15 years? If you look at the state they fell into back then, when Daytime wasn't in as bad a state as has been recently, it makes you wonder.

[DRW50]

Aside from killing Nadine Cooper, and turning far too much of the show over to Wendy Moniz in 1995-1996, I don't think the changes to GL were enough to permanently damage the show. There were some big mistakes (Nola's botched return, humiliating Bridget for an entire year, not giving Ed a storyline, making Amanda Spaulding a drag queen/madam, Gilly lusting after her own father Griffin, Griffin staging his own shooting a completely tone deaf, jarringly insensitive moment considering how many civil rights leaders have been assassinated, Roger becoming far too one-dimensionally evil, while Holly became a saint), but they could be and in some cases were repaired. The big damage to GL I think occurred in 1993-1994. If anything, the first few months of McTavish's run helped break up some of the malaise the show had attained, and made people want to watch.

ATWT, on the other hand, truly was broken by the producer change. I knew little about the soap world at the time, or about budgets on soaps, but I was disgusted at how many good characters were written out, some of them being my favorite characters, while characters who made me want to take a long nap, like Rosanna and the Kasnoffs, continued to gobble up airtime. The soap magazines at the time passed this off as brave and said good things waould come, and those good things turned out to be the laughingstock of the television industry. Even worse than the firings was the sense of history, of family, of community, was destroyed. Gone were the days when long departed characters would be mentioned via a phone call or a letter. No more of characters who didn't share a storyline sitting down and talking about their day. ATWT had a very heartwarming, leisurely approach which fit perfectly. Since the change, ATWT has been a cold, unpleasant, shallow program more often than not, a show which only approaches history when it tries to rewrite it.

[Paul Raven]

From SOW July 23rd 1996

ATWT set to reveal Kasnoff family secrets and plenty of new faces.

Necessity is the mother of invention,and apparently it's also the reason for so many new young faces on ATWT."We recognise there are a lot of new faces",said exec producer John Valente at a press conference hels at the CBS studio June 28th."That's why in the story telling we're trying very hard to link these folks to people the audience knows and alraedy has a relationship with.I hope that over time the audience will come to love these characters."

Valente,with co-head writers Henry stern and Stephen Black,and Shawn Christian,Lisa Lawrence and Aisha Henderson(Mike,Sarah and Zoe)fielded questions regarding recent changes and upcoming storylines.

Added Black,"Some of these changes were intentional,others happened out of our control.It's like pulling a string on a sweater;you pull one string and it takes the sleeve off the sweater before you know it,and you have to make adjustments."

Stern continued,"For us,the core of the show are the faces you know and love,and we respect those people that have been on the show for a while."

Other things to expect:

More revelations about the Kasnoff family.

"They've done an interesting job revealing the history of the family,clue by clue,"said Christian."I give a little tidbit and five episodes later,you get another clue.It's not all revealed before you".Viewers won't be seeing the mother or the other sibling Stephanie,however.

Sarah and Zoe.

These two characters were created together.Their complex and symbiotic relationship started when they were teenagers,when Sarah was drawn to Zoe because she was a closet"mover and shaker",said Stern."She just needed a venue to focus her considerable gift to make things happen,while Zoe needed a manager".Black added,"Sarah's getting a heck of a lot out of this because Zoe has been the conduit for her attention."Sarah and Paul's relationship will develop slowly.Zoe will have a romance with Ben.

Paul Ryan's return.

Because of the character's established history,he was perhaps the most difficult chracter to bring back."He's a young Donald Trump meets Ted Turner meets James Stenbeck",Black explained.Paul appears next week,trying to talk a group of investors into launching Easy Access Shopping, a home-shopping network based in Oakdale.

More romance for the Kasnoff me.

Mark will still have feelings for Connor,as well as Agent Jones.in addition to a growing friendship with Lily,Mike will meet Pilar,a race car driver.(The charcter is not yet cast).Christian is glad mike's currently single,however."it's like falling out f an airplane",tha actor said of not having the security of being part of a popular couple.

-Gabrielle Winkel

This stuff didn't even look that good on paper!

[David V]

The Kasnoffs, I believe, were introduced some time after Marland's death but had been actually planned by Marland.

The Black/Stern reign of terror brought new characters nobody cared about and some ridiculous storylines. Even amidst that, the only good thing to happen in 1996 was the conclusion to the whole John/Lisa storyline with the hilarious big screen thing. When the PTBs were fired and Felicia Minei Behr took over, she made the mistake of recasting Connor which resulted in a bigger backlash than they ever imagined. It wasn't until late in 1997 that ATWT began to get itself out of the gutter.

You know what the scary thing is? As bad as some things were on the P&G shows at the time it's actually no worse than what happens on most soaps today. That's how bad the genre has become.