Search For Tomorrow Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

The clips of that are on the channel too. Sadly they aren't very good - you can see why the show was collapsing at this time.

[Paul Raven]

NBC's daytime drama, Search for Tomorrow (Mondays -Fridays, 12:30 -1 p.m. NYT), will introduce a new formula on Feb. 26. The soap opera is consolidating all of its characters in one apartment building after its Feb. 25 episode, when the fictional town of Henderson will be destroyed by a flood. The series's executive producer, John Whitesell II, said 15 new sets with multiple rooms will be created by June, and a new logo and rock music theme will be introduced with the Feb. 26 episode. The only difference between starting a new show and doing what we intend to do is this: We have the advantage of having established people that the audience already cares about," he said. 

[Paul Raven]

Broadcasting magazine Nov 86

`Search' ends; TV's senior soap to go after 35 years Ratings had fallen; P &G and NBC mutually agreed to drop show after efforts failed to regain audience: 'Sale of the Century' moved to 10 a.m.. two new game shows added, giving NBC more than both ABC and CBS.

 Television's longest running daytime soap opera will not survive the year. NBC said last week it was canceling Procter & Gamble's Search for Tomorrow, which had its 35th anniversary on the air in September. The network announced that the show will have its last broadcast on Friday, Dec. 26. The following Monday (Dec. 29), it will be replaced by a new game show, WordPlay, from Fiedler /Berlin Productions in association with Scotti Brothers /Syd Vinnedge Television. NBC also announced last week it would fill the hole left by the also departing Family Ties by moving Sale of the Century from 10:30 a.m. up a half hour to 10 a.m. where Ties has been leading off the network's daytime schedule. That move takes effect Jan. 5. Ties goes into syndication next year and therefore the reruns that have been airing in the morning must leave the network's daytime schedule in January. Filling the gap at 10:30 a.m., where Sale has been running, will be Blockbusters (from Mark Goodson Productions), which is being revived after an earlier run on NBC. That program also makes its debut Jan. 5.

 Brian Frons, vice president, daytime programs, NBC Entertainment, said the network and P &G had come to the "mutual" conclusion that Search's value as a vehicle to sell ad time had run its course. The program had been trending downward in the ratings for some time, prompting the network to bring in a new executive producer last December -David Lawrence. At that point, the show had been delivering about 8% of the viewing audience, not considered very healthy for the time period. The revamping carried out by Lawrence resulted in a temporary improvement, with the program working its way back up to a 12 share through the second quarter. But the show was still off its share mark from a year ago and Frons said at the time that Search's situation was "dicey." The show took another dive, dropping to a nine share in the third quarter and fourth quarter, making the program's third -place postion untenable. "It reached a point," said Frons, "where [P &G] could get advertising at much lower C -P -M's on other shows." He also said that P &G, which owns Search, was producing the program at a deficit, so its backing of the show became a losing proposition. "And we were losing money running the show," Frons said of NBC, because as the rating and share for the program dropped, so did the price of a 30- second spot. The station clearance level for the program was hovering at the 73%- level. Its lead -in at noon, Super Password, also has a clearance level of about 73%, but has been averaging five share points higher than Search, Frons said. A P &G spokeswoman confirmed that the decision to cancel the 35- year-old program was made mutually by the network and P &G. She declined to say how much it was costing P &G to produce the program, but acknowledged that in recent months the company had spent a lot of extra money shooting on location, hiring new cast members and writers and launching promotional and publicity campaigns aimed at both view- ers and stations. "There were a number of extraordinary efforts made to regain the audience," the spokeswoman said. The company produces three other soaps, including Another World on NBC and As the World Turns and the Guiding Light on CBS. The spokeswoman said P &G did not have any other development plans for soap operas in the works at this time.

With the axing of Search and the addition of two game shows. NBC's daytime schedule will contain more game shows than ABC  and CBS combined. Frons said last week that that's OK with him. The way he sees it, the NBC schedule will be "better balanced" with three hours each of game shows and soaps. As for introducing new soaps, Frons said he was taking a "wait and see attitude" on that, but acknowledged that he would be very reluctant to come out with a new half - hour soap because they don't seem to perform nearly as well as hour -long soaps. Sale of the Century, which NBC is moving to IO a.m., had been winning its time period at 10:30 a.m. through the third quarter. But the new syndicated talk show starring Oprah Winfrey, which launched in September, has given Sale some tough competition and dominates from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in many markets. A network researcher said last week that Oprah is currently winning the 10 -11 a.m. time period in 12 of 13 metered markets. In New York, for example, fourth quarter to date, the show was first with a 5.6/27. Nationally, Sale at 10:30 a.m. has averaged a 3.8/17 so far in the fourth quarter, off a share point and six - tenths of a rating point since Oprah came on the air. CBS's Card Sharks at 10:30 a.m. has averaged a 3.3/15 in the same period. Still, Sale has been beating its network competition, and Frons hopes that it will get NBC's daytime schedule off to a fast start. The network could use the boost. It has been mired in third place in the daytime race (households and demographics) for some time although it has become more competitive in the past year. In recent months, it has lost some of the momentum it seemed to gain through the second quarter, when it was less than a rating point out of first place. Four weeks into the fourth quarter, CBS is first in daytime with a 5.9/23, followed by ABC with a 5.4/20 and then NBC with a 4.6/18. A year ago, ABC led the pack (6/22) with CBS closing in fast (5.7/22) while NBC was a poorer third with a 4.4/17. NBC's new entry at 10:30 a.m., Blockbusters, ran on the NBC schedule from October 1980 to April 1982. Frons said it was canceled originally not because of its performance, but because the network had no place to put it when it decided to try the soap, Texas (subsequently canceled), in the morning. That game show "was averaging a 17 or 18 share with a horrible lead -in," the old Regis Philbin Show, said Frons. Block - busters is a question- and -answer game show which the network hopes will prove compatible with Wheel of Fortune, which airs at 11 a.m. In hindsight, said Frons, Blockbusters "probably should have never been taken off." Wordplay, which debuts Dec. 29 at 12:30 p.m., is described as a "comedy game show based on the childhood dictionary game." It features two contestants and a panel of three celebrities who give a series of humorous definitions for a word. only one of which is right. Frons said: "If the show only holds its Super Password lead -in. we'll have a 50% improvement in share.... If we hold a 14 or 15 share, we'll be delighted." Frons described the changes annouced last week in NBC daytime schedule as "major." He said he'll give the current lineup at least six months to take hold before making further adjustments. "Then we'll see what happens."  

[victoria foxton]

From what year are the clips from?

[DRW50]

1981.

[dc11786]

I know this isn't always the most popular opinion, but I really like what I've seen of "Search for Tomorrow" 1985 more so than 1986. Here's a couple of partial episodes featuring the Women to Watch Gala at the Henderson Country Club. Also featured in this clip is the murder of Sarah Whiting, Jo's adopted granddaughter. Michelle Joyner isn't listed in many of the soap books for her role as Sarah, but I found her very different and earthy during the Paul Avila Mayer / Stephanie Braxton episodes. Sarah may have been the first bland ingénue Gary Tomlin decided would make a better vixen, but I preferred shy, insecure Sarah pining for dreamer Quinn much more entertaining than schemer Sarah trying to outdo Wendy Wilkins (could Jo's granddaughter really outscheme Stephanie's daughter?) for Quinn.

 

Also, featured heavily in the sequence is the arrival in Henderson of THE Woman to Watch, Estelle Kendall. I love Blythe in the role that was clearly intended to be a poor man's Alexis Carrington. Blythe is fun; I just wish she got to do more with the heavy hitters.

 

Anywhere, here, from November, 1985:

 

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[DRW50]

Thanks. Where are those from? I think I remember the D2D but not sure where from. 

 

It's interesting to see them and contrast the lack of energy in some of the performances and direction with the overuse of music (back when they could afford that on a soap) to try to make up for it. Some are as good as ever, of course, like Larry Haines, Mary Stuart, Matt Ashford. The women are the main ones that seem to be off to me, aside from a few. That Suzi casting in particular baffles me. I do like Estelle, and that was a good, original way to introduce the character. 

 

Certain parts of Sarah's murder are very grisly and effective (especially the switch from her picture to her bloodied corpse), but the drag down the stairs was cheesy. 

 

Poor Jo. Gary Tomlin loved to have her menaced by psychos. 

[danfling]

The show's original head writer, Agnes Nixon (who was Agnes Eckart at the time) passed away this morning.

[NothinButAttitude]

OMG. Why am I just now discovering these newly posted SFT episodes?! Also, I finally get to see the very much talked about demise of Sarah. 

 

Glad this channel is posting more episodes of SFT as the days pass by. 

[NothinButAttitude]

Question @dc11786 @DRW50 or @Paul Raven was Mr. Hibbard the man that killed Stephanie or was she the victim of another killer? What was his reasoning for killing Sarah? From another episode clip, it seems like he was trying to make a make a passageway from the basement wall to the bank's safe. Is that why he killed Sarah? Because she stumbled unto his plan?

Edited October 2, 2016 by Nothin'ButAttitude

[DRW50]

dc might know more about the details than I do. I have some SOD synopses somewhere...

[NothinButAttitude]

Thanks, @DRW50. I hope the YT poster post more videos to fill in the gaps I no one is unable to answer. 

Edited October 2, 2016 by Nothin'ButAttitude

[robbwolff]

[NothinButAttitude]

Oh OK. What was his reasoning behind it?

[NothinButAttitude]

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