Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Paul Raven]

On Pg 8 Carl posted about Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows) Mirrors of Darkness.In Jan 1970 it was described as a daytime suspense series which is " a Hitchcock kind of story on a continuing basis."

[DRW50]

Apparently Ronnie Konner, for the 1983 version of Lifeguards, was rumored to have earned the highest price ever for the creation of a new soap.

[Paul Raven]

1982 Variety reports NBC developing Always is Not Forever as a half hour soap in association with Imero Fiorentino Associates.

[DRW50]

That's very interesting. Was that a book?

[Paul Raven]

That was a book,but whether the show was based on the book,who knows?

[Paul Raven]

Re Northridge Medical which Carl mentioned on Pg 14.CBS ordered 10 scripts,with Margaret and Paul Scneider as writers.They had recently worked for Love of Life.

[DRW50]

Someone on Youtube who has uploaded Another Life episodes said they heard that Jeff and Liz Cummings (Jeff was the man who was cured of terminal cancer through a ray of light, or whatever the story was) left the show in order to have their own spinoff, which never materialized.

[Paul Raven]

1963- variety reports soap writer Manya Starr (Clear Horizon) taping a pilot Advice on Love starring Valerie Allen.

[Gray Bunny]

From the December 17th, 1985 issue of SOD:

"J.R. in diapers? DALLAS: THE EARLY YEARS is the title of a CBS TV-movie "prequel" to the popular nighttime soap. It will reveal how the Barnes/Ewing feud began in scenes taking place in the 30's and 50's."

I'm guessing this TV movie never came to be?

[DRW50]

I think this was made.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090898/

[Gray Bunny]

From the July 2nd, 1985 issue of SOD:

"Former GL-er Grant Aleksander (ex-Phillip) will play Joan Fontaine's grandson in the Aaron Spelling gothic serial DARK MANSIONS, due out next season."

[Gray Bunny]

From the August 13th, 1985 issue of Digest....

There's an article called "King of the Hill" which discusses the network ratings and how CBS has pulled ahead of ABC in total daytime viewers and that NBC is inching up. For you ratings statistics lovers, the article showed that in the 1982-1983 season the network averages (including network game and talk shows) were:

ABC - 7.7

CBS - 6.4

NBC - 4.0

For the first quarter of 1985, the numbers were:

CBS - 7.2

ABC - 6.9

NBC - 5.2

Then they discuss ABC's plans for the near future:

"ABC's plan to 'change the face of daytime' with anthologies based on best selling novels and a new comedy soap, says JoAnn Emmerich, is an attempt to create alternative forms to serials, but they are not looking to change the serial format. Emmerich maintains that "it's for the characters and good rich storylines that people tune in. For no other reason." With the network yet to announce the schedule for all this new programming and the expense of mounting anthologies, industry insiders wonder whether the shows will ever get on the air. Pondering ABC's move, Laurence Caso says, "It's an interesting idea, because there are more choices out there; why not become another one of those choices? That's one viewpoint. The other viewpoint is that that's like shooting a shotgun, hoping to hit a target."

[dc11786]

'Dark Mansions' wasn't picked up, but the pilot was aired as a television movie.

[DRW50]

Has anyone here ever seen it?

A 1979 magazine that mentions Pat Falken Smith's lawsuit against DAYS says she was working on a show for NBC called "Feelings." Was this a daytime show, or primetime? Did it go anywhere?

[dc11786]

There's a brief clip on youtube

http://youtu.be/9ae8pvrIq3U