Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Paul Raven]

SOD stated that Malibu Lifeguards was going to air for 13 weeks over summer in 83( I think)on ABC.The writers were listed as Lawrence and Ronnie Wenker Connor.There was no follow up as to why this did not eventuate.

Another CBS proposal SOD talked about was The Billionaires.Barbara Bauer was listed as writer,This was around 86/87 if I recall correctly.

Henry Slesar wrote a treatment for a spy serial called Cannon for P&G,but no network was interested.This was mid 60's.

[EricMontreal22]

I've discussed this one on here before, but can't resist brining it up again

The one I wish had happened (and an actual pilot was filmed for) was I believe called 13 Bourbon St. In the mid 90s the award winning OLTL team--EP Linda Gottlieb, Michael Malone and Josh Griffith were going to do a soap for Fox based on Malone's concept, set in New Orleans. It would involve family elements but also emphasize mystery and intrigue and have a voodoo/supernatural element (playedfor scares/mystery not camp). It was set to be a late night, 30 minutes, weekday soap (I think airing aroudn 11:30? kinda the time other stations had their late show). The pilot was shot and Michael Logan at TVGuide apparantly got a couple and RAVED about it. And Fox announced it would be in their fall schedule as recently as a month or two ahead of when it was set to air--I believe a last minute change in execs at the station caused it to be suddenly dropped (this would have been 1997 I think). (Primetime writer Paul B Margolis was also connected--he went on to do some supernatrual based dramas like a Jecyll and Hyde adaptation)

Anyway I think it would have been a refreshingly different soap--and the late night slot and that great team of Gottlieb/Malone/Griffith could have been great. Rumour is some of the more bizarre (and less successful) story elements from Malone's brief late 90s Another World HW stint (like that fertility statue with the glowing eyes I seem to remember??) came from the bible.

[SFK]

Yes, we talked about 13 Bourbon St. a few months back, I too would have loved to see this one come about. I think Gottlieb/Malone at their best is a dream team, and matched with this late night 30 minute concept, now that's a soap boner right there. That guy from ATWT (Michael Park? I don't watch that show so I'm forgetting his name, someone help me here) was in it and when it didn't get picked up that's how he ended up on ATWT iirc. I want to say that Mary Clay Boland cast 13 and was also casting ATWT as she does to this day.

Re: SFT/new Bill Bell soap/Capitol, I wonder if that's the source of the Bell/Conboy contention. Though I remember someone saying on here that it started much earlier. I'd assumed that the bad blood came from Conboy leaving Y&R to do Capitol, but maybe it had more to do with the fact that Conboy nabbed what was originally intended to be an opportunity for Bell? Maybe it was an "integrity" issue for Bell, who knows, maybe he'd imagined that he and Conboy would be at the helm of both Y&R and the new show kind of like Rauch and Lemay with AW and L&F/FRFP, but Conboy went and struck out on his own.

Can we get Conboy on one of those Buzzworthy shows? I'd settle for Nelson if he asked the right questions and didn't mollycoddle like he did with Rauch.

[EricMontreal22]

Don't forget Josh Griffith in the equation for 13 Bourbon St--while I know his work at ATWT and Y&R lately ahsn't endeared him to fans, as Malone hismelf has recently admitted, Malone's writing for a serial really loses focus and structure when he's not helping out. Someone get that pilot out there and leak it! And yes Michael Park was in it--I know cuz I was a huge fan of his at the time thansk to his pretty major, and well received work in Broadway musicals (he had just been in the revival of Little Me as the male stripper who sings I've Got Your Number and before that was in the *awesome* Off Broadway musical about sex, Hello Again as the student seduced by his nurse--he's on both albums).

I always wondered about the Conboy situation. I always though him and Bell fell out BEFORE Capitol happened, but I think your theory makes more sense actually.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I've always heard Conboy tried to get Bell ousted from his own show. Their working relationship apparently wasn't very good by the end of Conboy's stint at Y&R.

I've always attributed most of Malone's early success to Gottlieb. I think OLTL was a much tighter, and cohesive unit when she was producing it and Malone/Griffith were writing it. After she left, most of the cohesiveness was gone and things faltered noticeably with just Malone and Griffith, and then Malone alone.

Gottlieb's production values also kicked ass, I've always wanted her to produce another soap to see how good it would look aesthetically. LOL!

[DRW50]

Wasn't Melissa Reeves supposed to get a DAYS spinoff, with some of the Aremid people, like that girl Sarah? Then the big blowup happened with the affair and she left.

[EricMontreal22]

Yes and I think reilly used some of his bible for Passions?

[SFK]

I swear, that's the ONLY reason I wanna see her do another soap! No, but seriously, there was some GREAT stuff going on at OLTL when she was there, and sure, maybe she was smelling herself a bit too much, but I get annoyed when I read all of this actor dissension about her time with the show. That era ushered in the biggest and best Dorian/Viki material ever, and imho, Dorian hasn't been written (or acted ) as well since.

[EricMontreal22]

Gottlieb left in... 94? I agree the show wasn't the same when she left, though it really went downhill, and QUICKLY, the moment it was just Malone without Griffith (as it did in the 2000s as well though they had far lower heights to fall from). Did Gottlieb leaveon her own accord? I can only imagine that doing a daily serial was a lot of strain on her when she was used to movies, etc (she was also famous for how she used music).

I know the actors had some issues with her but I can only imagine after dealing with Phelps and some others, that all would be forgiven. (and to be fair I believe the initial idea of doing 3 months short story arcs with new characters or whatever--like the spousal abuse one--was Gottlieb's but she and Malone did quickly realize they weren't working)

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I heard she left in 94 due to interference from ABC and not being able to get clearance from ABC to do the stories Malone/Griffith and she wanted to tell. I think she said something to the effect about being fed up with it all. I can't imagine someone like her working in this current daytime climate.

The music, directing, lighting, and sets were all exquisite during that time for OLTL. The scoring and use of many popular songs really made the show come off as more realistic.

[Paul Raven]

I remember a syndicated proposal called Salem's Children around 82/83.

Variety had a double page ad in the issue tied into the annual syndication market expo.A pilot had been filmed and Janice Lynde is the only name I remember as part of the project.It was a horror/mystery soap a la Dark Shadows.

I think Roy Winsor had a Secret Storm spinoff called Circles or Widening Circles in the 60's.

Some primetime proposals

CBS hinted at a Falcon Crest spinoff set in San Francisco,based around an ad agency.Doris Day was on the wishlist as star.

ABC piloted Dark Mansions,a gothic soap with Joan Fontaine in a role originally set for Loretta Young.The pilot did air over summer.

ABC also did a Scruples pilot,after the success of the CBS miniseries

[Sedrick]

In the late 80's there was considerable buzz around FAMILIES, a proposed daily hour long soap that was at first shopped around to the networks, and then attempts were made to launch it in syndication. The main reason for most of the buzz was due to the rumor that John F. Kennedy, Jr., who at the time had failed the bar exam TWICE and whom it had been rumored had really wanted to be an actor, had audition for a role on the show.

[SFK]

Years before Generations, O.J. Simpson (let me finish) had worked on a treatment for a new predominantly black soap opera, also called Heart and Soul. And years before that, the late Josephine Premice had worked on a similar idea, undoubtedly hoping to employ many of her talented colleagues who were part of the black New York theatre scene.

[saynotoursoap]

Roy Winsor created The Widening Circle for CBS in 1964, a spinoff of The Secret Storm. A pilot was shot with James Vickery as Alan Dunbar and Diana Muldaur as Ann Wicker. Winsor promised to get me a copy of the pilot, but he died before sending it to me. The soap would have gone to air sometime in 1965 or 1966. Agnes Nixon created All My Children at the same time, and Henry Slesar (pre-Edge of Night) had a proposed espionage soap called Cannon. CBS passed on AMC and The Widening Circle. Cannon was close to getting a pickup, but the espionage craze was shortlived. Slesar used the main character of counter espionage agent Cannon as the prototype for Edge’s Adam Drake. In 1967, CBS decided to go Love Is a Many Splendored Thing instead. FYI, CBS kept Widening Circle as a potential soap until Roy Winsor had a falling out with CBS in 1969 and sold Secret Storm and Love of Life to the network.

In 1971, Columbia Pictures developed a companion to Days called Doctors Wives that would have aired on NBC. NBC desired name recognition and bought Return to Peyton Place instead. Two popular soaps had proposed spinoffs in 1971. ABC planned a General Hospital spinoff set in Mercy, but GH’s ratings spike was shortlived, and the spinoff was dropped. Writer Ann Marcus was asked by CBS to create a spinoff of Love Is a Many Splendored Thing at the height of its popularity, but that was canceled too when the ratings for LIAMST didn’t hold.

Actor Fred J. Scollay of Another World, Somerset, and EON created a soap called Absent Without Love in 1971. He filmed a pilot that received really good buzz at the time, but none of the networks picked it up.

[DRW50]

Were James and Diana on LOL? What were their characters like?