Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Paul Raven]

From SOD Feb 1992

New Days are Dawning - Marlena gets a Spin-Off

After months of whispering and 'no comments',it's finally official: Days star Deidre Hall(Marlena) is getting her own spin-off. Set in New York City and centering around Hall's character, the still unnamed daytime series will probably debut in late spring.

"The show will totally throw you back in your chair," says Hall, who also serves as the show's co-executive producer,with Day's head honcho Ken Corday. "Ken is excited about it,I'm excited about it,and we have a great team." Former Days head writer Gene Palumbo will take up that post on the spin-off, together with longtime Days scribe Sheri Anderson. According to Palumbo. Marlena will not be the only familiar face on the show. "You will see a lot of terribly popular and well loved Days characters turning up and familiar couples who won't necessarily be in each other's arms."

Palumbo says Hall has taken an active part in story meetings. "Deidre is definitely part of the whole process and she has some great ideas',he notes. According to the actress, she was first supposed to do a spin-off eight years ago. "At the time, we negotiated, we got ready and it never happened", hall says. "Then when I signed with Days six months ago, I had in my contract a development deal. i didn't know what in the world to do about it, but then i remembered the spin-off. I said. "What's happening with that?" And Days producers said."Would you consider it?" and I said,"Of course!"

So this became Manhattan Lives? Has there ever been any talk as to why it was dropped?

I wonder why they chose a New York locale - why not L.A. Lives? The show was taped there so surely it would make sense to base it there and be able to incorporate location footage. As for the planned characters- maybe Eugene and /or Calliope?

What about Roman? Was the plan to kill him off or disappear on a secret mission?

I always thought a good story would have been for Marlena to discover Samantha had had a child-she could become Marlena's surrogate daughter.

[SFK]

Well, in Waggett's book he mentions another spinoff called Pacific Lives that would have been set in Hawaii and starred many former DAYS stars, characters who were no longer on the show. I doubt they would have done THAT many location shots in HI either. "L.A. Lives" does make more sense, but you know how people are, they always want what they don't have. It's funny how this sounds like such a go here and it obviously wasn't. And here this woman was set for her own spinoff and famously let go from DAYS only a few years ago.

Oh, and there was talk of Calliope getting her own spinoff too.

[rcsnj]

Manhattan Lives was slated to feature Marlena and Carrie as I recollect. I don't recall there being any talk of Roman being part of the canvas. I always got the impression that the show was to be about Marlena as a single woman. Of course, the show was later retitled Body and Soul.

As for Pacific Lives, there was talk of that show featuring Tommy Horton, Sandy Horton, and Bo and Hope.

[Paul Raven]

From SOD August 2nd 1983

A tentative airdate of Sept 16th has been set for the new Barbara bauer ,Paul Rauch CBS soap.The original title 'The Billionaires' has been scrapped and a new one has not yet been set.

I wonder what the story was behind this. This SOD would probably been on the stands in July and the news then would perhaps be a couple of weeks behind.If CBS were planning mid Sept launch,by July surely casting etc would be set. i don't recall SOD printing anything after this.

Does anyone know more?

[DRW50]

Thanks for keeping up with these, Paul Raven. I've missed your posts.

That sounds interesting. Was this right after Rauch left AW?

What would CBS have replaced this with? A soap or some other daytime programming?

[Titus Andronicus]

Supposedly NBC was considering a Days spinoff in the 1970s about the farm adventures of Mickey and Maggie.

Take this for what it's worth about Manhattan Lives

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.tv.soaps/browse_thread/thread/2143186c8b4de00e/17265afb64ddf3c3?hl=en&q=spinoff+%22days+of+our+lives%22+group:rec.arts.tv.soaps

[Khan]

Thank God that never came to pass. I love earthy, topical drama as much as anyone, but I know I wouldn't want to see things like hoof and mouth disease dramatized on daytime television.

[All My Shadows]

Dude, I would have loved the hell out of that show. I wish soaps, at one point, had been adventurous enough to move away from the same ol' same ol' of rich bitches and suburban heroines. I love them as much as the next guy, but just for the sake of there being more variety throughout the history of daytime, I wish we could have had a successful farm soap or trailer park soap or ghetto soap or something! I get tired of explaining to people, "Well, yes, it does seem like AMC and OLTL are about the same thing, but you see, you have to...well, you have to understand that....if you read enough about....look at old clips...see, they're not really the same, you just have to....watch a few episodes and...."

[DRW50]

It didn't hurt Emmerdale...

[SFK]

The concept is reminding me a little of All Creatures Great and Small, a series I always enjoyed whenever I caught it Saturday afternoons on PBS (and what a great theme song, especially when dude dropped the beat on the drums).

I would like to hear more about The Billionaires.

[tylerbo20]

dont forget about Salem High which just proves that whoevers in charge over there at Days does in fact get high at these meetings lol

[Paul Raven]

From SOD April 14th 1992

"Bible" Thumping: Marlena's DAYS Spin-Off Gets Named And Plotted

After months of speculation, Deidre Hall';s DOOL spin-off finally has a name. According to Gene Palumbo, who shares head writer duties with Sheri Anderson, the show will be called Body and Soul. Palumbo says he and Anderson 'came up with a whole list of names and showed them to people around the office. Body and Soul was thought to be the most provocative name, especially with the ladies. Of course, it's really only a working title. We haven't even gotten the go-ahead on the show yet.'

Palumbo says the NBC brass has already been presented with Body and Soul's 'bible'-a detailed description of the series and its characters, drawn up by the writing and production team. "We ought to know within the next few months whether the neywork will pick it up,' he relates.

While Palumbo couldn't give specifics about the bible, sources close to the production say it includes a slew of new characters as well as six months of story. According to these sources, the show will focus on two New York neighborhoods-one upper crust, one working class. Marlena won't come into a lot of money suddenly, but will interact with the show's wealthy family. the Waterfields, whom the sources describe as similar to the Trumps. One of the show's preliminary storylines is rumored to be a love triangle featuring single mom Marlena and a Waterfield father and son. What will become of Roman(Wayne Northrop)? Since Northrup's contract ends this summer, his character's fate is anyone's guess. Whatever the outcome, sources say Roman is not mentioned in the Body and Soul bible.

One character who is mentioned is Marlena's stepdaughter carrie (Tracy Middendorf). An issue oriented teen love story is supposedly in the works in which Carrie learns about safe sex. In addition to her stepdaughters company. Marlena will have a new best friend-PT Barnum. As her circusy name suggests, PT's an outgoing actress type based on Bette Midler's role in the movie Beaches, As mentioned in previous SOD, several ex Days stars are on the Body and Soul list, including Thaao Penghlis (Tony) and Leann Hunley (Anna). while some of the wish list actors have already been approached, real negotiations will begin if and when Body and Soul is approved for production.

[DRW50]

PT Barnum?? Indeed. Why not just bring Calliope back or something?

We know how much would have changed for Marlena if this had gone through but it sounds like Tony's story also would have changed quite a bit, as making him into more of a villain in the Reilly years wouldn't have happened.

Why did this never go through?

[DRW50]

I was reading a February 80 Digest and they mentioned rumors of NBC taking DAYS to 90 minutes, or instead of doing that, creating a spinoff for Marlena and Don Craig. Have any of you ever heard about that, or if it was ever a possibility?

[teplin]

I don't remember any discussion about Days going to 90 minutes -- I think it was clear the AW expansion was already a big mistake by that point. I do recall talk about spinoffs with both Don & Marlena and Julie & Doug around that time. I wish Corday had addressed some of these rumored projects in his book ... there were so many associated with this soap.