On today's Y&R there was a flashback of Victor being injured during the St. Croix storyline.

In 1983, ABCD was still very much in its phase of dominating the ratings but this was coming to an end. Ryan's Hope was to see a slide in ratings, and its fate effectively sealed by the timeslot change the following year.

Y&R was beginning its ascendancy towards the top of the ratings, whereas ATWT was in need of direction which it would get when Calhoun and Marland arrived a couple of years down the track. Capitol on the other hand was enjoying arguably its best two years or so of ratings.

The critical state of Edge of Night and Search for Tomorrow, no doubt, would have made these soaps subject to intense speculation. Both shows were not only struggling badly in the ratings- indeed the utter stupidity of SFT's network switch cost it at least 50% of its viewers in one fell swoop- and were being dropped by affiliates (or in the case of SFT, some didn't even pick it up at all). The Edge of Night had been "critical" in the late 70s and really only the rise of ABCD prolonged its life.

Another important thing to happen in 1983 was the effective beginning of NBC's "Silver Age". Both Days of Our Lives and Another World began something of a revival. The 1983-84 season saw a miraculous recovery in the ratings for both Days and AW, and Santa Barbara was on the horizon.

Sort of off topic; but since there was a mention of Gary Tomlin earleir in the thread I had to bring this up. Before OLTL, was there another soap that went live for a episode or more since the switch to tape?

Sort of off topic; but since there was a mention of Gary Tomlin earleir in the thread I had to bring this up. Before OLTL, was there another soap that went live for a episode or more since the switch to tape?

Search for Tomorrow. Supposedly they lost a master tape in 1983 (I think) and the cast had to do the episode live. Some believe that it was all just done for publicity.

Search for Tomorrow. Supposedly they lost a master tape in 1983 (I think) and the cast had to do the episode live. Some believe that it was all just done for publicity.

Was Dustin Hoffman involved? Doris Belack? Wigs?