ABC often tried 'alternative' concepts to get noticed so maybe BOE fell into that category.

But it had several strikes against, as mentioned.

The concept - career girls in NY - may not have appealed to housewives in Peoria.

The timeslot-midday leading off a new soap block, up against established opposition. And I'm sure the clearances weren't great.

The show was very low rated. ABC would have had to be realistic with rating's expectations, but the actual numbers were dreadful.

Maybe the quality of the show itself-perhaps James Lipton didn't deliver-his AW was regarded as pretty staid.

So after 6 months, everyone involved decided to pack it in and move on. Bewitched reruns were returned to the noon timeslot and stayed there till March 72 when Password moved into that slot.

Why was Kathy Glass considered a huge soap talent? I have seen very little of her work, but so far I'm not all that wowed by her. That Bundt cake hairstyle she sported later on didn't help. Brynn Thayer said she cut her hair like Kathy's when she took over the role of Jenny on OLTL so the audience would get use to the transition.

13 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

That Bundt cake hairstyle she sported later on didn't help.

LOL!!

6 hours ago, Khan said:

LOL!!

14 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

ABC often tried 'alternative' concepts to get noticed so maybe BOE fell into that category.

But it had several strikes against, as mentioned.

The concept - career girls in NY - may not have appealed to housewives in Peoria.

The timeslot-midday leading off a new soap block, up against established opposition. And I'm sure the clearances weren't great.

The show was very low rated. ABC would have had to be realistic with rating's expectations, but the actual numbers were dreadful.

Maybe the quality of the show itself-perhaps James Lipton didn't deliver-his AW was regarded as pretty staid.

Right--and looking back at this thread I see my post is repeating some things I said way back in 2010 (ack!) And everyone here should know I have no faith in Lipton and no idea why he got so many breaks (not just in soaps but in his career in general--and then fooled everyone into thinking he was some authority with Inside the Actor's Studio.)

I know that throughout the 1960s ABC was the network that tried new things, especially to attract a youth audience. We all know that from Dark Shadows, One Life to Live (not to mention Never to Young) but also primetime with Peyton Place, they had a very ambitious anthology show Stage 67 which, as a bit Sondheim/musical theatre freak I know all about because it aired, before he was known as a composer, his original musical the creepy Evening Primrose with Anthony Perkins, even a show like The Fugitive was seen as a gamble. So it makes sense that in 1970 they'd be doing the same.

AMC's numbers weren't great its first year (but not remotely as low as Best of Everything or A World Apart, but did they have a deal with Nixon about how long they'd guarantee to keep it on the air? (Of course even OLTL's ratings weren't good for a long time but I have to imagine were seen as good enough.)

17 hours ago, te. said:

I think the obvious thing here is that ABC tried to launch an all new noon soap opera block with a show that seemingly was meant to skew young in a time slot that definitively feels like should've always been reserved for "your grandmother's soap". Love of Life did well in the slot, but that was because it seemed geared towards a slightly conservative and older audience. The Best of Everything always seemed like something that would draw in a younger crowd that simply wasn't home.

Add that Dark Shadows was falling apart in the late afternoon and suddenly ABC's daytime soap line up was looking slightly less healthy. If anything it feels like A World Apart got shafted a bit - it did improve in its second season on air, going from a horrible 2.8 rating to a slightly-less-but-still-pretty-horrible 3.4. Still, an improvement is an improvement. Of course, only All My Children managed to stay on the air out of that launched soap block and kept improving its ratings year-to-year (and never did as badly as its lead-ins).

That time slot has always been a problem (when The City inherited it, which was meant to be this hot NEW style soap our local affiliate after 6 months started airing it instead at around 11:35PM I think, where I actually thought it played better...)

Still, as an 11 year old I discovered soaps, and All My Children specifically, because it was what I found to watch when I came home for lunch from school (which I did for a long time even though my mom worked--we just lived so close that it made sense) as here on the West Coast it aired at noon.