New Directions in Daytime

[Paul Raven]

From SOD August 31 1982

New Directions in Daytime "After Dwarfs,Whips and Chains' by Ruth J Gordon

This fascinating title was the subject of an address by Brian Frons, Director of Daytime, CBS Entertainment, to members of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. To those of us who follow soaps there was no mystery-just a question: What is the new direction? Apparently the other networks wanted to hear the answer,because I recognized daytime staffs of NBC and ABC in the audience.

Mr Frons started by giving the highlights of CBS daytime for the past several months. Capitol was the first daytime show to premiere in primetime. Production budgets of all shows have reached new heights. Competition is getting rougher,as we all know-and cable will be in the running for viewers and advertising very soon. CBS boasts one billion dollars in ad revenues, and daytime is the #1 earner at this network, as it is the least expensive way of reaching women at home. Viewing audience is 26 million a week,15 million who are women,25% children and teenagers. There is a real effort being made to catch that special 25% and CBS has become more aggressive in their approach....dwarfs,whips and chains?

Frons announced the daytime schedule starting this Fall.

10.30am Child's Play - a new game show

11.00am Price Is Right

12.30pm Young and Restless

1.30pm As The World Turns (and here he noted 2/3 of the cast is under 30 years of age)

2.30pm Capitol (they expect a slow,steady growth over the next year)

3.00pm Guiding Light (a blend of reality and fantasy with old and young players)

4.00 Tattletales

In answer to my question, are ATWT and GL moving to the West Coast, he said that P&G had financial reasons for wanting to move-but they understand that by staying here, they are supporting the NY community and that actors want to be near theater- Broadway,Off Broadway. But the final and definitive decision has not been made - to move or stay.

When asked whether CBS had a talent development program, Brian admitted the problem in casting today is finding fresh faces with talent. There is always the chance to advance in a show from extra to under-five (someone who has five lines or less) to (if they're talented and lucky)contract player.

After the speaker had finished and the audience questions had been answered, mine still had not. What are the new directions in daytime? I suppose only time will tell-but SOD is talking to creators,writers, producers, sponsors as part of our in depth series 'The making of Soap Opera- Behind the Scenes. Watch for it. We may come up with some answers to questions we are all asking about daytime.

[bellcurve]

WTF does Brian Frons think he is? Fred Silverman?!

Was he really prexy of CBS Daytime back then?

[Jonathan]

Wow, he wanted to move ATWT and GL out west? How ironic.

[dc11786]

Frons was also NBC's daytime president. When Sally Sussman Morina pitched "Generations," he was the one who suggested the white family/black family angle.

[DRW50]

Bragging about ATWT's under 30 cast members -- not much has changed huh? Too bad he doesn't care as much about that now, then GH might lose some of their biggest dead weight.

Capitol never really had this strong growth did it?

Child's Play was kind of a fun little game show...and Bill Cullen was at his best there (he got on my nerves on Blockbusters).

[juniorz1]

:lol:

And to think they say the 80s were the age of greed.........

God forbid Susan Lucci & Vincent Irizarry be anywhere near a theater.

Anyone else think that AMC moving to LA was a devious plot gone awry to get Eden Riegel to play Bianca for more than 4 months? After all, 6 months later, we have a recast....

[bellcurve]

OH!

So THAT'S who she screwed to get her atrocity on the air. Lovely.

[Khan]

Nah. Even if moving the show cross-country is supposed to save money in the long run, it still seems like an enormous undertaking just to lure one star back to the show.

I will say this, however: if ABCD does not succeed in driving AMC off the air for good, I would not be a bit surprised to see it back in NYC sooner rather than later. Call it denial, if you want, but my gut, which usually isn't wrong about stuff going on in my personal life, tells me this move is not permanent.

IKR? "Now it can be told," lol.

[Jonathan]

They're not moving it to CT so that you can be closer to it, Megan.

[Khan]

See? My gut told me you'd make another crack about me being MMT. ;-P

[juniorz1]

I dunno. I think Frons would have moved GH to Wyoming to get Vanessa Marcil back. And, to Frons, Eden is to AMC what Vanessa is to GH.

[SFK]

Well I hope OLTL would be moved to CT with Maury, Jerry, and Steve before it would be cancelled.

[EricMontreal22]

Where are the dwarfs, chains and whips?

[Kubla Khan]

But what motivation would ABC have to move the show back to NYC? Not a whole lot. The move to LA was all about increased efficency and cost savings. They've succeeded w/ that - the show costs more to produce on the East Coast. And, in all honesty, the move has been pretty ideally seamless: besides the show looking better now that it tapes in LA, the average viewer probably has no idea the show switched coasts.

[Eric83]

I wonder how ATWT and GL would have ended up had they moved to LA....