OLTL in Canada

[EricMontreal22]

Here in Western Canada OLTL is back on A Channel (which is owned by CTV) after spending about a year on a different network--so A now has all three ABC soaps--not that it matters, but is this the same across Canada?

[beebs]

Here in Ontario, from what I can tell, it's pretty patchy. I know that Sun TV carries OLTL in the GTA, and that is their only soap offering (friend of mine works there). City TV was carrying The OC as their only drama during the day (and yea that doesn't REALLY count), but they're picking up GH starting monday (replacing Bonnie Hunt). That will air nationally (or at least in every city that has City TV).

I think whatever station The New VR has turned into carries AMC and OLTL in Central Ontario but I don't know for a fact since I haven't had cable in awhile).

EDIT: The New VR is A Channel now! hah! Turns out that yes, A Channel does carry all 3 ABC soaps across the board, but only for A Channel. CTV proper only carries B&B at 12:30, and City TV in urban markets will only get GH.

[EricMontreal22]

WEIRD. OLTL left A CHannel last year and they picked up GH from CTV instead--not too odd as A CHannel turned into sorta the B level alternative to CTV when CTV bought the chain. ANd Joy TV picked up OLTL (it sounds like your Sun TV--was their only soap). As of today--Sep 1st Joy has no soaps and A channel has all three ABC ones. A Channel used to have the fun mid break Soap's Up segments (that were filmed here in Victoria but I believe aired nationally--they actually started as an Ontario thing with a different host).

[beebs]

I remember the Soaps Up lady, yes! I always wanted her to stop giving me spoilers to the show I was just about to start watching. It made me mental!

I think there's been a great deal of difficulty getting a decent audience for the ABC soaps on proper Canadian channels after CBC dropped AMC and OLTL in the 90s. I wonder how much of what made CBC drop AMC was ratings and how much of it was "keeping the identity of the station Canadian". They'd been airing AMC since 1982, so I'd imagine they'd had a pretty decent audience to keep it put that long, but compared to Y&R at Global, I've never found that there's been a real commitment by any national station to the ABC soaps in recent years on a national level. They keep bouncing between different stations so much, I have to wonder how bad ratings are on the different stations that they feel the need to bounce them around so much.

[SFK]

Did you guys watch Riverdale?

[beebs]

No, though I wanted to desperately when it was first announced. I never could figure out when it aired (pre-internet in my house, plus our local TV Guide was no hell to navigate). However, a good friend of mine apparently may have access to the Riverdale bible! I'm hoping to prod at him awhile about THAT one! It's virtually impossible to find eps of that soap online anywhere.

[EricMontreal22]

AMC used to be massiv back in the day when Canada didn't get all the US networks anyway--when CBC picked it up in the 70s it became hugely highly rated (they also aired Edge of Night). There's even a youtube interview the CBC put up with Agnes Nixon back from the 70s. I don't think OLTL ever cuaght on as much when CBC added it in the late 90s--and then CBC got in a lot of flack for airing American soap operas and yet being partially government funded (of course the networks like CTV who complained largely about the CBC situation quickly picked up the shows). Still, while not getting Y&R numbers, I've heard AMC has always done well for A Channel--OLTL had more trouble which is why they switched it with GH though I'm glad it's back).

Ha the last Soap's Up lady, Amanda was someone I'd actually run into at night clubs here in town quite a bit--she was really sweet and it was always kinda funny to have drunken AMC talks. But yeah the spoilers were annoying.

[EricMontreal22]

I tried. CBC has always done well with COronation Street (which they used to show late afternoon but now show at 7pm--oddly they've tried to pair it with other UK soaps--Eastenders at one time, then Emmerdale for a few years and they've always been flops--but I think Corrie has been an institution not just with ex Brits since it's been on CBC since the 70s).

Anyway when CBC said they were making their own Corrie type soap, and it would e3ven involve one of the top Exec Producers of Corrie--I really was excited and decided to give it a try--(I've never been a solid Corrie watcher but I've always sorta wanted to be--I've been grabbed for certain stories anyway). Anyway it was really awful, IMHO. The production values were good, some of the older actors who were big time Canadian Stratford names were good (especially the comic older characters) the younger multicultural cast was awful, as was the dialogue, and I remember the pacing and stories being really off. I actually forced myself to watch it for about 6 months. I thin maybe it improved later on, but I'd lost interest (WIki says it aired nearly 100 episodes over three seasons...)

Soon afterwards basic cable station SHowcase started their uber campy Paradise Falls (granted which had a lot more soft core sex, some gay stuff, the supernatural and Twin Peaks rip offs). That's still going--though they've given up on trying for several dozen episodes every 6 months and it was kinda fun in a trash way for a while, but I've lost the plot... I think it might air on one of the US gay stations?

Yeah I'm shocked nothing's on youtube. I would like to read the Bible--I believe that's what one of the Corrie guys was most involved with.

[beebs]

Oh it was on in the 70s too! I guess that makes sense, what with that interview and all. It's funny how they never thought to pick up GH up here. Canada didn't really have Luke & Laura mania to the same extent as the US did simply because I don't think CTV aired it (which would explain why AW and Texas did so well in the early 80s). OLTL was only on CBC for a year or two then? I remember catching the tail end of the last episode CBC aired in 1997, and I'd had no clue they'd even picked it up to start with! Then AMC went a year later. I have a skewed view of what aired up here though because our local CTV and CBC affiliates were owned by the same company and aired out of the same building, so CTV's programs were always a mash-up of some CTV and some Global broadcasts (to the point where at one point the afternoon lineup consisted of:

12:30 B&B (simulcasted from CTV)

1:00 DAYS (Global)

2:00 AW (CTV)

3:00 GH (Not even sure)

4:00 Y&R (Global, a day ahead, of course;))

It was absolutely warped. I have no recollection what the lineup at that time was SUPPOSED to be at a national level.

[SFK]

Very interesting, I've asked about the show before and you guys are the first to respond. I liked (loved ) Linda Schuyler's classic Degrassi stuff and I thought I might enjoy her more adult-themed material. That's too bad that it wasn't all that great. Yeah, I have found NOTHING of it online, I did find an old skeleton of a network page for it including a message to the fans that it hadn't been renewed and all of the loose ends would have to remain that way... for now (forever ).

[beebs]

I think the main problem is that we don't have the history of successful soaps or the background in the writing dept. to really make it work. The brain drain has really worked against us in that sense. I think it may have worked if we'd had someone with a real understanding of how to make a story of that style work from the US or the UK it may have turned out better (Claire Labine comes to mind as a great example). But they likely didn't have the budget to make it work, so...that's out.

Paradise Falls' undoing is that they take too long in between new episodes. I think at one point they had a 3 year gap in between new batches of episodes. Now I know Showcase reruns the hell out of that show, but to build a steady growing audience for a show like that? I'd say a 3-year gap counts as "dropping the ball".

I'm definitely going to find out about that Bible, i'd love to see if it's watered down from what actually aired or whether things were kept close to what actually was broadcast.

[EricMontreal22]

I haven't been able to find full listings--like years--but I know AMC was the first American soap followed by Edge of Night that CBC picked up (my mom watched Edge in 1977 when she was pregnant with my brother). Back then most of Canada couldn't easily get ABC/NBC/CBS affiliates the way we've been able to since the 80s so it was a big deal and became, apparently very popular. Not sure when Global picked up Y&R--by the 80s though and of course most Global stations used to give it an early evening timeslot (5pm) which made it really big, I know for a time it was one of the top rated shows in Canada, period.

Yeah I don't think any Canadian network simulcast GH until the mid 90s which is odd considering how massive it was. I do know that OLTL wasn't simulcast till maybe as late as '96--I started watching in the early 90s and always had to watch it on ABC direct until CBC picked it up--and like you say only for a few years. I believe AMC was picked up fairly soon after CBC dropped it under pressure (that was right around when we got our NewVI station here in ictoria which picked it up--back when CHUM owned them before they went to A and CTV bought them).

Oh yeah AW was on CTV from at least the early 80s as well--and apparently always did well in Canada, even till the end it was--if you keep in mind how much lower a population Canada has--relatively much higher rated here than in the US. I think a lot of that had to do with it premiering still when fewer soap options were around.

Where did you live that mashed up the lineup?

[beebs]

I am absolutely ashamed to admit (especially as a good, CBC-watching Canucky) that I have not watched any of the original Degrassi series as an adult! (the fact I lived a block away from the actual Degrassi St. not long ago fills me with even greater shame to admit this). Was the original Degrassi in a serial format or not?

[EricMontreal22]

Exactly, the talent we had to make the soap work was probably working on American soaps anyway... The much touted Corrie guy who was involved--I have NO idea how much he actually was involved (though I think he was an EP) or even who he was and how well he was actually regarded at Corrie (where he didn't have to create a soap from scratch...)

Did you ever see... Damn I can't rememeber the name. Family something? It was a Global Canadian daytime soap--they even reran it's short run again like ten years back. Some American soap stars were on it to try to raise interest--I'm sure one was Ken Shriner. Family Passions! That was the name. I just remember watching 2 or so eps and how deathly boring and lacking in energy it was.

Yeah when it premiered my dad, very very oddly, was a fan--I think he liked the camp (I'm sure the breasts helped too) and I'd often watch with him. It took a while to start going but it had periods where it actuallyw as quite fun. I know the first year or so was filmed in like a record 2 weeks or something at some Ontario camp--I remember the press about it, and initially it was a fairly regular show--twice a week at least, lots of episodes. I was aactually surprised it came back after three years, but I think it had decent international sales and was done so cheaply. I admit I know nothign about it anymore.

I'm definitely going to find out about that Bible, i'd love to see if it's watered down from what actually aired or whether things were kept close to what actually was broadcast.

[EricMontreal22]

Yes but in the way, say, thirtysomething or My So-Called Life was--each episode had a theme and usually closure. I admit I haven't seen it in at least ten years since Showcase stopped rerunning it--I watched it from Jr High to high as a kid (and we would watch key episodes in sex ed class lol). I remember some parents were actually shocked our parents let us watch it so young (I NEVER had any interest int he awful original Kids of Degrassi Street though But I only saw it later on reruns).

WHat was the CBC show done by the woman behind Degrassi, with Joey Jeremiah's actor? Liberty something? IT was about a bunch of 20somethings living in an apartment--ran maybe two years

I had NO idea she was involved in RIverdale. Maybe she came on later--cuz the initial press on it certainly didn't mention her much--it was all about the Corrie guy.