As I said. I'm starting the 'They're Too Lovely' Initiative. It is voluntary. But, I was thinking about what matters more to be. The shows themselves. Or, the actors and behind the scenes creators who bring these shows to life. For me. It's the people who create. Not including the majority of the writers. Soapboy and I have done this already. If you would like to know what it's about. Read my status update.

Edited April 2, 201114 yr by weareclouds

I read once back on the WoST boards that Colgate-Palmolive might have started keeping episodes of The Doctors from as early as 1973-1974, so that's like...steak dinner as far as any soap on the air at that time is concerned (for us old school soap devotees, at least). I wanted to bring it up in that Paley Center discussion in that other thread that they have episodes from the 60s, including the first episode and I believe a Christmas episode from 1968. So who knows. UCLA, of course, has the ten from 1971/1973 (not to mention all of GH's first eight years......gathering dust, never to be seen again, totally forgotten, etc.....ugh).

So I wasn't losing my mind when I saw Pawn Stars on Lifetime's lineup? Jeez. Me and my mommy loved us some Any Day Now with Miss Annie Potts and Miss Lorraine Toussaint.

Doctors struck me as a weird choice--how far do the episodes go back anyway? Aside from Marland's brief run int he late 70s before GH snatched him up, would any of it be even worth revisiting?? It was apparently classic soap in the early 70s, but not really after... and isn't one that is mentioned much.

It would be fun if one of the mystery/crime stations picked up Edge of Nights' last years...

Chris, do you know if they have the show in its entirety, or if they'd have to start at a certain point later in the run?

SFM Entertainment said they have over 5,000 episodes of The Doctors. They made it sound liek they had most of the series. I emailed them once and got this info.

People were foolish to believe that Doctors thing for any longer than five minutes. Come on, now, people PLEASE. DOC hadn't been a true contender in at least 30 years, and that was the soap Hallmark was going to pick up?

That's the only soap we know that was pitched to Hallmark. They did seem very interested, but SFM wanted too much money. It was well publicized at the time. Now I agree it may have been a huge flop, but it was something that was in the works. They were shopping that show around for at least 2-3 years.

The guy who does the Daytime Emmys mentioned in Twitter he tried to work with them for a remake and they were too expensive.

Edited April 2, 201114 yr by Chris B

SFM Entertainment said they have over 5,000 episodes of The Doctors.

Yikes, that could be the entire run of the show, then. I really wish there was a way that these big production companies could post a database of their holdings online just for nosy fans to see. It'd be nice to see, once and for all, when exactly episodes started surviving. I'm sure a couple of those 60s soaps exist in their entirety.

Give it about 5 years and every media company will have their own online streaming sites for their content libraries.

I say skip the cable rerun idea where they'd almost certainly get yanked giving the viewers soapy blue balls and just focus on making episodes available streaming through Roku/Hulu-type technology. PGP Classic Soaps was an awesome thing, it really was.

Of course. It's really too bad Agnesnixon.com seems to be DOA...

Of course. It's really too bad Agnesnixon.com seems to be DOA...

That is a shame. I loved those classic eps.

Edge Of Night should've been revived years ago. It is ripe for it and was one of the most innovative and exciting soaps around.

I had wanted a couple EON characters - the Karrs and maybe Raven Whitney and Sky - to pop up in Llanview from Monticello during a murder mystery storyline. Just a brief spot, but EON was an ABC soap and Monticello an ABC town.

Edited April 2, 201114 yr by Vee

If these rumors are true (and it sure looks that way), I'd like to apologize for criticizing so many last week (for getting so exicted after hearing this rumor from another internet source) and admit that I'm the one who's the real fool! However, before one can make the conclusion that I am a total moron, I still believe (as I previously stated) that I was correct when I predicted that AMC will not be cancelled before OLTL; I just failed to realize that AMC was in danger of getting axed at the same time as OLTL. (I felt this way not only due to AMC's much higher name recognition, but also because cancelling that soap so soon after the move to Los Angeles would be the equivalent of flushing tons of money down the toilet.)

The comments that Jack has posted have been among the most insightful that I have ever read on any message board, and I am so greatful for the effort he has put into them. Given his vast knowledge of the industry, I'd really like to ask him how Frons and the other ABC executives so badly miscalculated when they chose to move AMC to Los Angeles. How could they have made such a huge blunder, and--given that--how can investors and other ABC/Disney stakeholders have any confidence in the future of the new programming (that will be put into place by these executives) that is being produced for ABC Daytime?

Also, before I conclude, I do feel that if ABC wants to put an end both AMC and OLTL, it would be best to cancel both at the same time (as opposed to cancelling one of the soaps now, and then giving the other soap a mere six to twelve extra months to live). It would be very disrespectful to viewers of the soap that was spared if ABC essentially gave them the impression that their soap was safe, only to then cancel it so soon afterwards; from a business standpoint, it could result in AMC/OLTL viewers being even more pissed-off at ABC than if both soaps were dropped at once (which, would in turn hurt ratings for the replacement programming). Of course, the scenario that I am warning ABC against is exactly what happened at NBC with the fiasco that resulted from the way the cancellations of AW and SuBe were handled. I'm really interested in Jack's thoughts on this as well.

Edited April 2, 201114 yr by Max

Successful talk shows currently on.... The View and Ellen are big hits. Oprah is on her way out next month. Dr. Oz is pretty strong. Wendy Williams has a strong following and DebMar Mercury is making a killing of cable re-airings and Wendy is a huge hit internationally. The Talk is modestly successful. Regis & Kelly are a morning staple. Rachel Ray holds he own but nothing stellar. These are just whats popping in to my head right now.

To me that's a sign of how weak talk shows are compared to what they used to be. Most of these shows are going off the air or losing viewers or only successful because of effort years ago or because of the name value of the person outside of the show - and I can't see ABC Daytime managing to find anyone who will be able to do what Ellen or even Wendy Williams did. Not when the most they can come up with is Tori Spelling.

Give it about 5 years and every media company will have their own online streaming sites for their content libraries.

The telecoms want to kill streaming video and the networks will probably go along. Within five years I won't be surprised if only the very rich could watch streaming video, and the networks will still just put out the same handful of shows.

To me that's a sign of how weak talk shows are compared to what they used to be. Most of these shows are going off the air or losing viewers or only successful because of effort years ago or because of the name value of the person outside of the show - and I can't see ABC Daytime managing to find anyone who will be able to do what Ellen or even Wendy Williams did. Not when the most they can come up with is Tori Spelling.

It's hte dilution of all network tv, really, isn't it?

I am not a proponent of unscripted/reality tv. As a television professional these types of series pose a threat to my livelihood by taking up schedule space that a scripted series could have taken. My argument is that ABC Daytime needed a shakeup and this is it. Daytime soaps in their current form have run their course and are based off an old ideology. While Univision & Telemundo have great success with their telenovelas, they are more of a primetime thing. I'm sure there were other ways that ABC could have gone about this but all it would have done is just prolonged an inevitable end.

I was just about to ask you if you worked in the industry Jack! Your professional knowledge (and rather corporate tone) remind me as a viewer that this is a BUSINESS. These shows are simply not viable anymore. Keep posting, it is eye opening (although a little depressing)..

If these rumors are true (and it sure looks that way), I'd like to apologize for criticizing so many last week (for getting so exicted after hearing this rumor from another internet source) and admit that I'm the one who's the real fool! However, before one can make the conclusion that I am a total moron, I still believe (as I previously stated) that I was correct when I predicted that AMC will not be cancelled before OLTL; I just failed to realize that AMC was in danger of getting axed at the same time as OLTL. (I felt this way not only due to AMC's much higher name recognition, but also because cancelling that soap so soon after the move to Los Angeles would be the equivalent of flushing tons of money down the toilet.)

The comments that Jack has posted have been among the most insightful that I have ever read on any message board, and I am so greatful for the effort he has put into them. Given his vast knowledge of the industry, I'd really like to ask him how Frons and the other ABC executives so badly miscalculated when they chose to move AMC to Los Angeles. How could they have made such a huge blunder, and--given that--how can investors and other ABC/Disney stakeholders have any confidence in the future of the new programming (that will be put into place by these executives) that is being produced for ABC Daytime?

Also, before I conclude, I do feel that if ABC wants to put an end both AMC and OLTL, it would be best to cancel both at the same time (as opposed to cancelling one of the soaps now, and then giving the other soap a mere six to twelve extra months to live). It would be very disrespectful to viewers of the soap that was spared if ABC essentially gave them the impression that their soap was safe, only to then cancel it so soon afterwards; from a business standpoint, it could result in AMC/OLTL viewers being even more pissed-off at ABC than if both soaps were dropped at once (which, would in turn hurt ratings for the replacement programming). Of course, the scenario that I am warning ABC against is exactly what happened at NBC with the fiasco that resulted from the way the cancellations of AW and SuBe were handled. I'm really interested in Jack's thoughts on this as well.

Ditto to every word..

IMO, I really feel like we need to stop asking, pressuring, or listening to the actors about the fate of the shows. They are at the bottom of the information chain and they have their own problems to deal with.

I'm so glad you said it, marceline. ICAM, and thank you.

If Michael Logan's story is accurate, I don't feel we're getting the full year apart cancellation which was a given had AMC got a cancellation this year or next EVEN had OLTL never come into the cancellation conversation in that time. I think it may be 4-6 months apart or possibly at the same time.

I say they're going to put them both down at the same time - and by that, I mean, AMC and OLTL will air their final eps on the same day, which will be sooner rather than later. Take it from one of the ATWT and GL fans, though. It's much easier for things to go down this way than to have one leave one date, and then the other linger a bit longer before it too goes down. Watching ATWT limp toward its finale knowing there was no chance whatsoever for a reprieve was like some weird form of torture porn.

I've always felt (at least in the last five years) that daytime needed a shakeup and that with ratings being not so great on certain days (namely Friday), that executives should think about cutting down on the five days a week of soapy drama. While I'm not saying to cancel a soap by any means, as this thread is about, but cut the soaps to four days. Program a new set of shows (preferably scripted) on Fridays. If successful, not only would we have more programs on the air during the day (and on network TV no less), they'd all compliment the soaps. If the day were to where we'd lose a soap, by not airing a program five days a week, the networks could transition their daytime blocks in the form of primetime. We'd be able to have numerous original (again preferably scripted) programming each day and many of our current daytime stars would more than likely find work in some of these shows. For anyone that says there isn't an audience, speak with Univision and Telemundo, they do just fine with daily scripted programming.

I think this might make people tune out more. They get in the habit of watching something else the day the soaps aren't on, the odds are they'll stick with it

I always thought GH benefitted from being after school everywhere but the West Coast.

I've always thought so, I think it does boil down to timeslot