Ratings from the 70's

[danfling]

Around the time of these expansions from 45-minutes to 60-minutes, General Hospital was considered the weakest of dramas on ABC.   Also around this time, The Edge of Night suddenly began adding new characters (This was during the Denise Cavanaugh storyline) and many of the new characters could have been utilized if The Edge of Night had been expanded.  But, after the ratings rose for General Hospital, the thought of expanding The Edge of Night was dropped and many of the new characters suddenly left the show.

 

Gloria Monty, who had directed both Love of Life and (for many years) The Secret Storm became the new executive producer of General Hospital and actually had the cast retape at least one episode.   I think that she made several cast changes (including bringing back Leslie Charleston, who had been on A Flame in the Wind, As the World Turns, and Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, back to daytime television after being a primetime guest on many shows for several years).   Douglas Marland, who had left his position of head writer of The Doctors, was hired as the new head writer of General Hospital.

Ada Chandler (who had been on The Edge of Night when it was on CBS and was played by Billie Allen) was brought back to the show and was working closely with Dr. Miles Cavanaugh and his friend Dr. Dave Roper.   (The late Miki Grant, who had played Peggy Harris on Another World, was Ada #2.)  Dr. Dave Roper ((Herb Downer), Dr. Gus Norwood (Wyman Pendleton), and Tressa "Tree" Worthington (Marilyn Randall) were all added - and it seemed as though a minority-race triangle was festering to form among Ada, Dave and Tree.   (I am not even mentioning that Ada was married to Lt. Luke Chandler - played by Herb Davis, who had earlier appeared on One Life to Live).  The nurse in the office of Dr. Miles Cavanaugh (Carole Barclay, played by the wonderful Polly Adams), who had been a recurring character, was given a contract as a member of the regular cast.  A new co-anchor on WMON with Nicole was also added briefly, and this may have been around the same time.

[Contessa Donatella]

Thnx for all the info that fills in other reports! Monty did the unheard of & threw out a whole week of tapes! That's according to CSchemering.

More from me: I'm almost done with a new blog on Gloria Monty. I keep getting done & then finding out more info. It's a delightful way to be frustrated.

I had reliable information that when word came down from whoever decided that they were going to rebrand the rape a seduction, that (1) Doug Marland quit his job over it. (2) Pat Falken Smith was 100% against it but it didn't come down to her job for some unknown reason. (Probably that she had to pretend to support it.) (3) Lesley Charleson went on a morning talk show & revealed that the show was doing this. (4) Genie Francis literally became ill one day over it. Etc. Does anyone here happen to know the truth?

Edited October 8, 2022 by Tonksadora
Gloria Monty blog

[Paul Raven]

Leslie Charleson was hired before Gloria took over as was Doug Marland.

I do not believe that Ms Monty ever directed Live of Life.

[Contessa Donatella]

No, she didn't. She directed soaps & made for TV movies. "She directed the soaps THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS, a failure, THE SECRET STORM, for 15 years, and BRIGHT PROMISE, another failure. In 1978 she was promoted to Executive Producer o ..."

What difference does it make when Leslie Charleson was hired? I believe that yes she was already an employee but it has no bearing on anything. It's moot. Now, when Doug Marland was hired would pertain. When was he hired? Him as HW is considered important in all stories about what went on at GH at this time & knowing when he started could only enhance info. His importance is going to stand no matter who hired him.

[Paul Raven]

GH and OLTL both went to an hour on the same day Jan 16th 1978.

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay, if that is so, it is in print in error, which as we know is very possible. But, definitely thanks for the heads up, Paul. And, Joe, still thnx for the background info!

Edited October 9, 2022 by Tonksadora

[robbwolff]

Whatever source that reported December 1, 1975 for GH's expansion to one hour is wrong. As you state, GH and OLTL expanded to 45 minutes on July 26, 1976. According to this source, the GH expansion to one hour occurred in December 1975 -- before it expanded to 45 minutes in July 1976. That doesn't make sense at all.

December 1, 1975 was the date that TEON moved to ABC and ATWT expanded to an hour. Both GH and OLTL expanded to one hour in January 1978.

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, thnx. You'd be surprised how much wrong there is out there. I recounted earlier & elsewhere how Patrick Mulcahey says both his IMDb page & his Wikipedia page are so wrong that he's asked them to take them down! He even told me about some AW credits he's entitled to that show up nowhere! This is why I check things like this, compulsively, about 6 times from as many different places as can be found to check. When I think about the great body of information that is available because of the Internet, I am encouraged. No one has to learn the Periodicals Index or the card catalog anymore. But, the errors, OY.

And, if anyone has their appetite whet for one of Mac's famous toasts: http://anotherworldhomepage.com/misc8.html

Meanwhile perhaps I should begin to think of a blog on Errol's & Toups' SON speeches! Ya think?

[TEdgeofNight]

Thanks Rob for being the voice of facts in the GH/OLTL expansions. It defies logic that someone who claims to be a stickler for facts would post that GH expanded to an hour before expanding to 45 minutes. Fact check, people. It's not that hard to research that both OLTL and GH expanded to 45 minutes on the same day and both expanded to an hour on the same day. Sigh.

[Broderick]

I blame Gloria Monty for 90% of what's wrong with the soaps today (and John Conboy for the other 10%).  

Long, introspective scenes were one of the few things soaps tended to do especially well, as opposed to film or primetime TV.  When I was a kid in the 1970s, it wasn't unusual for a soap to have a scene that lasted six or seven minutes, examining every aspect of a situation.  And then along came Gloria Monty with her short, choppy scenes that featured someone making a quick phone call or delivering two lines of dialogue before an elevator door slammed shut in their face, and all of that went out the window.  She (and her inevitable copycats) thought if a scene lasted more than a minute, the audience would die of boredom.  Now we're stuck with "vignettes" -- choppy, disjointed scenes that serve no purpose whatsoever.  It all goes back to her. 

(John Conboy's 10% is attributable to his emphasis on physical appearance.  When he was casting Y&R, he deliberately chose extremely attractive performers, but he also made sure they could act.  His copycats said, "Oh, look!   Y&R has a bunch of hotties on it!  Let's run hire some of them too!  Who cares if they can act!")  Now we get nonsensical short Gloria Monty scenes that serve no real purpose, with three choppy lines of dialogue delivered by someone from the John Conboy model line-up.   

[Contessa Donatella]

I don't know you but you are after my very own heart. Let me just say me, too! Although I specifically blame Conboy & Weston for finishing off GL.

Edited October 9, 2022 by Tonksadora
oops

[TEdgeofNight]

Oh no! Don't encourage another blog. The last one we got incorrectly stated that GH expanded to an hour 2 years before OLTL.

[Contessa Donatella]

No, not actually. The old blog did not say that & is still in effect till the new blog is published and it's not ready. And, the new blog will not say that. Just the way the process works. What there was, was discussion of information likely to be in the new blog, where wrong numbers had been picked up from unstated sites. And, of what had been published already the network expansion figures were already correctly stated. But, Lord knows there's been enough about this for now.

[Paul Raven]

Thought I'd get the thread back on track by posting some ratings from the 70's!

March 73

1 ATWT 10.6

2 Hollywood Squares 10.3

3 AW 9.7

4 DOOL 9.5

5 GH 9.4

6 Newlywed Game 9.2

7 Lets Make a Deal 8.9

8 Jeopardy 8.8

9 TGL 8.7

10 TD SFT Split Second all 8.6

 

[slick jones]

@robbwolff  Thanks for clarifying with facts, especially since those don't seem to matter around here these days. We have folks answering questions about actors and the shows they appear on without any thought to using the handy Soap Hoppers Thread because they dislike me, and this one expressing every thought that ever occurred to them inaccurately and surrounded by gibberish.

                                         

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