41 minutes ago, beebs said:

This is at the tail end of Pat Falken Smith's run as HW at DAYS, and something isn't working anymore. Around this time was a HEAVY focus on Patty Weaver's Trish killing her pervy stepdad, then developing DID so she didn't remember doing it, and setting up Sharon Duvall as something of a sex-crazed spoiler for Don & Marlena, while Mickey continued to recover from his mental break from the previous year. Even just writing this out, you can tell how very heavy the stories were at this time, and I'm sure it was starting to get a bit much for the audience.

Looking at your summary of events, @beebs, I think PFS should have done one of two things: either wrap up the Trish storyline as quickly as possible, or develop another, lighter storyline to counter-balance all the heavy melodrama that was going on at that time.  The Don/Marlena/Sharon storyline might have been okay, but dealing with Trish's mental breakdown on the heels of Mickey's feels like too much.

Did PFS leave DAYS voluntarily the first time, or was she fired?  If she was fired, then I think NBCD might have acted too hastily.  Yes, the ratings were down, but there wasn't any need to panic yet, since PFS had proven she could do better.  The network could've just given her time to figure out what needed tweaking and then let her tweak it.  (Again, Pat, I would've wrapped up Trish's story sooner rather than later).

1 minute ago, Khan said:

Looking at your summary of events, @beebs, I think PFS should have done one of two things: either wrap up the Trish storyline as quickly as possible, or develop another, lighter storyline to counter-balance all the heavy melodrama that was going on at that time.  The Don/Marlena/Sharon storyline might have been okay, but dealing with Trish's mental breakdown on the heels of Mickey's feels like too much.

Did PFS leave DAYS voluntarily the first time, or was she fired?  If she was fired, then I think NBCD might have acted too hastily.  Yes, the ratings were down, but there wasn't any need to panic yet, since PFS had proven she could do better.  The network could've just given her time to figure out what needed tweaking and then let her tweak it.  (Again, Pat, I would've wrapped up Trish's story sooner rather than later).

IIRC, PFS was fired, as Betty Corday had been, according to Ann Marcus, been trying to get Ann Marcus on board for awhile. I think the combo of all of this, plus Mike sleeping with Linda, the David/Valerie/Brooke story, complete with Adele Hamilton and her alcoholism (as well as David's and Valerie's dad Paul's), were some extremely weighty material on a show that hadn't really been quite this heavy before, and it was weighing everything down. I agree, the DID story should have (and ultimately was) wrapped up quickly, though I don't think what AM replaced it with was much better.
 

Ultimately, Sharon shifted FAST into becoming deranged and obsessed with her friend/painting partner Julie, and was hastily shuttled off-canvas by her suddenly-appearing husband after confessing romantic feelings for Julie. Leaving Don and Marlena free for...Sam to lock Marlena in Bayview and take over her life even though Sam looked and sounded nothing like Marlena.

The stories were definitely well-crafted, but you're right that there was absolutely no levity in any of the stories on the show at the time, and the only semi-happy event to occur during this period was Doug & Julie's wedding, which was back in October '76, so I think the real error in PFS' judgment was to wrap up that story with very little on the frontburner that was resonating with viewers to replace it. Honestly, to me it would've been a good time to draw Maggie back to the farm and fall for a muscled farmhand that took her mind off her struggles with Mickey, just SOME kind of levity to balance out everything else going on.

PFS seemed to want every story to be deeply psychological and intense, which is great for Emmy reels and the like, but not every story can be ripped-from-the-headlines (or the medical journals, as the case may be), hyper-realistic dramas. Not in such an ensemble, daily format. The fatigue sets in fast, and I can see why a lot of folks switched over to ATWT or Family Feud as a result.

1 hour ago, beebs said:

Well you can definitely see why NBC pulled L&F so quickly with those numbers. YIKES.

Five month run, NBC reacted w/ the quickness. As we saw earlier in the thread, the replacement For Richer, For Poorer didn't fare any better and that had a 9 month run.

When did Bill Bell cut ties with Days completely? I know for some time PFS had pretty much free reign but Bill was dictating long term stry.

I wonder if Days falling ratings were the result of Pat taking complete control and not having Bill's input-hence the dark stories lacking Bill's unique touch.

16 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

When did Bill Bell cut ties with Days completely? I know for some time PFS had pretty much free reign but Bill was dictating long term stry.

I wonder if Days falling ratings were the result of Pat taking complete control and not having Bill's input-hence the dark stories lacking Bill's unique touch.

Officially, Bell was credited into 1978, but you can definitely tell the difference in tone after the switch to the hour in 1975, which is about when Bell said in his TV Archives interview (I believe, again, correct me if I'm wrong) he stopped providing projections for the show, which he'd left PFS with when he left to create Y&R.

I will say, just based on what I've read, PFS does take the reigns pretty quickly after Bell left in 1973, as she almost immediately introduced some new characters and involved them heavily in story -- Neil & Amanda, specifically, are introduced very suddenly and are involved in meaty story almost immediately upon their arrival, which is jarring if you'd followed the story to that point, where Bell took pains to introduce new characters very slowly and carefully, the shift in style is very noticeable, even just in write-ups.

Edited December 30, 20231 yr by beebs

If my math is correct, we can divide Days first three decades or so into three pivotal eras and two transition eras:

Bill Bell years 1966-1973

Post-Bill Bell/pre-supercouple 1973-1982

Supercouple era 1983-1990

Post-supercouple/pre-Reilly 1990-1992

Reilly years 1993-1997

23 hours ago, kalbir said:

If my math is correct, we can divide Days first three decades or so into three pivotal eras and two transition eras:

Bill Bell years 1966-1973

Post-Bill Bell/pre-supercouple 1973-1982

1973-75 Bill Bell continued to write story thrusts which were executed by PFS. 

BTW, this is the date that is in the book Michael Maloney wrote with Lee. 

Maloney, M., & Bell, L. P. (2012). The young and Restless Life 0f William J. Bell. Sourcebooks, Inc.

I am re-reading it right now.

 

 

Edited December 31, 20231 yr by Donna L. Bridges

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/25/77-4/29/77 & 5/2/77-5/6/77:

 

Edited December 31, 20231 yr by JAS0N47

1 hour ago, JAS0N47 said:

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 4/25/77-4/29/77 

April 25, 1977 All My Children expands to 1 hr.

ABC new daytime schedule (ET) starting w/ soaps until the end of the day 12:30 pm Ryan's Hope, 1 pm All My Children, 2 pm $20,000 Pyramid; 2:30 pm One Life to Live, 3:15 pm General Hospital, 4 pm The Edge of Night. 

New soap time slot rivalry As the World Turns vs. All My Children vs. Days

ABC next and final soap expansions were One Life to Live to 1 hr and General Hospital to 1 hr on January 16, 1978.

Guiding Light going strong, it's expansion to 1 hr a little over 6 months away.

3 minutes ago, kalbir said:

April 25, 1977 All My Children expands to 1 hr.

ABC new daytime schedule (ET) starting w/ soaps until the end of the day 12:30 pm Ryan's Hope, 1 pm All My Children, 2 pm $20,000 Pyramid; 2:30 pm One Life to Live, 3:15 pm General Hospital, 4 pm The Edge of Night. 

New soap time slot rivalry As the World Turns vs. All My Children vs. Days

ABC next and final soap expansions were One Life to Live to 1 hr and General Hospital to 1 hr on January 16, 1978.

Guiding Light going strong, it's expansion to 1 hr a little over 6 months away.

That explains DAYS' haste to oust PFS to some degree as well. Knowing her stories weren't working, and knowing an incredibly-strong AMC was to go up directly opposite them, I'm certain there was some major panic behind the scenes.

Seems everyone's in a bit of springtime freefall at the moment, though ATWT and GL are keeping their numbers up rather nicely in spite of it all.

SFT at this time was being written by Irving Ellman and there didn't seem to be anything particularly compelling going at that time to account for the rating.

6 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

SFT at this time was being written by Irving Ellman and there didn't seem to be anything particularly compelling going at that time to account for the rating.

This would've been the aftermath of John Wyatt's trial for Eunice's murder. I'm sure a lot of that is residual excitement from that storyline, at least.

I dug up the Daytime Serial Newsletter for the month of April to be sure. There seems to be some excitement with Liza, if nothing else.

 

Quote

Search For Tomorrow

Written by: Irving & Tex Elman

Produced by: Mary-Ellis Bunim

Liza Kaslo was unable to reach her husband before she took off for New York with her modeling manager, Woody Reed, because Steve was on his way to Australia to do a concert tour with Kitty Merritt. Steve finally talked to Cindy French at the Collins house and was told that Liza was going to New York and he assumed that she was mad at him. - Kitty had arranged several incidents trying to break up Steve and Liza. Steve refused to return to Henderson because his career as a musician was finally taking off and he only wanted a little trust from Liza. - The private plane crashed at the end of the runway sending Liza, Woody and the pilot to the hospital. The pilot was dead on arrival. The hospital was full of emergencies from a factory explosion that spreaded to nearby homes and everyone was pressed into service. Stephanie Pace helped with the nursing and Bob Rogers told Amy Carson that her internship started immediately. Woody had broken wrist and ribs. Liza had damage to the right eye and the surrounding bone. She had a concussion and was in shock. There was a blood clot on the eye and a laceration to the cornea. They hoped the optic nerve wasn't severed. Dr. Wexley repaired the eye and a plastic surgeon reconstructed the smashed bone. They sedated her to keep her as quiet as possible.

When Greg Hartford, retired surgeon, and Jo Vincente heard about the emergency, Greg offered his services, but all the patients had already received care. Stu Bergman accused, "You're always too late!" Greg returned to the Inn much later very drunk. He told Jo that Stu might be right. Although he and Stu's sister Louise had decided to marry secretly over his family's objections, when he was trying to rescue Louise from drowning, he thought for an instant that if he couldn't save her he wouldn't have to make the decision and could be a doctor. This had haunted him ever since. Jo had come to the conclusion that she cared deeply for Greg, but Stu warned Greg that he was out to prevent Jo's involvement with him.

Dr. Gary Walton discovered that his sister's eye was hemmorhaging, but they got it stop-ped and had to wait several days to see the results. Amy and Bruce Carson had been trying to locate Steve through the musicians' union. Liza didn’t want Steve to come because he felt sorry for her. Kitty heard Steve sing the song he wrote for Liza and wanted to record it on her new album. Steve finally relented and let her sing it. He got the first plane out of Sydney when Amy reached him.

Woody was feeling very guilty about insisting that Liza fly with him, but was assured that it was an accident. He tried to give Liza a positive outlook on being able to fight the feeling that she would never have vision in her right eye. Dr. Wexley removed the bandage and although her vision was blurry, she could see. Every day would improve it, but she had to wear a patch. Woody was kissing Liza good-bye, insisting that she was still his beautiful model, when Steve arrived with flowers. She doubted that he really tried to call her and thought he was in love with Kitty and only returned out of pity. She was moving to her mother's and told him that their marriage was over. Steve tried to see her the following day and was told by a nurse that Liza had left word that he was not to visit. Steve asked Janet's help and she agreed to talk to her when she got home. Steve said he went to Australia to work and tried to call, but was returning to his old apartment and would get a job in Henderson. He would never do anything again that could come between Liza and himself. Janet said it might be too late.

Scott Phillips had asked investigator David Sutton to try locating Ralph Heywood who was supposedly trying to find work in the Southwest. Scott was still Eric's legal guardian and had offered to adopt him because Ralph wasn’t a stable influence. Scott was taking Eric on a vacation to take his mind off things and asked his wife to go along. Kathy wanted to, but had several court appearances scheduled. They both felt that it was important that Scott take Eric anyway.

John Wyatt had lost many clients even though he was acquitted. Scott mentioned this to Stephanie Pace and she transfered her business to him and persuaded other friends not to withdraw their business from John. Wade assured him that he would always have the Collins Corporation as a client. Stephanie asked John's advice when Wade suggested that she return to nursing. The nursing supervisor told Stephanie that it would not be good to have her on the staff because she had donated much money to the hospital and didn’t really need the job. This could lead to disagreements, but she hired her because she was a good nurse.

Amy’s big problem was finding a babysitter so that she could begin her internship. Cindy French told Gary Walton that she felt uncomfortable at his parents and wanted to move out after she found a job. Gary suggested that Amy hire her. Bruce objected because he felt she had a bad reputation, but agreed to try her. Cindy was happy, but told Amy that when she was fully recovered, she would be leaving town. She thought that Gary felt responsible for her and she might be falling in love. She didn’t want to stand in Gary's way and she knew that Dr. Thurston didn’t like Gary's association with her. Gary was caged before the hospital board for a hearing on his reinstatement. Dr. Thurston again questioned Gary on his personal affairs but Gary refused to discuss them. Doctors Wexley, Rogers and Collins were on Gary's side, but he felt that the cards were stacked against him. He was elated when he heard he was on the hospital staff again. Janet and Cindy arranged a celebration at the Collins home in honor of his reinstatement.

David Sutton was lunching at the Inn when a man shouted at him that David ruined his marriage and his whole life with his snooping. David was crestfallen as he told John and Greg that the man was right. He had been hired by the man's wife to investigate his activities because she suspected that he was having an affair. David found that he was, but knew that the man was ready to break it off. He told the wife and she used it to obtain a divorce. Greg said David was only doing his job and should not feel guilty becaus of it. Greg couldn’t understand why John didn’t give up his law practice and do something else as he could barely support his office.

David told Kathy Phillips that he was leaving Scott's firm as investigator and she suggested that he take the Bar exam and become a lawyer as he had intended to be. When he finished law school he wanted something exciting so he joined the FBI and then the United States Marshall's Office. He felt that he had been destroying lives and couldn’t stand the pressure any more. It had been eight years since he graduated and he wasn’t sure that he could pass. Kathy thought that he was very bright and with her help could take the upcoming exams in July. Kathy and Scott had a lot of faith in him.

As Liza was preparing to go home, she had a fainting spell and the x-rays showed that she had a hematoma that had to be relieved immediately before she suffered a stroke. Dr. Coulter asked Greg to consult and felt the surgical procedure he recommended would save valuable time, but Greg refused to assist. The hematoma is relieved, but they had to remove the temporal bone that had been badly fragmented. There was no chance of repairing it again and Liza was in no shape to replace it then. Plastic surgery was impossible for some time because of two such serious surgeries. It was almost certain that she would be disfigured. Informed of Liza's condition by Janet and her marital status by Liza herself, Woody told Liza he loved her.

Kathy wondered if the lack of a child of their own was hurting their marriage. She and Scott wanted to adopt Eric but only had him on a tentative basis.

Jo and Amy tried to show Bruce that the animosity he felt for Cindy was due to his fear that she would usurp some of Tori's love. Bruce was an orphan and felt the need for total family love.

 

On 12/30/2023 at 12:44 AM, Paul Raven said:

When did Bill Bell cut ties with Days completely? I know for some time PFS had pretty much free reign but Bill was dictating long term stry.

I wonder if Days falling ratings were the result of Pat taking complete control and not having Bill's input-hence the dark stories lacking Bill's unique touch.

Bill Bell was still executive story consultant after Smith left, and into Marcus' tenure. He is the one who created the Trish-mental breakdown story, which Smith said she kept trying to put off for being too over-the-top. The ratings had dropped from in the 9s down to the 8s during BB's and PFS's last year working as a team.. After Smith was fired, she sued the network. Ann Marcus was continuing to use PFS's story (which had been created in coordination with William J. Bell.), but acknowledged in the press that if she did not wish to write what Bell suggested, she would just change things as she saw fit. There was a huge deterioration in the quality of the writing once Marcus took over.  Comments in the press were not kind ("Never have I seen a show go downhill so quickly.") The ratings really dropped after PFS was axed and AM was in charge. They fell into the 6s. Thus began a revolving door of headwriters.

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/9/77-5/13/77 & 5/16/77-5/20/77:

 

Edited December 31, 20231 yr by JAS0N47

FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 5/23/77-5/27/77 & 5/30/77-6/3/77: