Is OLTL the STRONGEST soap to be cancelled? Is it going out the most on top?

[EricMontreal22]

It baffles me a bit too though they DID get things like the cover of TV Guide (harly amazing, but still rare for a soap by then), and some talk show publicity due to her being on it. Buyt otherwise, yeah... To be fair, while not brilliant, she seemed mostly game for the role. But again that's part of the problem--if somehow City could have been on at a late afternoon/evening/late night timeslot hiring someone like MF would have made a bit more sense. At 11:30am/12:30pm it really didn't matter...

[SFK]

I think I still have the Michael Logan TV Guide cover article somewhere, I'll look. Morgan said that they wanted to get away from that cliched eighties soap bitch thing, and SOW critics said that's exactly what her Sydney needed more of, citing Raquel Welch's OTT Dianna Brock on CPW. Sydney was powerful, dressed fabulously, and could be selfish and manipulative, but I would never categorize her as an all-out bitch.. Tracy was much more of a bitch. And I totally agree that her humor brought so much to the show... instantly.

Gosh, seems like yesterday but when I look back, this was when Dillon was still a toddler on her lap before we even knew what a Scott Clifton was... three soap stints later...

I agree that The City had a great final episode, but I was soooo disappointed that day, as I had been a year before when Morgan quit.

[MontyB]

I'll agree with that. No one tops HS in my book. He was best soap writer ever, but I'm biased because Edge is my favorite all time show. LS did find his footing. Hated that he killed Nicole. That goes on the list of worst soap mistakes ever.

[Steve]

ICAM! AMC had a much better last few months before the finale. Hell, even GL had a better final few months than OLTL!

RC has no concept of long-term storytelling. That's why he did 2 murder mysteries in one year (Eddie Ford and Victor Lord, Jr).

That's because AMC was not soooo bad towards the end. It turned itself around quality-wise when the show moved to LA and Broderick came back for a few months. Kreizman and Swajeski's writing wasn't horrible, it was just a little boring.

Yup!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It would have worked well as a weekly domestic drama (albeit, it would have to be a little bit more mundane - but the show veered that way very often).

Though, I think Ryan's Hope bore the biggest resemblance to a British soap than any American daytime soap has ever come. For one thing, the pub was the central hub of the show, as it is in most British soaps, and it had a more gritty feel that most shows on daytime never wanted to explore. The only thing that really kept it as a more traditional daytime soap was the fact that it had a core family in the Ryan's (oh, and widespread network interference I guess).

[Carolyn1980]

What's confusing? Capitol was 6th or 7th ranked when canceled. (I take it you need to look up "ranked.")

[RoseVioletDaisy]

Rankings are meaningless. There are only a handful of shows left and the numbers they snag aren't far apart anymore. OLTL's average ranking for the 2010-2011 season was 4th, both in HH and 18-49 demos. Days tied it in HH and Days had better demos season-wide. The only soap that ranked lower than OLTL in HH was the now canceled AMC and AMC and B&B were the only ones ranked lower in demo.

OLTL had 2,589,000 last week and that was more 260,000 viewers higher than last year. Another World went off the air with a season average of 2,982,000, Santa Barbara with 2,886,100, and Capital with an astonishing 4,544,800.

[Carolyn1980]

Rankings are not meaningless. As more channels offered more selection over time, ratings have dropped for decades among all broadcast shows. The best comparison for success is therefore in the rankings these days, since ratings are so much lower for broadcast shows than they were even 10 years ago.

And yes....OLTL is going out as the highest-ranked soap ever canceled, in viewers, households, and all key demographics. It's number one in women 18-34 season-to-date, and number two in women 18-49 season-to-date.

[All My Shadows]

I don't get it. The last soap standing will go out as the "highest-ranked soap ever canceled" because it'll be #1 out of a whopping....one soap.

[Gray Bunny]

They could've made Morgan Fairchild into a daytime Amanda Woodward. Melrose was still popular at the time.

[dragonflies]

Well duh of course it's only a matter of personal opinion, that's what the threads are about LOL

I think OLTL is good, but it doesn't live up to the hype it gets. I thought ATWT was miles better a year or so before it was cancelled, much better than OLTL is currently.

I always used to say that ATWT even at it's worst was still watchable and good.

[Melroser]

I have mixed feelings about Another World's cancellation. When the show was pulled it absolutely broke my heart as I had watched it all my life at that point (I was 26). I think it bothered me worse at the time because they kept Aaron Spelling's Sunset Beach with lower ratings instead of AW which has its place in history with soaps. (Adding insult when they cancelled SB six months later).

AW on its own though was definitely in creative disarray for a while (and the whole Lumina-Jordan Stark storyline didn't help). The show had lost what made AW the show it was. Changes needed to be made, but cancelling it altogether?

The show still had a number of powerhouse actresses at the time of cancellation: Vicky Wyndham, Linda Dano, Ellen Wheeler (O.K., she sucked as an EP but she was an extremely good actress), Jensen Buchanan, Judi Evans, Lisa Peluso, for examples. It is a shame that NBC thought that a show with that much talent still aboard wasn't worth giving more of an effort.

I remember part of the argument was that AW was far more expensive than SB to produce. Did AW ever really do a cost reduction effort? I don't remember the show being pared down that much. I know David Forsyth, Anna Holbrook, and Kale Browne were let go at one time, but was it much more than that? I just feel like they could have made a bit more of an effort

[Gray Bunny]

Other than some cast cuts, they didn't cheapen down their production values the way soaps have in more recent times to stay afloat.

[aMLCproduction]

Uhm Hmm "Mr Three Lovers" As some else said it's a matter of opinion I for one enjoyed the last few months of AW. Not perfect but it as not whack at all. Goutman really tried.

[aMLCproduction]

Good Question I don't think they ever really did. Other than hire cheap newbies all the time. The show did look a lot cheaper but back then I was just watching for the stories. All this talk of AW. Oh How I miss. One of the best villians ever was Grant Harrison. I loved the dynamic that he had with Spencer and Ryan. That whole fmaily and learning Carl was Ryans father. Let me stop and save this for the cacellation thread.