Soap Opera finales of the past (1960's thru 1980's)

[Gray Bunny]

I was browsing through some old Soap Opera Digests that I've acquired thru the years, and came across an article from the Sept. 24th 1985 issue that talks about how show cancellations and the amount of time the networks gave them dictated how thorough their final weeks were. Soap finales mentioned in the article are: Love of Life, The Brighter Day, The Edge of Night, Texas, The Doctors, From These Roots, Somerset, Where the Heart Is, The Secret Storm, Bright Promise, Love Is A Many Slendored Thing, and Young Doctor Malone.

[DRW50]

Thanks so much for sharing this!

The finales for The Doctors, Texas, Edge of Night, and A World Apart are on Youtube.

Nice to hear a few more details about the end of Malone.

[alphanguy74]

for me, no finale will ever equal Search for Tomorrow.

[SFK]

Never watched that show a day in my life, and that finale chokes me up without fail. No mistaking true emotion when in the presence of it. Bob Woods and Eddie Alderson gave us that today when their faces went red and their eyes welled and their voices cracked. That's what real acting is all about. It isn't acting at all.

[DRW50]

That's so true about the end of Search for Tomorrow.

Even though I've only ever seen a whopping one episode of A World Apart, the last scenes still touch me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oXdVWq9T7s

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I liked the Ryan's Hope ending with Maeve singing Danny Boy, Helen Gallagher looked so cut up inside. She was clearly holding back tears while signing.

Such a perfect way to end that show.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cYUEsW13Oi0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Have a good life!

[sungrey]

The Ryan's Hope finale to me is the best. The first scene with Mary, Jack and Maeve is so beautiful, the Siobhan/Maeve conversation, although short, is very well-written... Claire Labine did a marvelous job with it.

[ReddFoxx]

Interesting little trivia about A World Apart, Jane White went on to play Clifton Davis' mother on Amen as well. Now, onto a very dramatic soap ending.

Capitol's finale is pretty intense

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[DRW50]

Marj Dusay is quite a force in that clip. I'm sorry most of her GL material had her as a buzzing bee.

Most of the characters didn't seem very upset about Sloan being at a firing squad...

I remember Deborah Farentino talked about how she was the worst actress ever when Capitol started. Honestly she's still not too good at the end, but what charisma.

[DRW50]

The montage at the end of The City was such a blast, and a very memorable way to say goodbye.

The second has the full montage - the first is better quality but not the whole montage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq_mQ7MFK_c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTdUgY9ulfA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

[SFK]

Yeah, she passed recently. She was so fair that they hired her to play Queen Aggravain in Once Upon a Mattress with Carol Burnett before color blind casting was "a thing". Articles often say that she played the role in "white face", which I find a little insulting. They may have powdered her up but the woman was already translucent for God's sake.

Yes, Marj is a force. I read that Richard Egan was about to retire on account of the cancer and they were going to do a big Sam murder mystery.

I remember sitting on the edge of my bed watching that The City finale feeling so sad that this wonderful venture failed after two short years. I wanted to be on that show so bad.

[DRW50]

I think they said it was the show which kept Egan alive. Sad.

I know that finale is considered something of an outrage but I think it works. If I was a fan and watched all the episodes, I might feel differently though.

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRgJIMKFFv4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFDGlnZClmg&feature=related

[SFK]

I think we all know that cliffhangers like those are non-cliffhangers really. We all know that Sloane, or Jessica, or whoever will get the eleventh hour reprieve. I think today's OLTL cliffhanger is a much stronger "What will happen next?". It's not nearly as predictable. I mean, sure we know VJ will get back to his family, but how and how soon? We know our answer for Sloane would come before Monday's opening credits.

[~bl~]

According to Helen Gallagher the reason she asks everyone to sing along on Danny Boy is she became so chocked up that she couldn't remember the words. Considering how many times on Ryan's Hope she sang it...that was surprising, but understandable considering the circumstances.