After a successful rejuvenation by the Corringtons,SFT slid downhill rapidly.Constantly putting Travis & Liza in jeopardy,writing off Ellie as running away with a chef and a revolving door of characters and writers made it pretty much unsalvageable. GL , on the other hand, had a good run with the Dobsons and Marland.

And I think that's why they eventually wrote out Eric -- although, Agnes Nixon, and her view of Erica as someone eternally hungry for daddy's affections, probably had a lot to do with that decision as well. (IIRC, it was Maggie DePriest, and not Nixon, who wrote the "Barney the Clown" saga.)

It was during Maggie's year or so (she was brought on, I believe with Behr, to sorta goose the ratings which were getting stale and did a number of slightly out there plots before Nixon returned as HW and DePriest was moved to One Life briefly where she failed to help the show at all.)

For me the change from the 70's to 80's was a bad period for many soaps. The first three years of the 80's and the last two of the 70's were bumpy.

Right, excepting for AMC which seemed to go through a really strong period around then.

I often wonder if Monty/Marlands GH angered fans when they took over. It proved to be a hit, saved the show, but Steve and Audrey and Jessie became supporting players and a major section of the show was turned over to youngsters Laura, Scotty, and Bobbie. Plus the Quartermaines.

I think killing Leslie Webber off was a mistake.

Also the 70's on GH had major stories going on, and by 1981 almost all the actors were gone. Jeff Webber, Diana Taylor, her husband (peter?) Steven Lars. In clips I love Diana Taylor!

Well Denise Alexander was leaving the show so other than give DA more time off (which is what DA wanted), I don't see what else they could have done.

I'm of the mind set that the Sonny, Jason & Carly years under the direction of Phelps and Guza were the worst years of GH. I simply could not watch the show. Nothing held my interest. I knew that it was going to be the same year after year: a new enemy comes to town to take over Sonny's territory and Sonny & Jason win in the end. Sonny, Jason and Carly were always the center of the show while everyone else was a supporting character for them. If Guza got tired of writing for a character, they were killed off. Same old, same old, over and over and over. I may not like everything Cartini does, but at least it is DIFFERENT than the Sonny, Jason and Carly show.