Jump to content

Ratings from the 80's


Paul Raven

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 2.2k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

  • Members

The "tanking" of Y&R's ratings is really more attributable to the ripple effect of ABC's rise (propelling "Ryan's Hope" temporarily upward) than anything storyline-wise on Y&R, in my opinion. 

However, the storylines cresting on Y&R in 1981 weren't anything spectacular.  If they were seen on television nowadays, we'd probably say, "Oh, that's not TOO terrible", but at the time they seemed fairly dismal. 

A huge chunk of the show dealt with Lorie and Leslie's custody battle over Brooks Prentiss.  There was much "psycho-babble" from the judge and the attorneys about the rights of a "psychological mother" (Lorie) versus a "biological mother" (Leslie), which wasn't exactly enthralling drama.   And ALL of this was predicated on the misconception that Lucas Prentiss (rather than Lance) was the kid's father.  So at the conclusion of all this long harangue, Brooks was calling Lorie "mommy" and Lucas "dad", while referring to his mother as "Aunt Leslie" and his father as "Uncle Lance".  It was silly and seemed to move the entire storyline further (rather than closer) to its endgame.    

Eric Braeden was turning in some chilling performances as Victor, but he was a relatively new character, and his imprisonment of Michael Scott seemed more tawdry and morbid than realistic.  Everything in the storyline depended upon whether or not Paul Williams (another fairly new character) would check Randy's claims of being Michael Scott with Jill Foster (a recent recast) at Jabot.  Again, nothing terribly interesting there.  

April Stevens' parents, Wayne and Dorothy, were VERY lower-class, poverty-stricken characters who didn't have air conditioning in their hovel.  So Wayne sat around in a wife-beater tee-shirt watching TV and guzzling beer where Dorothy Stevens pushed an iron back and forth across a blouse, and both of them sweated like mules, looked frazzled, sticky, and overheated.  April would pop in, sweat like a racehorse, and ask them nosy questions about her twin sister.  Not anything terribly interesting there, and the set looked as though it SMELLED terrible. 

Roberta Leighton's Casey had one foot out the door -- the actress was leaving -- and was suddenly embroiled in a predictably dull "stalker storyline", in which her protector was Jonas, another character most viewers didn't care much about.  Casey soon snapped, nearly killed an old codger at the hospital on a treadmill, and disappeared from the show the next day. 

The stalker then moved his attentions to Nikki, who "inherited" Jonas, also had Jerry Cashman on hand (as she was a stripper in his club), also had Andy Richards (who was a bartender), also had Paul Williams (who was divorcing the sweating April), also had ex-husband Greg Foster's concern (and he suddenly began having mysterious migraines), and there was also Edward from next door (who was obviously the stalker all along.)  Wasn't a lot of suspense there. 

Chris Brooks was frantically popping Valium, which alarmed Snapper, but it turned out she was "anxious" because her furniture wasn't nice enough to suit her.  Snapper didn't want her to have anything nice, as he was running a free clinic, and evidently it would look terrible to Dr. Young, who was funding the free clinic, if Chris had a sofa that wasn't ripped to shreds.  So a new doctor (Jane) decided to bed Snapper.  Guess Jane could purchase her OWN sofa if she wanted one.  Again, dull as hell. 

About the only things percolating that were truly interesting and realistic (to me) were teenage rocker Danny's little crush on Patty Williams, who was smitten with the older, more mature playboy, Jack Abbott, who often took advantage of Patty's naïve nature and made Deborah Adair's Jill roll her eyes sarcastically and Carolyn Conwell's Mary Williams clutch her pearls and belt out a Hail Mary.  

Also, once that nonsense with Michael Scott and the cellar came mercifully to a screeching close, Victor Newman began buying-up shares of Prentiss Industries, which cemented Victor Newman as the ruthless, cutthroat, but vulnerable character who later would "define" the show during the 1980s.  We would see him begin a cat-&-mouse game with Lorie Brooks of acquiring her Prentiss shares, which she freely handed over to him, because Vanessa Prentiss led her to believe that Lance didn't love her anymore.  This was our more realistic "payoff" for suffering through all that nonsense about Brooks Prentiss's custody hearing. 

You'll likely see the show begin to slowly increase in the ratings as it eventually found its footings again, by retooling Victor Newman into a formidable business-type character, by taking advantage of Kay Chancellor's cutting sarcasm, by highlighting Nikki Reed's dingbat flightiness, by better defining Jack Abbott's devil-may-care spoiled playboy mannerisms, and then a few months later, the introduction of Eileen Davidson, Beth Maitland, and Jerry Douglas to round out the main cast.  Those characters (along with Paul and Andy) were destined to be the "new" Y&R, but in the summer of 1981, they were all stuck in a morass of storylines that really weren't working, surrounding by characters who desperately needed to be written off. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The drop-off of Restless' ratings might not be a "tanking" but it  is significant drop off. ABC had been rising  for quite a while and Restless was right up in the top 3 or even close to Number 1. 6th place is not where Restless should reside. SOunds more like the transition to an hour plus the schedule change and the storylines shifting to Newman and Nikki and the Abbotts slowed Restless down a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think it was the uncertainty of where Y&R was going at the time -- which was visible in the storylines that seemed thrown randomly at the wall to see what would stick -- that was the ultimate problem in 1980 and 1981.  It was a show that had seemed clearly defined and unique, and suddenly with the expansion to an hour, there was so much murkiness in motivation, so much stopping and starting, the indecision of which characters deserved focus and which were merely peripheral.  (Characters like Wayne & Dorothy Stevens and the ex-wife of Andy Richards would've never been given storylines during the crisp half-hour days, nor once the hour-long program refocused on its more appealing characters.)

That, combined with the temporary runaway success of the ABC line-up, took a definite toll on the show.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

ABC's "temporary" success in the ratings ...depending when you start to measure started as early as 1978 or as late as 1981 and lasted until late 1984. So 6+ years or 3 years. Bill Bell ran a tight and good ship at Restless so I think CBS forcing Bill to go to an hour in Feb 1980 rattled his cage a little storyline wise. Bell seemed to get his mojo back in late 1981 and he never really faltered after this period until he retired in 1998. Very impressive!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

General Hospital honestly was not a good show after 1982...all the action adventure stories were awful. The double digits were temporary and really not warranted and the other show that really competed with GH was Guiding Light. No real competiton from NBC at all. After Genie Francis left in 1981, ratings started to drop. All My Children almost beat GH for the crown for the 1982-1983 season.

Honestly, if GH had to compete against Restless it would have been an entirely different ballgame. The fact GH is still on the air baffles me. All My Children and One Life to Live were always (for the most part) better than GH. That's an entirely other matter though!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

1980-1982 was Y&R's surviving period. 1980 and 1981 just seem like a mess overall and 1982 was the big cast change.

1983 was putting the finishing touches on the transition and 1984 was when Y&R really became Y&R as we know it today.

In the ratings we saw Y&R become CBS's highest-rated soap by 1983 and #1 overall by 1989.

Y&R's rise to #1 was a combination of owning its time slot, having strong lead ins with The Price is Right and local news, and maintaining its audience during and after the 1988 Writer's Strike.

Edited by kalbir
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

GH sure lured a ton of new viewers into the genre during its biggest years; sadly those viewers left about as quickly as they had arrived.  

What did remain, of course, was the "formula" perceived as having brought new viewers into the fold -- the "love on the run stories", the shorter, choppier scenes, the emphasis on action and adventure over character development.  

It wasn't a format that necessarily appealed to the longer-term viewers, but we were unfortunately treated to that style of storytelling whether we liked it or not (and to an extent, we're still getting it!  After all, if that's what viewers enjoyed in 1981, we must still like it today. lol.)     

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Thanks as always @JAS0N47

For as much as we know that a whole new slew of people began watching daytime soaps around this time, at the same time we can see how the AMC/OLTL/GH powerhouse block really did siphon off viewers from CBS & NBC. It's such a steep drop from the top 3 shows; down into the 7's for CBS's leading shows. It's interesting to see at this time, how it's basically a clear cut of ABC top tier, CBS in the middle, NBC at the bottom. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • “I’m not a lifelong soap fan, but I sure am now,” Wolf tells PEOPLE about creating the documentary Soaps, which includes deep dives into the biggest and most successful soap operas in the industry, with a strong focus on The Bold and the Beautiful. “It reflects, in a broader way, the cultural significance of soap operas and the incredible task involved in bringing these stories to the screen every day.”
    • I have this for the 4th act on 11/9/88, which per my files, is the first time John and Stefano are in a scene together: Limo (Roman, Diana, Stefano, Milo) Then their second time together is 11/17/88 in the second-to-last act: ON LOCATION: Beach & Cliff (Diana, Roman, Stefano) I'd have to check the 2016 logs, so I don't know who shares scenes as easily in this year, but these are the last 4 episodes that John and Stefano were both in together: 1/8/16, 1/11/16, 3/1/16, 3/2/16.
    • I'm going to respond to you about this show. I've been accused of hating on it for some reason or another. But as a 53-year-old black man I do not hate this show at all. It heavily represents people like me, but I want it to be treated well and not just pushed with half-assedness, which is what I feel has happened on several occasions so far. Bad editing, bad cliffhangers, or no cliffhangers at all, disappearing characters with dropped storylines, etc. I can understand shows no longer wanting certain characters or  storylines, but why the "Judy Winslow" effect? I'm really finding it weird that Jacob doesn't mention his father or his detective partner. Jacob was smack dab in the middle of them both.
    • I love many things about BTG very much. For me, it's greatest strength is how the family relationships are so beautifully written. The deep love between family members while acknowledging each other's flaws--it's SO GOOD.  The best of the best is the two sister relationships: loving but very different sisters Dani and Nicole and adversarial sisters Kat and Eva. These two relationships can anchor the show for many years to come, in my opinion. (The one caveat is that the young and very talented Colby and Ambyr may want to leave the show sooner rather than later, but that's to be expected). My biggest problem with this show is this: Where are the romantic love stories? Where are the star-crossed lovers? Almost every character on this show is married, or in a committed relationship, or just fooling around. Right now the only potential for this are in the Ashley/Andre/Derek and Kat/Tomas/Eva situations. Like a lot of people, I feel the sooner they ditch Ashley and Derek, the better. I hate picking on actors, but the characters are so blah and bland it's like they're a parody of soap characters. I like Andre, and there's some indication they might have him become more serious about Dani, but I don't see that becoming a big love story. I could be wrong. Kat and Eva fighting over a man would be amazing. Over Tomas? No.  I've noticed on social media some people are starting to ship Kat and Jacob. I think that shows how much viewers long for a messy love story. There is much I enjoy about BTG and I have no intention of bailing on it. But over all my many years of watching soap operas, the thing that always got me the most excited about them was the question: "When are those two finally going to get together?"
    • FROM THE VAULT: WEEKLY DAYTIME NIELSEN RATINGS: WEEKS OF 11/26/73-11/30/73 & 12/3/73-12/7/73:

      Please register in order to view this content

    • Please register in order to view this content

        Some initial thoughts.   1) a Who's who back in the day with an assortment of well known performers. 2) Surprised Debra Messing would agree to play a conservative character 3) Not surprised a network didn't pick this up because showing a conservative that is human/likable is a no no in Hollywood LOL
    • Yes from when they went on Let’s Make a Deal too. Pam stole Forrester designs for Jackie M. Of course a month later we saw Nick, Lesley, Owen, and Bridget all exit in the same episode.
    • Great pairing that seemed to come out of the blue! Around that time, it felt like Sheffer/Goutman didn’t really know what to do with Emily or Hal. And KM and BH had surprisingly great chemistry. It was good for Emily especially because she was coming off those unsympathetic years with the Tom affair and then running the Intruder and essentially just being a busybody.
    • I think the issue with Lulu is less the character (which was the issue in the Julie Berman days under Guza II) and more the lack of nuance. The current GH team rarely writes nuance for any character or at least can't sustain it for long, or they reserve it for a favored few. I also think the rooting interest at GH BTS often remains on preferred characters or actors - BLQ/Setton - vs. Laura's kids. So it's easy to make Lulu the heavy if you think Brook Lynn and Chase are the money on this show. I don't, but I think FV does. And that's not to say I think Amanda Setton is bad in the role, or that I would get rid of BLQ. I don't trend towards either (though I do think that if Setton's personal beliefs keep getting in the way of material I would reluctantly recast). I think Brook Lynn is essential to use as a lead presently. But I don't think it needs to be the black and white dichotomy of suffering young matriarch BLQ and aggressor Lulu. While it's good that unlike in the Guza years they can recognize that Lulu can be obnoxious and rash, can be her own worst enemy and that that is part of the character, it can be toned down or given more layers than it has of late. There's nothing wrong there the writing can't fix.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy