Edited October 1, 201510 yr by victoria foxton

I sincerely apologize for posting an OT post.  I just wanted to welcome you to our family!!

Anyway, I can't wait to hear the responses for this thread!

I sincerely apologize for posting an OT post.  I just wanted to welcome you to our family!!

Anyway, I can't wait to hear the responses for this thread!

Thanks for welcoming me that's very sweet no need to apologize.

You can find several 1975 episodes here.

 

Wow.  1975.  That's pretty cool.  I was a big Denise Alexander fan.

What did you think of the show at this time?

You can find several 1974 scenes here.

 

 

Look up old Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes to see what GH was like in its earliest days...

I didn't start watching GH until 1977 - the Marland/Monty years - so I can't comment what GH was like before then.  As a young teen back then, my guess is that I most likely wouldn't have been interested.  Genie/Laura got me hooked on GH in 1977.

I took a sick day from work to watch the very first day of GH. I was in love with John Beradino, and then Roy Thinnes came along and was the frosting on the cake. I liked both Jesse and Audrey, and I always preferred the hospital drama. Still do, when GH chooses to pretend there's a hospital around.

You can also see a lot of 1977 footage starting here:

 

GH was great in the 1960s and through the early 1970s, but stumbled in the mid-1970s and was just...slow, flat and tedious until Douglas Marland's writing revitalized the show. It was amazing to see how INSTANTLY the characters and storylines perked up and came alive under his writing. Marland's material was not always a success (LOVING never really "worked"), but he was a miracle worker on GH.

When did Marland start?  Also, what years were the Dobsons there and were they good?

I took a sick day from work to watch the very first day of GH. I was in love with John Beradino, and then Roy Thinnes came along and was the frosting on the cake. I liked both Jesse and Audrey, and I always preferred the hospital drama. Still do, when GH chooses to pretend there's a hospital around.

Dr. Steve was the perfect, strong and comforting paternal figure, and Nurse Jessie was the epitome of the warm, maternal caregiver. Having them oversee the hospital made it feel like home.

 

And Jessie sure was lucky to have that hunky Phil Brewer as a husband. Too bad he turned into such a louse, and ruined both Jessie's and Diana's lives.

When did Marland start?  Also, what years were the Dobsons there and were they good?

I believe Frank and Doris Hursley wrote the series until 1973 and then the Dobsons took over for two years (from 1973 to 1975). Both the Hursleys and the Dobsons wrote the show very well, and understand its core, its concept, and its characters

 

It was after the Dobsons left that the show collapsed. Three married couples, the Pollacks, the Hollands, and the Elmans, tried their hand at headwriting, but none of them were good, and they only "succeeded" in gutting core characters and alienating the audience.

 

Douglas Marland arrived in 1977 and revitalized the show. GH was must-see TV during his reign, and during the leadership of Pat Falken Smith, who took over in 1979 after Marland was let go, and remained as headwriter until 1981. Then hack writers and painfully stupid sci-fi camp took over, killing the once-fine series. But GH was great from 1963-75, and from 1977-81.

Were the Dobson's fired or did P&G steal them away for GL? Their GH wasn't that highly rated, so if P&G did steal them away, I wonder why (obviously it worked as their GL stint is probably their definitive writing stint - sorry Santa Barbara fans).

Edited October 12, 201510 yr by BetterForgotten

Were the Dobson's fired or did P&G steal them away for GL? Their GH wasn't that highly rated, so if P&G did steal them away, I wonder why.

There's an interview online somewhere in which the Dobsons discuss their career, but I don't remember the details of why they left GH.

 

Back in the 1970s, the competition among soaps was fierce; many of them were consistently engrossing with excellent writing.

 

In the 1973-4 season, GH had a rating of 9.2, and was ranked 5th among 16 soaps. In the 1974-5 season, it had a rating of 8.5, and was in 8th place out of 14. Not too bad, but a noticeable slide from the 1971-2 season, when the show was number two, with a rating of 10.4.

 

So yes, the ratings had slipped a bit, but I did not blame the Dobsons or the quality of the show; it was still fine entertainment. But AW and DAYS were on fire at that point, and ATWT was still a solid number one. Even SFT was going through a stellar period of strong storytelling and high ratings. Something had to give, and even well-written series like GH and TEON did not get/keep the audience they deserved. Heck, with Claire Labine at LOVE OF LIFE and Rick Edelstein at HOW TO SURVIVE A MARRIAGE, both those shows were brilliantly written in the mid-1970s, too, but you wouldn't know it from their weak ratings.

 

The problem in the 1970s was, we had TOO MANY great soaps to watch! With writers like Agnes Nixon, Henry Slesar, Claire Labine, William J. Bell, Rick Edelstein, the Dobsons, Harding Lemay, Pat Falken Smith, Ann Marcus, etc., producing the best work of their lives...the audience was spoiled.