ALL: Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Soaplovers]

 

They did dip into soaps with a brief soap called Tribes..but lack of network clearance killed it.

[SteelCity]

What was Tribes about?

[All My Shadows]

It was a teen soap along the lines of Fifteen and Swans Crossing. Here's part 1 of the first episode:

Please register in order to view this content

 

[SteelCity]

Thanks. Doesn't look too interesting.

[Soaplovers]

Michelle Stafford was a cast member in the last few weeks of it.

[Titus Andronicus]

Leah Laiman created Tribes.

[Paul Raven]

There is a Tribes thread on the Cancelled Soaps forum for anyone who wants to know more

 

1972

Douglas S. Cramer and the production company of the same name are awaiting the impending network decisions on next season's schedules with high hopes. He unfurled his own banner, The Douglas S. Cramer Co., but, financially unable to do it en- tirely on his own, affiliated with Columbia Pictures and Screen Gems as an autonomous producer of motion pictures and television programs.

Mr. Cramer has two years of storylines and two sample scripts based on the theatrical motion picture, "Diamond Head." Until recently it was in contention as an hour program in continuing serial form as a possibility at CBS -TV for the 1972 -73 season. But now it has been deferred until a future season.

Still, Mr. Cramer, whose extensive production background includes stints as TV supervisor for Procter & Gamble and broadcast supervisor on Lever Bros. and General Foods accounts at Ogilvy & Mather, has more than just a passing interest in the serial form. By July, he intends to come out with three variations on serials for daytime network presentation -a comedy anthology, a dramatic anthology, and Doctor's Wives, which is more in the pure soap -opera style.

 

Rita Lakin was the writer for Diamond Head.

[Paul Raven]

1978

Still another syndicated soap opera - following Y &R Ventures' High Hopes and JWT Syndication's Gold Coast -was entered in the marketplace last week as Syndicast Services wired stations about The Unknown, a daily barter vehicle it's pursuing for this fall. The series, to be produced by Time -Life Productions, was described as involving a young woman "who is granted a strange power of vision" and a man "who seems to know more than he should" and is "the mysterious gift -giver who weaves through [her] life ...'

[SteelCity]

That's not at all a selling point.

[Paul Raven]

1970

Half hour serial being developed by Paramount Television for NBC will explore the lives of black and white families living next door to each other.

Series, Wanda's World is under the supervision of Harry Dolan, author of several Julia scripts and head of the Watts Writers Workshop in Los Angeles.

Caryl Ladner, author of Ossie, autobiography, and Annette Welles, former editor of American Heritage, created the concept for the serial.

[Khan]

 

Wretched title aside, this sounds like it could've been an interesting soap.  After all, even GENERATIONS had some potential at the start.

[Paul Raven]

SPW Jan 7 1995

The USA network is planning to launch a new soap 'The Drive'.

Leah Laiman, who's written for a number of soaps (she was most recently co-headwriter of Guiging Light; she also created the short lived Fox teen soap 'Tribes'), is the show's creator.

According to Laiman, The Drive will be set in Miami's South Beach and revolve around characters who range in age from 18-34.

"It's not going to have the same emphasis the daytime shows do on the older more staid core-type families. I think it's going to be a lot hipper.

We're looking for something that has a little more oomph.It's a great mix of young models - people trying to make it-and it's got a lot of style.'

The Drive is set to premiere in September

[Khan]

 

IOW, it's not an actual soap.

[Paul Raven]

Irving Vendig, prolific radio/tv soap writer - Perry Mason/Edge of Night etc had written bibles/outlines for proposed soaps over the years

The Bridge of Love for CBS bw 1959 and 61

The Family Next Door

Some Women

[mikelyons]

February 18, 1970 - Variety

 

Raymond E. Goldstone, a staffer on LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING, is in negotiations with Warner Bros. TV to develop a soaper, tentatively tagged NEWS (has nothing to do with the news media). Goldstone, incidentally, nabbed his first assignment with the soaper.