ALL: Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Sean]

Apologies if this has been mentioned already, but in looking through newspaper archives online, I was surprised to come across a reference to several soaps that ABC announced as being in development in the summer of 1985. I'd seen a reference to the Labine project elsewhere, but this was my first time reading about the others.

 

ABC plans innovations for daytime schedule

Several programming innovations, designed to strengthen ABC's daytime schedule and "change the face of daytime television," were unveiled to the ABC Television Network affiliates by Jacqueline Smith, vice president, daytime programs, ABC Entertainment. Ms. Smith said both game shows and dramatic programs are being developed for future broadcast.

 

One of them, the "soapcom," is based on a format new to daytime, Ms. Smith said. The program is a "cross between a serial and a comedy, perfect for the morning," she said. "It doesn't have a laugh track, but it does have sitcom humor, combined with the continuing stories of love and jeopardy associated with serials," she continued. Ms. Smith noted that two "soapcom" stories are in development.

 

"Fitzgerald and Fennelli" is the story of two young working women who pursue careers and romance in New York City. It will be written by Ann Marcus, the creator of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman." "Love on Trial," a series set in family court, examines the lives of the people behind the scenes as well as families in crisis. It will be developed by veteran daytime - producer Lin Bolen. 

 

Another "daytime first" will be a serial based on an unusual novel, titled "Single." The series will explore the lives of a "family of the '80s," four women bound by the ties of friendship and set in Southern California. It is being developed into serial form by Claire Labine, creator of ABC's "Ryan's Hope." Harriet Frank, co-writer of the screenplay for "Norma Rae," is the author of the book.

 

The "ABC Bestseller Playhouse," another series in development, will feature stories based on 12 bestselling books in a monthly miniseries format, Ms. Smith said. ABC has options on several books for the "Playhouse" series, including Father Andrew Greeley's Cardinal Sin, Norma Klein's Girls Turn Wives, The Fire Island Quartet by Burt Hershlield, Texas Rich by Fern Michaels, and the Robin Cook thriller, Godplayer. "These books and authors bring built-in audience approval," Ms. Smith said. "With romantic stories revolving around women in jeopardy and in exotic locations from Rome to Monte Carlo, 'Bestseller Playhouse' brings a whole new look to daytime."

[Paul Raven]

To Have and To Hold from Ruth Brooks Flippen and John Haggert. No date or details available.

[Paul Raven]

 Doug Cramer has been known in the trade as the father of Peyton Place and I once asked him if he wanted to take the opportunity to apologize to the American public. To the contrary, Doug believed then and believes now that a nighttime soap opera of the caliber of England's Coronation Street is healthy television. He was saying the other day that if Peyton Place had held to the daytime serial concept rather than try to be Playhouse 90 and develop relevant drama, it would still be on the air. As to the fiasco that was The Survivors. Cramer said: "It had the seeds of its own destruction built into it. A serial must deal with characters an audience can identify with. Who identifies with a jet-setter?

And being carefully nurtured among the various Cramer projects is a new nighttime serial, or soap opera, which is being developed out of Peter Gilman's best-selling novel about Hawaii, Diamond Head. With Cramer, it was a certainty another Peyton Place was in the making. Doug said the project (for CBS) is a long way from fruition, that it is not even planned for next season. He said the plans are to develop it as an hour-a-week continuing story, though he personally prefers the twice-a-week half-hour Peyton Place form. "The Hawaiian setting is interesting to Americans." he said. "Look how tourists flock there! The story is of a family with problems one can readily relate to. I don't understand why the serial form is so little regarded. The Forsythe Saga was a serial. I personally think All in the Family is a serial, the Dick Van Dyke Show is a serial.

[Paul Raven]

A very detailed article about the Hometown USA concept - an interesting and ambitious plan that seemed a go, but never eventuated. This was September 1952.

 

 TED MILLS is a 34-year-old, chubby-cheeked TV producer who is now working on what  may well be the biggest

is that he has. been charged with producing a one-hour program that is actually four individual 15-minute programs. Although the four-in-one programs have separate stories, they also have a number of common characters who will appear in all the shows. On top of that, the four shows each will originate in the same studio, with only the usual one-minute "station break" (the time allotted for station identification) separating them.

 

Drama, But Not Soap Opera

Mills project is an NBC-ty daytime series scheduled to start on the air early next month and titled "Hometown, U. S. A." Although the four programs will be on five days weekly, they wont in the true sense conform to the soap-opera tradition. Mills, who gained lasting TV recognition as the producer ' of "Garroway at Large" is constitutionally incapable of turning out anything trite.

"Hometown" is an imaginary U. S. city. Its four subordinate stories are called "Anthony Grey, M.D."; "Charlie Soon and Crystal"; Lydia Powers' and "Amy Burrage." Grey is the town's leading surgeon; Charlie, who had one term at college and cant forget it, is a grocer; Amy is a philosophical spinster who dabbles in crime detection and Lydia is the daughter of the town's leading industrialist, a man named Jack Whittemore. Whittemore will be one of the characters to appear in all the stories, as will the "Hometown' police chief and postman, among others.

 

 "Hometown, U. S. A. will probably employ more TV people than any other video show on the air, including the present champion, NBC's "Today," which has about 180 people on its payroll. "Hometown" will have 200 or more people on its weekly payroll, including 50 actors; a large group of technicians, set designers, cameramen and stage hands, as "well as four writers, a story editor, four directors and four assistant directors.

Mills himself no longer talks about "Hometown" as an imaginary place with imaginary people. He has been working on the show so long he already has plotted, out six months of scripts for each show that when he talks about the characters he sounds as though they're old personal friends.

 

In his mind, "Hometown has actual streets, thriving industry (a cement plant and musical instrument factory are the town's biggest companies) and an assortment of the problems arising in any average American town. Just recently. Mills completed a plan of operation on how "Hometown will get on the air. Here are some of the details. Each script is to be written six weeks in advance. Every writer is to know all the plots and what common characters are to be used on a specific day (otherwise the' writers might double tip and actors would have conflicting rehearsal and costume Every script most be written so that two or three minutes before the end of the program two of the four cameras used can be released. This will enable them to be trundled into position for the next program.

 

"Hometown will originate in NBC-TV's Brooklyn studio, where a permanent set is being built. The set will be constructed to represent individual homes and offices. One great advantage of this procedure is to cut down production costs, enabling advertisers to buy five complete programs for about $8,000 a week plus time. This is about $2,000 less than the cheapest soap operas now on TV. If NBC manages to sell all the parts of "Hometown it will gross around $8,000,000 a year for time and talent. Its weekly production costs will probably run to around $540,000.

 

'Hometown' Inspiration Of Program Executive"

The idea for "Hometown was the inspiration of a young NBC -TV program, executive named William Kaufman, one of the men at the network whose jobs are to develop new shows. Kaufman is well known in literary circles as editor of an annual " anthology of TV's best scripts. In designating Mills as the producer of the complicated "Hometown" set-up, NBC chose a veteran who, despite his relative youth, has an 'impressive record. A Williams College graduate. Mills pre viously produced the Ezio Pinza TV show, "Hawkins Falls. a current N BC-TV soap opera originating, in Chicago, and "Crisis. a documentary series dealing with civic problems. Before getting into television six years ago. Mills had acted in and produced Summer stock plays at Williamstown and Stockbndge. Mass. During the war he was assistant to Frank Capra, the movie director, in turning out an Army film series called "Why We Fight." After the war he was offered two jobs, one in Hollywood at $400 a week and one with KBC-TV at S400 a month. On a hunch he took the TV job. even though it paid only a quarter as much. "Happiest hunch I ever had" he says. 

 

 

1.  

[Franko]

In development as of February 1984, reported on by Jon-Michael Reed:

NBC:

-- a project from John Conboy

-- a project from Bridget and Jerome Dobson (Santa Barbara, obviously)

-- a project from Henry Slesar

(all were talked about as possible replacements for Search for Tomorrow or Another World)

 

CBS, both from Paul Rauch:

-- a show set in Detroit and concerning the auto industry, with headwriter Fred Mustard Stewart (Grosse Pointe?)

-- "The Barons," by Barbara Bauer, about a family in what we'd now call the 1 percent

(in the wings if one of the network's shows fail or they expand the soap lineup)

 

ABC:

-- a possible GH spinoff, talked about as a possible replacement for EDGE

[Gray Bunny]

 

Dang, how quickly that show fell from being the network's ratings darling of the 70's. 

[Franko]

It feels like AW had a target on its back from the moment it was clear the 90-minute expansion was a flop. Also, seems like NBC rather quickly had buyer's remorse over Search.

[Spoon]

AW was never a success at 2:00 ET.  Its a wonder that NBC never replaced it in the 80s with something flashier like Scruples or a daytime Flamingo Road revival.  NBC was red-hot in primetime from 1984 on, but couldn't get things going soap-wise until the resurgence of Days during the 90s.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I know it’s not a proposed soap but whatever to SoapCity that was to come out around the time SoapNet debuted?

[BoldRestless]

 

Interesting! I've been rewatching Mad Men and a soap with this title becomes a plot point in Season 6 so I'd been looking for info on it but it doesn't exist. In previous seasons they had made reference to ATWT and Dark Shadows, so I was surprised they chose to incorporate a fake soap opera instead of a real one, given the attention to detail.  Probably just a coincidence as this is such a generic soap opera title.

[kalbir]

Even if any of these made it to CBS Daytime, they would've been placeholders/time-fillers until Bill Bell had a second show ready. 

[robbwolff]

 

 

I recollect these two soaps being discussed in Soap Opera Digest before Jon-Michael Reed's 1984 column. I believe the Stewart soap went by two titles: Grosse Pointe and Star Crossed. The Bauer soap was known as The Barons at one point and then The Billionaires at another time. At one time, both soaps were slated to be part of an expanded CBS lineup and were set to debut around September 1983, likely in the late morning/early afternoon. 

 

[kalbir]

CBS probably would've shrunken the game show block to accommodate these new shows. I'm thinking the ET schedule would've changed to:

 

10-11 am The Price is Right

11 am-Noon New Daytime Dramas

Noon-12:30 pm Local News

12:30-1:30 pm Y&R

1:30-2:30 pm As the World Turns

2:30-3 pm Capitol

3-4 pm Guiding Light

4-4:30 pm $25,000 Pyramid

Edited June 26, 2021 by kalbir

[Franko]

Definitely agree, considering how the soap landscape looked in 1984, when Y&R was unmistakably in its second wind. The Stewart and Bauer soaps might have had a better chance between 1980-82.

 

Interesting! CBS wasn't likely to cancel Pyramid or TPIR, so that leaves the half-hours that Press Your Luck filled (the show itself was scheduled at 10:30 a.m.), the half-hour given back to the affiliates for news, or the 4 p.m. half hour (where Tattletales was).

 

I could see that, yes. (It's smoother than the idea I outlined above.) In this scenario, one of CBS' newcomers is up against LOVING and Wheel of Fortune.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Franko

[Jonathan]

 

Is it Lives (rhymes with hives) or Lives (rhymes with gives)?

 

Wait. OJ was going in the soap business? 

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So his soap wasn't picked up so instead he decided to hog up the daytime airwaves with his murder trial?