ALL: Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Marco Dane]

Why didnt P&G sell instead of letting them die? If ABC bought AW it was rumored OLTL was going to be canceled.

[SteelCity]

Sunset Beach would have flourished way better at FOX! 

[Liberty City]

Because, as much as P&G didn't want to support, they also did not want to lose the ownership, because CBS tried to get As the World Turns and Guiding Light to continue.

Yes it would have.

[SteelCity]

Especially because FOX never really cared about ratings.

[te.]

lol wut?

 

I'd say FOX would be more focused on getting the 18-49 demographic to watch though. With that said - FOX would've had the issue of not having a daytime line-up and having to try and get it cleared with their stations; it certainly would've been interesting to see where they would've scheduled it.

I'm also not sure it would've lasted much longer than on NBC - by early 1999 the guy who was a big champion of shows like Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210 and Party of Five left and was replaced by the guy who ushered in the reality era of FOX. 

[SteelCity]

I just mean that FOX ratings were held at a different standard. 

[Paul Raven]

May 59

KTLA - major LA station developing Naked Heart half hour daytime serial

[AMCHistory]

SuBe should have been a Primetime show. I lived abroad when it was showing, and it ran like a Spanish telenovela every evening in Primetime. It really worked. It looked Primetime between the filming style, the outdoor shots, the higher end costuming.

SuBe failed when it tried to become more of a "soap opera" in production and storytelling. Its earlier differentiators were panned because it was different. But different is good. It was setting a new path and a new tone. I wish they kept to it versus the major retooling after the cave-in episodes. You see the mark-able quality decline after the cave-in. That storyline could have been a good jumping-on point for fans. The whole town coming together to save Ben and Meg. 

[Paul Raven]

Feb 1954

ABC TV completed a kinescope of daytime radio serial 'My True Story'for sale as an evening or daytime half hour or daily soap, sepending on interest, if any.

This came about under an agreement with Mc Fadden Publications, publisher of 'True Story' magazine to give a TV version a shot.

Herbert Rudley was featured, most likely as narrator.

[SteelCity]

Imagine it late afternoon instead of a bunch of court shows and reruns.

[Paul Raven]

July 78

Marble Arch productions, recently formed production house developing 'Crossroads' for NBC based on long running UK serial. Doris Quinlan to oversee, with scripts from the original available for use in developing US version.

[Paul Raven]

1978

CBS developing

'Beautiful 'starring Diahann Carroll as head of a LA modeling agency. No further info but definite soap potential.

'Three Coins in the Fountain' 60 min series. With Joe Hardy producing and Diana Gould scripting and based on the 50's movie, again soap like elements for sure.

Edited May 16, 2023 by Paul Raven

[Paul Raven]

Variety reports 'The Heart of Julia Jones' March 72

Robert Shaw writing, Roy Winsor producing. To be taped on location in and around NYC.

I wonder if this was another attempt to bring comic strip 'The Heart of Juliet Jones' to TV. The title may have been a misprint.

Nov 65

Variety reports that NBC has ordered a pilot 'Many Mansions' by Robert J Shaw with Roy Winsor producing. this is probably another title for 'Masterson's Valley' mentioned earlier.

At that stage they were considering dropping The Doctors.

Edited June 30, 2023 by Paul Raven

[j swift]

I think the movie based pitches are interesting because they seem unsustainable.  For example, Love is a Many Splended Thing and The Best of Everything veered so far their source material that they were related in name only.

Unlike Peyton Place where there were multiple plots to be derived from the setting of a small New England town, films like All About Eve or Three Coins in a Fountain were self-contained and seem difficult to build a world around. 

One assumes 3 Coins wouldn't have been set in Italy, and the plot seems better suited for an episodic structure, like Hotel or Love Boat, rather than an ongoing tale.  Three people each make a wish, and we follow them to see the outcome each week.  But, soaps rely on ongoing drama, and a weekly resolution would quickly become formulaic and boring. 

All About Eve was obviously the inspiration for the Erica/Faux-Silver story on AMC (as well as the early Erica/Kendal story, and several other younger women usurping the role of established vixen storylines), but that wouldn't be enough for a multi-year story.  We are left to imagine that Eve will be hoisted on her own petard, just like Margo was, but it would be disappointing to see it actually play out on screen as some sort of All About Eve 2 - The Revenge of Addison Dewitt.

However, I would be excited by this idea today, as I would be eager for some network to try to bring the concept of serialized dramas performed by a recurring cast, like the Playhouse 90 series from the 1960s.  It could be fun to see a group of actors cast in different roles across a series of stories based on books.

 

Edited July 2, 2023 by j swift

[Paul Raven]

I agree that some of those movie pitches seem an odd fit for soaps.

The Seven Year Itch for example, just seems a bizarre proposal.

Sunset Boulevard? How on earth would that work?