ALL: Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Liberty City]

Hmmm... interesting. Very interesting. I do wish Hulu would re-up General Hospital: Night Shift, or even see ABC bring it back as a limited-summer run event for primetime.

I also think it would have been interesting if Port Charles had been more of the mob-centric spinoff for General Hospital.

[Paul Raven]

Blood Ties FOX 1991

A serial from Richard and Esther Shapiro about modern day vampires in a close knit community trying to maintain their heritage and hide their secret.

Pilot aired as TV movie. Stars included Kim Ulrich (ATWT,Passions), Bo Hopkins (Dynasty) and Harley Venton (Derek GL)

[Khan]

The Shapiros tried to do a soap about vampires?  Jesus, keep me near the cross!

[SteelCity]

I mean, if they wanted a campy show, it could work.

I'm still intrigued by "Thunders Secret!" I feel like it's just fan fiction, but I want to know the deets!

[Joseph]

I found these 2 who are more recent but as i don't know if they were discussed

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[Contessa Donatella]

Was this discussed?

Script Proposals, Treatments, Pitches for Storylines, Show Bibles

Dissatisfied with Capitol, CBS announced the cancellation of it as of Dec. 1986, with a last air date of Mar. 1987. Solicited proposals for new show to replace.

Paul Rauch, a more satirical serial called Grosse Pointe about a wealthy, dysfunctional blue blood family.

Claire Labine, entitled Celebration, middle class family living in the suburbs of Cleveland, somewhat like ATWT and/or AW but with an 80s twist to bring it current.

 

And when the nbc affiliates chose Sunset Beach, was the Stephen J. Cannell soap discussed?

 

[Contessa Donatella]

I know some people describe Dark Shadows as a group of ordinary people who have a terrible thing happen to them. I wonder if that holds up or if it's just a kind of wish fulfillment.

[DRW50]

The Hollywood Reporter speculated that CBS would begin airing a daytime version of An Affair to Remember (based on the Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant weeper) in September 1976.

[Paul Raven]

Wonder how that movie would translate into a daily serial?

Some years before, The 7 Year Itch was proposed for daytime Again having seen the movie it seems a weird concept for a soap.

[te.]

I'd imagine it would be like turning Peyton Place into a soap - ie pick liberally between elements that they want to have on the show, while entirely dismissing others and creating something that's essentially something new under a recognizeable name.

[DRW50]

A January 1979 soap magazine mentions ABC creating a new soap written by Ann Marcus, following the Y&R formula as dealing with the problems of the young, with "lots of restlessness going on in this California beach town." 

Edited September 3, 2022 by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

I was reading a book & came upon an offhand remark that NBC went with BEACH instead of a DOOL spin-off. (I recall NBC holding a competition for show proposals & then ended up letting the affiliates make the choice & they chose the Aaron Spelling beach soap, which became SUNSET BEACH.) Other contenders: a Stephen J. Cannell lawyer soap, a Claire Labine soap & there were 4 altogether & that makes up 4. The Labine soap was to have been set in lower Manhattan & involve two families living right next door to each other, one black family & one white family, close friends & I think it had a name, a working title, Heart & Soul.

[SteelCity]

I wish they could have just gone with 2 or 3 of them.

[Contessa Donatella]

That would have been splendid! Their strongest point of interest then was two things: in owning part of any new soap they got into and the other shoe drops, that any new soap they got into have international possibilities. Besides being a Pete Lemay nut & a Donna Swajeski nut I am wholly taken with Claire Labine, so that would have been my personal pick. Of the different DOOL spin-offs mentioned over the years, I've no idea which one was up for this.

[Paul Raven]

Found this in the old thread

In August 78, ABC officially announced it was developing a new soap 'The Best Years' from Ann Marcus.It involved the love triangles of parents,students and teachers of a Southern California beachtown high school community. Headwriters will be Joyce Perry and Ray Goldstone,all then working on Days.

Where would ABC have placed this? All of it's soaps were doing well at this stage. Was it 30 min or 60?

Maybe 4pm to replace Edge?

Or late morning/midday?