ALL: Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Spoon]

Disclaimer: i was personally fond of Another Wotld throughout the 80s so the following is purely based on the show"s ratings and stagnant viewership.

 

I think more than anything, NBC has just had bad luck with soaps.  NBC could've easily have replaced in the mid '80s a year or two after Santa  Barbara.  AW was an injured horse in pain that needed put out of its misery.  NBC was number one in prime time and I would argue that they should've tried a flashy new soap at 2.  After all SB was steadily growing during its first few years which was eventually halted by BTS issues.

 

I think they should've re-worked the failed 1986 prime-time soap pilot Covenant.  Conceived as a blend of Dallas and Dark Shadows by producers of Knots Landing.

[Contessa Donatella]

Disclaimer: I stuck it out with AW till the bitter end so my bias should always be noted.

When the Dobsons were finished at SB they wanted to go write for AW. P&G wanted the same. NBC blocked it. That's not bad luck. That's either wanting the 2 pm slot for something else or having some other rationale for wanting AW to fail. Or maybe just plain terrible decision-making.

The way they changed leadership, so many EPs & so many HWs, I don't think that can be placed at luck's door either.

[Paul Raven]

Variety Nov 64

Following the immediate success in primetime of 20th Century Fox 'Peyton Place', other studios were looking at developing similar projects based on movies eg Warner Bros and 'Kings Row'

20th Century Fox were considering a move into daytime-'All about Eve' and 'No Down Payment' were two properties cited as potential daytime soaps.

It wasn't until a few years later that Fox developed 'Love Is A Many Splendored Thing' and 'The Best of Everything' for daytime.

Edited November 22, 2022 by Paul Raven

[Paul Raven]

October 1965

ABC makes a deal with Screen Gems for a twice a week serial 'From Here to Eternity' for the 66-67 season.

Based on the movie with a cast of 10 regulars. Pilot to be filmed in Nov 65 with some filming in Hawaii.

Story would be updated to present day , rather that WW2 setting of book and movie.

CBS announces deal for East of Eden as a twice weekly serial for 66-67 season. Author John Steinbeck will be a consultant,Ernest Kinoy will write first few episodes.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Paul Raven

[Paul Raven]

Variety June 66 reports that NBC is mulling over serialization of famous novels eg Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Therese in 8-12 week batches. 

That format was tried on radio in the 40's (Wheatena Playhouse) and again proposed in the 70's with contemporary novels.

Edited December 10, 2022 by Paul Raven

[Paul Raven]

1968

NBC has 'From the Terrace' in development, with serialization elements, based on the book/movie and produced by Everett Chambers (Peyton Place)

[Paul Raven]

Universal, wanting to get into daytime, develops 'The Unguarded Heart'in 1971.

[Contessa Donatella]

13 BOURBON ST. was a soap pilot with Michael Malone & Josh Griffith, 1997. FOX made an initial commitment for 65 episodes to air on weeknights at 11 pm. It was set in NOLA with a lead female character Marigold Katrina Jorgensohn, a singer wannabe from a small town in Indiana who had come to NOLA. John Beck, Lonette McKee, Michael Park, Henry Simmons & Nicole Forrester had been cast by Meg Simon along with a handful of others. Linda Gottlieb was EP with Michael Malone & Josh Griffith as co-HWs & co-Creators. Paul B. Margolis was an Associate HW. On the strength of the FOX commitment, a pilot was shot. All of Michael Malone's papers including this script are said to be at Duke University, Raleigh, NC. 

FOX wanted to get into soaps badly as early as 1998. They tried to get P&G to sell them ANOTHER WORLD. They tried to get P&G to just move ANOTHER WORLD to FOX in the afternoon. P&G would not entertain any thing they offered. (They also turned away CBS & ABC & Screen Gems & allowed the show to go off the air instead of investing in a new deal with new players.) 

[Liberty City]

I've always stated Fox should have gotten into the soap game. If anything, they should have been the ones to air Santa Barbara and Sunset Beach. I don't get why they never tried to become part of the "Big Three" networks.

[Contessa Donatella]

I know that at one point they definitely wanted to. They wanted a 10:00 show and they wanted a full daytime soap lineup!! Specifically they wanted 4 soaps & they wanted to start with AW & ATWT. But, they absolutely should have snapped up both Santa Barbara & Sunset Beach & also if they could get it, Generations! Of course, NBC owned Generations so that might have been a problem. And, NBC owned  half of Sunset Beach, so again, NBC might've tried to block them just because they wouldn't have wanted any new competition. And, of course, P&G definitely should have done a deal with them to keep AW on the air! P&G sold two soaps back in the day, one to CBS & one to NBC, & both ended up being cancelled before a year was out, so I guess they were just burned forever. Stupid, if you ask me. They could have been in the business of creating soaps & selling  them to third parties, coming & going. I believe they had their eye on AW because it looked available & ATWT because they thought like most people that they were sister soaps, even though they're not. 

[Liberty City]

Santa Barbara and Sunset Beach should've been on Fox from the start. And then, they should have taken on Another World, Guiding Light & As the World Turns and made it a five-soap network. I've always balked at Sunset Beach going to NBC over Fox, given Aaron Spelling's relationship with Fox for 90210. I know Sunset Beach was to re-build the NBC Daytime lineup.. but it did not fit at all.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, NBC had 4 groups propose soaps & then they let their affiliates choose which one they wanted & the affiliates chose the Beach Soap, plain & simple. They weren't choosing between Labine, Spelling, Cannell & whoever was 4. And, you're right, it did not fit. 

NBC dazzled the Dobsons by calling them up out of the blue & saying, what would you do if we let you decide everything about a new soap that you would head up? There was no possibility that they would have said NO!!! It was a perfect feed to their egos. But, Santa Barbara didn't fit either. It was too wonderfully wacky. 

[Soaplovers]

Fox did have one soap briefly in 1990..Tribes that aired after 3 PM.

Problem was the network was too new and they didn't have country wide coverage at that point..but the cities it did air in had healthy ratings that were slowly growing.

I think by the mid 90s, Fox was large enough that they could have had a soap or two in the daytime.  

[SteelCity]

When I was really into getting a my own soaps on air, I always wanted to pitch to FOX for late afternoon, or the 10 or 11 o'clock hours.

[Liberty City]

I believe I read somewhere Fox wanted to expand into daytime, but it never happened. Such a shame.

Hence why I am surprised Fox did not try and secure Sunset Beach, given their relationship with Aaron Spelling where 90210 is concerned. It would've been a win-win.