Soaps In The Time of Crisis

[soapfan770]

That sounds like a pretty reasonable idea to me. I know AMC was eventually cancelled of course but did the show suffer much with the transition from NYC to LA? Always wondered about that given the only case studies were from GL moving around in its radio/early TV days, The Brighter Day making a last ditch attempt to save itself from cancellation, and  Mary-Ellis Bunim pushing ATWT to move production to LA(not sure what that would have accomplished, maybe we would have seen Billy Warlock and Tricia Cast play Holden & Lily instead?)

[amybrickwallace]

 

Then they ended up passing down the cancellation notices a little over a year after AMC moved West. I wonder how many people were angry at Frons and Co. after uprooting their lives and families to move cross-country when all was said and done.

[All My Shadows]

BF said it best - it's really hard to know what was going on because what we had for "soap press" at the time was working tirelessly to promote OLTL as "brazen" soap opera harking back to the glory days. I think the short answer is that ABC was ready to ditch soaps in favor of what they thought would generate more mainstream buzz and, ultimately, be much cheaper. Nine years later, both replacement shows are big dead and already long, long forgotten and will never be spoken of in the mainstream ever again - literally, ever - but that's how it goes.
 

 

I can't remember ratings, but the show looked much, much better in LA than it did in its last five or so years in NYC. It actually looked like a smooth and clean conventional soap again after several years of being processed to look like film in NYC - in case I haven't mentioned it in the last day or two, I HATE THAT SHT.

 

Behind the scenes, it took a toll on cast members who chose to commute back and forth, and we even lost Ray MacDonnell, who did make recurring appearances. More than anything, it leaving New York left only ATWT and OLTL as the final East Coast soaps, and then we lost ATWT. For decades, soaps were such a vital part of NYC's acting world, and then they were gone.

[amybrickwallace]

 

That's the saddest part of all.

[te.]

 

I think it's worth to remember that ABC had plans to cancel the entire soap block - they basically kept GH because they didn't want to get rid of them all at once, but if those shows that replaced AMC and OLTL had been successful, then GH would've been off the air within a year or two. As it was, it ended up being GH keeping the lights on in the ABC daytime block despite declining ratings.

[GLATWT88]

I didn't realize that the idea of cancelling the entire soap lineup was floating around. Somehow, GH is still on 8 years later and the replacement shows for AMC and OLTL long gone, which really makes the death of both shows feel worse. Surprisingly, Days is also still on. After Passsions was off the air, it seemed inevitable that Days would meet its demise very soon, yet somehow it's survived numerous cancellation threats and out lasted 4 other soaps that have been cancelled since Passions. 

[Bill Bauer]

 

I'm surprised any of them are still on the air. The only one I watch is Days and I strictly watch that for nostalgia and comfort since I'm familiar with the stories and characters. If I had no history with the show, you couldn't pay me to watch it. I have zero history with B&B, next to no history with GH and my history with Y&R is so ancient that it's basically a different show now. I don't know how these shows can draw in new viewers with such horrible writing and they tend to neglect older viewers. At least Days makes a bit of an effort to use its history. 

[Soapsuds]

They should do a lot of split screens.

[amybrickwallace]

Thank goodness, again, for YouTube. Watching soap clips from yesteryear provides much needed relaxation from the messes going on in real life. ❤

[Planet Soap]

Dedication!!! I can think of no other genre where auidences constantly and ferociously complain about lackluster quality but still tune in every week. It's like since we know these shows have been on for decades we can't bear to just let them fail.