Which Longtime Soap Had The Most Difficult '70s Modernization?

[Franko]

I'm voting for Days, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[Khan]

I voted for LOL.  From what I have read, they tried mightily to modernize; however, their core audience, who had followed the show since its' premiere, resisted all the way.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Khan

[All My Shadows]

I also say Love of Life. Didn't they have that one writer who came in and basically reused old radio soap plots? It seems like the show did well in the early part of the decade through to when Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer left for Ryan's Hope, but it was downhill from there and they just couldn't keep up with the changing soap landscape.

[Paul Raven]

I'd have to say As The World Turns.

They were #1 for 20 years but once the hour expansion settled in things began to go awry. Even with the same writers who took the show back to #1 when it got a little wobbly after Irna's second stint in 72/73.

By 78 things began to fall apart as ABC, with newer soaps and faster pace made ATWT seem stodgy.

They changed writers and tried to modernize - a disco and some new younger characters but the traditional audience wasn't buying it.

[Soaplovers]

Love of Life was an odd bird..at first the modernization seemed to boost ratings for a bit in the mid 70s...but a time slot change and constant writer changes doomed it.

[Khan]

Once again, EON had the advantage of being non-traditional.  Their crime-centric stories worked in any era.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Khan

[Vee]

Edge could be brought back at literally any time.

[Khan]

Definitely agree.  I could see it being revived on Disney+ or Hulu, with each season (consisting of, say, 10-12 episodes) being devoted to one major storyline with several subplots bubbling under.

As for the other shows...

I think ATWT, DAYS and GL had a relatively easy time modernizing their shows for the '70's.  By the early '80's, though, ATWT and DAYS were stumbling.

OLTL didn't have to worry about modernizing itself since it hadn't been on that long.  But it's a good thing Judith Light came along when she did, because there did seem to be a creative malaise settling in.

AW, TD and SFT actually did okay with updating themselves, too, but there was too much instability behind-the-scenes to make it all last.

And, of course, we all know about what happened to GH when Gloria Monty took it over.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Khan

[Paul Raven]

As The world Turns also held on to live presentations up to 76, years after every other show (except EON) went to tape.

They also retained the same opening title from 1956. 

By that stage every other show had changed opening titles and music except for AMC and  DOOL I think. And they had years on ATWT.

EON changed when they went to ABC I think.

[Chris B]

I've always felt in older episodes I've seen of ATWT from the 70s or early 80s felt VERY dated. I remember looking at those Soap Classics DVDs and the production values just looked so bad. The sets, the makeup, the lighting, the wardrobe, it all felt very stale and dated. I don't know enough to know if the stories also suffered, but the aesthetic was bad. 

[Vee]

It looked and sounded like everyone was trapped in a Bish Thompson's/Red Lobster seafood restaurant in Purgatory.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Vee

[BetterForgotten]

To me, what Allen Potter and the Dobson's did with GL was a great template in updating an old soap for contemporary audiences. The sensibilities of the show were still there, but in a way contemporary audiences (for that time at least) could relate and not feel out of touch with.

[Broderick]

Yeah, by about 1975 or so, As the World Turns looked awfully retro.  You'd watch a show like Y&R that seemed so "1970s smooth", with its lush background music, moody lighting, stylized Hollywood acting, Charlie's Angels clothing (that the announcer pompously advised us was provided a swank Beverly Hills boutique on Rodeo Drive), and then you'd watch World Turns  -- "LIVE for the next full hour!", with someone clomping around in the Wade Bookstore set that featured about three books, or plopping a tray of gruel down on a table in a hospital cafeteria, or sitting in living room with light blue walls, one non-functioning lamp, and a picture of some orange flower on the wall, and you'd think, "Was this taped in 1961?"  It was pretty old-fashioned looking.  And pretty old-fashioned sounding.  But it got a lot better when Douglas Marland came along.   

[Paul Raven]

Re ATWT

I don't know how far into the 70's the Hughes living room  set, (with the tiny staircase)was used or whether it was ever updated.

The kitchen was seen from the beginning up till 1980 . Did Nancy demand new appliances at some point? Maybe when they went to color?

The Stewart house shown in the 1979 Soap Classic episodes had been around for a long time .Was it originally the Lowell house?

In between the drab sets, harsh lighting, heavy makeup,shellacked hair and frumpy clothing the World had stopped turning!

[Khan]

Next to Y&R, all the other soaps looked like [!@#$%^&*].