Since NBC Daytime is no more, and NBC has become the first of the big 3 networks to no longer air scripted daytime drama, perhaps a thread to commemorate it, celebrating what went right and analyzing what went wrong?

I would venture to say daytime drama on NBC was at its best from 1966-1968, when they just had 3 shows, all at 30 minutes: Days of our Lives at 2pm; The Doctors at 2:30pm; Another World at 3pm.

Perhaps the pinnacle of that era was 1968, with Bill Bell, Rita Lakin, and Agnes Nixon at their respective shows. Was the quality of NBC daytime dramas ever as high again?

 

The thing was The Doctors was still in good shape.

You had the hospital setting and strong family connections.

Nola/Mona was a strong rivalry that could be played for years a la Jill/Katherine.

Greta/Billy was a link b/w the two families. Greta was positioned to be the young heroine and Billy the boy we love to hate.

But the revolving door of writers made dumb decisions.

Can anyone shed light on what the NBC execs were thinking when they brought over Search for Tomorrow in March 1982? When they did so, was it pretty much assumed that The Doctors and Texas would be cancelled, or was there a period when they were actually thinking of going with 5 soap operas? 

For 9 months in 1982, it was 11am Texas/ noon The Doctors/12:30pm Search for Tomorrow/ 1pm Days of Our Lives/ 2pm Another World.

Why did they basically abandon the 3pm hour for over 2 years, from March 1982 to August 1984? They had reruns of Chips, then two luke-warm, hour long game shows, Fantasy and Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. 

7 minutes ago, Jdee43 said:

Can anyone shed light on what the NBC execs were thinking when they brought over Search for Tomorrow in March 1982?

If I remember right, NBC was willing to put Search back at 12:30 p.m. EST, which P&G wanted and CBS refused. I'm now wondering what would have happened if NBC/P&G dared to try DOOL directly against Y&R, AW directly against ATWT and Search directly against Capitol.

35 minutes ago, Jdee43 said:

Can anyone shed light on what the NBC execs were thinking when they brought over Search for Tomorrow in March 1982? When they did so, was it pretty much assumed that The Doctors and Texas would be cancelled, or was there a period when they were actually thinking of going with 5 soap operas? 

For 9 months in 1982, it was 11am Texas/ noon The Doctors/12:30pm Search for Tomorrow/ 1pm Days of Our Lives/ 2pm Another World.

Why did they basically abandon the 3pm hour for over 2 years, from March 1982 to August 1984? They had reruns of Chips, then two luke-warm, hour long game shows, Fantasy and Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. 

I'm not sure, but considering SFT was canceled over at CBS with better ratings than the entire NBC lineup, perhaps execs hoped SFT could prop up their numbers by bringing viewers over. Something that clearly didn't happen. 

They should have moved Texas to noon. It was never going to establish itself against GH and GL. It would have at least given it a half hour lead when no direct competition. 

1 hour ago, Franko said:

If I remember right, NBC was willing to put Search back at 12:30 p.m. EST, which P&G wanted and CBS refused. I'm now wondering what would have happened if NBC/P&G dared to try DOOL directly against Y&R, AW directly against ATWT and Search directly against Capitol.

Yes, I believe you are correct. P&G thought their trouble stemmed from being moved on the schedule & wanted them moved back. 

On 8/10/2023 at 3:30 AM, Paul Raven said:

Some of NBC's issues over the years.

Failing to establish a successful soap beyond Days,AW and TD. For whatever reason they couldn't get that 4th soap to work. The best time was late 60's when they were winning 2-3.30 timeslot. But Bright Promise couldn't build an audience. If they had another strong show then it would have given them more flexilbility.

Then Somerset, RTPP, HTSAM , L&F/FRFP all failed. Was it the shows themselves ?

Revamping Days in 1980.The show had stagnated with too many older characters. But to then bring in another bunch of older, dull characters was madness.

Allowing AW to become a revolving door of characters that really only left Mac and Rachel . 

The Doctors did not introduce one successful new doctor character to infuse new life into the hospital setting. A strong young woman doctor when Althea left was a no brainer. Or a sexy male doctor. One of the Dancys could have been a doctor.

 

I know Sara Dancy did end up working at the hospital..I think as a patient advocate..and she did end up marrying Mike Powers...tying the two families together...but the actress quit and she was killed off quickly.

In 1979, the show did attempt to refocus back on the hospital with the 2 doctors that were brothers, the hospital administrator..and it looked like an unhappy doctors wife was introduced....however..the timeslot changes..regime changes and production company changes did the show in.

17 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Yes, I believe you are correct. P&G thought their trouble stemmed from being moved on the schedule & wanted them moved back. 

Not sure who thought SFT would work against Y&R and affiliate preemptions 

49 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

I know Sara Dancy did end up working at the hospital..I think as a patient advocate..and she did end up marrying Mike Powers...tying the two families together...but the actress quit and she was killed off quickly.

In 1979, the show did attempt to refocus back on the hospital with the 2 doctors that were brothers, the hospital administrator..and it looked like an unhappy doctors wife was introduced....however..the timeslot changes..regime changes and production company changes did the show in.

Who were the doctors who were brothers? I don't remember them. I remember Dr. Jack Garner and Dr. John Bennett were introduced in 1979 along with John's wife Ashley, who was portrayed by the wonderful Valerie Mahaffey.

On 8/10/2023 at 3:30 AM, Paul Raven said:

Some of NBC's issues over the years.

Failing to establish a successful soap beyond Days,AW and TD. For whatever reason they couldn't get that 4th soap to work. The best time was late 60's when they were winning 2-3.30 timeslot. But Bright Promise couldn't build an audience. If they had another strong show then it would have given them more flexilbility.

Then Somerset, RTPP, HTSAM , L&F/FRFP all failed. Was it the shows themselves ?

Revamping Days in 1980.The show had stagnated with too many older characters. But to then bring in another bunch of older, dull characters was madness.

Allowing AW to become a revolving door of characters that really only left Mac and Rachel . 

The Doctors did not introduce one successful new doctor character to infuse new life into the hospital setting. A strong young woman doctor when Althea left was a no brainer. Or a sexy male doctor. One of the Dancys could have been a doctor.

 

I also feel that NBC was a bit heavy handed when the cancelations of some of its soaps. I believe it was so desperately trying to be competitive that if a soap wasn't a breakout hit, it would get the chop. 

This is reductive, but as a fan of 1980s AW, it often felt like NBC daytime lacked an identity. 

ABC seemed like it was for younger viewers, with an emphasis on romance with a backdrop of social morality, adventure, or mystery.  CBS felt more mature, with the Bell soaps having a particular look, and ATWT and GL focusing on the long-standing tradition of soaps.  But, NBC was rudderless.

It is ironic that their marketing department coined the phrase love in the afternoon for use in marketing, because their later efforts were disparate and scattershot.  At times, they emphasized humor, and at other times they aped the adventure of ABC.  From year to year, the character of NBC soaps changed so much that it was difficult to define what constituted an NBC show.

Edited August 11, 20232 yr by j swift

I was an NBC baby. Well, technically my mother watched ATWT, AW, DAYS, so that's what I began on. When the shows expanded she reluctantly gave up ATWT. I came to discover AMC & GL & GH on my own.

But, I always thought NBC was terrible at promotion & they were paranoid & very jealous of ABC & thought they should own their soaps because ABC did. And they were huge copycats, although I know American business in general was imitative. And it's not like they were lacking for quality in their shows. At different points along the way DOC, GEN, AW, DAYS & SB definitely showed quality. BEACH & PSSN were sorta different but they both could've been long term niche soaps. SFT was inherited but good. The spin-offs had quality in them, even. They hated being 3rd out of 3 but they seemed to screw up more than anyone else. 

Variety Jan 27 82

NBC's Grant Tinker and Brandon Tartikoff trying to talk up the daytime lineup.

The article mentions  daytime makes the money to power primetime and NBC is looking like 'Berlin at the end of WW2'.

The priority is to get away from the gameshow mentality in the morning and fix the soaps in the afternoon.

They are looking at more personality/service oriented shows that may include Richard Simmons.

As for the soaps anything that doesn't show ratings improvement by early Summer may go down the drain.

Top of the list is Texas (13th) that has affiliates hollering as it's a poor lead in to local stations'fringe time'.

Tartikoff said he was more hopeful for Texas now than six months ago and that Texas had no problem attracting the younger demo but was getting killed by GH (1st) Now that GH writers have moved to Days (10th) Texas has more of a chance.

Tartikoff expects to see an immediate ratings improvement when The Doctors moves to Noon, altough station clearances are lowest that would be true of whatever was placed there. He hopes to knock off Family Feud, but not before TD undergoes major changes.

At 12.30 Search for Tomorrow (8th) moving from CBS should show some fast improvement in that timeslot up against RH (5th) and Y&R (6th)

When the timeslot changes take effect NBC promo department will go all out.

A lot of hype there but nothing positive eventuated.

NBC made no moves towards 'personality/info' shows in the morning, instead moving Texas to 11am replacing Wheel of Fortune and Battlestars. that was a flop.

Search did better than The Doctors at 12.30 but I'm not sure TD did much better than Password Plus at midday.

Getting Pat Falken Smith back at Days was a good move but unfortunately she was soon gone and DePriest/Anderson were not of the same caliber and Days momentum was lost.

AW hired Corinne Jacker and that was a bust.

Imagine if PFS had stayed on at Days and maybe The Dobsons had been grabbed for AW. Things might have been different.

 

@Paul Raven   You asked me once why NBC would want Jake to rape Marley ... 

Quote

NBC & Violence against women

"Days of our Lives head writer Richard J. Allen was subject to constant network directives in the early 1990s--even as the creative team felt uneasy about the soap's frequent representation of violence against women, the network urged ever more of such shocking content when it led to ratings boosts, as I explore further in Chapter 7." (p.213)

"NBC's soaps in particular perpetuated such exploitative plots, perhaps a result of their especially challenged ratings, the same context that generated the boundary-pushing  of DOOL's possession story. This strategy was particularly noticeable late in 1990, when three of NBC's four soaps aired rape stories. Several of these program's head writers noted the pressures the network placed on them to tell such tales. Another World head writer Donna Swajeski suggested that Jake McKinnon 's rape of his ex-wife, Marley, followed a network logic that 'women want to see other women being victimized.' Days of Our Lives creative heads were told by NBC that stories of violence against women resulted in increased ratings, logic that contributed to the tale of ingenue Jennifer Horton 's rape by Lawrence Alamain. NBC also used the rape stories liberally in its on-air promotions, either by teasing a problematically ambiguous 'he said/she said' that called into question the assertions of a character like Santa Barbara's Julia Wainright. The text goes on about rape being used as one of the obstacles to keep a couple from getting together, etc. (p.246)

Elana Levine. (2020). Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera & US Television History. Duke University Press

Feb 70.

NBC's latest programming changes to improve daytime ratings have backfired.

At 12.30 'Who, What, Where' is scoring a 23 share compared to 'Namedroppers' 28 share.

At 1.30 'Life with Linkletter' 15 share compared to 'You're Putting Me On' 18 share.

In turn the soap block's ratings are down compared to a year ago

Days 36 share to 28, Doctors 35 to 29, AW 40 to 32.

Bright Promise had a 16 share against Edge of Night 39.

 

18 hours ago, watson71 said:

if NBC had given AW, not Sunset Beach, the 6 month extension in 1999

18 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Yeah, that was such an interesting call that I believe Susan D. Lee made with it being the lower rated soap of the two.

Lets keep it real here. NBC was so indebted to James Reilly for saving their daytime line up in the aftermath of OJ that they gave his creation Passions the lead out from Days. It was also strategic to premiere Passions during the summer to get the kids home from school. Passions was made for the middle school/high school demographic.

Passions ended up as NBC's 5th longest-running daytime drama, after Days, Another World, The Doctors, Santa Barbara.

Fun fact, Santa Barbara run and Passions NBC run are separated by nearly 15 years. Santa Barbara first episode July 30, 1984 and Passions first episode July 5, 1999 separated by 14 years 340 days. Santa Barbara last episode January 15, 1993 and Passions last NBC episode September 7, 2007 separated by 14 years 235 days.