NBC Daytime

[Contessa Donatella]

Why was today a red letter day in soap opera history? Because of a strange little soap entitled FAIR MEADOWS USA. It was the only soap to be broadcast on Sunday! It was on NBC Sunday afternoons from 3-3:30 from Nov. 4, 1951 to Apr. 27, 1952, so basically 6 months. However, another oddity, it had a little coda, when in Sept. 1952 it reappeared with the same cast as a segment of THE KATE SMITH HOUR. Only lasted a month. John & Alice Alcott & their daughter Evie had lived in an unknown large city when John's business partner lost 250 thousand of their firm's money on a craps game! They moved to this small town & John opened a general store. They had hoped to outrun their misfortune, but this was a soap & so things just kept happening to them.

Edited November 4, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[Contessa Donatella]

What is it that we know about soaps in Nov. of 1965? Easy. We know that's when DAYS OF OUR LIVES debuted! But before Nov. 8, 1965 there was another soap in the DAYS timeslot, MOMENT OF TRUTH on NBC 2-2:30 Eastern from Jan. 4, 1965 to Nov. 5, 1965, so for 10 months. An oddity, it was taped in Toronto. A dozen in the cast, this is where Doug Watson was before ANOTHER WORLD. Here he starred as Dr. Robert Wallace, a professor & psychologist in a small Canadian town with many social & romantic conflicts. It aired opposite ABC FLAME IN THE WIND. Both soaps were considered losers.

Please register in order to view this content

[Jdee43]

I think I'm going to say the first 4 months of Texas were worse than the first 4 months of Santa Barbara!

There were so many uncharismatic actors on Texas, either very green or full of ticks (Jerry Lanning being one of the worst offenders). The writing was very boring too. What they did to Iris, turning her into some sort of tame romantic heroine, felt very wrong. Her story, and the casting of her beau, weren't very inspired. 

Also, the show had a strange feel to it; it was set in Texas but shot in Brooklyn? It never really felt like Texas to me. At least with Santa Barbara, it felt like Southern California; in that small way, perhaps NBC learned a little something from one of their earlier failures. 

[j swift]

Agreed.

Texas takes forever to get started as exemplified by the fact that in the premiere week Alex stops the plane that Iris is on in order to get her to stay in Houston, then it takes two episodes for her to exit the plane.

SB has so much going on in the first four months.  In July we got the pilot with the glamorous flashback to Channing's murder, Joe getting out of prison, and JAN running around shirtless for the first two weeks. The earthquake happens in November, and December brings the amusing Lockridge Christmas in jail episode, which sets the tone for the series.  In fact, I would argue the wheels really fall off at the 9-12 month mark when the multiple recastings and changing characterizations occur. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by j swift

[Paul Raven]

Desert Sun, 5 June 1981 NBC hunting for daytime viewers

By TOM JOHY Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP)

With ratings on the tumble and affiliates threatening to jump ship, NBC canceled that bold experiment in daytime TV, “The David Letterman Show,” last Oct. 20, and began a steady climb toward respectability. NBC’s share of the audience has increased since ‘Letterman’ left the air from 16 percent of the folks watching TV during the day to 20 percent. ABC, in the meantime, has lost three points, from 31 percent of the audience to 28, while CBS’ share has dipped from 28 to 26.

No one blames Letterman himself for NBC's near-disaster. The talented comic recently won an Emmy as outstanding host of a daytime variety series “Obviously, there’s been some sort of mixup,” Letterman quipped as he accepted the award and remains under contract to the network. “The pressure the stations put the network under was enormous," said Irv Wilson, an NBC vice president responsible for daytime programming “If we hadn’t canceled the show, the stations might have canceled out on us.” It was the kind of headache NBC’s president, Fred Silverman, didn’t need. Silverman has had his hands full since taking the job in the summer of ’7B, trying to lift the network from the prime-time cellar. But that’s another story. “I think it was a terrific idea to do that kind of show,” Wilson said in reflection “I just don’t think Letterman’s appeal was to the morning audience. But you don’t know until you try.”

NBC tossed a couple of new game shows, “Las Vegas Gambit” and “Blockbusters,” into the Letterman’ void, and the two have been at least moderately successful. In the meantime, Wilson and the people who work for him were determined to upgrade the remainder of the daytime schedule. “We hit a low point when Letterman’ was canceled,” Wilson said. “The two games that we put in there are sound, interesting programs and seem to be doing well. "We felt that the best thing the network could do was let the schedule settle in, then try to make the shows better improve the writing, improve the production.”

Among other things, NBC dumped Bill and Joyce Corrington as head writers for “Texas,” the daytime serial introduced with fanfare last August opposite the ABC supersoap, “General Hospital.” “Texas” recently has shown some sign of vitality, though “General Hospital” remains tops in the afternoon field with 37 percent of the audience in the 3-4 p m. slot to 15 percent for the NBC soap “Days of Our Lives,” 1-2 p.m., is NBC’s highest-rated afternoon show, with nearly a quarter of the audience in its time period. “I think what we have is better today,” Wilson said, “and I think the ratings show that the tactic is beginning to pay some dividends.”

Now, with momentum clearly a factor, NBC will test something new, a program called “Wedding Day,” in which couples will exchange marriage vows and share other events like the bridal shower, bachelor party and reception with the TV audience. “Wedding Day” will be broadcast in the “Password Plus" timeslot, 11:30 a.m.-noon EDT, June 8-12. “I think the show plays exactly to the audience we are looking for,” Wilson said, “and it’s going to be an interesting trial.”

Edited November 20, 2023 by Paul Raven

[Khan]

Many years later, WEtv would dust off the premise, add a little spice to it and rename it "Bridezillas."

[Franko]

Los Angeles Times, Thursday, Nov. 22, 1990

NBC has axed “Generations,” the first daytime soap opera to feature a black family on an ongoing basis, and CBS has canceled “The Hogan Family,” a long-running comedy series that until this season had been seen on NBC.

Those announcements were among a list of mid-season changes revealed Wednesday by the two networks. They included the unveiling of a daytime news program anchored by Faith Daniels for NBC and a new Nell Carter sitcom for CBS.

NBC said that “Generations,” the story of two affluent Chicago families, one black and one white, will have its last broadcast Jan. 25. The soap opera, which began in 1989, won critical acclaim for featuring black performers in dramatic roles, but has suffered low ratings.

The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People immediately urged NBC to keep the show on the air.

“We’re very saddened; ‘Generations’ was a breakthrough show,” Sandra Evers-Manly, president of the NAACP’s Beverly Hills-Hollywood chapter, said through a spokeswoman. She urged “Generations” viewers to write NBC asking that the decision be rescinded.

In Los Angeles, as in many other cities, the half-hour “Generations” aired against the second half of CBS’ popular “The Young and the Restless.” So far this season, “Generations” is attracting only 8% of the available viewers, compared with “Y&R;’s” 31%. NBC ranks third behind CBS and ABC in overall daytime ratings.

Sally Sussman, the creator, executive producer and head writer of “Generations,” said that the difficult time slot and lack of support from NBC’s affiliated stations ensured the show’s demise. “To be perfectly honest, as soon as the show went on the air, they were talking about canceling it,” she said in an interview.

Although the show has been canceled, Sussman said, 300 episodes have already been sold into syndication in France, and TV stations here and abroad have expressed interest in continuing it. “You don’t have to be on the network to be successful,” she said.

Brandon Tartikoff, chairman of the NBC Entertainment Group, said in a prepared statement that NBC Productions is exploring the viability of continuing to produce “Generations” for syndication.

Jorn Winther, senior executive producer of “Generations,” said that the show’s poor ratings performance will make the networks wary of new soaps featuring black core characters. “I can’t imagine it (a show like ‘Generations’) will happen again in my lifetime--I’m 57,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to see an integrated show again.”

As the daytime audience dwindles, NBC hopes to bring viewers back to daytime by introducing four new information series, and has another two in development.

The first is “A Closer Look,” a “woman-oriented” mid-day half-hour anchored by Daniels, to debut Jan. 28. Also to be introduced in the “near future,” NBC said, are “A.M. Assignment,” featuring an all-female news team assigned to “in-depth feature stories”; “Women’s Diaries,” a “real-life soap” about ordinary people and their problems, and “Trialwatch,” a “magazine” show using actual footage from courtroom trials.

Trialwatch made it to air. To the best of my knowledge, unless they had trial runs, A.M. Assignment and Women's Diaries never made it to air.

[Khan]

Sadly, I think Mr. Winther was right.

GENERATIONS was a show that needed to happen, but everything was working against it.  It was placed in a terrible time slot, against a juggernaut like Y&R, on a network whose daytime lineup was itself struggling.  Moreover, the theme song and opening titles were like something out of a coffee commercial ("Folgers brand coffee: three generations later, we're still the best part of waking up"), the sets, wardrobe and background music looked and sounded like they belonged on "Saved by the Bell"; the actors were mediocre, with only a handful of standouts among the cast; and although Sally Sussman had a great vision for her show, she was also 100-percent the wrong person to execute it.

[Franko]

Even though I like the theme, you've hit several nails on the head.

[Errol]

All the replacement shows sound terrible. I can't believe people were paid for this kind of crap, even back then. Clearly, nothing they aired even after the cancellation of "Generations" worked, as I had never heard of those programs until I read this article.

That said, despite the cancellations of both "Generations" and later "Another World," I at least commend NBC for even trying another soap, or two, with "Sunset Beach" and later "Passions" before finally pulling the plug on genre overall with the move of "Days of our Lives" to Peacock in 2022.

[Contessa Donatella]

I really loved GENERATIONS. And the opening was classic if you ask me. 

Please register in order to view this content

So, I was an NBC baby. I daily taped & watched Generations (Mar 1989-Jan 1991), Days of our Lives, Another World (till June 26, 1998) & Santa Barbara (Jul 1984-Jan 1993). I did not tape Sunset Beach & I only watched it on a few occasions. I did not tape or watch Passions. Between 2003-2006 I did watch Starting Over, which I would call a hybrid but it's officially listed as daytime reality programming. Produced by Bunim-Murray, Millee Taggart-Ratcliffe was what would normally be called its Headwriter. They installed a group of women in a house & gave them a life coach & other ways & means to solve their problems & create a new life for themselves. 

For Generations I thought Sally Sussman did a fine job & she & Michele Val Jean wrote an interesting compelling soap. Strong actors included Lynn Hamilton, Kelly Rutherford, Debbi Morgan, James Reynolds, Dorothy Lyman, Ron Harper, Marla Adams, Robert Torti, Anthony Addabbo, Jonelle Allen, Taurean Blacque, Patricia Crowley, Elinor Donahue, Vivica A. Fox, Richard Roundtree & Kristoff St. John. Well, okay, maybe Elinor Donahue doesn't belong on the list of strong actors, but the rest stand. 

And, they have the best catfight ever, anywhere. 

Edited November 28, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
combine 2 posts

[Errol]

Not even talking about the 70s-style music; that opening would literally make me not want to watch the show.

For the opening to look like that, even though it makes perfect sense, I would be greatly annoyed by the message it was giving off. Essentially, it comes off as Whites vs. Blacks. Racism. Inequality. Blah. Blah. Blah. 

I'd rather see a show that highlights the culture and style of Black people like the ones shown in South Africa. Ironically, SA even had a soap called "Generations," which later got canceled due to the cast getting fired after they went on strike. A reboot of the show with new characters and actors came on shortly after the cancellation, titled "Generations: The Legacy."

[Contessa Donatella]

You watched it & listened to it & gave your impression. That's fair. 

To me, it is feel good. If it reminds me of anything else it is the theme from Cheers. And to me it does not evoke versus. Instead it relates both or together.

[Khan]

The best opening sequences give you a sense of the show you're about to watch.  The openings for the Bell shows, for example, really push the notions of youth, glamour, vitality.  You know you're gonna watch beautiful people suffer beautifully.  GH's classic opening, with the ambulance speeding past the hospital, lets you know that their show is about action and excitement.  Even if the actual show has little to nothing to DO with medical drama anymore, the opening still keeps you on the edge of your seat.

But what does GENERATIONS' opening really tell you about the show, other than blacks are people, too?  It doesn't evoke anything other than an AP History lesson.

They could have followed RYAN'S HOPE's lead and just showcased both black and white characters cavorting around the streets of Chicago and it would've given the audience a better sense of the show.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Khan

[Paul Raven]

The Generations theme and visuals suggested to me we were in store for a Waltons type family show, possibly set in the past.

Yes, there should have been more up to date music and visuals. Something showing Chicago landmarks and cast, as Khan suggested.

There were some fundamental mistakes from the get go. That opening showing the fictional soap was awful, and viewers might have turned off immediately thinking it was the real thing. And it didn't serve any real purpose moving forward.

Then having your opening show centering on a middle age women? Pat Crowley was  attractive and good actress but it gave the impression she was the lead,which might have turned viewers off.

A lot of the casting was blah.

They needed a strong opening story with juicy secrets to be revealed.

Having the Marshall own an ice cream chain was dumb-they should have had a 'sexier' business that could propel alot of story.

And James Reynolds and Debbi Morgan should have been cast from the get go. That would have got a lot of attention and showed they were serious about the Black characters.