CBS Daytime

[Contessa Donatella]

Sorry I have no capacity to burn a disk BUT I can get you a digital copy, the whole file. We can arrange this. I'll put it in my google drive & share it to you. PM me. I need your email address for the share link. 

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1982

 

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[Jdee43]

What time slots would you say were traditionally problematic for CBS?

4pm seemed to always be tough. They tried a bunch of different shows from the late 70s to the mid 80s, Match Game/ Love of Life/ One Day at a Time reruns/ Tattletales/ Body Language/ Press  Your Luck. They just finally threw in the towel and gave that slot back to the affiliates in fall  1986. CBS was the last network to give the 4pm slot up; ABC did it in winter 1985; NBC in winter 1978!

[Paul Raven]

4pm was a problem for all networks. ABC stuck it out with EON even with low clearances. It went from 99% on CBS to 81 % on ABC when it switched and struggled on for years.

As you say NBC dropped 4pm on  Dec 77 because of low ratings.

So at least CBS persevered.

[kalbir]

Just in time for the rise of Oprah.

[Paul Raven]

Through 1972 CBS regularly scheduled sitcom reruns in the daytime schedule. Lucy, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies,Gomer Pyle, Family affair were some of the shows chosen for daytime play.

But My Three Sons, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Hogan's Heroes never made it.

Then in 72 they revamped, introducing gameshows and dropping sitcoms until 75 when All in the Family was scheduled. In 77 Here's Lucy was used, a few years after it left the nighttime schedule. That was the first time that a daytime rerun was not airing at night.

Had Here's Lucy not gone into syndication when it was cancelled? 

Mash began in 78 and One day at A Time replaced it in 79, Jeffersons and Alice arrived in 80.

I wonder why Maude was not used?

Mary Tyler Moore,Rhoda  and Bob Newhart would seem suitable for daytime but never made it.

Finally in 82, sitcoms were again no longer seen on CBS daytime.

Designing Women was scheduled a few years later but Newhart was not used.

Any thoughts on when those other shows might have been used?

[Jdee43]

I Love Lucy was a staple of CBS daytime from 1958-1966, typically running at either 10am or 10:30am. But it was all in black and white, so from 1968-1972 they reran The Lucy Show at 10am, which at least had some color seasons. 

The Dick Van Dyke Show was also on CBS daytime starting in 1965 and lasting to 1969 in the 11:30am time slot. I'm surprised they aired it from 1967 to 1969, considering it was in black and white and everything was switching to color. Was Dick Van Dyke the last show that CBS daytime aired that had all black and white episodes?

CBS didn't air any primetime reruns in daytime from 1972-1976, an incredible era of original programming. When reruns returned from 1976-1979, it was Lucy's latest show, All in the Family, and MASH. 

Here's Lucy was kept out of syndication after it ended in 1974 out of fear that it would harm the rerun potential of I Love Lucy and the Lucy Show. When CBS put it on in the air for 6 months in 1977, it was the first time it had been seen since it ended production.

In 1979-1982, it was The Jeffersons, Alice, and One Day at a Time. These were the top rated sitcoms on CBS at the time, other than MASH. From 1982 on, no more primetime reruns in daytime, with the sole exception of Designing Women for a few months in 1991. Maybe CBS wanted to get more eyeballs on that show; it was it in the top 10. Newhart had ended its run in 1990. 

CBS daytime to 1972, and then from 1976-1982, when they showed prime-time shows, seemed to be about certain classics (Lucy, Andy Griffith) as well as reruns of the highest rated sitcoms still on the network.

It is interesting how The Mary Tyler Moore Show never made it. Maybe if CBS had shown reruns from 1972-1976, it would have, paired with Lucy. 

Edited January 7 by Jdee43

[Jdee43]

Also, it's interesting how they never reran Perry Mason in the 60s. I guess the hour format, and it being in black and white. Many execs thought it would make an ideal soap opera, and it did inspire Edge of Night, so maybe having Edge on is another reason CBS didn't show it?

Also interesting how they never reran the 30 minute Gunsmoke. That could have opened the door to a western soap opera or something. They also never reran the 30 minute Twilight Zone, which could have opened the door to more sci fi in daytime.         

[Paul Raven]

 I'm not sure how the rerun rights worked for primetime shows. Perhaps MTM had it in their contracts that their shows would not be rerun in the daytime,for whatever reasons.

I thought Petticoat Junction would be ideal for daytime.

Only ABC reran hour shows-Ben Casey,The Fugitive and Wagon Train (under the Trailmaster title). One reason for that might have been a lack of product and also their 'alternative' status they had in the 60's of doing things differently eg Peyton Place,Batman etc

[Mitch64]

Wow, this was my early childhood, I remember watching Dick Van Dyke and the Lucy Show as a kid while my Mom cleaned..(a gene I didn't get...)

The excuse for not syndicating Here's Lucy was that it would hurt the other shows, and that might have been Lucy's viewpoint, I don't think she ever really comprehended how back that show stank. I think other people knew it would flop and it did, it was never successful in syndication and I think CBS only ran it in daytime for a short time.

[Paul Raven]

Jon Michael Reed Oct 18 1981

A triumvirate of network executives is responsible for overseeing and managing the fortunes of CBS's daytime serial schedule Michael Ogiens is vice president of all daytime programming at CBS. Directly under him are  Jean Remick and Brian Frons. Ogiens and Renick are based in Los Angeles, while Frons operates from New York

"Basically", says Frons," I'm involved with all the New York produced serials, 'As the World Turns," 'Guiding Light, and 'Search For Tomorrow.' Since those shows are owned and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions for the net- work, I work closely on 'quarterly long-term story projections and l have some input into casting‘ For nearly 20 years, CBS (and, by extension, P & G) was the kingpin of daytime television.

In the past five years, CBS has found itself playing second fiddle to ABC's overpowering ratings champs of programs. And concern is evident. "I think there is a perception," says Frons, "that our serials are old-fashioned and conservative. We're just as progressive as the competition, but our image has been tarnished, perhaps by the fact that we made changes gradually, imperceptibly, and usually avoided short-term, attention-grabbing gimmicks. And we haven't forgotten our basic audience.

True, serials today must appeal to a broad spectrum from teens to grandparents. But as desirable as the youth market is, we can't neglect the needs of the older audience. 'GL' and 'ATWT,' for example, are especially strong in the 40-plus age group. We are in the process of holding onto that particular audience while building, branching out, if you will, from our core. The same js true of the ideal structure of an individual serial. The best soaps build on the core characters, the Hugheses and the Stewarts of 'ATWT and the Bauers of'GL', for example. The spoke of the wheel should revolve first around them and then the next, the succeeding generations." 

There have been problems, concedes Frons.."'On ATWT we've discovered that we've gotten too far afield of our 'tentpole' character groups. We're working to concentrate the focus back on familiar folks and their families. Bill Bell headwriter of 'The Young and The Restless,' has done an exemplary job of building interest in new families which interconnect with the show's core groups. Doug Marland who writes GL,also has integrated old and new elements while strengthening familiar relation ships.

'ATWT" has the history and tradition behind it. The basic building blocks are there, and we're hope that new writers will rectify the problem. "On 'Search' the transition from the old to the new has turned around nicely, I think. Writer Don Chastain has a finger on the frustrations and fantasies of the audience, and the qualities of the actors on the show are unique. We still need to focus more on the center of the show, which got lost through the past half-dozen years or so." Still, the most pressing problem for CBS is to alter its image as the granddaddy of network daytime.

Frons was talking through his anus as usual. This was at the time when Nancy Hughes was written off, Chris was recurring, a bunch of GL vets were dropped etc. Don Chastain was a disaster for SFT.

[Paul Raven]

1974

CBS discovers soaps in `Magazine' opener CBS News is staying close to home with its first episode of Magazine, 60 Minutes' daytime cousin that premieres May 2.

Of greatest intramural interest is its 20 minute look behind the scenes of TV's daytime serials. Soap operas are very profitable to the networks, observes correspondent Charles Kuralt. "A half hour show in the evening may cost $100,000 to produce. A soap opera costs an average of only $15,000 per half hour. What a soap brings in, in commercial fees, is secret, but it generally runs around $60,000 for each broadcast. So the biggest profits may be in the daytime and the greatest pressure to make money is on the soaps."

Part of the pressure is seen in Mr. Kurait's tour of the set of CBS's Love of Life, into its approximately 6,000th episode, and directed for 22 years by Larry Auerbach. Mr. Auerbach cuts costs by using a rehearsal hall -at $20 per hour - as much as possible before moving to a set -$1,000 per hour fully manned. Top soap opera writers, like Secret Storm's Gillian Houghton, "make more than a decent living, $100,000 a year and up," the program reveals. Miss Houghton tells Mr. Kuralt of the progress made in the soaps' content over the years: "When I began, we weren't allowed to write about an affair; it had to be a one night stand ... and now, we really deal with very controversial subjects ... we kicked around the thought of incest, and we discarded it because we didn't feel it fit into the story, but not because it's incest.. "

Secret Storm left the air after nearly 20 years, "partly because it was playing too late in the afternoon to hold its audience," Mr. Kuralt states. Another soap opera writer, Agnes Nixon of ABC -TV's One Life to Live, complains about the "putdown of soap operas." Ms. Nixon hails the writing she has done on the Pap smear test for uterine cancer in women. "When we did this we got letters from women all over the country thanking us," she said. "They went back to their doctors for the first time in five years, ten years..."

One Life To Live has dealt with such issues as venereal disease, drug addiction, abortion and frigidity. Secret Storm had been working over "artificial insemination, and Catholic priests getting married," Mr. Kuralt observes. An interview with another writer, Bill Bell, of CBS's The Young and the Restless, details that program's treatment of rape "by a polite and personable young man, and what happens later, after they catch and try to convict the rapist." Mr. Bell explains that "I think it's going to hit a lot of people between the eyes ... in a court of law she was stripped naked, so to speak, bared her soul, bared all the intimate details and yet the man is going to be let go, and this happens all too often."

CBS -TV will pre -empt two of its own soaps, The Guiding Light and the Edge of Night for Magazine. Fred Silverman, CBS vice president, programs, predicts the new show will be a success, and will most likely be aired "once every four to six weeks beginning in the fall." The program would float through the schedule, pre-empting various soap operas and game shows. "I hope it will produce a reappraisal of daytime television," Mr. Silverman said. "Anything that breaks the mold is good."

Edited April 22 by Paul Raven

[EONGLOLTL]

I have just finished reading the oral histories about Ryan's Hope and Texas.  I couldn't put them down!  So interesting to hear from all the actors and behind the scenes folks.  How do we go about getting ones for CBS soaps?  Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow, Love of Life, The Secret Storm, As the World Turns, The Edge of Night, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Where the Heart Is, Capitol would all be interesting reads.   I don't imagine that they would touch current soaps like The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.