BTG: History, Behind the Scenes Articles & Photos

[DramatistDreamer]

The erasure!

I know the show was bad at the end, but still…ATWT erasure is unacceptable.

And P&G had an ad campaign slogan that said “My Black Is Beautiful”.

[Broderick]

The contracts likely won't be for a very long duration, since the network is intentionally sabotaging the show with a 60-minute format out of the starting gate, which of course has a historical success rate of literally 0%. 

[te.]

I'd argue that CBS will try and secure what they'd consider the main players of the soap for as long as possible. It's been incredibly long since we've had a new soap, so who knows how long that'll be? The reason why established soaps aren't known for giving long contracts it's because they've already mapped out who the important cast members are and those aren't going to sign long-term contracts because short-term is usually a better deal for them. 

[vanguard]

Bravo to this happening much sooner than I thought. Because of the January start date, I expect a lot more details very soon. Can't wait to see who's cast, the show's setting, what the characters do for a living, all of it.

[ReddFoxx]

Newcomers will be cast, but the producers will likely look at who can handle the schedule so they don't end up losing cast members quickly. Joan Collins had an issue with the taping schedule of Guiding Light even though she is very experienced in acting.

[BoldRestless]

On his Michael Fairman Emmy interview, Bryton James said Sheila Duckworth recently visited the Y&R set to see how things run (it's toward the end).

 

Make of it what you will!

[AllMyDaysatGH]

 first of all, you are a legend. THANKS!

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[vanguard]

I think The Talk is actually going to end on 01/03/25 even though they said December. Just in time for the hosts to ring in the new year while simultaneously bidding farewell. The Gates makes its debut on 01/06/25.

[ReddFoxx]

Makes sense. She doesn't have any daytime experience on her IMDB so she probably is  trying to learn the terrain. Even producers should know how different daytime is than primetime and movies.

[Khan]

If only the Prospect Park dudes had gone behind the scenes beforehand and observed how soaps are produced.

[Vee]

OLTL's Melissa Archer was on a podcast not long ago and said essentially the same thing many PP vets have - they were ahead of the time and ahead of the curve re: streaming, but didn't understand the nuts and bolts of making a soap 5 days a week.

I do think some of the controversial and bold changes introduced (more commercial music again, more risks with content and yes, language) could've worked and could still work in the current day and age, particularly if you hope to sustain an audience of kids home from school/on their devices, and not just seniors. But you can't do it all at once in such an extreme way, and you can't do it without a sustainable plan and strong financial base for long-running production. While I think the productions themselves were strong and staffed by soap lifers from various shows, the nuts higher up at PP were simply gambling with venture capital.

I think if they'd tried to launch one show, or (my preference) both shows at simply 2-3 days a week like the UK or European soaps (or Australia's new Amazon transplant Neighbours, now nominated for US Daytime Emmys and rightly so, which runs at 4) and on a seasonal-arc basis with a collection of banked episodes and breaks - something Archer suggested, something Port Charles did and something Linda Gottlieb tried and failed at many years ago early on in 1991 - then it could've worked. That to me is more sustainable than the grueling network pace.

Edited April 20, 2024 by Vee

[Liberty City]

TOLN's productions were simply a mixture of being ahead of their time and also not as... well executed as they should have been. The sets ⏤ while nice ⏤ were also all backwards, and they could have potentially taken from English soaps and created a more fixed environment. When I watch Hollyoaks, and then watch the content of All My Children & One Life to Live I see so many similarities, and it's quite disheartening that it did not work out in the end, because it could have had they not had six-weeks to get things together from hiring an EP to the start of filming. Six week is not enough time. At all.

[dragonflies]

Bryton says in this interview that Sheila Duckworth was on the set to see how they run things 

I hope it's just the day to day operations thing lol

I copied where he mentions it 

 

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[allmc2008]

Ah! Thanks!!

 

[Contessa Donatella]

She had something that was scheduled before she took the gig & she cleared her need for time off for it with Paul Rauch, then EP, and the one who got her for the gig. But then Paul was gone & regrettably Conboy was EP & he objected & things went to hell. It could have been prevented, should have been. But it wasn't a product of not being used to daytime. From all accounts Joan said that daytime people worked harder than anyone in the world but she buckled down & fit right in. At least this is what I recall.