Yep, that was the one ref Generations.
Interestingly in one scene the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, appears as a nurse watching the fictional soap.
Interestingly in one scene the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, appears as a nurse watching the fictional soap.
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I thought it was a hilarious wink to the audience, but apparently I was an amused minority. But then I've always loved Barbara Rhoades (the "amnesia victim" in question):
I mean, if you didn't know it was a spoof/satire from the way she fell down the stairs, you just ain't paying attention.
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Thanks! I knew it was something along those lines. Generations is actually one that I’d like to watch but there is only bits and pieces of it online.
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The way she bounces right back up from that fall without a broken neck is certainly a dead giveaway. My first impression was she was faking because of how well she was dressed for an amnesia victim. I’ve never seen that clip before but I like how they did this with the whole soap within a soap thing with different characters following it.
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Why CBS Thinks It Can Survive the Streaming Wars
Network boss George Cheeks talks Tracker, Star Trek, an unexpected new soap — and life alongside Paramount+.
www.vulture.com
You recently announced that CBS was developing a new soap opera called The Gates that will focus on a Black family. It was sort of shocking, because soaps have been in decline for decades. Is this show actually something which has a chance of getting on the air, or are you still just thinking about the idea?
It’s super real. And just to give you a little bit of the backstory, when we hired Sheila Ducksworth to run the NAACP venture, she and I had multiple meetings talking about what different genres she was going to lean into, and we talked a lot about daytime. One of the things that the data made very clear to both of us is that daytime soap operas over index with Black women, and yet when you look at soap operas, it’s usually sort of a white-led family with supporting characters that reflect more of our society. So we just thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to flip that and make the core anchor family a Black family, and then make the other characters reflect more the broader scope of society?
She found this great writer, Michele Val Jean, who’s been in the soap opera space for 30 years. She came up with a pitch, and we loved it. We brought Procter & Gamble into it as well, because if there were going to be [product] integrations, we could do it more holistically and organically. All of that is to say, we did a lot of work on the front end to put this together. So while yes, it’s development, it’s accelerated development.
When do you think you’d move forward with a formal greenlight then, and how long until it’s on the air?
The actual timeline and when we’re going to do it is still uncertain, because we want to get this right. I mean, there hasn’t been a new soap opera launch since I can’t even begin to tell you when. But we have great success with Bold and the Beautiful and Young and the Restless, and so we think we’re the right folks to be launching a new soap. I wish I could tell you more about exact timing, but we’re so focused on getting it right, and that will dictate when we’re ready to launch it.
Is it more likely to be a half-hour show or an hour?
It’s been being developed as an hour, but I can’t say for sure. I don’t know yet.
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I don’t know much about how the syndicated/local timeslots work on CBS afternoon schedules but if they’re keeping B&B and The Gates is being developed as an hour long show, the only place it can go is either The Talk’s slot at 2pm or one of the morning gameshow slots at 10am or 11am.
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Deadline attempts to answer your question...with more questions:
CBS hasn't said where new soap The Gates would air in daytime (deadline.com)
Basically, karma might just come back to bite The Talk in the butt, since that show was developed to replace As the World Turns.
CBS hasn't said where new soap The Gates would air in daytime (deadline.com)
Basically, karma might just come back to bite The Talk in the butt, since that show was developed to replace As the World Turns.
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It's being developed as an hour long show and they're not cancelling Y&R and they talk up B&B. The Talk is also in a time slot they themselves still control, it rates badly despite a revamp with Jerry O'Connell and it's a show they can basically end at short notice for whenever The Gates is ready to air. I'd say it's done if The Gates makes it out of... the gates. Durr durr.
In theory, they *could* try to negotiate with the affiliates to take back a time slot but I'd say that's unlikely and Let's Make A Deal and The Price Is Right are among the top in daytime programming and The Talk near the bottom, usually fighting it out with NBC's Daily News and Good Morning America's third hour.
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From the statements it seems that The Talk will be the goner, but the question arises as to which timeslot would be the right one. 2 p.m. seems like the easy solution, but there are two problems: General Hospital as direct competition and B&B as lead-in. It's been a while since quarter-hour daytime ratings were released, but back then the first half of a B&B episode was significantly stronger than the second, suggesting that Y&R viewers watch the first few minutes of B&B and then tune out. The smartest thing would be for CBS to schedule the new soap at 1:30 p.m. and B&B at 2:30 p.m.
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Especially since Y&R is apparently strong in the AA female demographic, which is the reason they're developing The Gates either way. You'd think they would want to give the soap they actually own the best lead-in as possible, though I imagine Bell will throw a fit.
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That’s show-business! When B&B launched in 1987, it displaced As The World Turns from the 1.30pm slot that it had held for most of its 31 years on air at that point (there was a period in 1980-81 where it aired at 2pm).
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In most East coast markets, The Talk airs at 2pm, immediately after B&B and directly opposite GH (on ABC). I've never been curious enough to know if The Talk drags viewers away from GH since they're so different, but if The Gates ends up at 2pm against GH, it might take away many of the remaining "live" viewers that GH still has who want to watch a soap as opposed to a talk show or news. So much is written about those who time-shift and DVR/stream it at odd times, but there is still a sizeable audience who watch daytime shows "live".
I guess the question they'll have to ask if there is still the "winner take all" attitude about time slot competition in daytime, or if there is now a feeling that soaps as a genre needs to be protected. I would hope the networks would understand that when a soap gets cancelled on any of the networks, it hurts the genre as a whole. But do they really care? Probably not.
I guess the question they'll have to ask if there is still the "winner take all" attitude about time slot competition in daytime, or if there is now a feeling that soaps as a genre needs to be protected. I would hope the networks would understand that when a soap gets cancelled on any of the networks, it hurts the genre as a whole. But do they really care? Probably not.
Interestingly B&B airs at 2pm I believe on KIRO on Seattle. But they didn't air the soap from the premiere anyway in order to carry an hour of local news, which saw B&B on independent stations there (William J Bell actually complained about KIRO not picking it up). It wasn't until KSTW became CBS it started to get clearance.
Also when a new daytime soap had premiered hour long episodes from the start as opposed to expanding later like previous soaps had like AMC, OLTL, DOOL etc, it hadn't been really successful. Even the lauded Santa Barbara struggled ratings wise.
Hope The Gates can buck the trend of a daytime soap premiering episodes at a full hour.
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The Talk Ending With Season 15 At CBS - TVLine
CBS has cancelled 'The Talk' after 15 seasons. The final episode will air in December.
tvline.com
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It can then get moved to NBC/Peacock and be renamed The Gates of Our Lives.
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The Talk Ending With Season 15 At CBS - TVLine
CBS has cancelled 'The Talk' after 15 seasons. The final episode will air in December.
Then it looks like The Gates will indeed happen. Possibly starting in January. Time to get a bit excited!
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There will have to have already been a lot of development of the new series if they expect to premiere in January....far more than they've let on. The hardest part might be finding studio space, since CBS Television City is undergoing that massive renovation and is unavailable. It certainly can be done, but typically they'd already have space lined up before they even begin fine-tuning the story Bible and making personnel decisions. I think they would want to take their time and make sure they made as few hasty decisions as possible, especially since so many eyeballs will be on them, dissecting every move they make.