Classic Soaps When did you know that the soapy end was nigh?

[Carrie Fairchild]

I'm talking about the signs that your favourite (now cancelled) soap was not long for this world. Were there giveaways that the show was on borrowed time (other than the ratings)? Was there a particular storyline or departure that heralded the beginning of the end or a change in production / scheduling? Or was their cancellation an abrupt shock?

For example, it was pretty clear that British soap Brookside was on its way out when its three episodes a week were pulled from their longstanding home in the evening schedules and dumped into an omnibus edition on Saturday afternoons (which had traditionally been the home of the show's omnibus repeat of the week's episodes). If anyone was in any doubt about the future of the show following that move, its fate was sealed when it was then pulled from Saturday afternoons and shoved into a late night slot midweek, where it saw out its final months.

On the other hand, the demise of teatime soap Family Affairs came quickly. The show was "the little train that could" of British soaps, dodging cancellation on a number of occasions through a series of revamps over the years including blowing up the show's original "family" and randomly relocating the setting (houses and all) from the leafy suburbs to a more central, outer London street. In mid-2005, it was announced that another revamp was underway, as a number of long running characters including villain Pete Callan (arguably the show's lead) were written out, and a new producer was drafted in. Plans to turn it into a glamour soap with a new name, were apparently in the pipeline and a raft of new characters were introduced, giving the impression that the show would be around a while longer (as had been the case after all previous revamps). But then the network (Channel 5) had a change of heart and announced in September that they wouldn't be renewing the show, and it would end that Christmas. The exodus of long running characters and introduction of new ones had already started, so the show's final storylines were an odd mish mash of new plots involving characters that viewers barely knew or cared about.

 

[Daniel Avery]

In 1998/99, NBC made a big deal about this new soap they planned to put on the air. It was made obvious that either Another World (its longest-running soap) or Sunset Beach (its youngest) would be cancelled to make way for what would become Passions. So for most of that period fans of the shows sat wondering just which soap would go. As a longtime AW fan I saw how the show had declined in quality due to mismanagement by NBC and its production company, P&G; I'm sure SuBe viewers were just as nervous, considering the show had never been a ratings winner and was in fact lower rated than AW. As lackluster as it was, I still wanted AW to "win" since it was my favorite show.

So when AW introduced a sci-fi/fantasy plotline involving a time-traveling villain arriving in town to meddle in the lives of various Bay City residents, I knew it was time to say my good-byes because that sort of insanity (especially on a traditional soap like AW) was just the sort of nonsense that the show had resisted doing for years. The plotline was ridiculous and insulting and I could tell the actors were just ready for it all to be over. Sure enough, NBC announced AW would be ending in June 1999 and Passions would premiere in July. While SuBe fans likely thought they had "won," NBC snatched that relief from them by cancelling SuBe by year's end, as well. Passions never scored ratings higher than AW had carried for the network, so the entire year of uncertainty led to no one winning, especially NBC.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

So when AW introduced a sci-fi/fantasy plotline involving a time-traveling villain arriving in town to meddle in the lives of various Bay City residents, I knew it was time to say my good-byes because that sort of insanity (especially on a traditional soap like AW) was just the sort of nonsense that the show had resisted doing for years. The plotline was ridiculous and insulting and I could tell the actors were just ready for it all to be over.

I never watched Another World, because I didn’t have satellite TV when it aired on Sky One over here. But I do remember it being discussed on here a while back, how a new producer came in and gave it a bit of an overhaul, including new ER-esque opening titles. I did not realise it went down the fantasy route though. From what I’ve read about the show, and the bits and pieces of clips that I’ve watched online from it, AW always struck me as a kind of “romance and family drama” soap as opposed to something that indulged in flights of fancy like time travel. I can only presume that they were trying to replicate the success of Days foray into fantasy land when they did Marlena’s possession.

While SuBe fans likely thought they had "won," NBC snatched that relief from them by cancelling SuBe by year's end, as well.

I was a Sunset Beach fan but its cancellation was no surprise unfortunately. It started in the ratings basement, and never got out of it, with the ratings getting worse year on year. It’s relatively early start time and being up against the first half of Y&R probably didn’t help. I’d also imagine that being a Spelling production, it wasn’t the cheapest show to produce either, although I know location shooting was culled pretty early on.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I did not realise it went down the fantasy route though. From what I’ve read about the show, and the bits and pieces of clips that I’ve watched online from it, AW always struck me as a kind of “romance and family drama” soap as opposed to something that indulged in flights of fancy like time travel.

That plotline was drawn up in the final months of the show by writers who felt they had nothing to lose. There had been a "Why can't you be more like Days?" drumbeat from the network for years but previous regimes had wisely pushed back since like you surmised, the show was much more grounded and written in the classic style of soaps from the older years. Some said they tossed in that half-baked plotline just to show the network execs what happens when you try to graft that kind of garbage onto a show not set up for it. And of course Passions offered up that level of crap-tastic storytelling for years and NBC acted as if it was the second coming of Dickens.

All that plotline did was send the message you used in the subject title, that the end was indeed nigh. This was a few years after that [*spit*] accursed producer, Jill Farren Phelps had come in with her "reverse Midas Touch" (everything she touched turned to $#!t), so it can't be blamed on her directly.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

That plotline was drawn up in the final months of the show by writers who felt they had nothing to lose.

The aforementioned Brookside suffered from a bit of this in its dying days. When it was moved into its final late night timeslot, writers leaned into the freedom of being post watershed, and started introducing more sex, violence and swear words into scripts. While the show had always been a bit edgy, particularly in its early years, this new gritty approach just felt forced and out of sync with what viewers were used to.

Then, when the news broke that the show was finally being axed, creator Phil Redmond, who’d often used the show as a soapbox for social commentary about the state of the nation (again, particularly in its early years) turned his attention to the powers that be who cancelled the show. A despicable drug dealer moved into the Close, getting kids hooked on drugs and generally being an all round piece of s**t. His name was Jack Michaelson, named after Michael Jackson, who was the Channel 4 controller that pulled the plug on the show. The final episodes saw the men of the Close band together to rid the neighbourhood of this scourge by lynching him out of the window of his house. It was a really dark end to the show. It felt like Redmond had sacrificed giving viewers a decent ending by wasting time “sticking it” to the network bosses he’d been at loggerheads with for a number of years. To hammer the point home, the show closed with a monologue from long running character Jimmy Corkhill, that also attacked TV execs. It all just felt self indulgent on Redmond’s part and a disservice to whatever viewers had stuck with the show.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Phil Redmond [snip] turned his attention to the powers that be who cancelled the show

You might have heard of the dreaded and dreadful Exec Producer Jill Farren Phelps, who pointed several American soaps to the gallows, whether on purpose or not. One such hatchet job had been done on Guiding Light. Shortly before JFP was "re-assigned" a new, bizarre character was introduced named Marion Crane. She was a frumpy, middle-aged woman with short, black hair and un-feminine mannerisms and a terrible wardrobe. She also had one hell of a secret: "she" was actually a (disguised) psychopath named Brent Lawrence who had terrorized half the town and had "mysteriously disappeared"....only to resurface as "Marion," planning to pick up where he left off with hurting/killing people. The actor who played Brent and Marion, Frank Beaty, made for a hell of an ugly woman, but I think it was done on purpose because the disguise made him look more than a bit like Jill Farren Phelps, who by that point was on her way out and could do little to stop it.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

The actor who played Brent and Marion, Frank Beaty, made for a hell of an ugly woman, but I think it was done on purpose because the disguise made him look more than a bit like Jill Farren Phelps, who by that point was on her way out and could do little to stop it.

There was a similar case of this on UK TV in the 90’s. Back when cable TV was thought to have a fighting chance against satellite, the Mirror Group (responsible for the trashy tabloid Mirror newspapers) launched L!VE TV in a blaze of publicity. At the helm were Janet Street-Porter, left wing arty journalist who’d won acclaim for her work on BBC and Channel 4, and Mirror newspaper editor Kelvin Mackenzie. The two were polar opposites who inevitably fell out, with Street-Porter quitting the job, a few months after the channel’s launch.

With Janet gone, Mackenzie was free to do what he wanted with the schedules. This included introducing a topless darts show, a weather forecasting dwarf on a trampoline and a daily soap called Canary Wharf, whose main character (a middle aged woman trying to run a cable channel in London) was a parody of Street-Porter.