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- Thread starter Carrie Fairchild
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Looking back at listings from 1980, I see that The Doctors and Edge of Night were also being aired as early as 9am in some markets.
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The only major reason for viewers to sampleTexas when it premiered in 1980 was its ties to Another World. NBC introduced many Texas characters on AW and of course its star was AW icon Beverlee McKinsey. NBC scheduled the spin-off at 3pm right after AW to "help" viewers stick around. But once the show began to falter, stations started monkeying around with the airtime....even bragging about the change!
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The only major reason for viewers to sampleTexas when it premiered in 1980 was its ties to Another World. NBC introduced many Texas characters on AW and of course its star was AW icon Beverlee McKinsey. NBC scheduled the spin-off at 3pm right after AW to "help" viewers stick around. But once the show began to falter, stations started monkeying around with the airtime....even bragging about the change!
That time for Texas TNG-- that's the same time that is still used today in most areas for The Price Is Right on CBS (and that has been since 1979, IIRC, first with the late, great Bob Barker, and now with Drew Carey); it also has been said that Texas ultimately failed because of that.
And BTW, some more assorted AW:
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I hated the recast (and resulting changes in her character), but this ad featuring Philece Sampler as Donna Love never ceases to make me laugh because it's just so over the top. Part of me wanted the stalker to actually get her, just to shut her up! But luckily the show lured Anna Stuart back to play the "real" Donna and we never had to sit through Scream-Queen Donna being victimized ever again.
(PS Can you imagine having to pose for shots with some hand model in surgical gloves pawing at you?)
(PS Can you imagine having to pose for shots with some hand model in surgical gloves pawing at you?)
That new timeslot for Texas saw NBC move Wheel of Fortune (which was giving TPIR some competition at 11am) to 10.30am and the cancellations of Blockbusters (the original American version of the Bob Holness quiz) and Battlestars.
Unfortunately Texas failed to get an audience at 11am. By this point, The Doctors was moved to noon to accommodate Search for Tomorrow at 12.30pm, which saw The Doctors competing with Family Feud and Y&R, not to mention NBC affiliates preferred local newscasts.
The Doctors and Texas lasted until the end of 1982.
NBC had a new line up from the beginning of 1983 - Sale of The Century with Jim Perry at 10.30am, Wheel returning to 11am, Hit Man with Peter Tomarken at 11.30am then Just Men with Betty White at noon.
Hit Man and Just Men never found an audience. Hit Man was against the second half of The Price of Right, while Just Men suffered the same scheduling issues as The Doctors -affiliate preemptions or facing Family Feud\Y&R. Both got the axe after 13 weeks.
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All I recall about Just Men! was that its hostess, Betty White, was awarded the "Outstanding Game Show Host" Daytime Emmy for it, the first woman to win that award. I think the show itself was long gone by the time she won, though. So she could consider it a "lovely parting gift".
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It’s interesting that NBC even bothered to try a spinoff at that time. On paper it sounds OK - a spinoff of an existing soap, starring one of its biggest stars that taps into the current Dallas popularity. However, ratings wise it doesn’t make sense. All of NBC’s soaps were in the bottom half of the ratings pack at that time. The year Texas launched, Another World rated 10th of the 13 soaps on air that year. So even if it was going to carry over some viewers from AW as its lead in, the ratings were never going to be huge.
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Beverlee McKinsey (headlining Texas in her AW role of Iris Carrington) was immensely popular, and it was believed that spinning her off allowed AW's marquee couple Mac and Rachel to finally be rid of her constant interference and scheming. It would also allow the parent show to shrink back to hour-long episodes but "soften the blow" by having some linkages to AW in the new, separate show. They even introduced many of the Texas characters on AW to help fans transfer to the new show. Beverlee McKinsey was certainly up to the challenge of headlining a show, but the mistake they made was turning mean-spirited, snooty, spoiled Iris into a heroine-type character in the new series. Even if they had done everything right (not that they did...) the show would likely have never succeeded due to its stiff competition in most markets---ratings juggernaut General Hospital and critical darling Guiding Light, which was having a creative renaissance in the early 1980s. And though we have gotten used to the idea of "other forms of programming" encroaching on the daytime TV arena, it was pretty much understood in 1980 that you replaced a cancelled soap with....another soap.
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My understanding is that NBC also never had a firm grip on their affiliates and it certainly went south with the failed Another World experiment, so they had trouble with them airing shows out of their recommended time slots. It's probably why they seemed to struggle to get a hold on the soap market since soaps tend to take a while to iron out their problems, but affiliates are rarely so patient and a lot just put those shows in undesireable time slots. It also makes it harder to do national promotion I guess since everyone would have to check their local listings.
NBC were essentially lucky for DAYS and Another World caught fire in the 70s, which helped The Doctors since it was cushioned between them. Then they wrecked it with the ill-fated AW 90 minutes experiment and only DAYS seemed to be able to have occasional highs after that.
NBC were essentially lucky for DAYS and Another World caught fire in the 70s, which helped The Doctors since it was cushioned between them. Then they wrecked it with the ill-fated AW 90 minutes experiment and only DAYS seemed to be able to have occasional highs after that.
That General Hospital\Guiding Light combo is also why Santa Barbara struggled to find an audience from the off. When the ratings dropped, affiliates started moving it from 3pm to mid morning or late night.
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Funnily enough, anniversary ads was the next theme I was going to post, given that GH celebrated its 61st birthday recently.
Looking at that date, Loving had became the lowest rated soap altogether on American TV as Santa Barbara had ended in January 1993. (Santa Barbara had been second last to Loving before it ended).
Jeffrey 'On The Wings of Love' Osborne had come in to do a new theme to Loving by this point. (The Osbourne theme remained for the rest of the run, except for the brief period where it was replaced with the Loving Murders opening, although it continued to air at the end).
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The anniversary episode that the aired for this was actually quite sweet, leaning more into nostalgia and (rightly) focusing on Jo & Stu.
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John and Sharlene were one of the best AW couplings...so of course there had to be a lot of drama keeping them apart.
1. Yes, they will....though both characters end up getting recast.
2. He dumped her before they made it to the "alter" [sic], that jerk.
3. Yes, she will, though the killer basically gets away with it.
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@Daniel Avery trying to drum up interest in Another World has a whiff of me trying to convince people Melrose Place is the best prime time soap.
Keep on going buddy, some day they'll get it. But probably not.
Keep on going buddy, some day they'll get it. But probably not.
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