Soap operas (1 Viewer)

[danielanderson4500]

Another thing about Another World is that Bill Wolff would say "Wardrobe by Orbach's" before he says "Now stay tuned for "You Don't Say," starring Tom Kennedy, next on NBC." But on The Doctors, the wardrobe credit is on the screen.

 

[danielanderson4500]

That's a really awesome read , Thank you .

Bummer that the GH is missing some really important years on how some of the characters evolved . Awesome to know that 76-84 Days of our Lives and The Young and the Restless are archived . I would buy them in a second . Don't know why these companies pass up MONEY!!! Soon no one will even know what this stuff is ...

It amazes me that The Dating Game starring Jim Lange(which was a Chuck Barris production) survives, but not GH. And if i remember, those 2 shows ran back to back from 1968 to 1973.

 

[Ethan Riley]

They literally saw no value in those tapes. They wouldn't rerun them, they wouldn't syndicate them. The only reason Dark Shadows survives is because Dan Curtis wanted them. I don't guess that he imagined they'd ever be rerun (at first) but he wanted them kept.

 

[Lord Dalek]

It amazes me that The Dating Game starring Jim Lange(which was a Chuck Barris production) survives, but not GH. A

Nearly the entirety of the ABC daytime run of The Dating Game WAS wiped. A handful of shows exist but the bulk of surviving ABC episodes are from the weekly nighttime version.

 

[DeWilson]

They literally saw no value in those tapes. They wouldn't rerun them, they wouldn't syndicate them. The only reason Dark Shadows survives is because Dan Curtis wanted them. I don't guess that he imagined they'd ever be rerun (at first) but he wanted them kept.

Actually, Dan Curtis got his start in television syndication and knew the value of his show - he knew there'd be a future in some form after ABC - it just took a few years after the end of the run on ABC to get them out there due to various factors beyond his control.

 

[MatthewA]

Dark Shadows is a show about the occult, so it has the kind of fan overlap with sci-fi and horror you wouldn't normally get with most soaps. That helped make it viable in syndication.

SoapNET had plenty of opportunity to run the older episodes of shows that were still on the air before it (and they) ceased to exist altogether, but they opted for same-day reruns instead and reran the shows that were already cancelled.

 

[Ethan Riley]

SoapNet's scheduling had everybody scratching their heads. What a stupid network, really. They'd offer same-day reruns of modern soaps. Why? For people who'd missed the shows on their own networks? Get a vcr. SoapNet should have been offering great, classic runs of shows that hadn't been seen in 20 years. Get the unemployed actors of those programs a little royalty money, serve the fans who'd never even seen them. SN should have brought a couple of original soaps while they were at it. It wouldn't have been that hard. Other than re-airing Ryan's Hope, it seemed like this network wasted a lot of potential.

 

[MatthewA]

Apparently, P&G didn't want older As the World Turns and Guiding Light episodes competing with the new ones, but they didn't mind letting SN have Another World. Too bad they started at 1987, and anything that existed before that went to that ultra-buggy AOL service along with Texas and whatever was left of The Edge of Night. Even though DVRs existed by this point, along with DVD/VHS combos, the Internet of the 2000s wasn't ready to handle that much material. Today, in the age of the streaming wars, it's a different story, but they don't seem to want to do anything with them other than the small smattering that made it to DVD.

Screen Gems/CPT/Sony supposedly saved all or most of Days and Y&R yet rarely does anything with the archives they have on them. Yet now I hear Ken Corday wants Sony out of the picture altogether for his show, even taking them to court to accuse them of sabotaging the show with its financial shenanigans; he lost the first round, but it's not over yet. Some of these claims are over contracts that predate Coca-Cola's seven-year affair with the Torch Lady. If NBC and Corday pushed Sony out altogether, would Sony lose the rights to the whole show or just new episodes? The lawsuit mentions the lack of exploitation of the show's history by the studio.

Of course, they'll probably have to fork over some money to Gloria Loring for that "Friends and Lovers" song if there ever was a DVD compilation of any kind and that era was in it.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I don't know how much of that Sony drama had to do with the recent renewal drama concerning DOOL: https://www.soapcentral.com/days/news/2019/1112-days_of_our_lives_entire_cast_released.php

Most likely the contract cancellations are more of a bargaining ploy than a sign the show is going off the air, but the reportage was a little thick this time around.

 

[sjbradford]

Corday is going to offer the show to NBC for a reduced license fee. And they’ll accomplish that by signing new contracts with the actors at a lower rate.

At some point, the daytime soaps will come to end, because they won’t be able to keep lowering the budget, even as the audience slips away.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I try to watch them on occasion, but it's like the lights went out. I tried to watch DOOL the other day, and they had (an aging and drunken) John making the moves on Hope. I got weirded out.

 

[MatthewA]

Even my mom gave up on them after having watched them continuously since the early 1960s.

Even if you accept the theory of active sabotage, another part of the ratings problem is that cable and streaming dramas doing serialized stories took away daytime’s niche in a way earlier prime time network soaps did not.

There’s also another problem: the older audience members died and the younger generation didn’t want to take their place.

 

[danielanderson4500]

I think that's who it is too.

Maybe it would be Don Pardo..but can't really tell if it's him or Fred Facey....

 

[Ron Lee Green]

I'm told The Doctors will soon have it's own dedicated streaming channel which will be by subscription only. They will have the early black and white episodes available to watch.

Here is an excerpt from the press release from Reach High Media:

REACH HIGH MEDIA GROUP ANNOUNCES NEW PROGRAMMING AND NATIONAL STREAMING ACCESS

Chattanooga, Tenn. (December 13, 2019) – Reach High Media Group, a national distribution hub hosting programming in

221 cities across the country, will expand streaming access and debut new original content, including Morning Beats, an

all-new morning show and special programming featuring interviews with Retro TV stars, in January, 2020.

Retro TV announces that fans of the classic soap opera, The Doctors, will be able to stream episodes of the Emmy

Award-winning series beginning in January, 2020. This subscription-based access will include all-new programs featuring

interviews with cast and crew from the series talking about their characters, experiences and careers after Hope

Memorial Hospital. Set in the fictional New England city of Madison and filmed at the NBC Studios at Rockefeller Plaza,

The Doctors was known for featuring cutting-edge storylines and was nominated for Emmy awards 17 times. Streaming

audiences will enjoy television commercials from the Retro TV vaults, interviews with cast and crew alums and, for the

first time since its original run, early black and white episodes will be available.



“Today’s fans want to engage with the content that they love,” says communications director Jennifer Crutchfield. “With

our new digital platforms users will have opportunities to watch, share and interact with the programming that they love

in all new ways.” From trivia games to real-time news-gathering and live content contribution opportunities, audiences

across the country will connect with Reach High Media Group’s programming in all new ways

 

[Ethan Riley]

I would love to see soap operas streaming.

 

[FrankPitt]

I try to watch them on occasion, but it's like the lights went out. I tried to watch DOOL the other day, and they had (an aging and drunken) John making the moves on Hope. I got weirded out.

I'm not sure if it'll make a difference, but that wasn't Hope. That was Princess Gina pretending to be Hope, in the midst of attempting to seduce John (who seemed completely guileless about what was happening). Marlena came home in the thick of it and shut that mess down.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I'm not sure if it'll make a difference, but that wasn't Hope. That was Princess Gina pretending to be Hope, in the midst of attempting to seduce John (who seemed completely guileless about what was happening). Marlena came home in the thick of it and shut that mess down.

That makes the scene funnier, at least. I can tell you a tale out of school, now that it's been almost 20 years. I used to work as an extra on DOOL around the turn of the century (I was playing one of Shawn and Belle's classmates, usually). And we extras would sit in the green room, and sit and sit until needed. And one morning they were shooting a John and Marlena scene (scenes) that took forever. And it went so long we broke for lunch and when we came back an hour later, it was clear that Drake and Deidre had gone out for a nip at lunch. Well, not just a nip. They came back LIT. It was obvious to everyone. And we extras were watching all of this on the playback screen they had in the green room. And I noticed as Drake was slurring his words and Deidre was smacking her lips. After about 10 minutes of this, one of the extras whispered, "Are...are they drunk?" And that got a huge laugh from the extras and few crew members who were sitting back there. And the rocky scenes played on and on until they finished and were dismissed for the day. I watched the aired episode a few weeks later. You could still tell they were drunk, but the editing got out the worst of it.

 

[FrankPitt]

I can tell you a tale out of school, now that it's been almost 20 years.

That story delighted me! Thanks for sharing it!

 

[Ron Lee Green]

The Doctors streaming website is up! A monthly subscription is only $2.99. If this is a success, maybe we will see more old soap operas available on streaming sites (That is, the ones that haven't been erased). Dark Shadows is the only other old soap opera I can think of that has a streaming website.
Here's the link: https://watchthedoctors.com/home?fb...kajKJOQCXAQJRhpLSVaHAXEuBYR4LGruHSItnZFZcyDOc

 

[EricSchulz]

The Doctors streaming website is up! A monthly subscription is only $2.99. If this is a success, maybe we will see more old soap operas available on streaming sites (That is, the ones that haven't been erased). Dark Shadows is the only other old soap opera I can think of that has a streaming website.
Here's the link: https://watchthedoctors.com/home?fb...kajKJOQCXAQJRhpLSVaHAXEuBYR4LGruHSItnZFZcyDOc

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Give me one with Another World or Days of our Lives and I might do it!