Monday, September 10, 2012

FLASHBACK: 'Our Private World' Is Going Off TV (1965)

C.B.S. SOAP OPERA IS GOING OFF TV; There'll Be No Sept. 11 for 'Our Private World'

By Val Adams
New York Times
August 3, 1965

Our Private World, the Columbia Broadcasting System's first evening television soap opera, will be discontinued Sept. 10. As ratings go, it failed to bring happiness to C.B.S. and the sponsor, the Procter Gamble Company.

The twice-a-week series was the first attempt by a competing network to capture some of the popularity of Peyton Place, an evening soap opera introduced last fall by the American Broadcasting Company. The commercial success of Peyton Place resulted in industry talk of more nighttime soaps, but the cancellation of Our Private World may curtail such plans.

"We were hoping for a runaway rating, but that didn't happen," Allen Potter, producer of Our Private World, said yesterday. "However, the show hasn't been a flop; it has been a success. On Friday evenings the share-of-audience has been higher than other shows C.B.S. had in the time period earlier in the year."

Our Private World, also televised each Wednesday evening, made its debut on May 5. It was the first evening television serial to be derived directly from a daytime soap opera, As the World Turns, now in its 10th year on C.B.S.

As the World Turns contributed one of its leading characters, Lisa Hughes, as the nucleus of Our Private World,. In overlapping story lines, Lisa left her home town of Oakdale, the setting of the daytime show, and went to Chicago, setting of the evening serial, to forget all her sorrow and problems. Mr. Potter said Lisa, portrayed by Eileen Fulton, would be returning to Oakdale and As the World Turns after her private world comes to an end next month.

Others in the cast of Our Private World are Geraldine Fitzgerald, Robert Drivas, Julienne Marie and Nicolas Coster. The roles they play will not be transferred to Oakdale.

***

Read Nicolas Coster's reflection on Our Private World here.

4 comments:

  1. I never realized Our Private World was an attempt to copy the success of Peyton Place!

    Wonder if they still have old episodes in the archives. Would be fun to see then. I read they're releasing Peyton Place on DVD.

    Thanks for posting this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Geraldine Fitzgerald? She was wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. James -- Yes, and I've read that Peyton Place itself was an attempt to produce something American that would prove as popular and successful as Britain's evening soap, Coronation Street.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This show never got a fair chance by CBS.

    Nicholas Coster as both of Lisa's past hubbys--John Eldridge on OPW & Eduardo Grimaldi on ATWT--Wow!

    Brian :-)

    ReplyDelete