TV SYNDICATORS AWASH IN SOAP OPERA PITCHES
By Lee Margulies
Los Angeles Times
March 15, 1982
LAS VEGAS - America apparently has gone mad for soap operas - both the television variety and the sort that real life tends to dish out.
At least that's the impression at the television industry's annual syndication convention, where program buyers from stations across the country shop for the shows they'll need next fall to fill in those portions of the weekly schedule that aren't given over to network or local programming.
This bustling program marketplace is part of the National Association of Television Program Executives, which runs through Wednesday at the Las Vegas Hilton. More than 200 program-distribution firms have set up shop to pitch everything from first-run, original series and TV movies to recycled old films and TV shows. The rerun titles range from the still-fresh THREE'S COMPANY and CHIPS to the upteenth go-round of I LOVE LUCY, MOD SQUAD and PETTICOAT JUNCTION.
Those are the old favorites. The new look, according to a tour of exhibits in hotel suites nad convention hall booths, is the soap opera in various incarations. For example:
- There are five different series being peddled that are devoted exclusively to talking with and about the stars and characters of TV soap operas, both daytime and prime time (DALLAS, DYNASTY, etc.) Take your pick: SOAP WORLD, THE WORLD OF SOAPS, SOAP TALK, SOAP OPERA DIGEST or SOAP OPERA RECAP. Sporting various mixtures of interviews, profiles and gossip, they are the video equivalent of the soap opera magazines sold in supermarkets.
- A new soap opera series, ROMANCE THEATER, has materialized on the market. Seeking also to capitalize on the popularity of romance novels, the show differs from the network serials by serviing up a new five-part love story each week. Louis Jordan hosts the new series from Comworld International.
- A profusion of shows screening here might be termed "real life" soap operas, focusing with varying degrees of seriousness on the problems of real people - from tear-jerking divorce and terminal illness to lighter issues, such as whether the young wife of a 79-year-old man should start a family with him.
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Prominent in this "real life" vein are the imitations of this year's big syndication success, THE PEOPLE'S COURT, in which individuals come before a TV camera to air their small claims court squabbles and accept a judge's settlement. Now, in its wake, come CUSTODY COURT, spotlighting what distributor MCA-TV calls "the drama and emotion of parents battling one another for the love of a child"; FAMILY COURT, featuring not only child-custody cases but also divorce settlements, paternity accusations and other "family" problems; and POLICE COURT, offering "non-professional actors" portraying persons of accused felony crimes as they step before a judge for arraignment.
Then there are several proposed serials dealing with (or capitalizing on, depending on your viewpoint) people problems in other guises.
PolyGram Television, for example, has resurrected the old QUEEN FOR A DAY show, in which women recount their hardships in hopes of having a special wish fulfilled. Over at Group W Productions actor Joseph Campanella hosts GETTING PERSONAL, in which he, along with a psychologist and a studio audience, discuss what he describes in the pilot program as "thoughts, feelings and conflicts with guests who are experiencing strong emotions." And Ralph Edwards and Stu Billett, who introduced THE PEOPLE'S COURT last year, are back with SO YOU THINK YOU GOT TROUBLES? a light-hearted show on which people banter about their offbeat problems with comedian Jay Johnson, then have an opportunity to win money by listening to advice from a clergyman, a psychologist and an astrologer or psychic.
Not everything that gets displayed here automatically makes it to the air. On the contrary, most of the first-run proposals will die for lack of sufficient support. It isn't enough to have two or three stations agree to buy a show; the economics of television dictate that a minimum of several dozen get behind a particular program to ensure that the revenues at least will come close to matching the production and distribution costs. Many syndicators are willing to absorb some loss initially for the chance of getting on and obtaining rating data that may help build the station lineup.
Thus, there was a strong feeling over the weekend that only one of the series about TV soap operas is likely to survive. Now will all of the "real life" problem shows be picked up. So, come fall, the viewer at home probably won't feel overcome by the clone lineup that is being pitched here.
In any case, these aren't the only first-run shows on the market. Other contenders for air time include a 60 MINUTES type news program hosted by investigative report Jack Anderson, a music series starring Glen Campbell, a collection of game shows, a cooking program with Chef Tell from PM MAGAZINE, a comedy series starring Wayland Flowers and his bawdy puppet Madama, a magazine show for singles and a big-band music show starring Peter Marshall, the former host of HOLLYWOOD SQUARES.
The interesting question, though, is why the soap opera and personal problem shows exist, in such numbers here? Many of the syndicators involved suggest that the producers independently have been reacting to the same trends: the unprecedented crescendo of attentioni paid to daytime serials, the growing appetite for reality-based entertainment, and information programming, the obvious success of THE PEOPLE'S COURT and the special appeal of soap opera programming to the female audience that is so important to advertisers.
"In the heart of every syndicator burns the desire to hook onto something you can do economically five days a week that will appeal to women," explained Norman Horowitz, president of PolyGram Television, which is offering both QUEEN FOR A DAY and THE WORLD OF SOAPS.
Promotional literature for SOAP WORLD, a weekday magazine-format series hosted by John Gabriel of RYAN'S HOPE, also stresses the importance of women in the show's late afternoon time slot. "This series," a brochure tells station programmers, "will hold your audience! It is the perfect segue between the emotional fantasyland of soap opera and the pragmatic layer of local and world news. SOAP WORLD will sweep your female audience happily and confortably (even unsuspectingly) into your news bloc, not to mention men and young adults."
But these shows also reflect what TV executives perceive as shifting audience interests, away from the all-purpose celebrity talk shows and toward more special-interest and personal-service programming.
Steven Bell, general manager of KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles, recalled that when his station brought a pilot called COUPLES to the syndication four years ago, the concept of having pairs of people discuss problems in their relationship with a psychiatrist was so radical that is was rejected out of hand. But KTLA has dusted off the project and is launching it locally as a weekday series today at 4 p.m. - and visiting station officials here have been clamoring to get a look at it, he reported.
"The audience is changing," Bell said. "The message is coming through loud and clear, and you've got to tailor your programming to the demands they are making."
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