Sunday, July 12, 2009

CLASSIC CLIP: CBS Soap Ad 1968

CBS changed their lineup in a big way on Monday, September 9, 1968. Below is an advertistment promoting the changes. CBS had seven "modern provocative" daytime dramas at this time.

7 comments:

  1. Wow! CBS used to have a ton of soaps: "The Secret Storm," "Edge of Night," etc.

    According to the clip, a show expanded to 30 minutes. Did that mean that a show was only 15 or 20 minutes long?

    I found this opening credit for Y&R that includes vocals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYeD-0r4fhA&feature=player_embedded

    The lyrics remind works from the Mamas and Papas, very trippy.

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  2. Search for Tomorrow and The Guiding Light both expanded to 30 minutes on this day. Search retained the 12:30 slot and TGL moved to 2:30, it's original timeslot when it premired.

    By 1969, CBS had eight soaps, running from 11:30 to 4:00.

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  3. I do not see the clip. Could you repost?

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  4. I have posted a version of the Y&R theme with lyrics before. I really love that.

    SoapFan, many TV soaps started as 15 minutes and then expaneded to 30 and then expanded to 60.

    SoapBear, try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYeD-0r4fhA

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  5. Great find!! More drama in the promo clip than all the soaps currently on the air, combined!!

    It's so sad the genre's gotten so bad and nobody's looking back in order to move forward.

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  6. David Birney, Donna Mills, Marla Adams, Ed Bryce, Robert Gentry, Mary Stuart...wow, what a delightful trip down memory lane.

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  7. You are right Mark H, there is more drama here then in three hours of today's shows.

    Some more information about this scheduling change:

    1. The Secret Storm moved from 4:00 to 3:00 PM to create a 'block'. Not a good move as it went against Another World, which was in the top three at the time and General Hospital. It usually came in third in it's time period.

    2. To make room, Art Linkletter's House Party was cancelled, a victim of being stuck in a soap block and going against AW and GH.

    3. Love of Life aired at Noon. During this time it was always a top five show, beating Jeopardy on NBC. When the show moved to 11:30 in 1969 to make room for Where the Heart Is, the rating took a bad nose dive and never recovered. Though it's household rating was low (putting it in 10th or 11th place) the share was always high. When TSS was cancelled in 1974, LOL was only .2 points higher, but it's share was almost 10 points higher.

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