Flashback: ANOTHER WORLD 1991

Now that ANOTHER WORLD is on Hulu, it's wonderful to watch shows from May and June 1991, which was a very good time for the soap. This episode from June 5, 1991, features many of my favorites inclucing Michael and Donna (Kale Browne and Anna Stuart), Jake (Tom Eplin) and Marley/Vicky (Anne Heche, in her last days on the show).

Daytime Nielsen Ratings: Week of July 21-25, 2008

From the ABC Daytime Ratings Release: * ABC extended its streak as Daytime's No. 1 network in key Women 18-49 to 11 straight weeks (1.3 rating/858,000), topping No. 2 CBS by 8% (vs. 1.2 rating/793,000) and No. 3 NBC by 18% (vs. 1.0 rating/679,000). * For the second consecutive week and the fifth time in six weeks, ABC stood as Daytime's No. 1 network in Women 18-34 (0.9 rating/309,000), beating No. 2 NBC by 13% (vs. 0.8 rating/254,000) and No. 3 CBS by 29% (0.7/226,000) for the week. * In Women 18-34, with "General Hospital" (No. 2, 1.0 rating/348,000), "The View" (No. 3T, 0.9 rating/317,000), "One life to Live" (No. 3T, 0.9 rating/297,000) and "All My Children" (No. 5T - 0.8 rating/273,000), ABC positioned all programs among Daytime's Top 5 for the second week running, with this week the 16th in a row that ABC was home to at least 3 of the Top 5. * In Women 18-49, for the third consecutive week ABC placed all programs among Daytime's Top 5 programs, marking the 16th week running the net has ranked at least 3 shows among the upper echelon: "General Hospital" (No. 2, 1.4 rating/923,000), "The View" (No. 3, 1.3 rating/884,000), "One Life to Live" (No. 4T - 1.2 rating/821,000) and "All My Children" (No. 4T, 1.2 rating/804,000). * Hitting a four-month high in Women 18-34 (since week of 2/25/08) and a six-week high in Women 18-49 (since week of 6/2/08), "All My Children" increased its margin of victory over time period rival NBC's "Days of Our Lives" (1:00 - 2:00 p.m.) week to week, defeating the time period rival by 7% (273,000 vs. 254,000) and by 18% (804,000 vs. 679,000), respectively. In Total Viewers, "All My Children" outdrew "Days of Our Lives" by 6% in Total Viewers (2.67 million vs. 2.52 million). * Ranking among Daytime's Top 5 programs for the 15th straight week in target young women, "One Life to Live" topped CBS' "As the World Turns" (2:00 - 3:00 p.m.) head to head by 50% in Women 18-34 (297,000 vs. 198,000), by 20% in Women 18-49 (821,000 vs. 687,000) and by 2% in Total Viewers (2.76 million vs. 2.71 million). * "General Hospital" overshadowed CBS' "Guiding Light," surpassing the time period competitor (3:00 - 4:00 p.m.) by an impressive 87% in Women 18-34 (348,000 vs. 186,000), by 39% in Women 18-49 (923,000 vs. 662,000) and by 20% in Total Viewers (2.83 million vs. 2.35 million). Following are the Daytime Lineup averages, plus Top 5 Programs Ranks - Week of July 21, 2008:Daytime Rank: Total Viewers Women 18-49 (Rtg/000s) No. 1 CBS 3.63 million No. 1 ABC 1.3/858,000 No. 2 ABC 2.95 million No. 2 CBS 1.2/793,000 No. 3 NBC 2.52 million No. 3 NBC 1.0/679,000 Top Daytime Programs in Women 18-49 (rank based on rating)Program Net Rtg/000s The Young & the Restless CBS 1.8/1.16 million General Hospital ABC 1.4/923,000 The View ABC 1.3/884,000 One Life to Live ABC 1.2/821,000 The Bold and the Beautiful CBS 1.2/815,000 All My Children ABC 1.2/804,000 As The World Turns CBS 1.0/687,000 Days of our Lives NBC 1.0/679,000 Guiding Light CBS 1.0/662,000

Today's Soap Star Birthdays

Susan Flannery (Stephanie, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL; ex-Laura, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) - 69 Lane Davies (ex-Cameron, GENERAL HOSPITAL; ex-Mason, SANTA BARBARA; ex-Evan, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) - 58 Wally Kurth (ex-Sam, AS THE WORLD TURNS; ex-Ned, GENERAL HOSPITAL; ex-Justin, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) - 50 Jay Bontatibus (Rob, DAYS OF OUR LIVES; ex-Andy, GENERAL HOSPITAL; ex-Tony, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS; ex-Russell, ANOTHER WORLD) - 44 Annie Parisse (ex-Julia, AS THE WORLD TURNS) - 33

News Brief

INTERVIEW: IMAGINARY BITCHES' Eden Riegel "My husband and I really loved working with each other, and the web really afforded us the opportunity to have people see it. It’s amazing that the business has inverted itself. Now, it’s very easy for a couple of morons with a camera to make things huge." Eva Longoria takes biker chic inspiration from pal Victoria Beckham Actress Eva Longoria must be 'desperate' for fashion tips, as the DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES star appears to be taking plenty of inspiration from her friend Victoria Beckham. As the 33-year-old actress stepped out in Hollywood wearing sunglasses and a black cadet cap, much like her former Spice Girl friend. Southern California earthquake interrupts Shawn Christian interview Michael Fairman writes: "DAYS Shawn Christian (Dr. Daniel Jonas) and I were starting our interview via phone for “Michael Fairman On-Air On-Soaps” and TV SOAP Australia, when all of sudden today’s 5.8 Southern California earthquake hit! As we remained on the line, and while my apartment on the third floor of my building was shaking pretty excessively, Shawn admitted he has never been in a Southern California earthquake before." 1 INTERVIEW: ATWT's Billy Magnussen On what it's been like working on a soap for the first time: "The scandal, the intrigue, the sex -- crazy!" On doing love scenes with Jon Hensley's wife: "It was at first. But ... we only, like, tackled and fought each other one time." INTERVIEW: Y&R's Daniel Goddard "I always try to justify things, if they do things that make the character look like not the sharpest tool in the shed. You have to be very careful. You are walking a fine line. If you’re not careful, you will make your character look like a manipulator, unless they are going to do a Nick and Phyllis type of story where they start off hating each other, but Cane comes to realize that he really likes Chloe." Schlereth pitches a reality show A Denver resident, Mark Schlereth had been in the Los Angeles area the last two weeks networking. The former Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos lineman has appeared on the soap opera GUIDING LIGHT and is trying to pitch a reality TV show based on his family from his wife's perspective. Mosko, Sony Pictures TV Sticking Together Steve Mosko is staying put at Sony. The president of the studio's television division has signed a new four-year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment that will keep him there through 2012. SPE Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton and SPE Co-Chairman Amy Pascal announced the deal Wednesday. Mr. Mosko has been at Sony since 1992 and has run the TV division since 2001. He supervises long-running Sony hits such as THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, WHEEL OF FORTUNE and JEOPARDY!" Guy Burnet E4 soap spot Guy Burnet is returning to the small screen with a late-night version of HOLLYOAKS. Burnet will reprise his role as Craig Dean for the new series, currently entitled LATE NIGHT HOLLYOAKS. Fans will see him save his sister in a dramatic clifftop rescue. Over the course of five 60 minute episodes, viewers will also see various characters travel to Belfast with unexpected results. They include an extremely unlikely marriage; the Dirty Diegos fighting first night nerves as they prepare to play their debut gig; and the students of Hollyoaks Community College spicing things up and getting more than they bargain for. Filming will start in September and transmission will be on E4 in November. HOLLYOAKS wedding: ... And the bride wore roller skates It was a wheely special day for HOLLYOAKS chav family the McQueens. The ultra-tacky wedding of the year included all the essentials for Carmel and Calvin's big day – bride, groom and . . . roller skates. Actress Gemma Merna, who plays Carmel McQueen, wore a classic white gown to film the glitzy scenes in Childwall yesterday, along with plenty of fake tan and roller skates. Fans will see Carmel get her skates on to marry hunky copper Calvin Valentine, played by Ricky Whittle.

Hererra and McCouch Returning to ATWT

1 The evil James Stenbeck, ATWT's all-time villain played by Anthony Hererra on and off since 1980, is returning to the show, and will first appear on August 27th. Now that the cat is out of the bag, I can report that I did see James on the shooting schedule when I visited the studio recently, but couldn't reveal this tidbit until it was formally announced. Soap Opera Digest is reporting that Grayson McCouch is returning as Dusty Donovan. He will begin taping in mid-August and debut on September 24th. This one is news to me. Dusty died earlier this year, so I'm not sure if this return means Dusty isn't dead or not (ATWT has featured ghost Sofie a lot lately). But he probably is alive since his return is somehow connected to James, the master at coming back from the dead. Also joining the cast is Benton Greene, whose character will make life difficult for Paul starting August 18th. With all the talk about budget issues at ATWT, the show certainly has not stopped casting, recasting and casting some more. This has lead to the show being very hit or miss and feeling disjointed from one day to the next.

A Martinez Joins the OLTL Cast

1 Soap Opera Digest is reporting that Emmy-winning daytime vet A Martinez (ex-Cruz, SANTA BARBARA; ex-Roy, GENERAL HOSPITAL) is returning to daytime in the new role of Ray Montez on ONE LIFE TO LIVE. Martinez won three ALMA Awards for his work on GH. He also won an Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1990 for his most memorable role, as Cruz Castillo on SB. Martinez said about New York (where OLTL tapes) in 2001: "Manhattan is an amazing place. The sheer level of energy on the streets lights me up like nowhere else I go."

SORDID LIVES Soundtrack Coming Soon

1 Del Shores (creator, writer and producer of SORDID LIVES: THE SERIES) has announced the show's soundtrack will be available soon, as will the episodes after they air on LOGO: "There is going to be a soundtrack!!! It will include the five new Olivia songs written by Olivia and Amy Sky, a long verson of the theme song (the version Olivia sang live at LA PRIDE), it also will include three Tammy Wynette songs sung by her daughter Georgette Jones. Also, one song by the amazing Sean Wiggins, one by great Kacey Jones and one awesome dance song called "Joyful Sound" performed by Debby Holiday and written by Debby and DJ Scotty for the show (prediction: This great song will be Debby's biggest dance single to date). The soundtrack should be available in a few weeks on iTunes and CD Baby. Also, the shows will be available for purchase on iTunes in a few weeks too." Don't miss Episode #2 tonight at 10pm ET on LOGO.

New Album From OLTL's Delaria

1 Ghostlight Records, a division of Sh-K-Boom Records, is partnering with Warner Jazz for the worldwide release of the new CD from acclaimed singer, actress, comedian and author Lea Delaria. The Live Smoke Sessions – recorded in concert at the popular uptown Manhattan jazz club last fall – will be released online and in stores on September 9. The disc features special guest performers Gil Goldstein on piano, Seamus Blake on saxophone and BBC “Jazz Singer of the Year” Ian Shaw on vocals. As a part of her busy fall schedule, Lea will appear in dual roles on the ABC-TV daytime drama ONE LIFE TO LIVE starting in September (one character, the psychic Madame Delphina, was recently labeled “What’s Hot” in Soap Opera Digest). She will celebrate the CD with a return to the New York jazz club Smoke for two Mondays, September 29 and October 6; and at the 606 Club in London on November 9. Her long-running weekend show at the Art House in Provincetown, Massachusetts runs through September 6.

Flashback: Soaps & Serials 1986

THEY'VE SEEN THOSE TV SOAP OPERAS, BUT WILL THEY BUY A BOOK VERSION? New England Business, September 1, 1986 Publisher Sydney R. Seltzer, chief executive officer of Pioneer Communications Network Inc. in Rocky Hill, Conn., compares book publishing to producing a Broadway show. A publisher may think he or she has a sure thing, but until the public jumps on the bandwagon there just isn't any guarantee. Indeed, publishing can be risky. But there are some formulas that are fairly sure to produce a success. Seltzer contends he has one. Rather than trying to develop markets for books that have already been written, Seltzer found a market, created a specific format for its books and then lined up authors to write them. Seltzer approaches books as "products' rather than literature. He calls the final product Soaps & Serials--a series of books based on television's soap operas. For $2.50, readers can purchase "Unspoken Desires,' "Love's Shattered Dreams,' or any of the six other paperbacks produced by Pioneer each month. Soap opera fans can read about the early days of their favorite shows. All of the juicy details are there--the illicit love affairs, the family feuds, the sudden tragedies. The covers of these soap sagas are illustrated with couples locked in passionate embraces, but the sexual content of the books wouldn't make your grandmother blush. 1 Pioneer's initial public offering was in December 1985, and full production began in May. Seltzer doesn't expect to garner the attention of all soap opera fans. But he maintains that if even a small portion of the 55 million people who watch at least one daytime or nighttime soap opera are interested in reading books based on their favorite shows, Pioneer will be a winner. "We tested for two years before we came into the market," says Seltzer. "We threw away a lot of manuscripts because we hadn't hit the right formula." Startup costs were high and the company ran into financial problems when Havens & Co., its original underwriter, went out of business just before Pioneer's prospectus was scheduled to go into printing. "It was a hell of a situation to be in after we spent all of that money,' says Seltzer, "but we knew we had a good idea." A few months after their original attempt fell through, Pioneer engaged Monmouth Investments Inc. of English-town, N.J., as its underwriter. Pioneer was only the second underwriting venture for Monmouth, but Seltzer says he went with a less-seasoned firm because it is difficult to find a major one to underwrite a company that hasn't even gone into production. Further, because Monmouth is a small firm, Seltzer figured it would devote more attention to Pioneer's underwriting than a larger firm might. Since the initial public offering of Pioneer Communications' 2.5 million units (which consist of one common share and warrants to buy two further shares), the issue has performed both boldly and wildly in the aftermarket. The issue went public at $1 per unit, and they have subsequently traded as high as $8 per unit. At presstime, the units were bid at $1.69. As many as 1 million units have changed hands in one day. WOULD THE FANS READ? Seltzer knew soap operas had large followings, but the major question was whether soap opera fans would want to read about their shows. Pioneer conducted marketing studies in an attempt to lessen its chances of failure. "So Tender, So True," a book based on the GUIDING LIGHT series, was tested in supermarkets in the Troy-Schenectady-Albany area of New York. The results were quite positive, says Seltzer. The target audience of Soaps & Serials is more likely to frequent supermarkets rather than bookstores. "We never thought of bookstores as a great marketplace for these books," says Seltzer. The books are now distributed to 22,000 supermarkets and drugstores nationwide and are in the bookstore chains, Walden Books and B. Dalton. "I'm not an expert on the soaps, but I do know how to put a paperback together," maintains Seltzer, who has spent more than 25 years in the publishing industry. Most of his experience is in publishing educational materials for children. In 1979, while visiting a New York television studio, Seltzer noticed three monitors, each showing a different soap opera. This first exposure to soap operas led to the idea of publishing soap novels. "It was like an electric lightbulb," he says. Seltzer had never seen a soap opera. Nonetheless, he figured a market must exist for books based on the shows. He studied the demographics of soap opera audiences and asked if anyone had ever produced a continuing series of novels based on soaps. He then queried the soap opera production companies about the licensing rights for publishing novelizations of their television shows. LICENSING RIGHTS It took two years for Pioneer to obtain licensing rights from Columbia Pictures Industries Inc., Procter & Gamble Productions Inc., the largest soap opera producer, and three other television production companies. Obtaining the licensing rights for the daytime soap operas was critical to Pioneer's success, says Seltzer. "I've got them all sewed up. There is no way anyone can compete with me." Most of the licensing companies require Pioneer to produce a minimum number of books. Procter & Gamble's agreement calls for at least one book a month for each soap opera. Further, all of the companies require that Pioneer submit all proposed plot outlines, completed manuscripts, cover art and other material for approval. "No one has been successful in the past with these kinds of books in the soap opera field," says Lester J. Borden, vice president of Columbia Pictures Merchandising in New York. But Borden contends Seltzer may have the right approach. "What he's done is put them at a low price" while mintaining good quality, he says, and displayed them in the supermarkets. The principals at Pioneer don't want to leave much to chance. They are using calculated strategies to attract and hold on to readers of soap opera novels. In addition to supermarket and bookstore sales, Seltzer plans to begin a book club next year for Pioneer's Soaps & Serials series along with soap opera clubs. Plan also are under way to market books based on several non-serial nighttime programs such as T.J. HOOKER and FAME and magazines based on FAME and the GIDGET television series. In May, the company launched the first installments of its series with paperback books based on eight soap operas: THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, ANOTHER WORLD, KNOTS LANDING, GUIDING LIGHT, DAYS OF OUR LIVES, DALLAS, CAPITOL and AS THE WORLD TURNS. Each book has a central plot and a subtle cliff-hanger subplot. The subplot then becomes the main plot in the next installment in each series. The soap publisher claims his books represent "a new genre" in publishing. Like many romance novels, Pioneer's books are formula written, but Seltzer says the important difference is that his books are based on something most people recognize and identify with, soap operas. Further, like soap operas, they are written with a continuing story line to entice readers to keep up with the series. Sylvia M. King, 33, of North Adams, Mass., says she doesn't read romance novels, but the idea of books based on soap operas appealed to her. When she saw the Soaps & Serials series, she bought two books based on her favorites--AS THE WORLD TURNS and GUIDING LIGHT. King has been an avid fan of GUIDING LIGHT for 23 years. "The books are well-written and move right along," she says. According to Seltzer, "The key is to write a good story. . . . This is not schlock material." The story editor of the series is Mary Ann Cooper, a nationally syndicated columnist who writes about soap operas. She uses the original television scripts to write outlines of each book, which are then completed by free-lance romance writers. The formula for these books specifies how they are written, even to the number of words. Each book is 192 pages in length with an average of 40,000 to 45,000 words. The $2.50 cover price is calculated to be competitive.