As the world ... grinds to a halt
National News:CBS has canceled one of its last remaining soap operas. "As the World Turns," which airs daily at 2 p.m. on the Eyenet's local owned-and-operated, KDKA-TV, will end its 54-year run in January.
The move puts Cincinnati-based soap-making giant Procter & Gamble out of the broadcasting business for the first time since 1933, when it launched the radio soap opera "Ma Perkins" as an advertising vehicle for its Oxydol laundry detergent.
(And you always wondered why they were called soap operas. If Heinz had created them, they'd be pickle operas.)
Shows like "As the World Turns" were originally aimed at women who worked in the home. But with more women in the paid workforce, soap opera audiences have been steadily declining for decades.
Producing an original drama five times per week is expensive: According to the New York Times, the average soap opera costs about $50 million per year to produce; a game show costs half that price.
The show's producers (technically a subsidiary of P&G) say they're seeking another outlet for the show. But as the Associated Press points out, P&G said the same thing about "Guiding Light" when CBS snuffed it in September and replaced it with a revival of "Let's Make a Deal." It still hasn't found anyone else to pick up "Light."
For now, CBS still screens "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "The Young and the Restless." (Or as the late Bill Burns notoriously called it ....)
Readers’ Forum
How simple that opening looks in this era of whiz-bang graphics some 50 years later. It was, of course, ATWT that was interrupted on November 22, 1963 with the first CBS bulletins of JFK being shot in Dallas, read by Walter Cronkite. (But in Pittsburgh, viewers had the Mike Douglas Show, and it was Bill Burns who broke in with the news.)
Seeing Eye - December 09, 2009 at 02:03 am
True. And according to an article that ran in Pittsburgh magazine on the 25th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, after KDKA finally cut to CBS, Burns realized he had done all of the bulletins without wearing his suit coat —- a major no-no in those days.
As far as I know, no kine exists of that KDKA broadcast (and why would there be one?).
Jason Togyer - December 09, 2009 at 10:46 am
Maybe KD will bring back the locally produced talk show Pittsburgh 2Day with Patrice King Brown, which was in that time slot for many years (IIRC the show was cancelled circa 1990). Seriously though – I wonder what CBS has planned for that time slot? Give it back to the local stations? Or put on yet another Dead On Arrival game show revival (like Wayne Brady’s revival of Let’s Make A Deal). Ugh.
John B. - December 09, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Jason, KDKA ran a clip of the Mike Douglas Show being interrupted by Bill Burns with the JFK bulletin (over a slide) on a 1983 special. I suppose it could have been a re-creation.
Seeing Eye - December 09, 2009 at 4:00 pm
IIRC, Cronkite didn’t have on his suit coat, either. One wonders if CBS would have preserved the initial JFK bulletins had they not been recording ATWT, which was presented live in those days.
Seeing Eye - December 09, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Very doubtful Burns would have been on camera for the initial bulletin. There was a premium on getting on the air as quickly as possible and there would have been no time to round up the techs necessary to make that possible. More likely he would just pop into the announce booth and read the copy since the announce booth was “live” capable at all times then. I’m also guessing that as soon as the news broke, CBS was up and running and KD took their coverage from the network.
Vic - December 11, 2009 at 05:28 am
Regarding JFK – Los Angeles was recording ATWT for delayed broadcast. We were lucky tape was running when the event happened (IIRC ATWT was live back then). Cronkite didn’t get on air right away, only a slide and a voice over because the TV cameras weren’t warmed up (remember vacuum tube technology anybody?) I wonder if that was the case with Bill Burns at KD?
John B. - December 11, 2009 at 11:00 am
Bill Burns told Pittsburgh magazine in 1988 that he handled the initial bulletins on KDKA; that he was on camera; he did them in his shirt-sleeves; and that it was some time before they joined the network.
According to the Post-Gazette’s TV listings for Nov. 1963, KDKA didn’t carry “As the World Turns” — it broke away from the network at 1 p.m. (12 noon Dallas time, a half hour before Kennedy was shot) after “Search for Tomorrow” and “The Guiding Light.”
When the initial bulletins came over the UPI wire, KDKA was running “The Mike Douglas Show” — naturally, since that was produced by Group W, after all.
It didn’t usually re-join the network until 2:30 p.m. (1:30 Dallas time) for Art Linkletter.
Maybe KDKA still had a camera warmed up after the 12 noon news; or maybe Bill Burns was mistaken; unfortunately, we can’t ask him for clarification.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Tkg..
Jason Togyer - December 11, 2009 at 11:11 am
A lot of oft-repeated recollections turn out not to be true. Bob Prince’s famous story of rushing Bill Mazeroski off the podium because he didn’t know Maz had hit the 1960 home run is not true. On the actual NBC tape, Prince asks Mazeroski what kind of pitch he hit.
JM - December 11, 2009 at 7:41 pm