Texas (TV series)

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Texas
Genre soap opera
Running time 60 Minutes
Creator(s) John William Corrington , Joyce Hooper Corrington , Paul Rauch
Starring Beverlee McKinsey
Bert Kramer,
Daniel Davis
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Original channel NBC
Original run August 4, 1980–December 31, 1982
No. of episodes 617


Texas (sometimes called Another World in Texas and, later, Texas: The New Generation) was a soap opera which aired on NBC from August 4, 1980 until December 31, 1982. Created by John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington, and Paul Rauch, the show was a spinoff of Another World. It was unique in that it was the first soap opera to air hour-long episodes from its inception. The show aired from 3pm-4pm (EST) and caused a small domino effect on the NBC daytime schedule; Another World, which had previously been airing from 2:30pm-4pm, was scaled back to 60 minutes and aired from 2pm-3pm. The Doctors, which had been airing from 2pm-2:30pm, moved to 12:30pm-1pm.

Texas was moved towards the end of its run, taking the 11 AM to noon slot on the schedule. This lasted from April to December of 1982, when Texas was cancelled.

Rauch's initial plans involved a historical soap centered around the period of the Civil War. The Corringtons submitted a concept for a show set in the Antebellum South entitled "Reunion", but NBC wanted something more in line with the hugely successful primetime soap Dallas. Rauch then chose to have the show revolve around the popular Another World character Iris Cory Carrington, played by Beverlee McKinsey. She and her goofy maid Vivien Gorrow (Gretchen Oehler) moved away from Bay City to live a new life in Houston and Iris became involved with first love Alex Wheeler. A slew of characters debuted on Another World in hopes that when they moved over to Texas they would take fans with them. The show had a difficult task from the beginning, as the series' main timeslot competitors were General Hospital, then at its most popular, and Guiding Light, which was going through a resurgence at the time.

Critics complained that Iris (who was known on Another World as being a villainess and a bitch) had become too tame, and that other roles were poorly cast or suffered from paper-thin writing (Texas hired General Hospital star Kin Shriner at great expense, only to give him almost nothing to do until he finally left). After a year, however, McKinsey left the show and the secondary characters seen in the first year were given more story. Texas lost one million viewers upon McKinsey's departure. While Another World, which also lost a million viewers upon her 1980 departure, could afford the drop in ratings, Texas could not, and its days were numbered. To try to appeal to the younger audience, the show rechristened itself Texas: The New Generation.

In 1982 Gail Kobe became executive producer and Pam Long (who appeared on the show as Ashley Linden Marshall) became headwriter. The show began to improve in quality but the ratings remained in the basement. The show moved from its 3pm timeslot to a late morning, 11am-noon timeslot, which did not help things.In the latter part of the year, Texas was canceled. The last episodes featured a Christmas miracle (snow fell in Houston as Long's character Ashley and her unborn baby, who had been presumed dead after a flash flood, returned home to loving husband Justin) and a New Year's series finale where the local TV station was bought out and all the major characters were fired. The Doctors also aired its last episode on this day. The final scene was a bittersweet final toast, "to Texas!" Executive producer Kobe and writer Long would go on to make their mark on Guiding Light for much of the 1980s.

Contents

[edit] Ratings History

Texas was launched at a time when NBC's daytime lineup (consisting of Another World, Days of Our Lives and The Doctors) had fallen into ratings trouble, after a highly successful period in the early and mid-1970s.

Throughout its run Texas remained in the bottom echelon of the ratings chart, tying with The Doctors for last place in its innaugural 1980-81 season with numbers falling graudally after that. However, it did impact on the ratings of Another World to the point that it was no longer NBC's highest-rated soap.

The 1982 move to 11 a.m. did nothing for the ratings (which certainly couldn't have been helped by the show going against The Price is Right in that time slot), and Texas (along with The Doctors) ended its run on December 31 of that year. Strangely enough, Somerset, the first spinoff of Another World, aired its finale on the same date six years prior.

[edit] Surviving Episodes

Soon after Texas' cancellation, cable's TBS began re-airing the show in a weekday morning timeslot, but shown in 30-minute -- not 1-hour -- installments; these airings of Texas would be paired with a new half-hour soap, The Catlins, which was one of the few made-for-cable soaps.

In 2006, Procter & Gamble began making several of its soaps available, a few episodes at a time, through America Online's AOL Video service, downloadable free of charge. Reruns of Texas episodes began with the show's first episode in August 1980.

[edit] Famous alumni

[edit] References

  • Schemering, Christopher. The Soap Opera Encyclopedia. Ballantine, 1985.

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  • During its initial run, Texas Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby, Jr. took a tour of the program's Brooklyn studio, and praised the show's realistic visual feel.
  • The cancellations of Texas and The Doctors ushered in a change in NBC's morning lineup, as the lineup that premiered the following Monday was full of game shows. The block led off with the Jim Perry helmed revival of Sale of the Century at 10:30. The hour Texas held went to Wheel of Fortune, which was returning to the 11 AM slot, and the game show Hit Man, which introduced audiences to Peter Tomarken. The slot that The Doctors occupied was taken by Just Men!, hosted by Betty White. Of that new lineup, Sale lasted until 1989, as did Wheel, but Hit Man and Just Men! were cancelled after only 13 weeks.
  • When Texas was moved from the 3 PM slot, two game shows followed it in that slot. The first was Fantasy, an hour long audience participation show hosted by Leslie Uggams and Peter Marshall. The second was the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, hosted by Gene Rayburn and Jon Bauman. A soap opera wouldn't air in that slot again until July 1984, when Santa Barbara premiered. After that was cancelled in 1993, NBC gave the hour back to its affiliates.
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