Texas (TV series)

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Texas

Series title card
Genre Soap opera
Created by John William Corrington
Joyce Hooper Corrington
Paul Rauch
Written by Pamela K. Long (1982)
Starring Beverlee McKinsey
Bert Kramer
Daniel Davis
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 617
Production
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time 48 minutes
Production company(s) Procter & Gamble Productions
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Audio format Monaural
Original run August 4, 1980 (1980-08-04) – December 31, 1982 (1982-12-31)
Chronology
Related shows Another World

Texas is an American daytime soap opera which aired on NBC from August 4, 1980 until December 31, 1982, sponsored and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions at NBC Studios in Brooklyn, New York City. It is a spinoff of Another World, co-created by head writers John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington, and executive producer Paul Rauch of Another World. Rauch would hold the title of executive producer for the parent series and its spin-off until 1981.

Premiere episode/First season

The premiere episode featured Iris Cory Bancroft on a plane, leaving Houston after visiting her son Dennis, who had relocated to Texas with his new love to open an art gallery. During her sojourn, she reconnected with her first love, self-made millionaire Alex Wheeler. Alex is determined not to let the past repeat itself and lose her again. He arranges the Bay City-bound jet airliner, which Iris is on, to return at Houston.

The first season of the series the stories centered around the daily lives of the wealthy Wheelers and Bellmans and the middle-class Marshalls, as well as their ranching and oil interests.[1] The series would never achieve ratings success on NBC in the USA, due to numerous factors.

Texas, Starring Beverlee McKinsey

Texas was used as a starring vehicle for Daytime Emmy nominated Beverlee McKinsey, whose Another World character of Iris Carrington, penned in 1972 by Harding Lemay on the mother show as the rich spoiled daughter of Publishing magnate Mackenzie Cory, was made the focal point of the series. Beverlee McKinsey was the first daytime performer to be given the distinction of having a starring credit on the opening of the show. The narrator of the show would announce at the end of the theme song, " Texas, Starring Beverlee McKinsey," grazed with an outside picture of the iconic actress. However, she left Texas sixteen months after its debut.

Texas was also the first daytime soap opera to air hour-long episodes from its inception, as all the other hour-long soaps airing at the time had expanded from thirty minutes. Noteworthy, the multiple Emmy Award-winning Santa Barbara, which took over the former Texas time slot in 1984, also premiered with hour-long episodes.

The Corringstons' Development

The Corringtons' initial concept was for a show set in the Antebellum South entitled Reunion, but NBC wanted something more in line with the hugely successful CBS primetime soap Dallas.[2] which dominated the ratings. Rauch then chose to have the show revolve around the popular Another World character Iris Cory Carrington, played by Beverlee McKinsey. Iris initially set out to visit her grown son Dennis (Jim Poyner), who had relocated from Bay City to Houston. Within a matter of weeks, Iris reconnected and became romantically involved with her first love, Alex Wheeler (Bert Kramer). A slew of characters debuted on Another World in hopes that when they moved over to Texas they would take fans with them.

Ratings

The show had a very difficult task from the beginning in the ratings on NBC-TV; its 3:00 PM (EST) timeslot competitors were ABC's General Hospital, then TV's highest-rated daytime soap opera due in large part to the popularity of the Luke and Laura storyline, and CBS's Guiding Light, which was experiencing a ratings resurgence. With these factors to consider and because Texas was the new series on the block, the show finished with a 3.8 rating for its initial first season.

Production

Critics complained that Iris Bancroft (who was known on Another World as being a villainess) had become too tame, and that other roles were poorly cast or suffered from paper-thin writing. In early 1981, the Corringtons were replaced as head writers.[2] Other casting moves were made with little gain, such as hiring away General Hospital star Kin Shriner (Scotty Baldwin) at great expense to be cast as Jeb Hampton, only to give him almost nothing to do except as a supporting role until he finally departed the series in August 1981.

In addition to popular Shriner, veteran prime time actor, Jay Hammer, who had a notable credit role as Allan Willis during the 1978–1979 season on the prime time CBS sitcom The Jeffersons, replaced Chandler Hill Harben in February 1981, as Max Dekker. The character was paired off with Carla Borelli's character, Reena Cooke. They both brought charisma to the roles, but their storyline would be short-lived, as Hammer's contract ended, and Max was killed off in a fatal explosion.

Production: Special guests

Musical artists were featured on Texas to focus and contribute to some of the characters' storyline, such as brother and sister Elena and Rikki Dekker both venturing into the musical careers, although short lived. Almost all serials in the 1980s had notable musical artists appearing on their respective show with some of the characters playing rising musical artists, and Texas was no exception, The character of Randy Hamilton (Rikki Dekker) gave his rendition of Luther Ingram's R&B hit, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right", and notable country music singers of the 1970s and 1980s such as Johnny Paycheck, Tom T. Hall and Ray Stevens all made appearances as themselves at venues, mostly at the Coop, on the series. In addition, politicians also made appearances, such as Oklahoma Governor George Nigh and his wife Donna. They appeared in walk-on roles (playing themselves as Governor and First Lady of Oklahoma) during the show's first month on the air; cast member Lisby Larson (Paige Marshall) serenaded the couple with a rendition of "Oklahoma!". Also, while he never appeared on the actual series, Texas Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby, Jr. took a tour of the program's Brooklyn studio, and praised the show's realistic visual feel.

Texas: The New Generation

In November 1981, 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 the daytime ratings for 1980 - 1981 season, Texas achieved a 3.8, tied with The Doctors at the 12th position. Its contenders Guiding Light had an 8.2 ratings, 4th position, as opposed to an 11.4 for General Hospital's.

In its second season, the series fell to a 3.6 rating. At the end of its broadcast season it ended with a 2.7, 12th out of 14 daytime serials. The total viewers for the first two seasons was at 2.8 million, followed by a drop to 2.2 million in the final season. Simultaneously, Texas aired on CTV in Canada at the 3:00 PM EST slot following Another World, which had also aired on CTV since the early 1970s. The series was immensely popular in Canada, topping the BBM daytime ratings charts for many weeks.[2] Beverlee McKinsey vacationed often in the Province of Nova Scotia during her tenure on both shows, according to numerous soap opera sources. After NBC switched timeslots in April of 1982, CTV opted not to follow suit, and continued airing Texas at its original timeslot of 3:00 pm (EST). In addition, Canadian viewers who either lived near the border and had access to NBC terrestrial affiliates or a cable TV subscription had the option of viewing the series mornings or afternoons, respectively.

Hitopah: storyline arc December 1981 to April 1982

A popular storyline at the beginning of 1982 called Hitopah[3] involved numerous characters in adventurous settings and intriguing circumstances to locate Sutars Rock, which nonetheless offered comic relief provided by good friends Ruby and Lurleen. Hitopah was about an ancient Indian artifact called the Fire Compass that was covered with runes and which Ruby's boyfriend Beau Baker opened. The opening of the Fire Compass released a toxic gas that turned Beau instantly into a mummy. Then, following some comedic hijinks with Lurleen and Ruby attempting to rid of the body and make sense of the situation, Gretchen tried to get part of the Fire Compass back from them, leading to a chase to find the secret underground chambers in Hitopah (which contain a huge quantity of petroleum), towards which the Fire Compass is supposed to guide the owner. [4]

Gail Kobe / Pam Long

In late 1981 Gail Kobe[5] became executive producer and Pam Long (who appeared on the show as Ashley Linden Marshall) became Head Writer. The show began to improve in quality, but the ratings remained in the basement due to numerous factors such as losing affiliates due to timeslot rescheduling.[2] Executive producer Gail Kobe and Head writer Pam Long would go on to make their marks on Guiding Light for much of the mid 1980s. They were able to lure the iconic Beverlee McKinsey, who had been on hiatus from the genre since leaving Texas in 1981. McKinsey would go on to portray Baroness Alexandra Spaulding Von Halkein.,[6] her second and final iconic character in the genre known as daytime television. Jay Hammer, Lisby Larson, Harley Jane Kozak (Brette Wheeler) and Michael Woods (Mark Wheeler) would all be casted and given new roles on Guiding Light.

Texas: Final episodes

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!"

Production Staff

Production staff on Texas included Tim Cagney, Carolyn Culliton, Charles Edwards, Richard Gullieth, Pamela Hammer, John Knutz, Michele Poteet, Dorothy Purser, Samuel D. Radcliffe, Paul Rader, Eric Rubinton, Gary Tomlin, Joyce Corrington, William Corrington, Paul Rauch, Gail Kobe, Bud Kloss, Judy Lewis, Robert Calhoun, Mary S. Bonner, John P. Whitesell, Kevin Kelly, John Pasquin, Bruce M. Minnix, and Andrew D. Weyman.

Executive Producer

1980 to 1981

  • Paul Rauch (Co-Creator / EP for Another World as well)


1981 to 1982

  • Gail Kobe

Broadcast history on NBC Daytime

The premiere of Texas came 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. Given that the show aired from 3:00-4:00 PM (EST), it caused a small domino effect on the NBC daytime schedule: Another World, which had become daytime's first 90-minute drama 17 months earlier, airing from 2:30-4:00 PM, was scaled back to 60 minutes and aired from 2:00-3:00 PM; and The Doctors, which previously aired from 2:00-2:30 PM, now moved to 12:30-1:00 PM.

Thanks in no small part to the then-peak success of ABC's General Hospital, Texas remained in the bottom echelon of the daytime serial chart with a 3.8 ratings, tying with The Doctors for last place, 12th, in 1980. However, the show's numbers fell gradually after its first year. The struggles of Texas also had an impact on the ratings of its mother show, Another World, in such a way that the latter show would no longer be NBC's highest rated soap. The 1980-1981 season saw Another World finish with a 5.1 ratings by comparison to a 7.1 during the previous season (1979-1980). By the 1980-1981 season, Days of our Lives would become the highest rated serial on NBC.[7]

Morning broadcast on NBC

On April 26, 1982, NBC Daytime moved Texas to the 11:00 am timeslot. The serial was at a critical low point in the ratings, and NBC, as part of a reshuffling of its morning lineup and a last-ditch effort to save the show, opted for this late morning move, which resulted in a change of time slot for the hit game show Wheel of Fortune. As part of this shuffle, NBC moved Wheel of Fortune from 11:00am to 10:30 AM and cancelled Blockbusters and Battlestars. However, this move may have exacerbated the ratings problems for Texas: Although Texas would no longer face off against ABC's General Hospital at 3:00 PM, it found itself in a head-to-head duel with CBS' hit game show, The Price is Right. Although Wheel of Fortune did give some competition to The Price is Right at 11, Texas was unable to make even the slightest dent in that time slot due to the latter's popularity. Therefore, NBC cancelled Texas and the still-struggling The Doctors (which had been bumped up to Noon to make room for Search for Tomorrow at 12:30 PM) on December 31, 1982. Strangely enough, Somerset, the first spin-off of Another World, aired its finale on the same date six years earlier.

After initially filling the slot with reruns of CHiPs for a few months, NBC would experiment with other programming in the 3 PM timeslot after the move of Texas, as two sixty-minute game shows would occupy the slot over a period of nearly two years. The first of these game shows, Fantasy, ran for thirteen months and ended its run in October 1983 to make room for the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, which ran until July 1984. NBC's next offering in that timeslot was the soap Santa Barbara, which ran for nine seasons and achieved better ratings and critical acclaim then Texas. Santa Barbara was also the last network program NBC aired in that slot; after it left the air in 1993, NBC returned the hour to its affiliates. Ironically, Paul Rauch was the finale Executive Producer of Santa Barbara.

Shortly after the cancellation of Texas and The Doctors, NBC turned its focus back to game shows in early 1983. The daytime block led off with the Jim Perry-helmed revival of Sale of the Century at 10:30 a.m. The 11:00 hour now went to Wheel of Fortune, which Texas had displaced with its move to the mornings, and Hit Man, which introduced audiences to Peter Tomarken. The 12:00 noon slot that The Doctors previously occupied would be taken by Just Men!, hosted by Betty White. Of the shows that premiered that day, Sale lasted until March 1989, but Hit Man and Just Men! each lasted only 13 weeks.

Surviving episodes courtesy of P&G and AOL

Soon after Texas' cancellation, cable's TBS began re-airing the show in a weekday morning timeslot, but shown in 30-minute episodes, versus one-hour installments.[8] These airings of Texas were 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.[9] Reruns of Texas episodes began with the show's first episode from August 4, 1980.

As of January 1, 2009, Procter & Gamble announced that Texas and three other of its cancelled soap operas would no longer be streamed on AOL Video.[10] The notice referred to exploring other options to make the shows available for viewing. The last Texas episode made available through AOL Video was #339, which originally aired on December 4, 1981. Additionally, numerous clips of the show are available on the video-sharing site YouTube.

There are known to be five missing episodes so far:

  • Episode #47 dated October 7, 1980 posted at AOL is the same as episode #24 and it seems to be either missing or was somehow mislabeled.[citation needed]
  • Episode #203 dated May 21, 1981
  • Episode #245 dated July 21, 1981
  • Episode #247 dated July 23, 1981
  • Episode #288 dated September 18, 1981

Episodes 78-163 were once available at AOL, but removed sometime in spring 2008.

Although episodes 1-77 are still available through the WMV stream URLs, AOL has completely removed the embedded player pages at the website.

Famous alumni

List of characters

Characters who crossed over from Another World[11]

DENNIS CARRINGSTON (Jim Poyner, June 30, 1980 - November 12, 1981)
REENA COOK (Carla Borelli, June 30, 1980 - December 31, 1982)
DR. KEVIN COOK (Lee Patterson, June 30, 1980 - March 4, 1981)
STRIKER BELLMAN (Robert Gerringer, June 30, 1980 - March 23, 1981. Clifton James, March 31, 1981 - July 2, 1982)
VICTORIA BELLMAN (Elizabeth Allen, July 1, 1980 - December 31, 1982)
IRIS CARRINGTON (Beverlee McKinsey, July 2, 1980 - November 30, 1981)
VIVIEN GORROW (Gretchen Oehler, February 10, 1981 - December 31, 1982)

Characters that made their debut on Another World in the weeks previous to Texas's premiere

DAWN MARSHALL (Dana Kimmell, June 30, 1980 - December 9, 1980)
MIKE MARSHALL (Stephen D. Newman, June 30, 1980 - July 21, 1980)
MAGGIE DEKKER (Shirley Slater, June 30, 1980 - September 25, 1981)
NITA WRIGHT (Ellen Maxted, June 30, 1980 - June 25, 1982)
ALEX WHEELER (Bert Kramer, July 1, 1980 - June 26, 1981)
DR. COURTNEY MARSHALL (Catherine Hickland, July 1, 1980 - June 24, 1981)
PRINCESS JASMINE ZEHEDI (Donna Cyrus, July 1, 1980 - October 24, 1980
GINNY MARSHALL (Barbara Rucker, July 10, 1980 - December 31, 1982)
STEVEN MARSHALL ((1) Greg Sutton, July 10, 1980 - February 6, 1981. (2) Damian Miller, March 9, 1981 - February 5, 1982)
JUSTIN MARSHALL (Jerry Lanning, July 21, 1980 - December 31, 1982)
PAIGE MARSHALL (Lisby Larson, July 21, 1980 - December 31, 1982)
MAX DEKKER (Chandler Hill Harben, July 23, 1980 - February 12, 1981. (Charles) Jay Hammer, February 19, 1981 - August 12, 1981; September 9, 1981; October 9, 1981(FB))
ELENA DEKKER (Caryn Richman, July 25, 1980 - December 31, 1982)
RIKKI DEKKER (Randy Hamilton, July 25, 1980 - December 31, 1982)

Characters that made their debut on Texas

JEB HAMPTON (Kin Shriner, October 20, 1980 - August 19, 1981)
ELIOT CARRINGTON (Daniel Davis, October 17, 1980 - December 29, 1981)
BERNIE STOKES (Michael Medeiros, November 11, 1980 - April 15, 1981)
JOEL WALKER (Charles Hill, March 1, 1982 - December 31, 1982)
BARRETT MARSHALL (Stephen D. Newman, December 19, 1980 - June 19, 1981; August 13–18, 1981 and October 2–30, 1981)
JOHN BRADY (James Rebhorn, December 4, 1981 - December 31, 1982)
GRANT WHEELER (Donald May, June 18, 1981 - December 31, 1982)
CHRIS SHAW (Benjamin Hendrickson, February 10, 1981 - May 19, 1981)
PETER PARNELL (Ned Schmidtke, April 7, 1981 - October 2, 1981, October 27, 1981(FB))
ASHLEY LINDEN (Pamela Long Hammer, March 4, 1981 - December 31, 1982)
GREGORY LINDEN (Damion Scheller, December 15, 1981 - December 31, 1982)
ALLISON LINDEN (Elizabeth Berridge, December 15, 1981 - May 28, 1982. Teri Garber, June 7, 1982 - December 31, 1982)
T.J. (THOMAS JEFFERSON) CANFIELD (David Forsyth, September 16, 1981 - December 31, 1982)
MILDRED CANFIELD (Lori March, February 23, 1982 - December 31, 1982)
BURTON CANFIELD (Donald Crabtree, February 23, 1982 - May 17, 1982. Lawrence Weber, July 21, 1982 - December 31, 1982)
LACEY WHEELER (Lily Barnstone, July 9, 1981 - October 5, 1981; November 11–20, 1981(recurring)
BRETTE WHEELER (Harley Kozak, November 19, 1981 - December 31, 1982)
MARK WHEELER (Ernie Garrett, December 25, 1981 - February 2, 1982. Michael Woods, February 5, 1982 - December 31, 1982)
JUDITH WHEELER (Sharon Acker, April 2, 1982 - December 31, 1982)
GEORGE ST. JOHN (Christopher Goutman, May 18, 1982 - November 22, 1982)
JOE FOSTER (Tom Wiggin, April 23, 1981 - October 27, 1981)
BUBBA WADSWORTH (Stephen Joyce, June 4, 1981 - December 1, 1981)
PHIL ROBERTS (Berkeley Harris, August 20, 1981 - 1982)
RUBY WRIGHT BAKER WHEELER(Dianne Thompson Neil, July 16, 1981 - December 31, 1982)
LURLEEN HARPER (Tina Johnson, July 1, 1981 - December 31, 1982)
BEAU BAKER (Robert Burton, October 5, 1981 - January 15, 1982)
MILES RENQUIST (Philip English, December 4, 1981 - February 15, 1982, March 9, 1982)
GRETCHEN RANDOLPH (Natalie Campbell, January 26, 1982 - April 8, 1982)
MR. HANNIBAL (Richard Young, December 10, 1981 - May 31, 1982)
REV. HUNT WESTON (Michael Longfield, February 1, 1982 - December 31, 1982)
MARGARET ELLINGTON (Mady Kaplan, 1982)
DORIS HODGES (Mary Pat Gleason, August 26, 1982 - 1982)
MAVIS COBB (Dody Goodman, June 15, 1982 - July 2, 1982)
STELLA STANTON (Virginia Graham, August 6, 1982 - December 31, 1982)
CHRISTINE RUSH (Claire Timoney, July 21, 1982 - December 31, 1982)

Cast

See also: List of Texas cast members and List of Texas characters
[12]

Crew

References

  1. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080290/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Grunwald, D: "Who Shot Texas", pages 23-27. TV Guide (Canadian edition), March 5, 1983.
  3. ↑ http://soapworldclassicsoaps.yuku.com/topic/5122#.UhgTSBRrZy0
  4. ↑ http://soapworldclassicsoaps.yuku.com/topic/3867/Hitopah#.UiNvsxRrbVI
  5. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Kobe#Later_career
  6. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverlee_McKinsey
  7. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_daytime_soap_opera_ratings#1970s
  8. ↑ Payne, A: "Texas Lives Again - On Cable," pages 38-40,Soap Opera Digest, January 31, 1984.
  9. ↑ "AOL to Launch New Video Portal," WebWire.com, July 31, 2006.
  10. ↑ "PGP Classic Soap Channel," pgpclassicsoaps.com, January 1, 2009.
  11. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-NBC-Soap-Opera/253138908054574
  12. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080290/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

External links

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