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Capitol (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Capitol is an American
soap opera
which aired on CBS
from March 29, 1982 to March 20, 1987 for 1,270 episodes. As its name suggests, the storyline usually revolved around the political
intrigues of people whose lives intertwined in Washington D.C.
) and Myrna Clegg (Carolyn Jones
; Marla Adams
; Marj Dusay
). Kindly and down-to-earth Clarissa and vituperative and vindictive Myrna are former best friends who in their youth had been rivals over the love of Baxter McCandless; in retaliation for Baxter falling for Clarissa and not her, scheming Myrna had spread lies about Clarissa's father, liberal
Congressman
Judson (Rory Calhoun
), linking him to communists
during the McCarthy
era.
Baxter has left Clarissa a widow, and Myrna is married to Sam Clegg (Robert Sampson; Richard Egan
). The longstanding feud between the women is enflamed when Clarissa's war-hero son Tyler McCandless (David Mason Daniels; Dane Witherspoon) falls in love with Myrna's daughter, Julie Clegg (Kimberly Beck
; Catherine Hickland
). Despite Myrna's best efforts to destroy this match, they eventually marry. Also featured are Myrna's other children: Trey (Nicholas Walker), who is being groomed for the presidency, Brenda (Leslie Graves
; Shannon Terhune; Ashley Laurence
; Karen Kelly
), and Jordy (Todd Curtis). Clarissa's family includes sons Wally (Bill Beyers), a young man with a gambling problem, Thomas (Brian Robert Taylor; Michael Catlin), a doctor, and Matt (Shea Farrell; Christopher Durham), a handsome athlete. Meanwhile Clarissa is in love with Senator Mark Denning (Ed Nelson
) who is in an unhappy marriage with agoraphobic Paula (Julie Adams
) and is the father of reporter Sloane Denning (Debrah Farentino
). Clarissa later falls for Jarrett Morgan (Ron Harper
), who turns out to be her presumed-dead husband Baxter.
and Dynasty
, and its desire to gain younger viewers, CBS asked The Young and the Restless
producer John Conboy
to produce an equivalent in daytime during Summer 1981. Capitol became the first soap opera to be produced in Los Angeles
since The Young and the Restless began in 1973.
The show's title sequence during its early years showed aerial scenes of Washington, D.C. shot during the winter of 1980 to 1981. In the final year, a computerized sequence was instituted, illustrating glamour and sex in addition to the Washington Monument
and the Jefferson Memorial
.
created Grosse Pointe
as a replacement for the serial in 1986. During her absence from Ryan's Hope
, Michael Brockman, former President of CBS Daytime
, asked Claire Labine
to develop a new serial in 1986. Her proposal was entitled Celebration
but never made it to the air. Had it been greenlit, Jane Greenstein would have been have Assistant to the Head Writer like she was on General Hospital
.
CBS announced the series' cancellation in December 1986. With the last two months of episodes taped in the span of a month to accommodate the beginning of replacement soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful
, Conboy and head writer James Lipton
ended the series with the cliffhanger of Sloane placed in front of a firing squad in the Middle Eastern kingdom of her lover, King Ali.
, Carolyn Jones
, Rory Calhoun
, and Constance Towers
. In the show's earlier years, singer Lola Falana
played wealthy entertainment mogul Charity Blake, and Natalie Wood
's sister Lana Wood
played Fran Burke. In 1986, country music
singer Tammy Wynette
made appearances as hairstylist-turned-singer Darlene Stankowski.
, daytime television's longest-tenured soap and a fixture for nearly 30 years at 12:30 PM/11:30 AM Central, to the 2:30/1:30 PM timeslot between As the World Turns
and Guiding Light
in order to accommodate the hit serial The Young and the Restless. Procter & Gamble
, who owned Search for Tomorrow, urged CBS to return the show to its former slot. The network refused, and when their contract with CBS expired, P&G sold Search for Tomorrow to NBC Daytime
and the show premiered there on March 26, 1982. CBS replaced Search for Tomorrow with Capitol, scheduled against the last halves of NBC's Another World
and ABC
's One Life to Live
, the latter of which dominated the ratings at the time. Had the show been given a proper hour slot, most agree the show's ratings would have been significantly higher.
Capitol debuted on CBS in 1982 in 8th place in the ratings
, roughly the same as Search for Tomorrow had done. Capitol remained in 8th place throughout its five-year run, with its best ratings points of 6.4 achieved in the 1983-1984 television season. In 1985, ratings fell slightly from a 5.8 to a 5.1, prompting some CBS affiliates to drop the show. CBS subsequently canceled the show and replaced it with The Bold and the Beautiful on March 23, 1987. However, CBS put The Bold and the Beautiful in the 1:30/12:30 timeslot, bumping As the World Turns to 2/1. The Bold and the Beautiful
became both CBS' and America's second-highest rated soap opera, but its ratings never surpassed Capitol ratings peak.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
which aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from March 29, 1982 to March 20, 1987 for 1,270 episodes. As its name suggests, the storyline usually revolved around the political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
intrigues of people whose lives intertwined in Washington D.C.
Synopsis
Capitol revolves around the Denning, Clegg, and McCandless families, who live in the fictional Washington, D.C. suburb of Jeffersonia. At the center of the drama are feuding matriarchs Clarissa Tyler McCandless (Constance TowersConstance Towers
-Early life:Towers was born in Whitefish, Montana, the daughter of Ardath L. and Harry J. Towers. According to her official Web site, a contract from Paramount Pictures was offered to her at age 11 but was declined...
) and Myrna Clegg (Carolyn Jones
Carolyn Jones
Carolyn Sue Jones was an American actress.Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising actresses...
; Marla Adams
Marla Adams
Marla Adams is an American soap opera actress, best known for her roles as Belle Clemens on The Secret Storm, from 1968 to 1974, and as Dina Abbott Mergeron on The Young and the Restless, from 1983 to 1986 and in 1996...
; Marj Dusay
Marj Dusay
Marj Dusay is an actress known for her roles on American soap operas...
). Kindly and down-to-earth Clarissa and vituperative and vindictive Myrna are former best friends who in their youth had been rivals over the love of Baxter McCandless; in retaliation for Baxter falling for Clarissa and not her, scheming Myrna had spread lies about Clarissa's father, liberal
Social liberalism
Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding...
Congressman
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Judson (Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun was an American television and film actor, screenwriter and producer, best known for his roles in Westerns.-Early life:...
), linking him to communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
during the McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
era.
Baxter has left Clarissa a widow, and Myrna is married to Sam Clegg (Robert Sampson; Richard Egan
Richard Egan (actor)
Richard Egan was an American actor. In some films he is credited as Richard Eagan.-Career:Born in San Francisco, California, Egan served in the United States Army as a judo instructor during World War II...
). The longstanding feud between the women is enflamed when Clarissa's war-hero son Tyler McCandless (David Mason Daniels; Dane Witherspoon) falls in love with Myrna's daughter, Julie Clegg (Kimberly Beck
Kimberly Beck
Kimberly Beck is an American actress with over sixty television and film roles to her credit.-Biography:...
; Catherine Hickland
Catherine Hickland
Catherine Hickland is a singer and an actress best known for roles in soap operas broadcast in the United States, most notably as the character of Lindsay Rappaport on ABC's One Life to Live, a character which she has portrayed since 1998.- Early life :Hickland was born and raised in Fort...
). Despite Myrna's best efforts to destroy this match, they eventually marry. Also featured are Myrna's other children: Trey (Nicholas Walker), who is being groomed for the presidency, Brenda (Leslie Graves
Leslie Graves
Leslie Marie Graves was an American actress. She died in 1995 from an AIDS-related illness.-Early years:...
; Shannon Terhune; Ashley Laurence
Ashley Laurence
Ashley Laurence is an American film and television actress. She is noted for her appearances in horror films, particularly the Hellraiser series.-Career:...
; Karen Kelly
Karen Kelly
Karen Kelly is a camogie player and teacher, winner of two Soaring Star awards in 2009 and 2011 and played in the 2009 All Ireland junior camogie final. The leading scorer in her side's impressive march to the final, Karen has won two National League medals, Munster titles in the Junior and...
), and Jordy (Todd Curtis). Clarissa's family includes sons Wally (Bill Beyers), a young man with a gambling problem, Thomas (Brian Robert Taylor; Michael Catlin), a doctor, and Matt (Shea Farrell; Christopher Durham), a handsome athlete. Meanwhile Clarissa is in love with Senator Mark Denning (Ed Nelson
Ed Nelson
Edwin Stafford Nelson is an American actor.Nelson has appeared in numerous television shows, more than fifty motion pictures, and hundreds of stage productions. Until 2005, he was teaching acting and screenwriting in his native New Orleans at two local universities there...
) who is in an unhappy marriage with agoraphobic Paula (Julie Adams
Julie Adams
Julie Adams is an American film and television actress, sometimes credited as Julia Adams or Betty Adams.-Life and career:...
) and is the father of reporter Sloane Denning (Debrah Farentino
Debrah Farentino
Debrah Farentino is an American model and actress.-Early life:Farentino was born Deborah Mullowney in Lucas Valley, California. She attended Miller Creek Junior High School, and Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, California...
). Clarissa later falls for Jarrett Morgan (Ron Harper
Ron Harper
Ronald "Ron" Harper is a retired American professional basketball player whose career spanned from 1986 to 2001 with four teams in the NBA. At 6 ft 6 in , his position was shooting guard/point guard.- Collegiate career :...
), who turns out to be her presumed-dead husband Baxter.
Production
With the success of such "glamorous" soap operas like DallasDallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
and Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
, and its desire to gain younger viewers, CBS asked The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
producer John Conboy
John Conboy
-Career:Conboy is best known for bringing glamorous production values to a show soon after he is hired, such as adding elaborate sets, dimming the lighting, hiring beautiful young actors, and using unique camera angles...
to produce an equivalent in daytime during Summer 1981. Capitol became the first soap opera to be produced in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
since The Young and the Restless began in 1973.
The show's title sequence during its early years showed aerial scenes of Washington, D.C. shot during the winter of 1980 to 1981. In the final year, a computerized sequence was instituted, illustrating glamour and sex in addition to the Washington Monument
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...
and the Jefferson Memorial
Jefferson Memorial
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father and the third President of the United States....
.
Cancellation
Paul RauchPaul Rauch
- Another World :Rauch is best known for his work on Another World, which he produced from 1971 to 1984. For much of that time, he worked in conjunction with Head Writer Harding Lemay, and the team garnered the show critical acclaim and strong ratings....
created Grosse Pointe
Grosse Pointe
Grosse Pointe refers to a coastal area in Metro Detroit, Michigan, United States that comprises five adjacent individual communities. From southwest to northeast, they are:*Grosse Pointe Park, city*Grosse Pointe, city*Grosse Pointe Farms, city...
as a replacement for the serial in 1986. During her absence from Ryan's Hope
Ryan's Hope
Ryan's Hope is an American soap opera, revolving around 13 years of trials and tribulations within a large Irish American family in the Riverside district of New York City. It aired from July 7, 1975 to January 13, 1989 on ABC...
, Michael Brockman, former President of CBS Daytime
CBS Daytime
CBS Daytime is a television programming block on CBS. It's the branding for the CBS Television Network's late morning and early afternoon programming. The block has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows, and talk shows...
, asked Claire Labine
Claire Labine
-Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts...
to develop a new serial in 1986. Her proposal was entitled Celebration
Celebration
Celebration may refer to:* Party, a social gathering or celebration* Festival, a community gathering to celebrate something in particular*The observance of a feast day or holiday*The celebration of the Eucharist*A Southeast Alaska Native cultural event...
but never made it to the air. Had it been greenlit, Jane Greenstein would have been have Assistant to the Head Writer like she was on General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
.
CBS announced the series' cancellation in December 1986. With the last two months of episodes taped in the span of a month to accommodate the beginning of replacement soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS Daytime. It premiered on March 23, 1987....
, Conboy and head writer James Lipton
James Lipton
James Lipton is an American writer, poet, composer, actor and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He is the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Actors Studio, which debuted in 1994...
ended the series with the cliffhanger of Sloane placed in front of a firing squad in the Middle Eastern kingdom of her lover, King Ali.
Cast
During its run, Capitol featured several well-known actors in contract roles, including Richard EganRichard Egan
Richard Egan may refer to:*Richard Egan , American film actor*Richard Egan , American businessman, co-founder of EMC Corporation, one-time Ambassador to Ireland*Richard Egan , American ragtime composer and performer...
, Carolyn Jones
Carolyn Jones
Carolyn Sue Jones was an American actress.Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising actresses...
, Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun was an American television and film actor, screenwriter and producer, best known for his roles in Westerns.-Early life:...
, and Constance Towers
Constance Towers
-Early life:Towers was born in Whitefish, Montana, the daughter of Ardath L. and Harry J. Towers. According to her official Web site, a contract from Paramount Pictures was offered to her at age 11 but was declined...
. In the show's earlier years, singer Lola Falana
Lola Falana
Lola Falana is an American singer, dancer, and actress of Cuban and African American descent. Falana's father left Cuba to become a welder in the United States, where he met his wife...
played wealthy entertainment mogul Charity Blake, and Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
's sister Lana Wood
Lana Wood
Lana Wood is an American actress and producer. She was born to Russian émigré parents, Nikolai and Maria Zakharenko, and is the younger sister of the late actress Natalie Wood. Her first major role was at age 9 in the John Wayne western The Searchers. She was a regular on the soap opera Peyton Place...
played Fran Burke. In 1986, country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette
Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
made appearances as hairstylist-turned-singer Darlene Stankowski.
- List of Capitol characters (a la List of Sunset Beach characters)
- Carolyn JonesCarolyn JonesCarolyn Sue Jones was an American actress.Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising actresses...
: Myrna Clegg #1 (1982–1983) - Marla AdamsMarla AdamsMarla Adams is an American soap opera actress, best known for her roles as Belle Clemens on The Secret Storm, from 1968 to 1974, and as Dina Abbott Mergeron on The Young and the Restless, from 1983 to 1986 and in 1996...
: Myrna Clegg #2 (1983) - Marj DusayMarj DusayMarj Dusay is an actress known for her roles on American soap operas...
: Myrna Clegg #3 (1983–1987) - Teri HatcherTeri HatcherTeri Lynn Hatcher is an American actress, writer, and presenter. She is known for her television roles as Susan Mayer on the ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives, and Lois Lane on the ABC comedy-drama series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman...
: Angelica Stimac Clegg (1986–1987) - Robert SampsonRobert SampsonRobert Sampson was a vice president at United Airlines. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 5, and used a wheelchair for most of his life....
: Samuel Clegg II #1 (1982) - Richard EganRichard Egan (actor)Richard Egan was an American actor. In some films he is credited as Richard Eagan.-Career:Born in San Francisco, California, Egan served in the United States Army as a judo instructor during World War II...
: Samuel Clegg II #2 (1982–1987) - Tonja WalkerTonja WalkerTonja Walker is a former beauty pageant titleholder who has competed in the Miss USA pageant, an actress, and a singer. She is known for her role as Alex Olanov on One Life to Live and for her role as Olivia St. John Jerome on General Hospital.-Career:Walker held the Miss Teen All-American title...
: Lizbeth Bachman (1982–1986) - Kimberly Beck-HiltonKimberly BeckKimberly Beck is an American actress with over sixty television and film roles to her credit.-Biography:...
: Julie Clegg #1 (1982–1983) - Catherine HicklandCatherine HicklandCatherine Hickland is a singer and an actress best known for roles in soap operas broadcast in the United States, most notably as the character of Lindsay Rappaport on ABC's One Life to Live, a character which she has portrayed since 1998.- Early life :Hickland was born and raised in Fort...
: Julie Clegg McCandless #2 (1983–1987) - Todd Curtis : Jordy Clegg
- Leslie GravesLeslie GravesLeslie Marie Graves was an American actress. She died in 1995 from an AIDS-related illness.-Early years:...
: Brenda Clegg #1 (1982–1984) - Shannon Terhune : Brenda Clegg #2 (1984)
- Ashley LaurenceAshley LaurenceAshley Laurence is an American film and television actress. She is noted for her appearances in horror films, particularly the Hellraiser series.-Career:...
: Brenda Clegg #3 (1984–1985) - Karen Kelly : Brenda Clegg #4 (1985–1987)
- Constance TowersConstance Towers-Early life:Towers was born in Whitefish, Montana, the daughter of Ardath L. and Harry J. Towers. According to her official Web site, a contract from Paramount Pictures was offered to her at age 11 but was declined...
: Clarissa McCandless - David Mason Daniels : Tyler McCandless #1 (1982–1985)
- Dane Witherspoon : Tyler McCandless #2 (1985–1986)
- Kelly Palzis : Gillian McCandless
- Bill Beyers : Wallace "Wally" McCandless
- Brian Robert Taylor : Thomas McCandless #1 (1982–1983)
- Michael Catlin : Thomas McCandless #2 (1983–1987)
- Shea FarrellShea FarrellEdward Leo "Shea" Farrell III is an American actor and producer best known for playing Mark Danning in Aaron Spelling's series, "Hotel".Shea Farrell was born 21 October 1957 in Cornwall, New York , to Edward Leo, Jr. and Mary Rose Drummey. He attended Portsmouth Abbey School in Portsmouth, Rhode...
: Matt McCandless #1 (1982) - Christopher Durham : Matt McCandless #2 (1982–1984)
- Ed NelsonEd NelsonEdwin Stafford Nelson is an American actor.Nelson has appeared in numerous television shows, more than fifty motion pictures, and hundreds of stage productions. Until 2005, he was teaching acting and screenwriting in his native New Orleans at two local universities there...
: Senator Mark Denning - Tammy WynetteTammy WynetteVirginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
: Darlene Stankowski (1986–1987) - Billy WarlockBilly WarlockBilly Warlock is an American actor best known for playing Eddie Kramer, a lifeguard on the original three seasons of Baywatch and in the reunion movie in 2003, as well as for numerous daytime roles, most notably Frankie Brady on Days of our Lives and A.J...
: Ricky Driscoll (1984–1985) - Jess WaltonJess WaltonJess Walton is an American actress, best known for her role as Jill Foster Abbott on the American soap opera, The Young and the Restless.-Early life:...
: Kelly Harper (1984–1987) - Debrah FarentinoDebrah FarentinoDebrah Farentino is an American model and actress.-Early life:Farentino was born Deborah Mullowney in Lucas Valley, California. She attended Miller Creek Junior High School, and Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, California...
: Sloane Denning (1982–1987) - Julie ParrishJulie ParrishJulie Parrish was an American film, stage and television actress....
: Maggie Brady - Rodney SaulsberryRodney SaulsberryRodney Jerome Saulsberry is an American voice-over performer, actor, vocalist, announcer and author, known for his voice work on commercials , his two books and the voice of Joe Robbie Robertson on the animated TV series Spider-Man.Born in Detroit, Michigan, Saulsberry is a University of...
: Jeff Johnson (1982-1983)
Main Crew
- Peggy O'Shea
- Craig CarlsonCraig Carlson-Positions held:All My Children*Breakdown Writer Another World*Co-Head Writer *Breakdown Writer Capitol...
- Granville Burgess
- Richard Camp
- Peggy SloanePeggy SloanePeggy Sloane was an American television soap opera script writer. She wrote on daytime for over 23 years, and her final year of active daytime work was back in 1999...
- John Sedlak
- Steve HayesSteve HayesSteve Hayes is an English businessman, and the current owner of both League One football club Wycombe Wanderers and Aviva Premiership rugby union side London Wasps....
- John William CorringtonJohn William CorringtonJohn William Corrington was an American movie and television writer, novelist, poet and lawyer. He received a B.A. degree from Centenary College, in 1956 and his M.A. from Rice University in 1960, the year he took on his first teaching position in the English Department at Louisiana State University...
- Joyce Corrington
- Shirley Hartman
- Susan Goldberg
- David Carren
- Carly Cady
- Stephen Karpf
- Elinor Karpf
Scheduling/ratings
On June 8, 1981, CBS moved Search for TomorrowSearch for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...
, daytime television's longest-tenured soap and a fixture for nearly 30 years at 12:30 PM/11:30 AM Central, to the 2:30/1:30 PM timeslot between As the World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
and Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
in order to accommodate the hit serial The Young and the Restless. Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
, who owned Search for Tomorrow, urged CBS to return the show to its former slot. The network refused, and when their contract with CBS expired, P&G sold Search for Tomorrow to NBC Daytime
NBC Daytime
NBC Daytime is the schedule for the NBC television network's daytime television programming which consists of morning news program Today and soap opera Days of our Lives...
and the show premiered there on March 26, 1982. CBS replaced Search for Tomorrow with Capitol, scheduled against the last halves of NBC's Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
and ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
, the latter of which dominated the ratings at the time. Had the show been given a proper hour slot, most agree the show's ratings would have been significantly higher.
Capitol debuted on CBS in 1982 in 8th place in the ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, roughly the same as Search for Tomorrow had done. Capitol remained in 8th place throughout its five-year run, with its best ratings points of 6.4 achieved in the 1983-1984 television season. In 1985, ratings fell slightly from a 5.8 to a 5.1, prompting some CBS affiliates to drop the show. CBS subsequently canceled the show and replaced it with The Bold and the Beautiful on March 23, 1987. However, CBS put The Bold and the Beautiful in the 1:30/12:30 timeslot, bumping As the World Turns to 2/1. The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS Daytime. It premiered on March 23, 1987....
became both CBS' and America's second-highest rated soap opera, but its ratings never surpassed Capitol ratings peak.