Texas (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Texas is an American daytime 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 the first daytime soap opera to air hour-long episodes from its inception.
. 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 became 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. 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 and enjoying great ratings at the time as well.
at great expense, only to give him almost nothing to do until he finally left. To contribute to the show's music characters' storyline, real-life country artists such as Johnny Paycheck
and Tom T. Hall
made appearances as themselves.
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 General Hospital's 11.4, the highest rated soap opera, respectively. In its second season it 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 dropped to 2.2 million in the final season. Texas was more popular in Canada
, topping the daytime ratings charts for many weeks.
In 1982, Gail Kobe
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 in the United States remained in the basement.
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.
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
.
, and The Doctors) had fallen into ratings trouble, after a highly successful period in the early and mid-1970s. The show aired from 3:00-4:00 PM (EST
) and caused a small domino effect
on the NBC daytime schedule: Another World, which had previously aired from 2:30-4:00 PM, was scaled back to 60 minutes and aired from 2:00-3:00 PM. The Doctors, which aired from 2:00-2:30 PM, moved to 12:30-1:00 PM.
Thanks in no small part to the success of ABC
's General Hospital
, Texas remained in the bottom echelon of the ratings chart, tying with The Doctors for last place 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.
By April 1982, the ratings for Texas were at a critical low point, and NBC, as part of a reshuffling of its morning lineup and a last ditch effort to save the show, moved Texas to the 11:00 AM slot, which the hit game show Wheel of Fortune had oreviously occupied. As part of this shuffle, NBC moved Wheel of Fortune to 10:30 AM and cancelled Blockbusters
and Battlestars
. However, this move failed to help Texas in the ratings in any way. In fact, the ratings problems for Texas may have been exacerbated by NBC's move. Although Texas would no longer face off against General Hospital at 3:00 PM, it found itself in a head-to-head duel with CBS' hit game show, The Price is Right
. While Wheel of Fortune did cut somewhat into The Price is Right ratings 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.
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 was cancelled in July 1984. NBC's next offering in that timeslot was the soap Santa Barbara
, which ran for nine seasons and was also the last network program NBC aired in that slot; following Santa Barbaras cancellation in 1993, NBC returned the hour to its affiliates.
, 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 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. 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. Thanks to the Internet, numerous clips of the show are available at viewers' convenience on YouTube.
There are known to be five missing episodes so far:
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.
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 NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from August 4, 1980 until December 31, 1982. Created by John William Corrington
John William Corrington
John 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 Hooper Corrington
Joyce Hooper Corrington
Joyce Hooper Corrington is an American television writer. She was married to fellow soap opera writer John William Corrington who died in 1988. She is best known for creating the short-lived soap opera Texas along with her husband John and fellow soap opera colleague Paul Rauch...
, and Paul Rauch
Paul 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....
, the show was a spinoff
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
of 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...
. It was the first daytime soap opera to air hour-long episodes from its inception.
Premise
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 primetime soap 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...
. Rauch then chose to have the show revolve around the popular Another World character Iris Cory Carrington, played by Beverlee McKinsey
Beverlee McKinsey
Beverlee McKinsey was an American actress.Beverlee McKinsey was born as Beverlee Magruder in McAlester, Oklahoma on August 9, 1935. She was the daughter of Warren and Jewell Magruder of McAlester, Oklahoma....
. 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 became involved with her first love, Alex Wheeler (Bert Kramer
Bert Kramer
Bert Kramer was an American actor, who was born in San Diego. He appeared in many different television shows including Kojak, The Bionic Woman, The Rockford Files, Dallas, Dynasty and Matlock. He is probably best known for playing Alex Wheeler on the soap opera Texas, a role he played from 1980 to...
). 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
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....
, then at its most popular, 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...
, which was going through a resurgence and enjoying great ratings at the time as well.
Production
Critics complained that Iris (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. Other casting moves were made with little gain, such as hiring away General Hospital star Kin ShrinerKin Shriner
Kin Shriner is an American actor, best known for playing Scott Baldwin on both daytime serials General Hospital and Port Charles .-Personal life:...
at great expense, only to give him almost nothing to do until he finally left. To contribute to the show's music characters' storyline, real-life country artists such as Johnny Paycheck
Johnny Paycheck
Johnny Paycheck was the legal name of Donald Eugene Lytle , a country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member most famous for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It"...
and Tom T. Hall
Tom T. Hall
Thomas "Tom T." Hall is an American country music singer-songwriter. He has written 11 #1 hit songs, with 26 more that reached the Top 10, including the pop crossover hit "I Love", which reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100...
made appearances as themselves.
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 General Hospital's 11.4, the highest rated soap opera, respectively. In its second season it 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 dropped to 2.2 million in the final season. Texas was more popular in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, topping the daytime ratings charts for many weeks.
In 1982, Gail Kobe
Gail Kobe
Gail Kobe is an American actress and producer.-Career:During the 1950s and 1960s, Kobe made dozens of guest appearances on such television programs as Felony Squad, Ironside, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, Daniel Boone, Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables and Mannix...
became executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
and Pam Long
Pam Long
Pamela K. Long is an American actress and writer, most known for her stints writing the CBS Daytime soap opera Guiding Light, from 1983 to 1986 and from 1987 to 1990....
(who appeared on the show as Ashley Linden Marshall) became Head Writer
Head writer
A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera genre, as well as with sketch comedies and talk shows that feature monologues and comedy skits, but in prime time series this function is generally performed by an...
. The show began to improve in quality, but the ratings in the United States remained in the basement.
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.
Production staff on Texas included Tim Cagney, Carolyn Culliton
Carolyn Culliton
Carolyn Culliton is an American daytime serial writer and an alumnus of Northwestern University. Her husband is acclaimed daytime serial writer Richard Culliton...
, Charles Edwards
Charles Edwards
Charles Edwards may refer to:* Charles Edwards , Welsh writer and preacher* Charles Edwards , Member of Parliament for Windsor 1866–1868 * Charles Edwards , Wrexham F.C...
, Richard Gullieth, Pamela Hammer, John Knutz, Michele Poteet
Michelle Poteet Lisanti
-Positions held:Another World*Screenwriter: 1995 - 1996Days of our Lives*Co-Head Writer: 1980 - 1981*Breakdown Writer: 1987 - 1994, June 11, 2009–presentGuiding Light*Screenwriter: 1984 - 1985One Life to Live...
, Dorothy Purser, Samuel D. Radcliffe, Paul Rader, Eric Rubinton, Gary Tomlin
Gary Tomlin
-Career:Tomlin's career on daytime serials began in 1973 when he was cast on NBC's Search for Tomorrow as Bruce Carson. He also made a guest appearance on "The Nightwalker" episode of the Waltons . He later appeared as Morgan Simpson on the NBC soap opera Another World in 1979...
, Joyce Corrington, William Corrington, Paul Rauch
Paul 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....
, Gail Kobe
Gail Kobe
Gail Kobe is an American actress and producer.-Career:During the 1950s and 1960s, Kobe made dozens of guest appearances on such television programs as Felony Squad, Ironside, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, Daniel Boone, Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables and Mannix...
, Bud Kloss, Judy Lewis
Judy Lewis
Judy Lewis was an American actress, writer, producer, and therapist, and the secret biological daughter of actor Clark Gable and actress Loretta Young.-History:...
, Robert Calhoun, Mary S. Bonner, John P. Whitesell, Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog. He has also been a writer, photographer, conservationist, and student of Asian and digital culture.-Biography:...
, John Pasquin
John Pasquin
John Pasquin is a American director of film, television and theatre.-Career:An alum of Beloit College and Carnegie Mellon University, Pasquin began directing Broadway theatre plays in the early 1980s. He moved on to television directing episodes of the series Family Ties, Growing Pains, Alice,...
, Bruce M. Minnix, and Andrew D. Weyman
Andrew D. Weyman
Andrew D. Weyman is an American television director and producer. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and educated at Kingsborough Community College and Brooklyn College.-Directing and producing credits:...
.
Broadcast history
The premiere Texas came at a time when NBC's daytime lineup (consisting of Another World, Days of our LivesDays of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
, and The Doctors) had fallen into ratings trouble, after a highly successful period in the early and mid-1970s. The show aired from 3:00-4:00 PM (EST
Eastern Standard Time
Eastern Standard Time may refer to:*North American Eastern Time Zone, UTC-5*Australian Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10*An album by Hip Hop group Kooley High...
) and caused a small domino effect
Domino effect
The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence. The term is best known as a mechanical effect, and is used as an analogy to a falling row of dominoes...
on the NBC daytime schedule: Another World, which had previously aired from 2:30-4:00 PM, was scaled back to 60 minutes and aired from 2:00-3:00 PM. The Doctors, which aired from 2:00-2:30 PM, moved to 12:30-1:00 PM.
Thanks in no small part to the success of 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 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....
, Texas remained in the bottom echelon of the ratings chart, tying with The Doctors for last place 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.
By April 1982, the ratings for Texas were at a critical low point, and NBC, as part of a reshuffling of its morning lineup and a last ditch effort to save the show, moved Texas to the 11:00 AM slot, which the hit game show Wheel of Fortune had oreviously occupied. As part of this shuffle, NBC moved Wheel of Fortune to 10:30 AM and cancelled Blockbusters
Blockbusters (US game show)
Blockbusters is an American game show which had two separate runs in the 1980s. Created by Steve Ryan for Mark Goodson Productions, the first series debuted on NBC on October 27, 1980 and aired until April 23, 1982. In the first series, a team of two family members competed against a solo contestant...
and Battlestars
Battlestars (game show)
Battlestars is an American game show that aired for two separate runs on NBC during the early 1980s. The show's first run aired from October 26, 1981 to April 23, 1982...
. However, this move failed to help Texas in the ratings in any way. In fact, the ratings problems for Texas may have been exacerbated by NBC's move. Although Texas would no longer face off against General Hospital at 3:00 PM, it found itself in a head-to-head duel with CBS' hit game show, The Price is Right
The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right is a television game show franchise originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and created by Bob Stewart, and is currently produced and owned by FremantleMedia. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also includes merchandise such as video games, printed...
. While Wheel of Fortune did cut somewhat into The Price is Right ratings 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
Search 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...
at 12:30 PM) on December 31, 1982. Strangely enough, Somerset
Somerset (TV series)
Somerset is an American television soap opera which ran on NBC from March 30, 1970 until December 31, 1976. The show was a spinoff of another NBC serial, Another World.-Overview :...
, the first spin-off of Another World, aired its finale on the same date six years earlier.
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
Fantasy (game show)
Fantasy is an American game show franchise co-hosted by Peter Marshall and Leslie Uggams, with Chris Lemmon and Meredith MacRae as remote correspondents. Bill Armstrong announced the show, with substitutes by Johnny Gilbert...
, ran for thirteen months and ended its run in October 1983 to make room for the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour
Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour
The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour is an American television game show that combined two long-running game shows of the 1960s and 1970s – Match Game and Hollywood Squares – into an hour-long format....
, which was cancelled in July 1984. NBC's next offering in that timeslot was the soap Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara (TV series)
Santa Barbara is an American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on July 30, 1984, and last aired on January 15, 1993. The show revolved around the eventful lives of the wealthy Capwell family of Santa Barbara, California...
, which ran for nine seasons and was also the last network program NBC aired in that slot; following Santa Barbaras cancellation in 1993, NBC returned the hour to its affiliates.
Surviving episodes
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 These airings of Texas were paired with a new half hour soap, The CatlinsThe Catlins (TV series)
The Catlins was an American prime-time soap opera on Superstation TBS that ran from April 1, 1983 to May 31, 1985. Created by Chris McIntyre, it focused on the lives of two wealthy and feuding families; the Catlin family and the Quinn family. The show was set in Atlanta, Georgia.Catlin family...
, 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 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. 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. Thanks to the Internet, numerous clips of the show are available at viewers' convenience on 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.
- 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.
Cast
- Daniel DavisDaniel DavisDaniel Davis is an American stage, screen, and television actor best known for portraying Niles the butler on the popular sitcom The Nanny and his guest appearances as Professor Moriarty on Star Trek: The Next Generation, affecting an upper class English accent for both roles.-Biography:Davis was...
(Eliot Carrington) - Harley Jane KozakHarley Jane Kozak-Life and career:Kozak was born Susan Jane Kozak in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Dorothy , a university music teacher, and Joseph Aloysius Kozak, an attorney. She has seven siblings: brothers John, Joseph, Peter and Andrew and sisters Dorothy, Mary and Ann. Harley is the youngest of...
(Brette Wheeler) - Beverlee McKinseyBeverlee McKinseyBeverlee McKinsey was an American actress.Beverlee McKinsey was born as Beverlee Magruder in McAlester, Oklahoma on August 9, 1935. She was the daughter of Warren and Jewell Magruder of McAlester, Oklahoma....
(Iris Cory Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler) - Jim Poyner (Dennis Carrington/Wheeler)
- George Patterson Nigh (Governor of Oklahoma)
- Kin ShrinerKin ShrinerKin Shriner is an American actor, best known for playing Scott Baldwin on both daytime serials General Hospital and Port Charles .-Personal life:...
(Jeb Hampton)