Texas (TV series)

infobox television
show_name = Texas

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/d9e35318822270afc333f07518b5932486b33b9.jpg]
format = soap opera
rating = TV-14 (U.S.)
runtime = 60 Minutes
creator = John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington, Paul Rauch
starring = Beverlee McKinsey
Bert Kramer,
Daniel Davis
country = USA
network = NBC
first_aired = August 4, 1980
last_aired = December 31, 1982
num_episodes = 617

Texas (sometimes called Another World in Texas and, later, Texas: The New Generation) was a 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 unique in that it was the first daytime soap opera to air hour-long episodes from its inception.

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 [http://www.igs.net/~awhp/spinoff2.html 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 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.

cheduling/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.

The show aired from 3-4 p.m. (EST) and caused a small domino effect on the NBC daytime schedule; "Another World," which had previously been airing from 2:30-4 p.m., was scaled back to 60 minutes and aired from 2-3 p.m. "The Doctors," which had been airing from 2-2:30 p.m., moved to 12:30-1 p.m. "Texas" was moved towards the end of its run, taking the 11 a.m.-Noon slot on the schedule. This lasted from April to December 1982, when "Texas" was cancelled.

Thanks in no small part to ABC's "General Hospital," which at the time was at its peak, "Texas" remained in the bottom echelon of the ratings chart, tying with "The Doctors" for last place in its inaugural 1980-81 season, with numbers falling gradually after that. However, it did impact on the ratings of "Another World" to the point that the mother show was no longer NBC's highest-rated soap.

The 1982 move to 11 a.m. did nothing for the ratings (largely due to the popularity of CBS' "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 earlier.

urviving 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 from August 4, 1980.

AOL now is up to episode 308 and is currently airing episodes from October,1981.

There are 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 have been unavailable for several months,but their pages were recently removed from AOL.

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

*Harley Jane Kozak (Brette Wheeler)
*Daniel Davis (Eliot Carrington)
*George Nigh
*Beverlee McKinsey (Iris Cory Carrington)
*Kin Shriner (Jeb Hampton)

*List of Texas cast members with Wikipedia entries
*List of Texas Characters

References

*Schemering, Christopher. "The Soap Opera Encyclopedia", September 1985, ISBN 0-345-32459-5 (1st edition)

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080290 IMDb Page]
* [http://soaptexas.tripod.com/ Texas fan website]
* [http://www.igs.net/~awhp/spinoff2.html Texas section at the Another World Home Page]
* [http://www.wost.org/premium/710.html World of Soap Themes: Texas multimedia page] (registration required)
* [http://video.aol.com/show/texas/103495 Full Episodes of "Texas" free at AOL Video]
* [http://www.pgpclassicsoaps.com Procter & Gamble soap blog with occasional Texas flashbacks]
* [http://soapworldclassicsoaps.yuku.com/forums/86 Link to Texas fan discussion board]

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.
*Oklahoma Governor George Nigh and his wife Donna appeared in walk-on roles in "Texas" (playing themselves as Governor and First Lady of Oklahoma) in episode # 19, which aired in August 1980. Cast member Lisby Larson (Paige Marshall) serenaded the couple with a rendition of "Oklahoma!"
*The shows opening credits included shots of the Houston skyline and the San Jacinto Monument.
*Episode #217 features scenes with country singer Ray Stevens
*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 a.m. The hour "Texas" held went to "Wheel of Fortune", which was returning to the 11 a.m. 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 the shows that premiered that day, "Sale" lasted until 1989, but "Hit Man" and "Just Men!" were cancelled after only 13 weeks.
*When "Texas" was moved from the 3 p.m. slot, reruns of "CHiPs" aired there first for a few months. Then two game shows followed it in that slot. The first was "Fantasy", an hourlong 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 would not air in that slot again until July 1984, when "Santa Barbara" premiered.