View Full Version : How many soaps did Procter & Gamble own?
catlover79 11-11-2009, 03:10 PM As most of us know, they only own one soap now - ATWT. But in the heyday of soaps, they owned quite a lot. Here are the other ones I can list off the top of my head:
Another World
Guiding Light
Search for Tomorrow
The Edge of Night
Somerset
Texas
Lovers & Friends/For Richer, For Poorer
The Doctors
Was this it?
All of those, plus these:
The Catlins
The Brighter Day
Young Dr. Malone
The First Hundred Years
From These Roots
As far as their radio shows...anybody's guess is as good as mine. I'm pretty sure they produced a huge number of radio soaps.
catlover79 11-11-2009, 04:04 PM Thanks, JT! ABC never aired any P&G soaps, did they?
No prob :)
The only P&G soap ABC aired was, of course, Edge of Night, from 1975 to 1984. All of their other soaps were produced by other companies or in-house: GH was done by Selmur Productions, and OLTL/AMC were done by Creative Horizons before being bought by ABC in the 70s. Dark Shadows was always a Dan Curtis Production, and Loving was always a Dramatic Creations Production.
catlover79 11-11-2009, 09:17 PM No prob :)
The only P&G soap ABC aired was, of course, Edge of Night, from 1975 to 1984. All of their other soaps were produced by other companies or in-house: GH was done by Selmur Productions, and OLTL/AMC were done by Creative Horizons before being bought by ABC in the 70s. Dark Shadows was always a Dan Curtis Production, and Loving was always a Dramatic Creations Production.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought P&G cancelled its sponsorship on Edge, one of the reasons it moved to ABC (another major reason was that ATWT was expanded to an hour). So technically, it no longer was a P&G soap by then. Ryan's Hope was a Labine/Mayer Production until about 1980, when they sold the show to ABC.
JT, have you ever checked out http://www.welovesoaps.net/? It's chock full of vintage soap info. They feature interviews with Harding Lemay, Claire Labine, Patsy Pease, and other classic actors/writers from soaps. :cool: :D
Hmm...I don't know. The last episode's closing credits still have P&G listed in the copyright, and P&G producer Ed Trach is listed the executive in charge of production, so I'm thinking that maybe P&G let go of their sponsorship but kept producing the show? If that's possible lol And yea, how could I forget RH! Another outside job for ABC that they bought. I'm unsure of whether The City was an ABC production.
(I'm about to reply to the welovesoaps thread right now, btw)
catlover79 11-11-2009, 11:55 PM You're right - I went back on YouTube and checked the end credits of Edge when it aired on ABC, and the Procter & Gamble logo was indeed there!
TV Knowledge Fan 11-12-2009, 02:08 AM ....wasn't sponsored by Procter & Gamble; their primary sponsor was P&G's rival, Colgate-Palmolive.
By the mid-'60s, advertising time on network daytime schedules became so expensive, it got to the point that P&G, even though they directly produced "AS THE WORLD TURNS", "THE GUIDING LIGHT", 'SEARCH FOR TOMORROW" and "THE EDGE OF NIGHT" on CBS, had to share their sponsorship with other advertisers...if you've ever seen the November 22, 1963 edition of "AS THE WORLD TURNS"- the one that was interrupted by bulletins of President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, and can be seen in its entirety on YouTube- you'll notice it was an episode featuring "alternate sponsors" [Best Foods {NuSoft, Niagara Spray Starch}, Nestle {Instant Nescafe}, Carnation {Friskies pet foods}], as P&G sponsored the following episode (which wouldn't be seen until Tuesday, November 26th, the day after Kennedy's funeral). To this day, P&G sponsors only a tiny fraction of each day's episode of "WORLD". This was one reason they decided to discontinue "GUIDING LIGHT"- not enough viewers equaled a loss of advertising revenue, and production expenses were inflating to the point they could not longer sustain the series.
:tv:
catlover79 11-12-2009, 12:34 PM ....wasn't sponsored by Procter & Gamble; their primary sponsor was P&G's rival, Colgate-Palmolive.
By the mid-'60s, advertising time on network daytime schedules became so expensive, it got to the point that P&G, even though they directly produced "AS THE WORLD TURNS", "THE GUIDING LIGHT", 'SEARCH FOR TOMORROW" and "THE EDGE OF NIGHT" on CBS, had to share their sponsorship with other advertisers...if you've ever seen the November 22, 1963 edition of "AS THE WORLD TURNS"- the one that was interrupted by bulletins of President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, and can be seen in its entirety on YouTube- you'll notice it was an episode featuring "alternate sponsors" [Best Foods {NuSoft, Niagara Spray Starch}, Nestle {Instant Nescafe}, Carnation {Friskies pet foods}], as P&G sponsored the following episode (which wouldn't be seen until Tuesday, November 26th, the day after Kennedy's funeral). To this day, P&G sponsors only a tiny fraction of each day's episode of "WORLD". This was one reason they decided to discontinue "GUIDING LIGHT"- not enough viewers equaled a loss of advertising revenue, and production expenses were inflating to the point they could not longer sustain the series.
:tv:
Yes, you're right about The Doctors - I went back and checked that. For a long time, I thought Colgate-Palmolive was a division of P&G. Both companies are still in Cincinnati, right? Thanks for clarifying.
Oh, I didn't see The Doctors on your list originally. It was indeed produced by C-P. Somewhere between February and April 1981, however, NBC assumed production.
Some people speculate that because C-P produced THE DOCTORS in the 70s and not NBC, episodes from as early 1973-1974 could still exist somewhere. I hope so.
catlover79 11-13-2009, 12:00 AM ^ I've seen a few clips of The Doctors on YouTube. Good stuff!!
musicradio77 12-09-2009, 09:18 AM You're right - I went back on YouTube and checked the end credits of Edge when it aired on ABC, and the Procter & Gamble logo was indeed there!
Yep! That's what it says, "The Edge of Night" was on channel 7 at 4:00 PM. I would love to see the end credits to that on YouTube. After that, the P&G logo, some commercials and then then BAM! "The 4:30 Movie" started. Good memories.
There's only one show the P&G owns "As the World Turns". This show will end in September. "Guiding Light" was a P&G show, and it has been canceled a few months ago.
catlover79 12-09-2009, 01:14 PM Yep! That's what it says, "The Edge of Night" was on channel 7 at 4:00 PM. I would love to see the end credits to that on YouTube. After that, the P&G logo, some commercials and then then BAM! "The 4:30 Movie" started. Good memories.
There's only one show the P&G owns "As the World Turns". This show will end in September. "Guiding Light" was a P&G show, and it has been canceled a few months ago.
That's right - and then there were none. :(
KurtfromPitts 12-12-2009, 01:41 PM Colgate-Palmolive is headquartered in New York City.
catlover79 12-12-2009, 09:19 PM Colgate-Palmolive is headquartered in New York City.
Thanks!
tvfreak1987 01-28-2018, 02:26 AM Hmm...I don't know. The last episode's closing credits still have P&G listed in the copyright, and P&G producer Ed Trach is listed the executive in charge of production, so I'm thinking that maybe P&G let go of their sponsorship but kept producing the show? If that's possible lol And yea, how could I forget RH! Another outside job for ABC that they bought. I'm unsure of whether The City was an ABC production.
(I'm about to reply to the welovesoaps thread right now, btw)
Actually, P&G continued to sponsor Edge all the way to the end, like all of it's other soaps. It just simply moved from CBS to ABC. And yes, The City (like Loving) was owned by ABC.
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