Daytime soap operas going color question

[spencerkarter85]

I've got some questions. Why The Secret Storm (CBS 1954-1974) became the last soap opera to go color on March 11, 1968 according to Wikipedia? How ironic it would be an American soap opera going color after 1967. I know that ATWT (CBS 1956-2010) went in color in February 1967, GL (CBS-TV 1952-2009) went in color in March 1967, SFT (CBS 1951-1982/NBC 1982-1986) went sometime in Spring 1967, EON (CBS 1956-1975/ABC 1975-1984) went in September 1967, also according to Wikipedia Love of Life (CBS 1951-1980) went in color on 10/30/1967 the same time as ABC's GH (1963-present) went in color in October 1967 according to wikipedia.

Only General Hospital is still on today, if ABC didn't wiped the early color mastertaped episodes (mostly Fall 1967-Spring 1975) we would know the actual airdate of the first color GH episode. Just like another ABC soap Dark Shadows became the first ABC soap to go color on August 11, 1967 episode #295 (souces say August 14th).

 

[easttxtv]

I've got some questions. Why The Secret Storm (CBS 1954-1974) became the last soap opera to go color on March 11, 1968 according to Wikipedia?

First of all, Wikipedia is still an actively-edited site. Because of that, the March 1968 may OR MAY NOT be the exact date that The Secret Storm went color. Surely someone well-versed in soaps (you might try asking one of the editors at WeLoveSoaps.net or the forum at Soap Opera Digest's website, among others (?)) would know something. An initial guess (if they were the last) might be that American Home Products (the show's owner/producer at the time) wasn't able financially to switch any earlier than that (even though the date you found for Love of Life (the other primary American Home Products soap at the time) was October 1967). I'm sure most TV productions (as well as most local TV stations) found it quite costly to undertake a switch to color, just like what modern-day productions and stations have gone through with the switch to digital and HDTV.

 

[bpatrick]

I have a Kentucky edition of TV Guide from the week of Dec. 23-29,
1967, and it shows "Secret Storm" in color. In fact, all of the soaps
on the networks at the time are in color:

ABC: General Hospital
Dark Shadows

CBS: Love Of Life
Search For Tomorrow
Guiding Light
As The World Turns
Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
Edge Of Night
Secret Storm

NBC: Days Of Our Lives
The Doctors
Another World

"Secret Storm" thus went to color in the fall of '67 (I don't know
the exact date); I have an Eastern Virginia TV Guide from the week
of Aug. 19-25, 1967, and "Secret Storm," "Edge Of Night," and
"General Hospital" are the only soaps still in black and white. And yes,
"Love Of Life" was in color by that time.

In fact, the only remaining first-run black-and-white daytime shows,
other than the three soaps mentioned above, were all on ABC: "Dateline:
Hollywood," "The Family Game," and "Everybody's Talking." (I have seen
"Dateline: Hollywood" listed in color in some editions, notably Kentucky, but
the ABC station in Richmond aired it in black-and-white, while the one in Norfolk
didn't carry it at all.)

 

[chrish]

When I was a kid in grammar school I often went to my grandmothers for lunch (we could go home for lunch if we lived nearby) she would watch "her stories" while I was there. I always thought that while other shows were also black and white the soaps had a dark look all the walls were dark and almost looked just short of sinister.
My father always remarked that those soap operas were breeding grounds for trouble and discontent. In his later years I think he was so appalled at
the vulgar direction TV and everything turned into he just tuned it all out. In his case ignorance of it all became bliss.