Texas (TV series)

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 CBS primetime soap Dallas.[3] which was dominating the ratings. 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 reconnected and became romantically involved with her first love, Alex Wheeler (Bert Kramer).

A slew of characters debuted on Another World in the months prior to August 1980, in the hope that when they eventually moved over to Texas, they would have made a sufficient enough impact with viewers so they would watch Texas, too.

The debut episode featured Iris on a plane, leaving Houston after visiting her son Dennis, who had relocated to Texas with his new love to open an art gallery. During her visit, she reconnected with her first love, self-made millionaire Alex Wheeler. Alex is determined not to let the past repeat itself and lose her again. He arranges for the Bay City-bound jet airliner, which Iris is on, to return to Houston.

During the first season of the series, the stories centered around the daily lives of the wealthy Wheelers and Bellmans and the middle-class Marshalls, and their ranching and oil interests.[4]

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 time slot contenders Guiding Light had an 8.2 rating, fourth position in the ratings, as opposed to an 11.4 rating for General Hospital, which was the top-rated serial for the 1980-1981 season. In its second season, the series fell to a 3.6 rating. At the end of its broadcast season, it ended with a 2.7 rating, in the 12th position out of 14 daytime serials. According to A.C. Neilsen, the total viewers for the first two seasons was at 2.8 million, followed by a drop to 2.2 million in the final season.

Simultaneously, Texas aired on CTV in Canada at the 3:00 pm ET slot following Another World, which had also aired on CTV since the early 1970s. The series was immensely popular in Canada, topping the BBM daytime ratings charts for many weeks.[3] Beverlee McKinsey vacationed often in the Province of Nova Scotia during her tenure on both shows, according to numerous soap opera sources. After NBC moved Texas to 11:00 am in April 1982, CTV opted not to follow suit, and continued airing Texas at its original timeslot of 3:00 pm (ET). In addition, Canadian viewers who either lived near the border and had access to NBC terrestrial affiliates or a cable TV subscription had the option of viewing the series mornings or afternoons, respectively.

A popular storyline at the end of 1981 called Hitopah[5] involved numerous characters in adventurous settings and intriguing circumstances to locate Sutars Rock, which nonetheless offered comic relief provided by good friends Ruby and Lurleen. Hitopah was about an ancient Indian artifact called the Fire Compass that was covered with runes and which Ruby's boyfriend Beau Baker opened. The opening of the Fire Compass released a toxic gas that turned Beau instantly into a mummy. Then, following some comedic hijinks with Lurleen and Ruby attempting to rid of the body and make sense of the situation, Gretchen tried to get part of the Fire Compass back from them, leading to a chase to find the secret underground chambers in Hitopah (which contain a huge quantity of petroleum), towards which the Fire Compass is supposed to guide the owner.[6]

Musical artists were featured on Texas to focus and contribute to some of the characters' storyline, such as brother and sister Elena and Rikki Dekker both venturing into the musical careers, although short-lived. Almost all serials in the 1980s had notable musical artists appearing on their respective shows, with some of the characters playing rising musical artists, and Texas was no exception, The character of Randy Hamilton (Rikki Dekker) gave his rendition of Luther Ingram's R&B hit, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right", and notable country music singers of the 1970s and 1980s such as Johnny Paycheck, Tom T. Hall, and Ray Stevens all made appearances as themselves at venues, mostly at the Coop, on the series.

In addition, politicians also made appearances, such as Oklahoma Governor George Nigh and his wife Donna. They appeared in walk-on roles (playing themselves as Governor and First Lady of Oklahoma) during the show's first month on the air; cast member Lisby Larson (Paige Marshall) serenaded the couple with a rendition of "Oklahoma!". Also, while he never appeared on the actual series, Texas Lieutenant Governor William P. Hobby, Jr., took a tour of the program's Brooklyn studio, and praised the show's realistic visual feel.

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!".

NBC replaced Texas with the game shows Wheel of Fortune and Hit Man (the latter of which was canceled after 13 weeks despite an increase in the network's ratings in the 11:30 a.m. timeslot), as well as reruns of 1970s primetime shows.

At the end of August, 1982, CTV's CKCO-TV in Ontario, Canada moved Texas to 4:00 p.m. and began airing "General Hospital" in between "Another World" and "Texas" at 3:00 p.m.

Beginning in September 1982, CKCO-TV aired Texas one day behind the NBC episodes. Texas ended on CKCO-TV December 31, 1982 with a 2-Hour Texas finale - the final two episodes, #616 and #617 - back to back from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

• Daniel Davis (Eliot Carrington)
• Harley Jane Kozak (Brette Wheeler)
• Beverlee McKinsey (Iris Wheeler)
• Jim Poyner (Dennis Carrington)
• George Patterson Nigh (Governor of Oklahoma)
• Kin Shriner (Jeb Hampton)
• Carla Borelli (Reena Bellman Cook Dekker Wheeler)
• Lee Patterson (Dr. Kevin Cook) (1980-1981)
• Jerry Lanning (Justin Marshall)
• Tina Johnson (Lurlene Harper) (1981-1982)

• Paul Rauch (executive producer, 1980-1981)
• Gail Kobe (executive producer, 1981-1982)
• Judy Lewis (producer)
• Joyce and John William Corrington (head writers, 1980)
• Dorothy Ann Purser and Samuel D. Ratcliffe (head writers, 1981)
• Paul Rader and Gerald Flesher (head writers, 1981)
• Pamela K. Long (head writer, 1981-1982)[7]

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.

In late 1981, 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 remained in the basement due to numerous factors such as losing affiliates due to timeslot rescheduling, contributing to the show's cancellation. [3]

After the show ended, Kobe and Long were hired at Guiding Light in the same roles. Several Texas actors appeared shortly after Long began writing the show; Jay Hammer, James Rebhorn, Harley Jane Kozak and Michael Woods were all cast in new roles on Guiding Light. Long and Kobe also wooed Beverlee McKinsey back to daytime to portray Baroness Alexandra Spaulding Von Halkein, a role she would play until 1992.

Other Texas actors who appeared shortly after the show ended included Alexandra Neil, Lisby Larson, and Jerry Lanning. Long had originally wanted Lanning for the role of Billy Lewis; Lanning eventually took on the role of Cain Harris, who befriended and then stalked the character of Reva Shayne.

On April 26, 1982, Texas moved to the 11:00 am timeslot. The serial had been at a critical low point in the ratings, and NBC, as part of a reshuffling of its morning lineup and a last-ditch effort to save the show, opted for this late-morning move, which also resulted in a change of timeslot for the hit game show Wheel of Fortune. As part of this shuffle, NBC moved Wheel of Fortune from 11:00 to 10:30, which subsequently resulted in the termination of Blockbusters and Battlestars.

However, this move may have exacerbated the ratings problems for Texas: although it no longer had to face General Hospital, it was now directly against CBS' hit game show The Price Is Right. While Wheel of Fortune had given The Price Is Right some competition in the slot, Texas was unable to make even the slightest dent against the long-running CBS game. Therefore, NBC cancelled Texas and the still-struggling The Doctors (which had been bumped up to noon to make room for NBC acquiring CBS' Search for Tomorrow at 12:30) on December 31, 1982. Strangely enough, Somerset, the first spin-off of Another World, had aired its finale on the same date in 1976.

After initially filling the slot with reruns of CHiPs for a few months, NBC experimented with other programming in the 3:00 timeslot; two 60-minute game shows occupied the slot over a period of nearly two years. The first of these, Fantasy, ran for thirteen months and was replaced by The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. When the latter ended its run in July 1984, Santa Barbara premiered in the 3:00 timeslot; aside from running for nine years, it achieved better ratings and critical acclaim than Texas ever did. Santa Barbara was also the last network program NBC aired in that slot, as NBC returned the hour to its affiliates after the show ended in 1993.

Shortly after the cancellation of Texas and The Doctors, NBC turned its focus back to game shows and improving the struggling but still higher rated soaps Days of Our Lives and Another World in early 1983. The daytime block led off with the Jim Perry-helmed revival of Sale of the Century at 10:30 am in January 1983. The 11:00 slot went back to Wheel of Fortune, which Texas had displaced with its move to the mornings, and the 11:30 slot was filled by Hit Man, which introduced audiences to Peter Tomarken. The noon slot, which The Doctors previously occupied, was taken by Just Men!, hosted by Betty White. Of the shows that premiered that day, Sale of the Century lasted until March 1989, but Hit Man and Just Men! each lasted only 13 weeks.

Texas was used as a starring vehicle for Daytime Emmy-nominated Beverlee McKinsey, whose Another World character of Iris Carrington, penned in 1972 by Harding Lemay on the mother show as the rich, spoiled daughter of publishing magnate Mackenzie Cory, was made the focal point of the series. McKinsey was given the distinction of having a starring credit on the opening of the show. Narrator Ken Roberts announced at the end of the theme song, "Texas, starring Beverlee McKinsey," grazed with an outside picture of the iconic actress. However, she left Texas 16 months after its debut.

Texas was also the first daytime soap opera to air hour-long episodes from its inception, as all the other hour-long soaps airing at the time had expanded from 30 minutes. Noteworthy, the multiple Emmy Award-winning Santa Barbara, which took over the former Texas time slot in 1984, also premiered with hour-long episodes. Santa Barbara managed to achieve more critical acclaim and slightly higher ratings during its 8-and-a-half-year run.