Love of Life Tribute February 1, 1980

30 years ago today, Love of Life faded to black for the last time. Here is a special goodbye from CBS News, one of the rare occasions in which a network covered the cancellation of a long-running serial. I remember this like it was yesterday, and after three decades, I still agree with the Candyman. Oh, boy, I miss it.

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Tags:

• Love
• of
• Life
• finale
• CBS
• News
• Walter
• Cronkite
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• Auerbach
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• Carolyn
• Gitman

[jmsweat]

I wanted to point out that Love of Life was replaced with the expansion of the Young and the Restless to one hour on February 4, 1980--not more profitable comedy reruns that was mentioned in this report. Also, I never understood CBS's decision on putting it at 4pm when it could have had the 3:30/2:30pm time slot after Guiding Light so the soaps could air together. Instead CBS left M*A*S*H in that timeslot. However, some west coast affiliates did choose to air the show after GL at 2:30pm PST.

[saynotoursoap]

@jmsweat Love of Life was not replaced by the expansion of Y&R. Love of Life and the game show Beat the Clock left the air on February 1, 1980. The extra hour allowed Y&R to expand to 1hr and reruns of the sitcom The Jeffersons to be added to the am schedule. The sitcom One Day at a Time moved into Love of Life's old time slot. The report was correct that CBS wanted to counterprogram the competition with a popular sitcom that would appeal to kids. Love would have ended regardless of Y&R.

[saynotoursoap]

@jmsweat I suspect that CBS programmed Love of Life after the sitcoms because Love had no competition from NBC in that slot, and CBS probably perceived ABC's The Edge of Night as very weak. The sitcom reruns performed well for CBS. The net probably hoped the audience would not switch channels afterward. CBS hired a new EP and headwriter in 1979 who began to focus LOL around much younger characters, but obviously none of it worked.

[marcowuzmypimp]

Loving this! I always wanted to see some of Love of Life. I read somewhere they had to wrap it up in about 2-3 weeks and didn't have time to end it properly. It's too bad because it looks like it was a good soap. Tks for posting.

[saynotoursoap]

Many years after LOL was canceled, I met a CBS exec who told me LOL wasn't canceled solely because of low ratings. Per him, LOL was dropped so quickly because CBS Sports needed more studio space to produce the 1980 winter Olympics. Otherwise, LOL would have continued running into 1980. This makes sense as CBS had just hired a new producer (Cathy Abbi) and headwriter (Ann Marcus) shortly before the cancellation. I doubt the net would have gone to that trouble if they knew the soap was going off.

[CarlD2]

7 million as bad ratings? Boy have times changed. It's interesting that they say the show's format never changed because I remember reading that the format did change quite a bit by the late '60s.

Who was that wild-eyed woman with the big dark hair?

Love Audrey Peters. I can see why they cast her as Kim Zimmer's mother on GL. She reminds me of her in that interview.

[saynotoursoap]

Carl, the reporter was not referring to the program format but rather to the " serial formula" of slow moving, overlapping plots with continuing characters. His point was that the soap formula in Love of Life had not changed since the Dickensian style of writing in the 19th century.

The "wild-eyed woman" you queried was Arlene Lovett Harper Slater, played by the fabulous Birgitta Tolksdorf. She was Love of Life's resident femme fatale/anti-heroine.

[EONSFTFAN]

A million thank yous for posting this. I'd been wanting to see this news piece ever since I first found out about it. I remember watching that final episode like it was yesterday yet it was 30 years ago. Where does the time go? Funny thing is soaps today would kill to have the ratings LOL had. Not sure what a 25% share amounts to but by todays dismal ratings, I would imagine it is pretty darn good.

Thanks for sharing!! :o)

[softwater88]

Saynotoyoursoap. . . thank you for posting this ! ! I remember I used to watch this with my mother as a kid. This was on a Friday Feb 1, 1980. Can't believe it's 30-years ago. . . Thank you for the nice flashback.

[StaLorenaProductions]

Aside from the Prospect Park deal (which I believe would have worked had ABC given the shows more notice before the final episodes), soaps are thriving on the internet. It is the number one genre amongst webseries. We shot a pilot and are in the process of launching a new soap this spring. If you have any interest, check out our YouTube page.

[StaLorenaProductions]

This is very sad to me, especially in light of the cancellations of AMC and OLTL--and the failure of Prospect Park to bring them to the internet. But the genre is not dieing. On TV, yes, because greedy execs go for lifestyle shows with low production costs. But I doubt any of those will last a few years, let alone decades.

[warningfellow]

Now all my children and one live to live has eternal cliffhangers now LEts hope the soap opera era dies

[orbit14915]

It seemed to me that CBS was emabarassed and complacement about their daytime dramas---but how they loved the profits. It wasn't until they had competition from the junk on abc that they started to promote them. I used to wish that they would repeat them overnight---I worked a swing shift back then---pre VCR. Y&R and B&B are not dramas-they are dramedies or more accurately comedies what a joke GOOD LORD I dumped Y&R years ago never watched B&B. glad I watched during the golden era

[orbit14915]

It seemed to me that CBS was emabarassed and complacement about their daytime dramas---but how they loved the profits. It wasn't until they had competition from the junk on abc that they started to promote them. I used to wish that they would repeat them overnight---I worked a swing shift back then---pre VCR. Y&R and B&B are not dramas-they are dramedies or more accurately comedies what a joke GOOD LORD I dumped Y&R years ago never watched B&B. glad I watched during the golden era from 67;

[joboots007]

@Tommy6583 now I've just heard that ABC are putting AMC & One Life to rest..........anyone willing to

stomach another soap funeral,BTW????

[Tommy6583]

Hard to believe 31 years ago today this classic show left the air. If CBS would have kept it at 11:30 it would have lasted until 1982 or 1983.

[jmsweat]

@en9nui I received the TV Guide from 1979. Most of what was written about soaps never happened. It was reported that NBC was planning to expand Days of Our Lives to 90 minutes and start their soap lineup at 11:30am ET cancelling game shows and The Doctors moving to an earlier time. It also said M*A*S*H reruns would leave CBS and move to syndication but I think they were still airing in the Fall of 1979. There was no mention of anything regarding LOL on CBS lineup.

[jmsweat]

@en9nui Yes I had read that on Wikipedia myself but thanks for the info. I'm trying to get a TV Guide on ebay right now to read that very article! In some of my research from that time, I've learned that some CBS stations kept LOL in the late morning despite CBS's decision to move it to 4pm. WUSA in Washington DC actually kept LOL at 11:30am and pre-empted Price Is Right. KMOV (then KMOX) in St. Louis kept the show at 11am CST airing Y&R at Noon.

[jmsweat]

That theme music for the opening and closing in the final years was AMAZING. It has to be one of the best ever used on soaps. It is so captivating! I wish someone had it to post on here!