The King of Night Soaps Finally Has His Day

Aaron Spelling’s newest TV series promises all the classic features expected by fans of the king of prime-time soaps: drama, intrigue, beautiful actors--even one of the producer’s kids in a starring role.

But don’t expect to be able to tuck your own kids into bed and settle in for a night with the latest juicy developments: “Sunset Beach,” which starts today and is Spelling’s latest venture for NBC, is a daytime drama--a good old five-day-a-week, watch-it-in-the-afternoon soap opera.

It’s the first time that NBC has invested in a new soap since 1989, when the network debuted “Generations,” an African American-themed serial than ran for just two years. In a segment of the business where an eight-year run is considered by many to be a failure, it’s no wonder that new soaps don’t start up very often: It takes an enormous cast and crew to produce a soap, which runs for an hour every day, and viewers must be hooked with just a fraction of the budget spent on prime-time shows.

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The payoff, when it works, can be enormous. “Guiding Light” has been on the air for 45 years (15 more on radio), and “General Hospital” has run for 32 years. Advertisers love the mostly female audiences. And at a time when any syndicator with a chair and a microphone can mount a talk show, soaps require resources that few producers can mount without the support of a network.

“If you get it right, it’s a very lucrative business,” said Pat Fili-Krushell, head of daytime programming for ABC, where low ratings have caused the cancellation of “The City,” the newest soap at that network. “It’s still one of the only areas that the networks can call their own.”

Undaunted, Fili-Krushell is planning another new drama for next spring, when “The City” goes off the air, a “General Hospital” spinoff now being called “GH2.”

At NBC, executives expect Spelling’s name and style to add an extra bit of appeal to “Sunset Beach,” giving viewers a reason to tune in until they become hooked.

The network has committed two years to get the show off the ground and has spent $5 million to $6 million in start-up costs, said Susan Lee, senior vice president for daytime programs. In addition, the network pays license fees of between $700,000 and $1 million per week of daytime programming, with a new show like “Sunset Beach” most likely to cost in the lower portion of that range, Lee said.

It will take at least a year to see if the lucrative audience of women aged 18 to 49 tunes in, and another year to see if they stick around.

“‘What you want to see in a soap is steady growth,” Lee said. “Whether it’s Spelling or not, it’s still a soap opera, and history has taught us it never starts with a bang.”

The network’s research department is predicting ratings between 1.3 and 1.6 for women 18 to 49 in the first year. If, after two years, the show was up to a 2 rating and showed steady growth, it would probably stay on the air. It doesn’t matter, Lee explained, if the overall ratings are higher--if enough men, for example, tune in to make the ratings double: Advertisers on daytime soaps care only about women.

For his part, Spelling is intrigued by the idea of bringing some of the skills honed in prime time to daytime. “Sunset Beach,” he said, will have more location shooting--at the beach, of course--and fancier sets than the average soap. Seal Beach in Orange County will substitute for the fictitious “Sunset Beach.” (There is a beach community just south of Seal Beach actually called Sunset Beach.) “We love color,” Spelling said. “We love wardrobe and jewelry, and regal hairdos.”

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The cast includes several actors known more for their roles in prime-time television and feature films, including Lesley-Anne Down, known for her work in the British series “Upstairs, Downstairs,” and Leigh Taylor-Young, who won a best supporting actress Emmy for “Picket Fences.”

The large company, whose 21 regulars include Spelling’s 18-year-old son Randy, and costly sets and locations have meant that the budget per episode is considerably higher than the license fee paid by the network. The extra costs are covered by sales to secondary and international markets. So far, according to Spelling, “Sunset Beach” has been picked up in 14 foreign countries.

The story is classic Spelling: A young woman from a farm town in Kansas ditches her fiance at the altar for S.B., a man she has only met on the Internet. S.B. lives in a California beach town named Sunset Beach, where the residents gather at a hip coffeehouse, and intrigue and romance abound.

Creatively, daytime is different from prime time in several significant ways. The stories move much more slowly, with dozens of plot twists before a story line is completed. Punching up an episode with a variety of mini-dramas works well in prime time, but can make daytime stories too complicated, said Gary Tomlin, a veteran writer and producer of soaps who has signed on as an executive producer. And while prime-time shows can be targeted to a young audience or, separately, to an older one, daytime producers have to be sure to reach out to all age groups.

Add to this the fact that soaps are shot every day of the week--on a fraction of the budget for a single prime-time episode--and the result is a grueling, difficult work week. There are 12 writers on “Sunset Beach,” as compared to four or five on most prime-time shows, according to Spelling.

A good example of the differences between the prime-time and daytime formats can be found in Spelling’s description of the story synopsis, or bible, that his company prepared for NBC when pitching “Sunset Beach.” The bible for “Melrose Place,” Spelling’s hit spinoff of Fox TV’s “Beverly Hills, 90210,” was only 20 pages long. For “Sunset Beach,” the bible was 330 pages.

“That’s when I knew we weren’t in Kansas any more,” the producer said.

Another obstacle faced by a new daytime soap is time slot. Unlike prime time, when most affiliates agree to run programs at the same time across the country, daytime hours are set by local stations. In the case of “Sunset Beach,” NBC wanted its affiliates to run “Sunset Beach” as part of a three-hour block of programming that would also include “Days of Our Lives” and “Another World.” Only 45% of affiliates have agreed to do that, however.

In Los Angeles, “Sunset Beach” will air at 2 p.m., the last show in such a block. “Another World” will kick off the afternoon dramas at noon, followed by “Days” and then “Sunset Beach.”

Still, what it will come down to in the end, said Lee of NBC daytime, is simpler than time slot or even budgets and cast: Daytime revolves around the story. The tale must be intriguing enough to entice viewers to stick with it--over years, even over generations.

“It’s a big risk,” Lee said. “There’s a lot of money involved. We’ve put our money where our mouth is, and now we have to see if it works.”

* “Sunset Beach” airs weekdays at 2 p.m. on KNBC-TV Channel 4.