Emmerdale Emmerdale (Farm) and Crossroads in the late 1980s

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

In the late 1980s did ITV basically pit Emmerdale Farm against Crossroads to see which series could revamp itself?

1987-1989 were big years for these soaps, in 1987 Crossroads added "Kings Oak" to its title, where as in 1989 Emmerdale dropped "Farm" from its own titles, both shows shifted their locale of focus, Crossroads it was onto the nearby Village and Emmerdale it was onto the village and Home Farm.

Could Crossroads have survived into the 1990s, 2000s and beyond like Emmerdale has done?

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

From what I've read, I don't think they were pitted against each other as such. It was Central Television who pulled the plug on Crossroads themselves and it was said that they'd been trying to get rid of the show since they took over ATV in the early 80's. I saw an interview with Jane Rossington where she said that they'd just been told that they were hitting their audience targets and were due to be given an omnibus edition and then a few weeks later, Central pulled the plug.

If anything, I'd say the main effect that Crossroads axing had on Emmerdale was to give it a kick up the backside and realise that they too were expendable, which in turn led to the 1989 revamp.

 

[Angela Channing]

From what I've read, I don't think they were pitted against each other as such. It was Central Television who pulled the plug on Crossroads themselves and it was said that they'd been trying to get rid of the show since they took over ATV in the early 80's. I saw an interview with Jane Rossington where she said that they'd just been told that they were hitting their audience targets and were due to be given an omnibus edition and then a few weeks later, Central pulled the plug.

If anything, I'd say the main effect that Crossroads axing had on Emmerdale was to give it a kick up the backside and realise that they too were expendable, which in turn led to the 1989 revamp.

I agree with this. Crossroads and Emmerdale were never direct rivals. ITV weren't keen on Crossroads even though it's viewing figures were strong because it felt its audience didn't comprise enough young people who were the most attractive to advertisers. They brought in producers who didn't really understand the show and ran it down, dropping the familiar theme tune and changing it's name to Crossroads Kings Oak, even though everyone still referred to it as Crossroads. They brought in likeable but useless characters like Beverley Grice, Darby and Mrs Tardibigge and it wasn't the same show that loyal fans loved.

Crossroads could have survived had it gone back to it's original formula, focussing on the lives of a core group of characters who were connected with the motel.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

From what I've read, I don't think they were pitted against each other as such. It was Central Television who pulled the plug on Crossroads themselves and it was said that they'd been trying to get rid of the show since they took over ATV in the early 80's. I saw an interview with Jane Rossington where she said that they'd just been told that they were hitting their audience targets and were due to be given an omnibus edition and then a few weeks later, Central pulled the plug.

If anything, I'd say the main effect that Crossroads axing had on Emmerdale was to give it a kick up the backside and realise that they too were expendable, which in turn led to the 1989 revamp.

I agree with this. Crossroads and Emmerdale were never direct rivals. ITV weren't keen on Crossroads even though it's viewing figures were strong because it felt its audience didn't comprise enough young people who were the most attractive to advertisers. They brought in producers who didn't really understand the show and ran it down, dropping the familiar theme tune and changing it's name to Crossroads Kings Oak, even though everyone still referred to it as Crossroads. They brought in likeable but useless characters like Beverley Grice, Darby and Mrs Tardibigge and it wasn't the same show that loyal fans loved.

Crossroads could have survived had it gone back to it's original formula, focussing on the lives of a core group of characters who were connected with the motel.

I agree with these answers, thanks.

I don't understand why Crossroads was axed in the first place, it was no worse or better than other soaps at the time.

Crossroads being axed was probably what saved Emmerdale in 1989 @Carrie Fairchild

What turned most Crossroads viewers in the end was the needless axing of long serving characters in the mid 1980s and the fact that Crossroads was so far removed from its concept by 1988 compared to how it was in 1981 didn't help.

The Kings Oak concept might've worked had some of the older characters were still around like the Hunters, Diane, Benny etc.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I was too young to recall Crossroads first time around but from what I've seen and read online, I get the impression that it was regarded in the same way as Last of the Summer Wine or Mrs Brown's Boys have been in recent years - critically derided but high rating and something that your grandparents would watch.

There's clips on YouTube of panel or write in shows discussing Crossroads as far back as the 70's & in every one that I've seen, the average Crossroads viewer was portrayed as an OAP while the opposing argument would be presented by young, Guardian reading London media types. Jasper Carrott is on one of them and he points out how Crossroads was just an easy target for comedians and it became the punchline for many jokes on the comedy circuit, which I'm sure added to the reputation of it being a bad show among people who'd never even watched an episode.

As Angela pointed out, it was attracting audiences but just the wrong type of audience as far as ITV were concerned.

 

[Walford Boy]

In its heyday in the 70's it was pulling in a higher audience than Coronation Street which went through a bad patch in the early 70's. Crossroads achieving this was amazing as it was not fully networked (Granada didn't pick the show up until 1972 and for a time Thames refused to show it) I recall the Prime minster's wife Mrs Wilson writing to Thames complaining and wanting the soap reinstating. Different regions had it on at different times. In the ATV region it was at 6:35 pm after ATV Today. The wedding of Meg and Hugh in 1975 was so huge, it stopped traffic in Birmingham where it as filmed.

 

[Walford Boy]

Emmerdale was also facing the axe many times, it wasn't until the plain crash December 1993, that it began to get peoples attention and turned things round. Emmerdale was fully networked and shown in all regions in 1988 at 6:30 pm and then in 1989 at 7:00pm where it has remained ever since.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Here's an overview of some of the ratings during the 80's. Even in it's final 12 months, it was always in and around the Top Ten, only slipping out of it in it's final months but still managing to stay within the Top 20.

http://www.crossroadsnetwork.co.uk/oldsite/ratings_eighties.htm

In saying that, after 24 years, it would've been quite easy for ITV to use the "it's run it's course" excuse.

Jumping back to a question posed in the original post "could Crossroads have survived into the 90's and beyond?". Had it decided what it wanted to be, it probably could have gone on if it was given over to the right producer. After the departure of Meg, followed by a number of other regulars, it appeared to go through a few identity crises due to the turnover of producers.

What it had going for it was the uniqueness of it's setting. It was the only UK evening soap at the time that was set mostly in a workplace rather than a local community. Trying to turn it into Kings Oak meant it would've likely ended up being a carbon copy of all the other soaps. Which would erode another part of it's already confused identity. The producer Phillip Bowman, who brought in Nicola Freeman, seemed to know what he was doing but he unfortunately wasn't kept around for long.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

Phillip Bowman wanted to bring Meg back but sadly Noele Gordon died in 1985 before this could ever happen.

I do wonder how the show would've turned out had Meg stayed beyond 1981?

Though in many ways, Meg had to go, as 80s Crossroads seemed more modern and up to date than it did in the 70s.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Phillip Bowman wanted to bring Meg back but sadly Noele Gordon died in 1985 before this could ever happen.

I do wonder how the show would've turned out had Meg stayed beyond 1981?

Though in many ways, Meg had to go, as 80s Crossroads seemed more modern and up to date than it did in the 70s.

Like I mentioned in the other Crossroads thread, I quite like the idea of a soap having a female figurehead in the way that they had Meg. You don't really see that in soaps these days. You have matriarchs that drop in and out of prominence as stories dictate but you rarely see one show built around one central character nowadays. Probably because it's quite impractical in terms of casting and also it goes against the old adage of there being "no one star in a soap, the show is the star". Despite not being planned, Patricia Hamilton (Rowena Wallace) became the "star" of Sons and Daughters for a number of years and it was fantastic. From what I've seen online, I think Nicola Freeman could've been the female figurehead of the 80's but I don't think she hung around too long due to the change in producers?

 

[Walford Boy]

Here's an overview of some of the ratings during the 80's. Even in it's final 12 months, it was always in and around the Top Ten, only slipping out of it in it's final months but still managing to stay within the Top 20.

http://www.crossroadsnetwork.co.uk/oldsite/ratings_eighties.htm

In saying that, after 24 years, it would've been quite easy for ITV to use the "it's run it's course" excuse.

Jumping back to a question posed in the original post "could Crossroads have survived into the 90's and beyond?". Had it decided what it wanted to be, it probably could have gone on if it was given over to the right producer. After the departure of Meg, followed by a number of other regulars, it appeared to go through a few identity crises due to the turnover of producers.

What it had going for it was the uniqueness of it's setting. It was the only UK evening soap at the time that was set mostly in a workplace rather than a local community. Trying to turn it into Kings Oak meant it would've likely ended up being a carbon copy of all the other soaps. Which would erode another part of it's already confused identity. The producer Phillip Bowman, who brought in Nicola Freeman, seemed to know what he was doing but he unfortunately wasn't kept around for long.

Thanks for posting those ratings, really interesting. Did itv axe the right soap? Ignoring Crossroads awful reincarnation from 2001, it would have been interesting to see how the show Kingsoak would have developed. Personally looking at how strong Emmerdale is right now I would say the proof is in the eating and yes I think they did make the right decision.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

Thanks for posting those ratings, really interesting. Did itv axe the right soap? Ignoring Crossroads awful reincarnation from 2001, it would have been interesting to see how the show Kingsoak would have developed. Personally looking at how strong Emmerdale is right now I would say the proof is in the eating and yes I think they did make the right decision.

What we have to remember is that Yorkshire TV has always been commited to Emmerdale.

ATV was like this with Crossroads until Central took over in early 1982 (just weeks after Meg Richardson bowed out on the QE2 en route to New York, forever, coincidence?....)

Central resented the fact that it had inherited, in their eyes, "an aging, out of date soap" they revamped the series several times in the 1980s by axing long running, popular characters, that's not a bad thing but it was these changes that brought about its demise, Crossroads had changed beyond recognition by 1988 compared to what it was just six or seven years earlier, Central were keen to produce lavish, 2 hour long dramas like Inspector Morse, and saw soap operas in general as outdated modes of television for the
1990s and 2000s, which was why they eventually did away with it.

Very premature considering Brookside and EastEnders were new soaps launched just a few years earlier and went from strength to strength in the 1990s and beyond, and Corrie and Emmerdale were also revitalised too, so I think there was room for Crossroads or Kings Oak in the 90s myself.

 

[Canon]

Emmerdale was also facing the axe many times,

The only time I'm aware of was that early 1990s period when certain regions were threatening to drop it. The "revamp" at the end of the 1980s seemed to be more about broadening the show's appeal rather than a threat of being dropped. Emmerdale like Crossroads was in and out of ITV's Top Ten throughout the 80s despite not being fully networked.

What we have to remember is that Yorkshire TV has always been commited to Emmerdale.

Yes, there's articles from the mid 80s where YTV are seen to be celebrating the continued success of the show.

 

[LEEJ88]

Emmerdale was also facing the axe many times, it wasn't until the plain crash December 1993, that it began to get peoples attention and turned things round. Emmerdale was fully networked and shown in all regions in 1988 at 6:30 pm and then in 1989 at 7:00pm where it has remained ever since.

Yeah ITV were gonna axe Emmerdale so they brought in Brookside's Phil Redmond to drop a Plane on the village and the rest is history.