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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Daniel Avery" data-source="post: 310547" data-attributes="member: 27">Most soaps have to air one set of cast and/or crew members' credits once per week (a "long credit").  This was dictated by their respective unions.  In the old days if the show ran short (that is, the episode did not fill up the allotted time period completely) the producers would air a long credit to fill that extra time, and if the show ran long they would run an abbreviated credit (maybe just the show's logo and a copyright date).   If you were really lucky, the network would not do one of those annoying voice-over promos during a long-credits sequence, giving the chance to hear the long version without interruptions.In the 1990s this was slowly taken away as the networks standardized the end-credits of its soaps by pushing the credits to one side, then doing a split-screen thing with promos for other programs airing in the other portion of the screen.  Once the networks "ate" the closing credits, they basically made it impossible to enjoy the end-credits version of the theme music.  I think B&B is the last show that has full-screen credits like all the soaps used to, and they probably only have it to this day because of their international distribution.  When a soap is rerun, they have to re-insert 'traditional' end-credits, which is probably expensive.I think the main reasons it took so long to do this has to do with the size of the casts and the size of the egos involved.  When a show has 25-30 contract cast members, you can't do justice to everyone unless you want a five-minute title sequence (which...they wouldn't).  Editing three or four versions of the opening, with eight or nine cast members in each version and alternating their airing would seem fair, but then you have to contend with your "stars".  Such a titles plan would only work if everyone was regarded as equal players, and we all know some are more equal than others.  It ends up entering the realm of contract negotiation, since some actors will decide they ought to have larger or longer representation in the opening credits than "lesser stars," and if one star gets their way then others will want similar treatment until you have chaos.I always thought a better approach would be super-imposing the actors' names (at least, the names of the actors who would appear that day) over the post-opening-credits scene in the way they do producers and writers now.  But what do I know?  I love the quick, bouncy title sequence of B&B and it doesn't have to employ the actors' names to "set the table".</blockquote>

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