The Best of Everything

The Best of Everything is an American daytime soap opera which aired on ABC from March 30, 1970, to September 25, 1970. The series was a spin-off of Rona Jaffe's 1958 novel The Best of Everything and the 1959 film of the same name. Plot The show focuses upon four young secretaries and their lives in an intense publishing firm: Linda, April, Kim, and Barbara. They were tormented by their ruthless head editor, Amanda Key, and counseled by the warm and loving Violet Jordan. Although the soap opera was short-lived, there were several plotlines, including Kim being brutally attacked by a mysterious villain named Squirrel. The series also revolved around Barbara, who had become depressed since her marriage failed. Production history The soap opera premiered on March 30, 1970, at 12 Noon Eastern time (11 a.m. Central). The Best of Everything replaced reruns of Bewitched and premiered alongside A World Apart on ABC, which followed it at 12:30/11:30. However, the original version of Jeopardy!, hosted by Art Fleming then, was at the height of its popularity on NBC at that point, and The Best of Everything, much like its CBS competition, Where the Heart Is, made practically no impact upon the ratings. ABC ran it for the then-minimum six months before canceling. This had also been the fate of an NBC serial that aired the previous year, Hidden Faces. Later in the 1970s, these failures, along with a few others, prompted networks to opt instead for expansion of some of their existing 30-minute serials to a full hour each day, minimizing the risk of new programs taking an overly long time to develop an audience. The series was executive produced by creator/headwriter James Lipton. Jacqueline Babbin was the producer. The packager was 20th Century Fox Television, in association with ABC. The Best of Everything was videotaped at ABC-TV Studio 17 in New York City.