Behind the Screen is an American late-night weekly serial which aired on CBS from October 9, 1981 to January 8, 1982. It was created by David Jacobs for CBS, which wanted to experiment with late night programming as a counterpoint to ABC and NBC's more successful efforts at that time of night. Drawing upon his experience with the prime-time serials, Behind the Screen was a dramatization of the goings-on at a fictional TV soap opera called Generations. This was not the first attempt to explore the concept of a "soap within a soap" as radio soaps had used the idea as far as back as the 1940s, and Ryan's Hope had used the idea for a story in the early 1980s.
It premiered as an hour-long special, and regular episodes were 30 minutes. The show focused on the beautiful young star of Generations, Janie-Claire Willow, who was a pawn in a power struggle between her wheelchair-using mother Zina, her powerful agent Evan, and her show's leading man, Brian. The show's early pacing was a bit meandering and had problems finding an audience. The show seemed to be finding its focus, helped by stronger writing by Ronnie Wencker-Konner, when it was canceled after only 3 months on the air. The last episode concerned a backstage party where starlet Joyce Daniels was poisoned. Suspicion quickly fell on Lynette Porter. In a bit of levity, Michele Lee appeared as herself, playing a guest at the party; when questioned by police, she was mistakenly identified by the cops as Mary Tyler Moore.
