Lately I've been thinking of what has led DS to be the phenomenon it is today, and it seems that several key decisions have helped to keep DS alive. They range from Dan Curtis agreeing to his wife Norma's advice to turn his odd dream about 'a girl on a train' into a TV show (1965) to a group of DS fans led by Kathy Resch and Marcy Robin creating the first DS convention (1977).
Personally, I feel that the decision with the deepest impact is Curtis' decision to keep the master recordings of each episode. Well, we wouldn't be here in such large numbers today if those master tapes were erased back then. Due to the expensive cost of videotape back then, the rule regarding most soaps in the 1960s and 70s was to reuse the tapes after a few weks or months, which is the sad reason why there aren't many original B/W or color tapes of soap episodes from those decades. There are exceptrions (Days of our Lives and The Young and the Restless were produced by Columbia Pictures/Soiny Televison, and Ryan's Hope was owned by Labine-Mayer Prods. from 1975-81), but most soaps didn't start saving tapes until the late 70s.
Without those original DS tapes, there would only be kinescopes of most episodes in the vaults until ABC stopped making them in late 1970. (BTW, that's the situation with ABC's own collection of pre-1978 General Hospital episodes). Fandom would be limited at best, and there would only be a few websites saluting the show (as in the cae of Love of Life, Somerset and other soaps of the period).
On the other hand, what would've happened if someone else had been hired to play Barnabas, if Art Wallace hadn't been hired to create a story for the new show, if Grayson Hall had taken that shower instead of answering her phone that fateful day in mid-'67, or if Dan hadn't been urged on by his daughters to go full-tilt with the supernatural elements of the show!
So, come on and tell us what was the most important decision in DS history. Choose from the above, or tell us your own opinion.