All My Shadows

Why is January 2 Erica day and not January 16, the date she made her first appearance on the show? January should just be Erica month, but look, since Susan's birthday was just last week, we can celebrate La Kane from December 1 to January 31.

That really is my answer to this every time it pops up. Original masters of everything from the transition to color (1967) to the end of the expansion era (1980). And more COLOR soaps actually in COLOR. It's disgusting that we're still stuck with grainy black and white kinescopes of things that aired in 1972 when there are other daytime programs from a decade earlier available clean and pristine, in their original color.

I need to see Vernon's late mother depicted as a rather large portrait of Theresa Merritt hanging in the Dupree family den.

Thanks @DRW50!! I've never seen that one before, and I thought I'd seen all of the 15-minute LOLs out there. Jean McBride's Meg really is one of the greatest early soap characters. Idk how the 50s audience took her, but I can never see her as "the bad sister" because she comes across so desperate and transparent in so many of her manipulations that you can't help but feel for her and hope that something works out for her at some point. I love it when a soap builds its conflicts in unexpected ways. Obviously the Meg/Van dynamics are classic, but putting Beanie into the mix, angry at his mom for being the way she is but also resentful toward Aunt Van because, no matter what, even as she steps in to care for him, she never stops defending Meg and encouraging him to forgive her. Labine was a genius to bring Meg and Ben back in the 70s.

AMC from the mid-1970s ATWT from the early 1970s Secret Storm and Love of Life from the late 1960s Anything from the “shorter”-lived soaps of the late 1950s to early 1970s that ran anywhere from 1-5 years (Young Doctor Malone, From These Roots, The Clear Horizon, The Young Marrieds, Flame in the Wind, The Nurses, Bright Promise, Where the Heart Is, A World Apart, Return to Peyton Place, How to Survive a Marriage)

The pilot opening always makes me think of what it would have been like had they developed the show to be more like the movie. Shot on film with one camera, Alfred Lutter as a much brattier Tommy, a balance between comedy and drama, etc. It's for the best they went full sitcom because that's what was going to be successful at the time, but my godddd, can you imagine? And the aesthetic! I've been obsessed with that desert highway, roadside diner, southwestern USA aesthetic for over 20 years because of this show.

To me, Jimmy getting shot is like Mary going blind on LHOTP. It changed the character's trajectory for the rest of the series, but it became such a gigantic part of the character that you can't imagine what it would have been like had it never happened.

Julia did come to mind, but being that she was a registered nurse, I seem to recall they lived a fairly comfortable life. That’s a show that needs to be ubiquitous across streaming apps for sure. I totally agree with you Re: Alice. I mostly enjoyed the whole run, but there was a certain style in the first 2-3 seasons that was so unique to this show. It was dusty and hot, there were all kinds of truckers and other blue collar characters dropping in at the diner, a mother and son who kept it real with each other, a breakout character who was a sassy “old broad” pushing 40 and proudly living in a trailer park while going out openly and frequently, etc. When they wrote to those points, they created a world that you wanted to visit each week, and it really made for a great show. The episode with the gay friend wanting to take Tommy camping left an impression on me, too. I had to have been like 11 years old (so, same age as Tommy), and it was the first time I ever considered that a football player could be gay. So, in this working class world where the men were manly men and the women, while being very independent and assertive, kept their femininity, here’s a guy who challenged that set-up. And that was only the second episode! It’s funny, because after CBS made the conscious decision to push out their “country” shows in favor of the more urban (and urbane) stuff in the early 70s, some of their biggest hits at the end of the decade were set around a diner in Arizona, a cattle ranch in Texas, the backroads of Georgia, and a mountain in Virginia.

Insanity because I just binge-watched “History of the Sitcom” today and was delighted to see her discuss how “Alice” represented the working class in the late 70s and early 80s. I never realized Alice was the first single mom on TV who had to live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet. I just watched the Christmas episode last week and thought about how Linda and Polly were the only surviving original cast members. Now it’s just Polly. I was absolutely obsessed with the show when I discovered it in reruns on TNN, and it’s been a true favorite of mine ever since. Somehow Linda’s very East Coast, very Jewish self fit perfectly into the country-western world of Mel’s Diner and its regulars. Other characters might’ve stole the show (and they did), but she really was the glue that kept it all together and was a great lead/title character.

Chic's Alfa Anderson passed away on December 17. When people think of Chic, they obviously think of Nile Rodgers and then Bernard Edwards, but to me, the band would not have been nearly as successful without the sometimes eccentric, sometimes wistful, always polished vocals of Norma Jean Wright, Luci Martin, and - especially - Alfa Anderson. She was truly the embodiment of the band's name and image. She sang lead on my fave Chic single, "I Want Your Love," as well as my fave Chic non-single, "At Last I Am Free." She was just perfect for both ends of the spectrum of what they put out.

The fact that people are still sitting their burly asses on podcasts and playing the “AMC deserved to end but OLTL didn’t” game is insane. I mean, we are almost 14 years down the line lol But look at which one still has a place in pop culture conversations 👀

That print ad is hilarious because not one single solitary thing in Knots season 1 screamed power or passion, and certainly not at Dallas levels lol I wonder how many people tuned in expecting dirty deals and backstabbing but were disappointed by what they saw - Eight (Married Adults) is Enough.

@NothinButAttitude Thanks!! I was out of the loop for a while, so most of that is new to me, especially everything with Aiden Turner. Frons? Disgusting loser as always.

See, and I was thisclose to saying that I would actually like something similar to Only Love for the fact that it was simple with natural landscapes and faded in clips of the characters. The song was major ass, and that whole vibe would not fit BTG at all, but give me something like Falcon Crest, following that car from DC to the country club, with a piece of moody music set to a nice beat (kinda like the Dynasty reboot), and I'd be impressed. But ultimately, yes, just please don't give us something embarrassing.

Bruh, some of yall need to touch some damn grass and stop going back and forth with people on the internet who don't care about you. I also typed more but then I remembered - no one gives a F about what a I think lol The same is true for literally all of you, too! The promo excites me. Like I said before, I'm not expecting something revolutionary or noticeably different from what we already consider to be daytime soap opera. Once it was confirmed that this would be a daytime show, my expectation has been for it to look comparable to Y&R and B&B. The country club aspect is interesting, and I wonder what greater ties exist between it and the Duprees. Like, it feels like they might own it? If this has already been established, forgive me lol As someone who's been fascinated with the artistry behind soap opera title sequences for a long time, it's a weird feeling to say that I'm almost apathetic about BTG's opening. B&B, Y&R, and GH all have garbage CGI overdose openings, IMO. Look at B&B's current opening and compare it to the original from 87-04 and tell me which one looks like a cartoon and which one looks like a TV show for grown-ups.

I did not expect the adorable photo of Laura and baby Daniel under the end credits of S2E2, but it’s crazy to see how delicate the show was with her character/story knowing that she’ll be mostly marginalized a few seasons later. She’s the true tragic heroine of primetime soaps, and it almost feels like Laura is what Sue Ellen was supposed to be before Dallas became all about watching JR pull everyone’s strings.

I’ve always adored the King’s Crossing theme 👀 but when I finally saw the accompanying sequence, I bristled. For one, the show does not seem to fit the theme at allllllll - as has been said many times, this just doesn’t seem like a Lorimar soap in the vein of the others at all. No glamor, no opulence, etc, and the music has a certain stylish quality. And then also, they just threw together the most generic credits sequence they could have ever come up with. No interesting graphics to fit in with Dallas’s sliding images of Texas into the three-panel frames of the cast, Knots’s overhead shot of the cul-de-sac or the scrolling clips, or Flamingo Road’s tinted footage of flamingos. Even when FC just kept it simple with the headshots alternating with landscapes, it was effective. And all three of those shows had the title presented alongside a crescendo in the music - King’s Crossing’s theme has the perfect moment for that at about the 20-second mark, but no, let’s just throw it out there at the very beginning.

I saw that and was gonna just quote reply to say that I agree with you lol but SON on a phone is the stuff of nightmares.

Oh yeah, I didn't mean that it's not fun to speculate. I just think the show's expiration date was pretty much written in stone by the time it entered the 90s. Some of those episodes I watched in the initial run on the Primetime Soaps channel just seemed really tired, but I'm committing to watching the entire run. Anne and Claudia just don't come off as characters to watch for me.

Am I alone in the opinion that a primetime TV drama that's been on the air for 14 seasons is allowed to die rather than go through a massive overhaul in an effort to save it? Sometimes, it's not even about the content of the show, it's about the name alone. I figure by 1993, a new younger audience was never going to tune in to "Knots Landing," that show that their grandma watched over a decade earlier. When it's over, it's over. I watched the S4 premiere and will have it on hold until I finish all of Flamingo Road, but man man man, that cliffhanger from S3 into S4. Just like what I said about Falcon Crest's first season finale, I love a cliffhanger that emphasizes reactions, next steps, and the aftermath of emotional bombshells that have long-term consequences over superficial events like massacres, crashes, and even shootings. There was never any doubt - Val leaving Gary meant that things were never going to be the same in the cul-de-sac, and so to spend that entire summer wondering just how different things would be...yikes. I will always let Ted Shackelford ruin my life, but man Gary is an a-hole, and Abby really is a thot. Val being assertive throughout these first few seasons is really great when you know that she'll become "Poor Val" later on. Not sure how I feel about Laura moving back in with Richard, but it's really funny to me that Richard, Kenny, and Ginger carried on into S4, because it definitely seemed like all three characters were on their way to a natural departure by the end of the third season. I somehow like Kenny and Ginger a lot more now that they are generally happy with and supportive of one another, maybe because, for a hot minute, they are the "stable couple" on Seaview Circle while all of the older folks are spinning out of control. I can see why there's nothing left for them, though. The S4 arrangement of the theme is probably my favorite. I love that the melody starts in the strings before it builds to the sax slinking in like, "Oh yes, baby, I'm still here."

I hate to spam post but guys I did NOT expect “Acts of Love” to go so hard! I figured after all the excitement of “Night,” we’d just get the silly plot of Val waiting tables, but what an incredible follow-up that delivers on the Gary/Abby tension! The Val side of the story really is kinda dumb, but Sonny Shroyer’s character did what he needed to do (and was quite sexy in the process). And now “China Dolls” is next #eek

Oh yes, I did forget to mention that this is the best depiction of grief/recovery after the death of a spouse that I’ve seen. Throughout the entire season, I was never surprised when we went back down the road of Sid’s death (for lack of a better phrase) because there was always that undercurrent of loss in Karen and the kids. I watched “Letting Go” yesterday, and the thought occurred to me that Mack’s arrival and romance with Karen would not feel rushed at all since we’d gone on this continuing journey with her.

Finished the first season over the weekend, and it was probably my favorite first season out of all the big 4 soaps. Perfect amount of time spent developing the characters and the dynamics of the inner circle of the family before weaving in other important characters, culminating in an exciting cliffhanger - which is also my favorite type of cliffhanger, one that’s less about “what happens next?” and more about “how will it happen?” We know Angela isn’t gonna just split FC without a fight, but oh, how is that devious old cnt gonna do it?! I feel like Melissa’s introduction happened very quickly, but I’m okay with that bc she really was one of the missing pieces that had to fall right into place to take the show to the next level. Can’t wait to see Richard in S2.

They address KLM in early season 6, IIRC. I’m almost finished the third season, and I can see why the show was under the threat of cancellation. They were gradually sliding into more serialization at a time when Dallas, Flamingo Road, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest were all basically continuing stories, and right off the heels of Gary and Abby’s first kiss, we get Valene babysitting her ex’s stepdaughter in a low-key repeat of the pilot episode. Richard and Laura’s marital woes heat alllll the way up, but here, let’s spend an episode with Abby talking about the good ol’ days of the Roaring 20s with an elderly gent. I like Joe Cooper a lot, but I can see why he didn’t last once the likes of Mack and Greg took over as male leads. Even he fell victim to the episodic pitfalls because why did we meet his long-time girlfriend and go through so much with them all in one episode? I am very much looking forward to the official start of the Val/Gary/Abby triangle as a closer to the season and then all of the greatness that is S4-S6.

Maybe I’m wigging out, but it seems like all the imperfections I mentioned late last night were fixed? Maybe it was just something with my TV or internet connection (I was watching in bed last night and now in the living room). I’m hunting and pecking at random episodes, and the later seasons look a tonnnnn better than they ever did on the Primetime Soaps channel.