All My Shadows

After watching Friday's episodes, it was easier to make sense of the Rita/Audrey thing. Thanks. I've seen very, very little of Alf. There's an early 70s episode on YT with lots of him, though, and he seems like a decent man. I have to say, I don't think I like Ben Price as Nick at all. Too smarmy. Is Sally in remission and just visiting someone just to visit? That's dumb. I agree about Rosie, though. I like her as the comical maneater type, who can be played for laughs and also sexed up. Girl who plays her (blanking on her name right now) is good. Fiz is ridiculous. I am very, very far from being a Chesney fan, but he should lump both of those idiots up for being so stupid.

Finally found a way to watch the show. Some notes from this week's episodes (so far...half way through Thursday): So Molly's pregnant, eh? And apparently it's for Kevin or she doesn't know who it's for. Tsk tsk tsk. Tyrone's so jolly and happy about being a dad, he'll probably beat the snot out of Kevin when the truth comes out. How long as Bill known about Kevin and Molly? Fiz is too stupid to live sometimes. How in the FRACK was it so easy for John to change her mind about him running that fraud to get a job? They deserve to get caught. Becky/Steve and Eddie/Anna at the adoption class was funny, especially Becky's comments about the Windasses' track record raising kids (where is Gary, anyway?) and Anna grabbing Eddie's hand every time he went to ask a question. I like the Windasses more than I did last year, so it's good to see them involved with other characters. What's the deal with Audrey and Rita? I read about some kind of row between the two of them recently, but other than that, I'm clueless. And is Gail in the hospital? Oh, and so they're finally getting the ball rolling with this "Sawfeh's a lesbian!" storyline. Does Rosie have a clue? Because it sounded like she did at first, but then it sounded like she just saw Soph and Sian as good friends. And where's Sally?

Yeah, I'm with this. Possibly because I liked Dylan/Val way more than I ever liked Dylan/Brenda, or any of Brenda's pairings, really. I watched a few episodes online a couple weeks ago, and it really, really is starting to become clear to me why there's a huge faction of Brenda haters. She was hell to deal with sometimes. Not that this makes me like Kelly any more, because post-season 2 Kelly is my least favorite 90210 character (that I actually care about -- Matt, Janet, Noah, Gina, Hilary Swank, etc, need not apply).

That does sound interesting. Of course Little's got his hands all over it, as he should. They'll be lining up to audition for the roles of Carson, Phoenix, and Speed, that's for sure.

Richard's awesome! I've been watching the S2 DVDs, and even though I thought he was an annoying, smarmy ass in the pilot (still haven't seen the rest of S1), I love him in the second season because he's a smarmy ass. I wish they'd get to moving with more seasons on DVD. It's bad enough I can't find the first anywhere anymore, but I really want to get into the heyday. I love the second season, but some of those episodes are absolutely dull (Karen and Diana putting on a happy face, for one).

http://lostshows.com/

Michelle K. is One of the best young actress on TV.

Everything I love about Boney M. Liz singing her ass off (and girlfriend gets DOWN at 2:02), Marcia trying her best to be as good as Liz but not quite getting there, Bobby having crack withdrawals, and Maizie in her own little world too busy having an orgasm to properly lip sync.

Yeah, Filthy Rich is one I really want to see as well. What a cast! Delta, Dixie, Charles Frank, Ann Wedgeworth, and Nedra Volz. The Powers That Be was done by Norman Lear. I have (or maybe had...dont know if I taped over it) an episode of it from years ago when TVLand did a birthday marathon for Mr. Lear. They also showed the first episode of the Mary Hartman sequel, Forever Fernwood, which, looking back now, is something that will probably never, ever in a million years ever be seen again because of its sheer obscurity. I think I once read about a mid-80s soap-within-a-soap spoof called All is Forgiven or something like that.

You'd NEVER heard of "Fresno" before? I've been wanting to see that for years. I'm a huge fan of Carol and her type of humor, so I know I'd love it. Carol + the big 80s soaps has to be good. You mentioned Mary Hartman a little upthread, another show I love more than life.

Now see, most people I know rave about the first season and hate the rest of the show (except for maybe the last season). But then again, most of those people are also big on "Dallas," so maybe the other big D (in its heyday) just isn't their thing.

As far as I know, neither one of them went any further than mini-series. Jackie had HW, of course, which I think I read was gonna be turned into a series, but I think that the network came to their senses by then and realized that the primetime soap was, sadly, on its way out. Besides, they ended up putting The Colbys on the air that year anyway. I've seen the mini-series of Sheldon's Rage of Angels, which starred Jaclyn Smith, but that one wasn't extremely soapy. [!@#$%^&*]. I'm already starting to get backed up on my Dynasty and Prisoner Cell Bloch H episodes. Now I have to sit and watch as much of this as I can.

Yes. She received a "Developed for television by" credit. Two other soapy names involved were Ann Marcus and Kathleen Shelley (who also wrote for Falcon, Knots, Yellow Rose, North and South, and Emerald Point).

You've never seen Family? It's a great show, IMO. Three complete episodes of it have made it to YouTube, and I was lucky enough to see them all before they were taken off. There's a chopped up episode from later on in the show's run that I won't even waste my time with. Sada Thompson was wonderful and definitely deserving of her Emmy. I actually didn't realize it until I looked into the show some more that Thompson, Gary Frank (the son), and Kristy McNichol all won Emmys for their work, which is incredible for an Aaron Spelling show. In regards to Falcon Crest...I can't even stress how eager I am to get my hands on the DVDs. I have two episodes on tape from when TVLand aired it (and Dallas, Sisters, Knots Landing, and Eight is Enough) a couple years ago for a special weekend marathon. I fell in love with everything about it.

I saw that HBO special. Really wasn't meant to show what the show was about, though, right? I remember the clip consisting of a rimjob and that's it. I liked the few episodes of the US QAF that I saw. I could have done with less Gale Harold and Randy Harrison though. Peter Paige was the real highlight for me. I thought that story with him and the football player was a little stupid and predictable, but I liked the general idea.

Hey, I saw her in What's New Pussycat? when I was 8 and I've loved her ever since. Underrated lady and troubled, but most of the best ones are I could be projecting, too. I know they wanted to put a retooled FR in daytime, so maybe I'm putting Scruples under that umbrella. Geez, that article. This O'Connor fella must have really hated his job.

I thought it was intended to be a daytime soap? Or maybe both somewhere along the line. I never watched all of Scruples. WeTV was showing it pretty frequently around the same time they were showing Hollywood Wives and Bare Essence a lot. They ran them part-by-part on Monday nights and then showed the complete story on Saturday. Sins, starring Queen Joan, was one of my favorites. Besides Joan, you also had the colossal diva talents of Lauren Hutton and Capucine, who I like to think I am a reincarnated version of (she died two weeks before I was born). Also, Catherine Mary Stewart, who would have been absolutely perfect on Dynasty and/or The Colbys.

Yes, Emerald Point was one of the few primetime soaps of that era to debut in the fall as opposed to midseason, so it was lucky enough to last a full season of 22 episodes. The credits for Emerald Point and Berrenger's were on YouTube last year, and Emerald Point's cast was just...fantabulous. Not many HUGE names, but people who had experience or would go on to big things. Weaver, Robert Vaughn, Sela Ward, Maud Adams, Jill St. John, Richard Dean Anderson, Andrew Stevens, Robert Loggia, and even AMC's Jeff, Charles Frank, who wore the hell out of a military uniform. Speaking of Andrew Stevens, I finished reading Hollywood Wives today, and I am just in awe at how absolutely magical the book was. I love the mini-series, always will, but I guess it's true what they say, the book is almost always better. That was my kind of book, from beginning to end. Jackie knows who were audience is, that's for sure. I'm gonna try to rewatch the mini-series on YouTube soon because it's been years since I've seen it. I want to be able to spot the similarities and differences now.

Berrenger's, King's Crossing, and Emerald Point N.A.S. are like...my top three short-lived primetime soaps that I MUST!MUST!MUST! see. Bare Essence: The Series is a close #4. King's Crossing, especially. Lorimar soaps are my favorite, and this one had all the ingredients, including a lovely disco-ish theme by Jerrold Immel.

Kindred is definitely one of Aaron's shows.

I guess that kinda makes sense. A much, much more specific focus (Degrassi has that large cast and has always utilized it so well) that gives it a structure centralized around the Amy character. If you want a show where almost all of the storylines are strongly connected to all of the other storylines, then Secret Life is for you. LOL I don't see you enjoying it. It's the cheesiest of cheesy teen soaps and is very much written for a pre-teen audience.

Absolutely. It is Brenda Hampton, after all. I enjoy it for what it is when I sit down to watch it (which is rare), but I have a lotta problems with that show. Lots of problems. It's hard to explain...it's an odd, odd show. It's like Ms. Hampton created this bizarro world where a 15-year-old boy will want to be with a girl who is pregnant for another guy, and that's only part of it.

Ann Marcus wrote for a slew of daytime shows (off the top of my head...Search, GH, LIAMST) and also did some soapy primetime/syndication fare. She was one of the main forces behind Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, credited as a creator. I read that Norman Lear wanted her specifically because he wanted at least one actual daytime writer on staff. She worked on his other Fernwood-based shows as well and wrote scripts for Flamingo Road, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest. ETA: Her late husband Ellis was also a writer, but he stuck to primetime. He did work with her on Flamingo, Knots, and Falcon, though.

The Vampire Diaries is fantabulous. Favorite new show since Friday Night Lights, and definitely my fave on network TV. And its ratings are awesome, too (for The CW). As far as what are soaps and what aren't soaps, I think the media (and maybe fans?) uses one of two definitions to describe something soapy: 1 is all about the melodrama, "OMG she slept with her husband's uncle's mother's son's nephew's brother!!" stuff, and 2 is simply that it's serialized. I've seen 24 called a soap based simply on its serialized nature, yet there are two-hour movies (Sirk! Curtiz!) that are called soaps, and they're not serialized. It really begs the question...what is a soap? Is it one of those, both, or neither one? See, to me, Little House on the Prairie is pure soap. Like, 99 and 44/100 percent. It wasn't really serialized (though there were always long-term plot points), but to deny it of a soapy label would be like spitting on the grave of Landon himself. He worked really, really hard to make sure the people of Walnut Grove had really horrible lives. And, really, that's what soaps are all about.

Wow. The thought of all of this stuff...sitting around, collecting dust...it sucks that 20th Century Fox would probably object to your posting of those episodes. They obviously have no plans for them. PS: Pleasantly surprised to find your new Storm and Search episodes. As soon as the Super Bowl goes off, I'm watching 'em!