Soaplovers

14 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Exactly.

And Glitter itself feels like the Aaron Spelling formula stretched to breaking point.

I'm sure most of that regular cast were lucky to get a couple of lines per ep. But it was nice that Spelling employed so many people.

Anyway Glitter was a bomb and the nail in the coffin for this type of show.

I think Glitter was supposed to be like a Hotel or Love Boat....but you have to like the characters that will be there week to week.

I did see 2 of the episodes...but I think maybe had the main cast been trimmed in half...the concept might have worked.

6 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

I think it was Rona Barrett's Daytimers which published  a blurb about Jayne, saying that while she was generally liked by the cast, most acknowledged that she should have remained a model and not tried to be an "actress."

She was so awful and miscast as Nicole. How she actually landed the role, I'll never understand. Shades of Wesley Pfenning and Linda Borgenson on AW. YIKES!

I actually liked the 3rd Nicole (Lisa Sloan) better than the 2nd Nicole.. she had a more mature look and seemed to carry herself as though she came from an upper crust family.

1 hour ago, Khan said:

What Lisa Hartman wants more than KL stardom is a hit song that isn't a duet with her husband.

Compare that to DALLAS, where the best that they could do was have Sue Ellen sell lingerie.

Lucy should have been the one to buy the lingerie company.. since she had been a model and had been around the block.. so she would know what men would like and what women would want to buy to feel sexy, etc.

To me the best characters on BB aren't necessarily longest run  characters...but made a big impact.

1) Stephanie

2) Sally 1.0

3) Sheila Carter

4) Caroline Spencer 1.0

5) Brooke

Season 2 tried the serial elements for the sake of the elements vs if it made sense for the story or characters.  Abby was just a bored maneater that hit on Kenny, slept with Richard (with Val sometimes seeing some of the signals and looking uncomfortable).  And you saw that Abby's main goal was Gary..so she set it up where Val saw Gary with Judy to the point where Judy correctly guessed Abby's intentions.

Season 3 managed a good blend of serial elements within the self contained episodes.  

And @KhanI agree that KL succeeded because the show was about characters in Knots landing that knew one another personally and professionally.  While FC, Dallas, and Dynasty were tied  to one family and industry.  With KL's concept, more avenues to explore (Melrose Place had the same type of set up and blew it in season 4 thus shortening its shelf life to 7 seasons).

8 hours ago, Cheap21 said:

Miami returns to Bravo for Season 6. They have proven that yes they are that girl

 

 

 

 

Bravo is vile...Peacock is a better platform for them.

1 hour ago, Vee said:

I've been deep in a '79-'80 binge of EON along with other soaps since COVID began. It's very interesting how much they played with stuff with the longer-running characters (so many Edge characters were transitory). Miles and Nicole are now cemented as a tentpole couple or seem to be after the brutal slaughter of Donald May's Adam (and preceding Nicole's own harsh demise in a few years), but they definitely play a new angle when Derek Mallory comes on. Dennis Parker plays Mallory as an absolute militaristic shitheel and chauvinist for much of the early months, but his clear infatuation with Jayne Bentzen's Nicole humanizes him and allows for some layering. Meanwhile they seem to be teasing something with April and Logan while she's cemented with Draper.

More and more I think EON nailed what Dark Shadows could've done had it adjusted to the '70s - it also had an often transitory, sometimes rotating repertory cast of people who would come in, interact with the foundational cast and then leave from genre story to genre story. The Madison clan including Margaret Colin has fulfilled several story purposes and is almost entirely gone, leaving only Nola to wreak havoc; Eliot Dorn is still around following his cult story a couple years ago making mischief. This sort of modular formula is one EON perfected.

The bible for Dark Shadows seemed to indicate it would be a cross between Peyton Place and Edge of Night...with a Nancy Drew esque character at the center.  

People didn't bite sadly...but I do agree Dark Shadows could have lasted had they ventured more into a Gothic mystery show and adjusted to color like Edge of Night did.

On 5/7/2023 at 9:28 PM, Khan said:

Nothing -- and I mean NOTHING -- could ever be as bad (or as boring!) as Tidal Energy.  David Jacobs should have shown John Romano the door the minute the idea was proposed to him and Michael Filerman.

I suspect Empire Valley was always supposed to be a front for an underground espionage operation.  I just think the execution of that premise, along with everything leading up to it, got out of control.

On paper it sounded interesting and it did fit with early 90s California and their environmental forward thinking.

However, making it a start up company was the kiss of death plotwise.  Start ups are long hours, little money, wearing multiple hats, and always trying to get funding/capital.

I think it would have worked better if it was a product and/or start up purchased by Sumner so that Paige, Karen, etc could have been integrated  more into the story.

Only upside of the Tidal Energy story was that Gary lost the ranch..and Val/Gary moved back to Seaview circle...and Karen quit the talk show.  

I always thought the change of show-runners kind of hampered Empire Valley because it was first mentioned in season 6 back when Paul Galverston was alive.. and it became the focus of season 7 once a new show-runner came in.

Has anyone ever interviewed any of the people in charge in season 6 and 7 to find out what Empire Valley was supposed to have been.. and when it was decided to make it more of a Dynasty type of plot vs a more organic plotline.

Still... at least it wasn't as bad as the Tidal Energy company arc in Season 13 LOL  

5 minutes ago, Khan said:

Genie herself has said that the lack of respect goes all the way back to Luke & Laura's peak.  She learned just how much (or how little) TPTB cared about her when she developed a serious drug problem, nearly died, and all they could do was remind her that Tony, and not Tony plus Genie, was the reason why the show was number-one.  That's why she quit GH the first time: to prove everyone at the show and the network wrong.

ABC also showed their lack of respect when they fired her from AMC -- a job that Genie loved (even if I don't think Ceara was much of a character) -- and told her she was worth more to them as Laura on GH than she was as Ceara on AMC.

Agree to disagree about Ceara.. and actually was realistically written based on several people I knew that went through the same thing as her character did.

When you looked at how Laura was created, it was a given that she would be a very important viable character for many years to come.. partly due to her being the long lost daughter of Lesley.. a mainstay of GH in the 70s.

I think Genie being away so long on maternity leave in the late 90s was the beginning of the lack of respect she was given by those behind the scenes..imho.  It's nice that the show is finally correcting the error of making Laura as secondary to Luke... when it reality, Luke was always secondary to Laura.

Executive producer can make or break a set backstage.   I think Calhoun and Caso as EP's from the mid 80s to mid 90s seemed like a good working environment backstage.

All the performers hired during Caso's reign seemed to really love him..and how close/supportive the crew was.

Goutman was no Calhoun nor Caso..so I imagine backstage was not all that supportive.

And I'm wondering  if Kim and Todd were both caught up in the environment and it resulted in both of them not trusting one another.  It does seem like both have matured and moved on from the industry.

All I remember of the spinoff (a few episodes were shown on Tvland years ago)...was that it focused a lot on Mary's husband coping with life after Mary...while Shelley Fabares played the sweet in the outside/sinister on the inside female lead that was scheming to be with Tom while making her sweet sister suffer.

Her Gabi was originally written as a goody goody.. but Camila had an edge to her that helped make the Gabi character not be so insipid (unlike the late Paige).

I think it was MarDar that started placing Gabi in a darker role with her originally harmless crush on Chad turning into an obsession..and she tried to have her rival Melanie kidnapped... which ended up resulting in that disaster story right as MarDar was fired.

I'm glad the show managed to find a healthy balance for the character where she still had an edge.. but wasn't all evil.

3 hours ago, watson71 said:

Not that I know of… Definitely would like to know what she had planned for 1989 had Douglass Watson not passed away. There definitely would not had been any Red Swan lol

I remember on one of the Locher Room AW reunions that one of the actors mentioned that Douglass Watson was going to have a big front burning story in 1989 and was off work on vacation when he passed.  Apparently he was going to the gym to get in shape to prepare for it... so whatever was being planned must have been huge.

I never understood why Bryant was killed off... especially when it seemed as if the show was looking to do a triangle with him, Jennifer, and his cousin (Cricket's son).   Would have been an opportunity to maybe have bought back Cricket for an arc... just to see where she was in her life and perhaps to have some conflict between her/Craig with Margo being peace-maker.   And to see how she would have interacted with half sister Katie (who I think was a lot like Cricket was it sounds like)

So lather, rinse, and repeat?

I think Gina, and to a lesser extent, Noella are examples of what a OC reboot would offer....and that makes me not want one.

Season after season, I see viewers curious why Gina is still on the show..and season after season..Bravo keeps trying to fix the show.  Perhaps maybe axe Gina as an idea

I don't know all that much about Jamey... but didn't they create a show with a lot of potential, but poor execution?

Labine wasn't the right fit at GL.. she seemed to do better with more urban soaps..while GL was more mid size mid western town.

The one thing I did appreciate about Curlee and Simms watching those 1991 scenes was how both now understood what Alexandra was going through and why she had a vendetta against Roger/Mindy.  She was hurt, humiliated and felt like she was treated like a fool/idiot by both of them.

Curlee and Co really slanted the writing to Alexandra the antagonist when she was the one hurt and was the victim....that played out all the way until she quit in mid 1992.

21 hours ago, titan1978 said:

After re-watching the pre-possession Reilly run on DAYS, her Kristen was pretty soft and emotive until she starts to go into scheming mode, and then outright villainy.  She doesn’t come across as harsh or as blunt as she did later on DAYS or after her return to Y&R.  And to me it was more like haughty than truly harsh.

I think YR was more the issue then Eileen..imho.

She had great chemistry on Days with Drake/Eric, friend chemistry with Melissa R/Rinna, and adversary chemistry with Diedre.

She had great chemistry on Bold with Ronn Moss, decent friend chemistry with Felicia, and potential adversary chemistry with KKL.

So I think it's the environment of Y & R and Eileen not mixing well.

@Cat do you think Margaret was always like this on the show or did she become that way to survive on the show?

I think she wasn't calculating as much in her debut season because Siggy was crazy and I think Margaret didn't have to calculate since Siggy was doing the work of looking crazy without any help.

I think after the Teresa telling Ms Staub to go for the hair is when Margarey embraced the dark side

48 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

No writers in the credits?

I didn't realize Penny came back for this. That was Rosemary's first appearance since 1968.

A pity Kim was decked out in that beaded helmet. Who  approved that ?

There was a 2 week writers strike in 1985.. and this was back in the day when soaps only had scripts 1 or 2 weeks in advance... so that might be why there wasn't writers on the episode.

Lucinda's breast cancer story and how EH choose to play it was well done.  My late mom was going through the same thing at the time and she said how EH choose to play the realization when she felt the lump, finding out the news, choosing to tell Sierra over Lily first (since Sierra was calmer and didn't make everything about herself), trying alternative treatments, and when she lost her hair.  My mom said it was very accurate especially seeing the hair when brushing her hair.

Had Eboni been hired and told to be herself on NY, it would have worked out differently.

She had potential...and oddly I liked her and Ramona's love/hate relationship.  I think Bravo set Eboni up to fail..imho.

One of the things about RHONY was always seeing how Ramona would piss off a new housewife..and also seeing how the new housewife would react to Ramona.

Season 5 was the best example of this where Heather instantly didn't like her, Carole tried to use logic before using reverse psychology with her, and Aviva embraced her until she finally had enough of her.