pdm1974
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Does anyone know what the actual ratings were for this show when it aired?
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On 7/25/2018 at 1:04 PM, Gray Bunny said:
Interesting to see how horrible Ryan's Hope was doing 2+ years before its cancellation. Nice to see DAYS up there during their Supercouple era. Surprised to see All My Children at No. 6. Santa Barbara's 4.8 is actually a respectable number, even for then.
Was the 4.8 the highest that SB ever rated?
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1 minute ago, j swift said:
When we reviewed the 1990 SOD, in the classic SOD thread, it revealed a sad fact. The actor who played Harland, Ric's father, was hired the week after the writer who created the story was fired. So, in retrospect, he was doomed. As a result, he was out after his first 13-week cycle.
Ah, that explains why that family came and went so fast. It could have been interesting if it had been allowed to developed. It definitely gave Cruz's mother an opportunity for a storyline of her own. I remember the daughter, too...Tawny. She was never given a chance to do much either. It felt like the entire story for this family got wrapped up in about two weeks. It was definitely an odd time story-wise on SB.
On 1/8/2019 at 4:51 PM, j swift said:One more observation from my re-watch - despite all of the talk about class, The Perkins had a larger set than The Lockridges.
I always thought the set for the Lockridge house looked tiny especially compared to the one for the Capwells. Did the Andrade family have their own set in the beginning? I read somewhere that in the show's bible Rosa had other daughters in addition to Santana and Danny. It would have been interesting to see one of those brought on especially when Rosa returned towards the end.
I always liked the relationship between Rosa and the Capwell children, especially Mason. She had been the surrogate mother to all of them after Pamela disappeared and Sophia was thought to be dead. It would have been interesting to see if Rosa's children had any resentment regarding their mother having to spend so much time raising these rich kids.
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On 1/6/2019 at 9:00 PM, dc11786 said:
The younger set certainly brings an energy to the show when a lot of the other parts weren't as gripping.
The younger characters were definitely the highlight of Loving in its last few years with some really solid actors. It's a shame that it didn't translate into higher ratings with younger viewers.
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On 1/8/2019 at 4:51 PM, j swift said:
Ric Castillo felt like a writer's rough draft of Robert Barr. He was European, a bit of schemer, and married to a rich neurotic. So, it made very little sense that when he settled in Santa Barbara he had no money or power of his own and was always someone's hired goon. The Paris episodes introduce Ric with a lot of potential that gets lost once he arrived in the States. For example, the entire thread of Ric's wife's rich French family was never mentioned again once everyone got back home.
Developing the character of Ric was definitely a missed opportunity to expand Cruz's family. There was that blink and you missed it storyline with the Richards family were it was revealed that this old, evil, rich man was really Ric's father, but that went nowhere fast. Also, I thought it was odd that Cruz's sister Carmen was never mentioned again.
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11 hours ago, j swift said:
I've been thinking a lot about the dismantling of the Matthews and for all of the historic critiques about the loss of Alice and Pat (my favorite Matthews), it does make dramatic/ratings sense in the context of Sally Frame.
Sally and Caitlin were a super couple and their overseas adventures were coupled with a spike in viewership. However, structurally, for Sally to work as an underdog with Caitlin against the Loves, she couldn't have the support of her family behind her. The Loves needed to be powerful in order for them to interfere with Sally and Caitlin. So, if Sally could depend on Russ's medical expertise when Peter was poisoned at his art deco engagement yacht party, or Pat's support to fight Cecile, or even John Randolph's legal expertise to help Caitlin, then where is the drama?
My disappointment at Alice's return, with the bad haircut, at the end of Sally's character was that after all that Sally had been through Alice seemed like a bad mother. It ruined Alice for me that Sally had an illegitimate child and never told her mother. So, her styling issues were secondary for me. Alice's dialogue about Caitlin was so judgmental that it smacked of Liz's treatment of Missy. I always disliked the Matthews's hypocrisy about the value of family loyalty when they actively drove away most of their children and grandchildren's suitors. Alice's return cemented that opinion for me.
I think the show really shot itself in the foot by killing off Sally. She had the potential to be a leading heroine for a very long time. The recast didn't work, but another actress could have worked well.
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On 1/5/2019 at 5:50 PM, j swift said:
BTW - from Nick to Ric to Cassie, the number of characters that just disappeared off the canvas seems particular to Santa Barbara
Characters came and went sometimes with lightning speed on SB. One of favorites that I thought should have stayed around long-term was Minx's long-lost daughter Cassie. The character had such an interesting backstory, and the actress was great playing the slightly unhinged character. Not only did she have the Lockridge tie-in, but she could have been a great ongoing villain.
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On 12/10/2018 at 6:23 PM, soapfan770 said:
Yeah, this whole show has really turned into a silly and campy farce. There are some good moments here and there, but right now it feels like a Desperate Housewives knock-off series. The whole Culhane/Ava story is odd.
I know this is a month old now Carl but I was wondering what has happened to that show turning into a more action oriented supernatural show as of late. Not sure if that was what the show was trying to aim for, but Season 3 has been a mess so far.
I agree about Dynasty this season. I enjoy my camp and catty lines, but the show has seemed to be going for just out and out comedy lately which is just not clicking. I thought the second half of season one was some great, very tightly written soap. I loved all the twists and cliffhangers. This season seems to be limping along. I never understood that whole Culhane/Ava story. Cristal 2.0 is a bust. There's no real conflict with her or why Blake is even into her. Maybe they should scrape the character idea completely. The highlight is the character of Sam for me, but I'm missing Steven. I'm hoping there's plans to bring the character back. You need that kind of more grounded character to even things out.
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7 minutes ago, robbwolff said:
Lemay actually expanded the Perrini family before the show's expansion to 90 minutes in March 1979. Rose and Joey arrived in April 1978, nearly a year before the show's expansion. The family that Lemay expanded in March 1979 were the Simpsons -- Eileen's aunt and uncle Rita and Paul Connelly (a love interest for Rose) and Eileen's brother Morgan (played by Gary Tomlin). Lemay was gone by May 1979. The Perrinis and Simpsons, with the exception of Joey, were all phased out during Tom King/Robert Soderberg's stint. And, no, Cory was never SORASed. I had always hoped Cory would show up, especially during Carmen Duncan's time as Iris. I envisioned him stirring up lots of trouble.
Speaking of Carmen Duncan, she's the only Iris I really knew since I watching the show as a kid during her era. I always found her character fascinating and was disappointed when she was written off. I think if they would have kept her as a bitch on wheels and a thorn in Rachel's side it could have worked long-term in a Vicki/Dorian from OLTL kind of way.
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4 minutes ago, Vee said:
It could be 30 minutes, it could be 50-60, whatever. You can do seasonal arc work the way PC did, the way many shows like Degrassi do, like Linda Gottlieb tried and failed to do at OLTL in '91. The time is right for it. And frankly AMC and OLTL 2.0 both covered a ton of opening story in 30-40 eps each at 30 minutes. It's doable. I'll say it to the end of time, even though I have no expectation of it happening again. It happened sooner than I thought it would in 2013, and now I think the well is poisoned because of the legal mess and because most of all, ABC just doesn't give a [!@#$%^&*]. They'd rather leave the money on the table than admit to a part of their empire they left behind still having value.
I wonder if it could be profitable being shown on the ABC app just as CBS has original programming on their All Access App. I think streaming is where most of TV is heading eventually anyway.
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1 minute ago, Vee said:
AMC 2.0 on Hulu was the best soap of 2013, and probably the best soap of the 2010s so far if I'm being mean.
OLTL 2.0 had its issues but was not far behind. Both shows were modern and forward-thinking, and if they'd had proper upper management would still be on Hulu or Netflix. They were the future of our soaps, and the rest of the soaps learned nothing.
You could put those shows on streaming in a packaged/seasonal arc deal - say, 20-40 eps in one period at a time - and do it today.
Also, shows now need to only produce 35 episodes a year to be considered for Daytime Emmy consideration. A nice even 40, one hour shows, with a smaller focused cast, could be great.
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2 minutes ago, Costello said:
I wouldn’t put it past someone: producers are scavenging in their junk drawers for established IP of any kind right now.
I would love to see a company like Netflix with real cash reboot it even if it was for much shorter number of episodes per season.
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58 minutes ago, John said:
Cons were some of the actors were too green but mostly it was the business side didnt have their crap together if they had both AMC & OLTL could still be going strong
Also, I think a few more years later and the shows could have been much more successful online. Now, most people don't think twice about streaming their content on demand, but even back as soon as 2013 it was still sort of a new concept for most. I'd love to see (I know it's a dream) to see either AMC or OLTL rebooted again online now.
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Isn't Jason Tam from OLTL gay? I always thought he was so freaking cute!
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8 minutes ago, j swift said:
Seven Years is a great memoir filled with funny anachronistic details. From his fascination with Sleasar's mimeograph machines to the economics of a pre-WGA writing staff, it is a great read. The stories of his early lunches with P&G executives and his phone calls with Ina are stuffed with sarcasm. Of course, others may have had alternative perspectives, but they didn't write dishy memoirs, so we're left with Lemay's version (Churchill quote - history is written by the victors).
I LOVED Seven Years. It was such a great insight into daytime TV during the 70s as a whole.
I really loved reading about when he decided to turn Rachel from the villain to the heroine. Many of the stories that Lemay wrote in the 70s impacted the show for the rest of its run.
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I did watch the revival online after being a fan of the original and while it couldn't replace the original, I did think it had some potential. The David/Angie connection was one that would have been interesting to see play out. I also loved Miranda and AJ. The Cassandra story was beyond depressing.
For those of you who watched it, what do you think were the pros and cons?
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I feel that if the show had focused on it's successful young demographic and not gone off the deep end (don't let me start talking about Vincent/Valerie), but the show could have had more staying power. It was attracting the viewers soaps needed to ultimately survive.
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1 hour ago, Chris B said:
@Efulton From the book he made it clear they made several attempts to work things out with her from Paul Rauch talking to her and he even went to lunch with her and she was adamant she wasn’t willing to make any adjustments. Granted we only have his perspective but it seemed like they had a few divas in the cast and seemed to give them chance after chance before doing anything to them. Even the guy he said was his friend was given several reprieves before Rauch fired him. I do think it’s a shame the show lost a matriarch but it does seem like it was her doing.
In general did Lemay feature much of the Matthews family or did he phase them out?
I believe Lemay slowly phased out the Matthews family and replaced them with the Corys/Frames. The Matthews family was sort of brought back in the late 80s with Aunt Liz/Russ/Olivia/Josie. I always enjoyed the antics of Aunt Lize and Irene Dailey.
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I watched Passions on and off from the beginning. I just remember the "days" would drag on and on...sometimes weeks worth of episodes and constant fake outs of reveals. Still, it has it's fun moments. I think it should have stayed on the supernatural track to stand out from the other shows.
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8 minutes ago, DRW50 said:
I guess the high cast turnover didn't help. It seemed like since nothing outside of the Capwells clicked early on with viewers, the show gave up.
That could very well be one of the reasons. The Capwells proved to be the more popular characters, so they threw the majority of the focus on them. Still, they needed other people to interact with which proved to be a challenge.
The last year it felt like five new families were added and none of those took off.
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I watched AW from about early 80s as a kid until the end. One of my favorite romances was actually between Carl and Rachel because it had so much history and conflict behind it. Plus, the performers were top notch. I know others felt that it should have been a no-go in terms of story between these two characters. It was great to see Rachel driving story again.
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I read Agnes Nixon's memoir, and while very interesting in some points, I felt let down that not once did she mention Loving. Sure, it wasn't the success that AMC or OLTL was, but it did run for 13 years. Hardly a complete failure! Plus, it would have been interesting to get her viewpoint on WHY it never developed into a huge hit.
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I started watching SB from the very first episode when I was in middle school until the last when I was in college. I was obsessed with the show and so sad when it went off the air.
I'm wondering what opinions others may have on why the show struggled to maintain a strong second core family beyond the Capwells. Families came and went over the years. The Lockridges were the ones that had a bit of staying power on and off, and I never understood why the writers had trouble creating story for them. I thought the Lockridges were a hoot to watch with the zany members of the family and their humor. I often PREFERRED them over the darker Capwell family.
I think the singular focus on the Capwells made it hard for the show to branch out in terms of story.
Also, my top missed opportunity character that should have been a mainstay the whole time was Santana. She had the rich history with the Capwells and the desire to desperately improve her social status.
Anyone else have thoughts on this?
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Passions
in DTS: Cancelled Soaps
Posted
Travis was really bad as Ethan, but the writing hardly helped. I did think Eric's performance was an improvement though because I think he really "got" the campiness of the show. As an actor on such an over-the-top crazy ass show, you just really needed to embrace the kookiness to shine.