SoapDope

When did catfights between female characters start ? A lot of people credit Krystal and Alexis on Dynasty as the beginning. They had their first brawl in 1982. In 1978 on Dallas, Pamela slapped the piss out of Sue Ellen and knocked her to the floor up against that ugly blue 70's sofa. It was during the episode where Bobby & J.R.'s plane went down. Would that be considered the first catfight on a soap ?

Dallas did the story with Kit Mainwaring in 1979. Then Dynasty ripped it off with Steven 2 years later. Even Al Corley (Steven) had similar blow dried blonde parted down the middle feathered hair like Mark Wheeler (Kit).

Y&R also had a disco. Lorie took Lucas there. GL also had a disco in some of the 1979 episodes. Dallas showed a disco several times circa 1978-1979.

The mid 90's was also when they introduced Leigh J. McCloskey's Kurt Costner to pair with Shattuck's Ashley....that character turned out to be a nothing burger. They also had Grant Cramer come back as a new character Adam Hunter to pair with her and he disappeared after about 3 episodes.

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The interlocking ring opening looks like it may have been done using some sort of spirograph. Then they filmed it in some sort of a stop animation sequence or maybe a type of rotoscope animation. That's just my guess. The ABC Movie Of The Week opening was explained on youtube by the son of the guy who created it. He said his father projected the ABC logo graphics on the wall and put a camera on a tracking dolly and rolled the camera at a quick pace toward the front to get the illusion of moving graphics.

I wonder if any of the soap characters were into 70's trends like of macramé ? I can picture SFT Mary Stuart as Jo uttering " If you will all excuse me, I'm off to my macramé class". I could also picture her making terrariums and talking to her plants. There were also mood rings, pet rocks, and those self help group sessions. Did any character sign up for primal scream therapy ? Lamaze classes started becoming trendy in the 70's.

After Erik Estrada became a break out star and teen idol he became full of himself. The writers started turning it into the "Ponch Show" pushing poor Larry Wilcox into the background. Then most of the women wound up with Ponch. They wrote Ponch into all those ridiculous storylines having him featured doing some sort of cheesy 70's activity playing racquetball, riding motorcycles, riding skateboards, roller disco, disco dancing, singing etc...Wilcox finally got fed up and left the show before the final season. Then Estrada didn't like his replacement either and eventually had him pushed into the background after that actor got busted for cocaine. I also read Estrada was jealous of Brianne Leary (Sindy) who joined the show in 1978 when she started getting popular. He threatened to walk if they didn't fire her. They did. The shows producers were also spoiling him by buying him all these expensive toys like Corvettes, jet skis etc...

Thanks for those 70's Days scenes. Actress Jenny Sherman looked familiar and I was trying to place where I had seen her. It dawned on me, it was on Chips. When the show first started in 1977 there was an episode where she played a neighbor of Ponch who he was attracted to. While he is inside, Jon is polishing his motorcycle waiting on him and she walks up in short tennis shorts and gives him a glass of lemonade and chats a bit about how hot it is. She glances at his badge. Later on Ponch finds out she has been calling all day at the station leaving messages for Jon to call her and is incensed.

Janice Lynde & William Gray Espy make their second week long appearances on Tattletales (1975). They mention they won the last time they were on. Espy is completely different than what I expected. He seems to have a great sense of humor and laughs a lot. The dropping the book question in the first episode was hilarious.

Richard Simmons started doing fitness classes on GH. Y&R showed Paul, Snapper, and Greg working out at a health club. Guiding Light had a lot of the characters swimming over at Ed & Rita's. Lainie Marler was shown working out with Ed etc... Several characters on the soaps talked about playing tennis and racquetball and were seen wearing tennis shorts and fitness wear. Miles on EON was often in tennis shorts. On primetime shows like Family and Dallas they showed the guys playing quite often. Knots Landing showed Richard and Kenny in jogging/tennis attire... As for Love themes for couples...On Y&R "If" by Bread was played for Brad & Leslie and "Bless The Beast & Children" by The Carpenters was often played during scenes with Chris & Snapper.

The fitness craze started in the 70's and several soaps started to jump on board. Richard Simmons started appearing on GH in 1979. Many of the soaps had characters talking about playing tennis and racquetball which had exploded in popularity during this time, especially after the 1973 Battle Of The Sexes with Billie Jean King & Bobby Riggs. Super couples started having their own theme songs.

I thought that Suzanne Pleshette should have been cast on a prime time soap during the 80's. Maybe as Frankie or better yet a first ex wife of J.R. on Dallas pre-Sue Ellen. Jason: Dean Jones, Rod Taylor, William Holden (If he had lived). Frankie: Lynn Redgrave Bliss: Amanda Wyss

Production values started to go up after the 1973 premiere of The Young & The Restless. Soaps started redoing their sets and dropping the organ music in favor if lush background themes. Soaps all did Disco in some fashion during the second part of the decade. Social issues such as rape, abortion, child abuse, breast cancer etc...became hot button storyline topics. Soaps became more steamy and graphic with bedroom scenes, shower scenes etc... Super couples started becoming a big thing AW: Steve & Alice, Days: Doug & Julie, Y&R: Chris & Snapper etc... More shooting on location. The beginnings of prime time soaps/dramas Family (1976), Executive Suite (1977), Dallas (1978) Married The First Year (1979), Knots Landing (1979).

For fun we need to do a thread on 1970's trends.

Sid played that out when she was pregnant in season 1. If Karen did give birth to Mack's baby, she would probably go into labor on Val's kitchen floor or Val would load her into the car and drive like a maniac to the hospital. Karen would be screaming in pain clawing at the car roof.

Michelle Lee would have really cranked up the drama with that. " My GOD Mack, it's our child growing inside me ! How can you sit there and tell me you think it's a mistake to go through with this pregnancy?" Kevin Dobson could play out his usual pissy anger.

It was bizarre. Every thing revolved around that child for years. Michelle loved to chew scenery when going on about some crisis involving her. LOL at Karen getting pregnant. Kate Lawrence did on Family way into her post menopausal 50's. Someone on youtube said they could have sworn Kate had the baby and gave birth to it trapped in a department store after hours when she accidentally got locked in.

A big trend in the 80's were lavish dinner parties. Anytime a character was planning a party, you knew something was going to go down. Like a huge confrontation, a shooting, a murder, falling down the stairs, getting thrown through a plate glass window etc...then again that often happened on Hart to Hart too.

Coffee houses and trendy bars became all the rage to hang out in the 90's on soaps.

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Meg Bennett for English Leather at 6:14

The drama with Meg got OLD fast. They even used that plot again in the 97 reunion film.

I guess she was a cheap sweet young thing. I agree. It was too soon. If they insisted on doing it, David Jacobs should have written it himself. Joan's another new face was also a distraction. The Ewing home did look good though.

The Danny Waleska storyline was unnecessary filler. Penny Peyser really stank as Amanda. The writers were clearly hinting at a Gary/Pat affair, but pulled back quickly. Val did get more stupid as time went on. You can tell they writers hated Joan and made a fool out of her. I agree. I pretty much fast forward all her scenes. Killing off Laura was a cost saving measure. I guess they needed to free up money to give to Sheridan. When the 1997 reunion bombed in the ratings, they claimed it was because Sheridan only did a cameo and was not part of the main storyline 🙄 I wonder how many viewers defected during those last seasons ? I don't want even get started again on the hiring of Stacy Galina. David Jacobs seemed to think she was the next big thing.