Franko

The infamous Acting Sheriff from 1991, with Robert Goulet, John Putch, Hillary Bailey Smith, Ruth Kobart, Diane Delano and a young Lee Tergesen.

7 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks!

You're welcome. 1987 seems like such a throw everything at the wall and see if it sticks kind of year.

According to the Curlyqgrl summaries, Ray was part of the Duke and Camilla storyline -- he was editor of the Port Charles Herald and boss of muckraking reporter Carlin.

Based on the voiceover promo over the credits, this aired Friday, Dec. 25, 1981.

Discovered today: Tickets, Please, from 1988 for CBS. About the staff and regular passengers of a Manhattan commuter train, with a cast including Cleavon Little, Marcia Strassman, David Marciano and Yeardley Smith. I would have liked more time with character dynamics among the weekly cast, even though Harold Gould is always a welcome presence.

11 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks. I had totally forgotten about this. It's not as bad as I had expected, although that's mostly down to the extremely likeable cast - the writing itself is about as basic as you can get, in spite of Zweibel's pedigree. 

You can really see Christine Baranski's charisma and likeability shine through here, in a great reminder of why she's managed to have such a long career.

Dan Vitale is a real trivia question. He was cast on SNL but barely seen all season because he was in rehab.

https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/dan-vitale-snl-interview.html

I'm guessing that Christine would have been recurring and possibly promoted to the main cast if the show got picked up.

My new goal is to find a pilot with another obscure SNL cast member, like Emily Prager. 

I wanna contribute. Bigshots in America, which failed to make NBC's fall schedule in 1985. Starring Joe Mantegna, Keith Szarabajka, Dan Vitale and Helen Hanft, with featured guest star Christine Baranski. Produced by Lorne Michaels, directed by James Burrows and written by Alan Zweibel. As the folklore goes, Zweibel vowed never to work again with Michaels after this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqGFFW9HJMU

I should have started this thread a few days ago, and I apologize if we've done it before. Who do we pick as the soaps' top pop?

I ended up watching the end of the Wednesday, Dec. 22, 1982 episode. The driving action was Marlena's determination to prove that Roman is not actually involved in drugs (he was framed by Stefano; meanwhile, Marlena doesn't yet know of Roman's ISA involvement) and Renee freaking out about being seen with Tony, which only makes her look suspicious as hell to the likes of Neil (and apparently earlier in the episode, Tom & Alice; they were at UH because Scotty was a patient).

We probably all know this, but for the record, the first time Knots beat Dallas in the ratings was the week of Dec. 11, 1987, "Noises Everywhere, Part II."

5 minutes ago, Khan said:

Thanks, @Franko!  Mama Khan was more of a GL fan, so I don't recall much of Simmons' time on GH, but I *do* remember TRSS, lol.

You're welcome! Both GH and TRSS are plugged on the cover of Richard's Never Say Diet from 1980. Speaking of that, I still smirk at Richard throwing in a plug for the "Live-it" plan while talking to Bryan on the day of Luke & Jennifer's ill-fated wedding.

Unless he had a local show in L.A., Richard appeared on GH first, followed by the nationally syndicated Richard Simmons Show from 1980-84.

On 4/16/2024 at 1:09 PM, dc11786 said:

It seems like Tristan Rogers was off the show for a few weeks.

Just speculating, but I wonder if it was related to his role in The Rescuers Down Under. Maybe he was required to go plug the movie for a little bit?

10 hours ago, Khan said:

I, myself, might have been tempted to schedule "Dolly" against DALLAS or FC on Friday nights, if only because both shows were beginning to decline in the ratings.

Bold move.

59 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Schedule-wise, I could put it at 8 p.m. Saturday, with Once a Hero in the 9 p.m. Sunday slot.

@Franko Sorry can't see Once a Hero Sun @9. The show was kid oriented and was a disaster Sat night.

What can I say? I'm flailing a bit.

59 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

ABC wasted their movies on Thurs night that season.

Oh, absolutely. It's not surprising that they eventually went back to having Sunday night movies.

8 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

@Franko thirtysomething Sun @9? can't see that working well. It was a very niche show.

Variety shows have traditionally aired at 8pm Sonny & Cher, Ed Sullivan, Donny & Marie or 10 pm Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Jackie Gleason

So maybe Dolly could have aired Fri @8 up against Rags to Riches and Beauty &the Beast or Sat @8 up against Facts of Life and My Sister Sam.

I could see it doing better there, although it was costly and I can't see them putting it on Sat (even though that's where it ended up.)

There just weren't many timeslots available that suited that show.

Yeah, I wasn't especially fond of putting thirtysomething at 9 p.m. on Sunday. It also wouldn't flow that great between Spenser and Buck James. I stand by my assertion that ratings-wise, Dolly would have been at its best at 9 p.m. on Tuesdays. Schedule-wise, I could put it at 8 p.m. Saturday, with Once a Hero in the 9 p.m. Sunday slot. I'm avoiding 8 p.m. Friday because I don't want to put Full House/I Married Dora on Saturday and have a three-way sitcom standoff.

27 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Dolly Parton's  1987 variety show seemed sabotaged from the get go.

Putting it Sun @9 seemed misguided. Having a terrible lead in with Spencer for Hire and knowing it would battle the strongest theatrical and TV movies on the opposition placed it on the back foot from Day 1. And having an unknown lead out with Buck James didn't help either.

Wk 1

8pm

CBS Murder She wrote #12
NBC Family Ties #11/ My Two Dads #19
ABC Spenser For Hire #60

9pm - 11pm

CBS Movie #48
NBC Movie  The Terminator #30
ABC Dolly #5 Buck James # 27

Wk 2

8pm

CBS MSW #9
NBC Family Ties # 10/My 2 dads # 16
ABC Spenser #55

9-11

CBS Movie #20
NBC Movie #17
ABC Dolly # 21 Buck James # 55

And from then on Dolly continued to slip. ABC shipped it off to Sat night to quietly expire.

Perhaps Dolly should have aired Sun @8 with a movie @9? Although the 8pm competition was fierce.

My other thought was the 2hr Disney movie Sun 7-9, Dolly @ 9 and Hotel @ 10. Slightly stronger leadin/lead out.

Where else would you have placed Dolly on the schedule?

Supposedly, ABC wanted Dolly to go head to head against The Cosby Show, which she vetoed. 

I feel like Dolly would have had its best chance at 9 p.m. Tuesday. The problem is, even though I know in 2024 that Moonlighting's going to go down the tubes, 1987 me can't justify moving it off the Tuesday night schedule. That means that I have to put it at 10 p.m., and now I run into the issue of what to do with Thirtysomething. I guess I'd put it at 9 p.m. Sunday, but keep an eye on the 10 p.m. Tuesday slot.

How long were Zack & Stacey around? I keep wondering if their story was supposed to go anywhere, and if if was, were they done in by either the writers strike or the apparent decision to mostly stick with what they had in terms of hospital-based characters?

On 3/29/2024 at 5:45 PM, Vee said:

Has anyone else seen the early Felicia return material in June of '92 and gotten the distinct impression they were heavily testing Scott and Felicia? They have a number of cute banter scenes with him looking after Maxie (who they keep calling "Max") and have pretty solid chemistry, and their vaguely improvisational energy works well together.

I'll have to give that a watch. Reading the curlyqgrl summaries, I wondered if they were briefly testing them in late '87-early '88.

4 hours ago, Vee said:

I can't see it working for long, but letting Bill run another 6-12 months as a kind of antagonist to L&L with Geary doing both roles might've been real interesting.

Interesting idea, although I wonder if the soap press would have criticized it, since 1993 was also the year of Michael E. Knight playing Tad and Ted on AMC.

19 minutes ago, Vee said:

You would never have put GH back on the map in such a big way in the '90s without Luke and Laura. It just would not have happened. It was exquisitely written, performed and brilliantly promoted. It was everywhere that fall and it's what brought me to the show as a kid.

7 hours ago, titan1978 said:

And I think of all the star characters to lure back to GH at that time Luke and Laura were the right ones. They had that Marland/PFS foundation grounded in reality that later characters did not have. It fit the tone better.

It really was an event. No other return would have worked. I will say that it might have been great to have Denise Alexander (and eventually Chris Robinson) back under Labine's pen.

Shot in the dark ... were they considering Michael to play Eliot?

May she rest in peace, and I'll also add to the sympathy for Crystal. This was the first clip that came to mind.

https://youtu.be/Pfp1r1t_6jQ?list=PLFC14180D252D2E37&t=546

37 minutes ago, All My Shadows said:

I can't see it being a full hour, and AFAIC, Let's Make a Deal has never had any business being a 60-minute show. Cut that back to thirty minutes, slot The Gates at thirty minutes, and somehow find a way to pair it with Y&R. The TPIR/Y&R combo (whether back to back or with the news in between) has been an institution for decades now, but in order for this show to succeed, it has to feed off of Y&R.

I've been spending the last few minutes trying to think of a recognizable, not currently active, preferably with some history on CBS, game show that could be revived and run in any spare 30-minute timeslot.

Concentration? The Joker's Wild? Tic-Tac-Dough? Sale of the Century? Scrabble?

I'd personally love to see a Tattletales or Hollywood Squares revival, but who do you get as stars in this day and age? Also, some shows were already revived too recently (To Tell the Truth, Match Game, Card Sharks).

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

That message from Melanie is so thoughtful. Thanks for sharing this @Soapsuds. It’s so funny that Kim Johnston Ulrich was also there alongside Melanie because I always imagined that if they were going to bring back Betsy in the final years of the series, Johnston Ulrich likely would have made a great Betsy recast. I can only imagine how great their scenes could have been with Melanie and Kim playing off each other.

That would have been an interesting (and first of its kind?) situation, since Kim played Betsy's rival, Diana, during the Meg Ryan years.

Thinking about 1983-84 Days for a moment, and remembering back to when the Soaps of Yesteryear Tumblr was active. One particular item stands out -- that Deidre was going to get a raise and/or a better storyline, thus ensuring that she'd stay. I still wonder: if that hadn't worked out, would Marlena have been a Salem Slasher victim?