Chris 2

Ellie’s family, the Southworths, owned Southfork. They went broke during the depression and Ellie married oilman Jock Ewing to prevent the family from losing the ranch.

Ellie had an older brother named Garrison, the namesake of her son Gary. Ellie considered him the rightful heir to Southfork. He was presumed dead in a boating accident in the late 30s, but then showed up at Southfork 40 years later (why do people on the soaps always let other people think they’re dead?). Ellie wanted to give him Southfork, but Jock and JR were not in favor of it. Didn’t matter, because Garrison was dying and kicked the bucket in the same episode (this was back when Dallas episodes were self-contained).

As originally explained in the early episodes, Jock and Digger were partners in the first oil well. Digger was a drinker and a gambler so Jock registered the well in his name only because he feared Digger would gamble it away, but with the intention of sharing the profits. When Digger found out what Jock did, he interpreted it as Jock was stealing his half. So Digger went after him with a gun, and then Jock decided to keep the whole thing.

Later on, they retconned it so that Jock’s previously-unmentioned brother Jason was a third parter in the company. So Jack and Jamie thought they had a claim on it. But Jack connected the Ewings with a man who had a bill of sale showing that Jock bought out Jason and Digger. In return, the Ewings gave Jack 10% of the company.

It was a typical Spelling show in that the original cast was pretty much spot on, but they really struggled with replacement characters. I pretty much disliked all the replacements: basket-case Valerie (she really should have been a much stronger adversary for Kelly); abusing bumpkin Ray (didn’t help that he was played by a terrible actor even by 90210 standards); cross-eyed Claire (full of herself); dull Joe; Vincent Young’s character who was so boring I can’t even remember his name; copy-of-a-copy Gina.

3 hours ago, te. said:

They should've turned Love Boat into a full-on soap. Imagine the season ending cliffhangers with the boat being threatened with sinking each season!

LOL - best post. Who Shot Captain Stubing? The Love Boat Swimming Pool murder cliffhanger. Who will escape the fire on the Lido deck? Or maybe Gopher and Judy McCoy get together, and he wakes up the next morning and finds her sister Julie McCoy, the ship’s former cruise director, in the shower.

I think ABC was afraid to move Hotel, knowing it was a timeslot hit and would collapse without the Dynasty lead-in. They were hoping that the buzz of having a spinoff of the top rated show on TV, with a considerable number of name actors, would help them establish a beachhead on Thursdays.

Even as a kid, I knew that Sable and Frankie as sisters was just ridiculous given the actors they cast. One thing about Spelling: he didn’t let any accent issues get in the way if he decided he liked a performer for a particular role.

9 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

The premiere episode was so bad. You knew it wasn't going to last. Charleton Heston was horrible in it. And why is Constance with a cowboy? The casting for this show for the most part was awful.

God it sucked. It sucked hard. The characters were so unlikeable and the cast had zero chemistry. Even Dynasty at its worst had interesting performers and relationships between characters. 

Lorimar did the same thing with Falcon Crest in 1986. The show had been declining in the ratings against Miami Vice for the previous season or two. So Earl Hamner left (or was pushed out) and Jeff Frielich was hired as showrunner. His mission was to modernize the show, and he brought in an almost completely new writing staff. New sets, new music, new cast members, new tone. I found it almost unrecognizable. Frielich actually bragged about never having seen the previous’ seasons episodes, too.

John Romano came from Hill Street Blues and was Emmy-nominated for his work there. He was touted as a prestige hire for KL in the trades.

3 hours ago, allmc2008 said:

At what point do we start to 'feel' LML's run? It seems like Filerman and Jacobs are listed as EP all the way in.

Season 10 is the first year that the Lechowicks were credited as producers in the opening titles (I’m guessing they were story editors/writers for the previous year or two). I believe season 10 is also the year when Lawrence Kasha took over as showrunner (credited as co-executive producer in the opening titles). Jacobs/Filerman were credited as executive producers throughout the run, but this is when I believe they stepped back.

Lawrence Kasha passed away during season 12, but was credited as producer for the rest of that season. I believe the Lechowicks were de facto showrunners for that season, though they didn’t get an executive producer credit. Then they left at the end of the season. Jacobs brought in John Romano as the new showrunner for season 13 (Tidal Energy!). Ratings fell, and Romano was fired at midseason and production was shut down to give them time to right the ship.

If my child had mental health issues, I’d find someone more qualified than that Speedo-wearing, croptop-loving nitwit to help him.

Diana Hyland was a great performer who left us too soon. She played the mother, Joan Bradford, on “Eight is Enough,” but passed away in the middle of the first season.

I didn’t find any of the Eds particularly sexy, lol. Peter Simon was a good looking guy when he was a younger leading man on “Search for Tomorrow”. But he seemed considerably older - and balder - by the time I saw him as Ed in the late 80s.

I thought it was interesting that Charita Bauer and Don Stewart were first- and second-billed in the closing credits, respectively, in the early 1980s. Then they were followed by the rest of the cast alphabetically. I’m always interested in stuff like that because daytime usually doesn’t often do special billing - it’s either tenure based or alphabetical. I remember Victoria Wyndham was first billed on AW after awhile, but I know it wasn’t just based on tenure because Constance Ford, who had longer tenure, came after her. The General Hospital credits in the late 70s through the 80s had the long scroll of all the cast members once or twice a week (listed by tenure), and then on other days they had static credits, with only certain cast members credited on their own frame. It seemed like it was a big deal to get promoted to those static, short credits, and it was reserved for the show’s longtime players (John Beradino, Emily McLaughlin et.al.) or the big stars (Anthony Geary, Tristan Rogers).

But I digress.

I think they went with April because they couldn’t figure out the love interest situation with Bobby after Pam left. The original plan was that he was going to fall for Lisa Alden before she sued him for custody of Christopher, but they decided to downplay that because the actress cast came across as very young compared to Duffy. Then they tried with Kay, the political lobbyist. Then they had him get together with Tracy, the daughter of Carter McKay in a blatant and failed attempt to replicate the “Digger’s Daughter” setup. So April was kind of a default choice.

Has there ever been a high school show that handled the aging of its core characters well? Maybe Friday Night Lights, although even on that show the new characters were never as compelling as the original crew.

It was interesting that during the show’s first five seasons, Spelling and his producing partner Duke Vincent were not credited as Executive Producers. I can’t remember that happening on other Spelling shows. Once Chuck Rosin left, Spelling and Vincent were credited as EPs after the final scene, following whoever the showrunner du jour was.

7 hours ago, Khan said:

Well, he wasn't stupid, lol.  He knew that daytime had become so youth-oriented that the only way to STAY relevant in ANY storyline was to be paired with younger actresses.  He wasn't willing to be relegated to talk-to status like Charita Bauer just yet.

I don’t know about the stupid part, if leaving really was his choice. He worked another 17 years in television, but only averaging about one part per year, according to imdb. And these weren’t exactly lead roles; they included subbing as Lionel Lockridge on “Santa Barbara,” doing one of the “Unsolved Mysteries” re-enactments, and appearing uncredited as “Head Waiter” in the TV movie “People Like Us.” I’d argue that he would have been better off staying with Guiding Light for another contract, even in a diminished capacity.

Agreed. As disappointed as I was that Dallas didn’t end with Pam and Bobby together, it would have been far worse to see Cynthia Cidre try to write a Pam return. It was bad enough in the revival how Bobby acted when Christopher got confirmation of Pam’s death. Sue Ellen expressed her condolences to Bobby, and he coldly replied, “I mourned Pam a long time ago.” C’mon - this was the love of his life. He proclaimed when he proposed a second marriage to her years earlier, “I never stopped loving you, and I never will.”

8 hours ago, carolineg said:

I am probably just projecting my annoyance of their characters and some backstage rumors, but I could imagine JP thinking Brandon was 'above' dating Val and JG objecting to Kelly being in that triangle lol.  

After the first couple of seasons, Brandon generally came across as an arrogant little turd. I don’t know how much of that was the writing vs the actor.

For that matter, Clayton Farlow should have been more of a direct business rival of the Ewings. It would have made his marriage and life at Southfork much more interesting. And he should have had other children - maybe a troublemaking daughter who could have turned up at Southfork. Instead, they kind of wrote him into a corner.

Doing a Kelly-Brandon-Valerie triangle was the logical next step for the show. I thought it was a big missed opportunity that they didn’t go there, especially since Kelly and Valerie already disliked each other.

2 hours ago, Vee said:

Speaking of Dallas, to this day I don't understand what happened with Victoria Principal and the new show, which seemed to be doing some David Kreizman/GL-style bluffing re: her return up til the end, when it didn't happen after her umpteenth pointed refusal.

I’ve read that something happened between during the taping for the “Return to Southfork” reunion in 2004 that caused a fissure between her and the rest of the cast. And that when producers were putting together the pilot for the new show in 2011, the other cast members didn’t want to work with her, so she was not asked. I don’t know how true this is. Victoria said at that point that she was asked to appear and mused about whether Pam was alive. The showrunner, Cynthia Cidre, said they decided that Bobby had moved on. But different people had different stories, so I thought this was odd.

In the revival’s second season, the initial interest for the show had died off and ratings were waning. They started hinting of Pam’s return in the story. Jesse Metcalfe even publicly stated that he would like to work with her. So Victoria released a public statement to trade site Deadline stating that while she couldn’t control what the writers did after her exit in 1987, as far as she was concerned Pam was dead, and she wouldn’t be making a “desperate reappearance” on the new series. I bet that went over big with her former colleagues.

When they did a DVD rerelease a few years ago, one of the special features was a joint studio interview with Duffy, Gray, Kanaly, and Tilton. Victoria wound up phoning in (though she did not appear on screen). Duffy bantered with her and she laughed that big laugh of hers and seemed to enjoy reminiscing about the show.

So honestly, who knows what went on.

I think it was possible to do a good show without Bobby. But in primetime, once the audience starts to decline, it’s very hard to get them back. Dynasty is a good example: they finally fixed the show in season 9, but the audience never returned (the change of night didn’t help). LA Law is another good example: they changed showrunners and lost a few cast members starting with season 6. The audience greatly declined. Even though they eventually fixed the show, the audience never returned.

That’s one of the reasons they brought back Bobby - it got people talking about the show again. The cliffhanger episode with Bobby returning was the the highest rated episode of the season, tying with the season premiere. And the following season premiere was the highest rated episode since Bobby’s “death.” It’s too bad they explained his return away so quickly - they fumbled a chance to hook the audience again. 

Chuck Rosin ran the show for the first five years, and his deputies Steve Wasserman and Jessica Klein took over for seasons 6-7, so there was at least some continuity. Season 8 was when they brought in the outsider, Michael Braverman of “Life Goes On,” to be the showrunner. The transition was jarring to say the least and he was fired halfway through the season.

I wonder why Rosin left. He never had another showrunner job that lasted more than a handful of episodes.

The Ray character never made sense to me. As Larry Mollin said, the show was supposed to be about ordinary kids living extraordinary lives. So why did they think we’d be interested in this bumpkin character? And who the hell was named Ray even back then?

Andrea should have been sent away for a semester overseas when Gabrielle became pregnant. Making Andrea a young mother and saddling her with Jesse just destroyed all story possibilities for her.

I pulled out the Barbara Curran book to look at the rankings (she gives those consistently more than ratings). The ratings/rankings actually fell off earlier in the dream season than Pam’s jungle adventure. By the seventh episode of the season in November, it had dropped out of the Nielsen top 10 for the first time since the second season. It hovered around number 10 (sometimes ranking a bit higher, sometimes a bit lower). When the emerald storyline started in January, it fell a bit more (ranking 11-13), and by April, it was regularly ranking 15th. I understand why they panicked and brought Duffy back, but I wish they had thought it through more. But they did need a big event to get the eyeballs back on the show again.

Well said. The show had already begun to get repetitive during Duffy’s last season before his departure, and the ratings were beginning to soften in the latter part of that season. Exploring what happened to Pam after Bobby’s death should have driven plot for years. Pam should have been left in residence at Southfork as Bobby’s widow. She and JR could have battled in the office during the day and at Southfork at night. And it would have been fun to see the two of them reluctantly team up against outside threats.

But as you said, they were afraid of Pam as the main protagonist. So they didn’t really explore her going head to head with JR, and they had her jump back into bed with Mark Graison a couple of days after Bobby died. This was another missed opportunity - to eventually introduce a new, better character to be her love interest.

They really blew it, so Katzman decided to go back to the tried and true when he returned to the show, even though that setup was running out of gas even before Duffy’s departure. Ah, what could have been.

I think the problem with that ranking is that there are so many episodes and people certainly aren’t ranking every single one and not against each other. 

So, now that I’ve picked on the methodology, I’ll comment:

I’d argue that “Swan Song” is the best episode. It’s such a great wrap up to Patrick Duffy’s first stint on the show. The resolution to the the show’s Pam/Bobby/Jenna triangle is deliriously soapy: Pam is willing to sacrifice her happiness so that Jenna can be with Bobby; Jenna is willing to sacrifice her happiness so that Bobby can be with Pam; and Bobby sacrifices his life for Pam. Bobby and Pam’s reconciliation after two seasons apart is the most romantic and heartfelt scene of the series. Add to that Bobby’s weepy deathbed scene, and you have the best episode of the series.