Chris 2

I thought they missed the boat with evolving Lance’s character after his relationship with Lorraine and he had experienced true love. Instead, he regressed when he got involved with Babylonia and ran the radio station. I also think these nighttime soaps would be a good fit for Pluto. True that it’s owned by Paramount, but they license content from other sources. I’ve seen James Bond movies, Addams Family, Green Acres, and other non-Paramount properties on there.

Someone in another thread or board posted that they realize what an ass Chase is when re-watching the series now. The casting for Chase was one of the series real flaws. Robert Foxworth didn’t have the warmth or charm to make a self-righteous crusader likeable at the same time. He just came off as an arrogant jerk a lot, particularly later in his run. And the original Chase, Clu Gulager, had the same problem, so they blew it twice from a casting standpoint. You really can’t blame Angela too much for fighting Chase, given the way he comes off. Of course, that withered old prune has some charm issues herself, but at least she’s been around for years doing the hard work of building the business.

Season 1 is less a serial and more a collection of standalone episodes, albeit with an overarching, recurring storyline (how will Chase find out the truth about his father’s death). FC was originally conceived as more of a family drama until CBS scheduled it after Dallas. The first season shows those roots, and does a nice job of establishing the main characters. I think it’s worth catching, but I’m also a sucker for a good family drama.

I know they did the same the to the following season premiere, Return to Camelot, which aired as a two-hour episode originally but is on the DVD set as two separate episodes.

I read from a seemingly reliable source on another message board that Dallas is being remastered for HD. This includes the later seasons when it was shot on film, but edited on tape, which requires reassembling the episodes from the original elements (not a small effort). I’m guessing that when this is done, it will show up on HBO Max. You can’t show the current prints on that service - they would just look awful in comparison with the other shows streaming.

Bobby’s funeral was a two hour episode with just one set of credits, though I’m sure it was produced as two separate hours. I remember it aired during Hurricane Gloria when there were a lot of power outages in our area. Our CBS affiliate got permission to rerun the episode in a late night slot the following week when power had been restored to most of us.

Me too. I watched a little this morning, and realized how the show kind of lost me in season 4, what with the quick wrap up to the Nazi treasure plot, sexy Connie Giannini going after Chase (note to Connie: you can do way better!), and new Big Bad Anne Archer delivering every line through pursed lips. Not sure I can make it through a season with Melissa’s slutty cousin, Emma’s “Dukes of Hazard” boyfriend, and Abalonia.

Oh, lots of stuff during that first full season could have been stretched over multiple episodes: Sue Ellen tries to buy a black market baby, Jock’s heart attack, Lucy is engaged to the gay son of another oil family. The show was mostly serialized by the beginning of the second full season, but they did have a few standalone episodes during that season, like the one that set up Knots Landing where Gary and Val are remarried.

Ha - you’re welcome. I’ve probably spent too much of my life watching that show.

What was odd was that Dack Rambo made it into the opening credits for his final half season. My guess is that he wasn’t under contract to return at all, but the producers knew it would be awkward for Jack Ewing to just disappear from the canvas after getting hold of 10% of Ewing Oil. So he agreed to return to finish out his character’s story in exchange for getting better billing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.