Chris 2

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

I'm interested in your ideas of what Search could have done story wise to entice viewers when the CBS/NBC switch happened?

What special event could drum up some publicity or interest?

Having Travis and Liza in danger again seems a bit ho hum.

 

 

 

 

 

How about a huge flood hits Henderson?

That one promo - with the exploding boat - is weird. You have this explosion and Liza and Travis’ silhouettes behind the flames, while the lighthearted Search sax theme plays in the background.

1984 also introduced Cousin Lorena and her boring-ass spa.

Tbh, I was not a fan of either. Rae was OK in small doses, but I found the actress one-note, and the character completely overbearing. The Kimberly character was so annoying, unattractive, and unappealing it was hard to believe that she lasted on the show as long as she did.

14 hours ago, j swift said:

Reading the plot highlights of 1984 -  Lorena Sharpe (Monica's insta-cousin), her spa, the murder of Jimmy Lee's mother, the whiny little orphan Mike and his constantly crying mother Ginny, not to mention the two Grants who were differentiated only by the amount of mousse in their hair, - all make the Aztec Treasure seem worthy of a Pulitzer Prize.

LOL. That spa thing was really boring. To paraphrase Edward Q at the time: I’m not interested in watching women run, beaten, and tortured into shape.

GH had a penchant for introducing dull, uncharismatic characters at the time: Tony, Ginny, Tanya, Lorena, etc. Tony eventually worked out, at least.

I hated Mike. He made Anne Logan’s son Jeremy seem like one of the best child characters in comparison. “Doc Rick” and “Mom Lesley.” Ugh. I really didn’t like any of the Webbers at that time, with Rick doing his best Gary Cooper imitation, and Lesley always bordering on hysteria. Too bad all three of them weren’t in Lesley’s car. Or at least have them selected for some secret WSB mission and sent out of town along with Ginny Blake and the spa crowd.

I have to admit that I thought it was really clever how they introduced the evil Grant just as the faux Grant’s previous story was wrapping up. And they had planted the seeds for it very early on. That’s how you hook people. The execution was kinda meh, though.

I remember all of GH’s action adventure plots at the same time lasted six months each. The Prometheus Disc, the Treasure of Malkuth, the Oil Scam. And get me started on the Aztec Treasure, which dragged on for nearly a year. I don’t even think they planned that one out in advance - it just went on and on and morphed strangely.

On 2/25/2021 at 11:15 PM, amybrickwallace said:

I read elsewhere that it was Nana who suggested the "Blizzard" name and once they broke up he went back to using his real name.

LOL - I hope he broke up with her for suggesting that ridiculous name. Reminds me of when Cliff on Cheers made up a fake girlfriend named “Tanya Cocoabutter”.

Little Eric Farlow on Dallas was cute, btw.

Some of this stuff is pretty catty. Why would Alec Baldwin care about acting abilities when choosing a romantic partner?

Ellie inherited Jock’s Ewing 1 license plate at some point. I remember her driving her little Cabriolet with the Jock’s old tag on it and thinking how funny it was (Jock drove a big Lincoln IIRC).

I wonder if she’s forgetting some details. It has been over 30 years after all.  Santa Barbara premiered in the summer of 1984. The Princess Bride was filmed for four months in late 1986 and released in 1987. So if she originally had a two year contract, it would have been up before filming for the movie started. My guess is that she had a three year contract (more standard for a newbie anyway), and they agreed to let her out to film the movie in exchange for a one-year contract extension. That takes you to June 1988, when she left. And she was off for four months filming the movie, so they really got another eight months from her, as opposed to 12.

A theory, anyway.

On 1/27/2021 at 4:32 AM, SFK said:

 

I’ve listened to some of her audio recorded episodes, but this is only the second video of Pinkerton as Dorian that I have seen, and I find her transfixing... her voice and speech, those deep brown eyes, and that palpable subtext. There’s a potently dangerous undercurrent to her most benign gestures. She’s presenting kindness, even sweetness, but she’s not to be trusted.

 

I had never seen her before, but after seeing just a few scenes of her, I understand why she was so highly regarded. She has a commanding presence, and there is something just sinister about her Dorian. She’s kind of scary, and that’s a compliment.

1 hour ago, te. said:

After all, Victoria Principal was actually actively negotiating with the Dallas producers to return for season 11 and allegedly turned down an offer that would make her the highest paid actress on television.

Yep. Because whatever they offered her didn’t give her salary parity with Patrick Duffy (which she deserved) and the producers wanted her to sign a two-year deal, and she only wanted to sign for one.

Since then, Victoria has “massaged reality” and said that she always told the producers she would leave in two years after she signed a new two year deal in 1985 (she left in 1987). But she was willing to stay for the right deal.

Kimberly returning from the dead, staring at Michael and Sydney from outside the beach house, is such an iconic moment. It was kind of shocking, because until then, we didn’t realize that MP was that kind of show. And after that, it was no holds barred.

2 hours ago, juppiter said:

I don’t think Jack Wagner should have come back after his initial arc in season 3. He’s just boring and I’m not buying any of this.  

Amen to this. I think his return and blowing up the building were the first signs that the show was going off the rails. I always found Peter arrogant and unlikeable. 

On 2/4/2021 at 2:45 AM, carolineg said:

I would have loved Alison to truly get her life together and have that dynamic with Amanda.  With Alison, it always felt like the other shoe was going to drop and she would drink again.  Realistic, but sort of sad for a soap character.   Her ending just seems so pathetic-not CTS's last show-but the post-Alison mentions after.  Hopefully Billy found her at some point and they are happily married lol. 

If I had been writing Melrose 2.0, I would have brought Alison back for a short arc where she tangles with Amanda - again - professionally. With no mention of her personal life. And at the end of the arc, I would have had a final scene of Alison arriving home with Billy waiting for her, and it’s clear they’ve been married for a while.

6 hours ago, carolineg said:

 

The show was good about adding cast members until season 5 because the main crew grounded them.  That had a lot of misses after the core group left. I think taylor and Kyle were the only 2 I even liked.

Prior to season 5, most of those additions, with a few exceptions, were just short term guest stars. I would have been gradually adding new residents as recurring characters earlier than they did. Then the focus could have turned to those characters when the originals started leaving.

Every good soap need its heroine, the relatively normal person whose eyes we see the action through. Peyton Place had Mia Farrow. Dallas had Pam. Dark Shadows had Victoria. And Melrose Place had Alison. All of those shows suffered when their heroines left.

Alison and Billy were the heart of the show. They kept them apart far too long. By the time they threw Jake and Alison together, it just seemed designed to piss us off. And why tear them apart at the end of season 5 when they were both leaving anyway?

The show was about a locale, rather than a family. So the producers should have been gradually bringing in new residents each year, and those new characters could take center stage when others left.. Instead, with seasons 5-7, it was constant turnover. The replacement characters left a lot to be desired.

The other mistake they made was gradually focusing on older characters. Melrose was best when it was a soap that was populated by characters just starting out in their adult lives. Later on, everyone was older and more successful - Peter the doctor; Kyle the restauranteur; Coop the surgeon; etc.

I like the idea of an old-school DOOL chat. Heather North passed away a few years ago. But there are still plenty of others: the Hayeses, Suzanne Rogers, Susan Flannery, Denise Alexander, Robert Clary, Wesley Eure, Patty Weaver, Rosemary Forsyth, etc.

Interviewing is an art form and as you all have pointed out - you have to do your homework and be interested in what your guest has to say (or at least fake it). This is why Johnny Carson and David Letterman were so good on their shows - they had mastered this art. And why Jay Leno never measured up to them; he was less interested in drawing out his guests, and more interested in delivering the next punchline.

Maybe Angela could have done a duet with Babylonia.

Good clip - thanks for posting. Too bad Angela never broke out into a song & dance number.

7 hours ago, j swift said:

I never enjoy a male character to whom everyone is drawn toward despite having no redeemable values.

Like Victor Newman? Unattractive, overbearing, and played by a one-note actor. And yet everyone on the show is always falling all over him.

I don’t remember King’s Crossing being a totally serialized show. It was more like the first season or two of the other Lorimar soaps, where the episodes were self-contained, with some continuing story threads from episode to episode. And this one was more family oriented, since it aired at 8:00 pm. Overall, it was just kinda dull.

I think Catherine Hicks’ version of Faith was the best. I think the writers wrote to her strengths, and then adjusted again when Karen Morris Gowdy, who didn’t have CH’s natural warmth, assumed the role. The KMG version of Faith was an interesting character, because she was so different than the usual soap ingenue. But she was a total downer - a little of her went a long way. Her worst period was after the end of Frankenfaith. She was intolerable then.

Retro didn’t do anything but license “The Doctors.” SFM, a syndicator that has been around for years, distributes the show and did all the heavy lifting in terms of digitizing and clearing those episodes. This is SFM’s business model; they distribute a lot of older TV shows, and they have a staff in place to do all of this.

P&G, on the other hand, doesn’t have a distribution arm for its back library and likely doesn’t have an in-house staff to prep and clear the shows. They are focused on their higher-margin consumer goods business. On top of all of that, most if not all episodes of “The Doctors” were made before residuals were built into the actors’ contracts. The available episodes of EON were mostly made after residuals became standard, so that further decreases the potential upside. Different situation.