Chris 2

Forgive me for being pedantic, but there’s a bit of a difference between what is now called Dallas’ first (short) season and Family’s first season. The set of Dallas episodes from spring 1978 was essentially a five-part pilot. There was no initial pilot that CBS considered before ordering the rest of the season, which is unusual. That’s why the fans refer that five-part pilot as a miniseries. And that’s why CBS and Lorimar at the time didn’t consider those episodes as the first season. Warner Bros, which now owns Dallas, relabeled the miniseries as season one when they sold it on DVD. Family, OTOH, had a traditional, single-episode pilot that was filmed in 1975. You can easily identify it because both Kate and Nancy have longer hair than they did in the rest of the first season. ABC then ordered five more episodes that were filmed months later, and that made up the first season in the spring of 1976. That’s why I pushed back on calling the first season a miniseries. Tomato, tomahto, I guess. I agree about Brianne Leary. She was a very appealing performer IMO - I wonder why she didn’t have a more prominent acting career. I would have done the reunion without Meredith Baxter. Nancy was never as prominent as the other children, and only appeared in about 2/3 of the episodes. They could have had Nancy show up from out of town in the last scene for the wedding, played by Elayne Heilveil

A few comments: There was no “miniseries.” It was a weekly series from the get-go. The first season was short - 6 episodes. That happened sometimes with midseason replacements at the time; the first season of “Three’s Company” was six episodes, too. “Eight is Enough” also had a short first season. Nigel and Carol McKeand were the showrunners for the first four seasons. Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz were the showrunners for the final season. Playwright Jay Presson Allen, who wrote the pilot (and therefore got a Created By credit) had nothing to do the with series after the pilot. Elaine Heilveil, the original Nancy, was let go after the first season. Presumably the producers and/or network were looking for something different. You’ll notice that Heilveil was used very little towards the end of season one. Her initial replacement, Jane Actman, was also fired, after filming a few episodes for season 2. Meredith Baxter Birney had to refilm all of Actman’s scenes when she was hired. The show is not a soap, IMHO. Each episode is self contained, for the most part (though there’s a lot of soapiness within each self-contained episode). The producers wanted to do a two-hour reunion movie in 1987, when TV movie reunions were in vogue. The storyline would have centered around the kids coming home for Kate’s remarriage. It was delayed due to a writers’ strike. After that, Meredith Baxter Birney declined to sign on because she didn’t like the script. They did a rewrite to accommodate her and she still didn’t like it. So it never happened.

Noon was a death slot for RH. While ABC’s owned and operated stations in NY, Chicago, and LA (among others) continued to air the show “in pattern” at noon, so many other stations didn’t carry it due to noon newscasts, or tape delayed it. Our affiliate in Boston actually got a pre-feed of the show and broadcast it at 11:30 am (instead of tape delaying), after the show moved to noon on the network. It had always been popular in Boston, and even though that affiliate had never previously shown ABC programming in the 11:00 am - noon timeslot, they made an exception for RH. ”Edge of Night” had died a few years earlier for the same reason that RH did. ABC broadcast EON at 4:00 pm, when many stations preempted it or tape delayed it.

When I started watching RH reruns, I heard that most people considered DHK the quintessential Frank. I watched from the beginning. Michael Hawkins was a limited actor. And Andrew Robinson, while a talented actor, is not the leading man type and was miscast. When DHK first appeared, I was surprised, because he was green and a bit wooden. But he grew into the role and I do agree now that he was the quintessential Frank. Geoff Pierson’s Frank was too harsh and openly arrogant. John Sanderford was the best Frank after DHK, but was a few years too young for the role (Frank suddenly seemed younger than Jill).

Viki on OLTL was known by her married names. In the 1980s, it was Viki Buchanan. After her divorce from Clint and subsequent remarriages, we’d hear her full name plus maiden plus married name (Victoria Lord Carpenter, Victoria Lord Davidson, etc). By the end of the series, it was back to Viki Buchanan.

I’ve heard multiple actors complain about Ellen Barrett, who took over after the much-respected Robert Costello left the show. But I don’t blame her for the departure of Sarah Felder - I believe ABC wanted her gone because she wasn’t glamorous enough. What an absolute shame, because Felder was a true original with great screen presence. She was the perfect younger leading lady to carry RH into the future after Kate Mulgrew left. BTW, I COULD NOT STAND Kelli Maloney on this show.

PSM had a breeziness as Fallon that Samms at her best - in season 9 - was never able to replicate.

I remember that Bargain Hunter commercial, and wanted the game for the credit card machine! Now, looking at it through adult eyes - no thanks. I play games to escape the mundanities of everyday life.

I remember it was shot on videotape like a daytime soap and looked cheap as sh*t.

Anne Heche acting weird is about as uncommon as the sun coming up in the morning. Remember her other personality, Celestia?

Meg’s Liza was more the romantic heroine, so they wren’t pushing the strong-willed angle.

Yep - Sony distributes the show and it airs on CBS, the same way that Fremantle distributes Price is Right and it airs on CBS. CBS’s deal with Fremantle is exclusive - they are the only destination for current version of TPIR in the US, whether new shows or reruns. CBS built that into their deal so the new shows wouldn’t have to “compete” with reruns elsewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if CBS has the same type of agreement with Sony for Y&R. Years ago, CBS’s TPIR deal was not exclusive and reruns were airing on Game Show Network. CBS didn’t like that and at renewal time had the exclusivity built in. Only reruns from the previous version from the 60s are rerun.

I think Sony could monetize those old episodes, but my guess is that CBS is a blocker. They may not want Sony to stream older episodes because it would pull some people away from watching newer episodes. Very possible they have exclusive rights built into their deal with Sony. The Bob Barker-era “Price is Right” isn’t rerun for the same reason.

I always found Jess Walton a bit difficult to take as Jill - there’s just nothing lighthearted about her, even when she’s playing a scene that’s supposed to be funny. She had no chemistry with Jerry Douglas (John). And can someone explain to me how Jill and John wound up remarrying after a super-bitter divorce that involved blackmail?

The facelift scenes were really shocking to me. Jeanne Cooper was brave to do this. And yes - she always looked older than her years, even back in the 1960s when she was guest starring on TV westerns. Terry Lester was terrific. He should have gone on to a primetime career. His sexuality had a lot to do with the fact that he didn’t. I loved Meg Bennett (Julia) as Liza on SFT. But she looked so much older on Y&R, just five years or so after she left SFT. Maybe it was her haircut or maybe she was too thin.

They do exist in Sony’s vault. Sony’s predecessor, Columbia, was very good about saving all the episodes. I would love to see a Best of Kay and Jill week (or three). You could show the episodes where they meet, where Kay hires Jill, where Philip and Jill fall in love, the “accident”, the blackmail, the manicure, etc.

Corday Productions still has a financial interest in Y&R, at least the last time I checked. The closing credits say “Sony Pictures Television in association with Bell Dramatic Serial Co and Corday Productions.” I’m guessing Corday got a slice of the pie in exchange for letting Bell go do his own show. The show was very well produced from the looks of these early episodes. Nothing to be ashamed of. I wonder if Liz Foster had white hair when she was in her 20s. 😀 I’d forgotten there were four Brooks sisters - always forget about Peggy. Chris was really attractive. I didn’t much care for this Snapper - the Hoff is the one I remember. It’s funny that Brenda Dickson is tweeting/promoting the show that fired her.

In Boston, the ABC affiliate, WCVB, never aired “The Edge of Night”. They usually managed to cover up the ABC announcer talking about “Edge” during the closing credits of “General Hospital”, but not always. And they allowed the “Love in the Afternoon” promos with “Edge” to air. One of the independent stations carried “Edge” in the 70s, but by early 80s, it was no longer seen in the market. WPRI in Providence, RI didn’t carry it either, so you had to try to receive WMUR in Manchester NH to get it. By the end of the “Edge” run, even WMUR was delaying it and airing it out of pattern at 9:30 in the morning. When “Loving” came on and bumped “Ryan’s Hope” to noon, WCVB started carrying RH at 11:30, and got a pre-feed from the network, so they were always on the same day. WBZ, which was the NBC affiliate in the 1980s, pretty much dropped all of NBC’s soap lineup, with the exception of “Days of Our Lives”, which they aired on what was originally a one-day delay at 1:30. But by the mid 80s, they were almost a month behind the network feed due to preemptions. When WBZ decided to start airing DOOL in pattern again, they had to double-run it for a few weeks so they could catch up. An independent, WQTV, was carrying “Search for Tomorrow” and “Another World”. When WQTV changed formats, “Another World” was no longer seen in Boston. Finally, in 1995, NBC got a new affiliate in the market, WHDH. And the affiliate agreement explicitly stated that WHDH had to carry the entire NBC daytime lineup in pattern. The CBS affiliate, WNAC, didn’t carry “Search for Tomorrow“ for a few months in the late 70s. But there was an outcry from the viewers, so they reinstated it.

Interesting. What was Lynde’s problem with the show? I liked her successor, Victoria Mallory, better anyway.

From what I understand, CBS was grooming Terry Lester to be a primetime star (he did a TV movie called “Blade” that was a series pilot) until they found out he was gay.

Let’s face it: if this were really life, none of the Matthews clan would have anything to do with Rachel after the hell she put Russ and Alice through. But it’s a soap opera. A few years later, Rachel and Alice were spending Christmas Eve together. LOL - nobody is that forgiving.

Carla Borelli was beautiful and had great screen presence. I was surprised that she didn’t become a primetime TV star. She would have made a great Liza on SFT.

Janet disappeared from the show shortly after the move from CBS to NBC, IIRC.

Pam Long had a wonderful screen presence. Of course, we know that she was even more talented as a writer. But I thought the show really lost something when she stopped appearing on camera.

Margaret Colin as Mary Ryan on RH, after Kate Mulgrew left.