Chris 2

Yep. The bottom really fell out of the ratings in the latter half of the season. Some people say, “oh, it was #6 for the season, that was really good!” But that was based on the strength of the early part of the season when people were curious about how the show would function without Bobby. When they saw what the show was turning into, they fled.

John Blazo would have been fine as another Ryan brother. But his Pat was a completely different character than the one Malcolm Groome played, and that’s why he was so hard to accept.

No one ever leaves for someplace less glamorous or more realistic. Like Jersey.

Katzman did come up with the Marinos Shipping storyline, but he only wanted it to last part of the season, not the entire year. And they offered the part to Diana Ross initially.

I just did a rewatch of the Dallas dream season, run by the Knots team. It’s worse than I remembered. The whole showrunner succession plan was such a corporate move - as if these creative teams were in sales. “Hey, we’ll let Dallas’ deputy cut his teeth as showrunner on the lower-profile show, and we’ll promote the Knots showrunner to run the flagship show!”

I believe that they wanted the televised run on retroTV to begin with color episodes. So my guess is that most of those older black-and-white episodes haven’t been digitized for rebroadcast or streaming.

The photos in the closing credits were just for contract players IIRC.

The reality was that Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy (upon his return) sucked up a lot of the budget for actors in the later years as the ratings were on the downswing. Duffy’s salary was doubled when he returned (plus a 1 million dollar signing bonus). During that season, almost all of the recurring (“Also Starring”) cast was released from the show by midseason. By the latter half of that season, the show seemed strangely depopulated. Victoria Principal was willing to stick around for another season after that in exchange for salary parity with Duffy (which she deserve) but Lorimar chose not to meet her demands and she walked.

I’m rewatching the season where Bel Geddes comes back (the dream season). She’s pretty much the only redeeming thing about that season. Almost everything else falls flat, but she lends the proceedings that air of authenticity that you mention. Barbara Curran’s book says she wanted an increase in salary and more time off, IIRC. The studio should have found a way to compromise because having Donna Reed in there damaged the show. Could you imagine her being married to Jim Davis’ Jock?

Barbara Bel Geddes’ departures from the show were both due to financial issues. Her first departure came nearly a year after her heart attack and bypass surgery. She wanted a shorter work week and more money. Her representative kept pushing and the producers finally walked away from the negotiation table and hired Donna Reed. For the last season, she was only offered a deal for four episodes. She declined it and retired. Howard Keel accepted the deal and Clayton showed up in those four episodes while Ellie stayed in Europe.

I don’t think RH would have lasted much longer even without the timeslot switch. RH was about a family - as opposed to a locale - and those shows have a more limited lifespan when you exhaust the storylines of the original family. Once they start moving the storylines to the next generation, it becomes less interesting. Cousin relationships are less interesting than sibling relationships.

There’s a reason we didn’t hear much from Leslie Dennison after GL. As for Meredith: she was played by Nicolette Goulet, the queen of the bad recasts (I don’t think we ever would have heard of her had it not been for her famous father). So Meredith never had much of a chance.

There were some characters and stories that worked: Reena, Brett, Rikki, Ashley, etc. But it was hard to take it seriously given that they were shamelessly trying to ride the coattails of “Dallas,” and given how they defanged Iris so she could become the show’s protagonist.

I also disliked Tom Desmond. Karen Morris’ first scene as Faith was her waking up in bed with Tom, so it didn’t exactly endear her to me. The less said about Frankenfaith, the better.

Catherine Hicks was also my favorite Faith. She was playing a completely different character than Catlin’s Faith; her Faith was the likable girl next door. Hicks only had an 18-month contract with the show and left to do a Broadway play. I think the writers wanted to continue Hicks’ take on the role when Karen Morris came in, but she was a greener actress and came across colder onscreen. And the writers eventually adapted to that.

Nancy Barrett is so jarring as Faith. She’s too old for the role, for one thing. And then the whole sunny attitude - “Here am I, all better, and blonde and vivacious.” Weird.

It’s always so shocking to see what Cliff was like before he became a buffoon. Or Jenna when she was played by someone who could act. Pam does look at her best here. And that scene with Ellie and Pam is a winner.

I don’t think Victoria had any noticeable work done until the middle of the dream season. This was the season where she missed an episode or two because of “back issues” and then came back looking different. Her different look after the initial bunch of episodes was due to heavier makeup and fussier hairstyles. She was such a beauty - she didn’t need those. I agree that she looked her best in the first season, with the longer dark hair and lighter makeup.

Agreed. She visited a few times but that was it. Kathleen, I think her name was. Her last visit was right after Mary died. Siobhan was offscreen for the first three years and then she came home. But they never did that for Kathleen.

The problem with the Ryan cousins, Barry and EJ, is that they were cousins. Not siblings. Cousins are boring, dramatically.

More time has elapsed between original Melrose ending and this potential new reboot than there was between Dallas ending and its reboot.

LOL. It’s like the later Lucy Shows, where they were trying to pretend that she was still a “young lady.”

I spoke to a contact at CBS. Doesn’t work in daytime, but has decent connections (obviously take this with a grain of salt). She hears: CBS wants to capitalize on the underserved Black daytime audience in a way that its current soaps don’t. They see the ratings for Jennifer Hudson and Sherri and want a bigger piece of that action. CBS wants to be able to realize multiple revenue streams from its soaps; they can maximize that revenue only if they have ownership in them. CBS would consider a second broadcast window in the late-night or overnight hours if it goes to series. Both The Talk and B&B are vulnerable. The ratings for The Talk are lagging. B&B is not seen as a strong brand but rather one that has been riding Y&R’s coattails. They also want some leverage when B&B is next up for renewal. Should this new show go to series, it won’t be shot in New York (too expensive). They would actively explore locations outside of LA. CBS is going to develop other game and talk shows as alternatives in case they want to replace The Talk and/or B&B next year. She also feels that this would be a half hour. That’s not based on anything she’s heard, but the realities of the business - a 30 min show would be less risky financially and easier to draw new audiences into.

I remember seeing Melody Thomas on the Waltons as Ben’s spoiled girlfriend Darlene in a few episodes. I also remember her as a boarding school girl from The Fury (with Amy Irving). I think she could have pulled off Lucy.

Yeah, Amazon, is just consolidating everything under the Prime brand. There will be three tiers: free Prime with ads (library titles), paid Prime with ads (new shows), and premium Prime with no ads.