Chris 2

On 90210, Beverly Hills miraculously had a beach, too.

I thought the fun thing about MP was that it was a soap, but about characters much younger than the ones featured on the 80s soaps. They were just starting out in their lives. Once everyone became successful - running ad agencies and jazz clubs and what not - I lost interest.

What you said about moving west of the 405 is really interesting. Maybe what they should have done was gradually phase the characters out as they grew older and got wealthier. And then bring in new, younger residents to replace them. It could have kept the show fresher longer. Instead everyone hung around a season or two too long, and then there was a mass exodus at the end of season 5.

I knew that David in 2.0 should have been Jake’s son, but I always assumed that it was changed because they couldn’t get Grant Show to appear.

6 hours ago, j swift said:

Dakota Johnson and Dakota Fanning may beg to differ

Both of whom were born after RH had ended its run. Who knows - maybe RH inspired them. Dakota is still a dumb, soap opera name, especially for a man. Virtually no one in the 80s was named Dakota except on soaps.

I hate the name “Dakota”. No one in real life is named “Dakota”. It’s a ridiculous soap opera name, and RH was better than that.

Did they establish from the beginning that Mack and Sumner had been friends as young men?

That crack Karen makes about Gary is great. There’s another memorable one coming, where Abby - frustrated about Gary’s attentiveness to Valene and Lilmae - makes a snarky reference to “our little extended family.” LOL.

They could do a reboot that’s set in a 55-and-over community. Alison and Billy relocate to a Margaritaville-like community and persuade their old pals to join them. Drama ensues when Amanda buys the community and moves in!

11 hours ago, slick jones said:

Posted by a group member of my FB page

Author Tom Lisanti has announced

"I am happy to report that the book I have been working on for over 5 years, Ryan's Hope Revisited: An Oral History, is completed and will be available in the second half of 2023 from a publisher to be named shortly. This tribute book to the beloved soap is a collection of memories and stories from actors, including original cast members Helen Gallagher, Malcolm Groome, Ron Hale, Ilene Kristen, Michael Levin, and Jadrien Steele, and later cast members such as Jason "Ash" Adams, Rose Alaio, Jose Aleman, Ana Alicia, MacKenzie Allen, Richard Backus, John Blazo, Roscoe Born, Fred Burstein, Michael Corbett, Christopher Durham, Randall Edwards, Ann Gillespie, Catherine Hicks, Trent Jones, Kelli Maroney, Malachy McCourt, Brian McGovern, Ariana Munker, Geoff Pierson, Gerit Quealy, Lois Robbins, Andrew Robinson, Louise Shaffer, Gordon Thomson, Cali Timmins, and James Wlcek; producer Joe Hardy; writers including Millee Taggart and Tom King; crew members; and co-creator Paul Mayer’s daughters, Rachael and Ruth Mayer. Brutally honest, they share the good, the bad, and the outrageous with regard to what went into producing this half-hour soap five days a week for thirteen years. They also remark on other soaps (including All My Children, Another Life, Another World, Bare Essence, Beverly Hills, 90210, The City, Capitol, The Doctors, Dynasty, For Richer, For Poorer/Lovers and Friends, Guiding Light, Loving, One Life to Live, and Search for Tomorrow) that they came from or went to after their departure from Ryan's Hope. Connecting their observations and anecdotes are plot synopses; tales of ABC-TV interference; the General Hospital influence; Emmy Award wins, ratings, and reviews from the time; and why the soap's most hated villain was Agnes Nixon. Illustrated with many never before published behind-the-scenes photos from the private collections of some of the interviewees."

This sounds great. Now, I hate to sound negative but no Kate Mulgrew?

My guess is that since the ratings were good but not great and NBC Universal makes more off the back-end reruns than CBS does, CBS felt it should pay a lower license fee.

That place is amazing.

I imagine it would have been difficult to build a set based on it, given all the ocean views. With the ranch, they were able to build an indoor set so that they didn’t have to go on location all the time. 

Also, it’s possible that the owners didn’t want KL shooting there continuously.

Re: Gary and Abby’s beach house. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember thinking it wasn’t a set, but an actual house. If so, I can imagine they phased it out due to the expense of the location shooting.

I think one of the great things that Knots did was write out characters when they had reached the end of the line, and brought new people in. It really helped keep the show fresh. Apparently David Jacobs pitched a reboot for a potential 15th season, with just the Mackenzies and the Ewings continuing, with a group of new neighbors. Would have been interesting, but I’d argue you didn’t need Gary and Val to continue, because they had come full circle. And you only needed one stable older couple.

I do think dull Ben was a good match for Valene. But Doug Sheehan seems like he thought a bit highly of himself. He was lucky to get KL, IMHO. And I didn’t like his opening credit picture with his mouth hanging open. Nerdy.

I liked Joanna Pettet a lot and when I saw her in the credits at the beginning of the episodes, I was hoping she’d become a regular.

“Family Ties” was the worst when it came to flashback episodes. They did 6 or 7 of them, and many were an hour long. NBC actually refused to accept one of them as part of the show’s regular episode order at one point, and it sat on the shelf for several years until NBC agreed to accept it later on.

Witt Thomas (Harris) also loved the flashback episodes. In addition to Golden Girls, they did one flashback episode each year when they revived “It’s a Living” in first-run syndication.

The actress who played Kim was one of the most unappealing performers I can recall. And I was never a big fan of Michael Corbett’s either. And I’ve always found Louise Shaffer (Rae) to be one-note.

So it goes without saying that that story was not a particular favorite.

You’ll notice that both of them choose their words about Victoria a bit carefully. Charlene ultimately says, “I got along fine with her.” By contrast, when Charlene was asked about Linda Gray, her first words are about Linda being “amazing - lovely, sweet…” 

Haven’t we all worked with people who are not outgoing or overly friendly and can be prickly at times?

On 6/4/2022 at 11:50 PM, Soapsuds said:

Both are in standard quality. They haven't been remastered. 

I never understood why the CBS soaps looked worse than the ABC soaps. The DVD releases for Dynasty and The Colbys was better than Dallas, Falcon Crest and Knots.

I don’t believe Spelling’s ABC soaps ever transitioned to the cheap “shoot on film/edit on video” method that the Lorimar soaps (and most US dramas) used in the late 80s, so that accounts for some of it. I also think Aaron Spelling understood the value of reruns more than Lorimar did, and whenever I see his shows rerun even today, they look like they’re in great shape from a picture quality standpoint. Whereas Dallas - even for the earlier episodes truly edited on film - looks faded and grainy with all kinds of dust and dirt. I’m guessing Spelling took better care of his library, but wish I knew more details - I’m just speculating.

Restaurants are notoriously bad investments - Abby should have known that! She would have been better off investing in the used car lot

Laura having anything to do with Richard after the hostage episode is purely ridiculous. I know it’s a soap and people on soaps forgive each other more easily than they do in real life. But this is a bridge too far.

One of my favorite episodes. The scene between Valene and Abby (“How else are you going to learn?”) is great. But the home movies scene is amazing. I understand that Don Murray filmed those scenes prior to his departure at the beginning of the season. Michele Lee is a wonder here as Karen simultaneously expresses her joy at the memories of her life with Sid and her grief over his loss. Lee was nominated for an Emmy that year, and I believe this is the episode she submitted.

Always thought Joan was cute. I feel badly for anyone who’s so afraid of aging that they need to get extensive plastic surgery (and I know the pressure for actors to stay young looking). I hope she’s healthy and wish the paparazzi would leave her alone.

I thought it was crazy that Cole and Vicki were willing to abandon their young brother Kevin to Richard (and then some distant counsin) after Maggie’s death. I don’t recall if they ever mentioned Richard adopting him.

2 hours ago, Joseph said:

According to Many comments on Youtube many viewers think she would've worked better on Knots, and i'm one of those because i would have loved to see her Going head to Head with Abby (i know she would get at most at Abby's chest ok) and Jill Bennett, but i understand they avoided it because they wanted To keep Gary and Val younger at the eyes of the audience so you have been saved from seeing more of her

I don’t think she would have worked well on KL either. Knots was a show where actors who could give nuanced performances really shined, and those who couldn’t stuck out like a sore thumb.

Mooshy?

Oh yeah - that’s a lovely scene. And then Kenny moves to take the baby from Karen when she starts crying, but Ginger stops him.

It’s frustrating that the series isn’t available. I wish I had thought about taping it but who knew. I do have one episode (aside from the two commercially released seasons): the original airing of the 1993 finale, complete with commercials. I transferred it to DVD a while back.