SoapDope78

I liked the first season for its late 70's feel, but some of the storylines could be a bit cheesy. The Avery's marriage was most interesting to me to watch unfold. Richard was always trying to keep up with the Joneses with the house, furnishing etc...he could not afford. In the beginning you almost suspect that Richard would start beating Laura at some point the way he bullies her. Gary & Val being newlyweds did damage to the Ward's purpose of being on the show. They could have downplayed the remarriage and let Kenny & Ginger have more of those types of stories or they could have had Kenny & Ginger be married right out of high school and by 1979 be married for about 6 or 7 years. Sid & Karen and their kids could be boring at times. Michelle Lee loved to chew scenery, especially in that campy motorcycle gang episode. Diana grated on my nerves.

That's sad. I don't think many companies and networks thought that archiving a then current show was worth the time and effort. I read when the Brady Bunch went into syndication in the mid 70's ABC foolishly used the master prints to chop up to accommodate rerun time slots. When the show was released on DVD a lot of 16mm prints had to be alternated in with the original 35mm to make complete episodes. That's why certain scenes on DVD look grainy.

I wish some more of the Catlins would show up. There had to be someone who recorded this series back when it was airing. It's kind of strange to think that a lot of stuff that aired in the 80's is now considered "lost media". I read NBC was still wiping daytime programming like game shows etc...up to the mid to late 80's. Most of Chuck Woolery's/Susan Stafford's 1975-1981 run of Wheel of Fortune is gone and some of Pat & Vanna's daytime shows are lost. All that survives are home video recordings.

I think the actor (John Castellanos) that played John Silva was married to someone behind the scenes of B&B. I say that may be one of the reasons his character replaced Michael Crawford in the 90's.

Brenda and Colby were good together. Colby and Jess Walton worked together many times when they were both contract players at Universal in the 1970's. They both wound up on Y&R together in the 80's. Leslie Charleson and Tom Selleck were also at Universal at that same time.

I was scrolling ebay through a seller who has a lot of random photos. Among them were some vintage 70's and 80's slides of actor Colby Chester (Michael Crawford). I remember reading a blurb in one of the soap magazines that when he won the role on Y&R, one of the stipulations was he had to shave his signature mustache. I wonder if that was because Eric Braeden (Victor) and Robert Parucha (Matt) had staches and they didn't want any other actor sporting facial hair ?

True. I wonder why he never did another soap ? He could have been a cast as Thorne on B&B.

Thanks for the info. Timm was a model for years, so one could speculate he may have done something like nudity etc... that violated CBN's moral clause. He was good in the role. He had an awesome mop of 80's blow dried hair that would rival Ted McGinley.....LOL

I think the husband (with the beard) is David Bailey. The actress is model Pam Huntington who was the first to play Blair's mom on Facts of Life in 1979.

I always liked Victoria but it seems she was an outsider with the cast. The public often viewed her as frosty and a bit eccentric. She came up in a time when it was pretty much a man's world and I think she had to put on a tough exterior to succeed. She built a comfortable lifestyle for herself with her business ventures (skincare etc..)

I wish Brock and Peggy had married. It would have given Kay ties and storyline with the Brooks. I would loved to have seen Kay interact with Jennifer. The Brad storyline seemed like something from a TV movie of the week.

I wonder why Jerry Timm left AL? He pretty much spent most of his career doing cigarette ads etc.. I saw he died in a car accident in 2005 and was still living in Virgina Beach where they filmed AL. Peggy Smitheart did a lot of commercials and a few short lived series. She reminded me a bit of Deborah Adair.

It would have been great if CBS had worked things out with P&G and brought SFT back to the network in 1987 when they knew Capitol was going to be axed. Then hired good writers to do their thing to revitalize the show. No offense to the late great Bill Bell, but B&B has been a mess.

Meg Bennett as a contestant on Three On A Match (1971). I remember Meg saying on a 80's Pyramid appearance that she was a contestant on this show and said it furnished her first apartment in New York as a struggling actress. She started in SFT in 1973. I wonder how Janice Lynde would have been as Patti ? Robert Reed seemed pissy in everything he did outside of the Brady projects. Ironically, he thought the BB was beneath his talents a serious actor. 🙄

Someone posted years ago that they remember Pamela Peters (Peggy) was having some sort of issues behind the scenes during the rape storyline and barely participated onscreen when it played out. Trish Stewart (Chris) seemed to carry most of the storyline along with Dick DeCoit (Ron) and David Hasselhoff (Snapper). I think the poster also mentioned that Anthony Hererra (Jack) said that Pamela Peters one day looked into the camera and exclaimed she didn't know what she was doing and walked out of the scene.

Kari Michaelsen (who played Katie on the 80's sitcom Gimme A Break) interviews Donna Mills. Michaelsen has been a TV host and motivational speaker for over 30 years after leaving acting.

Kristy McNichol and Scott Baio fall in love on The Love Boat. Season 1 (1977). Coincidentally Richard Mulligan who later played Kristy's father on Empty Nest also appears in a separate storyline.

I never understood why Pam would want to have a friendship with Sue Ellen. When things are good between her and J.R., she throws Pam and Bobby under the bus. When things fall apart, she comes crying to them. The time Sue Ellen got into a fight with Pam at Pam's house by the pool, Pam should have been done with her for good. Sue Ellen was a real bitch to her from day one. I loved it when Pam slapped her across the room when J.R. & Bobby's plane went down. I also loved it when Pam busted her playing lady of the manor on the stairs when Jock was in the hospital with his heart attack. Those 1978-79 episodes are real gems. Victoria was stunning to look at.

Here is an episode of a syndicated game/court show hosted by soap vet: John Shearin.

Just some random thoughts. The revolving door of writers and recasts really hurt the show. If Conboy hadn't pissed in Bill Bell's Cheerios early on, he may have lent a hand to Conboy. I wonder if Conboy ever tried to lure Bell writers over to the show like Kay Alden by offering them more money etc...? The show never really evolved in 5 years. The political storylines took a back seat after the first couple of years. Why set a soap in Washington D.C. and not play up that angle more ? Viewers were left to assume the McCandless were Democrat and the Clegg's Republican. The sets were beautiful. The Clegg mansion was probably one of the grandest sets on daytime at the time. with his shortcomings Conboy did know how to stage a show to look attractive. Catherine Hickland was a better Julie. Beck was too weepy in the role. David Mason Daniels was a wooden actor (like Kent McCord of Adam-12), but it somehow worked for the character of Tyler. I felt Witherspoon was all wrong as a recast. Leslie Graves was great as the feisty little Brenda. The recasts were bad. I wonder if Teri Hatcher should have been cast as Brenda instead of Angelica? I loved Marj as Myrna. She was an awesome recast after the death of Carolyn Jones. All of the back from the dead/missing storylines were too much. Baxter is back from the dead. Sam's first wife/Trey's mother is back blah blah blah. They also did the paternity switcheroo too much. Sam turned out to be the father of Kelly's son, Sam had an out of wedlock daughter, Matt is not really a McCandless blah blah blah. They character assassinated Mark by making him a traitor/spy out of the blue. Ed Nelson quit in disgust, and they killed him off. What was the point of that? If the show had went on into the 90's, they could have used some of the political scandals of the day in Capitol storylines. Trey denies an affair with an intern, but she saves a dress as evidence. Or to be less obvious they could have it be a bedspread she refuses to take to the cleaners. Maybe Myrna tries to break in to steal and dispose of it.

Sara was like Val Ewing. She was a magnet for psychos.

1977 Unsold Pilot.

Alice Haining (Angel) Chevrolet commercial.

I'm enjoying all of the recent Capitol uploads. I watched the series as a kid when school was out on break, but kind of tuned out during the last year or so before B&B replaced it. It was sad Leslie Graves had her demons and was replaced as Brenda. Most of the original actors had been recast by that point. Marj was awesome as Myrna. I also loved Julie Adams as crazy Paula.

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