Tisy-Lish

Of all the pseudo science-fiction plots on soaps in the 1980s, this was the only one I found even moderately believable. As crazy as it was -- at least the storyline was related to Texas and Native American lore (even though it was completely made up). It worked, and then it was over. And the show went forward.

I hope you are correct.

Since Greg Vaughan is not on contract, I fear we might see him about as often as we see Cady McClain. Appearing about two days each month, and seeming to be a very important character, then disappearing for another month -- over and over again. That doesn't work for Cady's character and it won't work for Greg's character. TPTB can't build a believable romance between Nicole and Kial under those circumstances.

No idea why my response to DRW50 was attributed to Mitch64 a few minutes ago. Maybe a glitch in the system? Who knows? Anywhoo, here is the response I wrote: Alice and Mitch went on a couple of dates (this was while Vana Tribbey was playing Alice). And they shared a prolonged kiss, after dancing at the disco. But I don't believe they ever had sex -- thankfully. God only knows what kind of bugs sleazy Mitch Blake would have passed on to Alice. I wasn't so worried about Rachel, when she slept with Mitch -- for obvious reasons. LOL.

Oh yes. Health clubs are another thing that never really worked on soap operas. Not sure why. But none of them were ever believable to me. Lord, I don't understand why not. Maybe because the characters were always socializing while working-out. But most people are rather solitary, when taking a gym seriously. Who knows?

Well, I was talking about Alice Frame dancing with Mitch -- not Janice. But totally get your point about Tracy singing, and singing, and singing. Plus Tracy always sang those very short non-royalty songs. They were always like one minute long. LOL. Any why was a lounge singer performing in a disco, anyway?

Sure, as long as the age gap is acknowledged and discussed. I remember when Mac and Rachel connected on Another World, their age difference was a plot point for at least a couple of years. Age gaps like that can make for lots of drama and lots of reactions. The writers shouldn't waste that material. It is low hanging fruit for a writer.

I agree, there is far more chemistry between Ted and Shanice, than between Ted and June. Plus, it is not believable for a wealthy, sophisticated, well known plastic surgeon with an ego to actually a date a recently former un-housed woman. It just would never happen. And please don't respond with, "It's just a soap opera." That phrase is insulting to the entire genre. But more importantly, aren't both Shanice and June a generation younger than Ted? I dislike that kind of pairing, unless it is acknowledged and discussed in the scripts. To simply ignore the generational difference is lazy writing.

Not to mention Mitch Blake's silly disco on Another World. Terrible set, terrible music, terrible acoustics. Plus all the same technical issues I mentioned in my previous post. The concept of a disco did not work on soap operas. And I'll never forget one time Alice Frame danced with Mitch on the disco floor. Jeeze-Louise! Alice must have been pushing 40 years old by that time. It was around 1981-82, and it was both sad and laughable to watch conservative 40-ish nurse, Alice Frame being tossed around the dance floor by a bored to death William Grey Espy, along with the fake disco music. Lord, have mercy!!

I don't remember a disco on The Jeffersons, but I would imagine similar results -- as The Jeffersons was shot on videotape similar to a soap opera. On the other hand, I believe they used a disco set a couple of times on Dallas during the first or second season. It worked reasonably well, although not completely believable. The disco worked better on Dallas because Dallas was a one camera show shot on film. And back then, film used very different audio recording than videotape.

Yes, you're exactly right. They had to keep the music low, so the mics could pick-up the dialogue. But the mics would always pick up their footsteps too, which sounded ridiculous. Not to mention, most soap opera towns during that era were too small to support a disco anyway. It was later in the 80s, that nearly all the soap towns suddenly became major cities. Several soap operas (I'd say at least half of them) included discos over the course of three or four years, but I never believed any of them worked. Discos simply do not work on videotaped daytime soap operas.

Yes. I think the Winter Fest episodes could have been more believable with a bit of outdoor location shooting. So much was said to be going on outside -- ice skating, carriage rides, etc., etc. And it was referred to over and over again. Yet the viewers didn't even get a glimpse of any of that. I'm sure budget was an issue, but even a little video stock footage of a winter festival (with or without snow) would have been better than nothing -- and it would have helped Winter Fest to appear a bit bigger than just the interior of the country club.

Well, as you know, they took away Bob and Kim's entire house, which was the worst decision they could have ever made. I'll admit the set was huge and included a large staircase. But if it were too big to be practical, there should have been some way to make it smaller. The Hughes could have done a remodeling, or could have had a small fire, or even a tornado. And the rebuild could have been smaller. I hated that the Hughes family had to spend all their holidays in restaurants or at Tom and Margo's home after around 2001.

I always enjoyed the cutting of the Hubbard squash on the Snider farm at Thanksgiving. But did they ever indicate what they did with the squash after they cut it? Did they make a squash pie, or make baked squash? Or did they just toss it in the trash after cutting it?