vetsoapfan

I watched both Executive Suite and W.E.B. Of the three shows being discussed (BH, ES and W.E.B.), I thought Executive Suite was the best. Henry Slesar, Rita Lakin and Rick Edelstein (soap writers whose work I've always appreciated) offered up some fine scripts, and the cast was solid. W.E.B., to me, was "meh." Not great, not atrocious, but just rather bland and lethargic. The acting was fine, but none of the characters ever clicked for me, and I just never became invested in the drama. As previously noted, Beacon Hill had great potential, but did not live up to anything great when it actually aired.

Gordon Russell and Sam Hall.

Yep, Kim was deaf, and the best remedy to dealing with conflicting reports is to watch the show and find out, first-hand. PP is available in its entirety (for free) on Faceboo.

Thanks, @DRW50 . Yes, I have seen the great, informative post by @dc11786 . I appreciate what he brings to the board.🙂

You asked me this same question. Why do you doubt the character was deaf? She was, according to the broadcast episodes of Peyton Place. They're available to watch on Youtube if you'd like to verify. As an added bonus, the eps are fun to watch anyway.🙂

I had such high expectations for Beacon Hill, and hoped it would be a classy, American version of Upstairs, Downstairs, which I enjoyed. The first episode was atrociously written, and TBTB seemed to be treating the series as low-brow camp. I expected Jerry Lewis to pop up as The Nutty Professor at any moment, LOL. When I saw that the writer was Anne Howard Bailey, whose abysmal writing had tanked How to Survive a Marriage and doomed that daytime soap to failure, I was crestfallen. With hackneyed caricatures and shallow scripts at BH's core, I quickly predicted it would be a bomb. Most frustratingly, weeks into its run, the writing suddenly took an upwards swing. HTSAM had had the thing happen: after AHB was replaced by the great Rick Edelstein, the quality of the writing surged. Alas, neither the viewers of HTSAM nor BH gave those dramas a second chance; once burned, twice shy, I suppose. I stuck with Beacon Hill out of morbid curiosity, wondering if the network and/or show runners would do anything to turn the series around. I had watched the debuts of several soaps (HTSAM, Bright Promise, Return to Peyton Place, Where the Heart Is, among others) whose early days were stained by poor writing...but suddenly rebounded when new scribes were brought in. Unfortunately, none of those soaps were able to recover from their disastrous beginnings.

@Reverend Ruthledge , I'm pleasantly surprised to see you uploading all these valuable synopses/history lessons so quickly. It must be a lot of work. Thank you for the time and effort you are devoting to the task. The more you remind us of the past, the more I want to relive those glory days again. As your recaps approach the 1960s, you are very close to hitting the year which I began watching TGL (1963-ish, IIRC). I wonder how many first-hand memories your summaries will unlock in me!

Honestly, while I am aware of who Kimberly Beck is, I have no strong feelings about her one way or the other. I felt she was adequate in the roles I happened to see her in, but (IMHO) she was not destined for superstardom. I'd say she had the moderate amount of success in the industry I would have expected. She found work in the industry for three decades, which is better than a lot of other aspiring actresses. I'll give her that.🙂

As far as I remember, yes, the character of Kim was really deaf. I generally dislike most horror material (with a few exceptions), and did not watch the Friday the 13th saga

I thought Kimberly Beck was adequate, but didn't show a lot of depth or range in the role. IMO, Catherine Hickland was warmer and a better actress, although the role of Julie was always too limited to be interesting, under either actress. The ratings for Capitol were not atrocious, so I probably would not have cancelled it, but like so many soaps with multiple head-writer changes, the writing was a problem which needed to be addressed if the show wanted to succeed better. No, I have neither heard of nor seen such a series.

I read both the books after I had already seen all three miniseries, and while I enjoyed the books, there were significant differences between them and the various TV versions. The BMT mini probably honored the BMT novel more than RMPM or RMPM II series remained faithful to the original book, however.

Lemay started reducing the number of sub-writers in the latter years of his tenure at AW, which would correspond to when the show's quality began to suffer. Honestly, however, there was too much work for anyone to do (no matter how talented any writer was) without a huge amount of assistance. Well said, and ITA.

Yes, he remained at AW until 1979. I agree his work was stellar during the first few years of his tenure (1971-1975), but then his writing seemed to become inconsistent; good points mixed in with bad. Unfortunately, he got weaker towards the end of his run. Even Lemay, himself, acknowledged that he got burned out.

I know who Kimberly Beck is. I first watched her in 1965 ,when she was a child actress and appeared as Kim Shuster on the primetime soap Peyton Place. Later, in 1977, she played a totally different character in the TV movie Murder in Peyton Place. Of all the projects she has been in, I liked the quirky cult film Massacre at Central High (1977). While it was ultra-low budget and had its weaknesses, it had a certain somethin g which made it curiously interesting. And yes, I watched Capitol throughout Beck's run as Julie Clegg. I don't believe she's done much film or television work in many years, aside from performing a few voice-over parts.

Actually, strangely enough, I enjoyed the novel Beggarman Thief much more than the TV miniseries version of it. The casting felt off, which alienated me, and everything just struck me as artificial and contrived. I forced myself to watch it, but did not enjoy the experience. I think the original Rich Man, Poor Man with Nick Nolte had set the bar so high for me that the pale follow-ups were never going to satisfy me.