vetsoapfan

No, in RTPP, Allison remained alive and semi-well, despite being put on trial for murder and being target by her first husband's psycho brother. In fact, the final scene of RTPP had Rodney and Allison on the pier, sharing a romantic moment and planning their future together. It was a sweet way to say goodbye to the series. Of the two reunion movies, 1985's PP: The Next Generation was much better, with more of the original cast and an original PP writer involved, and if they had to kill off Allison AGAIN, after she had already perished in 1977's Murder in PP, at least her death in PP: TNG was handled in a gentler way, with the implication that Rod and Allison were finally reunited, if only in death.

Sometimes, new days would start in the middle of a scene. In the mid-1970s on OLTL, Viki was in Jim Craig's office to confirm a medical appoint for the next day. As she was leaving, she told Carla and Jim she would, "see you tomorrow!" There was a jump cut, and suddenly Viki was coming back into the office, wearing different clothes, and thanking Carla for getting her an appointment in less than 24 hours. It was awkward and uncomfortable. Soaps generally don't warp time like that.

This commercial was broadcast well into the show's run, not for the pilot. Originally, there were other actors playing Allison and Rodney. Pamela Shoop and Yake Summers (in the clip) were replacements. The commercials for the debut of the new series featured Constance McKenzie getting a surprise phone call from her long-missing daughter Allison, who had disappeared during the run of the primetime version. Viewers had always longed for Allison to return, and the promos for the opening of RTPP capitalized on that.

Thank you, @slick jones

Thanks @victoria foxton

I used to trade videotapes and DVDs all the time, and you'd be surprised at how indignant some people would get when I asked them to reimburse me for the cost of shipping (which was very expensive to the USA from Canada). I had a large box of tapes ready to go, one time, and the post office told me it would cost $40.00+ dollars (including air-mail postage and insurance, which the receiver wanted.) When I asked if he could reimburse me via Paypal, he accused me of "ripping him off," regardless of the fact that I had not even asked him to pay for the blank tapes or any labor. There were 59 episodes there, culled from Beta and VHS, which took forever to dub. All I wanted was the cost of shipping. I told the guy that he'd SEE the postage stamp for himself when the package arrived, and he could verify the exact cost, but he threw a fit, anyway. I told him to forget the whole transaction; that I was sure I'd eventually find someone else willing to take the cassettes. And I did.

The collector posting these screen shots on Facebook sells soap episodes, but he has answered questions in the Facebook group claiming that these particular eps are NOT for sale. Since he's not going to share them with the community, I have to wonder why he even posts the pictures on-line. He should know it's likely to cause bad feelings.🤔

Thanks, @DRW50!

Thanks, @victoria foxton.

Robin Mattson grew a lot as an actress after her first stint on TGL, and was popular paying characters with an edge, some bite. If she returned as Hope and the character was no longer the passive, bland good girl Mattson had originally portrayed, Mattson might have been effective in the part. Still, my first choice would have been for Roussel (and Stewart and Hulswit!) to return. I loathed Buzz with every ounce of my being and (personally) would never have wanted to see him involved with the Bauer family in any way. I couldn't stand Reva, either, and kind of figured they deserved each other, LOL.

Corrie also had the memorable name Ena Sharples, which was one of the best soap character names of all time, LOL!

Thanks!

Read what, from 1995 to 2022? Scripts of The Archers?

I'd be thrilled if TPTB managed to bring in more actual blood Sugdens. Having offspring sired by Jack or Joe would be ideal, and not totally outside the realm of possibility.

Are any "offshoots" of the Sugden family even left alive out there, to bring in? (I'm not being sarcastic; I'm genuinely curious because as far as I can tell, the vast majority of the family has been killed off over the decades.) I'll never stop scratching my head over the idiotic and gratuitously destructive decision to kill off the twins. I suppose the writers could weave an elaborate story to reveal that the children had actually survived, and been kidnapped way back when, by someone who was desperate to raise them. I hate this sort of revisionist plot, but the Finding Sabrina saga on ATWT was ultimately successful. And since Joe died off-screen, they could twist that around to bring him and/or some previously-unknown offspring back to town. I'd be willing to forgive creaky revisionist history to expand the family. Are there any Sugdens, whom you can think of, who are SUPPOSED to still be alive and who could be woven into the current version of the show?

Gail Kobe and Pamela Long did not understand TGL, and had no interest in preserving its long, rich legacy. Long's announcing that she worked very hard, when she took over the writing reigns, to "eliminate all the dead wood" from the cast of characters has always made me cringe. (To be fair, if P&G had wanted to, they could have stepped in and put a stop to the mass slaughter.) I firmly believe that those who criticized Roussel's version of Hope had never had to endure the previous actresses' take on the role, LOL. I don't really know much more about Justice. The fan mags at the time didn't reveal much (that I ever saw, anyway) about her departure. I found the other actresses' interpretation of Hope hard to deal with, but mainly because they were all so bland and colorless. Tepid writing of Hope as "the good girl" admittedly had a lot to do with it. I would acknowledge that the actresses were not horrendously bad, per se, just non-descript. That's perhaps why I view Roussel so favorably. I thought she had nice chemistry with Charita Bauer, Don Stewart and Chris Bernau. Meg Bennett was excellent as Liza on SFT!

The Dingles being the alleged new core of Emmerdale is as egregious as when the Shaynes became such a focal point of TGL in the 1980s. Or Sonny, Jason, Roger Howarth, and The Mob taking over and infecting General Hospital. Or the Rappadorks descending upon OLTL.VOMIT!!!🤢💩 I'd be happy to see Andy Sugden return for the anniversary. If we could have Diane, Andy, Victoria, and even Robert gather together, discuss the family history and share flashbacks, that would be a poignant gift for longtime fans. Of course, I'm not holding my breath. Over the years, TPTB have inexplicably slaughtered so many Sugdens, I doubt the clan can ever be rebuilt. How the show dealt with Annie's death shows they don't don't care about the original core family anymore, alas.

As far as I recall, Katherine Justice only played Hope for a few months in 1977. She replaced Robin Mattson. To be honest, I found both Mattson and Justice to be rather bland in the role, as was Tisch Ray, who had played Hope for a bit before Mattson. TGL didn't have luck casting the character effectively until Elvera Roussel took over in 1979. Hope was written as a bland, colorless "baby girl" heroine who was, IMHO, pretty tedious. Thank heavens for Roussel and much improved writing in the early 1980s.

That number of contract characters would never happen on an American soap of only thirty minutes in length. Even the 60-minute ones generally don't have over 60 regular characters. General Hospital (60 min) has a staggering number of characters if you combine both the contract and recurring actors, but that's the exception rather than the rule. If Emmedrdale has a total of 86(!!!) contract and recurring characters, combined, their budget must be huge. With the miniscule budget of US-based soaps, 30-minute shows usually have between 18-22 contract players and then a few recurring ones, used as needed.

I'd say three eps a week would suffice for the UK soaps. I wish the American shows had returned to a 30-minute format a long time ago. It would be strange to have them airing only three days a week, perhaps, but even chopping the running time in half might force them to eliminate all the dead wood from their casts, and maybe allow them to focus on quality over quantity.

Even the classic, original film version of Lost Horizon no longer exists in its entirety. Judy Garland's full-length A Star is Born is gone too. Both films were chopped up after release to shorten their running times, and the excerpts got destroyed. Yes, efforts have been made to restore these classics, but they are still not 100% complete. Poor Colleen Moore must have been devastated upon learning that the films she had donated for preservation had been handled carelessly and ended up destroyed. From what I understand, several of her films still do exist, but a huge number of them have been lost. ARGH! I was pleasantly suprised to discover that the complete run of Little Orphan Annie newspaper strips had been archived. The copies are pretty good too, considering they begin from 1927 prints. I wanted to continue buying the hardcover books, but they became too expensive. I just have accept the fact that I cannot find, get and collect everything I want.

Six? That's insane. No wonder the quality is said to be suffering. At least it's still a 30-minute show!

Thank you so much for taking the time to send me those links, @DRW50. Aren't many episodes of even classic Dr. Who missing, because the BBC was careless/indifferent/stupid and didn't archive them all? I keep reading about the continued hunt for that series' "lost" episodes. I don't even watch the franchise, but the situation infuriates me, LOL. I would have started watching if long ago if all the episodes were intact. I hate missing huge sections/periods of TV shows. It's tragic, too, that so many classic films have been discarded, lost, and/or left to rot and are now lost forever. https://www.messynessychic.com/2013/04/10/the-lost-films-hitchcock-gatsby-and-oscar-winning-movies-that-vanished/ Since finding a treasure trove of newspaper comics (from the 1930s-40s) in my grandmother's house years ago, I've been avid to read vintage strips like Mary Worth, but nothing seems to be available. I know Little Orphan Annie was preserved, because hardcover books have been released, with strips starting from LOA's debut in 1927. I've bought the first six. I wonder if Judge Parker, Apartment 3G, Rex Morgan, and other soap opera newspaper strips have been saved. It's a bummer that The Archers' history is lost, but it doesn't really shock me. Complain as fans are wont to do, we are very lucky that soaps like Dark Shadows and The Doctors have been kept AND made available to us.

How many episodes a week does Emmerdale produce these days?

Do you know from what year a more consistent batch of episodes may be available? There's not a lot out there of TGL from 1937-1949, but A TON of material exists from 1950.