EricMontreal22

It has what the Americans would call good demos, apparently. I guess it serves a niche right now that the other UK soaps don't quite really. I think it's safe for a while yet. Is Phil redmond still involved? I know he was royally pissed when Channel 4 canceled his Brookside and threatened to take Hollyoaks away, but now tih Hillside and his famous youth soap Grange Hill gone, I got the impression he was gonna keep Hollyoaks around as long as possible. Either way it's still in the "Big 4" with Corrie, Eastenders and Emmerdale, and since it's Channel 4's only soap up there, I think that's another reason it will kick around (though I'm sure it's last on that list...)

Of course, and that's part of its charm. I'm still only on box set two of The Beginning (I took a break for some Peyton Place) but he does seem to be most guilty at this stage...

HAHA yeah the show itself was an odd mix of S Club with like sorta less inspired Pee Wee's Playhouse type surrealism. It was a fave of me and my roomates as it aired Sunday afternoons when we'd be lazy and hungover. LOL (and actually I do quite fancy him--he's the main reason I started watching Hollyoaks, but, still...) One last clip and then back to Hollyoaks--apparently the TV show is finally coming to DVD! lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNwZ8B-gflc

They even made one last ditch attempt at going for a more "grown up" audience with a Cathy Dennis ballad (she had just done Outa My Head for Kylie and the surprise US hit Never had a Dream for S Club), but it was to no avail... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9u1D5RXpK4

I know he's been on for what seems like ever, and he's very handsome--but I can never take him too seriously because I first watched him on the budget S Club wannabe show StarStreet (which for some reason we got for all of 6 months here in Canada) and as a member ofits accompanying cheezey pop band AllSTARS (yes, I own the CD...) I admit that's still who I always think of... Ridiculous

That's fair enough--Ryan is responsible for some of the most amusing stumbled lines on the show

The first Burke isn't an actor I terribly miss anyway (as awful as that is to say, considering what happened to him...)

Carl, I follow Hollyoaks (I guess I have since that one gay storyline became popular on youtube) but I admit I'm not a regular viewer--if it was on TV here I probably would be though (or more so).I actually agree with your thoughts completely (down tot he mustache lol), but am willing to see how it plays out. And you're exactly right--it's kinda annoying all the responses from people that are basically "of course he's gay"--because i think it's still pretty difficult to do in this day and age (particularly when you're the type of actor he is--someone who is potentially a romantic lead, as opposed to a character actor).

Does anyone know how far behind the UK Canada will be when Vision TV starts airing episodes (with Emmerdale) tomorrow? Apparently they're picking back up from where BBCCanada stoppes showing it last Spring. I hope it lasts longer than the 2 or so months Showcase showed Eastenders a year or two back (probably, Vision doesn't care nearly as much about ratings as Showcase did and they seem to be hoping a lot of the BBC viewes will move over)

Starting tomorrow, Vision TV (a Canadian basic cable station that's original mandate was faith based programming--whatever faith) will have a 6pm block of Eastenders and Emmerdale--Eastenders apparently picking up where it ended last Spring when preminum cable channel, BBCCanada stopped airing it. I haven't watched Emmerdale in years, since CBC stopped showing it, so it will be interesting to see where they pick it back up (and CBC airs Coronation at 7--so that makes a good 90 min chunk of UK soaps...)

Ha funny, I didn't remember the pairing being popular at all..

No big surprise, but yeah good for him. The full interview is here (has some Hollyoaks spoilers and clips) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9CRUReMOkg

Carl, as is often true, we are in 100% agreement. (Well Phyllis, from what I've seen, never really worked... And every few months I'll have a laugh at Laverne and Shirley...)

Well I looked the place I got the complete Peyton Place for such a great deal--no Knots. Then there's some Asian bootleg company that has all of Dynasty too but their credit rating and quality rating when I looked into it is HORRIFIC.

Didn't All That Glitters flop too? I do tend to agree, though I admit even if I wasn't a fan many of his best 70s creations did get fans because they loved the characters as well. But yeah the messages were I think pretty important for their time, and groundbreaking in a way, and they seemed to make their point--but dated is exactly the right word. Many of them read as badly as those "very special episodes" of Blossom and early 90s sitcoms, even if they were better written. And his style certainly did NOT work in his later attempts (granted maybe he wasn't as strong a writer in general by then).

I was 15 when I wactched it so probably enjoyed it becoming more about sex But I do think the social commentary especially about sexual matters became more pronounced/obvious and maybe the simple silliness that drew many fans in, less so.

It was during the OJ mess--It's hard to say I guess. Right, that's the snake story I meant. Interesting if they copied One Life and went to the Old West (Ava's quick trip to Heaven felt like a hommage to Vicki's much more elaborate one)

Meaning soap being more melodramatic? Certainly from clips I've seen the later years *look* more soap opera (in an 80s primetime way--glammed up). Hopefully it'll get a DVD release. Season 3 has the haunted house ep we'vementioned, etc, right?

I don't remember the Wild West trip But I am pretty sure the Universal Studios stuff was the leary before actually (and not when Agnes was writing). The Dante/Curtis stuff was I suppose wacky though that wouldn't have been the word I'd use. Definitely 94-95 Loving (yep so counting Brown Esenstein's first daytime HW stint lol) was very strong I thinkand the show did feel like it had momentum and direction that I don't remember it having earlier (I guess I watched from very late 91 fairly regularly)--like I said it was a fave of mine. I wish I had saved more of it--I did save the last 8 months of the City but... The Faust story (if you mean the snake one) was Agnes' earlier run though lol

I have an old MOD movie, ummm I'm blanking on the title--some melodrama from the 50s. It's fine, I'm just super anal and trust printed discs more than burned ones especially if spending a fair amount of money. I'll be getting this--soon I hope--anyway, and really for soaps it may be the only way to go that makes sense for the companies. Carl, thanks--I took a bit of a break after that drama (well and vacation), but I'm happy to be back--and yes I'm salivating already for the interview! Have never read it or any old 70s SOD stuff really (except what you've been posting)

:yes: Brideshead is prob my all time fave piece of television and something I rewatch every few years (don't even get me started about how wrong minded the recent movie was in nearly every which way). It's a miniseries with a definite closing, so I won't compare it to open ended soap opera whihc has very different--and probably harder--rules to play by, but I'm definitely behind you. What is absolutely amazing is how it shoulda been a disaster, by everything you read--much of it began filming with no official script and they had to write it as they did it going directly from Waugh's novel, the change in director, etc, etc. Carl I get what you mean about that string of 80s Brit miniseries that are so praised and beloved and I think Brideshead in many ways really started that--even though of course there had been previous literary adaptations that had made similar impact--The Forsythe Saga that was such a hit for PBS in the late 60s, I Claudius in the 70s, and while not based on a novel, of course Upstairs Downstairs around then too (I'm very mixed about the upcoming sequel they're doing for that--another fave of mine--though not as much as Brideshead) I wouldn't call it depressing (though I know what one finds depressing is relative) although much of the final episodes have devestating moments and sorta an inevitable feeling of loss. OK maybe that is depressing lol, but I love it. (I tend to like depressing things my friends tell me). (I didn't even realize Keating was in it LOL, but I've never seen too much AW with him...! Of course here he is--playing the questionable Canadian ) As for Knots, reading all this just makes me want to track down Season 3 all the more. Grrr.

Carl that piece is excellent--we've discussed that era a lot but it was when Agnes Nixon was briefly writing again (well she did the Dante story and Steffi and Cooper who Iloved, anyway. I do find it funny how they bring up how whacky the stories are which really isn't what people associate with Agnes usually) and I *loved* the show personally--it was prob my fave (AMC was starting to get a bit out there at the time). Anyway I think they raise good points, though I always hated that theme song. And of course Trisha only had the briefest of returns (shame as I never really liked Trucker with Dinah Lee or anyone but Trisha--he was I think one of the most handsome soap actors ever but not exactly a great actor--though not as bad as some I can now name--so he really needed the chemistry they had with each other--it's prob telling he left acting it seems afterwards...)

Did Marland create the original Ava? I know she wasn't there from the start and he left after a year or so--but that's interesting.

When Bravo, a cable station started here in the mid 90s (it's completely unrelated to the US Bravo lol) they had a 2 hour block called "TV too good for TV" that had cult shows like Twin Peaks (which is how I first saw that)--that would end every night with Mary Hartman. I think I saw nearly every episode--brilliant, and oddly addicting stuff, though I'm not sure I'd buy and watch the whole set on DVD if they released it (maybe when I'm done with Peyton Place and Dark Shadows in 10 years time...). And they also showed the full Fernwood2night and the next Summer's America2Night. Brilliant stuff. I admit, I find a lot of Norman Lear's tv work heavy handed and not appealing--if I'm gonna watch a 70s sitcom give me the more urbane MTM Productions stuff like Mary Tyle Moore, Rhoda, etc than All in the Family or Jeffersons--although I do get how groundbreaking they were for their time. But I loved Mary Hartman. (Oh and Maude, though that's probably largely due to Bea...) (And I have always wanted to see All That Glitters, though it sounds like people felt the gender role satire *was* too heavy handed there) Louise is brilliant here.

I admit Lovers and Friends is the top soap I've never seen a moment of that I'd love to. That SOD editorial is very scathing (did she like ANYTHING about it?) but I've actually found the synopsises to have a lot of promise and interest--of course that doesn't always translate. It does seem like NBC shoulda given the show, maybe the original version at least a year--surely by then someone at the network knew Lemay's style and that his stories were slow builds? It does seem that maybe he focused on a bit too much backstory to really get people interested though. I've alwyas found it kinda funny the ways they retooled it into Richer for Poorer and sorta made it more soap opera by the numbers (even changing Rhett to Bill!)--though it sounds like FRFP tried to get more of a youth audience and then to put it up against AMC just when AMC was really on the rise to its peak positions is absolutely bewildering. (I also wonder--wasn't AW an hour by then? So Lemay and Rauch both were doing a LOT of work... And the move to not have it on following, or even leading into AW where audiences used to that style of soap might take to it and see the crossovers is also bizarre--it reminds me a bit of how ABC didn't take Agnes advice to snadwich Loving between AMC and OLTL where it seems it coulda had a chance)