EricMontreal22

Did PP come to any sort of conclusion?

Whoah, this thread moved. No, of course you're right--much of the theatre a soap vet (even a talented one) would get would be in stock, or rep, or off (or off off) Broadway.

I like it, for the most part. To me it's her most disappointing video in a while (and I'm getting sick of the Gaga/poison thing) but it has some fun moments, the product placement is so over the top it's almost parody, and there's no one else making as interesting mainstream videos right now, so I give her props for that. Poor Beyonce seems a bit out of her element.

I think we have diff backgrounds re theatre--my VERY limited time in Manhattan's theatre makes me think still a lot of actors could to both *worries he put foot in mouth*

There's a clip online of a psychedelic "cream" type real band playing two songs at the teen hangout (blanking on name) in the final year--and the camera angles are crazy for the show. But it's... interesting Besides PP had some hard shoes to sell--they came at a time just when America was really getting into the sexual revolution--what is genuinely shocking in 1965, by 1968 is already tame. They prob needed a whole new soap (or a cheezy Summer spin off?) to address the changes, but tv wasn't ready for that.

I admit, a part of me wishes Betty woulda become the primo bitch a modern primetime soap woulda made her. Yet... being true to the character and how Parkins plays her, this is much more satisfying (and I LOVE hating head nurse Chaoutte--however you spell her name). I also love the dynamic between Ada and Rita--love both characters and am glad they're used more. I've only heard that the last year, when Connie (and her fake eyelashes) and others left, suffered... Yes George (who I guess I've seen the last of) is THE classic example of this. I think Spelling woulda made him such a horrific abusive/molestor of a character, but Monash and crew really make you feel for him and understand how his family feels--the mix of emotions.

I've been remarkably good at avoiding spoilers, but... I remember you said you were into the 200s and it was still high quality soap--which is great, though I admit a small voice in my head keeps hoping it'll stop being so great so I'd stop watching, at least for a bit What kinda bugs me, when I try to find reviews of the show from the 60s was, despite producer Monash working so hard to avoid the "soap" tag (it's a "TV novel", etc, etc ) the critics treated it like a soap from the start--which, espcially means in the 60s, they didn't give it any respect. When really, the level of writing AND acting is miles ahead of so much 60s TV I've seen--and the subtle and honest way they deal with subjects. I especially love (and wish modern soaps would get back to this) the way no one is painted as TRULY bad. Even the villains get sympathy and you always know WHY they did what they did. It's very very real that way, and refreshing even 45 years later. I have PP, and then Dark Shadows and some Knots I wanna get to, as well as rewatching Twin Peaks--and I watch AMC and OLTL daily And a couple of primetime shows (will be fine till my beloved True Blood comes back )

I know how that is. Now that it seems SHOUT won't be able to lease more episodes anytime soon, I hate to say it but I was glad that good quality DVDR bootlegs are easy to find at a cheap price--I just couldn't stop at episode 65. But I keep telling myself I'll take a break and get into the other things I have on DVD (including tons of Dark Shadows, etc, etc) but... it's just so hard to stop when it's still so good...

I continue to be blown away by this show. Anyone who likes character based, compelling, classic soap and hasn't checked it out by now, is missing out (of course they're prob not reading this thread...) I mentioned the change in seasons with the show... Well I admit when I started the new eps, I sorta thought maybe some of the momentum was gone. Paul, a character I loved, was gone, the huge murder mystery which fueled in many ways all the earlier episodes had been concluded (very well I must say--and we didn't even get a cliched court case like I expected), etc... But last night I ended up watching ten (!) episodes back to back until I saw the sun starting to rise and realized I needed to go to bed to get at least a couple of hours before work. If anything I find the show more fascinating and compelling than ever--not one of the stories (even the deaf girl) bores me, evry single scene has a new character or story revelation. I love Claire Morton (a smart, dignified and extremely talented female doctor in 1965 on tv? wow), I love the Shusters, especially the fascinating Doris (I'm certain her daughter saw her do something bad...), love the Reverend and his childhood ties to the community, love Allison not being as happy with her reunited parents as she expected to, love Norman finally acting out, oh and LOVE the handsome, mysterious, slightly sinister Stephen Cord who just showed up (which means Ruth Warrick's Hannah Cord can't be far behind!) and how he and the still unseen Martin Peyton seem to be puppetmastering the entire village... TERRIFIC stuff. On ep 81, and prob will watch another half dozen tonight... lol

There's a really long article I found on the New York Times archive from the university I work for (sadly it's not one of their free ones)--it's too long for me to type out, though I may in chunks as it's fascinating--mainly about As The World Turns' anniversary (3200 episodes) from 1968. Anyway there's a tiny bit that's of interest in this thread. Here, or maybe in the Peyton Place or another thread, we discussed how disappointing Our Private World was--the CBS primetime spin off of As The World Turns that was apparently created to be a direct competitor with Peyton Place. Considering how sophisticaed Peyton Place looks een by today's standards, it was surprising for me to see how cheap World was--it looked not one drop more expensive than the average mid 60s episode of the daytime version. (Our Private World was created by Irna Phillips and Bill Bell, but head written by Robert J Shaw who had written many of the early PP scripts). Anyway, I guess even at the time they realized this. Here's the quote: In May of 1965, CBS instroduced a nighttime soap, "Our Private World," which flopped ringingly and resoundingly. "Which doesn't mean serials can't work at night," says head of CBS Daytime, Fred Silverman. "It lacked any quality. Lousy writing, lousy acting, it was a lousy show. It was a dog and you can quote me on that." But the fact remains that only "Peyton Place," riding high into its fifth season fo "telling the earthy, frank, frequently shocking story of the lives and loves of the men, the women, the teen-agers in a quiet Newe England village," has been successful in prime time. LOL I know Silverman has always been frank, but wow Yeah, though I think I saw Blossom before I got into AMC, or around the same time (then Loving, then OLTL ). It is scary--they need to start doing more theatre again. not that a lot of today's soap actors would be any good at theatre...

Yeah, wasn't she on another ear,lier Spelling show too? Malibu Shores? Or am I confused cuz Christian Campbell was on that... And yes--well I NEVER watched GH at all, but was 10 or so by the time she joined Blossom, so Embarassing, I know

Except storywise didn't the Shapiros basically stay out of the kitchen from season 2 on? Which writer from PeytonP joined the show? I'm still amazed at the awesome level of quality behind the writing of Peyton, and yet how nearly every writer involved flopped when they went on to HW various soaps, etc... (The DeFero's, Robert J Shaw, Peggy Sloane, Nina Laemmle, Peyton's longtime story editor, etc...) "Finola Hughes is a lovely actress and I'm surprised another soap hasn't picked her up in a big role. She should've just taken the Y&R role in hopes something would develop. GH will never use her. Maybe she can go back to AMC. That's the only place I knew her from before. Love David and Anna, especially when Leora died." Word to all of that. I only knew her from Staying Alive (LOL) and I think Blossom (?) before she joined AMC but I loved her so much on the show, especially as Anna, it's such a waste not to have her doing steady acting. I'd love to see PP (Pacific P not Peyton:P ) again

Just crossed the 70 episode point. It's too bad SHOUT couldn't have ended at ep 68 instead of 65 and it's a natural pause in the story--like we had 35 or so eps earlier when Fall became Summer and we jumped forward a few weeks--now it's Spring from Winter (which is good, with the amazing weather we're having here, I was starting to feel strange watching a show with so much snow and Winter ). Anyway we've jumped up to a certain wedding which seeme dinevitable but I liked how the proposal, etc, happened "during the jump". Also, already we're introduced to the wealthy Shuster (sp?) family who has taken over the Mill--Doris Schuster is played by the gorgeous Gail Kobe in full snob mode--it's so great to see her in front of the camera since most of what I know about her is as a soap producer (I believe she started at Return to PP interestingly). And we have a new young minister, who I assume will become more a part of the story than just marrying people... As Chris mentioned before, even though these characters were introduced suddenly, it was done as usual for PP so well that it feels like they always existed, either in peyton Place or just outside in Chicago or wherever. Excited to see new faces, and where the show seems to be going.

Who's "we"? LOL Yeah I grew up with Kids of Degrassi (which I remember being awful) and the show of ocurse--thye even showed key eps in our sex ed classes. (Toronto is kinda America Jr, and an often ugly city though it has some great areas--but it definitely models itself more on the US than Van or Montreal ever would--though not as much as Little Dallas--Calgary. I'm not a big fan at all but it has some great parts and is very diverse)

I watched like two Liberty Streets (it had the actor who played Joey right?) I remember it sorta having potential, but not much else about it (and can't find clips) I was only 14 or so at the time and always seemed to miss it. It did have Joel Bissonnette who i'm a fan of. I remember they all lived in a "quirky" apartment building--kinda a wannabe mix of Degrassi and Reality Bites/Singles. Riverdale was launched with tons of fanfare, because CBC has always had such success with Coronation Street. I remember they went on about how it was created by one of the Corrie execs. It had a few great older Canadian theatre actors but was pretty awful from what I remember--I was excited and tried getting into it from the start--kinda just a lame wannabe Corrie with lame writing and bad younger actors. Looking at Wiki I had no idea it ran three years and nearly 100 episodes! I wish I could remember some of the stories. I can't even find a youtube clip, which is odd.

Glad you're keeping us au courant with your viewing, Chris You mentioned the Dobsons earlier--I wondered what involvement they had in the show from Schemering's brief comment--they'd be pretty busy with Santa Barbara, wouldn't they? Funny, I remember PP being kinda like Melrose meets Knots Landing--I thought it was Spelling's attempt at a Knots. But you're right, what I remember of it was pretty--well crazy. (and Lucky V proved that his lack of any acting ability as Varla Grubbs/Carol Burnett's fiance on AMC was no fluke...)

Right, I knew about his brother--funny given his QAF character's obsession with Dr Who. I meant I'll tune into CBC's airing of Corrie more often to see if he's still on (though who knows how often I actually will). The biggest surprise was when he popped up in Titanic... I've foudn the judges on Strictly Come Dancing (the very very little I've watched it) worse than Dancing with the Stars in terms of nastiness--though he wasn't much of a comfortable dancer in the many club scenes of QAF either (granted that's a very different kind of dancing, and fit with his shy character) so I'm not too surprised

Yeah I sneaked a peek, just to get a glance of it in colour--it's so engrained in my head as B&W (I'm slowly making my way thru Dark Shadows too and can't picture that in colour either...) It does look great.

Maybe I'll watch more of his run then--he was my fave on QAF.

I'm only at ep 70, so wayu behind you (when do they go colour? You're in the 200s right?) but I have heard from nearly everyone that the final year is a sudden sharp drop in quality.

I haven't turned on Corrie in a while, but watched some today (on CBC so I think 2009 episodes?) and was shocked to see Craig Kelly, my fave from Queer as Folk, was on it now (are they eventually just gonna hire the entire QAF cast? well besides Charlie H who's too big for that )

Soapopera, sometimes referred to as "daytime drama," has finally snared evening prime time's ultimate status symbol-- a spin-off. The primary source is "dallas," a weekly saga about Texas millionaires that has attracted a generous parcel of ratings for CBS-TV. Now, beginning at 10 tonight, also on CBS, there is "Knots Landing," a kind of middle class off-shoot set in a small but comfortable California hosueing development. There are clear differences between these two series and ordinary soap operas. The prime-time budgets are considerably higher, enabling the production to leave the studio for occasional on-location shooting. And the plotting is tighter as each episoee must contain at least one story with a beginning, middle and end. Otherwise, though, this is soap territory. the characters run to easily identifiable

Of course that wasn't remotely like the tune that became a radio hit (Gosh Selby was handsome back then)

Watching more of Peyton Place last night, the music is exquisite. I particularly love when the main love theme becomees an isolated piano piece, and the jazzy/West Side Story danger music.

Yep see our thread in the video folder I like that music though I have to say as a whole I didn't like the music during that era. watch some of the other clips from that viewer--it's ALL synth heavy and also overused--you ahve scenes where the synth music never lets up.