EricMontreal22

I've only seen the pilot movie and first episode of Paper Dolls--on youtube but I have to say it didn't grab me as much as I hoped it would. It didn't really have any strong soapnames in the behind the scenes area, did it? Who's the Missing You guy? lol From all I can tell, The Covenant never happened--I really wanna know what this surprising arena was! I think that they start to get it right when they kinda admit that one reason primetime soaps may not be doing as well isn't cuz they're serials, but because they're too similar--really there's only so many nights a week someone wants to watch a show like Dallas. I kinda forgot all the trashy HBO shows they had--I guess RealSex is still on? (or is it?) Found some info on IMDB--1985 did indeed bring a Lorimar drama starring Ray Liotta--Our Family Honour which was a TV movie then a series (dunno how long it ran, but under a year). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0149504/ A viewer critiquemakes it sound like it was more about the mafia than the cop family: "This mid-1980's series could hardly be described as groundbreaking. A critic called it "a series you can't refuse" and it was a pretty apparent effort at taking advantage of the "Godfather" movies' success. Throw in love between a son from one rival family and a daughter from another, a plot which was already old when Shakespeare used it in "Romeo and Juliet", and you've pretty much got it. That having been said, the show had an expensive, movie-style look about it and a fine cast. Ironically, this probably helped to kill it. Most soap-opera type shows (and this pretty much was that) take a good while to build an audience; with the amount that this show must have cost to make per episode there was little time for that to happen due to the amount of money being lost. (Another problem is that serial-type shows have to be huge hits in order to have more than nominal value as reruns; without huge buzz few viewers will watch again to see the outcome of story lines they already know.) This show was better than lots of the other fare available at the time but suffered also from being against "Remington Steele", arguably a better copy of James Bond-style intrigue (and starring a future Bond) than this was of "Godfather"-style crime wars, and was failing to hold for ABC the audience share which it was being delivered by another high-cost show, "Moonlighting", so it had to go. "

New York Times again--this is the last one I'll type out tonight, lol. April 8, 1985 Soap Opera Formula Re-evaluated By Stephen Farber LOS ANGELES, April 7 - Week after week, two long-running soap operas, "Dallas" and "Dynasty," vie for the top spot in the Nielsen ratings. "Knots Landing" and "Falcon Crest" are generally not far behind. That success rate has inspired the networks to look for more sex-and-glamour-soaked soaps, but not all have been able to repeat the high ratings of their forerunners. ABC's "Paper Dolls," a melodrama about intrigue in the world of high fashion, and NBC's "Berrenger's," the saga of a department store dynasty, have both failed dismally, and now some network officials are wonderfing if the formula can still produce hits. "All three networks are beginning to feel that the market may be glutted with serials," said Michele Brustin, NBC's vice president in charge of dramatic series development. Lorima, the company that procues "Dallas," "Knots Landing," and "Falcn Crest" -- all on CBS -- as well as the recently canceled "Berrenger's," has no plans for more serials. "THe form may have seen its day," conceded Jeff Benson, Lorimar's executive vice president. "We're developing a new series called 'Family Honour,' about three generations of a New York police family. Originally, it was going to have some serialized elements, but we've eliminated those." CBS has no serials on the board for next year and, for the moment, is not looking to develop any more. Referring to the three successful Lorimar shows, Harvey Shephard, a CBS senior vice president, said, "We have three serials on the air now, and we feel that's enough." NBC is proceeding cautiously with one show that Miss Brustin called "Semi-serialized." The pilot for the show, "The Covenant," is being shot now, and Miss Brustin described it only as "the story of a family in a very unusual, surprising arena." NBC plans to present theshow as a standard episodic series in the first year, and only if it catcheson will it change to a serialized format in the second year. Of the three networks, only ABC remains partly committed to the serial form. The network has two new serials in development for the next season; both are coming from Aaron Spelling Productions. One, a low-risk entry, is a spinoff of "Dynasty" (as "Knots Landing" was of "Dallas") called, rather cumbersomely "Dynasty II: The Colbys of California." It will feature a few of the characters from "Dynasty" in a change of venue. The second Spelling serial, "Dark Mansions," a Gothic serial along the lines of the old "Dark Shadows" series, will star Loretta Young, Linda Purl, Melissa Sue Anderson, and Raymond St. Jacques. Mr. Spelling disputed the network prognosticators who pronounced the serial a dying form. "Just because two shows failed does not mean the serial is bad," he said. "They keep working in daytime. I don't feel the market is saturated. Maybe serials will have to take a new form, and that's why we've given 'Dark Mansions' a supernatural angle." Because successful serialscan be so lucrative, the networks have been analysing this year's failures to see if they can learn from their mistakes. Mr. Shephard believes that "Paper Dolls" and "Berrenger's" made a fundamental miscalculation. "The serials that do work," he observed, "all have a strong family unit at the center. In 'Paper Dolls' and 'Berrenger's,' there was moreemphasis on business than on family." In the case ofthecanceled "Paper Dolls," theshow's executive producer, Leonard Goldberg, blames the scheduling of theshow. "A serial must have constant exposure," Mr. Goldberg said. "Otherwise people can't remember the characters. 'Paper Dolls' was preempted three times in the first eitht weeks, and that's fatal." He acknowledged, however, several of his own errors. "We had far, far too many characters," he said. "We had about 18 or 19 running characters, and we should have eliminated at least a third of those. Also, we needed stronger positive characters. The evil characters are, of course, a lot of fun on a serial, but they must have formidable opposition, and we didn't have any of that." In the case of"Berrenger's," Miss Brustin said that its Saturday night time slot may have doomed it from the start. "We were expecing a low share to begin with," she said. "But it turned out to be much lower than we could tolerate." Jeff Benson of Lormar agreed that the soap opera's time slot was a factor. "Our research," he said, "shows that video-casette recorder use is at its highest level at 10 o'clock on Saturday night. Research also showed that people weren't interested in a department store as a millieu." "If we do another serial," Miss Brustin said, "the arenamust be so unique that people will not be remindedof other shows they're already watching. Or, failing that, there must be a huge star attached to it-- someone whom people have not see for a very long time and are dying to see again. We hope 'The Covenant' will prove both of those qualities correct."

So the pilot cast you mentioned was for the Daytime? Or was there intention fora primetime pilot too? *edit* I get what youmean--the MOVIE was a possible pilot in itself.

Thanks PR--so it was set to be a primetime show, right?

The UK Queer as Folk (at least the first short series, the followup series/movie is pretty useless) remains one of my fave TV projects ever. But it has a lot to do with when I saw it in my life (and, as weird as it seems to say now, how unapologetic it was which at the time, just over ten years back, was quite rare--no need to be politically correct with how they show gays, etc, something the American one stuggled with). The acting and scriptwork are flawless though (you mean Charlie Hunnam I believe), and the early American episodes were particularly frustrating because they were based very closely on the early UK episodes but, for instance, the dialogue would be re-written to have a very witless one liner--ie it was all dumbed down. It did get better when it struck its own path (I think maybe C and L should have just been inspired by the UK show and done their own setup, because really much of what brough them down was wanting to do an "everything for every gay and lesbian" show based on a UK show that was purposefully NOT that kind of program). I remember Hal Sparks making those dumb comments about how much he hated kissing a man, etc. Booo. I think he just wasn't thinking. Justin is a character I HATED--he was so bratty and obnoxious and seemed to act so priviledged and justified--so did Nathan in the UK series but that felt much more real (partly as he was younger in the UK one--something they changed due to worried censors) and he outgrewit. Neither Justin nor Brian had any character growth (I have no idea why anyone would stay friends with Brian as long as his friends did with the way he behaved), and like you said wereplayed by lesser actors (the UK equivalents were less typically handsome but their acting did a lot for the roles). And of course the couple was never meant to be remotely the endgame, just the catalyst for why these three characters knew each other, in the UK series. In the US one they became some unconvincing "Great Love" story. I didn't know they had any fans to be honest--me and my friends would routinely watch and mock them. I agree with your other comments--you should check out the UK series if you ever have the chance (I know its N American release has been pretty spotty), though it probably won'tbe as impressive looking back on it than it was before the remake, etc. It's also I think the best thing Russell Davies ever did (well I'm pretty mixed on his sci fi writing, though for all its controversy in the gay community I thought Bob and Rose was pretty great too). What is odd is that it hasn't led to more similar programming. I mean L Word I guess was the lesbian equivalent (and Ithought the first season of L Word was quite strong--I remember the Advocate had a great article by a gay man who said why he thought L Word was much better than the US QAF which I agreed with--but I lost interest in the second year and the later seasons looked pretty ridiculous). But, while I'm allfor more integrated programming with gay characters than just gay ghetto shows,it's odd that with QAF's relative success cable has nothing like it now. The uber low budget crap like Dante's Cove do NOT count, IMHO. I'd still like to know more about 80s Showtime works, besides their gay sitcom of course, but all their serials like New Day in Eden, that Country Western one by Pat Falken Smith, etc. They've just vanished it seems. I'mnearly certain at least some of Chris Isaak is on DVD--the rest isn't I don't think. And yes Dilahunt is pretty but bland (He's married to Hurd in real life, I think they met doing a play before the show).

I've typed out a lot of his reviews (Loving, etc) and he is weird about soaps--I get the impression he kinda secretly likes them and the more recent articles he's a bit less down on them. Still--in the 70s especially even the positive articles about soaps had to mock them. Mainstream coverage of soaps still is pretty poor, but it's actually come a long way. They don't quite feel the same need to list in the most ridiculous fashion ever the plotlines, etc. I forgot she was in What's New Pussycat!

Naked Josh was a Canadian show (you prob know that--but there was hype and some controversy about the government helping to fund it) though I forgot it got US cable exposure too. I actually can agree with everything yous ay above. My problems with QAF is partly that the Uk series (which I saw when it first aired and Iw as over there--and was still a teen) was unliek anything I had ever seen before, and I loved it. To see the US (well US/Canadian) version first as a more watered down version with less guts, worse acting (though I grew to like all the actors you singled out), and more sub MTV sex scenes that somehow still managed to be less erotic, really just emphasised all my worse fears. Yet, I have to admit you're right that early on it was still fun in a cheezy way. I guess Cowen/Lipman really falter when they try to take themselves seriously. (Which was another prob for me with the remake--they actually said they wanted to make the show something all gays AND lesbians could relate and identify with... That's a big problem--espexially when Davies structured the original, and it was groundbreaking because of this, so that it was only about a specific group of people and in no way was trying to say that all gays are like this or to have a character everyone could identify with--that was also why he didn't do another full season as the network wanted, because he said there was no more way he thougth he could tell his story with the same character still all friends--they simply wouldn't be, his story was over. Yet the US series tried to repeat Brian/Justin endlessly, when Davies said the point fo the characters in his--the equivalent two--was that it was an infatuation, etc, but once the kid grows up and has had his first seuxal encounter with the older guy there's no reason to make it some great love--that's that. Which is much more realistic in my experience). So I guess they're too ambitious and don't have the talent to pull it off. And yeah I remember the gratuitous male nudity in Leap Years (which I guess was a massive flop, I've never heard anyone even mention it lol). It doesn't even seem to have an online presence/following like many other recent flop shows have had (such as Williamson's Wastelands). I liked Hurd in it (I believe she's still had a lot of theatre success), and appreciated they had a fairly fluid take on sexuality, but it just wasn't very good (the flashback and flashforward conceit never really seemed to have a real purpose to it IMHO).

I did like Sela on the show. I think the cast often saved it. I have to admit I'm being too hard on it--and haven't seen it in years. I think my problem was that it did take itself too seriously--it wanted to be a 'real' drama liek thirtysomething but really should have embraced its pure prime time OTT soap element. (They had this same prob with much of Queer as Folk--claiming they were a realistic, relatable series, when the storylines got so over thetop and even kinda oddly mean spirited--like having the ugly character become an instant drug addict and be raped while passedout on the drug, whielthe pretty gay lead is shown doing drugs every night--in a weird way that kinda storytelling remindsme of the later years of Sisters). I had almost forgotten completely about the "past characters" conceit--C and L had a similar one in Leap Years which never worked. HAHA The reincarnation, hey? I dunno, it doesn't seem like it would work at all as a daytime soap to me but wouldbe perfect for primetime--so I could be projecting.

New York Times again (typos all my own ) Feb 1, 1981 The Formula's the Thing on 'Soaps' By John J. O'Connor The scene is set in what appears to be a dank, secluded patch of woodland. Two persons in elegant evening attire, emerged from a large, gas-guzzling automobile. The attractive young woman is anxious to get financial support for her oil-rich but cash-poor father. The middle-aged man with a British accent will agree to marry his nephew, whom he describes as "a Denver version of the Prince of Wales." Scheming Fallon Carrington would prefer to marry the ruthless uncle, Cecil Colby (names are often the most creative element in this enterprise), but he is far too sophisticated to be entrapped by a passing affair. "Passion dies, power remains," he tells her. As if that's not enough, he confesses that "at my age, vengeance is as sweet as sex." Poor bitchy Fallon is overwhelmed by such profundities but still manages to agree to marry Cecil's harmless nephew. In other words, dear viewer, we are smack-dab in the middle of soap opera territory. At least a year ago, commenting on the growing popularity of CBS' "Dallas," this column predicted, with little fear of contradiction, that the daytime staple of soap opera would become the next dominant trend in prime-time programming. In television, success breeds imitations that, within necessary legal limits, venture close to outright duplications. "Dallas" quickly produced its own spin-off for CBS: "Knots Landing," which has been a bit sluggish in the audience ratings but, with booster shots from periodic guest appearances by Larry Hagman as the notorious J.R. Ewing, is surviving. On the other hand, the standard format of soaps has no guarantee of automatic acceptance. CBS has already canceled "Secrets of Midland Heights," which dropped to the bottom of the weekly ratings list despite enough sexual entanglements to give pause perhaps even to Judith Krantz. But the trend remains unchecked. In the past month, two new weekly series have donned the sex-and-power mantle of soap opera with an almost shameless determination. NBC's "Flamingo Road," advertised as being from the people who brought you "Dallas" (Lorimar Productions), is on Tuesday evenings at 10. ABC's "Dynasty" -- the source of that scene described above -- ison Monday evenings at 9. * * * Starting as a 1942 novel by Robert Wilder, "Flamingo Road" has gone through several adaptations, including a 1949 movie that starred Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott and Sydney Greenstreet. The original offered an insight into Florida politics during the Prohibition. The updated television version isobviously more concerned with sexual shenanigans in the Permissiveness Era. The locale remains Truro, Florida, and major characters are the same, at least in name and general reltionships. Lane Ballou (Christina Raines), on the lam from a mysterious past, moves into a local brothel run by Lute May (Stella Stevens). Anotherpermanent resident is Sam Curtis (John Beck), struggling to advance in business and in his wobbly affair with Lane. Despite their address, these three characters are among the good guys and gals. The villains ofthe piece areprovided by the town's establishment, particularly the corrupt police chief, Titus Semple (Howard Duff), and the greedy millionaire, Claude Weldon (Kevin McCarthy), who wants "everything the law allows -- and then some." Shuttling between extremes of heroism and villainy are the young politician Fielding Carlisle (Mark Harmon) and his dizzy wife Constance (Morgan Fairchild). Needless to say, Fielding is lusting for Lane, who, while going off temporarily with Fielding, is really hankering for Sam. Understandably confused, Sam tells Lane: "I'd love to stick around to see how you work things out, but I can only take so many cold showers." In the episode I caught on air recently, Chief Semple was busy bugging all the rooms in Lute May's establishment in an effort to expand his blackmailing activities. In addition to recording a revealing conversation between Lane and Fielding, he discovered that Lane was willing to pay $5,000 to keep a visiting scoundrel from exposing her past. At episode's end, Semple was ominously muttering, "Lane Ballou, you just made your first mistake." Meanwhile, between crises, Lane be found in the house's cocktail lounge singing songs out of the currently trendy country-and-Western catalog. Clearly, "Flamingo Road" has been designed to be seductively sultry or, at the very least, steamy. But with dumb scripts and dialog, poor productions and anemic performances, the result is merely damp, generating vague discomfort more than anything else. * * * Although the scene has been shifted to Denver, "Dynasty" remains very much in "Dallas" territory. In this case, as concoted by writers Richard and Esther Shapiro, the big oli-rich family in town is headed by Blake Carrington (John Forsythe), whocan be suave or vicious, tender or unscrupulous, as the occasion demands. On the phone to Washington after hearing about a leftist coup at one of his Third World oil sources, he shouts, "What does the State Department expect me to do -- invade the damn place?" Blake's new wife is Krystal (Linda Evans), many years his junior, resented by his scheming daughter Fallon (Pamela Sue Martin) and cowed by the family's haughty butler. Changing the menu from duck to squab becomes an act of unusual courage. Krystal once had an affair with Matthew Blaisdell (Bo Hopkins), who is now giving Blake some competition as a wildcat explorer. Matthew's wife Claudia (Pamela Bellwood), is a bit emotionally disturbed, but Matthew is generally protective, although he sometimes reminds her that "I don't like being married to a mental patient any more than you enjoy being one." Meanwhile, Blake's young and handsome son, Steve (Al Corley), wnats to strike out as his own as an assistant to Matthew. Steve may be a homosexual, but his initial tender and innocent moments with Claudia indicate that as "Tea and Sympathy" resolution may be in the offing. * * * Again, the ingredients for endless plot permutations in "Dynasty" have clearly been assembled with painstaking calculation. As with "Flamingo Road," the script may be slight, the production values noticeably cheap (but higher than "Flamingo"'s) and some of the performances little more than two-dimensional sketches. Yet, the same criticisms can be made of "Dallas." For all of its popularity, that CBS series offers decidedly second-rate drama. For reasons best left to the speculation of sociologists, the single character of J.R. captured the public imagination and "Dallas" reeps the rewards of blockbuster ratings. So, be prepared for even more sex-and-power exploitations. Indeed, the standard ploys can be fascinating. When in "Dynasty," for instance, Matthew and Claudia have an ordinary end-of-the-day conversation, it takes place in the bedroom with him wearing only a bath towel several inches below the navel. Or when Krystal worries about adapting to her new husband's posh life style, she is solemnly told that "the rich are different." A dav of nitty-gritty, a touch of fajntasy-- the formula is demonstratably enduring.

HAHAH I shoulda checked the first page of this thread Pamela K. Long & Addie Walsh (July 1986 – December 1986)

It's pretty awful,though the miniseries is a guilty pleasure (kim Catrall and Connie Stevens!) It also was piloted as a prime time soap in the early 80s.

And thelame Showtime flop(post QAF) Leap Years I thinkti was. I have seen An Early Frost--for a network tv movie I found it very brave--my main probs with Cowen and Lipman is their cliched and facile take on major issues (plus I just think QAF destroyed nearly everything I found so brilliant in the UK original. Of course I think I still saw nearly every episode And maybe it's not all C and L's fault--the stroy editor on the later seasons was Gay Canadian playwright Brad Fraser whoseplaysI think are sometimes even brilliant--yet the quality of the show didn't really improve).

April 3, 1989 A New Ingredient, Race, Spices a Formula By John J. O'Connor Now in college, Stephanie, Monique and Adam are still as close to one another as they were as children when they were known as the three musketeers. Nothing very startling about that. But there is something new in this particular television mode: Stephanie and Monique are white; Adam is black. And they are part of a daytime soap opera, the television genre that has been noticeably, sometimes notoriously, reluctant to integrate its generally very white and very middle-class suburbs. Now NBC is offering ''Generations'' - at 12:30 P.M. weekdays on Channel 4 - a soap that portrays blacks not as peripheral characters but as main participants, most of them members of the core families. The network, of course, has its practical reasons. Proportionally, blacks as a group watch soap operas far more than whites, the A. C. Nielsen Company has said. In fact, one Nielsen survey found that in 1988, black viewers for daytime dramas increased while viewers from other groups declined. That means the time has come for a very profitable segment of commercial television to go beyond tokenism. The results? It can be argued, certainly, that blacks now have the right to appear as unbelievable and silly as whites in plots that are often shameless in their contrivances. But that is beside the point. Good or bad, soaps are a television institution, an indigenous television form. For a long time, blacks were simply invisible; then they got supporting roles. Now they are at stage center: indisputably visible. The social ramifications - not to mention the new job opportunities for an underused pool of talented actors - cannot be overestimated. Created by Sally Sussman (''The Young and the Restless''), who is also the executive producer and head writer, ''Generations'' got off to a perky start last Monday. The opening sequence, drenched in soap-opera cliches, turned out to be scenes from a soap-within-the-soap, providing still another cliche of the post-modern wink. Getting down to business in its Chicago suburb, ''Generations'' began shifting between the white Whitmore family and the black Marshall family. Vivian Potter (Lynn Hamilton), the mother of Ruth Marshall (Joan Pringle), was the housekeeper for the once wealthy Whitmores. Rebecca Whitmore (Pat Crowley), who is still fond of Vivian, her former nanny, cosigned a bank loan 20 years before so Ruth's husband, Henry Marshall (Taurean Blacque), could establish a successful ice-cream business. Now the real complications. Rebecca's daughter Laura (Gail Ramsey) is a snob and a bigot. She is balanced by Ruth, who is still bitter about growing up in the Whitmore house and being the only black in an all-white school. Stephanie (Kelly Rutherford), who is called Sam, is Rebecca's younger daughter. She is beautiful and dumb and has already seduced her biology teacher with an eye to passing the course. Monique (Nancy Sorel) is Laura's daughter, therefore Sam's niece. She is beautiful and smart and has already been mugged getting off a train. Adam (Kristoff St. John) Marshall careers about in a fancy sports car and sweet-talks every woman in his vicinity, when not being a protective friend to Monique and Sam. Adam's dad, Henry, is beginning to suspect that his son really isn't too keen about going on for an M.B.A. Take away the racial divisions, and ''Generations'' is standard soap business as usual. There's the bare-chested fellow trying to wake up the young woman sharing his bed and murmuring proudly: ''I guess it was as good for you as it was for me.'' There are the passing dollops of philosophy: ''How quickly fortunes can dwindle,'' observes Rebecca. ''How much living we have to do now. Before it's too late!'' And there are the inevitable crises: again Rebecca, this time in a flashback - ''How do you tell a 9-year-old that the father she adored brought us to financial ruin.'' Pity the poor writers. They have to compete with the surrounding commercials. Consider the panting script for a new perfume: ''What the mind has never thought, and the senses have never touched, the heart remembers. Anything is possible if you dare.'' If she watches network daytime television, little wonder young Sam is already making such a mess of her life.

Addie Walsh was a HW at the end right?

HAHA I know it's beyond ridiculous, but I'm still kinda snobby about books--more than TV. I've read Peyton Place of course and even Valley of the Dolls (as a snobby, irony loving teenager ) but I don't know if I could ever pick up a book with Jackie Collins on the cover. I did see her last week, by chance, on The Wendy Williams Show forher new bookand was amusedby the interview, although Jackie's claim was she basically wasn't even an author, she just wrote down what sheoverheard at parties... Aww I'd love seeing a young Sela Ward in Emerald Point Big fan--she was always too good for Sisters (a show I did NOT like--ironic that the creators went on to make my much hated American adaptation of Queer as Folk), so it was great wehn Herskovitz/Zwick finally used her talent in Once and Again.

From the regular NY Times TV/soapcritic at least in the 70s and 80s (who initially seems to hate thegenre but his later reviews seems to be slowly coming around, lol) found this--ironic that it was written just a few months before the last episode aired: September 3, 1986 At 35, Soap Opera 'Search' Tries To Adjust To Changes By JOHN J. O'CONNOR THIRTY-FIVE years ago today, in a 15-minute live broadcast from New York's Liederkranz Hall, ''Search for Tomorrow'' set out to make soap-opera history. It is now television's longest-running daytime drama, hardly missing a beat when it switched from CBS to NBC in 1982. The show's pivotal character is Joanne Tourneur, played by Mary Stuart since that very first day. Her neighbor and best friend is Stu Bergman, still portrayed by Larry Haines, who joined the cast two months after the premiere. In today's half-hour episode, on NBC at 12:30 P.M., Jo and Stu will browse nostalgically through an old photo album, offering viewers a well-intentioned but skimpy retrospective of ''landmark'' moments. Arriving at Jo's place, already decorated for a party, Stu announces that his new girlfriend Wilma (Anita Gillette) seems to have fallen for another man. ''We've been through a lot together,'' says Jo sympathetically. They sure have. Stu's last wife, for instance, ran off with a flaky cook. Worse, early on in the serial, a son named Jimmy excused himself to take a nap and was never heard from again. Meanwhile, Jo has gone through several marriages and the progression of her husbands' last names - Barron, Tate, Vincente, Tourneur - is seen by some as a reflection of ethnic awareness in soap-opera's land of nondescripts. Her last mate was disposed of through a divorce, something that would have been unthinkable back in 1951. ''Search for Tomorrow'' began life as, in the words of a press release, ''the story of an American family dominated by the 'old-fashioned' elders, successful and secure.'' Like all of its successors and imitators, the show offered viewers, predominantly women, an enduring image of a tightly knit community at a time when such communities were fast disappearing. The serial, produced by Procter & Gamble, focuses on personal relationships while studiously avoiding more of the unpleasant sociological and political realities of the ''real'' world. While basic soap-opera formulas have remained remarkably steady -aberrant behavior is still punished, amnesia is still rampant as a device for getting out of dead-end plot situations - the surfaces have been changing dramatically. The younger characters have been taking over, and are regularly seen in various stages of undress that evidently help the ratings. The traditional soaps were jolted out of their endemic propriety in the early 1970's by ''The Young and the Restless,'' which offered the kind of plots and characters that ad executives now like to call ''juicy.'' Trying to adjust to the new ways, ''Search for Tomorrow'' has been floundering in the ratings and has undergone a succession of changes in the hands of several executive producers. The latest, David Lawrence, is clearly embarked on a make-or-break policy. Last February, the show's fictional town of Henderson was hit by a flood that served as an excuse to order up completely new sets, the main one being a high-rise building with a nightclub and a roof-garden exercise area where the camera can catch the actors toning up their assorted muscles. New clothes and hair arrangements were ordered to make the women softer and the men more stylish. Mr. Lawrence wants glamour, and today on television that means a designer wardrobe with plenty of jewelry. More significantly, the serial's focus will now be dominated by the McCleary brothers, Hogan (David Forsyth), Quinn (Jeff Meek) and Cagney (Matthew Ashford). All three are what the trade calls ''TV hunks,'' capable of triggering endless romantic complications. Somehow, they also manage to represent different social classes. Hogan is a sophisticated and well-off bachelor. Cagney, the youngest, is a working-class policeman with a family to support. Later this month, the show will be filmed in Ireland to discover some unsettling secrets about the McCleary family. Taking a cue from other soaps going on location, Mr. Lawrence believes it is important to give his audience an ''exotic change of scenery.'' Meanwhile, this morning, Jo and Stu will chuckle warmly about the past even as their own futures on the program seem undecided. But no matter how many shenanigans are devised for the younger folk, Jo and Stu will be needed to put everything in a perspective that is unfailingly comforting. Today, Stu puts his arm around his old friend and says, ''Love is not like it is in the movies, is it?'' No, says Jo, sadly but gamely, ''not when it's happening to you.'' That is precisely the kind of sweet babble that could keep ''Search for Tomorrow'' going for another 35 years.

It sucks--but I love sharing and discussing all this, so it's worth it. There's a great 10 or so page article on soaps (and specifically ATWT) from 1968 that I really wanna post on here, but I'm just not sure I can handle typing out something so ambitious (There's another great 1975 one about the "Schism dividing the traditional soap and the new relevant soap" that is almost as long and is pretty interesting how it compares and contrasts the P&G soaps--quite harshly--with the newer breed, specifically AMC, OLTL and How to Survive a Marriage). I keep tinkering around trying to find a way to print them directly to here... I'll prob find it after writing it all out.

Purely from Schemering's book, I get the feeling that the Shapiros tried to make Emerald a bit more "realistic". Of course, in many ways it could be argued that's what they were trying to do with their first early episodes of Dynasty too, particularly before the Pollocks came in.

I haven't even seen any of the credits... I admit Secrets of Midland Heights interests me too--just as the David Jacobs soap formula seemed to be so strong with Dallas and Knots, this seemed a natural progression--would love to see how it compared with King's Crossing. Berrenger's would prob come next (partly as I adore Anita Morris). Emerald Point strikes me as fascinating--and ran a full year I believe, but I have less faith in the Shapiros (Dynasty didn't really strike it big until the Pollocks came in essentially as headwriters in Season 2 and brought out all their soap opera staples--at a rate and quality that Schemering called "soap opera on steroids and speed"). I need to track down those episodes I know people recorded of Flamingo Road too... (Then again I've only managed to see the commercially released DVDs of Knots--so two seasons, and I'm desperate to find the rest of that). I'll try to type out a couple more interesting articles on this stuff--I just wish, for the long ones especially, I could figure out how to transfer the PDFs.

And another review of an 80s primetime soap from David Jacobs and much of the Knots/Dallas team (and another flop). January 4, 1985 'Berrenger's' Starring Wanamaker By John J. O'Connor LORIMAR PRODUCTIONS has brought to the world of entertainment the evening soaps ''Dallas,'' ''Knots Landing'' and ''Falcon Crest.'' The studio's latest venture into what it prefers to call ''the nighttime continuing drama genre'' is titled ''Berrenger's'' and it gets under way tomorrow at 9:30 on Channel 4 with a special 90-minute segment. It's all about a trendy New York department store, bearing a calculated resemblance to establishments like Bloomingdale's, and the producers - David Jacobs, Stuart Sheslow and Diana Gould - promise to go ''behind the mannequins, display cases and tables for an intimate look'' at the owners and employees. Topping the owners' list is Simon Berrenger (Sam Wanamaker), an elegant dictator who is bent on showing his three grown children that they cannot possibly compete with him. The unhappy brood includes Paul (Ben Murphy), president of the store, who is trying to get a divorce from Gloria (Andrea Marcovicci) so that he can marry Shane (Yvette Mimieux), who is also divorced and frantically searching for a young daughter kidnapped by her former husband. Paul's kid brother, Billy (Robin Strand), has a gambling problem and their four-times-divorced sister, Babs (Anita Morris), is partial to younger men, especially the womanizing window dresser John Higgins (Jeff Conaway) and a Puerto Rican salesman Julio Morales (Eddie Velez), who will do anything, apparently, to become a famous clothes designer. Complicating matters even further, Babs's pouty daughter Melody (Claudia Christian) is scheming to push her unscrupulous husband, Todd (Art Hindle), to a position of top power in the family business. Melody and Todd are sometimes known to intimates as Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth. Prominent among the employees are three very attractive young women who, tidily enough, share a Manhattan apartment. Stacey (Jonelle Allen) is black and ambitious; Laurel (Laura Ashton), a model, is fragile and strange; and Cammie (Leslie Hope) is just in from the Middle West and seemingly innocent, which makes her a prime target for the lecherous window dresser. On the periphery of this activity is Danny (Jack Scalia), who is connected with a questionable deal in which Berrenger's would be acquired by a conglomerate. All of this and more is packed into the first episode. Like other nighttime continuing dramas, ''Berrenger's'' whips up plots to spare. Those that don't click immediately with audience-research data can be discarded without damaging the project's overall construction. Miss Gould, who devised and wrote the first episode, candidly explains: ''The show is very much fantasy fulfillment with beautiful merchandise, lots of glamour and attractive, upscale people.'' In addition to realistic depictions, she says, the series will ''explore human depth.'' But the explorations in ''Berrenger's'' show little sign of going much deeper than the pancake makeup used to encase those strange department store creatures who squirt designer colognes on hapless customers. The advertisments for ''Berrenger's'' show a sultry, horizontal Miss Mimieux wrapped in lace and fur with Mr. Murphy, in a tuxedo, tickling her under the chin with a long- stemmed rose. The scene never takes place in the show. That is what used to be called exploitation. Today it is simply called something like ''Berrenger's.'' The premiere is directed as slickly as it deserves by Larry Elikann and Nicholas Sgarro.

(Of course ratings were poor and a year later a reconstituted version of the show, now on rival ABC, King's Crossing premiered with four of the same actors--premiering to very good numbers that quickly dropped. Couldn't find anything on it except this fan review: "This was a short-lived prime time soap from 1982. It was actually a revamped version of another short-lived series "Secrets Of Midland Heights." When that series was canceled in 1981, the producers took 4 of that show's stars-Linda Hamilton, Doran Clark, Daniel Zippi and Marilyn Jones-and made King's Crossing. Although as a teen I liked "Midland Heights" better, I enjoyed this show too. Linda Hamilton and Marilyn Jones played sisters and their parents were Mary Frann and Bradford Dillman. Doran Clark was their disabled cousin who was kept in the attic by their nasty aunt and Daniel Zippi was a stable boy on the farm where they lived. As in the other series, Marilyn Jones and Daniel Zippi were the cute, star-crossed couple. I always thought they had great chemistry together. I was always sorry that they never became big stars like Linda Hamilton did, as they were all very talented. I keep hoping both of these shows will turn up on cable someday. Sadly, Mary Frann and Beatrice Straight have passed on. Of course Linda Hamilton became a huge star later on and Doran Clark and Marilyn Jones had some minor TV success in the 80's. Never saw Daniel Zippi again, but would love to see how the surviving cast members are doing now. ")

I found many articles on primetime soaps in the New York Times archive, but can't find a way to save the articles (which are PDFs) to show here (on the NYT website they all cost money). However, here's a short review of the mysterious, Secrets of Midland Heights, that I've typed up (typos are all mine). As an earlier piece announcing it said, the show was an attempt by Lorimar and the Dallas/Knots people to do a series focusing especially on teenagers (or, as the newspaper said, various forms of teenaged sex). (it's by their tv critic at the time John J O'Connor who wrote a lot abotu daytime and primetime soaps but isn't exactly a fan of the genre, so keep that in mind). Dec 5, 1980 'Midland Heights' a Midwest 'Dallas' by John J. O'Connor The Lorimar Productions folks who bring you "Dallas" are now venturing farther into soap opera territory with "Secrets of Midland Heights," which makes its debut on CBS-TV tomorrow night at 10. This new exploitation of sex, money, and shifting levels of power encompasses enough steamy plots to make the old "Peyton Place" look like an early morning sermonette. Midland Heights is a town somewhere in the Middle West (although the series is filmed in Santa Paula, California). The power base is controlled by a wealthy and tough old geezer named Margaret Millington (played by the old movie star Martha Scott), whose immediate family includes a bachelor son, Guy (Jordan Christopher), and a granddaughter, Ann Dulls (Doran Clark). Mrs. Millington has her way in everything, from overseeing Ann's dates to deciding who will be the next president of the local college. Ann is worried that she may end up in a mental institute like her mother. This is understandable, as she has to cope with the viciously scheming Guy, who is determined that he will be the sole heir to the Millington fortunes. Around this sometimes hard but usually soft core spin a number of satelite plots featuring young and middle-aged lovers. There is, for instance, John (Jim Youngs whose poverty is enhanced by an alcoholic mother). John, the true object of Ann's affections, would never be accepted by the girl's grandmother. Therefor, John's friend Teddy (Daniel Zippi) pretends to be Ann's boyfriend, picking her up for dates and then delivering her to John. At the same time, Teddy is being wooed by Helen (Linda Grovenor). She is a virgin, and is "tired of being innocent." On a college hayride, Teddy nervously gulps, "You're serious about this, aren't you?" Holly, smiling, retorts, "Why put off till tomorrow what you can do tonight?" Complicating matters even more, Holly's married mother (Bibi Besch) is having an affair with Teddy's widowed father (Robert Hogan). Needless to say, the two couples--the kids and the parents--wind up for their assignation not only at the same hotel, but in adjoining rooms. Overhearing the older couple, Holly loses her composure but not her virginity. Some of the other characters include Burt (Lorenzo Lamas), a jealous football player who is having an affair with Lisa (Linda Hamilton), who keeps assuring him "The college crowd doesn't interest me anymore." Standing in the wings is Teddy's kid brother, Danny (Stephen Manly), obviously ready to provide the equivalent of young teenaged sex as currently being advertised in the jeans commercial. Presumably, Guy Millington will be the J.R. Ewing of "Midland Heights." Played with a somewhat decadent feline quality by Mr. Christopher, Guy could even be a homosexual. Mama, talking about grandchildren, snarls, meaningfully, "I've given up on you, sonny." This excercise in shameless pandering lists three executive producers: Lee Rich, Michael Fillerman and David Jacobs. Will the public buy such calculated manipulations? Only the rating services will know for sure.

From what I read, at least in the 70s they didn't--but ABC did (that was my point if it wasn't clear). No, NuGreenlee didn't get one. HAH I don't remember the first Galen either, except that when I first saw the character (I was brad ne to AMC) they made that announcement--it was the first time I heard it lol. So she was the only one I saw.

Weird random historical question--when did actual figures--those boring, har dto do shapes they had to carve into the ice, stop being compulsory (or even done...)? In the 80s?

I just found out my university accountallows me to see all those New York Times articles that are for subscribes only, so spent about 4 hours (seriously) reading all their great, condescending but fascinating 1960s and 1970s soap articles. Anyway they mentioned in one this as well--that the rule was (this article was frm 1972 and I believe was about Love of Life) if it was a temporary replacement due to sickness they made an announcement, if it was permanent they didn't--mentioned a scene where a couple got married Friday, and then on Monday his wife looked completely diff but got no announcement. Odd! SFK I have to disagree though--AMC seemed to do this throughout the 90s anyway--I remember specifically the announcements for Galen (remmeber her? lol), Natalie (even though it was plastic surgeryafter the fire), Taylor and Laurel. But they seem to have stopped recently--I mean even when we had Babe change mid hug. How was the Skye recast explained? I can't remember--but I agree that was long enough not to need one