EricMontreal22

Disagreed, musically it was more generic to me. JP I thought you meant the flop Williamson teen soap Hidden Palms--Wild Palms was the sci fi miniseries based on that comic book, right? I think I saw some of it...

Relax Take it Easy is about the only song I liked (for a while) from the too whimsical/precious by half, Mika. I actually like La Rocca but didn't know they were still around!

I loved Life in Mono--I remember it as a teen used for promotion for the Cuaron updateof Great Expectation. Too bad nothing else by Mono lived up to it. Used to be a big SAW fan and still have most of their essential CDs but I have to admit I have a lot less patience for them (when listening to the two disc SAW Gold it starts off tons of fun, and then by the end of disc 1 I swear I have a headache lol). The Only Way is Up is wonderful though. (I do liek Scissor Sisters but it's not too surprising you do--considering they're basically a mix of 70s Elton John and 70s disco They've wrote and produced the Moroder hommage I Believe In You for Kylie and are involved in her new album as well as writing a Tales of the City musical)

EXACTLY. I remember people online saying just that--that the new theme suited daytime much more, etc. Bullocks! I thought that was so silly and the last thing that needed fixing with their weak first few months (especially since Spellign wanted Melrose, etc, fans to watch it who didn't watch soaps already--so it made sense)

I never knew Capitol listed their cast

rumour is that's one reason both were left off--so that die hard fans would buy those past video collections too. I wouldn't put it past Madonna. (He did some good work for George Michael and Paula Abdul too--like the All That Jazz/Fosse hommage for Paula's Cold Hearted Snake. One thing about Fincher is he films dance REALLY well, somethign he got from his love of Fosse, so I hope if he does a movie musical he does one with dancing. He was fighting hard to do Evita, I'm a bit surprised Madonna didn't try to champion him for it.)

Was so pissed off this video didn't make her recent DVD. It's one of the great vids David Fincher did for her (along with Vogue, Express Yourself and Bad Girl, which was also dropped from the recent DVD) and makes me wish all the more his plans to do a movie musical (a dark, "creepy one" apparently) come to happen

I wonder if there was ever any thought to making all the ABC soaps have credits like that? LOL I guess not (ABC had just gotten their awesome new ones and I assume GH got theirs around the same time). Agreed with you--I actually find the beloved 80s theme too cheesy for its own good (as was Loving's late 80s booming vocal theme) but I get why people were upset when it went. I didn't get into One Life till the Billy Douglas story and I admit even as a kid I found the opening credits kinda half embarassing and half wonderfully perfect lol (I also liked Sunset Beach's original opening much more and never got why they claimed it wasn't daytime soap enough--though now I kinda do. Interesting out of 80s soapos only Santa Barbara--maybe Capitol too--really tried to emulate the then primetime soap openings with theirs)

Remember that Linda Gottlieb's one (which I admit I loved--the pre and post themes on OLTL have seemed ridiculously cheary to me--Llanview never felt like where I'd go when I wanted the rainbow's end or whatever) was a redo basically of the odd theme Jaquie Babbin did for Loving during her ridiculously short stay at the show, and Fran Sears kept for her almost as short run. It aired when I became hooked on Loving as an 11 year old AMC addict (pre my OLTL love) and I admit even then I found the guy's lips sexy...

If they are I can't find them--but it's a hard search, since entering the word Titans brings up a ton of stuff.

And one Titan recap: And opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SdrrCd-d5E Did it use two themes? I remember the theme being Sneaker Pimps 6 Underground, which is a similar sounding song but def not this (wiki lists Sneaker Pimps as the theme too...) Interesting that in the 90s even pre Melrose with Malibu, the soap themes for primetime soaps tended to be sorta steamy nightime sounding stuff, unlie the 80s when they liked those adventurous themes.

I was reading up about the crreator of 2000 Malibu Road, Terry Louise Fischer (Joel Shumacker, not a fave of mine, was co creator and main director). She quite the resume--worked on Cagny and Lacey, then co created Hooperman and LA Law with Steven Bochco before having a big falling out with him. Interesting: "She later took part in the production of a highly anticipated primetime soap opera pilot, entitled Daughters of Eve, which was to star Sophia Loren and premiere during the 1995-1996 television season. However, the series was not picked up." Funny how I remember parts of it--I really should track down those DVDs (Jack where did you say you could get them?) It's so campy and over the top--it obviously was ahead of its time considering what Melrose became a few years later (and it has the girl from Elm Street 4 playing fat! lol)

Either here or in that Ladies of Primetime Soaps threads, Titans came up, how it was an attempt at taking some of the Melrose success and really doing an all out new over the top Dynasty. Someone commented how odd it was that so little of it was on youtube--by chance I came across some obssessed John Barrowman fan who has several hours of Titans on youtube--but edited to mainly revolve around his character. Still, might be of interest to some, lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV32vK55n9c 20 of those clips Oh and a short clip of a young Kevin Zegers as the teen

I'm a bit worried too, but then again Glee's strength isn't really in its character writing--the show is even more inconsistent with dropped plot and story elements then Ryan Murphy's other show Nip/Tuck--one week the club is the teacher's life, the next week he happily leaves it to focus on his own adult male singing group, etc--I actually almost like that irreverent aspect to Glee (though it drove me crazy with NipTuck which is more of a soap opera--soap opera, no matter how outrageous, doesn't work when storylines are routinely dropped and forgotten, character behave differently every episode, etc.)

Anne Dudley I should track that down.

Yeah the Freemasons can be a bit cookie cutter but are a lot of fun. (Heartbreak Make me a Dancer which they did for Sophie Ellis Bexter, etc)

I'm so willing to talk Prisoner--and if some actual heavy conversation picks up here, my OBSESSED friend from Aussie might be persuaded to join too lol (He spent something like 1500 bucks on the complete set...) Yesterday, due to a wind storm I was without cable and my internet for a while, and ended up watching 12 episodes of Peyton Place back to back--and got very little sleep for work. So I'm on disc 2 of the second set and am so hooked I think I'll have to give in and buy the online bootlegs of the full series--can't wait especially since Shout! is having some issues licensing more. One thing as a Twin Peaks fan I really notice is how much of a direct influence PP was on TP--I know Lynch and Frost always said they were fans of PP but I assumed it was just similar in terms of being a soap... I have read from a few people that the last season or so (when much of the original cast, and most of the older actors are ignored) is rough going...

I have the variety special. It is SOOO awful and bizarre it's kinda wonderful--the actors in character singing Broadway numbers like Steam Heat LOL

They did get the creator of Prisoner on this. I got hooked on Prisoner thanks to an Aussie guy I dated for half a year till he had to move back to Melbourne--he has the complete series on DVD and every few months mails me a couple more DVD copies

He left in Spring 1988. Great interview, thanks!

Chris, I haven't watched it yet, but the description on youtube says this is the clip where he discusses working on Peyton Place (and writing the final episode) His talking about PP starts at 17:15 (he does get the date wrong--but I guess he came in after it started) (he talks about the daytime spin off, and lack fo a bible for the original briefly in the next part)

I guess I shouldn't bother going through those hours of his interview then, LOL. I assumed the main storylines were worked on by Reisman with Monash's help (Monash infamously refused to call it a soap opera, instead it was a "Television novel")

Bill Bell helped create it, btu did he write it? The only writing credit I've found is Shaw's (I almost wonder how involved Irna was with it--as Chris says, after reading for years how it was CBS' attempt at competition for Peyton, Ihave no idea how they thought something so cheap could compete). I thought the episode was on youtube but I can't find it now.. Irna came to Peyton after theoriginal pilot--she suggested some changes that made the show soapier. I wish I knew exactly her full involvement though--I got the impression it was basically all in the set up not the on going story--she isn't given official credit anywhere with the actual show. Of course like most primetime tv the individual script writers are given credit each episode--Shaw (who briefly headwrote several daytime soaps I believe) and Mathilda and Theodore Ferro seem to have written the most (they did Leave it to Beaver of all shows but also briefly seemed to be tied into the early daysof General Hospital).

HAHA Thanks forbeing vague enough in your synopsis that nothing felt liek a spoiler. I thought it was you, but wasn't sure, who was watching it. Are both tv movies available? Anyway, yes it is spectacularly good. (I know the World Turns spin off, Our Private World was meant to compete with it but the episode of that i've seen felt basically like a dayti9me soap--very low budget, compared to Peyton. Interesting as they got one of Peyton's writers to write it--Robert J Shaw I think)

The pilot of Dangerous Women (the American loose remake of the popular Aussie Prisoner soap) is on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS2HR_OtiD4