Khan

That's the key: if you're going to tell a story that could be depressing to viewers, you have to surround it with lighter stories, or else viewers will get sick of all the heaviness and tune out.

LOL!!

I agree. I think CBSD - and more specifically, Brian Frons - felt SFT was past its' prime, with an aging, if steadfast, audience.

Like I said a long time ago, I think even yours truly had played Patti for awhile in the late '60's, lol!

IKR, lol?

I could understand Jason thinking that Michael Delaney had "turned" his brother (even if that mindset is CLASSIC homophobia), but I never understood why he felt shooting and killing him on live TV was the solution to the problem. Did Jason believe Kevin would go back to being heterosexual if Michael were dead?

I think you're right, @Vee, because I do recall feeling the Tina/Cord/Cain storyline taking an unexpected turn when I was expecting it to wrap up.

On the one hand, I was ELATED when that story was FINALLY over. Even at 11-12 years old, I was like, "This is the hottest mess I will ever see!" But, on the other hand, I feel like the Lechowicks didn't go far enough with it. Val falls on her head and contracts a "brain virus;" yet, the worse thing she does is cut her hair, change her wardrobe, and boil her kids' hermit crabs? Come on, lol! I say, if you're gonna tell a story THAT crazy, you gotta go full-tilt with it. Have Val do more than just change up her hairstyle and fashion sense and be rude to everybody; have her seduce Mack (or at least try to)! Have her plot to maim or kill Anne for sleeping with Gary (or so she thinks)! Have her take the kids and flee the city, Reva Shayne Lewis-style, when she mistakenly thinks the people who kidnapped them years ago are trying to kidnap them again! The only thing worse than camp - and make no mistake, Val's brain virus was the ESSENCE of camp - is camp with punches pulled. And thank you, by the way, for mentioning Jill. Every time I watch a particular episode of "Murder, She Wrote" where Teri Austin (or, rather, her character) is exposed as the killer du jour and arrested, I always think, "What Gary and Val Ewing couldn't do? Jessica Fletcher did!" Oh, you have NO idea, lol! By the time Gary and Val DO reunite, you're pulling for them, not because you want to see them back together and happy, but because you just can't take any more obstacles between them, lol! I see your point. Abby was one who never liked being out of control, and for her to see Gary - who, from her point of view, should have been happier, because he was rich - so out of control like that...? I think it made her rethink that moment when she told Val how she loved Gary for what he could be and not for what he was. Moreover, where could they even have GONE with that story? You know jail time and/or large financial settlement with the boy's parents were out of the question, so what was the point?

I'm beginning to wonder if NBC soaps EVER were popular. Maybe the high ratings for AW, DAYS and THE DOCTORS BITD were all just myths? Like Steve and Betsy's wedding on ATWT being watched by 20 million people, or GL besting GH in the ratings for three weeks in 1984. Not that this means much, but in my neck of the woods, I have rarely encountered an NBCD fan. Most have been ABCD fans, with a few Y&R fans sprinkled in.

Jock Ewing always prized Ewing Oil and having a Ewing Oil dynasty over Southfork Ranch, which is where Gary felt more comfortable, IMO. In fact, the only Ewing offspring who really cared about Ewing Oil was J.R. Even Bobby only seemed to care because Pamela cared. Didn't Gary trash it, too, when Val had cancer? For some reason, I recall a scene where he swipes everything off the top of the dresser in their bedroom out of frustration. And God only knows what Val herself did to her house when she had that "brain virus" and was ripping up Gary's clothes and throwing them out on the lawn or whatever, lol.

I agree! There's a beautifully framed scene (which I've never been able to track down online) that kind of explains Abby's position on her marriage to Gary. I think she was talking to Greg when she said she liked her marriage, but that if it ever came down to Gary or money, "money's going to win every time."

Pretty much what I've been saying since, oh, 1992, maybe, lol?

Exactly, lol!

Or just cut to the quick: "I may [!@#$%^&*] my pants, but at least I don't [!@#$%^&*] on the Constitution!"

And NBC, I guess, had Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, lol.

One of the most unintentionally funny things I'd ever seen on that show. The pitch for that episode might have sounded great, but the episode itself was GOD. AWFUL.

Laura Leighton deserves better.

If they ever passed over Mary Crosby for any role due to her connection to DALLAS, then they were fools. I, myself, would have promoted the HELL out of bringing her (or any other performer from one of the other primetime shows) over to DYNASTY and/or THE COLBYS. Especially as the show's ratings began to falter. ("Hell hath no fury like Sammy Jo's sister scorned, when Charlene Tilton joins the cast of DYNASTY this fall," lol).

I agree. Gary and Abby's affair held too many dramatic possibilities to squander it like they would have in S2, when practically everyone on the show was cheating or thinking about cheating, with no long term fall out, like @Soaplovers said upthread. You know the writers were in trouble in S2 when they had the women of Seaview Circle being held hostage by some terrorists or something, lol.

In the beginning, KL's premise revolved around one, key question: Does marriage still mean anything in a society that promotes "free love" and infidelity without consequence or guilt? Unfortunately, as David Jacobs learned, when married couples can cheat on each other, with no buildup and no consequences, you wind up with a show that has no drama and no stakes.

I've been saying the same thing since "Out of This World."

Ironically, Mary Crosby is six years younger than Pamela Sue Martin; yet, in a way, I think Crosby would have come across as being too old to play Fallon, if that makes sense. On the other hand, the prospect of having the one "who shot J.R." now playing Blake and Alexis' daughter is too good to resist, lol.

KL was (and is) more than just my favorite of the big four '80's primetime soaps; it's also one of a handful of drama shows - along with "The Rockford Files," "Family," "Lou Grant," "Hill Street Blues," "St. Elsewhere," "Moonlighting," "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure"* - that define my sensibilities as a still-novice, still-unpaid storyteller. On the rare occasions when I still write something (mostly for myself), the question I ask myself most often (other than "How would Douglas Marland/David Lloyd/Billy Wilder do it?") is how Peter Dunne or Richard Gollance would do it. (*In case anyone was wondering, my other, most favorite drama shows include "Homefront," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Picket Fences"). I definitely agree that the first 1-2 seasons of DALLAS, DYNASTY and FC were their respective best. DYNASTY hadn't given way fully to camp and excess yet; DALLAS is still able to give any character who isn't named J.R. a brain and a backbone; and FC still knows what it is and what it wants to be. KL's first couple of seasons has its' moments, too, but I don't believe the show starts to gel until S3, when it's a hybrid of continuing storylines and standalone episodes.

I wonder whatever happened to Stephen Yates, as he seems to have fallen off the proverbial radar entirely.