Khan

From what I remember, CLAF was like "Magnum, P.I." and "Simon & Simon," with the emphasis placed more on the quirky, father-and-son dynamics between Jack Warden and John Rubinstein than on actual detective work. It wasn't good or bad; it was just "okay." But it definitely was a "time slot hit." It needed a strong lead-in, such as MSW, to be successful. When CBS dislodged it (and "Trapper John, M.D.") to make room for "The CBS Sunday Movie," CLAF was as good as gone.

Someone in casting must've watched the episode of "Murder, She Wrote" that they co-starred in and felt the same way, lol.

And you would be right, lol. The thing is, I'd trust Chip Hayes' writing before I'd ever trust Chuck Pratt's.

I definitely think MSW came along at the right time. People, I think, were just growing tired of the primetime soaps, especially as the plots grew more and more outrageous just to hold onto viewers. MSW represented a nice return to television that was more down-to-earth.

"Funeral at Fifty-Mile," which closes out MSW's inaugural season, has, IMO, one of the show's most clever reveals (which I won't give away in case anyone hasn't seen it yet, lol). I'm not surprised that it ended up being the first episode to beat DALLAS in the weekly Nielsens.

I'm glad, too. I'm especially glad that they've acknowledged how out of character it all was for Georgie, John and Trevor, because it was. At least, it was, the way it all was set up. As I've said before, there wasn't enough motivation for Trevor to lash out at his parents like he did; and Georgie was much too smart to fall for someone as obvious as Dr. Caspian. On the one hand, I do agree that the longer any series runs, the harder it becomes to maintain the quality of the writing or the integrity of the characters. But I also blame Cowen and Lipman here, because, aside from Teddy and maybe Alex, I don't think the four leading characters were well-developed. After awhile, it seems like stories are thrust upon them, rather than generating from them.

If I had to choose an all-time favorite TV movie, I'd choose "One of My Wives is Missing," starring James Franciscus, Elizabeth Ashley and Jack Klugman. Based on a French stage play about a man who insists a woman claiming to be his recently disappeared wife is not, it was produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, written by Peter Stone ("Charade," "1776"), and it aired on ABC the 1975-76 season. Another all-time favorite: "The Christmas Wife," produced in 1988 for HBO, and starring Jason Robards and Julie Harris. A very tender story about a widower (Robards) who hires a female companion (Harris) for the Christmas season. To this day, it remains a wonderful showcase for two legendary performers, and it's one I'd love to see adapted again someday.

I agree! Georgie was much too smart to allow a slimy therapist to lead her to believe her father was a pedophile based on one, ambiguous memory. And when poor Beatrice is reduced to defending her cheating bastard of a husband against charges like those, you know we've officially entered the Twilight Zone. In theory, I like the idea of there being a long-lost Reed sibling; and I guess that sibling would've had to be another sister since, after all, the show was called "Sisters." But I have to say...in retrospect...I kind of wish Charley had been male instead. Even if he couldn't have been anything other than a recurring character, I think the Reed sisters having a brother in their lives might've been fun to explore. (Plus, it would've been ironic, since Thomas Reed had always wanted a son).

"Mariah" was an AWFUL name for that kind of show. I'm just saying.

Not necessarily. I apologize for sounding like a broken record, but I do believe NBC pressured Cowen, Lipman and the rest of the "Sisters" team into coming up with more "provocative" storylines, because they wanted to broaden the show's appeal. I think that's why the fifth season lapses into crime drama, with the simultaneous sting operations being conducted on Dr. Caspian and Daniel Albright respectively. (I still don't know why Teddy drew Lucky into her plan to bring down Falconer's killers, except I guess they were testing the waters for a Lucky/Teddy relationship, since it was clear that Julianne Phillips was leaving the show and that Frankie and Lucky had gone nowhere as a couple). The previous season had some darker storylines as well - Cat's rape, Reed and Kirby's experience with a religious cult, Trevor's...whatever the hell that was - but they're nowhere near as off-putting as what we get in Season Five (although Trevor's storyline certainly comes close). Unfortunately, NBC misjudged Cowen and Lipman's ability to handle heavier, more soap operatic material. That's why I tend to regard the final season as a course correction of sorts, as well as one, long, massive apology to whatever remained of the audience for having to put up with two seasons of horrendously bleak storytelling. There's still some heaviness - particularly, at the start of the season, with Teddy's carjacking and subsequent head trauma - but the overall tone is much, much lighter.

Remember, in the final season, when Alex reunited with her college sweetheart, played by AMC's Nicolas Surovy (ex-Mike Roy), and DAYS' Paul Kersey (ex-Alan Harris) in flashback? Basically, they were supposed to elope, but he left town (and left her a "Dear John" note scribbled on a torn piece of notebook paper) because he'd been involved in a campus protest that killed a security guard. Well, I tried watching that episode again this morning, and I say "tried," because, the whole time, I kept thinking, This is not an Alex story. This is a Teddy story. Alex would never have given a poetry-writing hippie the time of day. Do you even KNOW your damn characters anymore, Cowen & Lipman? I've been watching "Sisters" again this past week on the WBTV Primetime Soaps channel, and...sigh...I think I made a big mistake, lol. I never thought "Sisters" was brilliant. I know it WANTED to be brilliant. Even as an adolescent, however, I felt there was too much camp and cheese in the writing. Still, I loved the chemistry among the leads, and I especially loved the flashbacks and the moments when the four sisters would interact with their younger selves. Unfortunately, what I loved about the show when I was in junior high and high school, is what irritates me about it today. Like I said, I never thought "Sisters" was brilliant; but, damn, I didn't realize there was so much ridiculous, unearned melodrama even in the FIRST half of the show's run, when Cowen & Lipman supposedly had a better grasp on their characters and their tone. And while the flashbacks and such might've been a selling point in the beginning, the novelty overstays its welcome rather quickly; and as a matter of fact, those moments aren't as illuminating as we were supposed to think they were. I agree. Just as they owed whatever fans were still watching by that point a big, fat thank you for putting up with 2-3 seasons of dark, depressing writing that did nothing except make their characters unlikable (and Sela Ward an Emmy winner). One of the biggest problems that I've had with this latest re-watch is that I still don't understand how we got from Trevor Whitsig being just your normal, wisecracking kid to "Trevor W.: Portrait of a Teenage A$$hole." All of a sudden, he's skipping school, drinking, doing drugs, fighting with his parents and kid brother, having unprotected sex with older women...but why? If it's due to feeling overshadowed by Evan's leukemia, then he's about two seasons too late. And what's REALLY frustrating is how the story denies us what we need most (aside from the family working through their issues with therapy): that moment when Trevor finally breaks down and tells John and Georgie (and us) just what the hell is going on with him. Over and over, they beg him to open up and tell them what's wrong, but he never does. Instead, he just comes home, goes back to school (off-screen) and then decides to join the military.

You probably weren't alone, lol. In retrospect, the Dr. Caspian mess was just that: a mess. As @DRW50 said upthread, it came too soon after John and Georgie's issues with Trevor - a season-long arc that was dark, brutal, went on too long and was not entirely character-driven. Furthermore, it robbed "Sisters" of its' emotional bedrock - meaning, of course, John and Georgie's relationship - and pushed Alex and "Big Al," of ALL people, into the position of tentpole couple. And it did all this by distorting basic truths about the Whitsigs. Suddenly, Georgie's accusing John of always avoiding serious issues (nevermind his decision to return to work when Evan was sick with leukemia) and of undervaluing her as a wife and mother, and I'm like, "Where the hell is THIS coming from?" For that matter, why in God's name is Georgie in therapy alone, when the entire family should be in therapy together, as they continue to work through all their problems? Moreover, the Dr. Caspian storyline reinforced a lot of stereotypes about therapy and therapists, and it took at face value a subject (False Memory Syndrome) that remains controversial and not entirely embraced by the psychiatric community. Instead of making Georgie sympathetic, it made her look selfish and stupid; and instead of wrapping up the story responsibly, they chose to protract it by turning it into a literal sting operation at the same time that Teddy was performing her own sting on the man who'd murdered her husband! Of course, when you view it today, in the year 2025, there's no question that it wasn't JUST an affair; that, in fact, Dr. Caspian raped Georgie; and that John had no right to slut-shame his own wife the way he did. This, in turn, casts a real pall over John and Georgie's reconciliation a year later, because, why would any intelligent, self-respecting woman go back to any man who chose to blame her instead of the man who took advantage of his wife when she was in the most fragile emotional state?

No, he was in the next-to-last year. In the last season, Teddy became involved with Dr. Gabriel Sorenson (Stephen Collins), the neurosurgeon who saved her life after she had sustained a gunshot wound to the head during a carjacking.

I think Douglas Marland had intended for Jennifer to become Mike's wife, but when Don Stewart resisted, that left her (and Geraldine Court) adrift. Same went, I would say, for Tina Sloan, who didn't have much to do as Lillian after the initial storyline with Judi Evans/Beth and James Rebhorn/Bradley ended and Stewart's departure put the kibosh on the Mike/Alexandra/Lillian triangle, until her breast cancer story and the affair with Ed.

I love how FOX promos always made "Party of Five" look more lighthearted and romantic than it really was.

For years, I believed that the only way to understand Spinelli, let alone tolerate him, was to assume he was on the spectrum.

Good point. To me, the difference between a continuing drama or serial and a soap opera is that a soap opera should be geared specifically toward women, with an emphasis on romantic conflicts. Of course, that doesn't mean romance needs to be the center of EVERY plot. However, there should be a healthy dose of it; and every plot should concern itself most with interpersonal relationships - meaning, of course, what goes on everyday inside the living room, bedroom and kitchen.

I'll go along with a Jax (recast)/Lois romance since we KNOW a Ned/Lois reunion ain't happening.

There's only true love for Jason, and it's Spinelli, lol.

I don't. Y&R, for instance, might be a West Coast soap with a slicker production aesthetic, but I think its' roots are in the the classic, P&G-sponsored soaps that were produced in NYC.

IMO, Kimberley Simms would've been wonderful on KNOTS LANDING, perhaps as an old friend of Paige's (Nicollette Sheridan) who makes a play for Greg (William Devane) when she thinks Paige isn't interested.

It could've been the entire episode.

It'd be another (hypothetical) Trevor St. John situation, with DG on the studio floor, lying in a pool of his own blood; and LW being dragged away by the LAPD, kicking and screaming, Norma Rae-style.

You're not kidding, lol!

I remember reading this column in '94 and being comforted by the knowledge that I wasn't the ONLY one who thought AMC had become "a sad shadow of its' former self." Something I had been saying since two years before.