soapfan770

Yeah the last 3 seasons went down that slippery slope fast. Masius & Tinker’s issue was they were trying to make the show too wacky for its own good, and then were dismissed in a mid-season overhaul. Finkelstein was brought back and at first he tried, then brought over characters from his own cancelled show Civil Wars, and his work too floundered. In fact he was in the midst of another mid to late season overhaul when NBC simply had enough and pulled the plug on the show.

I love this! This sums everything up perfectly on how I felt about Sisters as well It was my secret little Saturday night soap escape and the first four seasons are absolutely amazing to me and hold up well. Didn’t realize there was a lively Sisters discussion going on in this thread I would’ve chimed in sooner lol. I watched til the bitter end after all the ugly messiness of Season 5 (Georgie and her psychiatrist remains one of the grossest storylines I have ever seen on any soap) and the boredom and unevenness of Season 6 but I was very satisfied by the series finale and how everything ended overall. It’s just too bad it took for the series finale to renew the energy of the first 4 seasons after two long and pitiful seasons.

How would you all rank the season finales and cliffhangers for Knots? I put some thought and came up with my own personal list: 1985-Val seeing the twins alive 1984-Karen is shot and Abby kidnapped by the Woodbridge Group 1982-Val walking in on Gary & Abby 1987-Abby hiding and burying Peter’s body 1988-Jill’s torture of Val 1990-Paige being stood up at her wedding, Jeff is Karen’s stalker 1983-Gary left rotting in jail while Karen realizes Chip is the one who killed Ciji 1993-Abby moving back into Knots Landing 1981-Sid’s car going over the cliff 1980-Gary falls off the wagon and gets back on. 1986-Karen is kidnapped 1992-Meg goes missing and Pierce turns up alive in Paige’s care 1989-Paige left standing in the rain while Mac gets skunked 1991-Brian Johnston disappears and then paintball madness/shenanigans.

Ratings from the week of February 1-7 1993. We’ve discussed it in length before, but that CBS Friday night is an embarrassing debacle, especially when compared to their Sunday and Monday nights. Interesting to see NBC Thursdays struggling here outside of the Cheers/Seinfeld hour. Of course L.A Law’s significant drop in quality and casting misfires didn’t help matters at all either.

@Paul Raven Thanks for the recast of the top 30. I do have to assume if there was a sharp demographic divide as well. Superman placed #2 yet the entire four hour of 6 shows on CBS Sun night lineup still all managed to all be in the top #20. I’m guessing the older skewing crowd stuck with their regular shows along with those who had no interest in a director’s cut of Superman. Of course familiarity and attraction didn’t just affect those aging CBS sitcoms—Three’s Company was still very well deep into the Priscilla Barnes era. Re: King’s Crossing. I am going to guess the quality of the show wasn’t very good either based on the lackluster opening credits. Secrets of Midland Heights sounds interesting and like it might have had some potential; King’s Crossing reads as a poor man’s Falcon Crest knockoff meets Eight is Enough and/or Family. Would love to see an episode if one ever surfaces.

Thanks @Soapsuds and @kalbir !! Obviously CBS Sunday and Friday nights was what everyone watching, along with ABC’s Tuesday. We discussed this elsewhere before but poor King’s Crossing didn’t stand a chance in that odd 8PM Saturday timeslot placement. Not that it hurt the careers of Mary Frann and Linda Hamilton at all. Nor ABC as their replacement show was TJ Hooker. The 1978 Superman movie was broken into two parts as this was when the director’s cut first surfaced.

Thanks @kalbir ! The only possible worst season in the 90’s I can think of would be the 97-98 season, which produced very few successful shows across all of the networks. BTW, here’s the ratings for previous year, Jan 30-Feb 5 1995:

All of the cast will be summoned to some luxurious yacht docked in Monaco that is surprise surprise is owned by Patty. Afterwards Patty sails the yacht from Monaco to Genoa City.

Great, just what we needed is another psycho run amok! Unless Patty kills off Cane and Phyllis, I’m not interested. Josh Griffith has not a [!@#$%^&*] clue to write this show anymore.

No it wasn’t overall was it? We all know CBS was the biggest MESS. It’s biggest nights were Mondays and I guess Saturdays at this point? Oddly CBS canceled the Nancy McKeon & Marissa Hargitay sitcom Can’t Buy Me Love after one season despite breaking into the Top 30, but it just didn’t hold onto the Nanny audience leading into Murphy Brown. ABC was a checkered board mess. An aging yet still decently rated Tuesday night while TGIF was hanging while shows like Lois & Clark moderately thrived in its own corner. ABC threw around a bunch of new sitcoms but nothing worked. Outside of NBC’s Thursday night lineup, things looked either decent (Frasier on Tuesdays, L&O on Wednesdays) or they looked rough. Fox soaps were beginning to age and decline. The X-Files gained a lot of momentum, but the rest of the network’s established hits were trending downward. UPN and WB both cellar dwellers. There wasn’t any real breakout hit. Drew Carey show premiered but wasn’t a hit yet. JAG premiered and was cancelled. Shows like Can’t Buy Me Love, Hudson Street and The Naked Truth showed promise but were quickly cancelled or moved instead of trying to let their ratings grow. Caroline in the City was just a timeslot hit. I guess there was 3rd Rock from the Sun but that ended up a being more of a wacky show with a cult following than a mainstream hit.

That full week’s worth of ratings:

I enjoyed Monday’s ep on this snow day, although I do agree the Shanice/Leslie scenes should be a lot more spicier and have some additional tension. Tomas is dead weight in the quad. Time to cut him loose and make it a triangle.

I too was intrigued by Ginger and Joe Cooper, but season 3 was also the season when I saw it the first time was that anytime Kenny or Ginger popped up I was “like they’re still on the show…?” Played famously by the actress who was the “Bom-chicka-wow-wow” girl! (2006 version of Liberty Biberty), cast by the same casting director who wanted Galen Gering as recast Nick when Morrow walked. (The whole reason for the plane crash sabotage [!@#$%^&*] Latham never resolved and Nick being presumed dead)

You made some excellent points there lol. I had always remember finding Season 11, but after finally rewatching a couple times there is an enormous hole left of where Abby left. Not to mention the season started off with a very unsatisfactory conclusion to the Ted Belcher story. What a whimper. The first half of the season is definitely a mess. I enjoyed the Eric/Linda/Michael triangle but the very weak Gary/Val/Danny/Amanda plot coupled with the Okmin Industries nonsense doesn’t make for a good viewing experience. The second half of Season 11, I’d say after Mary Frances’ death I do feel the show improved as it storylines started to move quicker. What happened to Pat and Lynne Moody was criminal still IMO. For the record I personally enjoyed Melinda Culea as Paula. Paula’s exit scenes were a highlight of the season and still one of my favorite Knots moments, partly out of nostalgia because I remember watching that unfold live as a kid. Interesting parallel of Danny/Val to Falcon Crest’s Charley/Emma. Although FC by that point was under control from the people who had previously written and produced The Equalizer and Miami Vice. I think Knots’ turn was probably motivated by a mix of competition with LA Law and also just lousy writing by Latham & Co. The only parallel I could think of for Dallas was Tommy McKay, although most of his story was the previous season. His scenes with threatening Rose to leave, the bomb story, and his death were all pretty dark and grim.

@Franko That movie “A Night in Heaven” turned out to be a major flop, Atkins “won” the Razzie Award, and director John G. Avildsen later disavowed himself from the fIick. Atkins career went into a major downturn after leaving Dallas. Similar to Lois Chiles the season before? But I do remember Atkins playing Linda Gray’s husband/partner in the 80’s Diva Christmas movie a few years back and recall they have maintained a good friendship over the years, which is is good but it didn’t translate well on screen.