soapfan770

Shades of what happened to Falcon Crest 1988-1990 all over again. Michael Filerman meddling, bringing in EP’s/writers lacking soap experience (John Surnow of Miami Vice and The Equalizer for FC, John Romano of Hill Street Blues and yes Cop Rock lol for Knots. How did Romano convince Filerman and/or Jacobs he was a Steve Bochco prodigy again?), killing off popular vixens (Melissa on FC, Linda on Knots), the shows littered with new characters with zero potential and who no one cared about, character damaging plots (ie Richard kidnapping and gaslighting Angela, Claudia being responsible for Steve’s death), and desperate rewrites in vain to correct course. All of that should have been easily fresh on the minds for the Lorimar crew, but it’s obvious from that Entertainment Weekly article in April ‘91 celebrating the 300th episode Jacobs and crew didn’t think it would happen to them and were above. Ann Marcus really had her work cut out for her trying to salvage the back half of S13. Oddly @Chris B history would repeat we discussed this before but after Party of Five made the EW cover, guess who was hired as the new EP the following season? John Romano, to uneven and abysmal results during that show’s penultimate season. I’m glad S14 at least wrapped up everything, but it often feels more than anything else like a love letter to S11-13 with other old references thrown in and Diana’s return. I mean I was fine Tom Ryan being back, but we also had Nick and then also Vanessa for what superfluous reason. The fact that Nick and Abby had some kind of history was a bit unbelievable (but then again Abby did once have an affair with Richard).

Wow had no idea they had Jack Lord film a new pilot especially since he was pushing 60 by that point. Interesting thing regarding the Waltons, after it’s episode run concluded CBS debuted the Norman Lear & Alex Haley period drama Palmerstown USA in the Waltons slot as a mid season replacement and did moderately in ratings while receiving acclaim. In fact it ranked #38 ahead of the Waltons for the 79-80 season. Unfortunately the tank job occurred when Palmerstown returned for its 2nd season. The strike delays meant the Waltons were still its longtime traditional Thurs slot at 8/7, so CBS haphazardly had Palmerstown air against Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley and the show bombed and promptly cancelled.

Wow! Thanks for the heads up on this. Now I’m literally about to do the same thing with rest of them.

Oh I didn’t even think of looking out KL after purchasing all of FC. How much is the complete series?

Have we brought up Gregory Harrison yet and him being a one hit wonder? He first was the star of the Logan’s Run TV adaption but it flopped. Then obviously his biggest (and only?) hit and role was in Trapper John MD. After that, it seems like he just had a lengthy series of misses. We all know about a failed 1989 pilot which lead for his role on Falcon Crest’s final season, but after FC ended he was immediately given a new sitcom The Family Man. It failed miserably and was cancelled after one season. Then CBS again with New York News and as we mentioned in the 90’s ratings thread it also flopped badly. A thankless brief role on Sisters. Then in 1999 he had a cute little family drama on The WB with Rue McClanahan as his mother called Safe Harbor. Interesting premised and I watched but it too quickly failed. After that seems like Harrison was only doing cable movies like the Au Pair series or the First Daughter/First Target/First Shot trilogy on TBS. He had a couple recurring gigs on One Tree Hill and Chesapeake Shores later on but nothing substantial. I didn’t see too many kind words about GH run here at SON lol and seems like he’s back doing Hallmark movies.

@kalbir Interesting find there!! CBS had a solid Thursday night there for a good 3 seasons or so, but the increased competition from ABC lead to both the Waltons and Hawaii Five-O falling out of the Top 30. The 78-79 season had the Waltons at #37, HF-O at #44, and Barnaby Jones at #26. To exacerbate HF-O’s ratings woes, both the actors who played Danno and Fong quit, so the last season or featured new cast members (including Sharon Farell). The changes didn’t work, and it also seems a bit goofy to me that a show like HF-O crossed over into 1980. The HF-O day and time move reeks more of sabotage than a tank job. Barnaby Jones seems more of a tank job but was probably performing more solidly than HF-O. The show had seen a bit of a revival by adding in Barnaby’s nephew as Ebsen was getting up there in age but was on the decline by this point as CBS Thursdays weakened further as a whole in the fall of ‘79. Based on the 1979-80 ratings we have, The Walton’s ended up at #42, Barnaby Jones at #48, and Hawaii Five-O at #74. Our shiny new show Knots Landing ranked in tied at #29.

Happy 46th Anniversary to Knots Landing!

I ended up buying the whole series on Apple TV as a gift to myself 😄 Overall I scanned a couple different eps from S6-9 and the quality does look good. Nothing like Dallas’ HD remaster but hey it’s definitely worth it.

All that needed to be said. At least it was better than my expectations given the 12/23 episode was a hot mess between the Matt drama and Cane/Phyllis kissing scenes. @Ryanc2 Johnny has blonde hair because Billy had blonde hair at the time 😉

Thank you!!! I hate Y&R absolutely imploded on us this past summer after such an interesting start, and finally it seems the repercussions are catching up with the show. @DRW50 Not going to lie but I almost got a lump in my throat reading your thoughts, well said! Merry Christmas to you as well!

Wishing all my favorite folk and well everyone here SON a very Merry Christmas and hoping everyone is good health. Time to watch BTG’s first Christmas while revisiting ATWT, GL, and classic Days and Y&R. Grateful to enjoy being a part of the SON community. @DRW50 @kalbir @YRfan23 @Khan @Soapsuds @Paul Raven @Vee @Chris B @Maxim @dragonflies @ranger1rg @slick jones @Taoboi @Antoyne @Faulkner @edgeofnik @Errol @Toups @titan1978 @Soaplovers @dc11786 @robbwolff @SFK @YRBB @BetterForgotten @DramatistDreamer @carolineg @AbcNbc247 @amybrickwallace @Franko @j swift @Juliajms @All My Shadows @JAS0N47 @janea4old

Good point. The whole Kim Novak story unlocked certain memories for myself lol. As for Seasons 5-9 of Falcon Crest, I am always reminded of this quote from Soap Opera News a long time ago: “But what happened next stunned fans. As the soap craze began to fade in the late ’80s, Falcon Crest leaned into even wilder storylines—kidnappings, conspiracies, international villains. Some say it jumped the shark. Others call it camp brilliance. By the time it ended in 1990, it had aired nine seasons and cemented its place in prime-time soap history.” Reading back over this thread for the first 13 years FC had only made it to 27 pages. But ever since FC resurfaced in the spring of ‘22, we’ve been able to dissect even more even though it never even had the depth of something like Knots.

LOL. Let me know how the quality is. When FC was streaming on Prime at the later seasons had a polished look to them even in SD On the other hand for whatever some of later episodes on Plex often look like someone’s grainy VCR recoding straight up from 1987 or a poor quality recording off SoapNet.

About time!! Thanks for the heads up @Soapsuds The Apple TV deal sounds more reasonable to me lol. I agree that physical media is better. However these days I find it weird how unpredictable streaming is. Like the later seasons of Dynasty were MIA for years there, the later years of FC and of course KL have been absent for what felt like an eternity barring bootlegs and what not. I’d prefer to at least purchase them so whenever the streaming Gods decide to yank them back to the Disney vault so to speak I at least have access. Plex is fine but the ADs are overkill and nothing good lasts forever.

I actually enjoyed Jordi on GL but the writing was all over the place for the character especially with that disastrous push for Tony & Marah. But you’re right, I don’t think he’s ever gotten good writing or been given a good role. He was a bright spot on Fashion House I do remember, but a DOA recast for an already pointless character on Days and then of course his thankless role as Rey on Y&R never did him justice before he was abruptly fired and shamelessly killed off. I forgot he was on AMC but I was barely watching by that point. Hopefully BTG will be good for him as he is talented.