soapfan770

The idea alone sounds interesting and with the right talent both on-screen and behind the screen maybe one of them could have pulled it off. Problem was all four of the big primetime soaps often didn’t develop a good secondary cast in addition to the core. I could see some ideas working out like focusing on Knots younger cast ie Olivia, Paige, Michael, Eric etc. and/or the Williams family or FC giving us lighter fare like focusing on Emma’s misadventures during the summer; but nobody was going to put up with stuff like focusing on Amanda and/or Leslie Carrington on Dynasty, Casey and/or James on Dallas, Vickie or the Season 8 younger cast on FC, or I could easily see Knots deciding to introduce new psycho obsessed with Gary just for the summer.

Thanks for sharing @Paul Raven . Interestingly I had shared a Margaret Ladd fan letter in the FC week thread a couple months ago from 1988 which also mentioned as well that FC was also looking at moving away from a serialized format. Obviously someone must have have looked at Freilich’s short term arcs on that show and was like “uhhh, nooooo…” @kalbir Thanks! That’s why I came looking to this thread after seeing it on FB in multiple Dallas groups. The 1996 reunion movie always represents the true ending of Dallas for me.

Oh that limo scene is everything lol! Actually for me the pieces slowly start to fall into place once Sheri Anderson leaves and the OG season bible was then heavily rewritten. Problem was by that point the show only had Richard, Lance, and Pilar to lean on with newbies Danny, Sydney, Genele (S9’s highlight for me) and a Maggie clone thrown in the mix. It didn’t work. Come to think of it, Angela and Genele never shared a single scene together. LMAO I can only imagine what occurred if and when they did meet.

@Khan @kalbir @Romalotti There may be some truth there… The reason for Angela being written off the show is primarily JANE WYMAN's frail state of health; doctors advised her to quit working. Besides, the new producers consider this as the perfect opportunity to enhance their idea to lead the program into a new direction — another bad decision, as the rest of the season will prove. Before LORIMAR and JANE WYMAN mutually decided Angela would be going into a coma for the major part of the season, the new producing and writing staff had even crazier ideas for season 9. According to a crew member, who wants to remain unnamed, JANE WYMAN was so shocked about the first draft of the seasonal bible that she angrily demanded her character rather be killed in order not to have to play what she felt was disgusting. The idea about the coma was the final compromise. Wyman also apparently convinced the crew to give the show a proper resolution and happy ending, hence why the second half on Season 9 was heavily rewritten and actually starts feeling like FC all over again, especially with the last 3 eps.

Thanks @Paul Raven Interesting that Tartikoff was still toying with primetime soaps this late in the game despite having an alleged disdain for them. He actually never abandoned this idea, towards the end of his time at NBC in 1991 he actually said this in an NBC interview with the L.A. Times on 5/6/91: Above all, says Tartikoff, networks “have to back up and start with the viewer. If the viewer wants to watch ‘L.A. Law,’ then you damn well better figure out a way to pay for it.” As an example, he says that CBS may have erred in canceling “Dallas”--which ended Friday--and might have gotten a lot more mileage out of it with some ingenuity. To wit: “ ‘Dallas’ was getting a 21% audience share. Now why is CBS, which averaged a 21 share, taking it off? Because the costs have gone up, the demographics aren’t great and they can only play it once (soap operas do poorly in reruns). You could reduce the cost by cutting loose some expensive cast members and treating it like they do in daytime when somebody gets too big: Start giving storylines to new characters and grow another generation of characters, like we’re doing on ‘L.A. Law.’ “Also, the audience would watch ‘Dallas’ all year long, but every year ‘Dallas’ and ‘Knots Landing’ have stopped in May and not come back until September. The habit is broken. And you know from daytime serials, that habit should be nurtured. If you can make 265 episodes each year of ‘Days of Our Lives,’ I’ve got to believe you can make 40 to 45 episodes of ‘Knots Landing.’ It’s not that hard. Give the audience what they want. They want to watch it every week. “Maybe some of the cast doesn’t want to work that hard. So start some of your newer storylines and newer characters when you hit the month of June and build them up. You’ve got to be thinking that way.” Obviously now I have to wonder if Aaron Spelling and Fox took interest into what Tartikoff was trying say here, because just 2 months later 90210 would go ahead and start airing Season 2 in July ‘91 to considerable success.

@kalbir @Khan @Soapsuds @DRW50 @Chris B @Vee @slick jones I didn’t know where else to post this, but I did feel slightly attacked when I watched this last night since I’d probably be watching this on some Fast channel 🤣🤣🤣

@YRfan23 The ep is available at the moment free for streaming on Pluto TV I just checked 😊

Yes!! I actually watched that episode live when it aired. The funniest bit was when Fran told JC about her mother being nauseous from the facelift 🤣

31 Years Ago:

Yeah I had just mentioned Taxi’s issues after ABC moved it out of its Tuesday night slot along with moving Soap out of its Thursday night slot to unsuccessfully counter program against DS and Facts of Life. A darn shame.

Interesting topic thanks for starting @Paul Raven , a reverse of our usual discussion. Some other examples I can think of that worked over the years: As @kalbir has pointed out before, moving L.A. Law from Friday night at 10 to Thursday nights at 10. Just over 14 years later, CBS moved growing new hit CSI from Friday nights at 9 to Thursday nights at 9 in February 2001. The results were absolutely spectacular for CBS and shattered NBC’s longtime dominance on Thursday nights. Fox moving the X-Files from Friday nights to Sunday nights in November 1996, although the show had already become Fox’s first top 10 hit in the Friday night slot basically the move to Sundays solidified a widespread audience and Top 20 ratings. Lastly one last Thursday moved that worked was ABC moving Grey’s Anatomy to Thursday nights 20 years ago.

@Khan That thought had crossed my mind too lol. I could still see CBS debuting at 9/8 in ‘84 following The Mississippi had it been a hit but now my next question is would MSW have then gone the way of Crazy Like a Fox or would have been successful enough CBS just held off on Sunday night movies? Hardcastle & McCormick? That show always struck me as the poor man’s Simon & Simon 🤣🤣🤣 This is probably the better alternative solution. The Mississippi could have easier aired at 8/7 and be something fresh on the Friday night lineup. CBS seemed interested in trying to program Saturday nights again in the 83-84 season, if they were still so intent to keep Dukes I would have started their new Saturday night lineup off with Dukes and then have something like Cutter to Houston air after it.

This SOU cover from 2001 made think about how much ATWT wasted MBE and Sierra throughout the last decade. What were your all thoughts?

! LOL to both!! I admit I myself did watch Home Improvement in the early 90’s at least up until ‘95 or so mainly because there were a few elements that reminded me of my own family and younger brothers (thank god I didn’t turn out like Zachary Ty Bryan though 🤣). But around ‘95 or so I found HI became really regressive and nearly unwatchable. Jill became psychotic to me and I kept wondering when Tim and Jill were going to divorce. Tried rewatching cable reruns in the early 00’s but already the show had aged poorly and it felt so pointless. Similar thing with ELR some of the earlier seasons were okay, I mainly watched because of Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts characters were such a hoot to me but as with HI a few seasons the whole show became regressive and unwatchable. Patricia Heaton became psychotic. Didn’t even bother to try and rewatch it.

@Paul Raven The Mississippi had such a rather quirky premise with an older star. Doesn’t seem like it would fit in a 10PM slot behind Dallas. Looking at CBS’ schedule for 1983-84 I would have perhaps would tried to schedule it in the Sunday 8PM slot since CBS struggled that season in that hour. Having 60 Minutes as a lead in couldn’t have hurt and might have been more effective counter programming against Knight Rider on NBC.