soapfan770

That’s what I thought too, so I’m glad he sounds like he’s doing much better. And thanks @janea4old! Most of the young Chance actors including Dekker, Courtland Mead, Alex D Linz and obviously Penn Badgely did other significant work. Oddly the kid who played the role the longest, Nicholas Pappaone did nothing else I don’t think. @DRW50 meant to tag you on this because it was no surprise to me to learn that Bryan Fuller was the one to out Dekker.

Came across a 3-year old interview from variety with Thomas Dekker (who’s first big acting gig was playing a young Phillip IV/Chance on Y&R) I hadn’t ever read before. Not sure what’s he’s doing these days and haven’t seen him since his Star Trek Picard episode a few years ago but I am glad he found sobriety and comfortable with his sexuality after years of public denial. I seem to recall him hitting a cyclist while drunk was the end of his career for a long time there: https://variety.com/2022/tv/columns/swimming-with-sharks-thomas-dekker-gay-outed-1235225805/

I feel very bad for BF that Giggly Heffa is being forced onto him. At least BF looked yummy in a scene that otherwise was very icky to watch. I still can’t believe Flynn took this role. He also seems a tad bored/underwhelmed sometimes I almost see the regret in his face.

LOL!!! 😂 He looks like he is reacting as if Luna just passed bad gas or something.

Most likely. The Family Man was also a Miller-Boyett sitcom, although why have a new untested sitcom lead off the night instead of at least giving the Hogan Family the lead seems puzzling. And again on a Saturday night…maybe CBS was hoping for those younger demos? Or contractual obligations to avoid any interference with other Miller-Boyett shows? Both shows were cancelled by seasons end. CBS’ other later attempts with Miller-Boyett of course were catastrophic failures as discussed previously. The CBS season of the Hogan Family was of course particularly dark-killing off a main character after contracting AIDS was definitely not your typical “tonight on a very special…” plot line so many other sitcoms of the era used. Once shows like Dynasty and Moonlighting fell off dramas on ABC had a hard time, even if they were critically acclaimed. It’s striking to see ABC so devoid of dramas for the bulk of the 90’s and early 00’s outside of fare like NYPD Blue, Lois & Clark, and I guess The Commish? Even well praised shows like Murder One and Once and Again ultimately failed after a couple seasons. It wasn’t until the 2004-05 season once Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy and Boston Legal got going that ABC leaned hard into dramas again.

I think Major Dad and Designing Women were fine where they were, and helped contribute to the even stronger Monday night schedule the following season. By the time CBS moved the shows in 1992 to build that Friday night block, it flopped hard as we’ve mentioned before. I’ve read WIOU was a solid show cancelled too soon, perhaps it should have aired on Monday @10 instead? At some point CBS would move Dallas back to 9 I believe in another desperate attempt to do something with that Fri night schedule. Sitcom heavy is right, and there’s some oddball things going on as well. CBS picked up The Hogan Family from NBC only to air it in a DOA Sat night timeslot at 8:30. Night Court still hanging on Friday nights with middling ratings. Dear John, once a hit on Thursdays at 9:30, became the poster child for the troubled NBC Thursday night 8:30/9:30 sitcoms as it failed to thrive once out of the slot. And as you mentioned there’s a lot of well low quality to garbage across all four network line-ups lol. Cop Rock, anything on CBS Thursday schedule not named Knots Landing, the glut of pointless sitcoms etc.

Thanks @DRW50 much appreciated as always!! The original premise of a primetime soap set in Santa Fe New Mexico itself unique and interesting could added some flair, but retooling it to be set on a ranch in small town in the Four Corners region and adding in Western elements doomed it, especially with the timeslot the show was given. Someone at CBS should have already been aware of this, given the previous dismal failures of the soapy Knots replacement Angel Falls and then Harts of the West flopping despite a supposed cushy spot between Dr. Quinn and Walker a few years earlier. Perhaps had they stuck with the Santa Fe premise and aired it on something like a Friday night it might have at least built an decent audience for a few years. But I suppose that would have also required more investment from someone like Moonves too, yikes.

I was trying to pinpoint when Mack as a character went downhill for myself. I think it was in Season 10 when Mack decided to be a do-gooder lawyer and also with the whole Meg adoption thing. After that I soured on Mack and Karen, but Mack a lot more because the character had become an extremely self-righteous zealot, while PollyKaren became borderline parody (Seasons 11-13 were definitely the nadir of the MacKenzies lol) DIRTY COP!!! was bad, but I actually warmed up to the Tom Ryan character overtime especially as I forgot he ended up being on and off the show through the end. Greg and Paige were okay for me. Entertaining in Season 10 for sure but i wish the show had decided what to do with them one way or another instead of the constant back and forth that occurred. The Paige/Linda rivalry was definitely interesting, and I do wish Greg had been given a son at some point or all along, maybe that could have spiced up stuff for Paige and Linda down the line as well. The whining over Linda’s brutal murder isn’t obligatory, it is required.

44 years ago today on 11/12/81:

TV Ratings from 35 years ago for the week of October 29-November 4 1990. #3 Cosby facing some tough competition from #19 The Simpsons. Dallas started its final season its season premiere opening up at #41 while Knots was at #33. Poor Twin Peaks just didn’t stand a chance in that miserable timeslot. Grand really was odd man out with the rest of NBC’s Thursday night schedule wasn’t it?

Off for Veterans Day and and watched today’s episode live for the first time in months….what the heck is this show even about anymore??? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

And Primetime ones, with two different ones for Falcon Crest:

CBS really should have taken advantage of developing an actual Tuesday night schedule during the 83-84 season. Obviously counter programming the A-Team and Riptide would’ve be a bit tough but it would’ve had to been better that ABC’s dismal Tuesday schedule and whatever TV movies CBS was airing on Tuesday nights. CBS also coasted way on too much of its past successes obviously instead of going original shows and new talent. A show like AfterMASH shouldn’t have existed. Why did Dukes of Hazards ratings collapse after the original Duke boys returned lol?

Have made a few more myself lol

Have we mentioned any of the primetime soap rewrites yet? Obviously Dallas’ dream takes the cake alongside the indecisiveness over the Wes Parmalee character. I also didn’t get the Richard/Angela twist on Falcon Crest either.

Also one more bad rewrite (I know we discussed this in-depth a long time ago @DRW50) was on GL when it was revealed that Rick wasn’t Kevin’s father after all. Absolutely nothing was gained from the rewrite and nothing was lost, except the jobs of the writing crew for this debacle.

Haha Great minds think alike! The Jordan story was so strange, I don’t recall Jordan was supposed to be Barbara’s son but I do remember him being introduced as new love interest for Jennifer while also being very interested in Barbara. Idk whatever Sheffer was trying to do hit the fan once he came up with the forced pairing of Jordan and Rosanna immediately after Jordan was revealed to be James’ son what a freaking mess. And I mentioned 66 years because of the Reverend Rutledge mentions in the said episodes alongside with Brandon Spaulding. A major WTF indeed occurred on January 5 2004 and don’t ask me why I remember that date.

That had actually crossed my mind as my first choice; however considering the utter preposterous other retcon stories also had my attention, namely stuff like the backstory of Carly, Gwen, Iris, and I think his name was Cole…?? Or Dusty and Holden fighting over Molly in addition to Lily, Emily and Larry’s lost embryo, and Paul Ryan’s brain microchip that the existence of David Steinbeck became a lot more plausible than everything else.

Ridge as Massimo’s son on B&Band Craig as gay on Days are great choices. Same with the Tale of Two Romans Of course Y&R has also suffered through so many bad retcons, the worst of the bunch being “Jill is Katherine’s daughter” “Phillip III back from the dead now’s he’s gay” (literally the Soaps in Depth headline), whatever Kansas retcon nonsense Josh Griffith wrote back in 2020, and now here we are with Cane and Matt Clark back 2025. Honestly Josh Griffith can go [!@#$%^&*] himself lol. Worst re-write on GL definitely had to be the Maryanne Carruthers mystery, which upended 66 years of history on the show if I recall right. Hmmm worst rewrite on ATWT…? Shannon being undead and not having a shrunken head for one, also later on Tom and Margo being totally aware of Adam Munson’s misdeeds with no explanation when Adam returned in 2009z

Haha thanks I had seen this posted in the Retro TV Listings group. I know I’ve seen this episode before and thought it was relevant with Lockhart’s recent passing. Interestingly enough the episode’s killer had their own career resuscitated just like a month or so before by starring a very successful comedy horror flick I still personally love to this day.

Hahaha funny I wrote this before that said spoiler. Obviously a character like that has no place for longevity on Y&R so its basically stunt casting for a short term arc is my guess as we saw with both the Jordan and Jeremy Stark stories.

Great assessment! Don’t forget that JG then transcribes all of the above through some knock off version of Chat GPT.