soapfan770

Interesting but in no way can I even get excited for this at all as long as Josh Griffith is in charge. As far as I know he’ll probably have Stephanie devolved into some lunatic psycho who’s been obsessed with Malcolm and ends up offing him or dumb [!@#$%^&*] like that.

You’re most welcome. I actually do remember a good bit of Dear John from this period as this was the period I first remember Susan Walters from along with the very wacky absurd ongoing story of John and his ex-wife deciding to have a 2nd kid but choosing to remain divorced. You’re right about the lesbian kiss stuff ugh. Apparently that’s why Michele Greene hurriedly left as Harry Hamlin advised her about gay roles destroying careers and what not. Poor Amanda Donohoe as well. Thanks @kalbir for the additional info on JR losing out to Urkel 😂

Ratings from February 4-10 1991. Dying Dallas was in the middle of the pack along with Knots. Dark Shadows reboot was really struggling. Twin Peaks was dead in the water. Apparently more people watched Dear John at 10:30 on a Saturday night. Dear John was of course like NBC’s first of many Thursday night 8:30/9:30 timeslot hits that failed to thrive on its own for the next decade. Sons and Daughters, placed in Falcon Crest’s old timeslot, was a fun and lighthearted yet very soapy show giving off Northern Exposure and Picket Fences vibes had started off alright but quickly flamed out most likely due to the lousy timeslot behind an expiring Dallas. @DRW50 Interestingly the L.A. Law episode aired this week was the infamous lesbian kiss. The L.A. Law special was a Jane Pauley hosting celebrating the show’s 100th episode…Idk if it’s available streaming but I do remember A&E including it in its rotation when they ran L.A. Law reruns in the early 00’s. The 100th episode wouldn’t actually air until March and of course is infamous itself for Rosalind’s death drop.

Last week we had Dylan eating pizza from the garbage, this week’s big story Eric is stressed and his doctor violated HIPAA…? Don’t tell me Eric is out of staples for his stapler???

Same here LOL. I really want to know if Flynn is even happy playing Cane because he always looks bored out of his mind every time I flip past.

While the Winds of War was causing season lows for the soaps, here what was going on each of them: Knots Landing 2/10/83 Richard physically attacks Ciji and Laura orders him to move out. Diana tells Karen she is moving to New York with Chip. Ciji blames Val for Gary's drinking. After Ciji does not show up to perform at the restaurant, her dead body washes ashore Dallas-2/11/83 Cliff blames himself after the crash of the Wentworth company plane, which his mother took as a passenger in his place. Rebecca's accident is the latest episode caused indirectly by the ongoing war between Cliff and J.R.. Before Rebecca dies, she makes Pam promise to protect Cliff. Katherine flies in to join Pam and Cliff for the funeral and lashes out at Cliff for letting their mother fight his battles with the Ewings. J.R. is stunned when the energy commission rescinds his variance to pump oil and he quickly makes contact with Driscoll to establish a Caribbean oil deal. Holly tries to use the variance ruling to force J.R.'s hand in her company, but he points out that he now controls Harwood Oil. At Southfork, Pam makes a shocking announcement to Bobby. Falcon Crest-2/11/83: Lance and Melissa agree on a plan to take over Falcon Crest. After an unpleasant business meeting with Angela, Phillip forms an alliance with Richard, Later, Emma rushes into The Globeand suggests several improvements. Richard makes her Vice President. He also coerces neighbouring vineyardist Visconti into selling his vineyards and winery with the threat of cutting off a public road leading through Richard's land. Richard had hoped for Nick Hogan's political support in this but, torn between his love for Vickie and his business relationship with Richard, Nick decides against supporting Richard and also tells his wife that he wants a divorce. Cole begins a romance with Linda Caproni. Chase and Maggie's attempts to talk to each other only lead to more arguments. Julia encourages Maggie to come back to Chase and also offers Chase to support his investigation. Looking for Charles Fong, Chase, Julia and Cole approach his uncle Wilson in Chinatown, but he refuses help. A threatening note put under Julia's door fails to discourage her. When Charles Fong calls again, she rushes to meet him, but her car goes off the road and explodes, just as Chase and Cole arrive. I definitely vaguely remember watching stuff series like Evergreen, North & South, War and and Remembrance, Lonesome Dove etc with my parents. Both Amerika (it is atrocious to watch as an adult lol who the heck greenlit it?) and A Year in the Life stick out the most for me.

1983 was the height of miniseries and TV movies, wasn’t it? Especially for ABC as they would later air The Day After later that year in the fall.

No problem!! I only discovered when I was looking through a list of failed Aaron Spelling shows and pilots (it’s a lengthy list too). Of course UPN had tried out Love Boat: The Next Wave a few before with Robert Urich and Phil Morris…I can neither confirm or deny I watched an episode (or two) though…. Looking at the cast on IMDB the only names I recognized listed were Michael Jai White, Martha Smith (the Scarecrow and Mrs. King fan in me lol but yeah she would’ve been a D-list star) and Jay Kenneth Johnson, who would have obviously been fresh off his first Days stint at the time. I do remember he went on to star in the ill fated North Shore a year later. @Khan That may be true but of course with the show being on UPN obviously celebrity guest stars has this come to fruition in 2003 probably would’ve come the way of Richard Grieco, Kirk and/or Candace Cameron, Kelly Rutherford, Nancy and/or Phillip McKeon, Antonio Sabato Jr., Tracy Middendorf etc 🤣 Memory unlocked for the 1998 version of Fantasy Island. Only episode I remember watching was where Olivia D’Abo was some cheating housewife who fantasized about having her own Jenny Jones meets Jerry Springer type talk show while Malcolm McDowell also looked 200 years old lol.

@YRfan23 @kalbir Something I just thought of but do you think Mamie would have benefited being the one to reveal she had a missing son out (maybe from a bad marriage?) there instead instead of trying to do the Keemo story for Jack? I could easily see John being the one to paying Paul & Christine to go find him much to Jill’s displeasure. But I also don’t know what the show would’ve have done with such a character other than him and Malcolm fight over a woman or have him date some rival model of Dru.

@DRW50 @Paul Raven @Khan @kalbir @Chris B @slick jones Aaron Spelling tried to remake Hotel in 2003…? I had no idea. “Set at the luxurious St. Gregory Hotel in New Orleans, the pilot explores the lives and dramas of guests and staff. It was part of a trio of drama pilots ordered by UPN in January 2003. The project did not proceed to a full series.” https://trektoday.com/news/220103_02.shtml#:~:text=The%20first%20pilot%20pickup%20is%20Hotel%2C%20a%20remake%20of%20the%201980s%20series%20of%20the&text=If%20UPN%20greenlights%20any%20of%20these%20concepts%20to%20proceed%20to%20series%2C%20they%20will https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371733/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk The Variety article states “Remake of series that focuses on Miami hotel dwellers” https://variety.com/2003/tv/news/2003-drama-pilots-1117880038/

Was it some very special episode of Silver Spoons or something LOL? God I hated that show as a kid and despise it even more as an adult. Season by season rankings: 1982-83: #50 1983-84: #54 1984-85: #74 1985-86: #70 The final season was in syndication and only lasted one season. Not sure about Webster’s popularity aside from it being a Different Strokes clone. He’s an awful washed up has been who hasn’t worked in over a decade with a so-so career at best now yet throws him out like he was some big thing. Co stars Jason Bateman and Alfonso Ribeiro have been wayyy far more successful. LOL!!! Not for everything though. While both Silver Spoons and Webster died miserably in syndication, Charles in Charge thrived for years very mysteriously. Strange. People complained about the “fake Dukes” season but it still rated decently. The originals returned and the ratings dropped. The formula was getting stale, perhaps CBS should have moved it to Saturday nights? Probably would have at least done something having an established show on that night as opposed to CBS throwing everything and the kitchen sink to make it work. Poor Priscilla. Terri was good addition but the formula was getting stale. She has always had good things to say about the rest of the cast and has remained good friends with Joyce and even Jenilee, but has been very open on how badly the producers and directors treated her.

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.