soapfan770

I am glad that Season 9 ended on a high note and everyone got happy endings after the hell they went through that season. I’d say the worst thing about the final season was Frank Runyeon’s strange European character who had a fling/unrequited thing for Pilar. WTF? It reminded me of Bill Paxton’s character from the movie True Lies. I had ranked Season 5 so low because I found that season to be so generic mediocre soap i.e. Maggie’s amnesia, Pamela’s silly plastic surgery, Morgan Fairchild’s DID, Robin being the surrogate mother from hell etc. Season 6 felt refocused besides some missteps (Demonizing Chase, Dan Fixx and Dana Sparks’ Vicki)

I do wish the maturing Christine had been placed in a different type of relationship after instead of always being the paired with the show’s heroes (Danny, Paul). Imagine if Christine had been paired with someone like Brad in 1993 instead of Paul.

Maggie’s death was the first of the Trifecta of shocking disturbing deaths amongst the dying CBS primetime soaps. April on Dallas was the second, and Linda on Knots would be the third. Season 9 of Falcon Crest is so weird after Maggie’s death and then Angela’s coma. The season itself is an improvement over the boring, mediocre and insipid Season 8, but the show simply became Falcon Crest in name only as the storylines involving Charley and Emma, Richard vs. Michael, and especially the creepy story between Frank and Genele makes it feel like one is watching a completely different show. Walker and Lauren are a obvious Chase and Maggie clones. The show really should have kept Sullivan and just give Maggie the stories Lauren was given Michael was supposedly Maggie’s cousin or something. If I had to rank all 9 seasons of FC, it would look like this: 1. Season 3 2. Season 2 3. Season 4 4. Season 6 5. Season 7 6. Season 1 7. Season 9 8. Season 5 9. Season 8

ABC definitely had a decade’s worth problem with that 11AM ET slot The Home was such a weird failed show and whenever I look through early 90’s schedules so many ABC stations didn’t bother to carry it at all (along with Loving). The Home Show’s successors didn’t fare well either, and it even took a couple years for The View to take off as well (Debbie Matenopoulos lol?)

NBC was in need of a ratings makeover following a very disappointing 1993-94 season: NO. 3 NBC SCHEDULES 8 NEW SHOWS May 14, 1994 NBC, which has been plugging along in third place behind CBS and ABC for two years now, announced a fall schedule yesterday that introduces six hours of new shows, including four one-hour dramas and four sitcoms. In addition, "Homicide: Life on the Street" returns to the schedule but not as a Thursday replacement for "L.A. Law." Instead the cop show, starring Ned Beatty and Yaphet Kotto and filmed in Baltimore, will compete with ABC's "20/20" in the deadly 10 p.m. time slot on Fridays this time around. NBC's biggest gamble would seem to be on Thursday night, when three new series are being introduced on what has been the network's most successful night. "Seinfeld" remains at 9 but "Frasier," the most popular new series on any network this past season has been rewarded with a move to Tuesday -- up against the still-strong "Roseanne" at 9. That same slot almost killed "The John Larroquette Show" last season but John survived -- to move over to 9:30 on Tuesdays, against ABC's "Ellen" (a k a "These Friends of Mine"). "Dateline NBC," which was facing cancellation -- and worse -- barely a year ago after the GM pickup truck fiasco (producers rigged a fire to jazz up the story), not only returns to Tuesday night but this season will be joined by "Dateline NBC II" on Friday nights. The latter, also starring Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips, gets a summertime introductory run on Thursdays starting next month. Only the current NBC Monday night schedule remains the same next fall. The network said yesterday "Nurses" and "The Mommies" are definite cancellations and insisted the other series missing from the new schedule from last year's various lineups -- even such marginal shows as "Viper" (102d last season) and "Winnetka Road" (114th) are candidates for a midseason return. The new dramas include: "The Cosby Mysteries," which had a tryout on the Friday night mystery wheel this past season. It stars Bill as Guy Hanks, "a retired New York criminologist who can't stay out of the business." Regulars will include James Naughton as his longtime colleague, Rita Moreno as his "ever-vigilant, holistic housekeeper" and his "beautiful physical therapist," Lynn Whitfield. This one's for the older folks. "Earth 2," on the other hand, is for the kids, (and Trekkies who just can't get enough of the genre). The scheduling gives Steven Spielberg two straight hours of sci-fi on Sunday evenings next fall. This one is set, not underwater, but far in the future, when Earth's population is forced to live in gigantic orbiting space stations. Because her son is having trouble breathing on the space stations, scientist Devon Adair decides to lead "a covert expedition to a distant planet," which unfortunately crash-lands 3,400 miles short of the doc's goal. They all take a hike. "E.R." finds executive producer and writer Michael ("Jurassic Park") Crichton back in his medical mode. The drama concerns a group of young residents working "in the chaotic emergency room of a mammoth Chicago general hospital" making life and death decisions on almost no sleep. It stars Anthony Edwards, George Clooney and Sherri Stringfield. "Sweet Justice" stars Melissa Gilbert and Cicely Tyson "as a pair of Southern lawyers determined to champion the underdog." Gilbert, a former Wall Street attorney, turns down an offer to join Dad's "powerful, tradition-steeped law firm," opting to join Tyson, "the eccentric head of a maverick firm." The new comedies include: "Friends," the story of six young adults "who are trying to make it in Manhattan." No surprises here. There's Courteney Cox as "the attractive quick-witted woman with a talent for meeting all the wrong men." Jennifer Aniston is her "inexperienced but likable high school friend" and roommate. Matt LeBlanc is the aspiring actor. Matthew Perry is the office worker with a wry approach to his tedious life." David Schwimmer "is intimidated by bachelorhood" and Lisa Kudrow is Courteney's "offbeat former roommate." "Madman of the People" stars Dabney Coleman as an "irreverent, legendary columnist ... who hates bosses and has a new one: his daughter," who's also his publisher. That can only lead to trouble, in 13 weeks or less. "The Martin Short Show" stars Martin as a husband and father who is the star of a popular TV comedy/variety series. “Young at Heart" stars Gene Wilder, in his first TV series role, playing a "late-in-life father who, along with his beautiful young wife is learning how to cope with raising twin sons." Gene has a "successful brother-in-law" and a "longtime secretary" who overschedules Gene, two surefire recipes for laughs. On Monday, ABC announced a fall schedule with four hours of new shows, including two dramas and four sitcoms. CBS is expected to announce its schedule on Tuesday. Fox will follow next week. The fall schedule on NBC, with new shows listed IN CAPS and new times for holdover shows as NT: Monday: "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" at 8, "Blossom" at 8:30 and "NBC Monday Night at the Movies" at 9. Tuesday: "Wings" (NT) at 8; "THE MARTIN SHORT SHOW," 8:30; "Frasier" (NT) at 9; "The John Larroquette Show" (NT), 9:30; and "Dateline NBC" at 10. Wednesday: "THE COSBY MYSTERIES" at 8; "Now With Tom Brokaw & Katie Couric" at 9; and "Law & Order" at 10. Thursdays: "Mad About You" at 8; "FRIENDS," 8:30; "Seinfeld" at 9; "MADMAN OF THE PEOPLE," 9:30; and "E.R." at 10. Friday: "Unsolved Mysteries" (NT) at 8; "DATELINE NBC II" at 9; and "Homicide: Life on the Street" (NT) at 10. Saturday: "YOUNG AT HEART" at 8; "Empty Nest" (NT), 8:30; "SWEET JUSTICE" at 9; and "Sisters" at 10. Sunday: "EARTH 2" at 7, "seaQuest DSV" at 8 and "NBC Sunday Night at the Movies" at 9.

Yikes at those sitcom ideas as well. Dolly deserved so much better for sure. I feel like the 1987-88 was definitely the height of all those cheesy family sitcoms that are embarrassing to look back on (I.e. Growing Pains, Hogan Family, Alf, Perfect Strangers, Just the Ten of Us, Mr. Belvedere.) complete with all of those “very special episodes”. Major yikes. I’ll admit I did enjoy The Charmings at the time growing up but it was obviously doomed to fail going up against first ADW and then later Cosby. The following 88-89 season would set the tone though for most 90’s sitcoms thankfully.

It was overall a rough time for Dolly as her heavily pop themed album flopped that fall of ‘87 as well. If I recall right a lot of music from that failed pop album was used on the show. Maybe Dolly should have tried a traditional sitcom instead of a variety show? Disney Sunday had flopped against CBS’ lineup so they cut it from two hours to one hour for the 1987-88 season before ABC ironically let go of the ABC rights to NBC. Throwing Spenser on the Sunday night lineup seems insane. The show had a loyal cult following but overall ratings were low. ABC’s hope that ratings would rise at 8PM ET or a way to kill the show off? I do see how the primetime soaps failed to evolve in their restricted environments though. For Dallas and Falcon Crest there was not much care for the mediocre writing and the second generation of of characters after the originals left. Dynasty reinvigorated itself its final season, but no one cared about Dynasty by that point.

LOL I mean to quote this! See above post.

Y&R this past week here in South Carolina has largely been pre-emoted by the final days of the Alex Murdaugh trial, which has been juicier and more compelling that the last three years of JG’s tenure combined.

Goodnight Beantown was a bit ahead of its time I suppose with elements of Moonlighting and Murphy Brown in it from what I remember seeing. Maybe it should have been paired up with Kate & Allie instead? Mariette Hartley had a very healthy working yet strange career of appearing on everything in the 70’s and 80’s including that Emmy win for lead actress for a guest role on The Hulk (Emmy rules were different then) but then in obscurity by the 90’s.

The 1987-88 season wasn’t too kind to primetime soaps was it? I can see why. Dallas became directionless disaster and some really bad acting thrown in. Dynasty was pointless, exactly how SOD called it, and following up on The Colby’s UFO cliffhanger made it worse. Knots had its ups and downs that season with Laura’s death being a detriment as well as the Jill stuff. Falcon Crest was fun and fast paced but went off the rails with the Thirteen plot. Hotel was DOA in their new Saturday night slot.

Edit wrong thread lol.

🤣🤣🤣

What got me is “There is potential for plenty of interesting drama to unfold.” With JG involved that’s all we will get, a glimpse of potential. The overall 50th anniversary part just sounded a drab and mundane afterthought even though we know there’s some great guests coming our way.

Newman/Jabot/McCall/Chancellor-Winters Business Wars The battle between three of Genoa City’s three major companies is heating up. Ashley pulled a power move when she purchased Tucker company McCall Unlimited. Ashley’s good deed stunned her ex-husband, and he’s following her advice in getting Devon to buy the company. However, Victor will have something to say. The Mustache had his sights on McCall Unlimited, but Ashley bet him to the punch. Victor and Victoria aren’t going to let the deal slip through their fingers again. Meanwhile, Devon has his hands full with his legal battle with his sister Lily. The two siblings are taking their feud over Chancellor-Winters to court. Lily plays dirty in her upcoming court appearance. Lily will seek the help of Devon’s ex-girlfriend Amanda Sinclair to represent her. Amanda’s appearance will have Devon on the edge and further strain his bond with Lily. Sally/Adam/Nick Genoa City’s favorite redhead Sally Spectra is in for a dramatic month. The pregnant business mogul will be playing peacemaker between her baby daddy Adam and her boyfriend Nick. While Sally deals with her pregnancy and love triangle; another Newman is plotting against her. After news spreads of Sally’s pregnancy, the Newman family won’t be happy. Summer warns Sally about hurting Nick. Summer and Sally’s rivalry has reignited because of Sally’s relationship with Nick. Summer is concerned her dad will be left heartbroken by Sally. While Sally disregards Summer’s threat, she should be worried. Summer teams with her grandmother Nikki Newman to break up the couple. Nick promised to stick by Sally’s side no matter what, but can they survive Summer and Nikki’s scheming? Jack/Diane Love is in the air for the month of March. There will be many surprise twists when it comes to the romance department. Jack is happier than he’s ever been now that he’s reunited with Diane. The Jabot CEO is so in love he’s ready to take the next step and so Jack proposes to Diane. The couple’s engagement will stun the Abbotts and make Phyllis’ head explode. But will the couple make it to the altar? Winters/Hastings Affairs Victoria and Nate continue to mix business with pleasure. The Newman Enterprises CEO and her emplyee get hot and heavy. But if the pair aren’t careful, their affair could be discovered by Audra Charles. If Audra lets their secret slip, it’ll mean heartache for Elena Dawson. Lily’s main focus is on protecting Chancellor-Winters. But the CEO takes a break from work to indulge in some romance. After her breakup with Billy, Lily could be ready to reunite with her ex-husband Daniel. Fifty Years On When Genoa City’s bicentennial celebration rolls around, Nikki and Victoria take charge by throwing a massive party to celebrate the event! A number of familiar faces will be returning for the grand event. There is potential for plenty of interesting drama to unfold. Not to mention, nostalgic memories to reflect on. Don’t miss out on the festivities for the last two weeks of March!

B&B: C for the Douglas story, F for the rest of it. Y&R: Z, as in Zzzzzz….definitely a sleeps month as @Taoboi would say! Other than bits here or there like Jack/Diane, Sally, and Daniel/Heather/Lucy I found myself fast forwarding a lot.

No they didn’t, at least not when Adam came back to town for Ross and Blake’s wedding in the mid-90’s. Not sure if they mentioned her during his ‘89 return either and wouldn’t be surprised if they did not. (On a side note I always thought Robert Milli looked a bit odd to be playing father to Zaslow, maybe Adam should have been an older brother instead?)

Of course I bring up Tom Casiello’s name a few pages back and now his ghost is haunting this thread by his own tweets in response to this thread. Just great. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Casiello was Hogan’s apprentice…I still remember his MySpace blog lol. Of course Hogan did irreparable damage to both Days and Y&R with the effects still lasting today (EJ and Adam respectively)

Sinclair brainwash hour lol…..I’ll have to remember to use that in the future. But yeah this past year a good number of stations have started to air mid-afternoon newscasts or local lifestyle shows i.e. in the 2PM and 3PM hours in lieu of traditional syndicated fare because it is much cheaper to do so. I can’t recall where it was but it was pointed out one NBC station essentially was only running news and local infotainment type shows in addition to Today and NBC News Daily with nothing syndicated until airing the usual Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune combo.

I remember that about Bibel being labeled the show’s savior back in the day with Tom Caisello (whatever happened to him anyways?) Bibel had left DC to work with the now defunct TVbythenumbers website and then did something at IMDB before quietly coming back to Y&R under SSM. This is probably the most I’ve seen of her on a social media platform since Latham had fired her. So much of the cast could be cut, beginning with Jason Thompson and Melissa Claire Egan as they represent the two most pointless characters on the show at the moment. I’ve joked in the past about Ron writing for Y&R but we don’t need his mess at all either. In fact never. The looming writers strike, if it occurs, it definitely going to be detrimental to the remaining soaps. I knew The People’s Court recent cancellation news over expenses sounded like a bad omen.

Fair point on Griffith. I just remember he does have a long history of reckless decisions ie see his Days work or previous Y&R stints. That said I wouldn’t be surprised at all if CBS/Sony was pushing for this as well. Isn’t Griffith still not in good standing with the WGA after going Fi-Core in the 2007 strike all those years ago? I mainly remember Conforti from his GL days in the 90’s as a writer and then later briefly co-HW to clean up McTavish’s run.

Da Fück? I’m totally disgusted. Obviously Griffith is having mental health issues again, this time as a loose cannon. A total train wreck waiting to happen.

Long’s SFT was apparently well received by remaining critics and loyal fans but it was too little too late obviously. Only reason I remember any of this was because years ago there was a poster here at SON and at the old WOST site named Angel who was a big soap fan, tracked every character named Angel on soaps ever known, and was taking Jeff Ryder’s courses at a Philadelphia college at the time to which they studied up on and was surprised by seeing negative reviews for Jeff Ryder’s GL who was their grad school professor at the time.

I swear I remember reading Long left GL to go on maternity leave, while her stint on SFT was forced by P&G as a last ditch attempt to see if they could salvage the show at all before she was able to come back to GL by ‘87. P&G had some strange policies about swapping EP’s and HW’s which of course caused irreparable damage on every P&G soap.

Not sure, but oddly the same year the show acknowledged Judge Lowell’s death. I was just reading ATWT recaps from July-October 1977 about Chuckie Shea’s death and how Lisa become suddenly obsessed with Bob again but the story gets dropped by year’s end. I had read somewhere that Fulton asked to get Chuckie killed off so Lisa could be ageless but was that true?