soapfan770

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.

Thanks as well @Soapsuds for the posting those 1983 ratings as well! Seeing so many of those Christmas specials airing this week I remember always in the 80’s and then throughout the 90’s always looking forward to these specials and almost were like big events to me. But alas as they became available on VHS and DVD the network TV versions became sloppy edited messes and not worth the time. @Paul Raven Do you think CBS should have tried out Emerald Point behind Dallas for a while and tried to see if FC would have worked out in the Monday slot for a bit? Then again the Dallas-FC double bill just worked out so well I can see why CBS was hesitant to mess with the format especially since both shows ended up being #1 and #7 overall for the season. People wanted their Friday night soap fix, but I wonder if the new Emerald Point could’ve had a better chance of survival if pair with one of the other CBS soaps?

I dunno if Ginger’s teaching career would have been a totally dead end…perhaps Ginger could have taken up stripping or had an affair with some kid’s dad and get blackmailed by another teacher or parent about it. Or been Brian’s teacher and Abby blackmails her into passing him to the next grade when he’s failing as opposed to ruining her career over such tawdry secrets.

The show really missed the boat by never having Abby have a fling with Kenny. Would’ve made more sense that Abby sleeping with Richard lol.

And here I thought it was all Abby’s fault for sowing the seeds of Jill’s paranoia 🤣

Sorry to hear of her passing. I meant to comment a few weeks ago after the announcement of a Christmas special in 2026 and new season in 2027 without any further involvement from Disney. It feels like such a long time off, but I do feel the show needs to restart on a clean slate (and without RTD even though he’s writing next year’s special). I wasn’t expecting the Gatwa/RTD 2.0 era to turn into a colossal mess, but here we are.

What I always find most interesting when I rewatched Season 6 was Jill’s innocuous, unremarkable first appearance. For viewers watching it in real time I don’t think anyone would have guessed she would become a major player for the next four seasons or that her storyline would go the way it did. I think what always more confusing to me in addition to the Empire Valley mess was Peter & Jill’s elaborate scheme I.e. who knew what secret, who had leverage etc. I’ve tried rewatching most of S7 and S8 again and well after 60 whopping episodes I’m still confused.

You’re welcome! Hahaha Bell’s words on Kurt Costner has always explained everything I need to know. I’m sure Bell was very familiar with McCloskey’s previous work and in his head it might have worked, but between Bell’s admitted struggles and McCloskey being saddled with a lackluster terrible recast it was all DOA. To this day I still believe TLW deserved that Emmy wayyyyy more than Stafford.

Was looking back at some old posts at our 1996-97 era discussion @kalbir @YRfan23 @DRW50 @Paul Raven and then I suddenly remembered this interview from Bell late in his career following Y&R’s 6000th episode. BILL BELL KEEPS `Y&R' ON TOP 11/30/1996 In the world of daytime soap operas, "The Young and the Restless" has the competition conquered. The Emmy-winning CBS show has been the No. 1 ranked soap for eight straight years, quite a feat in television, daytime or otherwise.For those of you who are soap-challenged "Y&R," as it's called, is the one that begins each hour-long episode with the sweeping "Nadia's Theme" and once featured David Hasselhoff and Tom Selleck. And while "Y&R" sports the usual cast of cheating, conniving titans, beefcake and vixens who live in Genoa City, there is a real-life dynasty behind the scenes: the Bell family. At the throne is William J. Bell, a charming 69-year-old who created "Y&R" back in 1973 and remains its head writer; his wife, Lee Phillip Bell, helped create the soap and is a story consultant. For more than a dozen years, their daughter, Lauralee Bell, has played Christine Williams, a model-turned-lawyer. Their son, Bradley Bell, is the executive producer of "Y&R's" sister soap, "The Bold and the Beautiful." And finally there's Bill Bell Jr., the financial whiz behind Bell-Phillip Productions, Inc. Anyone sensing a touch of nepotism here? "They all started at the bottom," Bell insists. It blossomed into a family affair, Bell says, because "it's an exciting field to be in. It's challenging. It's an experience that's difficult to describe." At a celebration to mark the taping of "Y&R's" 6,000th episode in October at CBS Television City, many of the actors credited Bell's longevity for the show's success. "In other soaps you see new producers and writers every four years. Not with this one," says Peter Bergman, who plays Jack Abbott. "We have one decisive voice," chimes in Jeanne Cooper, who has played the wealthy Katherine Chancellor since 1974. Bell began writing daytime in 1956 when he began working with soap legend Irna Phillips, the aunt of Bell's wife, on "Guiding Light," then a 15-minute live show. The following year, Bell joined Phillips as a writer on "As the World Turns" and remained with the series until 1966. In 1964, Bell and Phillips created "Another World," and the following year the pair created "A Private World," prime-time's first continuing serial drama. In 1966, Bell became head writer for "Days of Our Lives," remaining there until 1977. In the meantime, he and his wife created "The Young and the Restless" in 1973, and another soap, "The Bold and the Beautiful," in 1987. "It's exciting to create something from nothing," Bell says, "and then creating the characters and the relationships and casting it and seeing all these pieces come to life. "I can't tell you how euphoric it is! These are your children, these are your people, and you have such a responsibility to them because you love them and are involved with them." When writing sudsy lines for his characters, Bell, who still uses an electric typewriter, says: "You have to get inside the moment. "I tell you, it's fascinating. When you're doing something long enough, strange things happen. I was in a crunch and had decided to have this new character Kurt (recently cast with Leigh McCloskey), but didn't know what I wanted to do with him. "I just sat down and I start writing and got deep inside. In 20 minutes, I had the whole thing worked out. When you've been doing it for 40 years you have a little head start." Is it harder for Bell to write lines for a female character? "It doesn't make any difference, I'm bisexual," he says with a laugh. Bell often gives his characters contemporary, social story lines. His daughter's character, for instance, has been date-raped, sexually harassed and married to a rock star. She also saw her mother die of AIDS. "We have a duty to deal with social issues because it makes us part of the real world," Bell says. "Our viewers can learn from them and benefit from them." The soap recently featured an incendiary tale about a married couple, in which the adulterous husband slept with an HIV-infected woman. The question remains whether the wife and child have been infected. "AIDS had been portrayed as a gay and promiscuous disease and this took it to a different level," says actress Tonya Lee Williams, who plays the wife, Olivia. "It opened eyes about what this disease is about. This let people know this could be them." Bell is so committed to reflecting as much of real life as possible that he has a psychiatrist read every script to make suggestions "in terms of accuracy or depth or something that we may have omitted." And an attorney looks over any legal story lines. While his shows may go on indefinitely, so may Bell, who is showing no signs of slowing down. "I have another soap opera in the works," he says slyly. As expected, he refuses to say more.

Please let me know when Victor decides to unleash an AI attack on Josh Griffith for writing terrible garbage!!!

The return of sitcoms' popularity in the mid-'80s was a real thing, but the crash of the wealth-based nighttime soap genre was resonate and self-induced. There was an effectively grim finality to the mood of the cliffhangers in the Spring of 1985: Bobby's death, the Moldavian massacre, the return of Val's babies... and they felt as if they could have ended right there (and perhaps they should have, although I would have sorely missed S10 of Dallas, S6 of FC, and Season 9 of Dynasty , and the next five years of KNOTS as they singularly maintained quality). But, wow, these shows just fell apart post-Spring 1985. They stopped being character dramas after a while, and just started trying to "impress" viewers in some superficial way and to "fake it" somehow. What a painful, unnecessary slide it was. But once these shows seemed to lose their identities, their sense of self, their momentum into the dung heap couldn't be slowed.

True indeed regarding Lewis Carroll’s books as it’s hard to find a decent adaptation. The Disney version combined both books, while casting Alice always seems dubious while trying to rely too much on all star talents. Sunday night television growing up was always…I guess family TV time? MSW and movies aside, I did like Life Goes on ABC as well. That said once Lois & Clark premiered my interest in MSW waned. Late 90’s/very early 00’s Sunday night Fox was just so easy to watch and provided something different (although I do think X-Files was better when it was on Fri nights than Sundays) I think that’s how Sunday night programming fundamentally changed across both broadcast and cable networks by the mid-00’s.

LOL! As a whole though the Alice books seem to be a difficult thing to adapt to live action television. Like what 14-15 years later NBC tried yet another miniseries along the same lines and the reception was just as divisive as I recall. I do actually remember that week’s Amazing Stories episode “Santa 85” vividly mainly because seeing Santa get arrested at that age was a bit shocking 🤣 That said, I thought it was a fever dream and actually had no idea what show I had watched until I was in high school and my 10th grade English teacher decided to just show us Christmas specials like the last 2-3 days that she has obviously recorded off TV on her VCR before Christmas break. @kalbir Thanks for the 12/16-12/22 recaps as well!! And same reaction to trying to remember Alice in Wonderland from ‘85.

Thanks @kalbir for the episode recaps! Definitely know I’ve watched that Golden Girls episode with Brent Collins from Another World many times before. Thanks for expanding on that. I vaguely remember this as a kid and then again when it got replayed years later on some cable channel in the early 90’s. Based on the reviews I could find out of curiosity it seems most people were mixed on the quality and saw one professional review gave it a single star. Also didn’t realize Part II aired on Tuesday against ABC. The crazy thing about Mary was this was the actual series premiere and still debuted in the middle of the pack just outside the Top 30 and would get worse from here. I feel bad for Our Family Honor. A soapy police/crime family drama that was at this time airing against the new hotness police/crime drama and an already established soap was just doomed. ABC should have let OFH air at 10 on Wednesdays, and then tried a new Saturday night lineup with Hotel at 9.

@kalbir Continuing on with the 40th anniversary of the 85-86 season, here are the ratings for the week of December 9-15 1985. MSW holding a tight grip at the #3 slot! Dallas only top 10 soap but the rest still in the top 20. FC even holding its own at #16 against #7 Miami Vice. It should be obvious that CBS Wednesday nights had bombed/flopped here. The Colby’s was also like DOA. Alice in Wonderland Part II’s drop was significant—what happened? Was Part I not well received? Riptide wasn’t faring well against new competition.

Definitely agreed! I will say I was pleasantly surprised a few years ago when Reba took on a more antagonistic/devious role on Big Sky during that show’s final season and absolutely sold the role.

LOL I just read this and laughed out loud, only because I’ve never seen Cidre do anything decent in whatever career she had. Having an interesting background just didn’t translate to her writing. After Dallas she had the disastrous show Blood & Oil (or Boring & Odious as I remember calling it lol) where she was dismissed after like the first 2 episodes and replaced with other writers and producers. Of course the show was cancelled after a few months on the air as ratings dropped fast and I don’t believe Cidre has ever worked again in the TV business since. To make this relevant, Blood & Oil was a big comeback miss for Don Johnson, especially since ABC had hyped the show up along with him as the star.

LOL! Unfortunately (or fortunately??) I’ve gotten so out of the loop with this travesty of a show I didn’t realize Luna was killed off again, at least for now anyway lol. I figure in a few months a disfigured Luna will be back stalking that Dylan girl.