dc11786

@Paul Raven I don't think Rebecca Hollen is a bad choice. I was trying to think about an actress who could embody Laine's ability to operate in a man's world, while also embracing their feminity in a way that bordered on manipulative. The best option I could come up with was Brynn Thayer, but I don't see her jumping ship from One Life to Live to go to the much lower rated Search for Tomorrow. I figured someone like Lisby Larson was more likely to be cast, but Hollen seems better. I don't dislike Stephen Burleigh the way others do. I haven't seen much of Dr. Mike Powers, but he seemed fine opposite Hilary Bailey Smith in the few episodes I saw. I enjoyed him enough in some of his sleazier roles, Ian Cox, the arrogant philandering lawyer husband of Andrea Hall's alcoholic Virginia Cox and father of two teen girls on Tribes, and as Rhonda's sexual predator boyfriend who had abused Karen on General Hospital. If Burleigh wasn't available, I would probably lean towards Richard Bekins as Gary.

MyNetworkTV was learning from the mistakes and the 3rd set of shows were stronger. It was a relatively new format for English language production companies. It took a while to find the groove. By the third set, they had eliminated most of the flashback sand a good amount of the recap episodes. I think they realized the importance of story. I also think the last set were written by headwriters who had written for the other novelas on the network and had a better understanding of where they wanted to go. I think the source material for "Fashion House" may have been just no exciting enough. Initial, the writing on the shows was non-union because the network and production company were designating the writers "translators." This went on I think through the production of "Fashion House" because Tony Tripoli, who played on of the designers, had a blog and said he was asked to write a script or two and hated the process. So it was a good way to do something which others might have avoided. Later, all the writers were unionized as I recall. I wouldn't be surprised if they were short on material. It also remember them saying they initially did the flashbacks because they knew most wouldn't watch every night and they wanted them to stay up to date. "Fashion House" didn't have enough story, whereas "Desire" had too many characters and plots from what I vaguely remember. I also think part of the issue in the beginning was the choice of stories. Some of the shows were rather obscure while others were also being adapted either right before or during/after the show. I think "Amar Sin Limites" was telling the same story as "Watch Over Me" at the same time. "La Heredera" may have aired a few years before "American Heiress." Novelas tend to kill off a lot of characters from my limited experience. As I vaguely recall, the "action" novelas fell under the "Secret Obsessions" banner and tend to have a high body count.

I think the original plan was to syndicate the show(s) under the umbrella Desire. I think originally Table for Three as the first show and Fashion House was to be the second. Fox TV was going to be the production company. I'm not sure when Stu Segall Productions became involved, but I know they were the ones that were producing the final product and had a history of producing shows under budget but looking halfway decent. When the CW emerged when UPN and WB folded, there were all these stations that were up for grabs. I believe the plan for MyNetworkTv was very hastily thrown together to try to grab those stations. One of the problems was they mostly landed the lower rated UPN affiliates who's ratings bottomed out from what I recall. In addition, the novelas were a bust and in some metered markets were registering a 0.0 with no viewers. There were a small handful of markets, Miami among them, where the novelas did well based on having a large population of people familiar with the format as well as additional promotion done locally. Even in the "successful" markets, they weren't competing with any of the other networks. I don't think Secret Obsessions emerged until the arrival of MyNetworkTV. The Secret Obsessions banner was what Fashion House, Wicked, Wicked Games, and I think Saints & Sinners aired under. The ident can be seen in their logo, but I might be wrong on what show was under what label. I lived in New Hampshire at the time as I was in college and for a while, there was no Boston affiliate for MyNetworkTV lined up and a Fox affiliate out of Boston made it clear they were interested in airing the shows from 1-3 in the afternoon. So there were Fox markets that wanted a daytime component.

@Paul Raven I just don't think they were going to cast an actress in her 40s to play Patti. When you are casting 30 something Domini Blythe as the romantic rival of Jo's ex husband the show is going younger. Now, do I think they could have cast a 30 something person who could have played older? Yes. Scultz wasn't only too young, she appeared young. A slightly more mature actress in the same age range would have been more effective. Do you have anyone you would have cast in the role? The infrastructure simply wasn't there in late 1985 when Patti was reintroduced for the hospital focus, but that's not to say they couldn't have rebuilt it. I would have started with the Riverfront Clinic where Angela Bassett's Selina McCulla worked and then slowly shifted things back to the hospital. Even By late 1985, the clinic wasn't present but had been earlier in the year. By late 1986, I think there were more emphasis towards the hospital reemerging with Jack Bett's David Glenn and the younger set considering medical careers (Evie and Jerry, I believe). I like the Kendalls overall more than the McClearys, but I do think of them in terms of getting Peter Haskell back as Lloyd and some solidplaying Martin to make them viable. Which, given the youth emphasis, was highly unlikely. For me, the McClearys are more of a problem in the Addie Walsh / Pam Long era when you have Evie with Cagney and Quinn with Kat because they are so disconnected from the core. Even at the Kendalls worst (Chase / Adair / Alec triangle), the original story was tied to the bigger canvas (Adair having baby Elan by one of the brothers and abandoning it to be raised by Liza) before the connective tissue (Elan's parentage) was changed. In a sense, the Kendalls replaced the Adamsons and another well off family could have come in and been integrated without much harm. Maybe have Estelle remarry. I know I've read Gary Tomlin had planned to bring back Gary in 1986 and pair him with Sunny, which is why we ended up with Craig Walton for the summer. I wonder if the plan wasn't to bring on Laine in 1986 to as part of the revitalization of Henderson after the flood as I believe Adamson had a construction division or were a construction company. I think there were a multitude of angles that could have been revisited and weren't. @VelekaCarruthers Funny, I don't think Louan Gideon's accent bothered me because I always heard a hint of it in Sherry Mathis.

I thought the Nazi stuff made sense towards the end, but I wasn't really watching much of it throughout. It played in the background. The vampire stuff was awful. Wasn't E Street doing some more sensational storylines around the same time like the Mr. Bad serial killer plot? I think Chances clearly goes much farther, but I could see how in the cultural climate that some of Chances might have seemed like it was attention grabbing.

I watched another 9 episodes this weekend. It takes a bit for me to get back into this, but when I do, I enjoy it. A good bulk of the story surrounds the continuation of the fallout of Javier Fernandez's death. While I hate the dead gay character trope, this all is decently done. The show is several weeks out from Javier's death and it still guides so much. Rosario's grief has landed her in therapy where she has fallen in love with her therapist. It's not my favorite story, but Rosario spiraling is and this seems like something she would do. I do wish there was more internal conflict within Rosario / Roberto's marriage over the emotional affair, but I know how this all ends so I imagine it may have been subtext. The therapist thread ends very quickly and Rosario (conveniently) recovers from the moment as if she had just had to deal with a bad hair day. While this is annoying, I did find the follow up in the story rather well played. Bunny, who still owns part of Giorgio's, has sent word through the Costa del Sol grapevine that he has no intentions of returning and wants to sell his part of the restaurant. Because Freddie has been so helpful, Roberto is hoping that he will buy out Bunny. While Freddie enjoys the idea, Freddie is not financially in a place to do so. This question of ownership lingers and is nice day to day fodder to build into the bigger conflict. On a visit to a sick patient, Roberto seems visibly uncomfortable as the sick man is being cared for by his male lover. As Roberto attempts to slip out quickly, he stumbled upon a photo of the couple and Roberto's son, Javier. A shocked Roberto asks how they know him and they say that they were friends with Javier. And if Roberto knows Javier, he must know the Englishman... Freddie. This leads to the big confrontation, which happens when Roberto drives Fredide off into the country to confront him in a tower (which I believe was previously featured during Pilar's kidnapping by the SIngh brothers). The confrontation itself is weak. The dialogue skirts around calling Javier, which I assume is in part a sign of the times and in part due to Roberto's unease at the conversation. Roberto even brings up Paco, which was the codename that everyone used for Freddie's mysterious Saturday night dinner partner. Roland Curram has done particularly well in all leading up to this (there was a nice near miss at Javier's grace and one where Rosario found Freddie there). I find Franco Rey less convincing because I feel like Roberto isn't this type of character for the big confrontation. I'm not sure which of the Fernandezes I would have wanted to discover this. I would have written it as a more of a betrayal because of Roberto and Freddie's growing closeness in the wake of Javier's death. I don't know. I'll be curious to see how everyone else reacts. In another good story, Rosemary and Stanley Webb are about to get remarried, but Stanley is driving all over to get the paperwork in order only to slide off the road and be missing for nearly a day. Everyone assumes that Stanley has done a runner, and Rosemary even goes through Stanley's address book and discovers a bunch of names that she's never heard of. It is a nice little story because we know the outcome, but Rosemary's suspicions aren't unwaranted. Together with Drew, she finds Stanley on the side of the road and manages to get the medical services to treat him. In the wake of the accident, Stephen Law (Rosemary's son) returns to the Costa del Sol in order to seek solace and refuge as his marriage continues to disintegrate back home. Stephen is a nice comfort for Rosemary and a delightful diversion for the ever bored Isabelle De Luc. I'm less interested in the show's gangster characters Alex Morris and Marcus Tandy, though I do appreciate that the shift in their stories is more romantic. Alex is reconnecting with Trish, the lounger singer, and we get a bit of backstory how she was a rising star and he was just a young punk. It's not a bad background, but I am not sure if this is what I would want for Trish. Meanwhile, Pilar and Marcus' relationship is deteriorating, which I am kinda happy for. Marcus and Pilar reminded me of when I watched EastEnders on PBS in the late 1990s or early 2000s and you had Phil and Tiffany. Just a toxic relationship that is not super fun to watch play out. Pilar has gone home and has reconnected with a man, Sergio, while keeping Marcus in the dark. I don't hate it. In addition, Alex spilled the beans that he and Marcus were so close Alex was best man at Marcus' wedding. A lot of characters are travelling. As previously stated, Pilar is off to her local to be with her family. Olive King has gone off to Jerusalem, but not before a showdown with both Gwen Lockhead and Marcus Tandy over Tandy's influence over Gwen's son Blair. Blair had been frequenting Marcus' health spa which was a cover for a brothel. When the show started, Olive was an ornery individual, but she has softened quite a bit. I think this sorta a situation is perfect for her because she is clearly overstepping, but she does seem to care about Blair. In addition, when Marcus shows her everything is on the up and up (its not, but he managed to convince her it was), Olive was repetent. Gwen gets snappy at Olive, and I am not sure who to root for. A broke Blair keeps thinking about stealing tourists goods while also trying to land a night with an older prostitute. Gerry has left Los Barcos for Morocco with Wilkie, as her paid companion. Wilkie is always a character who is praised and she is neat. She clearly is living in the past thinking she is still the person she was before she lost it all. There is a rather downtrodden moment where Wilkie goes to the hotel bar where she always stays, greets the waiter Fayed and asks for her regular, and he has no clue what that is. It seems that she is living in denial and its all quite tragic. I was hoping to continue my journey, but I have noticed I misplaced the last disc with the final three or four episodes and I'm a bit at a loss. I'm sure it'll turn up because I remember watching a bit to see how things were going at the end, but I have no clue presently where I placed it.

This weekend, I watched a couple of late June 1993 episodes. The show has decent energy in all the stories, even in the news I don't like (Victoria / Bill / Holly). In my opinion, the strongest material surrounds Karen and Jagger. It should be clear to the audience by now that Ray Conway sexually abused Karen as a child. That dramatic tension builds nicely in scenes. I appreciate the work that was done to make Rhonda a human being compared to the cariacture we were introduced to in 1992. Rhonda has a bad history with men, exhibited by her experiences with Frank (Gary Hudson) the cop during the May episodes. I can see why Rhonda (foolishly) wouldn't understand why Karen wouldn't want to see Ray after explaining how so many guys she went out with bolted the minute she revealed she had a kid. Rhonda's relationship with Alan Quartermaine is also so much more complex than I would imagine. Two broken people looking to connect with an undercurrent of sexual tension that both, in previous lives, would have acted upon. In these episodes, Rhonda was gushing about how Alan had popped by Karen's graduation party. It's these relationships that make the little episode by episode moments rich. There is tension between Karen and Jagger due to Karen's secret, who, like Rhonda and Alan, are also two broken people hurt by the past.Jagger's broken home (he has located Gina, but she wants nothing to do with him). There is a little moment where Jagger is showing Ruby the newspaper ad for the fight and how he was hoping that Mike would see the ad and contact him. It's a tender moment and Ruby reassures him it's still possible. Karen's neuroses involving the men in her life seem grounded in her abuse and her inability to process this. There are a lot of little moments I appreciate where Karen tries to explain why she has abandoned Ray's locket (a graduation present) and trying to maneuver Rhonda so that she doesn't have to be alone with Ray. In other stories, there is nice movement. Sean confronts Jessica about the possibility of Jessica being pregnant with Jessica saying she doesn't want to know whether or not she is. Andreef plays it less as an act of manipulation, but rather a realization this could upend her world in so many different ways involving both Sean and her career. With Tracy on the run, Jenny starts to feel guilty about keeping the truth about Tracy's role in the accident secret. There is a nice scene with Jenny and her visiting mother, Angela, talking over Jenny's decision regarding the secret citing how she had ruined her marriage to Ned because she just didn't tell the truth. I know people don't have much use for Paul and Jenny, but it was one of my favorite scenes in these episodes. Carol Lawrence plays all the versions of Angela Eckert so well, but I do love this sorta social climbing menace who meddles in her kids lives the most. Bill also got harassed by her in her visit, which gave some nice insight into the Bill / Sly dynamic. The Bill / Victoria / Holly stuff is of little interest to me. I don't know what the long-term plan was here had Genie Francis not returned as the Summer in Provenance stuff had been going on since October, 1992, and I think they revealed the Victoria angle by February. With that said, the script writing is stellar and the calculating moves by both Victoria and Holly to win Bill is well done, but would have been better suited for Katherine / Scotty / Lucy. There was a little bit of Katherine planning on returning to New York and Scotty wanting to go with her. Lucy, of course, is jealous. It's all a nice continuation of Scotty's grief and the pregnancy, but I do wonder what would have happened with Katherine had Levinson stayed. There was a lot of stuff about the boxing match coming up between Jagger and AJ. I don't necessarily understand where any of this is going. The summer had a lot of animosity between A.J. and Jagger as I seem to recall (or at least I imagine there was issues with Jagger and the Q boys when they were slut shaming Karen). Maybe they were heading for some sorta of Jagger / Brenda / AJ / Julia / Ned scenario with Karen and Stone/Mike. I don't know. The rivalry is decent, but I am often left wondering if A.J. doesn't want Jagger for himself. Also worth noting, I saw some scenes before Paul and Tracy's wedding from 1991 where Gerald Hopkins' A.J. was putting the moves on Julia, pre- Nancy Eckert. May sweeps was so strong and so much story climaxed that there is a bit of a lull as the new stories are being set in place, but I still find it all very interesting.

In the summer of 1985, Sarah Whiting was interested in becoming a singer. It was a bond she shared with her grandmother, Jo. I believe Jo pulled out the guitar and sang “Green Coffee,” which I believe was a staple of Mary Stuart’s.

@DeeVee I'm pretty sure Acapulco Bay is on YouTube is nearly its entirety. There was also a website. There seems to be a bit of a cult following. I read Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros with my students a few years back and which watched a clip of Acapulco Bay and the same scene from Tu o Nadie so the kids could understand thereferences in the story. Acapulco Bay was very weak in terms of writing and acting from the clip we watched. Morgan Fairchild was wasted as Sophia Blakely. The part was interesting and the setup of the story was potent for drama; she was the first wife of Maria's husband and her son, William, seduced Maria. Taylor Kinney was anattractive man, but he was hardly capable ofcarrying the dramatic story (even though they didn't really write much). I thought the Sophia / William / Maria / Luke / Michelle dynamic was interesting, but it never really popped the way it could have. The stunt casting was always amixed bag. Bo Derek was rough. Robin Givens and Maria Conchita Alonso both played to the back of the house while Mel Harris was to tepid opposite Alonso. Alonso at least appeared to enjoy herself as much as Tatum O'Neal. Dayanara Torres (a Miss Universe I believe and Marc Anthony's ex-wife) was very bland as the lead of Watch Over Me, but I enjoyed the general story. I think Theresa Russell delivered the best performance finding the right mix of snark and dramatic flair. Russell's style though fit the material better, or so I remember. I believe it was stated int he press that the target audience for the novelas were originally gay men which is why they went in heavy with the camp. The original intent came about because of the ratings final being tabulated for the Spanish stations and the relatI remember the original plan was a syndicated program, hence the title Desire. I can't remember if Secret Obsessions only came about because of the fold of UPN/WB or if they were going to always do two series at once. The stunt casting was definitely something that occured when MyNetworkTV arrived. The other thing about the situation involving MyNetworkTV was that the ratings bottomed out in the final months of UPN (which was most of the affiliates that switched over). There was a preview night where they ran highlights from the first two novelas as well as a trailer for the remaining to be produced ones. And of course, originally there were the Saturday night recap shows. They dropped the recaps in episode by the end of the first round of novelas, but they still did the occasional recap episode up until the end (Saints and Sinners had a couple but seemed like less than Desire and Fashion House). The slow death of the novelas was unfortunate. Originally Saints & Sinners and American Heiress aired 2 episodes a week on different nights, than by late April it was one episode a week. Then, it just stopped airing in June or July. I remember they originally said they would put the material on their website, but they never did. They had bought several years worth of novelas for both series. None of the attempts to try a novela in that period panned out other than Ugly Betty. Lifetime tried Monarch Cove, but that was a bust. USA was considering a couple of properties. Rick Draughton was attached to one of them. I do think one of the big 3 networks was also considering something. MyNetworkTV's failure didn't help. Part of the MNT's issue was they were originally producing the shows with non-union writers claiming they were just "translators" when that clearly wasn't the case. The cost rose significantly when they actually had to pay people to write the shows.

Here's what I found on Rule of Deception: Rules of Deception was a telenovela planned for the American television network MyNetworkTV. Twentieth Television was developing this limited-run serial, based on the 1999 Caracol TV series La Guerra de Las Rosas (The War of The Roses). The unproduced series is also known in singular tense, as Rule of Deception. Guy Busick was head writer. This amorous tale involved Mia (Rachelle Woods) and Emily (AnnaLynne McCord), two beautiful best friends who find their relationship shattered by unexpected events. They are each seduced by the same handsome man, named Richard (Dylan Bruce). One tyst was for love, but the other was for money. Richard falls for the poor girl, Mia, yet he dreams of becoming a rich playboy. When the wealthy Emily discovers the duplicity, she frames Mia into signing documents that eventually get her thrown into prison. Once Mia is released, she uncovers the conspiracy and seeks revenge against those ruined her life. This is how I remember most of the information being from the original press release except for Guy Busick being headwriter. In the 1990s, when Fox launched some English language novelas, La Madrastra was the source material for Forever, which starred Maria Maynet and Mark Schneider. There were two other novelas, Acapulco Bay (which is preserved online I believe and is a variation on Tu o Nadie) and The Guilt (La Culpa).

Sean Young was slated to appear in The Art of Betrayal opposite Gordon Thomson, but they were replaced by Tatum O'Neal and Clive Robertson when they rebranded it Wicked, Wicked Games. There were a couple of recasts from the pilot/vignettes to production. Bo Derek's Maria Gianni was originally played by Riley Forbes. There was a clip of her in the role years ago and I think Maria's original surname was different. Julissa Miro originally had the Juliet role in Saints & Sinners, which was originally titled A Dangerous Love. There were two more that were in pre-production when the projects were terminated. One was called Rule of Deception and I think it was to be set in Miami. I think followed a woman returning home after many years in prison. The vignette casting had Annaleigh McCord and Dylan Bruce in the roles with an African American female lead, Rachelle Woods. Another show was announced, but had been put off for a version of Crossed Loves. I want to say the scrapped or delayed novela was a version of Como en el Cine. The description I found for it was a woman fakes being a psychiatrist and falls in love with a wealthy man. The name was Friends and Enemies. In the original press release, American Heiress was called To Love & Die, though the original it was based on was La Heredera. Thanks! I also noticed you uploaded Carson's Law. Thanks!

Caldwell House comes into play in summer of 1985 under Avila Mayer and Braxton. It was again a historic home, and it was a bed and breakfast. I believe it was intended to give Jo a set as she hadn't had a business since the Riverboat exploded in June, 1984. She was then taking college classes, hosted the murder mystery party, and attended town council meetings but I don't think she had a permanent job per se. So that would have been over 3 years after they torched the inn. Caldwell House isn't open long because of the flood. Probably six months. I thought the kitchen set was nice. Prior to this, they had Jo in that small little attic looking apartment so this was a step up. I really liked the kitchen set. I don't think bringing Patti back was a bad idea. I don't think Jacqui Schultz was the right actress, but I don't think they were going to cast someone age appropriate. I do think Jo having a daughter on canvas outweighed the obvious issues, but I don't like Patti and Hogan personally. The bigger issue is that there were just no real strong males on the canvas in her age range. I think they should have brought back Len, even if it was for a short run, to play out the paternity reveal involving Chris. Too bad Ryder's background was so well established as I think I would have liked Adam Storke as Chris Whiting.

Dorothy Peterson was Mary Shaw C.M. Gampe was Dr. Taylor.

As someone who didn't like the concept of Martin and Jo, I felt there was something about them in the late 1983 episodes I've seen where Martin is in the hospital after being shot by Vargas (I think) where I see a bit of a spark between Aniston and Stuart. I do think Maree Cheatham and Aniston were gold. A Martin / Stephanie / Lloyd triangle would have been quite fun. Revisiting the 1981 weekly summaries, I think ending it in 1982 would have been bleak, not that ending in 1986 was less bleak. Personally, I like the stretches I've watched of Tomlin's first run and most of the 1985 episodes that I'm happy the show lasted.

When the shows first aired, I followed them. The production looked decent compared to daytime, but I know a lot of people have knocked the look. I thought action novelas were a bit better than the campier ones though I do wish all of them were available for viewing as I would like to watch Wicked Wicked Games again even though I preferred Watch Over Me at the time. The early novelas (Fashion House and Desire) featured too many flashbacks and character episodes to bring people in. I liked the wedding event they promoted for Fashion House, but overall I thought Fashion House fell flat. I enjoyed Desire a bit more, but there were so many stories featured that it probably wasn't the easiest thing to follow for a casual viewer. I watched Saints and Sinners in its entirety this summer as I had never seen the ending episodes because the show was cut off. I enjoyed it in a cheesy, plot heavy way. I thought the main romance between Roman and Julie was silly, but I really liked the secondary romance between psuedo priest Father Marcus and the devout Catholic Pilar. I thought the hotel stuff was interesting enough with Sylvia and Diandra. I thought a lot of the scheming worked. A lot of overacting (Robin Givens, Maria Conchita Alonso) and a lot of underacting (Tyler Cain and Scott Bailey). I tried to start rewatching Watch Over Me as I thought it was fun at the time, but I didn´t get past the first few episodes. I might revisit it later in the year if it remains up. There were a lot of actors who popped up there that I thought were good and got some more work later on (Robert Buckley, Natalie Martinez, Jaime Alexander) and others who popped up later on daytime (Jon Prescott, Scott Elrod) and others who I thought deserved more recognition (Jessie Ward, Kelly Albanese).