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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).

@Paul Raven I don't know if we have ever determined a definitive departure for Dana Andrews. I tried looking again today and only came across an article from late December, 1970, stating that Mark Miller was replacing Dana Andrews on "Bright Promise." I'm pretty sure they meant that Miller's Howard Jones was the new adult male lead assuming the role from Dana Andrews' Tom Boswell. In the episode synopses I posted, Tom is around through at least July 7, 1970. They are already playing Howard Jones and Ann Boyd later in the month. I remember Eric James (ex-Jim Boswell) said that neither Andrews nor himself were happy with the show and that they had been promised something more topical than they got. The episode synopses for the April 1970 sequence on IMDb sound a bit provocative for the time, but maybe James and Andrews wanted more. Jim's drug use and suicide attempt would have been considered pretty extreme for the time. Those April summaries are intriguing as it suggests that the shift was at the six months mark with Sandy's divorced parents Isabel and Howard Jones arrive in April as well as Bill quitting the university and Sandy dropping out of school. Earlier, the question of the writers came up. Soap World lists Frank & Doris Hursley, Rick Edelstein, and Robert J. Shaw as the headwriters. Given the work depboy did on the writers of General Hospital, I do wonder if there wasn't a rotation of weekly writers that guided the show. The Hurlseys script collections has character sequences listed through episode 309, which looks like it would be late November / early December, 1970.

@Khan Oh don't worry! Don Chastain had the NASA footage he planned to use for his proposed storyline in the closet of his apartment. Also, the explosion at Hartford House is late January/early February, 1982. So this wasn't Chastain, it was Ralph Ellis and Eugenie Hunt.

I think I only watched a bit of season 1 of Jackson's Wharf, which wasn't terrible but wasn't my cup of tea at the time. As I recall, the second season was more of a traditional cop show while the first one was more soap opera. As you get on, I believe a lot of the racier material becomes the subject of a bit of meta commentary as it usually is set in the ad agency and there is talk about what is appropriate and all the ad campaigns seems to involve T&A. Not that this is better than the early parts, but it at least seems to flow slightly better. The first season revamp is odd with Annie Jones character. I do feel the surreal elements of the second season do work for a bit before they don't. Also this and Number 96 will be airing on Foxtel starting tomorrow https://tvtonight.com.au/2026/02/soap-classics-number-96-chances-to-replay-on-foxtel.html

I have about ten scripts for it (#4, 9-14, 16-20). In addition, I have the drafts of episode #12-13 written by the original writers before Lakin took over. Rita Lakin reused a little bit of those episodes, but heavily rewrote them. In both versions, episode #12 is called Identity Crisis, but episode #13 was called The Naked Towers of Ilium or something of that nature. Wikipedia lists it as episode #20, but that is inaccurate. The last episode I have, #20, is called Uncoupled and deals the rift in Don and Helen Walling's marriage after the scandal of David Valerio's death and the episode ends with the couple agreeing to stay together for appearances. I've never really deep dived into them because they tended to be a bit dry, but that was many years ago. I also have a character bible for the show from the first set of writers. I don't think much of the show visually has popped up but may be a promo years ago. I do think someone who posted here years ago and use to post a lot on YouTube had it. The Friday night slot was very short lived. While Lakin's team rewrote episodes #12-13, episode #14 was announced as the launch of the new soapier Executive Suite which was suppose to focus more on the interpersonal, romantic, and family relationships and less on the inner workings of the Cardway Corporation. Only a handful of episodes aired in the slot before it was cancelled at the end of January with episode #20 most likely in production already (I have the call sheets for the episodes as well). The show wasn't given time, but it was also ranking in the bottom two spots for the week for most of the Friday episodes. When it was launched, the network said that Executive Suite was in response to the massive success of Rich Man, Poor Man the previous year. There were several other book related series that season which also didn't score well.The original production team was touting that they were airing up to 9 different stories in a single episode, which was probably too many. Also, the cast seems quite large. Lakin trimmed it down, extended the David Valerio story which was originally only 4 episodes (he appeared in 8), and then introduced Kim Hamilton as one of the board members wives. I believe that Executive Suite's original slot was Mondays at 10, but that All in the Family and Maude were loved to a different slot

Don Chastain was working off of Harding Lemay's outlines the entire time he was with the show. He said he made some choices here and there, with some nuance, but that he was fired when his first set out longstory was submitted. He planned on having Travis Sentell join NASA and go into outer space. I suspect this may have been the original plan for Operation Sunburst before it became whatever it was suppose to be. Chastain is briefly replaced by two writers who are assumed to be Millee Taggart and Courtney Sherman, who are credited in the newspaper as being the Ellises later script writers. Taggart and Sherman didn't do much, but I remember reading that they were being credited with writing the tale end of the Hong Kong sequence because the sequence overlapped with the Ellises material and it had been pre-taped. I think the switch to the Ellises was to beef up the hype for the move to CBS as it was announced in the same press releases as NBC acquiring the show. There were definitely flourishes that were uniquely his. Supposedly, the Halloween, 1981, episode included a drunk Stu Bergman encountering a lifesized rabbit (presumably someone in a Halloween costume). This was the same month (October, 1981) that Stu learned that Ellie had run off with the chef. Some other misfires by Chastain included murdering Mignon Sentell after recently bringing her back. Some of Chastain's work definitely sounds like Lemay as Mignon returned and was immediately obsessed with making Roger Lee Sentell her new Travis. Lemay claimed he and Bunim argued over a rape plot that ended up appearing after he left when Garth Taper's maid, Vicky Curtis, was sexually attacked by I believe the creepy character Peter Burnell played, but maybe I'm confusing the years. I'm not even sure Don Chastain wrote Max's exit as it would have been very close to the time he departed the show (November 1981). @VelekaCarruthers Chastain had a returning Brian Emerson involved in a boxing story, which was pretty well received in the press. I think there was always a sorta homoerotic undercurrent to the Brian / Spence dynamic, but I am not sure if that carried over onscreen to the boxing story. Larry Joshua probably started as Brian before Gene Pietragallo wrapped it up as I seem to recall Gene is promo pictures in the boxing ring. @Tisy-Lish I have not seen Mary Stuart as Kate, but I think they missed an opportunity in 1983 not making Vargas' Kate's son. It would have given even more depth to the kidnapping tale if Vargas' mother had ties to Martin just as Martin was dealing withthe revelation that Steve Kendall was his biological son.

I think I read either in some fan recount or some newspaper article that Secrets of Midland Heights had been developed for daytime, which is why some of the early episodes were so slow. Though, I may be confusing it with Behind the Scenes which had initially been conceived to be stripped nightly (hence the half hour slot) but a change in presidency at the network ended those plans. I have a script somewhere for Secrets of where Melora Hardin's character is revealed to be the product of her father's affair with an African American dancer. I don't think the character learned of her maternity, but someone did, maybe her brother who I think was played by Lorenzo Lamas. I think this was one of the show's unaired episodes.

I was pretty faithful to the show from November 2008 until the opening of the Horton Square when MarDar started and then slowly fell off. The transition was definitely noticeable, but it was also surprisingly a solid period because they trimmed the stories down to only a few orbits (the baby switch, Daniel and Chloe's affair, the Phillip / Melanie / Stephanie triangle, a Kiriakis / Dimera feud, and the marital troubles of Bo and Hope). A lot of the side stuff would be teased, but was never completely explored. Ariana #1 worked as a waitress at the Brady Pub for Max in one of those low key introductions that the show was commonly doing during this period. There was an immediate connection between Ariana and Rafe, but it was initially kept vague. At the time, the show was still claiming that Rafe had been sent to live with the nuns because he had been in trouble when he was younger. I belief Pat Brown Crawford appeared once or twice as the nun who had looked after him. I don't think it was ever mentioned again after 2009 that Rafe was raised by nuns, but I may be wrong. Anyway, the show wasn't doing anything with Chelsea or Max at the time, and the Ariana / Max stuff felt significant because they immediately paired Ariana and Brady when Max left and Brady became Melanie's defacto big brother. Maybe they were considering recasting Max because I could see Max being involved with Ariana, who was involved as an undercover drug operative working fairly well given Max's family ties. Owen, as I recall, also had a similar low key introduction working in the Kiriakis garden, which was featured fairly often that year. I want to say someone even got married there, but I might be wrong on that. Anyway, Owen was a pawn in the Dimera / Kiriakis war which included Stefano assuming a Greek barista had poisoned him at Java Cafe because he got sick afterwards only to learn he had diabetes. I thought the show was a hoot, but it was definitely not everyone's cup of tea.

Never mind, you were referring to the Inn sequences. The Corringtons did the town council story. They brought on Ted Adamson, who was Jo's opponent in the race. Adamson was looking to develop some property and thought being on town council would make the process go smoother. This is why Jo keepsreferencing not wanting Henderson to change. Also, Sunny Adamson, Travis Sentell, Bobby Stuart, and Marc D'Antoni were all Corrington cast additons. It was jarring to see Marcia McCabe hanging all over Christopher Goutman as I don't know if they wereinvolved offscreen yet. Goutman was a decent enough actor. He is laid back here and very frantic in the little bit I've seen of him as George St. John in the final year of Texas. Jo remains on the council through at least 1984 or maybe into 1985. It was one of the reasons she was involved in the intiial TR story as it intersected with some of the Brian's work in the police department and she had tries to the council. I remember at least once in the late fall of either 1984 or 1985 Jo was "off at a council meeting." I do think it would have been interesting to have made that an important part of the flood story with Jo handling the government end. Maybe she did and I forget.

The early episodes of Chances, from what I recall, were very narrow in their focus with all the threads coming out of the lotto story. I don't think there was really enough meat to that story to carry it the way they wanted to. I liked a lot of the potential slightly later on in the first ten episodes when they introduced George Mallaby as a villain who I felt could have carried the show's plots forward and added much needed story and energy to the series, but I may not completely understand the appeal of the Aussie soaps. I had forgoten about the ending of the original telefilm. It did feel vvery cheesy though I did appreciate the circular reference you mentioned to the bedroom window which I thought was nicely shot. I thought Kimberly Davenport was a hard sell as the female lead in the main triangle because the writing was so harsh and Davenport seemed to play into the character's brusque nature rather than finding ways to soften her. Maybe that's more fault of the writing. Rhys Muldoon was attracted and made a nice loveable loser, but I'm not sure if he could carry the show dramatically against Jeremy Sims. I think the setup of Alex - Charlie - Ben by the time the stories really start to gel is great. I think it foolish to quickly dump Olivia Hamnett's Rhonda Scott who was a much needed level of social snobbery given that so much of the show was hinging on the fish out of water element of the Taylors moving to the affluent neighborhood. I don't remember much of what happens at the ad agency but I remmber recognizing Sydney Jackson (the ad agency head) from his work on New Zealand soap Jackson's Wharf. I also had recognized Gary Day and Yvonne Lawley from Gloss. Patsy Stephen was fine as Angela and I seem to recall her life in those early episodes is slightly different than her later life. In the original run, she has a kid, that seems forgotten once they revamp. I also remember thinking a lot of the setup was decent (Jack as the wealthier brother having to deal with his younger brother now having an excessive amount of money, the setup of the Geoff / Phillipa police stuff in connection with Jack running a private security company with Chris, and con man Eddie returning now that the family had money). None of it ever really popped though. A lot of the second generation Taylors were bland overall or didn't have strong enough stories. As much as I thought the younger trashy sister Sharon was fun, I can't recall any of her story.

He did appear in a couple episodes. I think there may have been a longer story planned for Wes Ramsey. As I recall, Owen had a twin brother who wasn't seen onscreen except for in a picture (I believe being held by Gordon Thompson's character) which I felt was the next part of the story (Stephanie and the twin falling in love). During this time, the show was trying (several times) to tell a romance where the male romantic lead's family member had a complicated past with his female love interest. The original plan was for a slightly older nuWill (when we got Dylan Patton) who would have been paired with Melanie who would have had issues do to Melanie and Nick's past. Once they dumped Ramsey, the story played out with Melanie and Nathan (again with Nick's past). Had the Owen's twin stayed, I could see the father (Walter?) returning. When Owen was introduced, they also introduced Felisha Terrell as Ariana, who initially worked for Max and seemed set for a romance with him. Stephanie had also made it clear that, despite being interested in Phillip, that she was still not over Max. They also could have gone a Philip / Stephanie / Max / Ariana quad The show would try out a lot of things in this period and some stuck and some were abandoned. There was definitely multiple directions for Stephanie before they committed to the Stephanie / Nathan / Melanie / Phillip quad.

Thanks @DRW50 . It's nice to get a glimpse of this, though I agree with @te. I expect that if it ever did turn up it would be disappointing. There seems to be a lot of press regarding Beacon Hill in the papers with mixed reviews and lots of ongoing discussion of what wasn't working and more post-mortem analysis of why things didn't work out. In a very little sense, the show was cancelled the weekend of October 25th after two weeks of disastrous ratings against the World Series. The October 14th episode The Million Dollar Gate had a rating of 9.77 and a 17 share; this landed it the position of the lowest rated nighttime show for the entire week. The October 21st episode, The Suitors, received a 8.2 rating 13 share. It rebounds pretty quickly the next week with The Test where 10.8 / 20 share but remains among the lowest five shows for the week. There are lots of complaints given about the show. Some people liked the pilot episode, while others thought there was too much focus on sex. The episodes did not air in order, which Jackie Babbin complained about as the second aired episode The Colonel and the Fawn, the episode featured in the promo, was a later episode and Babbin felt it gave the show's audience a false sense of what the show was about as it was another sex heavy episode. Then, they switched episodes at last minute an week three showed The Marblehead Club instead of The Poor Little Thing. The consensus seemed to be that most people thought the show improvied around episode 5, which introduced the speakeasy run by the chaffeur Harry Emmet, an oblivious physically disabled Rob Lassiter, and Grant Piper, the son of the black chef. In addition, there seemed to be some interest around the political storyline as Benjamin Lassiter groomed his son-in-law, Trevor Bullock, for the poltiical world and they backed Peabody Carbury for a political posiiton. The general audience and reviewers felt that Benjamin Lassiter was a clearly a thinly veiled Joseph Kennedy, which everyone involved in production claims was false. They did, however, say that the Lassiter sisters were based on the Cushing sisters. There was lot of coverage about the production. Costumes had to be made, not rented, because there was supposedly nothing around from that era, which sounds suspect. There were live plants and freshly baked food in scenes. The production team would scour junkyards looking for authentic pieces to polish and restore in order to create authenticity and accuracy. A butler was hired as a consultant to explain how the staff should act. There seemed to be some consultants who were brought over from England by the executive producer, Beryl Vertue, including Jean Marsh and John Harkesworth. Vertue stated that Harkesworth worked on the last produced episode, the unaired The Visit about Charlotte Hacker arriving from England to critique how the Americans ran their household. It sounds a little bit meta by that point. After the cancellation, there were lots of complaints about the writing by actors who seemed to think things fell off after pilot and that the scripts were so bad that Jackie Babbin had to tell the cast to stop laughing when writers were on set. Some felt things got better towards the end. There were structural complaints as well. Some that have already been stated and restarted over the years about how it was unlikely that nouveau riche Irish would be living on Beacon Hill in 1920s. Some point out that there wasn't enough of a distinction between the social classes from the clothes theywrote to the amount of intermixing between the two groups. Others pointed out that the Irish staff serving in an Irish household really ignored the complexities and interconnection of race, ethnicity, religion, and class in American. It was suggested that even a wealthy Jewish family with Irish servants would have allowed more of that to come to the surface. At least one early episode hints at some of those possibilities. In The Marblehead Club, Benjamin Lassiter is put up for membership at an exclusive club by his snobby neighbor, Cleveridge, This occurs while Fr. Tom Lassiter, Benjamin's brother, is visiting after 20 years in India with Fr. John Dilip Singh. Tom comments about how men of color are treated and tries to get him out of town. Accustomed to his new homeland, Tom and John walk arm in arm in public causing a stir. The setup is rich in issues of social class, race, societal custom, sexuality and gender roles, and religion but I'm not sure how this was all handled by the scriptwriter David Wiltse. Sidney Caroll, who wrote the pilot, outlined the next 12 episodes, but stated that his outlines were heavily edited and disavowed most of the work after the pilot. There also was ongoing issues with censorship according to Jackie Babbin. In addition, there was quite a bit of back and forth about the general direction of the show. Carroll and Vertue seemed to want a quieter series, while the network wanted somethign bolder. While Vertue loved the final script about the visiting sister, the network didn't like it. Ultimately, Vertue went on to say you couldn't make a show like Upstairs, Downstairs in the States because of the structure of the television industry. The reviews were mixed, but I suspect some of the issues were that the reviewers were mostly male. One even complained that the products advertised in the commercials were female oriented, There is probably a bit of sexism in these. One post-mortem review was hypercritical of Kathryn Walker's acting but devolved into a critique of her looks, which is clearly unnecessary. Paul Rudd seemed to be the stand out new star of the group. George Rose , Beatrie Striaght, and Stephen Elliott were typically cited as among the stronger actors. David Dukes got mixed reviews in the beginning, but was praised later in the run fairly consistently. Another reason I suspect it didn't catch on was the cast was too large. Despite there being 18 or so lead cast members, there were usually at least one additional featured guest star every week to drive the story. I think you could have easily reduced the show to 10-11 cast members by cutting several of the Lassiters (Trevor, Maud, and Rosamond) as well as several of the servants (Terrence, Maureen, and Marilyn). I know Brian and Rosamond were emerging as a major couple, but I would have combined Rosamond and Betsy's roles. Fawn's love Giorgio may also have been expendable in the long run. @Franko Neighbors' score was composed by Bill Conti, a far cry from his Dynasty theme.

@DRW50 A significant amount of From These Roots exist in script form. I believe the University of California Santa Barbara now houses the Provo and Pickard collection which covers the first 580 episodes. Cornell houses the final thirteen weeks written by John M. Young. The only writer who doesn't have an archive, that I know of, is Leonard Stadd. However, 176 of his episodes covering January - Septemebr, 1961, are available in the NBC Archives at the Wisconsin Historical Society. So the only significant gap in scripts is September 26 - December 30, 1961 which would cover the first 14 weeks of Stadd's run. Came across this: @slick jones you might appreciate this.

In May, 1959, the show had wrapped up a story involving Liz Fraser standing trial for the murder of Enid Allen Chambers. Enid was Liz Fraser's romantic rival for the affection of Bruce Crawford, Liz's cosmopolitan finance who had been looking to launch a national news magazine with the help of Enid's money. The Allen family was very well off and were supporting a local medical research facility. During the course of the trial, the lawyers built a strong circumstantial case against Liz before it was revealed that Bruce Crawford was the actual murderer. Bruce's motive was connected to a previous murder he had committed years earlier involving his college roommate, which Bruce believed Enid had uncovered. After the truth came out, Bruce was locked away in a sanitarium. A NBC representative stated this was so they could release Bruce to complicate the story later if they saw fit. With Bruce institutionalized, Liz's romantic story with Buck Weaver was now complicated by the interest of David Allen, the late Enid's twin brother who had initially been introduced into the show as Enid's confidant.

I've only caught a few episodes since my last post so I'll just play catch up on the Phillips family story. In this last set of episodes both Lee Carrouthers and Sebastian Knight have been introduced, which means now each member of the Phillips family has their own separate story as well as the ongoing dramatic tension based on the turmoil over the death of the only son, Kevin Phillips. I feel like Dave is such a solid person which really is a nice way to address the salvation / redemption angle that CBN would want the show to address. Dave's work at the clinic is noble and the introduction of Lucille Figgins, the new nurse, adds a level of comic relief and I hope a sort of low key foil for Ione Redlon. I think Dave's reconciliation with Stacey has been very sweet and tender. It's a nice contrast to the hostile encounter between Dave and Amber weeks earlier. Karen Chapman is a warm presence and a nice addition to the show. Stacey's ambitions at the newspaper are still a simmering story with Stacey complaining about covering very basic stories and then offering to help with the coverage of Lee Carrouthers potential political campaign, but the curmudgeon boss McGovern only wants Gene on the job. I like the camaraderie between Gene and Stacey and Gene definitely gives off a mentor vibe, which works given the larger context of Gene's story with Monk. The ties between the Redlon and Phillips family work well for me. I sorta wish we got something between Amber and Carla because that would be an interesting mash up. Stacey's more calculated side emerges when she starts to put a bug in her mother Kate's ear about he possibility of reconciling with Dave. I don't get the Sami Brady vibes of Stacey wanting her family back together, but more righting the injustice of Kate and Dave's divorce. I believe the divorce rate is high among couples who lost a child. Dorothy Stinettte's Kate is more softer than I expected, but I imagine there could be more brittle bitterness later in the story as I had imagined. Those qualities seem reserved for Amber. Amber is pushing her own agenda wanting Kate with Lee Carrouthers, mostly to keep her mother and father apart. Amber's motive seems to be vengeance for her brother's death, but Kevin is such a shadow rather than an actual figure. His death is the defining moment of his life that overshadows almost anythign else. There is no sense of who he is outside of the dead son and brother, which I think is a missed opportunity. Fleshing out Kevin and his relationship with the other family members would help to not only make the pain over losing Kevin more palpable, but it would enhance the characters through their relationships with him. Amber and Kate would benefit the most from this. Amber emerges as Nancy's successor as one of the cruelest, most heartless people in Kingsley. As the Stacey / Kate / Amber triangle over who Kate shouldend up with builds, Amber undermines her father in a brutal move by mentioning that she was driving to the country club and could only think about how this was the route that Dave took the night he killed Kevin. Amber is such a complicated figure for me. I appreciate that the show seems to give her a more liberated female viewpoint, but it's clearly meant to make her the villainess. She fight with Gil when she pays for breakfast for them. Amber is rarely presented in any other light than as a smooth operator who's obsession over her brother's death doesn't make her as sympathetic as it may be intended. I wish Amber was presented more as Becky was in late 1981 as conflicted young woman with baggage, but also desperately hoping that she could find her happiness. I don't need Amber turned into a simp, but a moment of gentleness outside her sexual relationship with Gil would be nice. A friendship would do her wonders, and that's where I would probably pair Carla and Amber. Also, given the trajectory of Amber's future story, having Amber's thoughts on pregnancy during Carla's story would be fun. Amber's story makes me wonder what would have happened had the Barnes introduced Tony Cardello before they had left. I imagine Vinley would have dumped Vince's gay son pretty quickly, but I also think that Amber, in some ways, might hint at what was to come. Tony would be seen as a threat to the social and moral core of the community and while his point of view might be presented with surprising candor, it would most likely lack depth and complexity. Honestly, Tony as Amber's gay best friend might also have worked especially if they explored a Russ / Amber pairing. Falling further down the hole of speculative soap opera, I think a Amber / Tony friendship would have been an interesting threat for Gil / Amber as I could see Tony as confusing Gil in a number of ways. As Russ' half-brother, there would be built in animosity based on Gil and Russ' history. In addition, if Tony helped Amber with her later situation, I could see Gil being heated over Tony's role in the situation. Also, I don't think Gil would like Amber having a male best friend, even if he was gay. I also think the sexual power dynamics between Amber, Gil and Tony could have been intriguing with Amber always wondering if Tony just hasn't found the right woman, Tony potentially being sexually attracted to Gil, and Gil both despising and loving the attention Tony could provide to him Even if none of this actually developed, I could see the accusations of any of this be lingering in the air as a threat to the dynamics in play. Ultimately though, I would have biggest fight be when a rejected Tony finds God through a friendship with Dave Phillips. Without Vince in his life, I could see Tony looking for a father figure in Dave espceically if Tony had an alcohol problem. Dave would help Tony find religion like Jeff helped Dave. This would make Amber furious. And if a muckracker wanted to distort the relationship between Tony and Dave in order to ruin Lee's political career through the association of Dave's ex-wife, Kate, by showing what type of people she associates with. Though we would probably just get a horrifying AIDS story instead. The political angle is developing as we meet Lee. I don't complete buy the timeline of Lee and Kate's previous romance "last fall" during Lee's campaign, but I do think it would have worked in fall 1981. Kate was away from Kingsley for most of 1982 even if she was never on camera. Lee's campaign will take up a bunch of story space and revisits the political arena that Vinley quickly abandoned the previous year. I do have to wonder if there wasn't a plan, or at least consideration, of writing this story for Jason Prescott instead of Lee. With Jason in the role, you would have had more connections with Terry, Peter, Gil, Gene, Marianne, and a variety of others through his children. I think a past public relationship between Jason and Kate would have had to been addressed earlier, but I think there are ways that this would have enhanced the story. The Jason / Amber / Gil dynamic would fascinate me as I could see Amber seing Jason as a father figure more than Dave. Jason turning over the reigns of Prescott Development in a grander sense with Jason deeper into the political landscape to Gil but still meddling with Amber and Marianne forced to mediate. Terry and Jason having romantic tension while also arguing about Terry's involvement in Marianne and Russ' relationship. Dave and Alex's friendship fueling Dave /Jason tension. I would have loved for Jason to be reimagined as a character who was only publicly devoted to his faith, but continued to do things behind peple's back much like they hinted at but never addressed completely under the Barnes. I think Paul Gleason is solid in the role. I did find it wild that in the first scene between Lee and Sebastian Knight, Lee comments that one day Sebastian will go too far in pursuit of power. I wonder if his role in Kate's fate had already been decided.

There was a lot of story built around Victoria coming back from the dead. Her return in May, 1993, is well staged as it's set in a gothic monastery with incredibly moody lightning. I don't think Victoria really fit into Port Charles and I don't know how they could have kept the Victoria / Bill / Holly stuff going long without being too long. Victoria was definitely treated like a big deal, but I guess that is because she was being paired with Tony Geary. Randolph Mantooth's Richard Halifax and Frank Runyeon's Simon Romero also fall into this category of being tied up in the Holly / Bill romance that sort of quickly faded from into the background. Nikki's initial run is under a year (late January 1992 - late October/early November 1992) before she returns for a week in May 1993. I thought Monica's decision to take in Nikki was driven by Monica's guilt over not telling David about Dawn before David died and the fact that little orphan Nikki had lost her mother and her father several years apart. Nikki felt like an important character under the Riche led headwriterless period, but was quickly dumped by a solo Bill Levinson. The Monty 2.0 era is full of characters that fizzled including Sheila's original love interest Joey Moscini, who was ditched with his uncle and aunt Fred and Angela Eckert. There was also some hype in the press about Brandon Hooper's Dr. Eric Simpson, Sheila's boyfriend, who was A.J.'s rival. He lasted a little more than a year as well.

From the Characters that Fizzled Thread: Yeah, Bree was never a 'real character' or brought on with any fanfare. She was needed for a plot function, but I figured they must have liked Marie Wilson so much that they either created Summer for her or kept her in mind until a role came up. Summer was truly a cursed character, and I'm still unclear what was even the point of bringing her on. They didn't seem to have a clear vision for whether she was supposed to be a rootable character or a villain, and that whole convoluted thing with having known Daniel previously and then falling for Brady, who had Daniel's heart... it was a complete mess. @Michael As you may or may not recall, Bree and Summer were introduced by different regimes. Bree was in the tailend of Tomlin / Whitsell and then Summer appeared a year later in that awkward period of February, 2016, right after Chase Jennings raped Ciara Brady on the Horton couch and Dena Higley took a "sabbatical" until the fall. I think Summer arrived in the mix of the turnover as I recall. I imagine the thought was to introduce another female character of a certain age who was related to the canvas, but not necessarily related to everyone on the canvas. I didn't love Summer, but I didn't like much of the Griffin led months (late February - August, 2016). I think Summer as a con artist and Maggie truly believing that her child was stillborn could have worked, but it would have been a stretch. I also suspect they may have wanted to go the route of having Maggie redeem another schemer, which was effective with Melanie. Summer was dumped very quickly though (around August 2016) as I think she was the one who had kidnapped Tate Kiriakis because Kate had paid her to do it as an act of revenge on Victor, if I recall correctly. That 2015-16 "season" with Griffith & Higley was overrun with confusing, short-run character. They hyped up the casting of Dr. Fynn, played by hot Australian Alexander Bruszt, but they clearly had no vision for the character at all besides "hot" -- they introduced him as an old pal of Daniel's, had him hit on Daniel's fiancée Nicole, sent him on a date with Ava Vitali, and then semi-paired him with Kayla for a hot minute before writing him out. Very weird. And that was the same time period in which they brought on the Hernandez parents -- A. Martinez as Eduardo and Alma Delfina as Adriana -- both of whom flamed out quickly, even though Eduardo made a few weird returns. There was also that lady Blanca, some Hernandez family friend whom Adriana wanted to pair up with Rafe to get him away from Hope. They toyed with her and Jordi Vilasuso's Dario (another one for this thread!) for a minute, then unceremoniously wrote her out and shuffled Dario over to Abigail for a terrible immigration story. Fynn was the result of some contest in Australian meant to hype either the show's return to Australia or some sort of tie in. I don't think there was much thought there other than we have an actor and the hospital crew had been decimated over the last few years. Originally, Fynn was going to be revealed as the drug dealer in some storyline that was going on at the time, but they dumped the filmed scenes and brought back Rory, J.J.'s pal, instead to be the drug dealer. I thought Eduardo as Paige's father was a neat twist and propelled the Gabi / J.J. pairing. Someone briefly set up the Hernandezes with Eduardo and Dario as the low level criminal family in town and I didn' hate it (I think the show tried something similar a year earlier with Clyde and Ben Weston). Adriana never really made sense other than to give the show a complete family unit. I think both she and Blanca were nurses, if I recall correctly. I didn't hate Blanca, but I also didn't lose any sleep when she stopped appearing. There were also a lot of short term characters attached to the younger set stories that I seem to recall from that era. Real Andrews appeared as Jade's father. Zak Henri appeared as Henry, a friend of the younger set who briefly flirted with a much older Paul Narita after Henry had come out to his (offscreen) minister father.