kalbir

On the Bill Bell summer storyline vein, would Danny Romalotti apply?

You're skipping most of the off rails plus budget mode years.

Are you going to be continuing on to the tanking years?

One of several sweet young things that the CBS primetime soaps got on the cheap in the off the rails plus budget mode era. See also Cathy Podewell, Kimberly Foster, Lar Park Lincoln, Andrea Thompson.

Khan, you are killing me 🤣

1993/94 Home Improvement peaked, Seinfeld blew up, NYPD Blue premiered. 1994/95 Seinfeld reached #1, ER and Friends premiered and they were the breakout hits of the season, NYPD Blue peaked. ER also became the highest-rated drama across the broadcast networks and it would remain so until 2000/01. 1995/96 ER reached #1 and Friends blew up. ER was the first drama since Dallas to have three seasons as the #1 show. Fun fact, the three #1 seasons of Dallas and ER are each separated by 15 years: Dallas #1 1980/81, 1981/82, 1983/84; ER #1 1995/96, 1996/97, 1998/99. NBC Thursday 20 year dominance of primetime I divide in two eras: Cosby/Cheers era and Seinfeld/ER/Friends era. I hold the Cosby/Cheers era in much higher regard than the Seinfeld/ER/Friends era. The Cosby Show saved both NBC as a network and sitcoms as a genre. As I've pointed out before, NBC was very fortunate in the Seinfeld/ER/Friends era that both CBS and ABC had primetime mess eras and that's how NBC was able to get away with scheduling forgettable shows at Thursday 8:30 pm and Thursday 9:30 pm that still finished in the Top 10.

@j swift Now I'm reminded of when The Simpsons spoofed Who Shot JR with Who Shot Mr. Burns and there was even a reference to Dallas season 9 finale.

30 years ago today (May 20), one NBC Thursday era ends and another begins. Seinfeld: The Pilot (season 4 finale), rating 21.3. Season high. Cheers: Last Call, rating 39.6. Cheers: One for the Road (series finale), rating 45.5. Highest-rated episode of the series.

Bill Bell dusted off Liz/Stuart/Jill with Beth/Eric/Brooke on B&B. Vixen daughter all about the come up becomes involved with the upper class/wealthy man that her working class mother loves.

@Paul Raven CBS soap block in the Eastern time zone from September 17, 1979 to February 1, 1980 was noon Y&R, 12:30 pm Search for Tomorrow, 1 pm local programming, 1:30 pm As the World Turns, 2:30 pm Guiding Light, 3:30 pm One Day at a Time reruns, 4 pm Love of Life. The new schedule on December 3, 1979 would probably be noon local programming, 12:30 pm Y&R, 1:30 pm As the World Turns, 2:30 pm Guiding Light, 3:30 pm Search for Tomorrow, 4 pm One Day at a Time reruns. Search for Tomorrow would have been killed by the second half of General Hospital. The schedule we got on February 4, 1980 was noon local programming, 12:30 pm Search for Tomorrow, 1 pm Y&R, 2 pm As the World Turns, 3 pm Guiding Light, 4 pm One Day at a Time reruns. As we all know that soap line up didn't work and on June 8, 1981 the soap line up became 12:30 pm Y&R, 1:30 pm As the World Turns, 2:30 pm Search for Tomorrow, 3 pm Guiding Light, and the rest is history.

Halfway through May and its definitely May sleeps.

William Devane had a commanding presence from his first episode, but I don't think he took over the show. Of Greg's main pairings (Abby, Laura, Paige), the only one I thought was genuine love was Laura.

Sharon's lowest point as a character was the three-way who's the daddy.

Another Dynasty/90210 parallel a decade apart, replacement characters Amanda/Valerie. The biggest Dynasty/90210 parallel were the departures of Pamela Sue Martin and Shannen Doherty. I felt the cast dynamics were off on both shows after their respective departures and both shows weren't really the same after, despite Dynasty lasting 5 more seasons and reaching #1 in 1984/85, and 90210 lasting 6 more seasons. The two big Dynasty/Melrose parallels were Joan Collins arrival/Heather Locklear arrival which was when both shows became the shows as we know them, and Royal Wedding Shootout/Melrose Place bombing, where both shows tanked in the aftermath but still lasted 4 more seasons.

@Soapsuds Knots Landing being more community-based, its not the the type of soap you'd expect to see a messy wealthy matriarch.

@Soapsuds What did you think of Ava Gardner's arc?

Spring 1985 was the zenith of primetime soaps as a genre.

Val/Gary/Ben was a well-crafted triangle with conflict between two very different types of love. Val's love for Gary was that of a young girl's first love that was supposed to last forever but it didn't. Val's love for Ben was that of a grown woman moving on with her life.

His exit storyline sucked but I liked Ben and Val together. He loved her enough to raise another man's children as his own.

Maybe. I guess we could include Cally in that category. Did JR even have a genuine love? He started with long-suffering younger wife Sue Ellen, next there were numerous side pieces, then a considerably younger wife Cally, women from the past re-enter his life, and at the end of the original series he's all alone.

$$$$ JR was never a romantic leading man.

I agree. Sally made Chelsea redundant.

The charts have felt off for a long time. Sometimes I wonder if they are even still relevant in the streaming, Spotify, TikTok era.

Lets be real here, we don't watch an Aaron Spelling show for high quality writing and acting. When watching one of his shows you have to go in with the mindset that you are not going to get high emotional stakes character driven storytelling.

Dynasty was the epitome of Reagan-era excess and greed. It's quite telling that its run pretty much overlapped with the Reagan presidency. First episode January 12, 1981 was 8 days before Reagan took office and last episode May 11, 1989 was 111 days after Reagan left office.