kalbir

ABC having the World Series and Winter Olympics in 1987/88 played a big part in them moving up to 2nd. 1987/88 was also the peak of Growing Pains and Who's the Boss, plus the premiere of The Wonder Years, and Moonlighting was still going strong. That's why I refer to Miami Vice as the new hotness. I pointed out earlier in the thread that NBC probably got too overconfident from Miami Vice Top 10 finish in 1985/86 that they moved it up 1 hour in Fall 1986 but Miami Vice did not do the job in 1986/87 that NBC wanted it to do (clobber Dallas). Those February 1984 ratings were a month before Kate & Allie premiered and Kate & Allie was the only sitcom to finish in the Top 10 in 1983/84. Agree that Fall 1984 was the start of the sitcom revival.

Nobody wants to see Nikki climbing the pole 🤣

@Tonksadora You're welcome. In that article Maureen Garrett mentions 20 years working together, so she must be counting from her first episode in 1976 to MZ last episode in 1997. Sadly so little of their 1976-1980 storylines are out there. It's too bad Ellen Parker wasn't interviewed in that article. I wonder if she has ever commented on the Roger/Maureen dynamic.

I know Katherine/Marge got JC a Lead Actress Emmy nomination in 1990 but it wasn't one of Bill Bell's finest hours. It was one of those second/third tier storylines of 1989, 1990 that Bill Bell gave to the main females that were not Cricket or Cassandra. SOD had Katherine/Marge as worst dual role in the 1990 Best and Worst issue, and that storyline probably played a part in Y&R also being named most disappointing show of 1990.

Remember too that ABC was sold to Capital Cities in 1985 and Brandon Stoddard became president of ABC that year, so the business end was probably affecting the programming end.

With the mention earlier of the 30th anniversary of Maureen Bauer's death episode, it reminded me that there are two GL real life death anniversaries this year. May 2 will be 15 years since we lost Beverlee McKinsey and December 6 will be 25 years since we lost Michael Zaslow. I recently came across this 2018 article where some GL cast members shared their memories of Michael on the 20th anniversary of his death.

@sheilaforever Agree that 1997 was hit and miss. I didn't like Thorne falling for Taylor either. I also think KKL's pregnancy leave may have derailed Bradley's original plans for Who Shot Grant.

This might be something that ties in with the 50th anniversary.

@Broderick @Taoboi Agree that Billy needs to be rested. Since the 1999 SORAS, he's been played by 6 actors, that has to be a record.

I remember that and thankfully we were spared. There was some flirtation between Victoria and Brad in 1995 but nothing came of it. Victoria then disliked Brad when he started a relationship with Nikki. I remember a scene where Victoria accused Brad of being with Nikki for clout and listed all his past conquests.

We're stuck w/ AH until Y&R ends unfortunately. Do you think she could have worked as Victoria, or would the audience still have seen her as her Days character? I know Christie Clark literally grew up on Days.

To think some soap names thrown around for Victoria in 2005 were Sarah Brown and Christie Clark.

@Soapsuds The print ad looks like its from 1985. I'm guessing its from TV Guide.

@BoldRestless Thank you so much. You should be knighted 🤗 Victor revealing his real identity is another key moment I've been wanting to see for a long time. I'm still hoping for my two most wanted to surface soon, EB's first episode and Christmas 1981 when we first learn of Victor's childhood. EB has always credited Bill Bell creating the back story of Victor's childhood for his decision to stay on past Victor's initial storyline. Remember Victor was initially a short-term villain and he was a blank canvas of a character because he had no family ties or any other connection to anyone in Genoa City. It was the combination of Bill Bell's writing and EB's acting that made Victor's character arc from villain to anti-hero/romantic leading man successful. With Victor's character arc, I wonder if Bill Bell was influenced by Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights, the brooding anti-hero abandoned as a child.

@Paul RavenCorrection, 1985/86 was Miami Vice second season. 1985/86 was the turning point season of the 1980s. Sitcoms made a comeback, primetime soaps tanked, and action shows got clobbered by counter-programmed sitcoms. The Cosby Show moved up from 3rd to #1 and it was a killer show that destroyed everything in its path (time slot wise and overall). 23 out of 25 episodes finished #1 in the week of their original broadcast, 1 episode finished 2nd, and 1 episode finished 3rd. The Cosby Show once again pulled up the rest of the NBC Thursday comedy block: Family Ties moved up from 5th to 2nd, Cheers moved up from 12th to 5th, Night Court moved up from 20th to 11th. Murder, She Wrote continued to defy expectations and moved up from 8th to 3rd, becoming CBS's highest-rated scripted program and the highest-rated drama across the broadcast networks. Murder, She Wrote finished ahead of all the primetime soaps and action shows, and it even finished ahead of the new hotness Miami Vice. I don't think any CBS primetime viewer back then would've thought that sweet unassuming Angela Lansbury would be the one to knock big bad Larry Hagman off the throne at CBS. The Golden Girls was the breakout hit of the season and it breathed new life into NBC's Saturday lineup. With the Thursday comedy block and The Golden Girls, NBC had the sitcom game on lock for the rest of the decade. Who's the Boss moved to the lead 8 pm time slot for ABC Tuesday and it took off, giving ABC it's first Top 10 comedy since Three's Company. New comedy Growing Pains benefitted from the Who's the Boss lead in and finished in the Top 20 and second season drama Moonlighting (which had moved up from 10 pm to 9 pm) also benefitted from it's new lead ins and finished in the Top 30. ABC Tuesday had rebounded that season. 1985/86 saw NBC move up to #1, CBS drop to 2nd, and ABC once again finish 3rd. With the 1985/86 drop to 2nd, CBS needed to start fixing their lineup. This season they ended one fading and aging drama (Trapper John, M.D.), a drama that showed no signs of growth during its run (Airwolf), and a short-lived drama that couldn't maintain it's initial success due to counter-programming (Crazy Like a Fox). With the drop of Dallas from 2nd to 6th, the Top 10 fallouts of Simon & Simon, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest, and the Top 30 fallout of Magnum, P.I., CBS should have realized that primetime soaps and action shows were no longer the big genres and given the shows an end date to have enough time to wrap up all their storylines. CBS continued to struggle with sitcoms as 1985/86 was the second consecutive season where they didn't renew any of their new sitcoms. Newhart and Kate & Allie were their only successful sitcoms since the end of the M*A*S*H/Sunday comedy block era and they were being overshadowed by the big NBC and ABC sitcoms.

Y&R reads like 10% good, 90% garbage time. Can't believe this is the lead up to the 50th anniversary.

We know Falcon Crest was big on casting Golden Age Hollywood stars for short arcs, but this YT video I came across points out some influences from classic films. The influences for Falcon Crest are mostly new to me as I don't think they've been discussed here before (most of the classic film influences for Dallas and Knots Landing have been discussed in their respective threads). Falcon Crest took elements from James Bond movies (international crime group, henchwomen, war criminals) but I can't pinpoint a specific James Bond movie that influenced any of the storylines. I think it was mentioned here that the season four war crimes storyline might have influenced by Raiders of the Lost Ark.

@Paul Raven Agree. Another missed opportunity was Ashland/Diane.

@Soapsuds All the Housewives shows are OTT 🤣 @NothinButAttitude Miami is worth following for Larsa Pippen/Marcus Jordan. I'm waiting for her to get called out and put on blast for the optics of that relationship.

I so thought we would get a Nate/Imani hookup. She was so thirsty shooting the shot at him. It looked like we were going to get a Noah/Audra hookup but it seems Noah (and by extension Allie) storyline has diminished.

I think we'll see a Nate/Victoria hookup.

There were four Friends of Jill from 1991-1993: Vincent Irizarry, Justin Deas, Marcy Walker, Marj Dusay. That same era also saw Mark Derwin become a Friend of Jill as I think she brought him over to One Life to Live.

The Leslie/Lorie confrontation where Lorie realizes Leslie is pregnant by Lance but trying to pass the child off as Lucas's would have been more powerful without Leslie being on the verge of collapse and Lorie shrieking. Compare that confrontation to Ashley/Nikki at the ranch where Nikki confronts Ashley about being involved with Victor. Ashley is trying to hold it together while Nikki gets in her face but there's no collapsing or shrieking in that confrontation.

@YRfan23 Bradley's version wasn't an exact redo of his father's work, but most of the elements were there.

@Paul Raven It makes sense to have 1973-1979 as the Growing Years and 1980-1982 as the Surviving Years.