kalbir

Do we really want to see Bradley butcher one of his father's best storylines?

I know this thread is for Murder She Wrote, but I think appreciating Angela Lansbury's other work won't derail the thread that much.

When looking at 1980s ratings, it's clear that the first half of the 1980s is when hour long dramas dominated and the second half of the 1980s is when sitcoms dominated.

All of them in this thread so far 🤣

Do not give Bradley ideas :shudder

Aaron Spelling was clearly a fan of Dionne Warwick, as she also gave The Love Boat's theme a mid-1980s R&B sound for its final season.

@Soapsuds What a find! I had no idea there was a CBS soaps week on The Price is Right in 1985. When TPiR was reran on Game Show Network, they showed the 1983 CBS soaps week where Michael Damian and Steven Ford were part of the Y&R episode.

The Monroes was head-to-head w/ Seinfeld. It stood no chance. 1995/96 ABC and CBS tried to revive primetime soaps on their networks (The Monroes and Central Park West respectively) but they were epic failures.

Y&R, more garbage time, yuck. At least there's March Madness break. Looks like B&B's 35th anniversary will be the same old.

If they had, we might not have gotten Dr. Kimberly of Melrose.

Head-to-head w/ Cheers and Night Court. The Colbys had no chance of succeeding. Aaron Spelling must have been losing his clout w/ ABC by 1985/86, as he was down to only four shows on the network: The Love Boat (which would end in spring 1986), Dynasty, Hotel, The Colbys. You'd think the ABC primetime schedulers would've placed Dynasty and The Colbys back-to-back on Wednesdays, as the audiences for both shows were the same. For whatever reason Aaron Spelling didn't insist on that.

So at some point in the last 25 years Keemo

True. The Jabot/Newman corporate battles were more for the Jack/Victor feud.

Bill Cosby used his clout with NBC to get A Different World the lead out time slot from The Cosby Show and NBC agreed because they were so indebted to Bill Cosby for saving their primetime lineup. The fortunes of A Different World were clearly tied to that of The Cosby Show.

You're welcome re blog post. When I started the thread and saw the list of time slot hits that were Friends/Seinfeld lead outs, some of those shows I had no memory of at all. A Different World is probably the ultimate time slot hit. Five seasons as The Cosby Show lead out, and four of those seasons in the Top 5. A Different World fell out of the Top 10 when The Cosby Show fell out of the Top 10, and it fell out of the Top 30 when it longer had The Cosby Show as its lead in.

CBS at least tried in primetime, with Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0) and David Lim (SWAT). His mother is Indonesian and Dutch.

Earlier in the thread we talked about the numerous time slot hits that were Friends/Seinfeld lead outs. NBC's Must-See TV Comedy Thursdays: The "Hammock" Shows | The Barrel of Forty (terrencemoss.blogspot.com) I liked this blogger's comment that NBC could've aired test patterns as Friends/Seinfeld lead outs and they would still finish in the Top 10.

The Victor/Jack conversation in today's show had me thinking about a couple things from the past. While Victor can't normally stand Jack and Billy, he respected their father John Abbott. I don't know if Bill Bell ever explored this, but I wonder if Victor's respect of John Abbott was because of John's business acumen or that John was the good father that Victor didn't have and Victor tried to be. Another thing I wonder if Bill Bell ever explored, Victor maybe being jealous of Jack for having a normal family life for most of his childhood, which Victor never had. Yes Dina abandoned her family, but Jack at least had John, Ashley, Traci, and Mamie, whereas Victor had nobody.

CBS for it's impact on the genre, but I will admit that ABC and Days had a bigger impact in terms of soaps being a part of pop culture.

Knots Landing had one season in the Top 10 (1984/85), one season in the Top 15 (1983/84), two seasons in the Top 20 (1982/83, 1985/86), four seasons in the Top 30 (1979/80, 1980/81, 1986/87, 1988/89), and six seasons below the Top 30 (1981/82, 1987/88, 1989/90 to 1992/93). Also remember that Knots Landing had time slot competition from critically acclaimed Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law, and a brief period it had time slot competition from Top 10 sitcoms Cheers and Night Court. If Knots Landing was able to last further into the 1990s, it would've been clobbered by ER. CBS's attempt at new primetime soaps in the 1990s (2000 Malibu Road, Angel Falls, Hotel Malibu, Second Chances, Central Park West, Four Corners) didn't work and CBS hasn't attempted a primetime soap since.

1985/86 was the season that the primetime soaps started to decline. Lots of factors I think: viewer fatigue, strategic counter-programming, sitcoms making a comeback, weak lead ins.

Jane Wyman (born 1917) and Susan Flannery (born 1939) are of different generations, so that casting doesn't really work. Y&R's original messy wealthy matriarchs Dorothy Green (born 1920), Jeanne Cooper (born 1928), and K.T. Stevens (born 1919) were age-appropriate to be the matriarch on a 1980s primetime soap. I thought Cynthia Watros should've been a Patty recast in 2013 instead of the new character Kelly which was a waste of her talent.

Yeah, CBS really did Angela Lansbury dirty in 1995/96 after the way she carried the network's primetime lineup over the previous decade. That season CBS's only Top 10 show was 60 Minutes. 1995/96 was also the season where CBS tried to be young and cool with the "You're On" promos but that didn't work so the following season they went to "Welcome Home". Murder She Wrote and Crazy Like a Fox were the only new CBS shows of 1984/85 that returned for 1985/86, and they both were in the 1984/85 Top 10. Crazy Like a Fox was a time slot hit, as it was done once it no longer had Murder She Wrote as it's lead in. I would've loved to be a fly on the wall in the Dallas producers office when the 1985/86 final ratings showed Murder She Wrote ahead of Dallas. Three seasons in the Top 5 (1985/86, 1986/87, 1992/93), five seasons in the Top 10 (1984/85, 1987/88, 1988/89, 1991/92, 1994/95), three seasons in the Top 15 (1989/90, 1990/91, 1993/94) cannot be just from the 50+ audience alone.

Same here.

@Soapsuds I think this thread is for acting ability, not glow ups LOL