Paul Raven

Nice tribute here https://neptsdepths.blogspot.com/2023/04/fond-farewell-out-of-this-world.html

Well, to me, it was pretty much assumed that Anetra and Sasha would be final 2. Neither of their final lipsyncs were wow for me compared to some past performances by them and other season finalists. Loved Papa Anetra. From Ru's wig/dress to the overall flow it was a bit low key.

Which of course, was free of customers. I've said before , but mostly at CL they do a wide shot which emphasizes that it is empty, but at times the director uses tighter shots which makes it less apparent. Like at Gran Pheonix where Crystal and the guy in tight pants would buzz around but there would be no patrons. Why not have Crystal only and use the money for an extra that she could be attending to? And I found that giant pic of Neil staring down during Phyllis' service to be quite annoying, Neil gets more screentime now than when he was alive.

Maybe Phyllis thinks he's dead but Jeremy is only faking his death ! This is Josh Griffith people-gotta expect these genius twists and turns...

Exactly. They're rich and famous when it suits the plot and otherwise just regular folks. All they had to do was have Abby arrive with one carry bag saying she brought some personal items and the rest of her luggage would arrive soon and maybe joke that she hopes there's enough room for all her clothes. Same as when Victor& Nikki were heading off for the Tuscan wedding and there were a pile of cases in the living room. Umm,I think the staff would have wisked them to the car and not dumped them there. As for Devon, he doesn't seem to have a PA or staff. Surely, all they have to do is establish someone a la Crystal at Grim Pheonix who scurries around from time to time. And who cooks and cleans for him?

Betty ___ Eiler Madeline Sherwood Nov 1971-72 married to Charles ; affair with Stanley Lee Gantry Murderous thief; killed Alice; stole from and gaslit Sara McIntyre with maid Mildred Foss after marrying Sara, then attempted to murder her Ray Fulmer 1968- Sept 70 Maggie ____ Scott Mother of Peggy; wife to Ben, who served in the Korean War and was believed dead; dated Jason Weber; Ben came back; Maggie had affair with Bill, her boss Ben died; Maggie died while Ed operated on her. June Graham August 1965-68 Leslie Jackson Bauer Norris Bauer Lynne Adams March 1966-71; 1973-76

The 'choices' the show makes with plot points have me shaking my head. Phyllis' disguise-really? Nowadays you can do amazing things with prosthetics and makeup and that might have been interesting to see Phyllis unrecognizable. They could even shown the process step by step-that would have been interesting-a la Kay's facelift. Instead they go with glasses and a cheap wig from the Veronica Landers school of disguise and everybody looks like a fool as a result. How did Phyllis just walk in and get that gig?

Yes and they give a lot of information-not just 'Steve makes a decision' or 'Jessie is worried' type of summaries you sometimes see. Of course, this only makes me want the same type of thing for other soaps!

Much was made of famed Hollywood designer Travilla being hired to glam up the costuming. From Dallas Decoder Season 8 brings us “Dallas’s” most famous costume designer: Travilla, who immediately cranks up the glam factor. His looks are often classy, such as the timeless white gown Priscilla Beaulieu Presley sports in “Deliverance” and “Swan Song.” Other Travilla creations are woefully wrong. Example: Linda Gray’s feathery “Deliverance” / “Swan Song” number. Yeah, it’s fun, but it’s also damn distracting. Instead of focusing on Sue Ellen’s meltdown, I keep wondering: How many pillows died to create this dress?

televisionau.com/2010/03 With today marking the 38th anniversary of ‘the night Australian TV lost its virginity’ and the release of the third DVD of Number 96, here’s a brief look at how the Americans adapted Australia’s hit show of the ‘70s for their own market. Envious of the success of super soap Dallas on rival network CBS, America’s NBC approached Network Ten early in 1980 to enter into discussions over acquiring the rights to produce its own version of Number 96. The deal also needed the approval of Bill Harmon, co-producer of the original Number 96, as his company Cash-Harmon Productions jointly owned the rights with Network Ten. Harmon flew to the US to help complete the deal with NBC in mid-1980. NBC debuted its own Number 96 on 10 December 1980, following an advertising blitz that saw the show launched during “96 Week”, with the series debuting over three nights before settling into a weekly Friday night timeslot. Leading storylines in the opening episodes included no less than five seductions, a robbery, a fight, a blackout and an earthquake. But NBC, with America’s strict censorship laws, could not dare to bare as much flesh or uncover such saucy storylines as its Australian original. So the series that saw Australian television ‘lose its virginity’ was a lot more subdued in the US, although it did try to stretch the boundaries with regards to casual discussion of sex, but instead put the emphasis on comedy rather than titillation. Number 96 US co-stars Sherry Hursey and Howard McGillin It also seems that the American producers, while envying the show’s earlier success in Australia, weren’t too impressed with the Australian original. “All we have taken from their series is the title. We got the basic idea from them. We’re not enchanted with the Australian version. We felt it was badly written and badly acted. Their show had broad jokes like we did here 15 years ago. They had very heavy characters. What sold their show was full-frontal nudity,” producer Bob Ellison told TV Week at the time of the US series’ launch. Number 96 US co-stars Todd Susman and Rosina Widdowson-Reynolds The US adaptation was set in an apartment block at 96 Pacific Way, West Hollywood, and included a cast of around 18 actors, though most of them were largely unknown to viewers. Ellen Travolta, John’s sister, played the co-proprietor of the local bar and grill. Other characters in the series included: a beautiful would-be concert pianist who decided that playing the field is the cure for a boring marriage; a retired naval commander who keeps a keen eye on the happenings at 96 through a pair of binoculars; a middle-aged widow who loses far too many inhibitions when she moves into the building; a psychologist with a secret greater than anything his patients, or neighbours, could imagine; a newly-married football hero who gains the amorous attention of his next door neighbour; and, a love-sick policeman who won’t leave his British girlfriend’s apartment. However, despite the larger-than-life storylines and award-winning producers and writers — Ellison and writer David Lloyd had won awards for their work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show — Number 96 was a spectacular bomb in the US. Viewers didn’t take to the comedic adventures of the swinging tenants of the apartment block, and the series was ripped from NBC’s schedule in January 1981 — just as TV Week was reporting on the show’s recent US debut, acknowledging that “initial reports from America on the mid-December screenings were not good. The critics didn’t like the new show. But then, the Australian Number 96 did not number too many critics among its fans”. Number 96 was not to be the only hit Australian series to be re-worked for the American market. Prisoner, which scored airtime across a number of markets in the US, was re-invented as a local series titled Dangerous Women, largely recycling many of the opening characters and storylines from the Australian original. In more recent times, the top-rating comedy Kath And Kim was adapted for NBC, with less than pleasing results.

Found a report from Jan 86 which sums things up re primetime soaps off network In off -network nighttime soap operas which some stations paid dearly for, high prime time ratings did not spell success it syndication. In it second season, Dallas, sold by Lorimar in 92 markets covering 51.7% of the country, and Dynasty, in its first season, sold by Metromedia Producers Corp. in 47 markets covering 48.7% of the country, came out tied with five other shows for 93d, with a 3.4/10. Lorimar's Knot's Landing, seen in 20 markets covering 12.5% of the country, had a 3.3/10.

In March 86,Lorimar ran a full page ad in Variety touting Dallas' success in syndication, but my overall impression was that the soaps didn't do well overall. The fine print states that the figures were taking from various weeks of the season and obviously cherry picked to highlight the positive. I'm sure they could have listed a similar number of markets where the show tanked. I guess one of the measures of syndication success is that the shows can be repeated over and over and maybe once viewers had watched Dallas reruns once, didn't really want to sit through it the following year. In its first year in syndication DALLAS dominated! Market Station Mon -Fri /Rating Share/ Rank In Time Period/ Rating Share W18 -49/ W25 -54 DALLAS WFAA 3:00 PM 11/35 #1 #1 #1 #1 ATLANTA WXIA 4:00 PM 9/31 #1 #1 #1 #1 DENVER KMGH 3:00 PM 5 22 #1 #1 #1 #1 PHOENIX KPNX 3:00 PM 6/26 #1 #1 #1 #2 MEMPHIS WHBQ 3:30 PM 8/26 #1 #1 #1 #1 SAN ANTONIO KENS 11:00 PM 6/27 #1 #1 #1 #1 NORFOLK WTKR 4:00 PM 9/26 #1 #1 #1 #1 TULSA KO1V 3:00 PM 9/36 #1 #1 #1 #1 RICHMOND WXEX 4:00 PM 7/24 #1 #1 #1 #1 WICHITA KAKE 3:30 PM 6/25 #1 #1 #1 #1 JACKSONVILLE WJXT 5:00 PM 16/38 #1 #1 #1 #1 JACKSON, MS WLBT 2:30 PM 10/34 #1 #1 #1 #1 COLUMBIA SC WIS 4:00 PM 11/29 #1 #1 #1 #1 BATON ROUGE WBRZ 9:00 AM 9/32 #1 #1 #1 #1 GREENVILLE WNCT 4:00 PM 11/31 #1 #1 #1 #1 AUGUSTA WJBF 4:00 PM 16/40 #1 #1 #1 #1 CHARLESTON, SC WCSC 4:00 PM 18/42 #1 #1 #1 #1 SAVANNAH WTOC 9:00 AM 14/49 #1 #1 #1 #1 COLUMBUS, GA WTVM 7:00 PM 19/30 #1 #1 #1 #1 McALLEN KRGV 3:00 PM 10/33 #1 #1 #1 #1 BEAUMONT KFDM 3:00 PM 14/46 #1 #1 #1 #1 WHEELING WTRF 4:00 PM 10/24 #1 #1 #1 #1 WICHITA FALLS KAUZ 3:00 PM 7/30 #1 #1 #1 #1 WAUSAU WSAW 10:30 PM 8/31 #1 #1 #1 #1 MACON WMAZ 4:00 PM 16/42 #1 #1 #1 #1 TOPEKA WIBW 3:30 PM 7/30 #1 #1 #1 #1 MISSOULA KECI 12:00 PM 6/35 #1 #1 #1 #1 TYLER KLTV 10:00 AM 9/45 #1 #1 #1 #1 MERIDIAN WTOK 3:30 PM 13/39 #1 #1 #1 #1

Yes, Josh is just tossing away months of story. Abby is on her second divorce and Chance is a very upright guy. I feel it would be natural for them to agree to a reconciliation on that basis alone-Abby not wanting to look foolish for walking out on her second marriage and Chance believing in upholding his wows. Then deal with them trying to rebuild trust. Chance finding himself attracted to someone else and being confused, Abby and Devon trying to avoid each other. Dominic having a medical crisis etc etc Old school 70's writing had couples going through all sorts of twists and turns before splitting up but these days its a few months of courtship, marriage and straight to the divorce.

The recaps are great! Here's how some of the cast were looking around that time. Martin West as Phil. Pat Breslin as Meg. This photo is dated Feb 27 1969 so i guess they were celebrating going into their 7th year.

Yogi Berra was a legend in the baseball scene. Obviously John Beradino's baseball past led to Berra's cameo on GH,Lawrence was his actual first name.

Nikki as a business woman was purely a plot point to be able to include her in scenes at NE, rather than develop any real story. Original recipe Nikki had zilch interest in business and I'm sure she would have zoned out if Victor ever discussed it. And Victor pretty much regarded Nikki as a decoration and wouldn't have even thought to discuss his business strategies with her. One problem for me is that after 40 years we still have no idea exactly what NE does. There are vague references to real estate holdings and I'm sure they have diversified interests but it's never explained. Jabot was cosmetics which you could immediately hook into. I could imagine Nikki working there because it would suit her personality. Didn't they do astory in the 90's when Brad encouraged her to go into business and she found she had an aptitude for it and enjoyed it, I guess I'm saying if they had delved into it alittle deeper I could buy Nikki at NE.

Is Greg still on Days? Maybe there was a taping conflict? Seems odd he wouldn'r be there. What's the deal with Camryn on 1 ep? Amazing they can tell an adoption story pretty much offscreen.

The industry standard episode order at that time was an initial 13 episodes and then a further 9 for a total of 22. Occasionally that would be extended on a show by show basis. In Angela Lansbury's case she negotiated a lighter workload, hence the guest detectives. Was that only one season? I think it was part of a lot of backstage stuff that resulted in her getting a lot more money in return for working in every episode and maybe more control on the production side. There are posters here with far more knowledge of the whole MSW story.

Maybe unwilling was the wrong word. She seems happy to appear anywhere from 1-5 times a month. I think her appearances are usually in a block? So with a limited timeframe its hard to build a solid story around the character.

Unless LLB agrees to come back as a regular, no romance for Christine. Her unwillingness to appear destroyed the Paul/Christine story and was partly responsible for Paul fading away. Why they chose to remarry them is a mystery. Never should have happened.

Those extended episode orders for the soaps came about because the continuing format did not allow for repeats during the season. Unlike sitcoms and action shows viewers did not respond to a repeat episode popping up in the mix and interrupting the story. With Cosby, for example, NBC slotted in a repeat in Jan 85 and it scored one of the highest ratings to date, even though it had only aired a few months earlier. CBS found themselves in the bad books with affiliates earlier on when there were no new episodes available for May sweeps and ratings suffered. So CBS ordered more and selectively pre-empted the soaps with TV movies and other special programming so the season finales would play during May. That's why the soaps were not repeated during Summer-the ratings were abysmal. So soaps were expensive programming for the networks as there was no money to recoup from repeats.

Good question. I guess a number of factors were at play. Firstly Cosby coming along put sitcoms back in the spotlight. That show drew all of the other NBC Thursday sitcoms into the Top 10 and just as ABC and NBC tried to find competing soaps when Dallas took off, the other networks tried to find their own Cosby/sitcom hits. Secondly the shows themselves were aging and because of the format it was difficult to keep things fresh. Dallas viewers expected to see JR scheming, Dynasty wanted Blake/Krystal/Alexis etc so the shows had to keep finding plots to service those characters, the backflip to that is that viewers also got bored seeing the same sort of stories. Also the networks had failed to find any other soap hits apart from the Big 4. Had Berrengers, Paper Dolls or Emerald Point taken off there might have been fresher shows to keep the genre alive. And like any shows they had a shelf life , in fact the soaps ran longer than a lot of other shows considered hits that may have gone on 5-6 seasons. Just a few ideas. I'd like to see what others can think of.

Well Sean/Nate is a very sexy guy. They should have always had Nate as a bit of a player rather than Mr Good Guy Noble doctor.

I was thinking about Y&R's original and early cast members who chose to leave and how that panned out. In most cases they seemed to want to move on to primetime and make their careers there. Janice Lynde got a pilot 'Roxy' that she, at least, was all hyped up about but it wasn't picked up and there were some guest shots before she went back to soaps on Another World and later One Life to Live. after that it was just small guest spots. Trish Stewart landed a primetime series shortly after leaving Y&R 'Salvage 1' with Andy Griffith but it flopped and Trish vanished from the scene, which is odd as you would imagine having a co lead on a series might work in her favor in gaining more work. Tom Hallick also had pilot 'Time Travellers' and 'Captain Nemo' but again no pickups and he also hosted Entertainment Tonight before a revamp. Back to daytime with Days in 84 and then guest spots. Jaime Lyn Bauer got 'Bare Essence' shorty after leaving but that was short lived and she did a few primetime things before going back to soaps on DOOL. Brenda Dickson got a small part on Falcon Crest before returning in 83. Bill Espy had a break before returning to daytime on AW. He never seemed interested in primetime. Beau Kayzer got a pilot 'Hardcase' but nothing after that. James Houghton had to wait a few years before Knots Landing and a season on The Colbys. David Hasselhoff is the exception - landing a hit in Knight Rider and moving on to Baywatch. So I guess, if the others hoped for a hit series things didn't pan out. Maybe having a soap past was held against them and there was just too much competition. Or timing/luck was against them.

Yes you're probably right. Thanks for pointing that out. I should have realized from Jack's shirt. He is always dressed now in suit and tie. I guess it was wishful thinking that a character might have an actual workplace. Will be interesting to see where the actual scene plays out-either Abbott house, CL or Society I guess.