Paul Raven

Came across an CBS pilot 'King of the Road' that aired May 10th 1979. It starred Roger Miller,singer famous for the song of that title as a semi retired singer who co-owns an Alabama motel. That co-owner is played by Larry Haines. Had the pilot been picked up we would have been seeing a lot less of Stu Bergman as primetime would have had first dibs on his services. I wonder what Larry's Search contract terms were? Maybe he had a clause that if he landed a series he could leave at short notice. Seems Larry was actively pursuing primetime at this point, as he landed the short lived CBS sitcom 'Phyl and Micky' in 79.

Interesting. When there was talk of a new story for Sharon,I inwardly groaned thinking it would all happen at Crimson Lights. Glad GCAC is returning. The set issue still remains a problem. Seems they have certain number at a time and so everything happens there until the next set revision takes place. Noticed for Victoria/Nate's LA sexcapade and Elena's betrayal moments they used one off 2 wall bedroom sets which worked well. They need to be more creative in that way.

Considering that The Colby's never established it's own identity, coming off as Dynasty lite, what do you posters think they should have done with a spin off to overcome those issues? At the time, with Dynasty riding high,ABC obviously wanted to replicate the mother show's success and thought more of the same was the way to go. But the casting, writing and timeslot didn't help. Should Jeff have been the character to move over? If not who? Or if it was Jeff should his family have been structured differently? You guys always have great ideas, so put your talents towards your take on a Dynasty spin off!

As opposed to The Colbys.

Aaron Spelling had along term exclusive contract with ABC in which I think he was guaranteed a series a year placed on the network It was terminated in 87. NY Times Aug 15 87 The ABC television network and Aaron Spelling, the producer of such hit shows as ''Dynasty'' and ''Loveboat,'' have ended an exclusive programming agreement that has lasted 17 years. ABC, a unit of Capital Cities/ABC, and Aaron Spelling Productions Inc., announced late Wednesday that they had agreed to extend Mr. Spelling's contract for three years. But the extension covers only the fulfillment of existing obligations, and Mr. Spelling will be free to sell his productions to other networks - CBS, NBC and Fox.

Karrie Emerson THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS Betsy 1983

That would require Noah to actually be seen-something the show is reluctant to do.

Those awful opening titles. Endless shots of Franciosa ,hands in pockets, gazing wistfully. Those sweeping silhouettes of Deb Adair and Ms Jeffreys and the cloud background. And no shots of the guest stars!

By that point both primetime soaps and anthology formats were dying. ABC tried Paper Dolls,Finder of Lost Loves etc and there was an 'International Airport' pilot around this time also. NBC and CBS didn't go for the anthology concept-that seemed to be a Spelling/ABC thing.

Exactly. And Glitter itself feels like the Aaron Spelling formula stretched to breaking point. I'm sure most of that regular cast were lucky to get a couple of lines per ep. But it was nice that Spelling employed so many people. Anyway Glitter was a bomb and the nail in the coffin for this type of show.

The lip biting incident was just an earlier manifestation of her 'sensual nymph' persona...

Mildly intrigued by the Sharon spoilers but have zero faith in Josh to follow through. Cameron seems the most likely at this point. So Yolanda/Harmony returns after years and in true Josh fashion there's nothing to it. She is doing well, embraces all round and 'bye girl!'-probably never to be seen again. Josh has been running things for years and Yoharm never got a mention-now we are supposed to believe Devon had been in touch. If that was the case why did Tucker have to invite her? I find Malcolm/Shemar irritating at this point. I know it was a somber occasion but his whole attitude screamed 'special guest star delivering some gravitas'

CBS 16.1 ABC 16.0 NBC 14.8 Mon ABC win Call to Glory #48/NFL Football highest score of the season #2 CBS Christmas Carol Movie Special #10/Cagney & Lacey#25 NBC TV Bloopers #19/ 'Bless All the Dear Children' Little House on Prairie special movie #18 Tues NBC win A Team #5 /Riptide #9 /Remington Steele #15 ABC 3's A Crowd #36 /Who's the Boss #39 /Glitter debut @9 #61 10.0/16 (season low) Paper Dolls #62 CBS Yogi Bear #53 Muppet Babies # 63 Movie He's Fired/She's Hired #32 Wed ABC win Fall Guy #17 /Dynasty #1 /Hotel #8 NBC Highway to Heaven #27/ Facts of Life #31 /It' Your Move #35/ St Elsewhere #45 CBS Charles in Charge # 40/ E/R #47/ Movie Private Benjamin #42 Thurs CBS win Magnum #14/Simon & Simon #3 /Knots #7 NBC Cosby #6 /Family Ties #12 /Cheers #20 /Night Court #26 /Hill St Blues #37 (rpt season low) ABC Battle of Network Stars #49 19 share 20/20 #24 16.4/27 (season high) Fri CBS win Dukes #52 /Dallas #4 /Falcon Crest #16 (all season lows) ABC Benson #23 /Webster #22 /Hawaiian Heat #56 /Matt Houston #34 13.9/24 (2nd best of the season) NBC V #41/ Hunter #64/ Hot Pursuit #65 Sat ABC win TJ Hooker #46 /Love Boat # 38 13.5/24 (best score of the night) Finder of Lost Loves #44 NBC Smurfs Special #43/ Double Trouble #54/ Gimme A Break #50 (season low)/Spencer #57/Partners In Crime #60 CBS Airwolf #56(season low)/ Movie More than Murder #51 Sun ABC win Ripley's #55 /Superman #13 CBS 60 Min #11/ Murder She Wrote #21/ Alice #28/ Jeffersons #29/ Trapper John#30 NBC Punky Brester #59/Sound of Music 14.1/23

I felt the writing was stronger in the final stretch and would be happy to see it back for another season. In light of all the budget issues, they could do some cast cutting. Send Mark off to college with some guest appearances and I'd seriously consider making John Goodman recurring. He seems to be referencing the teleprompter with every line reading, so he must be struggling. Move the action to Darlene's house and the Lunchbox. Dan could make limited appearances. PD Why was DJ's daughter maintained in the credits? She was never on.

Alan came on in October 77 under the Hollands,I think. I recall Marland saying when watching the show he wasn't sure of where Alan and Monica were heading so he 'put them in bed' to establish at least a sexual attraction. The rest of the Q's came in months later when Marland was writing.

Diana was a waitress so perhaps she meets Phil at that restaurant? We'll see.

Knots 1st season ratings. Competition was 20/20 on ABC and Kate Loves a Mystery (reworked Mrs Columbo from the previous season) Rockford Files,and Skag (Karl Malden family drama) on NBC Episodes 1. 20.1/34 23rd Gary and Val move in and meet the neighbors. 2. 23.3/36 14th Gary fights JR over an environmental issue. (appearance by Larry Hagman as JR) 3. 20.0/34 36th Karen is tempted into an affair... 4. 19.3/31 30th Laura is raped and lies that it was stranger, not a guy she picked up. 5. 23.7/40 14th Lilimae turns up attempting to reconcile with Val. aired Friday @10 6. 20.3/34 38th Lucy visits Knots Landing 7. 22.4/37 21st Motorcylce thugs terrorize the cul de sac. 8. 11.0/21 45th Sid's ex wife visits. Season low 9. 15.9/25 37th Ginger is harassed by dead ex boyfriends mother. 10. 19.1/32 31st Karen has a miscarriage, Eric is interested in Ginger's teen sis and Ginger wants to start a family. 11. 17.5/28 41st Richard and Laura clash over her working as he faces money problems. 12. 19.1/33 29th Gary hits the bottle, Ginger worries that Kenny is having an affair, 13. 18.7/32 34th Gary hits rock bottom and goes to AA. Ginger throws Kenny out. So the ratings were not great and didn't really build, but the show did win it's timeslot a number of times.

In the Knots thread it was mentioned that unlike Dallas and Dynasty KL didn't start out with a business based theme, which allowed for greater story flexabilty. Whereas Dallas had to revolve around Ewing Oil and the Texas oil industry. That's why it was odd to me that Sue Ellen started the lingerie company as it took away from the central theme and gave her no interaction with the Ewings. Obviously she couldn't be part of the oil industry but some sort of business that might be able to tie in with Ewing Oil would have been a better bet. Same with Lucy marrying a doctor. It would have been a no brainer to have Lucy hooked up with a junior oil exec so that they could be more involved in the lead stories. As it was things just stopped in their tracks when we detoured to Lucy/Mitch. Maybe that was the idea, to give us a brief respite from the Ewing Oil shenanigans,but there wasn't enough time available per episode and Lucy/Mitch seemed like an afterthought.

Afton on Dallas got to chirp a couple of songs at one point,I recall.

Of the other two soaps launched in that era I think Flamingo Road and Secrets of Midland Heights both began in episodic form -right? Although Midland never got thee chance to move away from that format...

Search for Tomorrow Diane __Hartford...Julia Meade..Oct 20,21,24 77... selfish ex-wife of Greg living in Europe-gladly handed over custody of Meredith when she was causing trouble.

In the beginning...ratings of the first 5 episodes. Debuting late (April) in the 77/78 season Sundays @10. 1.Digger's Daughter 21.5/37 #18 of 65 2. The Lesson 15.2/26 # 50 of 69 3. Spy in the House 15.8/26 #40 of 65 4. Winds of Vengeance 21.1/35 # 12 of 68 5. Barbecue 21.8/39 #11 of 65 The lead in was strong-All in the Family/Alice and the competition was the last hour of movies on ABC and NBC. That dip for episodes 2 and 3 was due to strong competition from NBC with the movie 'Family upside Down' and 'Holocaust Pt 1 'dominating the 9-11 timeslot. Dallas finished #44 for the season. CBS saw that the show had promise and scheduled it for Sat @10 next season. They decided to go with a new drama 'Kaz' Sun @10.

As Deedee used to say (constantly) backstage drama... Meanwhile welcome back Khan!

Lana's first appearance shot the show to #2 so that would have been a double edged sword. On the one hand, they'd be pleased but for those working week to week a bit annoying that La Turner came sweeping in and got the attention/credit.

Completely different characters. Time for you to start reading through this thread!