Paul Raven

7 minutes ago, SoapDope said:

I remember reading that network executives would be shocked when they would attend cast parties and little Adam Rich was walking around drinking martinis or champagne and smoking. Rich said he was smoking pot and watching porn by age 10.

Did anybody intervene? Wouldn't that behavior have been enough to have his parents/guardians reported to child services or whatever?

Don's leaving/Sid's death opened up a lot of story possibilities that helped the show in the long run.

Had Sid stayed on I wondewhat they would have come up with for Sid/Karen. Maybe his daughter would have resurfaced?

If they had gone with the story but had Sid survive, I could see him grappling with a disability/sexual problem type story for the rest of that season. But then what?

2 hours ago, yrfan1983 said:

Will have to also FF through: Cole and Victoria and... Jeri? Was this meant to truly be a love triangle...?

Bill Bell made a miscalculation with Cole and Victoria in that he didn't really have anything waiting in the wings to cause problems. Maybe he married them off too soon?

Or maybe Aunt Jordan should have turned up then??

Who's The Boss?

In it's 6th season Boss finished #19 but was running out of steam.  ABC had Full House ready to take over and freshen the schedule. So ABC moved it to Sat @8 which had been a black hole for them since TJ Hooker ended. It ended up against another fading hit Golden Girls.

I think in a lot of cases, the networks want to rid themselves of aging shows because they are increasingly expensive to run with salaries for on and offscreen personnel increasing while ratings/profits move in the other direction.

Also stars are quite often ready to quit and there are enough episodes in the can to start making the real bucks in syndication. 

In the case of WTB, did the show feel like it had run its course by the final season?

10 hours ago, Khan said:

I would argue that the "The Jeffersons" did. 

I would wager a steak dinner that The Jeffersons would have to be the show that had the most timeslot changes.

10 hours ago, Khan said:

CBS moving "Designing Women" from Mondays to (I believe) Fridays for its' final season.

Designing Women should have been moved a few seasons earlier when it was still peaking.

20 hours ago, SoapDope said:

Most of the cast had mental or substance abuse issues that caused the shows cancellation after 5 seasons. Van Patten said they were all geared to film season 6 when he was reading the paper at home and read they were cancelled. Lorimar felt the show was too much trouble to continue with.

Falling ratings caused the shows cancellation as much as BTS problems.

Eight Is Enough was #12 in the 79/80 season Wed @8 Then Real People on NBC came along and took over the time period. In 80/81 Real People was #12 and Eight was moved to Sat night and replaced by Greatest American Hero. 

Tom and Alice were the original tentpole couple, happily married with little story or conflict of their own.

The others ,we have seen their love lives play out on air through all the ups and downs, so they can never hold the same moral ground or position as Tom and Alice.

In terms of first black characters on daytime, Rex Ingram was announced as joining The Brighter Day just  weeks before its cancellation in 1962. Unsure if this was a contract role.

I'm remembering when Sally Sussman returned to Y&R and we were hoping for a return to a more classic style, which never eventuated,so who knows what's in store for GH.

Guess it depends on Mulcahey's motives - did he take the gig for the money and/ or because he was missing the creativity or structure of daytime writing?

Maybe he's already realistic about what he can achieve in the current climate and just wants to do what he can.

He's never been a headwriter (apart from a short stint at GL)right? There's a big difference b/w writing good scenes and dialogue and creating cohesive long term story.

Time will tell.

Death was more common in the 80's-murder or otherwise. 

There were more murders with the greater emphasis on crime stories and deaths overall were more common, so a character dying wasn't such a big thing anymore.

Also in the 80's there was a more light hearted tone to most shows. The introduction of characters like Calliope (Days) Leanna (Y&R)  was part of it, but overall things seemed less somber.

I get your point and I could see NBC hoping that a known action/adventure show might take the time period where there was no clear leader, but it was 50/50 proposition.

They'd already gone down that road the season before  when Knight Rider began to fade Sun @8 and it was moved to Fri @8.

Has a fading show ever gotten a new lease of life by moving time slots?

@kalbir You know this is right up my street!

Fall 85

ABC moves The Fall Guy, fading on Wed due to Highway to Heaven to the Thurs @8 dead zone up against Cosby Show #1. Ratings are awful and ABC brings in a movie for Nov sweeps. Fall Guy is moved to Sat @8 to replace flop Hollywood Beat, before being dropped. The remaining episodes resurface in another ABC dead zone Fri @10 up against two tough competitors Falcon Crest and Miami Vice

Fall 86

The A Team, a top 10 show Tues @8 for several seasons dropped to #30 once Who's The Boss took hold. So for it's final season A Team gets shunted to Fri@8 where they haven't had a hit in years, it gets cancelled after 13 eps.

More to come...

Search for Tomorrow

John Katter  ???? Negotiator in Africa for Sam Reynolds release September 1971

Det Braun ??? Investigating Vickie Curtis beating, arrested Garth Taper 1981

Jenny Deacon Kendall       Linda Gibboney     May 1982 -  September 83 

Adair McCleary Page Hannah      April 1984- November 84

Kristin Carter Emerson      Susan Scannell       May 1982- June 84

Herbert Newman                         David Cooper   lawyer hired by Stephanie to represent Suzi in Justine's shooting               Jan 1985

1 hour ago, SoapDope said:

When did catfights between female characters start ?

Good question. I think it was an 80's thing- yes inspired by Dynasty.

Was there any physical action b/w any of these 70's rivals?

Iris/Rachel AW

Alice/Rachel AW

Lisa/Joyce ATWT

Jennifer/Eunice SFT

Jill/Katherine Y&R

41 minutes ago, TVFAN1144 said:

The casts of shows traveling to and filming in different locations.  ATWT to Greece AW St Croix SFT Mardi Gras.   Roger Ed Mike Holly in San Domingo but that was more toward 1980

The ATWT Greece shoot and AW St Croix were both 1980 as was GL San Domingo. Don't recall a SFT Mardi Gras location shoot.

I think the AMC honeymoon and RH Ireland shoot were both done on film? Was there any dialogue for those sequences or was it all travelogue type stuff with any dialogue added in later?

I agree with Kalbir that location shoots were an 80's trend.

70's stuff pretty much consisted of some characters outside for an episode or two.

Killing off Hilary was an idiotic decision, only because the likelihood of her returning was fairly strong.

But Mal wanted the super dramatic death bed wedding etc,

Short term gain(perceived) and long term pain.

Amanda never stood a chance, especially when her back story was played out through convos at restaurants and hotel rooms. 

19 minutes ago, Beachstorm said:

Regarding the GCAC suite set that is used for everyone: all they ever do is change the room number plate on the door. They do keep true to who is in what numbered room. It sort of makes me chuckle as to who is in charge of being sure the correct room number is on the door for filming that day.

Maybe the actor whose character resides there gets the number in the morning along with their wardrobe for the day, and it's their job to affix it.

Seriously,if you were living there -and why would you be living in a hotel room?- surely you would personalize it with photos, books, maybe some of your clothes and stuff lying around-but no, every room is identical and pristine. The GCAC cleaners (never seen) must do a terrific job.

They are really pulling out the big guns for this cross promotion.

But no Greg Rikaart? 

2 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

This infernal issue with sets and budgets, there’s a dignified solution in there somewhere. I’m fascinated by it despite no longer being a regular viewer.

Question: Does Sharon still have a house? Could there be space for a home office? People do work from those..

Sharon's cottage was shown during the Cameron return story.

The problem seems to be that the sets are organized for the week ahead to save money.

A certain number fit in the studio. So when laying out the week ahead if Sharon's cottage was to be used it wouldn't be feasible to have it just for a few scenes and further limit what other sets could be used.

They'd have to structure it so a fair bit of action takes place there, which with Sharon's limited involvement in the overall story wouldn't be possible.

Whereas Crimson Lights can be used for various characters.

On the topic of sets, the identical GCAC hotel room is used by multiple characters. 

No effort is made to differentiate the rooms, whereas if there was say a different sofa or floral arrangements etc then that would go some way to making it (slightly) more believable.

Is it that they can't be bothered or some union thing where they would have to have a particular person(s) on set to redo the room?

46 minutes ago, kalbir said:

Crimson Lights set is nearly 30 years old. It's due for a reno or retirement.

The floor plan is fine but the decor is not. The jukebox, robot and creepy puppet wall deco in the bin. A contemporary makeover like any viable business would take on after decades.

Especially when they expect us to believe wealthy characters like Nikki would stop in for  a coffee. The place needs to go upmarket. Serve casual meals at night so it would be another option for characters to dine at . Less formal than Society or GCAC.

Comings and goings were way more frequent in the 80's.

The one hour format was part of that, but if you look at the 70's some shows might have 3/4 new characters in a year . By the 80's they were many more contract players and short term characters used for a particular story.

Abortion was dealt with for the first time.

Erica AMC, Kathy SFT, Connie RTPP, Marianne AW and probably a few others  all had abortions and didn't suffer greatly as a result. And others considered it, but changed their minds.

And homosexuality was touched upon with Mike and Sharon on Days and Joanne/Kay on Y&R.

Inter racial relationships with David/Val on Days.

But these were isolates, definitely not a trend or even the beginning of one.

51 minutes ago, Antoyne said:

Crimson Lights is a nice spacious office for her with coffee and pastries to boot!

That set is badly in need of a makeover.

Nice to see Esther-the show needs those kind of talk to characters. And Esther isn't being presented as a ditz.

honestly, with better writing and improved production values, Y&R is still viable. 

Maybe if Mulcahey can work some magic at GH they might show Griffith the door. And get a new EP.

70's ATWT and disco together is a mind blowing concept.

I think Love of Life had a disco also.

It was always amusing to see the extras bopping along to music that was added in later.

55 minutes ago, janea4old said:

CEO Sharon meeting with her senior staff via zoom ... from Crimson Lights.  It's clearly supposed to be a full formal meeting and not just a random conversation.

Well CL is the perfect place to hold a meeting. Sharon certainly won't be distracted-it's not like she will be disturbed by customers.

11 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I know I am being nitpicky

Yes you are -fancy expecting the show to explain the business model or depict it with any realism!

Dame Joan at the Emmys standing patiently while some gushy reporter spent more time talking than actually interviewing finally got around to asking La Collins 'What story she was telling with your outfit?'

Joan crisply replied, 'I'm not telling a story but I am wearing a dress designed by etc

Score one for JC.