Paul Raven

ABC soon latched on to the idea that their TV movies could serve as pilots. It was much more cost effective. One thing we often saw was actors 'stretching' themselves-usually (not always)comedic performers going for dram cred. eg Carol Burnett (looking more like Vicki Lawrence in that artwork)

@Errol Perhaps this should be moved to the primetime thread as Palace Guard is not a cancelled soap.

Of course we have to mention the iconic Trilogy of Terror

Y&R must have been listening. Today we had 5 sets. Nate's apartment, Jabot, GCAC, Society and Jazz lounge. Still too many sparsely populated meeting places but an improvement. As for what was actually being talked about...

Invested? Not sure as we still haven't seen them face enough. Nicole and Bill are most interesting to me but that's also because the actors are strong. Still I'm waiting to see how he navigates his marriage and relationships to his daughter and if he and Dani can reach some sort of truce. How they balance his ruthlessness with some humanity. With Nicole she seems very level headed ,so how she deals with the marriage drama will be interesting. I'm still puzzled about how 2 professionals who seem to believe in education and empowerment have a daughter who seems the opposite. I know that can happen, but I feel it should be addressed. When she was talking about Kat's birthday she was telling her mother how she loved to go all out with the party and this year had to reign it in, which seemed the opposite of how I saw Nicole. That seemed a more Dani thing to do. So I still need more time to see where the characters go and if there is consistency. Some of the others eg Vanessa, so far not invested. Her story seems by the numbers to me and isolated. Martin/Smitty-just a domestic story that could be a straight couple. If the show really wanted to be contemporary I would have liked the gay story to be a little more edgy.

Is this worthy of a new thread? Palace Guard isn't even a soap, obscure or otherwise.

I enjoyed a lot of the 90 minute suspense movies from the early 70's. the shorter length usually ensured that there was no padding. One I recall was Night Terror with Val Harper. Sort of Duel with a suburban mom.

Margaret De Priest was an actress up until that point. She appeared in some of the first episodes of The Doctors on Retro from Dec 67. I think she met Lou Scofield when they were both at Edge of Night-he a a writer and she an actress. Were they romantically involved? Can't recall off hand but someone will remember. Scofield died in 1972.

Definitely for CBS in terms of scheduling. They had been leading Sunday night for years with 60 Minutes leading into the sitcom block. But Archie Bunker ran out of steam, bringing the rest of the lineup down and their attempts to refresh with new sitcoms -Goodnight Beantown, The Four Seasons and Maggie Briggs all failed. So they took a calculated risk by going with MSW and it paid off. But Alice and The Jeffersons were the next to falter and they seemed to have solved the problem with Crazy Like A Fox at 9pm. But CLAF was a short lived success and CBS went with a movie which was a winning formula for years. Anyone have any thoughts on Crazy Like A Fox? Never saw it. Was it just not good enough or not compatible with MSW or both?

I think they can use that product placement to their advantage. Lean into it with some humor. It can become a meme worthy event.

That was remade as Vanishing Act in 1986 with Eliot Gould,Mike Farrell, Margot Kidder and Fred Gwynne.

I think they need to make more of the final scene of the episode. Dani gets out the booze, takes a swig and a quick cut to the credits. It kinda takes away from the drama. They need to go for a soapier moment. Dani taking the drink and then the camera pans away and we emphasize her loneliness in the empty room-then a lingering close up, fade to credits. Maybe they are trying to be more up to date but it is a soap after all.

So Traci is leaving town. Bye bye Beth. Thanks for your service. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. As for Phyllis' trauma, I could care less. After all she's been through and the stunts she's pulled for her to be so bothered by this... At least La Stafford is having to tone down her performance.

My memory (may be completely wrong) is that Don Stewart felt Trish was too young for Mike. Let's hope someone can track down an interview.

Thinking about Mariah, it seems odd for ABC to order a 10pm show when there was no space for it. Sunday and Monday were out due to movies, Thurs had 20/20. Fri and Sat were struggling leaving only Tues and Wed with possibility of launching the show with some sort of stronger lead in. They chose Max Headroom for Tues and Mariah for Wed. Both shows seemed incompatible with their lead ins and failed.

Having 3 sets per episode and pretty much not much time progression per ep is dragging things down. Big contrast to Mal Young's one day per episode.

Mariah was a tryout series in the Hotel timeslot, Wed 10pm following Dynasty. It was set in a prison. Some AW alumni were in the cast -John Getz (Neil) Wanda De Jesus (Gomez) and Kathleen Latman (MJ). @DRW50 No Jaclyn Smith- not sure who that lady is that resembles Jaclyn. Mariah was a non starter. Dynasty was 29th for the week and Mariah was 55th. The opposition was Houston Knights on CBS 28th and The Bronx Zoo on NBC 50th.

It seems that once we got the larger Newman Ranch, the number of sets in use decreased. They are now down to 3 sets per ep-and pretty much one scene/conversation lasts the entire episode. So even if the Abbott set is the same size, there will still be fewer sets being used. What happened to them moving studios? Is that still on the agenda?Maybe that's another reason why we have set deprivation. Perhaps some sets have been store away in prep for the move and/or they are operating in a smaller space for the time being?

Well, we've already scene the spoiled unstable sister go ballistic and lash out, so in this case Nicole should be much calmer and measured in her response. Not to say she won't be hurt and angry but she might move immediately to save her marriage and start rebuilding. They chose to have both sisters in marriage crisis from the get go so I assume the reason is to show how they each handle the situation differently.

That's the excuse they used to get rid of the Newman Ranch and Chancellor estate. I hope Crimson Lights is next. I hate that decor. Anything would be an improvement.

I'm worried about this Abbott renovation. That set has been unchanged for decades, so why now? I can only think that it might have become too old to maintain, thus calling for an upgrade. And/or it will become another set that is shrunken due to budget restraints, like the Chancellor Estate. Although,I don't see how they could do that. We'll have to wait and see. They might surprise us.

Beth stated in an interview that they are still taping 5 eps in 4 days, which has been the practice for a few years now. But good to have that clarification as I was worried they might have gone further. So that averages out at an extra 9-10 minutes each day which should be manageable considering that episodes are shorter these days than previously. I would love to know the daily routine as it seems there is one rehearsal and then taping. BITD I think there was a read through, camera blocking, dress rehearsal and taping.

You're probably right. But I wonder what (if any) adjustments will be made?

The Claire character from inception has been a misfire, Did Victoria need another child when she has nothing to do with those she already had? Cole has disappeared. Reed could have returned or if we wanted a new character to mix it up with the Newmans have Matt return to announce he has discovered a daughter. Matt brings her to GC and then is tragically killed. 'Claire' joins her newfound family.