Paul Raven

I'm putting Andre, Jacob,Martin and Bill ahead of Smitty.

@j swift Thanks for your insights and observations. I think Texas fans would be au fait with story and want more bts stuff as would those readers who are not neccessarily soap fans, but interested in the workings of tv in general . Of course some context needs to be provided. But overall Texas stands as a testament of how not to launch a soap. Kind of parallel to Silverman's primetime bomb Supertrain.

OK

For 77 and not dolled up Deidre is fine. Does look more like Andrea in those shots.

I think the only show that had any impact on Dallas in it's mega years was Knight Rider. It was the first show to achieve some sort of decent rating and hype so NBC moved it to Sunday. I always wonder what might have happened if NBC had kept it Fri @9 for it's second season.

Now thanks to Eric Montreal we have Megan McTavish's crazy memoir.

Never saw Off the Rack so can't speak to the quality but if it was any good ABC would have been better off leaving it there and hope it grew in the ratings. Throwing one show after another at Dallas only helped CBS really.

Yes by that time they'll have clearer ideas of how things are looking on-screen,what actors are still struggling and viewer feedback.

Of course Megan comes out like the heroine. Aligning with Frons speaks volumes. I think the mindset is they would do anything short of a live execution for ratings gains under their watch. If a character is decimated or the show damaged down the line, they know they won't be around anyway to deal with it. But a great read nonetheless. A refresh from the likes of MTS etc where everything is peaches and cream, with a little dose of 'I lost my temper one day on set, but my cat had just died...'

I think JHC role at BTG is just to have an experienced EP there to get the show done efficiently and mentor/ instruct others on producing a 60 min daily soap. Maybe she is only going to br around a year at the most, before younger(cheaper) staff take over.

@VelekaCarruthers Thank you for sharing. 2025 is shaping up to be a bumper year for soap historians.

I want to know what drove Bill to make the break from Dani after all those years? What was so different about Hayley? Was it they were working together whereas his other flings had been more casual? Hayley is a blank slate ATM and I want to learn more of her motivations. I think we all have our interpretations but the show needs to dig deeper. Yes it's only 3 weeks so we'll see. They have a done a poor job re Ashley/Derek. It feels like MVJ had the bible developed for the Duprees and then had to belatedly insert the white characters.

OK The Flame is Love was the movie in question. Love how because a period TV movie bombs they decide nobody wants to see the genre. Typical network thinking. I really don't think Reunion ever had a chance of making it to air. NBC daytime had so many issues that taking a risk like that wouldn't be on their radar.

Jan 79 Universal announced some mini series in the works CBS Mayer and Thalberg based on a 1975 book by Samuel Marx 6hrs did not go ahead ABC The Antagonists based on a 1971 novel by Enest Mann- that was retitled Masada. NBC Ivanhoe 4 hrs did not go ahead

That NBC movie was most likely 'Charleston' starring Delta Burke which aired Jan 79 and ran 3rd in its Monday timeslot. It gained some attention from being trashed by the Today show critic who recommended watching WKRP on CBS instead of his own network. Had it succeeded (it was a pilot) would NBC have wanted a primetime and daytime series on the air with the same theme? Probably not. Just speculation but the Corringtons may have adapted parts of Reunion stories/characters when developing Texas.

Intentionally awful, I hope. No way does that pokey foyer and ugly living room connect with the exterior. Fail. Santa Barbara made the same mistake of giving us high powered front burner stories, then inserting wacky high school hijinks with Jade, Danny and Ted. And look what happened to that story. Beware Ashley/Derek!

Re Dani. It was stated she was a successful model and gave up her career to marry Bill. So she must have been a teen model b/c she married Bill at 19, right?

I can't see Victoria Rowell on BTG. For all the publicity it might bring, it would also bring up a lot of negative stuff from the past. And her presence might overshadow other actors/ characters.

Debbie Reynolds son is Todd Fisher .

Cricket first came on as Joe Blair's cousin,right? Then Joe disappeared (when?) and Cricket found her parents. Was Joe ever mentioned again? When Cricket was visiting Joe in GC at first,who was she living with back wherever?

With every episode Dani is getting more unhinged. Hopefully, endgame is she will finally come to her senses and rebuild, without losing her edge.

NBC had way too many comedies on the schedule. I think the ideal is 2 comedy block nights -8 shows in total and another hour or 2 elsewhere. Total of 12 at the most.

Among the problems with Kin on Texas were that they grabbed him when he left GH reportedly for a huge salary, but didn't have a character or story for him so Jeb was created on the fly. Kin complained that he came in with a heart defect , so was already a week character. The Jeb storyline was there amongst a whole raft of BTS changes in writers and stories and over the months Kin's presence didn't translate into ratings increase. When it was clear the character wasn't working and Kin would not stay beyond the initial one year contract, everybody concerned lost interest.

March gifts. Mitch S has added some snippets from ATWT 79 and SFT 79/77 including a brief scene with Stephanie and husband Walter Pace (Jennifer's father) who I have never seen before. Also a grainy B/W BTS of GL 1980 And Tom Lisanti's book on Texas has been released.

Just thinking back to Wk 1 and the introduction to some characters. Ashley and Derek were just there talking about her first day at work, and we had no idea how they fit into the canvas. Jacob and Naomi got the sexay intro in the bedroom. Instead maybe the 4 of them should have met for a breakfast to wish Ashley well on the first day. That would have established all 4 of them better. We would have learned their jobs, that they were friends and the connection to the Duprees. Cady seems completely superfluous at this point. As for Martin/Smitty. Every other couple has been allowed varying degrees of affection but not the gays. I'm not buying the 'relationship is tense' excuse. What better way to show that than either spouse attempting to initiate some romance and the other rebuffing them. And that leading to an argument about their unsatisfactory sex life. Instead it's like they dusted off scripts from 'How to Survive A Marriage' from 1974.