te.

The Mar-Clones. Surprised Ron never revisited it.

I don't think this is surprising since Aaron was well-known for delivering a product that came in under budget. I'd assume that meant long hours and if you were an actor just starting out, a salary that might've been lower than the average (see Catherine Oxenberg being fired for wanting a 2k raise).

I mean, I'd watch.

After only having watched Fashion House in full when it aired and a little bit of Desire, I decided to go backwards and check out the last soaps - Saints & Sinners and American Heiress. And I'll say it's a shame they didn't air first, especially Saints & Sinners because it really seems like they started finding their groove even if it was too little too late. Fashion House was too bogged down by flashbacks and was very delayed in getting the action going since Morgan didn't appear until a few weeks in; these just get straight to the point and there's been no long flashbacks in each episode. They're actually very easily digestible and maybe if these had aired first (or Fashion House had been seriously reworked), they might've found some traction.

From memory, the first season that aired on NBC had a lot more serious tone than the camp with T&A that would come later. They probably should tonally try to stay there with a dash of camp, rather than full-on. Then again, maybe that was what they tried to do with Rescue Hi-Surf and that flopped, so maybe they should just go for camp...

Yup. But a messy website and also a soap that had been off the air for 40+ years it was always doubtful it was ever going to have much impact. It seems like they've gone back to just putting it on It's Real Good TV and RetroTv: https://www.getafteritmedia.com/the-doctors With that said, something like The Doctors would just benefit a lot from a FAST channel and trying to get it on so many platforms as possible first. B&B has already been building their online profile via YouTube, streaming on Shout! etc.

If that were to happen, then Gosling would clearly not be doing it for the money. I doubt James Franco was paid a massive amount for his General Hospital appearance, but I might be wrong.

God I want so badly for DAYS to do this. We know they've kept tabs on their inventory with Cady McClain of all people dropping that they have all seasons except the second one.

To be fair, the first episode of Masquerade on Fridays did get a 15.2 rating, which was the highest rating it had scored. Of course, Dallas was off and the following week it just bombed out. But they might've seen it as counter-programming - a show that's just fundamentally different than Dallas might get people who don't want to watch it tune in. Simon & Simon (in combo with Magnum PI) aired on CBS on Thursdays, which seemingly would target the same audience as Masquerade. But the best option would've just to have put it on another day alltogether from the beginning, especially with the price tag attached.

I think Luke Perry was choosing between doing this and 90210 and was advised to pick 90210 since he was told Paradise was on its last legs.

By all accounts, they had written a series finale and a "classic" season finale when they were cancelled in February '99. I think the season was always going to turn out the way it did. Hell, you can even see strands of a season finale in series finale.

Fox currently has a lot of "limited" series since their scripted time slots are so few and far between. Only "Doc" seems to score orders higher than 10-13 episodes. Since they're already starting filming, then the majority of the order will be filmed before it hits the air.

I remember stuff like the earthquake episode at the end of the NBC run and I guess stuff like that would fit well into the current 9-1-1 era. But yeah, the writing definitively wasn't a priority, especially once it moved to syndication. There was definitively a lot of camp. And hey, if this is successful maybe they can revive Pacific Blue?

Brandon Call has been retired from acting for almost 30 years now. Jeremy Jackson... well, no. If they were going to center it around Hobie they would've always had to have recast.

The issue is streaming and second-window opportunities. They usually get next to nothing on streaming, so everything needs to be earned back on first-run, which is becoming more and more unfeasible as linear ratings and thus licensing drops. They're also not great sellers internationally, so I'm not surprised they're done. I assume NBCUniversal might become more aggressive with selling their produced scripted shows to syndication.

Yeah, and while we obviously don't have any idea how it translated on screen since none of us have seen the pilot, it's not impossible that Zhao actually wasn't a good fit for the project. It happens and we see it frequently in both daytime, prime time and with movie franchises where technically talented people just aren't the right fit for a project. With that said, from reading the script (which was an early one) I do think the dialogue is a huge part of the issue here. Maybe some of it sounded better when delivered (plus some were changed) but I don't think it's a good idea for a tv show like Buffy to be too reliant on current day lingo and concepts.

I'm not sure what script you read, but the one I read was very "eeeh maybe it'll work better on tape". Which isn't the best thing I could say.

I love Felicia! I hope Europe will love her too.

Right so the show is trying to close out in the final three episodes or so. Badly. It makes me wonder how this show was produced? What were the notes? It's genuinely horrible.

Literal dialogue from the show: "Dr Engels... isn't he... isn't he the ANGEL OF DEATH?" "Yes, he's very misunderstood." "But surely, surely that wouldn't make for good PR?" I can't. What is this even.

IIRC, they were originally developed with Fox in mind, then they went with the MyNetWorkTv idea and that Fox was again going to eventually syndicate these shows. Considering the mid-to-late-90s experimentation of shows like Acapulco Bay and then the proposed late-night soap opera whose name escapes me, it's obvious there was some thought about Fox getting into the soap business somehow as late as the mid-00s. From memory, they also tried to vaguely tie these together - Desire was meant to be more of an overall brand name for one set of these telenovelas while Fashion House was meant to tie together more with the other set. So I guess it would've been their way to make it a bit more continuous soap for the US viewers.

Considering NBCUniversal have also announced the endings of Access Hollywood, Karamo and Steve Wilkos, it's obvious to me they're getting out of the syndicated talkie/reality business. I think it's just too unprofitable when these shows can't make up the difference on streaming with the declining linear viewers.

To be fair, is there a point to chemistry test people if you're not going to get audience feedback in eight to ten months? Add that people might not pick up from the first few scenes that they're chemistry testing them, so you'd have random scenes with two characters for no real reason airing almost a year before you can pull the trigger if it works with the audience. So you might as well just go there instead since it becomes pointless.

I really think that they had just given up at one point and were just thoughtlessly throwing things at the wall. At one point it just seems to become too soft-porny and the plots just seem really random. At least at one point it seems like there's a long-term plan to plots. A bit of an odd comparison, but it makes me think of Brad Garrett's post-"*Everybody Loves Raymond*" sitcom "*Til Death*". It was basically kept being renewed despite being a ratings bomb since Sony saw syndication potential. So everyone on that show got oddly meta with cast members appearing and disappearing, certain characters being inconsistently recast and basically just making fun of how they were time period fillers. I guess when you're writing a dead show walking there's a point you just give up and start doing weird [!@#$%^&*] for the sake of it.