te.

I just don't buy Candice Bergen as the vunerable type who's just been hurt by husband. I think she was also just miscast in the part and needed another actress to pull it off.

I have such a hard time getting upset at the Horton house "burning down" because you know it'll be the same set with a new coat of paint, maybe reupholstered furniture if they really feel like making a splash in the budget.

I'm sure it'll be like most other soap fires where it "burns to the ground" and then is magically rebuilt with just a coat of new paint on the walls (if that). 

6 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I believe the show also extended the Possession much longer than planned due to popularity.  You can see the points where a lot of the action is very superfluous and I think NBC wanted a sweeps ending in the summer. 

Yup, I've heard claims that it was initially supposed to end around easter I guess to be as sacreligious as possible to have Marlena be free of the devil and "rise" from the dead when Jesus did. JER had issues, man.

2 hours ago, Titus Andronicus said:

I don't think Reilly could have pulled off everything in the late 1980s.

Worth remembering that the possession only lasted as long as it did due to OJs trial and it being able to keep people's interest. A lot of things that JER did probably wouldn't have happened at that point due to not being necessary, plus the possession being able to compete during the OJ trial really seems to be a reason why he got such a strangle-hold of the show.

Wasn't his stories on Guiding Light somewhat normal? I'd look towards what he did there to see what he'd do on DAYS.

On 2/6/2024 at 3:48 AM, Khan said:

LOVING (or ABCD's promo department) was trying too hard to be hip.

I swear, every time I see a promo or read a description of this show it just seems to be a different show each time.

21 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

I’m not quite sure AnnaLynne McCord was ever a “name.” 

She was on the 90210 reboot for five years - for daytime, especially for budget fraught DAYS, that's a name. 

And yeah, it looks like she's almost made up to look like Nicole. I'm buying into this conspiracy theory for now.

48 minutes ago, edgeofnik said:

'...[AZ] is now – again – trying to exploit vile stereotypes to denigrate and demean a Black man who was in a position of power. Well, enough is enough...'

Good Lord. Just... no.

As for Ari - good luck to her, but I assume this means we'll never see her again on DAYS. I agree with the poster that AnnaLynne McCord might be a recast - it makes sense to go for a "name" to try and recast a long-running cast member like Nicole, especially if they suspected that Arianne might end up with a lawsuit against the show (though she'll be de-aged with McCord).

32 minutes ago, Ben said:

Let’s not forget NBC basically buried the show when they moved it to Noon in July 1999 to make way for Passions, which left many affiliates airing the show at 3am or just not at all. 

It was always scheduled at noon though?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996–97_United_States_network_television_schedule_(daytime)

That's why it could never gain any traction in the ratings and was doomed from the start. It's a show that clearly targeted the 18-34 year olds who watched the Spelling prime time soaps... yet they put it in a spot where few of those would be home to watch it.

12 hours ago, SteelCity said:

It actually angers me that it was on so long and Sunset Beach got screwed.

Especially since Sunset Beach did the tongue-in-cheek thing much much better, while also playing a straight soap. I've said it before and I'll say it again - if it had at least premiered later in the afternoon it might've had a chance to get that 18-34 audience that it was actually written for watching. It was always bizarre to premiere such a youth-skewing show at noon.

15 hours ago, Khan said:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Quibi was foolish not to develop a 10-to-15 minute soap opera.

Yes, and it seems like such a no-brainer to do. The issue is that Quibi seemed to think they could also cut these things into full movies / 45 minute episodes, which of course meant that they couldn't utilise the strength of the 10-15 minute format. Like @All My Shadows said about the recently resurfaced 1957 Secret Storm episode - it showed off the strength of the format and it breezed quickly by without dragging, while at the same time being easy to watch for a first time viewer. 

But if you're writing these things with the intention of later pasting them together as a full movie or episode, you just end up with parts. And who the hell is interested in watching 15 minutes of a movie each day for a week? It's awkward.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I don't mean to nitpick, but the Variety obit said that Don had a recurring role on Knots Landing. I suppose he did in his last few episodes, but not his first two seasons. 

Not even in his last few episodes. I think he was credited as a main cast member until his last episode.

RIP Don Murray, have a nice rest. 94 is a good run and he seemed to have his wits about him in Twin Peaks when he was in his late 80s, so hopefully that continued into his 90s.

13 hours ago, DRW50 said:

It's not a bad idea, although it's nothing new. Over in the UK they had a soap parody that ran for years to tell washing detergent, featuring many former UK soap actors. Having one that is meant to be taken seriously is newer, although Soapnet did this briefly.

 

We've had similar on-going commercials here that essentially have a running storyline.

With that said - if they're going to invest in something I'd rather have the 10-15 minute format back. Something that you can watch on your coffee break, essentially.

9 hours ago, slick jones said:

Well smack me on the head and call me D****. I guess I should have actually gone into the group and gotten a better look before copying. I was just browsing groups and it popped up. 

Bless your heart for thinking they had the budget for that kind of set. Plus - it has a ROOF! Sets never have those lol

Bless people for thinking that's a real set - especially with a 60s soap opera produced on the cheap!

WOW! Ted looks great. Whatever he's doing, it's working. 

Models Inc might've largely been a stinker, but I still to this day quote this scene when things are bad:

Hell baby, you're in hooker hell!

I also like poor Carrie's (who seriously is one of the most tortured soap characters ever, considering it lasted only 29 episodes!) line "This is kidnapping!". This is also the one cliffhanger that didn't get resolved in the tie-up final scenes they did, so I guess we're to assume Carrie's just stuck in white slavery forever since in that universe Greyson's dead and everyone thinks she left town. Poor Carrie indeed!

On 1/28/2024 at 8:16 PM, asafi said:

 

 

Unrelated, make note the difference adding some ambience to the scene with some background noises + slight blow of a wind machine makes.

Episode from 1957 has popped up, not sure if it's been available before:

12 minutes ago, SoapDope said:

Michelle Lee would have really cranked up the drama with that. " My GOD Mack, it's our child growing inside me ! How can you sit there and tell me you think it's a mistake to go through with this pregnancy?"

Kevin Dobson could play out his usual pissy anger.

To be fair, it would be the other way around probably - Karen would have her doubt about having the baby, while Mack would've pissed about that.

On 1/20/2024 at 12:04 AM, ranger1rg said:

I guess when you rent a crappy apartment, there's no sense furnishing it with expensive stuff.

I've said it before, but they should do a storyline adressing the housing crisis in Salem where half the town has to sleep in a hotel or in the TARDIS known as John and Marlena's ever-expanding unseen apartment corridor with infinitive bedrooms (but no kitchen).

Honestly, the Meg situation is just bizarre more than engaging. Greg loses Laura and is unable to cope properly so neglects daughter (so far quite normal), so Karen convinces him to let them adopt her (?!) and she and Mack are the good guys? I think the writers wanted to have Mack and Karen have a kid but realistically, Karen was too old (and maybe Michele Lee would've put her foot down, lol) and then they had to write Laura out so...

1 hour ago, SoapDope said:

When the 1997 reunion bombed in the ratings, they claimed it was because Sheridan only did a cameo and was not part of the main storyline

More like there was no need for the reunion. It had only been four years and it left on no cliffhanger (unlike Dynasty and Dallas). The fans might've enjoyed seeing them together again, but everyone else had moved on. 

12 minutes ago, soapfan770 said:

I have wondered about the Stuart arc before. 

I always felt like the Stuart arc was meant to bring Brenda and Dylan back together; by all accounts David Gail was told by Aaron that Stuart was going to turn out to be a "bad guy", then you had Dylan's warning, then he disappears for two or so episodes before turning up again and acting like a spoilt little b-word during a road trip, then boom gone. Apparently things were going much better behind the scenes at the start of the season (I think they've mentioned in the podcast that while filming 4x03 The Little Fish (Brenda's return episode from Minnesota) the drama from the previous season just seemed to have cooled down considerably before starting up again).

So yeah, I suspect he was meant to stay on longer initially, plus I guess Aaron Spelling would've shot the pilot to Robin's Hoods around the time he left.

I always felt like his arc on 90210 got cut a bit short - I wonder if that had to do with the whole backstage drama with Doherty (them setting her up to potentially leave) or if it was just that Aaron wanted him for Robin's Hood? He must've liked the guy since he cast him in The Round Table, 90210, Robin's Hoods and Savannah. Surprised he didn't end up showing up on Charmed or 7th Heaven.