Contessa Donatella

I remember when the characters from Basic Black & Titan were working on the same thing once in the past, say, 2 years. Basic Black was putting out a new line, like fall line, or whatever, and they were having a spread in Bella magazine which was owned by Titan. That was one time when their work seemed to actually make sense.

That agrees with mine except that I do not rank JB at all. And, you didn't say how you rank them when looking at BOTH. You just ranked Just Marley & Just Vicky.

Copycatting is alive & well in American business organizations! And, it was back then, too.

Thanks for sharing that! It's a good example of what happens when the people BTS don't get on well.

Now see, I thought it was well-written, well-acted, had a great premise, & there had been nothing like it on before. To me, the production values were good & I loved its opening theme & song. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting an excellent actor & NBC had enough confidence in it to start it with a 3-year contract instead of their usual 2-year. BET immediately bought its rerun rights & ran it several times. Then for its legacy on YouTube, it has the world's best catfight. Maya & Chantal almost destroy a room. What's not to love? But, I always heard that it had a white knight protector among the NBC execs, but NBC executive personnel changed & they lost their white knight. As much as NBC executive level personnel changed, that might have been a foregone conclusion. It's where I first saw Kelly Rutherford & I loved her Sam. Followed her to the great vampire soap "Kindred: The Embraced" where Stacy Haiduk is exceptional, too, as are others. Then she was excellent in "Gossip Girl."

I couldn't believe the Friday cliffhanger on a Thursday!

Great premise, great producers, great actors, Marvin Hamlisch did the music for it, by god, ... and I understand it is listed in one of those books about the worst flops in TV history!! Someone's looking for the pages to take snaps of them for me! Yes, a shame. And, what an excellent beginning! However, it just led to a precipitous fall from such a great height!

Jason, that's fantastic & completely satisfies my curiosity. An amazing ratings ride from 23.1/42 with a low of 8.2/13, just a total mess.

@JAS0N47 Do you have access to ratings that would cover this show? I'm just curious about its ratings for 11 nights. There is no deadline on my curiosity. BEACON HILL ran for only 11 episodes from Monday night, Aug. 25, 1975 to Nov. 4, 1975 on CBS primetime. The premiere episode cost $900,000 to mount. The producer was Jacqueline Babbin, known for AMC. The setting was Boston right after WWI. It was much touted & had great expectations. It opened with a whopping 43 share but it did not at all hold onto audience. Patterned probably too closely to Brit soap Upstairs, Downstairs.

There's good news & there's bad news. Bad news first: No Tracy at the Q's Thanksgiving. Awww. Darn. But, she will be back! Should make it by Christmas! So, that is better. Good news: Rena is having a blast!!!

Thank you very much for the info. I'm so pleased to have fallen down a rabbit hole looking for something else & discovered them!

Well, I am aware of people speaking of ATWT for example as a traditional melodrama concerning the characters & familial relationships based very much on day-to-day events, so perhaps commonplace, domestic, kitchen table over coffee talking, etc. Contrast that, then, with AW which was more a drawing room, or parlor melodrama & somehow the people & circumstances being elevated. So maybe that is exotic in some sense?

I admit it worried me a bit. I'm not sure if I believe Sonny can be friends with a woman without screwing up & adding sexual tension into their time together. And I don't even want them to even tease anything between Sonny & Anna. And, I have long thought that Nina & Valentin are too lovey-dovey in how they relate to each other. Perhaps I have too much cynicism & suspicion. Finished watching today's show. I think it was a waste. They should've done a follow-up day on Charlotte, the little bugger, and on Anna.

I have a confession to make. I became actually giddy that Charlotte Ross was on Twitter with us, in real time.

One time I brought up Calhoun blaming Holly partially for her rape. I said how I hoped that is something that wouldn't be said today. I remarked as to why it was a problematic statement. But, I was not in any way meaning to call his whole wonderful tenure into question. (Uh-oh.) And, I can assure you from the rousing & continuing defense of him that he is quite popular! You can take this as a testimonial to how great he was!

Dan & Chris are already back. However, of course, their scripts on not on the air yet. Their scripts will start airing some "bit" before Christmas. 🤏 We still owe gratitude to the mystery scabs for ending "Molly v. Kristina, the war over nothing at all"! However, they get roasted for "Maple Syrup Days & Nights"!

Oh, I see. You've uploaded so much data, it's a wonder you don't have bells & whistles going off signaling an attendant to come over & make a payout on a jackpot!! 🎆

Oh, god, I'm sorry. I didn't even know such a thing was possible.

I was sorta not sure till today. Now I agree. Really awful. Also agree with DAYS love for the Robichaux/Black/Evans tribe!

Oh, god, yes. Although she did write Gideon & Emily, didn't she? Her only good story, one that could not be told today. Probably shouldn't have been told when it was. Of course, that can be said about Bill Bell, too. Not the "only good" part.

So, your list only goes to the end of 1989? FYI/FWIW Steph now has an author's page up. https://www.soapoperadigest.com/author/ssloane/ Only now her email icon goes to [email protected] so that's bio & email new today for Steph.

Do you have any facts to back any of that up?

YES!! And, again, thank you for that info! Page 6 of this thread. You rock, Jason!

@JAS0N47 Just to be clear, that's most out of DAYS covers, not out of all SOD covers, correct?

I have a question. Does anyone know what would likely have been on Doug Watson's first winning Emmy reel? That was the 7th Annual & in 1980. Got an answer! With Janice, being poisoned, almost died, saved by Rachel & Mitch in St. Croix. Okay, no, it doesn't look like that was it. I just noticed this a minute ago while looking for something else & it reminded me so much of this: Linda Gottlieb was OLTL EP 1991-1994 where she replaced Paul Rauch. She hired Michael Malone & Josh Griffith. About this time at OLTL, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY wrote, "OLTL was airing some of the most literate drama ever to hit daytime -- too good to be called 'soap opera'. Actually very insulting for such high praise. I don't actually have a question per se, or at least I do not have one yet. For now it's just an observation. OY! Sometimes I just hate it when it combines replies!