SFK

Yeah, CPW played more like a miniseries, and I guess I was in denial, but they really didn't try to hide that fact. The promos pretty much stated that it was a special 8 episode summer series, but we were really hoping it would come back in the fall after that Dianna (Alexis) and Adam (Cecil) death mid-coitus scene.

I remember being kind of bored, actually, to be more accurate I guess I was a smidge ADD watching the first few episodes as a high schooler. I remember Kylie Travis' character's debut for some reason, a shot of her leopard pumps as she stepped out of her cab/limo (?). Once it got axed and came back revamped as CPW, we watched EVERY episode (I want to say that they aired during the summer). It was must-see TV for us, and I still have some eps on VHS. We really enjoyed it and lamented the death of the primetime soap when it, Savannah, The Monroes, Pacific Palisades, Pasadena et al bit it and faded into oblivion. I mentioned that I was in high school at the time, well in my media class my teacher cited Central Park West as an epic fail for CBS (of course we weren't using the term "epic fail" in 1995). He talked about how it was promo'd to death only to be bumped off the schedule. It was a major hit for the Tiffany Network as they were trying so hard to capture that certain demo. I of course chimed in with my SOD provided info that the show was coming back as CPW with Gerald, Raquel, and Noelle. "Ohhh, wow, it's being reVAMPED!" I remember my teacher emphatically saying. Another memory, SOW did a little piece on CPW with a picture of Raquel and Lauren after their catfight in the fountain... they said how sorry they were to see the show go, and on the same page they said that Morgan Fairchild's (she was on her way out of The City) Sydney Chase could have benefitted from the camp factor Raquel's Dianna provided. Morgan was dead set on this idea of a '90s soap diva, she had all the trappings of the '80s soap divas, but was rather austere in terms of her delivery. She felt that we all wanted to get away from that '80s OTT campy soap bitch. Personally, I don't think we ever really get tired of that which explains why Tiffany "New York" Pollard and her chupacabra of a mother have 5 reality shows under their belts. Raquel LOOKED great on CPW (though my mom said she looked like a witch, especially in this opera cloak she wore one ep), the clothes (the hats!) were VERY Alexis. After all, she was in the running to play Alexis pre-Joan Collins. My gripe with her is that she seems incapable of delivering an organic performance. I know I know, this type of soap lends itself to a certain "style", it's rather British actually with an emphasis on the lips, the teeth, the tongue. It's all style, no substance, and for me, Raquel comes across as very studied, TOO studied. She knows exactly how she's going to deliver every line, and she's missing that confident, naturally clever, *wink* to the audience quality Joan had that made Alexis such magic. Raquel's trying too hard to be perfect, to get it "right".

Roya's Ava was like they put Erica Kane and Tina Lord DNA in a test tube and shook it up. As far as "definitive", I think we have a Robin Strasser/Victoria Wyndham kinda thing going on. All My Isabelles, I remember my mom quipping about how they'd repainted that portrait damn near four times.