SFK

Yeah, all I've managed to see from those three are opening credits that seem to appear and disappear on YouTube. I'm most interested in Emerald and Bare Essence. I've seen the TV movie of BA and I'm really interested in how it was handled as a series. That show was crazy recast too. And Emerald, I could be totally off base, but for some reason I get the impression that the writing was a little more sophisticated and down to earth OR watered down and vapid in comparison to the Shapiros' hit, Dynasty. Esther wanted Rock Hudson to star in Emerald but I guess the shorter stint on Dynasty was more his speed. Dennis Weaver was cast instead.

Doran Clark was on another short-lived primetime soap, CBS's Emerald Point N.A.S. from Richard & Esther Shapiro. And Michael Zaslow had a role on King's Crossing. Mary Frann was originally cast as Sue Ellen on Dallas before they read Linda Gray and she won the role. I wonder if Mary's MH/KC role was somewhat of a consolation prize.

"The advertisments for ''Berrenger's'' show a sultry, horizontal Miss Mimieux wrapped in lace and fur with Mr. Murphy, in a tuxedo, tickling her under the chin with a long- stemmed rose. The scene never takes place in the show. That is what used to be called exploitation. Today it is simply called something like ''Berrenger's.'' The premiere is directed as slickly as it deserves by Larry Elikann and Nicholas Sgarro."

Another quick one and then I'll stop thread jacking, but I remember when Claire Beckman replaced Rosalind Ingledew Allen as Silver on AMC. I *think* that was my first recast announcement. I was kinda shocked and confused, I thought the new Silver couldn't have looked more different.

Folks back at WoST shared this one, but in 1980 when Beverlee McKinsey broke her shoulder when she fell hanging drapes in her apartment, Bill Wolff announced that, "Due to illness, the role of Iris will be played by Carole Shelley" and the studio in Brooklyn got flooded with calls about Beverlee.

I admit that it's been a while since I can remember a specific AMC example. There haven't been a lot of recasts over the past few years. As you mentioned, Babe. Did Sabine Singh (I think I got that right) get one, I don't remember how long Rebecca Budig had been off the show. I definitely remember that Alicia Minshew didn't get one as it had been years since SMG. I do remember the Natalie one as she lay there with bandages over her eyes, and Laurel was such a WTF recast, OMG, Galen!? Wow, you are taking me back! Didn't even remember that there were two.

With Toni/Skye, we had been seeing the mysterious woman in white for a couple of weeks in the Dr. Kinder s/l. Then Scott was working on some family tree video project and someone asked who the woman was on the TV monitor and he was like, "Oh, that's my cousin Skye, uncle Adam's daughter. She left town years ago, haven't heard from her in a while..."

Us at home: OhhhHHHHhhh, that's supposed to be Skyyyyeee...

Ron Harper was ALSO on Capitol. He played Baxter McCandless, Clarissa's (Constance Towers) back-from-the-dead husband, and the genesis of Clarissa and Myrna's (Carolyn Jones, Marj Dusay) feud as Clarissa "stole" him from Myrna.

I think the general rule with replacement announcements is that if months have passed since the last actor was on, they won't get one. Days, weeks, sure. Rebecca Budig's return was of course heavily promoted so she didn't need one, and hey, if she's the REAL Greenlee, we all should know who she is already. Also when a recast is sort of "explained" through the storytelling (Toni/Skye on AMC), or an announcement seems awkward for such a short return engagement (Di Henry), they forego the announcement.

That show sounds pretty decent on paper.

It does actually. Wow, did he really just call Josh Brolin "the thickest slab of beef in primetime"? I admit, I only know Eddie Bracken from his guest stint as Buddy on The Golden Girls ("Don't hit me! I'm in the arts.")

Okay, who remembers the whole Manchester Prep debacle, the television spinoff of Cruel Intentions? This one was yanked before the first episode even aired because of a controversial scene where a girl orgasmed while riding a horse. Gossip Girl before Gossip Girl?

***

So I just went to check if Manchester Prep had made it to YouTube after about a decade, and I learned that the couple of episodes that had been shot were edited and made into the prequel Cruel Intentions 2. I actually saw that piece of crap, I think on-demand while staying at a hotel or something. Did NOT realize that was Amy Adams in the SMG role.

We watched Pasadena weekly and were very disappointed when it went on "hiatus" which we knew it would never return from. I'm sure it wasn't helped by the fact that it aired Friday nights on FOX. When SoapNet picked it up, I believe they showed the few remaining unaired episodes from the original run.

The Monroes was another show we eagerly anticipated, a witty, intelligent The Colbys for the '90s, or so we assumed. We even discussed it in my media class as one of my teachers did production work for its on-location shooting in D.C./VA. This is another one that suffered from scheduling, I don't know what ABC was working on. I seem to remember the first, or maybe a couple of episodes airing, then it took a considerable hiatus, I don't remember how long but long enough for me to wonder what was going on, then it came back and aired again from the beginning. Weird, but I believe SoapNet picked that one up too. I don't have SoapNet anymore, but I used to love their Dysfunctional Family Night.

I read about Profit now and I see comparisons to Dexter for example, I'd add American Psycho. What I seem to remember most is that it was acted, presented really, quite *quirkily* which is something that the viewers were perhaps unaccustomed to and not ready for, but now we're like completely saturated with that style.

I never caught the new, primetime Dark Shadows but my mom got SOD and they'd do weekly synopses for it. Judging from the pictures that looked like romance novel covers, I'd say that Kindred kicked the horror up a few notches for TV vampires and was doing some of the things we'd soon see on Buffy. Kindred probably would have done a lot better on The WB/UPN at the height of Buffy mania.

Not pure soap, but soapy... when I was in high school back in '96 there were two heavily hyped FOX series you may or may not remember, Profit and Kindred: The Embraced. They were yanked pretty quickly, and honestly, I have very vague recollections of them. I caught maybe one ep of Profit and a couple of Kindred (a sexy vampire show), but I looked them up and saw that they're available on dvd (there are clips of both on YouTube if you're interested). I'm thinking of checking them out. I also found the first season of thirtysomething on Amazon Video On-Demand, so I'll be starting that soon.

I'm reminded of Love, Sidney, minus the camptastic vocals of Tony Randall, Swoosie Kurtz, and Kaleena Kiff of course.

I'm reminded of Love, Sidney, minus the camptastic vocals of Tony Randall, Swoosie Kurtz, and Kaleena Kiff of course.

Perhaps they should team up with Amazon Video On-Demand. Are you all familiar with Roku? We own one and have bought quite a few seasons of TV series (as well as movies) through Amazon and watch them digitally on the Roku (and if you have Netflix, you can stream many of the movies in your queue on there as well). It's perfect for a minimalist like me who doesn't like the clutter of a million dvd cases as it's all stored digitially on the Roku and can be burned to dvd if we so choose. But this could at least eschew the cost of packaging all of those PP dvds. As it stands, a season costs the same as it would on hard copy dvd but you also have the choice of downloading individual episodes for a dollar and change. Maybe PP could offer at least two or three episodes for the price of one, but I'm sure most folks who are interested in PP would buy whatever "seasons" were offered in their entirety anyway.

Oh wow, may he rest in peace. I've never been a huge EON watcher, but from my days at WoST, I remember that he was a fan favorite.

I just started watching thirtysomething.

Now that's another show I've been considering giving a chance at my current age, I wasn't at all interested in it when it first aired. When I was younger, it was the butt of so many jokes on sitcoms, yet it was rather critically-acclaimed. And it drew inspiration from one of my favorite movies, The Big Chill, so I think it's worth a try. I wonder if it's on Netflix/Amazon On-Demand...

Nolan Miller discusses Lana Turner and The Survivors in his TV Archive interview, it definitely sounds like this was his career warm-up to Dynasty as he provided several glamorous changes per episode for Turner. I'd love to see this series, I've only seen the promo on WoST. And what can I say, George Hamilton, I've loved that guy ever since Love at First Bite.

There are soaps, and then there are soaps.

My mom and I watched Pacific Palisades weekly. When it and later Pasadena got unceremoniously yanked, I think we kinda gave up and resigned ourselves to the fact that those good old days of primetime sudsers were over. My mom was a BIG fan of Savannah too. The shows got younger focusing on twentysomethings during that '90s wave, and then of course they went even younger but that never seemed to bother my mom too much (she even watched The O.C.), she was just always up for a good soapy story and these days you're lucky if you can even get that, regardless of character age.

She did leave, and I think that was pretty much it Eric, she wanted to try her hand at films and primetime full-time after the critical acclaim she received from Eve's Bayou.

EXACTLY. I remember people online saying just that--that the new theme suited daytime much more, etc. Bullocks! I thought that was so silly and the last thing that needed fixing with their weak first few months (especially since Spellign wanted Melrose, etc, fans to watch it who didn't watch soaps already--so it made sense)

Gosh, the soaps currently on the air could afford to do what SuBe did, take a few weeks off to get their [!@#$%^&*] together. I had forgotten how they did that and just recapped in the meantime. I agree that the opening could have been left untouched. And why did Sherri Saum have the final shot, at least give it to Aunt Bette or Annie.

I never knew Capitol listed their cast

Only in Italy, sorry if I wasn't clear, this is the Italian opening which had different music than the original U.S. version.

I also much preferred the original SuBe opening, and yes, it would have been perfect for primetime, but the second theme was almost *too* bright and sunshiney. I've never said to myself, "This theme is too slow and sexy, it doesn't belong in daytime! I'm not watching this stupid show!" (Well, I may have said the second sentence, but for different reasons.)

I liked Capitol's second opening that used that poster effect like Santa Barbara, it also had a better theme. The original Capitol credits look hella dated... the outdoor shots on videotape with those old wipe effects (and sometimes I think they could have gotten some better shots). At least Texas incorporated the cast shots to kind of break the vacation video feel. In Italy where Capitol was a huge primetime hit on Raidue, they got an upbeat disco theme with a couple of cast credits added in. I really like the funkier Italian theme:

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Right, those were like sister opening credits and I've said from time to time that LG's OLTL theme was more appropriate for Loving, BUT I must say that in hindsight, I really love it. It worked for the time. It seemed like getting rid of Rauch's "Tour of Llanview" credits was insane, they were so perfect, and when word was out that they were working on new credits to replace LG's theme, I was ecstatic, but that's the funny thing about time and fond memories... I really like where the show was during the "Champagne" opening era and I think it actually DID fit for that Llanview (okay, maybe not so much the visuals, but the darker moody sexiness of the theme was pure Gottlieb era). It was sophisticated, and I will always love the closing credits in particular, that billowing dark blue satin. It all worked for that Y&R-like era of the show where it always felt like 5pm and late winter where Dorian and Viki were steeped in all of that Victor drama in their endless array of fur coats. It was a sensuous, darkly psychological and emotional time for the show, I am not mad at LG's opening credits at all.

Gahd, I miss an early '90s steamy sax intro. They pretty much disappeared. Linda Gottlieb was always one to use a steamy sax during her time at OLTL too. I love the 2000MR opening (it loses something at 2:40 though), very Knots given the scroll, yet perfectly with the times. I hated Knots' final brassy ass theme. Does anyone remember the slow, sexy Another World theme for the primetime special that aired before the Emmys one year? I loved it, it was on WoST, it fit right in with these. I have to include these two favorites, quite different and many would call the second one a soulless cheap cop-out, but I loved them both (minus Raquel and Gerald both getting an "and", Raquel should have gotten a "with"). The drums in the first one under the soloist doing those melismas just gets me everytime:

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I wonder if Darren Starr has a sister or a bff named Carrie.

Does Y&R hold the distinction of having a theme song that debuted in an earlier piece (LIAMST of course being an exception)? The second theme for Texas had a second life in bank commercials (it's late, I'm forgetting which bank).