Fashion House: Week 1 (Premiere Week)

[OneCharmingBastard]

I found myself over at a friends house last night - who doesn't have cable - he's not a soap person, but personally knew Morgan Fairchild from her AIDS activism in LA and liked her a bunch, so he was easy to enroll in my effort to catch the premieres. We were both stunned by three things......

1) The cast - particularly "Fashion House" - are breathtaking to look at.

2) For being relatively low budget (anyone know anything at all about the production costs of these pups btw?), the shows both looked GREAT - the sets and the style of "Desire" were stunning. And where have I seen that girl before? "Fashion House" was more real in a pilot than 19 and a half years of B&B has ever been, at least in terms of story relating to the industry. And Bo Derek is stunning.

3) 13 weeks should be enough to tell a whole story and wrap it up - and not necessarily with happy endings.

I kniow I will get flamed for this, but in these I see the future of the soap genere - if I could have 13 weeks of any show, doing its best stuff, five days a week, with coherent storytelling and compelling performances, I'd be there in a flash. Think about it. 13 weeks of a Reva-led GL, 13 weeks of a strong and complete ATWT, 13 weeks of a present day Edge of Night, 13 weeks of whatever happened to John & Sharlene from AW - it would be a way of being able to give fans what they want, keep the costs down, give actors some properly formed characters they can sink their teeth into.

But I could be wrong.

[Cheap21]

that already happened and it was called Port Charles. Coincidentally, one of its stories was called Desire

[bellcurve]

PC was MUCH different. Rather than focusing on a completely new set of characters(which is what was the intention was in the beginning) it started to focus on the same set every [!@#$%^&*] time after "Tainted Love."

Had it kept the focus on three or four different characters every thirteen weeks the way it SHOULD have done, it may have lended more variety.

I think the episodes cost anywhere from $700-$800K to produce each week, in comparison to daytime drama, which cost about $1.5 Million a week to produce.

But I also hear that they shoot by location rather than by episode, which I assume means that several scenes from several episodes can be shot in one day.

FASHION HOUSE is the show that B&B OUGHT to be, but isn't. FH is audacious, flashy, glamorous, fast-paced. B&B is like the DYNASTY-era on a broken record.

But I thought telenovelas were known for their happy endings.(?) I'd love to see a telenovela not have a standard happy ending though. Would make it a lot less predictable.

No flaming from me(at least about that). This would be a fantastic idea if they have good writers that can embrace the fast-paced novella genre.

I think a daytime audience is bound to get hooked on shows like this.

Another thing I should mention is the MUSIC for FASHION HOUSE. A lot of it is techno-driven, but some of it is very soapy. I like how just about every piece of music sets a tone for the show.

[dc11786]

I believe they are spending like $250,000 an episode. Regular primetime television is usually somewhere between $1-2 million and daytime is like $500,000. So they are dirt cheap and that's probably why MyNetworkTV is willing to invest time into the telenovela market. The risk will eventually pay off this summer as MyNetworkTV's initial low ratings will probably lead many network heads rethink their own telenovela plans leaving MyNetworkTV as one of the few options for original scripted summer programming.

[Alan]

I loved Fashion House. The production was impressive for a low-budget show and I liked the opening titles. Bo Derek definitely drives this show. Her scenes with Morgan Fairchild are going to be good. I can't wait for the next episode.

Table For Three's premeire was too confusing but I'll give it another chance. MNTV said that the episodes will be fairly self-contained, I hope so because I don't intend on watching these every night.

[KMan101]

Sigh.

I'm not blessed with MyNetworkTV.

Anyplace to download or watch them?

[All My Shadows]

I enjoyed the show a lot, but I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my number one lady, Ms. Morgan Fairchild. There are NO WORDS to describe how much I absolutely LOVE that woman to NO END.

[Danni]

That chick is psycho! Wearing another woman's lingerie like that!

I love this show.

[bellcurve]

LMAO.

[AbFabGL4ever7]

I'm loving the show especially Taylor Kinney who plays Luke Gianni, that boy is super yummy!!! I love boys with Sexy Tattoos. The acting overall is a lot better than Desire and the men are much hotter.

I'll just watch these and tivo the few weekly series that I watch. Which is dwindling each new season.

[WTGH]

I know! I was expecting her to sniff it or something.

-Anyway, ENOUGH with the flashbacks. It's worse than DAYS.

There were about five flashbacks in a one minute period, when Michelle and her friend met the rich guy at the bar.

-By far the most interesting storyline is Michelle/Hubby/EviLSecretary.

[R!ck]

I can't wait to check it out.

I'm not getting MNTV until Sept 21, so I'll be reading recaps til then

[Cheap21]

I tried watching the 2nd episode and Im having a hard time getting into it. IA on the flashbacks. The show just started and there's already way too many of them

[vanguard]

I agree with EVERYTHING you posted. 13-week style dramas like these IMO also keeps things more focused and easier to follow. And I would LOVE to see a 13-week story arc resembling one of "The Edge of Night's" storylines. This former daytime soap had the most intriguing storylines EVER and such a storyline would work well in a 13-week format.

[Casey]

I love Fashion House. I started to watch Desire and while I admire the idea, I couldn't stand the acting.

Fashion House is a show I've been waiting for. The scene that sold me was the woman standing in the other woman's house wearing her lingerie and talking about the jewerly. I've waited for a campy nighttime soap and now I have it.

I'm happy.

**I thought MNTV had its own subforum...will it still have that?