Primetime Soaps

[Paul Raven]

That was 5th Dimension.

Of course a show called Hotel led to being constricted to that setting, so some plots suffered because of that.

But to get so many seasons out of it was quite an accomplishment.

I thought the supporting cast was bland and a little pointless. Half the time they were lucky to get a throwaway scene.

The actors were bland.

Maybe it would have been better to have different hotel employees featured. That would have added more variety.

My impression was that the storylines were about the guests with an occasional focus on James and Connie.

Did they ever do stories about the employees? Like a guest star who was employed at the hotel?

[Khan]

Well, I do remember a few stories they threw to Dave and Megan, played by real-life couple Heidi Bohay and Michael Spound.  Dave and Megan -- a bellboy and a front-desk clerk, respectively -- were happily married, but that's never any fun to watch, so the writers would try to introduce some conflict into their union.  Unfortunately, that wasn't any fun to watch either, lol.

[Soaplovers]

I wonder if perhaps Hotel should have have been more a soap than a 'love boat' type of show.

Business intrigue, hook ups, and romance all amongst the employees.

Connie Selleca was popular in the 80s from this show.  I know she did a primetime soap in the 90s called Second Chances that was canceled due to the earth quake destroying all the sets.  In fact, Michelle Phillip's played the woman sleeping with Connie Selleca's characters husband on the show.

[Khan]

If I were doing a "Hotel" reboot, I'd probably go in that direction.

Yep.  I hated when CBS cancelled "Second Chances," too.  It wasn't a perfect show, but it had its' moments.

[te.]

I think the new incarnation of Fantasy Island is going in that direction - they still have guest stars each episode, but also clearly continuing plots with the staff. Of course, a lot of those are mythology based since it's more of a fantasy (duh) show, but that's what I'd do with a Hotel reboot. Keep the guest stars, but amp up the soapiness of the continuing plots with the staff.

 

It's also interesting that the Hotel idea was the first floated spin-off idea for Dynasty - Fallon would further expand her hotel business and move out of town (with Jeff I assume). Of course, PSM left and the idea was nixed until The Colby's came around. I believe the Shapiros even sued Spelling for "stealing" the idea (I believe they settled).

Edited January 30, 2022 by te.

[Soaplovers]

I would have started the Hotel show as a 'love boat' type show at first with the guests coming as a placeholder until we got to know the main cast.. then moved more toward a soap where the staff/owners became the focus with the guests becoming more of a background element.

@KhanRegarding Second Chances, CBS had debated rebuilding all the sets.. but because Connie Selleca and Megan Follows (2 of the 3 leads) were both pregnant, they knew by the time all the sets were rebuilt, they couldn't resume production so they canceled it.  And the sad thing was that ratings were slowly starting to increase and the show was becoming cohesive and enjoyable when this happened.

               I think that was partly why it was rebooted as Hotel Malibu with the focus being on Jennifer Lopez's character and her father because the other 2 leads weren't available and perhaps CBS had given the show runners a guaranteed full season order.  Just a theory.

[Khan]

I think I would have preferred THAT to THE COLBYS, lol.

For one thing, a hotel setting (with maybe a mix of on-going and self-contained stories) would have had a much different vibe to it than yet another saga about an affluent, dysfunctional family.  Fallon's hotel-based spinoff would have been allowed to cultivate an identity of its' own rather than be forced to live in the shadows of DYNASTY.

For another, you still could have had guest appearances from the DYNASTY cast -- John Forsythe, Linda Evans, Jack Coleman, perhaps even Dame Joan herself! -- but in ways that would have made more sense than they did on THE COLBYS.  (After all, the Carringtons and Colbys were all jet-setters, wheeling and dealing on a seemingly global scale.  You could have easily had one or several pop-in occasionally and stay at a suite in Fallon's hotel while they were in town on business).  Whenever anyone from the mother show cameoed on the spin-off, it just felt...redundant.

However, if I had been Richard or Esther Shapiro, I would have transitioned Claudia Blaisdel to the spin-off as well.  The Shapiros clearly loved writing for Pamela Bellwood, but Claudia just never fit in with the rest of the characters on DYNASTY, especially after Matthew and Lindsay were written out/killed off after the first season.  I would have had Claudia work alongside Fallon, helping to get the new hotel up and running.  And yes, I would have written an episode where Claudia runs into Matthew, who's not dead after all, but who doesn't remember anything from his past, including their marriage.

Ah, the David Jacobs approach, lol.

I think so, too.  The Lechowicks might have had a commitment from CBS, and spinning off some characters -- specifically, the Hispanic/Latino characters, at a time when the network was making another one of its' diversity pushes -- onto a new series was probably seen as the best way to fulfill that commitment. 

In retrospect, I don't believe either side was fully engaged with HM.  It just felt like a burn-off more than anything else.  But, if it HAD been more successful, I see CBS doing something revolutionary (at that time) and making HM an annual summer show with appropriate, season-long arcs.

[dc11786]

All this talk of "Second Chances" and "Hotel Malibu" inspired me to revisit the show.

I first saw the show when it was first released on DVD several years ago. From what I recall, the show was very dull in the beginning. I didn't recall Justin Lazard's Kevin Cook having much story with Jennifer Lopez's Melinda Lopez after the initial broken engagement story. Watching this again, I think the show made a mistake not marrying the characters off in those early episodes. The culture class between the snobby, blue blood Cooks and the proud, working class Lopezes would have provided the show with some light, character driven domestic drama which would help to balance some of the heaviness of all the broken relationships, the murder mystery, and the return of ex-con Mike Chulak. 

I don't think Matt Salinger and Connie Selleca were a good pairing. I think the show agreed as I felt they had been preparing to write out Mike midseason.

I seemed to remember the show did pick up steam towards the end when they interested John Schneider's character who became both Dianne's business partner and potential love interest. There was some mystery that was introduced in the last couple episodes involving some connection between him and some hometown beauty queen who came into town for the local beauty pageant. I also liked the story involving Megan Follows' Kate falling for Robert Duncan McNeill's character who was tied to an older lady played by Ellen Albertini Dow. McNeill and Dow were relatives of Ray Wise's judge. I think Kate arranged a dog birthday party for Ellen Dow's character who then suddenly disappeared. McNeill's character and Kate had to track the aunt down. I believe Wise had stashed her in a nursing home. 

What I remember about "Hotel Malibu" was that it was very boring. I was surprised that they resolved Dianne Benedict's story in the premier episode and carried over Kelli McCarthy (Beth from "Passions") character to give Lopez's Melinda a reason to take the job at Hotel Malibu. I don't remember if they even showed Melinda's younger brothers on "Hotel Malibu." When they proceeded to move onto the drama of the Mayfield family, I don't remember much of the story picking up. I don't remember any of the characters or actors gelling. John Dye was miscast as the swarmy villain. Romy Wathall was the only real actress who seemed to spark in the story, which wasn't great. 

I do remember like Pepe Serna and Joanna Cassidy together, but I don't remember much of their pairing outside of Ellie either having a scare or being diagnosed with cancer.

[Forever8]

Someone put up the pilot episode of The Monroe's again. 

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[Khan]

I don't care that there was supposed to be no one else in that building (save for security).  It made absolutely no sense for that dude to run to the bathroom without a stitch of clothing on (what, you couldn't stop for a moment and put on some pants?).  That only happened because the writer(s) needed him to be embarrassed later in the elevator and at the security desk.  It's exactly the kind of plot-driven [!@#$%^&*] that I hate.

[Joseph]

THANK YOU!!! always wanted to see that! Big fan of Susan Sullivan here, that woman made me watch Castle i love her even more for it

Edited February 23, 2022 by Joseph

[Chris B]

I loved The Monroes when it aired on SOAPnet. I'd never heard of it and thought it was pretty good. I loved Susan Sullivan and William Devane as the heads of the family and wish they at least got one full 22 episode season.

[SFK]

IIRC, The Monroes took a brief hiatus, I’m guessing after not so great numbers. I definitely remember ABC airing the first episode for a second time a couple of weeks after the debut, probably trying to find more audience. I was in high school at the time and my media teacher did some moonlighting as a camera person when they shot on location in the D.C. area.

[kalbir]

The Monroes was head-to-head w/ Seinfeld. It stood no chance. 

1995/96 ABC and CBS tried to revive primetime soaps on their networks (The Monroes and Central Park West respectively) but they were epic failures.

[Paul Raven]

Primetime soaps did not work at 9pm but the newtworks never seemed to learn that lesson

Bare Essence, The Monroes, Central Park West, The Colbys, Paper Dolls  and the original season of Dynasty all flopped at 9 o'clock.

Both Knots Landing and Flamingo Road both had stints at 9 and fared worse than they had at 10 and moved back there.

The exceptions were Dallas and Dynasty and that was because they had built a following at 10 and moved forward to a timeslot that was already housing a hit show for the network -Fall Guy on ABC and Dukes of Hazzard on CBS. Those shows moved up to 8pm so the viewing pattern was the same.

Of course a 10 pm timeslot was no guarantee of success either - Berrengers, Secrets of Midland Heights, Emerald Point etc