Primetime Soaps

[j swift]

I don't know about using SOD as a qualifier for what is or is not a primetime soap.  Because I think other tropes define the genre, including, but limited to, cliffhangers, serialized plots, and the use of melodrama.

For example, I don't think they did synopses for Savannah, which was definitely a soap.  Although I recall, SOW did some features on the actors and the plots.

Edited September 26, 2023 by j swift

[Forever8]

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I know this doesn't qualify as a primetime soap; however, it did star Daytime alums Kim Delaney and the late Dixie Carter.

It's the unaired pilot of Sudbury, a.k.a. "Practical Magic," the 1998 movie that starred Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. The latter was an executive producer on it. I read it would've aired on CBS.

[DRW50]

Thanks. Never knew about this.

[te.]

111 Gramercy Park is also on that channel:

 

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It was an attempt at a prime time soap by ABC that had two attempts at a pilot - a 2003 one and a 2004 one; ultimately, ABC didn't go with either, but it's obvious that ABC was looking for prime time soaps at that point (and eventually found one in Desperate Housewives).

[te.]

The 2004 version of Gramercy Park:

 

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[dc11786]

I remember following the development of "111 Gramercy Park." IIRC, the show was in development during late 2001 for the fall 2002 pilots. ABC, or possibly CBS, ordered the script, but it was very late in the development period so that it had to be filmed til 2002/2003. I remember being very interested because it had initially been described as an "upstairs/downstairs" style show and the casting included a lot of interesting names to me. I was disappointed it wasn't picked up, and was very upset to learn that Jonathan Brandeis, who appeared in the pilot, had taken his own life in November, 2003. I didn't even know that they had developed another version of "Gramercy Park" until after the pilot season was over. 

Watching both, I think each has strengths. Elizabeth Mitchell/Paul Blackburn play a better version of that couple than the pair in the original. Meanwhile, Joanna Going's version of the soon to be ex-wife was much more appealing that Megan Dodd's character. I remember Samaire Armstrong being an intriguing performer from "The O.C." and thinking she and Seth Gable would work well as twins on "Dirty, Sexy Money." I like how we get the twist at the end that the manipulative nanny is using a different name in both. I liked the actress who played the vixen in GP when she appeared in "Coyote Ugly," but I think playing Tatu's "All The Things She Said" during the reveal is just a great moment highlighted by a song that just captures a moment in time for me. The wealthy family in each led by the older patriarch works for me in both versions. I think the family dynamic in the original had potential, but both women would have to be developed more. The father-son conflict was great. In the second pilot, Gina Torres just shines whereas the father and son (played by one of Rory Gilmore's love interests) seem to fall off a bit. Watching the mother character run off in the second version was an interesting choice, but I almost prefer the original plotline. 

I also liked Camila Guaty in a very short lived sitcom from around this time on the WB called "The Help" from Ron Leavitt. I think she was a more effective lead, but I was less impressed with Travis Schultz. Also, that isn't Conchetta Tomei playing Schultz's grandmother is it? It sounds like her a little bit, but I don't imagine it is her.  

[JAS0N47]

If you've been following the daytime ratings threads, you've seen me posting the weekly daytime ratings for 1979-1989. For primetime fans, the primetime charts for some of the 1960's and 1970's are arriving long before the daytime charts will, so if anyone has a specific week of primetime soap or other primetime show they would like the chart posted for, let me know.

Here's the primetime chart of the night that "Days of Our Lives" premiered, 11/8/65...

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[Contessa Donatella]

Another thing happened on this day in soap opera history. A big, lavish, large cast, expensive prime-time soap came to an end. BEACON HILL ran for only 11 episodes from Aug. 25, 1975 to Nov. 4, 1975 on CBS. There were 2 unaired episodes. Award winner Marvin Hamlisch wrote the music. The whole show was patterned after the British hit UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS. 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. The household was the wealthy upper crust Irish family, the Lassiters. Their servants were poor Irish immigrants with no name noted. That was the contrast, the people "of the manor" & the people who worked for them. Apparently it appears in a book which lists famous TV flops! It said they tried to tell too many stories at one time.

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Edited November 5, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[DRW50]

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[All My Shadows]

Wow, North Shore! I loved it at the time and remember absolutely nothing about it.

[Contessa Donatella]

I have a list of primetime soaps that is quite liberal by intent. Of course SAVANNAH was a soap! I also include SISTERS & TWIN PEAKS, which some might want to argue about & I get that. But, one thing I love about it is that it has at least 11 parodies of soaps. And, of course, they are serials, too. 

All That Glitters

Behind the Screen

Dirty Sexy Money

Executive Suite

Filthy Rich

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

Soap

Good & Evil

Grand

Hail to the Chief

If anyone knows of any that I'm missing, please holla! 

[dc11786]

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I thought some might be interested in this. This is the final episode of ¨Grand" that was unaired (at least in the United States). This two season series underwent several revamps. in the first season, the show featured continuing stories about three interconnected families: the lower class Pasettis who lived in a trailer, the middle class aspiring yuppie Smithsons, and the wealthy Weldon clan who owned a piano factory, the local business. Janice Pasetti was the maid for the Smithsons and the Weldons. Carol Anne Smithson was Harris Weldon´s niece as well as high school classmate of Janice´s. The first season ended with an infamous cliffhanger leaving most of the characters in Janice´s trailer which disappeared when a tornado hit the town of Grand. 

The second season started as a more traditional sitcom with most of the recurring cast members dropped as well as some of the contract cast. The show centralized the story by moving the Pasettis into the Weldon´s stable and Carol Anne moved into the Weldon mansion after Tom disappeared. Norris Weldon bought the local bar and a lot of the stories were focused on singles Carol Anne and Janice. The traditional sitcom format wasn well received. 

In the final four or five episodes, the show shifted back to more serialized stories but of a supernatural nature with the attempts of a coven to take over the piano factory, the arrival of Janice´s mother Viva (played by Caroll Baker), and Carol Anne adopting a boy who had been raised by wolves. I suspect the final version of ¨Grand¨ was an attempt not only to regain the show´s original fan base but possibly cash in on the cult status of ¨Twin Peaks,¨ even if, by that time, TP was already losing appeal in the ratings. 

[te.]

Eh, I found North Shore rather dire, especially as it was meant to be the Melrose Place to The OC's 90210. Even Shannen coming on couldn't save it. Weirdly enough, Fox opted not to air the 21st episode which had a major cliffhanger (or maybe that was the reason).

[I Am A Swede]

I think I would characterize Soap and Good & Evil more as sitcoms than as soaps.

[Contessa Donatella]

 

I've seen them called sitcoms that parody soaps but I've also seen them in lists of soaps. Cliffhangers, other soap characteristics & the day-to-day narrative is serial story-telling, so, ... Grand is another with those issues. But, I hear ya & I get where you're coming from. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges