Primetime Soaps

[Paul Raven]

 

[j swift]

My immediate reaction was that the cast looks so old for a story about Malibu.  Although the town is definitely for those who have advanced in a career and made money, one tends to associate it with youth and vibrancy.  Upon further investigation, it was mostly the male cast that was older.  James Coburn was 57, William Atherton was 36, and Chad Everett was 46 (no age known for his wig).  Meanwhile, Jenilee Harrison was 25 and Susan Dey was 31. 

Lots of Hollywood Wives cast overlap.

Fun fact, it also starred a young Brad Maule, one year before his debut on GH.

Edited April 5, 2024 by j swift

[te.]

Reading the synopsis it comes off as a very Knots, or rather No Down Payment with a couple moving into a neighbourhood and then the tensions go from there. I wonder if there was any chance of this going to series if it had been successful?

If it had been done in the 90s you know the oldest one in the cast would've been like 35 lol.

[Khan]

I'm sure at least one reviewer wrote, "CBS has made a Mali-boo-boo."

[soapfan770]

Multiple attempts for a soap set in Malibu ie 2000 Malibu Rd, Hotel Malibu, Malibu Shores etc occurred in the 90s but they all just failed to takeoff.

I was thinking it sounded similar to Knots.

Maybe it’s just me but I can’t picture Atherton as a leading man here, mainly because of his goofy/obnoxious villain roles in a lot of movies he did afterwards.

The whole thing is up on YouTube, but like I said I couldn’t make it pass the ridiculous opening credits and song

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[Khan]

Not even the great Dionne Warwick(e) could have rescued that mess, lol.

[Paul Raven]

Malibu Pt 1 was up against the premiere of The A Team Sunday @9.

The A Team was 5th 23.0/35 while Malibu had to settle for 18.9/29 ,ranking in the mid 20's.

The next night Malibu improved to 13th  21.0/31.

[te.]

I've been enjoying looking up past home pages I did and omg: https://web.archive.org/web/20011005001613/http://www.dalberg.nu/cpw/

[DRW50]

Thanks. The story about the actress on CPW who wouldn't die is amusing.

Not sure if Relativity counts as a primtime soap but it doesn't seem to get a lot of attention and the pilot, possibly more, is being put on Youtube.

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[Contessa Donatella]

Which title is it that you are talking about?

[Franko]

It's right out of The Killing of Sister George.

[te.]

Poor Melissa Errico. She was the only female character killed off the show, and in the end it probably didn't matter since she was likely contracted for the season (and credited for all episodes, so she likely got paid) and the show was cancelled in the end.

[te.]

Nice interview with Darren Star in Vulture - he talks about Beverly Hills 90210, Shannen Doherty and Melrose Place among other things. Also flop shows like Sex and the City and Emily in Paris:

 

https://www.vulture.com/article/darren-star-in-conversation.html

[Chris B]

I purchased Rich Man, Poor Man a few months ago and recently started Book 2 which is the soap spin off. I loved the original mini-series, but I had taken some time to watch the spin off because reviews said it wasn't any good. In retrospect I do think it was very good and is a forgotten pre-curser to the big boom of primetime soaps. It also doesn't appear to have done bad in the ratings so I'm surprised they didn't keep it on the air longer. My guess is that it was the lack of confidence in the soap genre.

The tv series jumps ahead in time so it has some new actors, but they do a good job of tying things up and launching the new stories. Susan Sullivan is playing another Maggie, as Peter Strauss' love interest/lawyer. They have a Bobby/JR rivalry at the center with cousins Wesley and Billy who Strauss' character takes in once their parents are dead. They're played by good actors but have the weakest story of the bunch. One works for the family business and the other is in the music industry which doesn't make much sense to me. If they wanted to pit the two against each other they both should've worked for the family business. 

I still have about half a season to go. Once I finish I'm going to either do Second Chances/Hotel Malibu or The Yellow Rose. Not sure which one I will do first. I'm also watching season two of Knots Landing but I'm trying to slow down to give them a chance to upload season 3 to streaming so I'm not left high and dry when I run out of episodes.

[Khan]

"Rich Man, Poor Man Book II" gets a bum rap for being too soapy when compared to the first miniseries, but it's not as if Irwin Shaw's original novel was the stuff of great literature.

IIRC, "Second Chances" premiered on CBS the same year ABC had cancelled "Homefront," so it was nice to see the Lechowicks' work back on TV after such a short period.  SC also was different from most other primetime soaps by being a sort of soap opera/crime drama hybrid, with the first storyline centered around the murder of Connie Sellecca's character's husband. 

SC was rough in places - from what I can recall, there was another mystery involving police corruption that wasn't as solid; and as usual, some of the Lechowicks' casting choices left much to be desired - but I thought they did a good job integrating Jennifer Lopez's character and her family with the rest of the show.  It's just unfortunate that the Northridge earthquake, which destroyed many of the show's sets, forced CBS to cancel it rather than give it the full season.

On the other hand, "Hotel Malibu," which spun off Lopez's character from SC, screams "contractual obligation," due mostly to the fact that it was burned off during the summer, lol.  This time, the Stanleys have joined the Lechowicks in producing the show; and it's soapier and more lighthearted than SC - there's even a shout-out to KNOTS in one scene, lol! - but as hard as they worked to get you to tune in every week, I kinda knew there would be no point in waiting for a second season (summer, or any other time of the year).