Survivors aired Monday @9 up against NBC Monday movie and Mayberry/Doris Day on CBS.

On 4/18/2026 at 6:10 PM, kalbir said:

Hotel was The Love Boat on land but a little soapier. I never thought of it as a primetime soap though.

Hotel actually got a bit more serialized in season 4 after Anne Baxter passed away, starting with an multi episode arc about who owns the hotel with Michelle Phillips as one of Victoria Cabot's scheming nieces. Whenever a multi episode arc would end, another one would begin so the serialization was never heavy. But it was there.

The first three seasons were very light, with the major thread being the will they / won't they with James Brolin and Connie Selleca.

Just now, te. said:

Hotel actually got a bit more serialized in season 4 after Anne Baxter passed away, starting with an multi episode arc about who owns the hotel with Michelle Phillips as one of Victoria Cabot's scheming nieces. Whenever a multi episode arc would end, another one would begin so the serialization was never heavy. But it was there.

Was "Hotel" still doing okay in the ratings, or had they begun to slide? If it was the latter, then they might've switched to more serialized storytelling in order to grab more viewers.

1 minute ago, Khan said:

Was "Hotel" still doing okay in the ratings, or had they begun to slide? If it was the latter, then they might've switched to more serialized storytelling in order to grab more viewers.

Hotel was always dependent on Dynasty, and that had begun its slide, so yeah, that might've been a part of the change.

But I think more importantly, Love Boat had floundered until it got cancelled in May 1986. I think they saw that the format was on its last legs, especially with shows like Glitter and Finder of Lost Loves not gathering any steam in the 1984-85 season (which were also variations of the Love Boat formula). That probably was more of a factor to the change.

(Season 4 is the 1986-87 season, so it's directly after Love Boat got canned)

Edited Friday at 07:18 PM3 days by te.

8 minutes ago, te. said:

But I think more importantly, Love Boat had floundered until it got cancelled in May 1986. I think they saw that the format was on its last legs, especially with shows like Glitter and Finder of Lost Loves not gathering any steam in the 1984-85 season (which were also variations of the Love Boat formula). That probably was more of a factor to the change.

You're probably right. I mean, when you get right down to it, "Hotel" was just "The Love Boat" with mints left on all the pillows.

3 minutes ago, Khan said:

You're probably right. I mean, when you get right down to it, "Hotel" was just "The Love Boat" with mints left on all the pillows.

You can also tell the writers aren't really experienced with serialized writing because it's not like "plot thread A starts - middle of story (plot b quietly starts) - end story (plot b amps up)". It's just one plot thread that starts and stops within a few episodes. Then all of a sudden another plot thread starts and runs for another few episodes. It's quite clunky.

Anne Baxter and James Brolin both co-starred together in the 1969 TV movie pilot " A Matter Of Humanities" which was the pilot for Marcus Welby M.D. It's interesting they both wound up co-starring again in Hotel.

From what I have read James Brolin and Robert Young didn't have a close relationship off set. Young suffered with alcoholism for decades with an attempt at suicide in the early 90's.

I didn't know about Robert Young's suicide attempt. I di d

Remember him from Sanka (decaffeinated coffee) commercials when he behaved like he needed less caffeine.

The typical commercial had Robert Young offering Sanka to someo e who says "I only drink REAL coffee" and Young gets all indignant shouting "SANKA IS REAL COFFEE!" Kinda defeating the purpose of less caffeine.

On 5/16/2026 at 7:58 PM, Stevel said:

I didn't know about Robert Young's suicide attempt. I di d

Remember him from Sanka (decaffeinated coffee) commercials when he behaved like he needed less caffeine.

The typical commercial had Robert Young offering Sanka to someo e who says "I only drink REAL coffee" and Young gets all indignant shouting "SANKA IS REAL COFFEE!" Kinda defeating the purpose of less caffeine.

Yes, in the early 90's. According to the story his wife was bedridden by that point (she was also a drinker). He told her he was going to commit suicide. He went out to the garage and tried to start the car. It wouldn't so he calls a mechanic to come out. When the mechanic arrives he notices the hose hooked to the exhaust. He secretly calls the police and they come out. They find Mrs. Young in the bed drunk and she confirms that he told her wanted to die and was going to end it all. I think they talked him into checking into a psychiatric ward for help. Young later made a statement apologizing for his rash behavior. Mrs. Young later died and Robert young lived till 1998 suffering from Alzheimer's. Elinor Donahue said she visited him shortly before he died when he was having a good day and he remembered her.

Edited 42 minutes ago42 min by SoapDope78

15 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

Yes, in the early 90's. According to the story his wife was bedridden by that point (she was also a drinker). He told her he was going to commit suicide. He went out to the garage and tried to start the car. It wouldn't so he calls a mechanic to come out. When the mechanic arrives he notices the hose hooked to the exhaust. He secretly calls the police and they come out. They find Mrs. Young in the bed drunk and she confirms that he told her wanted to die and was going to end it all. I think they talked him into checking into a psychiatric ward for help. Young later made a statement apologizing for his rash behavior. Mrs. Young later died and Robert young lived till 1998 suffering from Alzheimer's. Elinor Donahue said she visited him shortly before he died when he was having a good day and he remembered her.

From what I understand, Robert Young spent much of his life feeling depressed over his film career. He felt the studios never saw him as anything but modest and bland...which is heartbreaking, and oh-so-typical of an industry that likes to box people into this-or-that category and never allow them to display all sides to their talents. I only hope that, in his final years, Young knew how much his work on "Father Knows Best" and "Marcus Welby, M.D." meant to viewers who thrived on seeing calm, reassuring figures on their TV screens every week.