Primetime Soaps

[quartermainefan]

I've met David Jacobs, and he was pretty nice--to me, anyway. His ex-wife married John Pleshette (she was a casting agent) and they lived in Bela Lugosi's old house. Pleshette was a bit of an ass, I felt at the time. David Jacobs, as I remember it being told to me, was pretty much out of DALLAS fairly early on, but was totally into Knots in every aspect. This was many many years ago, 20 years ago, that I was acquainted with these people. It was weird to be in a house with "Richard" and then Michele Lee calls.

[EricMontreal22]

Wow! How very cool

I was looking online at a book, Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime-time Soap by Barbara Curran--you can read sample pages at amazon. (It actually looks worth buying for a trivia obsessed person like me). Anyway Jacobs writes the introduction and he's quite candid about not having much to do with Dallas after the first 8 episodes--he took off for Knots, his first love and creation (I wonder if Dallas fans ever complain that Jacobs abandoned them for Knots the way OLTL fans complain about AMC and Agnes Nixon ). It sounds like he still had some input--more like a consultant--you can read his whole intro on Amazon. He doe smention that there are a number of urban legends about Dallas that aren't true--a big one being that it wasn't meant to be a serial originally--the plan was always to start off with more self contained episodes (a technique he learned from Family) and then to go into a full on serial--I assume with Knots too.

Edited February 23, 2010 by EricMontreal22

[DRW50]

I remember that John Pleshette interview where he ripped into the Latham/Lechowicks. I got the sense he wasn't exactly a nice guy, but I appreciated his candor.

Richard Avery was such a weak, pathetic man, but I never could hate him, because of Pleshette's work. He was phenomenal and never got enough credit for it. I still remember his goodbye scenes, they were very moving. And the breakdown episode was also moving.

Of course, Richard got the last laugh. He was remarried, and happy, while poor Laura died alone

Did anyone else get freaked out about how Jason Avery never aged?

[Sylph]

Which of these 12 pages worth of shows do you, people, think were actually good? And which got sacked/never made it on air deservedly?

[Chris B]

The Monroes was GREAT and deserved to live longer. I haven't seen many of the short-lived ones so it's hard to say. Falcon Crest is pure popcorn TV, but enjoyable. Dynasty is EXCELLENT for three seasons, pure trash the rest. Not even good trash. The Colbys was a better executed clone of Dynasty with a stronger lead. Knots Landing is god-like. Dallas is much better than I recalled. Their season long plotting was exquisite and the show was unique. Melrose Place is a very funny show thats better than I remembered.

[Sylph]

Except The Monroes, I've seen all the others.

Have there been any attempts to lure Jackie Collins or Sidney Sheldon into the primetime soaps world?

Edited February 23, 2010 by Sylph

[JamesF]

Just a heads up but over the past couple of days it seems someone's been uploading full episodes of Emerald Point NAS. I don't want to publicise it too much but you can guess where.

Regarding 'good' soaps and in particular short-lived ones, Pasadena immediately springs to mind. The names involved would have suggested a lot more pretension but it was a lot of fun, though in a far less obvious way than Desperate Housewives. It really was a case of wrong network, wrong time.

[Sylph]

Sidney Sheldon:

[All My Shadows]

As far as I know, neither one of them went any further than mini-series. Jackie had HW, of course, which I think I read was gonna be turned into a series, but I think that the network came to their senses by then and realized that the primetime soap was, sadly, on its way out. Besides, they ended up putting The Colbys on the air that year anyway.

I've seen the mini-series of Sheldon's Rage of Angels, which starred Jaclyn Smith, but that one wasn't extremely soapy.

[!@#$%^&*]. I'm already starting to get backed up on my Dynasty and Prisoner Cell Bloch H episodes. Now I have to sit and watch as much of this as I can.

[Chris B]

Today my DVDs of Pacific Palisades, Savannah and Emerald Point NAS just arrived. Now I'm just waiting for CPW and Model's Inc. I'll let you know what I think of them once I start watching.

[JamesF]

Enjoy Chris. The first season of Savannah was fantastic soapy fun. 90s sleaze with a bit of the 80s earnestness that Melrose didn't need to bother with. Pacific Palisades had its moments but the story arcs just didn't seem to be there.

Re: novelists, I think Sidney Sheldon could have been the best option particularly with his TV background. I've only read a few of his books and he has a very 'easy' writing style that would translate well to the screen. Jackie Collins however...nope. A total one trick pony. Hollywood Wives and Chances were her masterpieces and genuine page turning beach reads that were dare I say it unpredictable. The rest were [!@#$%^&*]. Completely and utterly formulaic, the irony being that she invented the formula in the 80s when she could still be bothered to use her imagination. She'd be terrible at writing a primetime soap that was anything more than gloss.

[Sylph]

An elaboration?

Yes, Sheldon is just fluid, you just keep turning the pages. Fun books, to relax the brain, but no masterpieces.

Whereas Jackie - you nailed it. I asked because it's not that I think she should, most certainly not, perhaps only to write a bible and general storyline, but even that's generous, it's that she's popular and some might lend themselves for adaptation.

When I read the title of the newest one...

[Paul Raven]

Jackie Collins did have a deal with CBS for a nightime soap,but I don't think it ever went to a pilot.

I can't recall the exact title but it wasn something like 'Jackie Collins 5th Avenue'or some such locale.

[Paul Raven]

Maybe it was 'Jackie Collins Sunset West'?

[EricMontreal22]

Even at 14 I realized Models Inc was pretty crap (Charles Pratt's first show as creator?) though I think I watched it all, oddly probably more closely than I did Melrose at the time. (I did like Titans though so take that for what it's worth). I remember Pacific Palisades having potential (Spelling seemed to want to make it his version of Knots) but just some poor writing and leads (Coke hunk Lucky V shoulda never tried acting).

SOO cool to see some Emerald Point NAS online!! So I knw the Shapiro's wrote this, but I recently read the Dobsons were involved in at least some epsodes too (I woulda thought they'd be busy with Santa Barbara). Hrmmm Ooh Charles Frank from AMC and a young Sela Ward

Speaking of, I've only seen the first two years of Dynasty--I know most think it hit its stride in Season en famed soap scribes the Pollocks came in and starte doing the major plotting instead of the Shapiros--their plan seeming to be to take every daytime soap cliche and times it by 100 for all its camp worth. I know they helped with Colbys too--did they write every season of Dynasty after 2 or did they leave at some point? (If everyone seems tot hink seasons 4-8 are crap?)

I wish I had seen pasadena, I know critics loved it (it doesn't seem to even have clips online) and it's intriguing that it was created by filmaker Mike White of all people. Like Titans, it seems like it just came a few years too early for the zeitgeist.

As to the short lived soaps, and Syklph's question, I've mentioned I'd most like to see the other two 80s Lorimar soaps--Berrenger's and especially Secrets of Midland Heights which David Jacobs wrote (he seems to have left when it was reworked as King's Crossing). Schemering says the main reason Midland Heights flopped was timing--it was a raunchy teen soap that aired at 10 on Saturdays, when none of its audience would be home.

I could see Sydney Sheldon helping with a primetime OTT soap, but not Jackie Collins--I agree with JamesF about her. (Of course those kinds of authors can't always make the switch anyway--think of the disastrous attempt to get Harold Robbins to make a serial with the mega flop The Survivors)

Edited February 24, 2010 by EricMontreal22