Primetime Soaps

[SFK]

Ugh, I REALLY don't get that. Same deal with Linda Dano and Michele Lee. The heavy on a soap is always so much more fun to watch (and presumably play). What is with actors who are so pressed to be liked?? It's TV.

[SFK]

And as I said earlier in the thread, if you're doing I, Claudius, you don't wait until the end of the season cliffhanger to introduce your Livia. Well, at least not these days. I guess Fallon gave us a taste of that, but had they not been picked up for whatever reason, we'd have never had Alexis and the '80s would have been a much different place.

Edited March 25, 2010 by SFK

[Chris B]

Michele Lee is *such* a Pollyanna! I can't believe she got Michelle Phillips fired because of the story where Mack was meant to have an affair with her character. Of course they eventually re-hired her in a new story, but she missed out on like two years of work. And it was developing into a GOOD story. But Lee felt that although Mack was brought on as a womanizer and total ladies man, they were going to be the stable couple and no cheating was allowed. How lame. They don't have to get divorced just because one cheats. This really limited them in later years.

Eric,

An example of The Shapiro's being idiots is the "static acting." That is the term coined by Leann Hunley for what they forced her and others to do. Apparently they wanted the show to look like a 40s glamour picture. The actors were meant to showcase the words and the clothes and weren't allowed to move their arms or bodies in scenes. Whatever the director told them they were supposed to do and of course, werk those clothes! She said it was so ridiculous that she decided to leave the show. This comes from her exit article in TV Guide. She left at the beginning of season nine and noted how great it was to finally act before she left.

[EricMontreal22]

It's funny, when we had that actor who had graded from my school return for an acting workshop, Roark Critchlow who had just stopped playing Mike Brady on DAYS I think he basically said the same thing--he said that unlike other soaps he knew about, they were instructed to do very static acting which he found almost unbearable to do.

It sounds like the Shapiros never should have had so much power--even their much regarded 70s tv ovie work they point out they didn't get to be producers or anything on.

Funny in th einterview I just got Esther Shapiro mentioning that Peppard "hit on young girls", and then she waves to the camera "we'll cut this part out". I guess they forgot.

[EricMontreal22]

What I don't get is they go on about how the pilot was 3 hours, un heard of... But on the DVD it's in 2 48 minute segments...

[DRW50]

Does anyone know why they brought Wayne Northop back years after his early role as a chaffeur who slept with Fallon? Did they ever do anything with him on his return? And how long did it take for the Karen Cellini Amanda to disappear? Wasn't it as if she never existed, Amanda I mean, after that? Why did they hire such a terrible and awkward looking actress in the first place?

I remember when they tried to follow up on Fallon being taken by aliens, which, of all stories, I probably would have dropped. I think they did drop it after a few episodes but at least they tried I guess.

[Chris B]

Eric are you sure? I thought the pilot was originally aired in a 3 hour block.

Carl, Wayne's return was odd, but the writing was so bad then that it never amounted to much. IIRC, his original history with Fallon was forgotten and he was a love interest for the dreadful Karen Celleni version of Amanda. I believe this is around the time Matthew Blaisdel also returned and was demolished.

With Amanda she was never mentioned again and Blake and Alexis stopped listing her as one of their children.

Edited March 25, 2010 by Chris B

[DRW50]

Matthew was killed by Steven and didn't they have him become colder because of that or something? I guess at least they tried to write for Steven, but Jack Coleman never did a lot for me. I guess the writing may have been a part of it. I wanted to shake Emma Samms Fallon for years yet in the last season she was a blast.

Edited March 25, 2010 by CarlD2

[EricMontreal22]

Yes I just checked my dvds--I think I need to go to bed. It's three hours... lol

[Sylph]

Lemay said somewhere, didn't he, that he knew the Shapiros and that they took the Carringtons from his Iris.

Edited March 25, 2010 by Sylph

[SFK]

He did say that, and maybe he even went as far to say that Blake, Krystle, and Alexis were a spin on Mac, Rachel, and Iris or that was just inferred from what he said, I don't quite remember. But he definitely said that primetime nabbed two of his names, Carrington and Ewing.

[SFK]

DP

Edited March 25, 2010 by SFK

[SFK]

I just noticed a familiar name in the credits, Susan Howard (Donna, DALLAS) was on the writing team as well ("story by").

Edited March 25, 2010 by SFK

[Chris B]

Susan Howard is an absolute goddess. One of the best things about Dallas. Their mistake was not using her more. Especially in those later years. When Bobby was blind and in charge of Ewing Oil they had Donna take his place, but she was only in charge for like two episodes! It was such a waste. There was such heat between Donna and JR. She would've been credible going toe-to-toe with him and maybe even having an affair.

[EricMontreal22]

Which I'd argue... As mixed as obviously the Shapiros were credibility wise, they wrote so many top tv movies, etc, in the mid and late 70s, and seem so willing to give credit where due (even to the Pollocks' re Dynasty--Esther gives them full credit for the switch in tone even to naming Alexis) I doubt they even folowed the daytime shows much at all--enough to see and crib from relationships, etc.