April 9, 1985 Digest

Some TV Guide stuff.

(I had to laugh at that "Orleans isn't a soap, it's not Falcon Crest or Dallas" quote. Well, no. Those shows lasted more than two months)

Oh man, do I remember Titans. I watched every episode of that silly show. Should I admit that? LOL

One time, on Jay Leno, he had the crossword puzzle game with a "wrong" and "right" clue. "Here's a six-letter word, beginning with 'T', meaning something horrible, something really sad."

Kevin Eubanks: "Um, tragic."

Jay: "No, NBC's Titans."

LOL!!

Second Chances lost most of their sets in the 1994 earthquake.

Plus, both of the female leads, Connie Sellecca and Megan Follows (yes, the same one who played Anne of Green Gables) were in the advanced stages of pregnancy, so I think the network and/or the producers decided to just cut their losses. I don't know how, other than just taking a lengthy hiatus, they would have been able to do a show with no sets and two of their stars giving birth. If they had gone on a hiatus, they would most likely have lost any momentum they'd had from the start anyway.

SCALAWAG SWEEPSTAKES Braodcasting Magazine SEPTEMBER 1980

The Great American Villain Contest is about to begin. Challenging J.R. Ewing for the prime -time championship are Sheriff Titus Semples on NBC's Flamingo Road and Guy Millington on CBS's Secrets of Midland Heights.

In the Flamingo Road pilot, broadcast last May, Semples arrested a waitress on false prostitution charges in order to break up her romance with his deputy. Then he tried to entice Claude Weldon into having one of his paper mill buildings torched for the insurance. When Weldon resisted, Semples went ahead and had the fire set anyway. The flames accidentally killed the only citizen of Truro, Fla., who was ever nice to the sheriff.

Howard Duff, who plays Semples, is eager to take on J.R. in the miscreant sweep stakes: "I could be as mean as Larry (Hagman] any day." He acknowledges Hagman's head start, "but I'm older, so I've had more experience" - such as his self- described role as "a whore master" in ABC's upcoming East of Eden mini-

series. He also has a juicy role model to draw on in Sydney Greenstreet, the original scoundrel in the 1949 film of "Flamingo Road." But Duff has a soft spot: he doesn't believe people really think of themselves as bad. This could mean that his performance will lack the lip - smacking gusto that's so evident in Hagman's portrayal of J.R. "Look at Richard Ill," be- gins Duff. "Even he didn't think he was a deep -dyed ... oh, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about."

Meanwhile, in Midland Heights, Guy Millington (played by Jordan Christopher) will this month be heard dropping hints that his niece, his only rival for the family

fortune, should be institutionalized. In order to drive her over the brink, he pokes into her diary and dispatches thugs to beat up her boy friend. It's not as awesome a display of bad deeds as Sheriff Semples' -but it is done in a mere 60 minutes, compared with the sheriff's two hours. Guy's villainy is "complete-

ly opposite to the good-ole' boy style," says Christopher. "He's a more Northern, colder character" than J.R. or Semples. But Christopher sounds even more excited about playing the bad guy than Duff does: "I'd love to have people love to hate me. I love the old -fashioned booing and hissing."

Assuming their shows survive, we may spend next summer wondering who shot the sheriff or who shot Guy. "God, I hope so," says Christoper."That would be great."

Does anybody consider Picket Fences a primetime soap? It had some element of a primetime soap even though it was mostly self-contained episodes while there was some longer story arc that went on for multi3pisode.

From the April 23, 1985 Digest.

The guy in the pic at the bottom of the left page? Was that edie velez who ended up playing Nicole's father on Days?

Ahh Mount Royal! Wikipedia says it was Canada's answer to Dynasty and I'd say that's about right...except for one thing: Alexis. Mount Royal simply didn't have an Alexis or JR, no antagonist, the closest thing was the character Stefanie who was a daddy's girl model in Paris.

Like most Canadian television programs, Mount Royal tried but it just didn't have the punch of its international counterparts (a Canadian answer to Coronation Street, Riverdale, was another example of this).

The one thing I'll give Mount Royal was that it looked beautiful, it was shot on location in Montreal and Paris and it LOOKED rich, just gorgeous.

No one will know if it cuz it was made in Quebec but the cloosest thing canada ever had to an answer to Dynasty was probably La Misere des Riches (which roughly translated would sound something awful like Rich people's lives suck too)

It was an hybrid of high camp and melodrama not necessarily one of french-canadian's forte and was a french co-production. It was supposed to sale in the european market but im not sure it performed well enough to find many distributor.

Will look up on yt if theres any of it available.

Yep, that's the same Eddie Velez. He played a bunch of small parts on soaps.

No one will know if it cuz it was made in Quebec but the cloosest thing canada ever had to an answer to Dynasty was probably La Misere des Riches (which roughly translated would sound something awful like Rich people's lives suck too)

I love that title. That's awesome.

Had the show been about camp it would have worked slightly better. But it was way too serious and french canadian notoriously dont feel too much sympathy for the wealthy so thats why it failed. But it had some good elements.

Has Dante's Cove been covered in this thread? It was produced by Logo.

Imagine a cross btwn Queer as folks, Melrose Place and Dark shadow. The acting was mostly inexistent but it starred Tracy Scoggins and Thea Gill as evil witches who tormented a bunch of lesbian, gay and bi characters played by good looking actors hired for their look rather than for their acting abilities.

Dante's Cove was great for all the wrong reasons. The final episode where Thea Gill just chewed on the scenery was great.

Edited April 3, 201411 yr by te.

I'll have to check that out. Sounds great. LOL

I only watched the first 2 seasons but it redefines mindless fluff. But for some reasons i ended up enjoying it simply becuz it seemed that everyone involved were on in the joke. They knew it wasnt masterpiece theater or re-inventing anything and that the acting was subpar at best. But they seemed dedicated to at least deliver what the product was meant to be.

Gregory Michaels is the one weak point of the show. For a supposed lead he spent most of the first two seasons wishing he was anywhere but there.

A crime when you get to portray love/sex scenes with charlie david lol

Does anyone remember hearing about Manchester Prep?

It was supposed to be a spin-off of the movie Cruel Intentions, originally set to air on Fox in 1999. However, Fox pulled the production after they had filmed three episodes (plus possibly material for episodes 4 and 5) because it was deemed "too racy" - the butchered material from the filmed material became the direct-to-video sequel Cruel Intentions 2 which... didn't recieve good reviews to say the very least. Supposedly the unedited episodes were far better than the movie suggests.

Anyway, someone has put up a VHS of the pilot episode on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMY-ADAMS-MANCHESTER-PREP-Rare-1999-PRESS-PROMO-VHS-VIDEO-PILOT-EPISODE-NBC-/221397655313?pt=VHS&hash=item338c541f11