Primetime Soaps

[DRW50]

Jada Rowland briefly mentioned her Hamptons work in the Doctors WATN video - mainly that she only agreed to do the show if she would be killed off.

[te.]

Huh. This is random, but at one point The Hamptons appears to have been released in Finland in two VHS parts under the name Chadway-klaani:

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http://www.fixgalleria.net/release.php?id=9446

http://www.fixgalleria.net/release.php?id=9448

 

Really random. I wonder if it was released in other places.

 

ETA: further researching it was also released in other Scandinavian and Dutch countries as Long Island with The Hamptons as a subtitle. Anything to avoid actually calling it The Hamptons... either way I just bought it on VHS! Hopefully I'll get it this week.

Edited April 27, 2020 by te.

[Paul Raven]

That's so cool!

Please give us your thoughts when you get around to watching.

[dc11786]

Very interesting.
 

I know some of the failed soap shows have been repackaged internationally. The syndicated anthology series “Romance Theatre” was cut and shown as movie containing the individual stories. In the US, the Romance Theatre movies were also released on VHS. The 1960s flop “The Survivors” was sold as “The Last of the Power Seekers” or something along those lines. In the case of “Power Seekers,” I believe the film included material from the unused pilots. 
 

The Hamptons was short. Monty or whoever the distributor was probably hopes to make some money off it. 

[te.]

 

I'll certainly report back - too bad there isn't any footage available from the original run to compare it to if they cut out / added stuff. It wouldn't surprise me though if they tried to tack on some sort of ending, even if it's like Lisa Hartman's narration at the end of the European mini-series version of 2000 Malibu Road.

 

Apparently it's 3h 45m in length, so it has to be pretty much the entire series (5 episodes x 45 min).

[DRW50]

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[te.]

Here's a bit of a rarity that I found on an old VHS (hence the quality) - the intro to Freshman Dorm, a college soap opera that ran briefly on CBS in the summer of 1992 (I guess they were really after the FOX demographic with this and 2000 Malibu Road?) starring Robin Lively, Casper Van Dien, Matthew Fox and Central Park West's Justin Lazard. Sadly, it was only the first few scenes plus the intro of the episode so there wasn't much else of interest recorded of the episode besides the intro:

 

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[Khan]

Ah, the '90's.

[te.]

Here's a poor rip of The Hampton's intro:

 

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I'll try to rip the episodes (or at least highlights) properly once I've finished watching it, though I think I need a better capture program because the quality of the program (honesttech) that came with my adapter is sort of dreadful and makes the VHS rips look even worse.

 

"Supervising producer: Charles A. Pratt" - you have got to be kidding me..

 

Gosh, you can really tell this is shot on video - it makes it look SO cheap. And lol at the grandfather (?) character trying to make it up a couple of stairs about three  minutes into the episode and then fall over what I presume is a heart attack. So hilariously random.

 

Kate Dezina is playing it like she's drunk. Or had a stroke because she's slurring it.

 

I think I've seen what must've been the cliffhanger to the first episode now. I feel it's quite obvious at least.

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Bibi Besch is playing the [!@#$%^&*] out of her embittered alcoholic harpy character.

 

Looking at the locations I feel like some of these might've appeared on Revenge? I know there was a lot of CGI on those houses, but I do think there's a house that sort of bears some vague resemblance to the Grayson mansion (though not as extravagant). I guess it's just the architecture out there though.

Edited May 5, 2020 by te.

[dc11786]

@te. Thanks for sharing. That clip of the opening has such a low budget "Dynasty" feel that I can't help but adore it. 

 

Funny, I also look for the breaks in material for compilations. I did the same thing when I watched the "Romance Theatre" videos, which were mostly awful. 

 

This looks like cheap fun. I do think they filmed on Long Island so it would make sense that the locations might be similar to the ones on "Revenge." Your comments made me realize that Besch and Dezina do look lot a like. The story with Cheryl and David seems like filler. Were they well incorporated into this? 

 

Thanks for sharing these. The "Freshman Dorm" opening was also a treat. 

[te.]

 

There's sort of been a twist to the story as I'm watching it - I have no idea where they're going with this...

 

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John Reilly really plays a complete sleazebag well. There are some fun twists in this show so far at least, even if it does look very daytime.

[te.]

Annoyingly, it looks like the first ten minutes of the second tape is badly damaged (I can watch it when I play it in 2x, but with no sound), luckily via the subtitles I can sort of follow it and there's no really interesting scenes from what I can see. Just a bit about the Chadway's money woes when sending the kid to college, them needing to fire Ada the maid and some minor progression with the Cheryl/David baby storyline that's a bit detached from the show anyway. Luckily it seems to be okay again around the 10 minute mark in.

Edited May 5, 2020 by te.

[te.]

Just some final thoughts...

 

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Overall I can see why this didn't go anywhere. It clearly couldn't have been shown during the regular season because it would've stuck out like a sore thumb, so I'm not even sure what they were thinking when they ordered this. Did they just want it as an exclusive summer programming or did they intend on giving it a bigger budget if it went into the regular season?

Edited May 5, 2020 by te.

[dc11786]

Thanks for sharing. 
 

I think it was in Gloria Monty’s contract with ABC that she get a prime time series while working on General Hospital. I also think they did the typical “it’s a miniseries but if it’s good we will pick it up” marketing. 
 

Did they implicate Peter in Penny’s murder? I know books have said it ended with that or at least I thought it did. Maybe they did change the ending 

[te.]

 

No, they didn't. I think they mentioned that she was on the way to meet him, but that's about it. If anything it seemed like the murder was arranged by Naldo from Dallas, but even that wasn't clear. It was more like she was murdered, there was a bit of press about it and that was it. I don't get the impression they cut anything out. It does feel like it had a mini-series ending - the only real cliffhanger is that Bibi and John Reilly's characters are still stuck in a marriage from hell. Everything else seemed to tie up nicely.

 

I don't think the main issue for the series was the use of video either to be fair - overall there's a very low energy feeling of everything. Even scenes that felt like they were key scenes really didn't end up feeling as big as they should be. I really wanted Bibi to go full-on with her character but that just never kind of happened. I also think the people behind the scenes being more experienced in building a daytime drama rather than a primetime one didn't help - it really does feel like a condensed daytime soap; like one of those clip shows/omnibus episodes that certain international soaps does.

 

Honestly, I doubt ABC were interested in picking this up considering the bare bones budget it must've had.

Edited May 6, 2020 by te.