Primetime Soaps

[Gray Bunny]

 

Never heard of it, but there's a pre-GL Kevin Mambo (ex-Marcus) on it! And Robyn Lively.... sigh... I would've loved to have seen our favorite Teen Witch go on to bigger things. 

[te.]

 

It apparently aired together with 2000 Malibu Road when it moved to Wednesdays in the summer of 1992 - odd that 2000 Malibu Road seem relatively remembered for a show with a short run, while you can find almost nothing online about Freshman Dorm. You have to wonder what CBS was thinking with programming two similar shows against Fox's Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place though - either they really didn't expect much from these shows (hence why they were so surprised when 2000MR was a hit) or they really wanted to destroy Fox's summer line up. Maybe a bit of both.

[Paul Raven]

Some more info on Freshman Dorm.

It was a 5 episode summer series which as te noted above went up against 90210 which seems odd. CBS was always trying to get viable young skewing 8pm shows on its schedule  so to  program it there is a strange move.

MGM TV closed up soon after so maybe CBS had lost faith in the concept and wanted to write it off.

Here's the Variety review. I don't believe it was a serial format so not strictly a soap.

 

Say what you want about the new series “Freshman Dorm,” but it moves up a class before its second episode. In other words, it’s sophomoric.

CBS has boldly gone where no other network has–except for Fox–by targeting the same audience that goes gaga over “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Melrose Place.” The CBS summer entry is in the same neighborhood and carries with it some of the same shortcomings as the popular Fox shows.

The one-hour premiere of “Dorm” gets an F in originality, and that does not stand for freshness.

Though in a different setting, chances are these characters will bear a certain familiarity for the “Melrose” and “90210” maven.

In the dorm, which is coed, there’s K.C., a poor Hispanic beauty who shares a room with Lulu, an upper-crust New York beauty, and Molly, an apple pie beauty from Milwaukee.

Across the hall, there’s handsome Zack from Southern California by way of Arkansas, and handsome Alex, a black who rounds out the ethnic mix. K.C. immediately falls for Zack, but she’s too busy trying to hide her background and “own the world” attitude to know what’s really important–like a relationship with Zack. Molly’s boyfriend is handsome jock Danny, who wants to marry Molly in the worst way. But Molly’s not so sure.

Well, you get the picture. In this dorm, there are no average-looking people, no people out to simply get an education. There’s not a political activist in sight.

The reality quotient in this episode is dangerously low. We see students preoccupied with such activities as volleyball on the beach (perhaps a salute to our Olympic athletes), playing loud music at 9 a.m. (ouch) and surfing, for the serious frosh.

We do not see a library (colleges do have these) nor do we see students actually studying (a novel concept).

There are several classroom segments, but both are glossed over, with only a faint stab at humor. One features the elderly, boring Shakespeare prof who routinely puts students to sleep.

But the semester’s just beginning and “Dorm” does have some redeeming qualities. Lulu (Paige French) is a refreshing character, who brings some panache to the proceedings. A scene where she shows up the snobbish sorority queen with some witty parries is about the best “Dorm” has to offer.

The photography helps divert us from some of the humdrum with some nice shots of coastal Southern California. And the music is–well–handsome.

But for the most part, this is a pretty shallow look at campus life all wrapped up and packaged for the “Melrose” crowd. So, though it might fail in getting beyond stereotype, it will likely get an A in the ratings.

 

The show premiered Tuesday Aug 11th @9 and ranked 30th for the week, 2nd in its timeslot. That was up against Roseanne and Coach on ABC which ranked #1 and #4.

Episode #2 Tues @9 ranked 49th - 7.1/12

Episode #3 Wed @8 ranked  69th - 6.6/12.  90210 had a 2hr episode and ranked 37th - 9.5/16 

Episode #4 Wed @ 8 ranked 62nd - 6.9/12. 90210 was 35th - 8.9/16

Episode #5 Wed @ 8 ranked 91st - 4.3/7. 90210 was 23th - 11.4/19.

[te.]

 

I imagine it was like early Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place with episodic plots - from what I can gather the series starts with Robin Lively's character applying to the school to get with her boyfriend (I believe that was Matthew Fox) at college. The episode announcer said that in the episode that I recorded a part of that she and her boyfriend were secretly moving in together. It also makes it sound like their relationship is the "main" storyline that stretches out during the series.

[Paul Raven]

CBS tried to boost Emerald Point by running two episodes in the week beginning Feb 26 1984, one in it's usual Mon @10 timeslot and a special showing Fri@10 following Dallas and pre-empting Falcon Crest.

The result  - the Mon ep ranked 67th out of 71 shows with a 9.2/14 and the Fri show with the Dallas boost was 48th with a 13.8/24.

However, Dallas ranked 3rd with a 25.7/41 so EP lost almost half its lead-in.

The following week Dallas was 1st with a 26.8/42, Falcon Crest 10th - 21.7/36 and Emerald Point 64th - 11.1/19.

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

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[Chris B]

I had Emerald Point on DVD and I remember struggling to watch it. It was incredibly boring from what I remember. I know some of if is on YouTube so I've been considering giving it another go to see how it feels for me now. 

[Paul Raven]

Sat Match 9th

NBC Malibu Shores 2 hr premiere @8  5.8/10 87th

CBS Dr Quinn @8  9.3/17 43rd Touched by an Angel @ 9 12.1/21 14th

ABC Disney Champions On Ice @8 7.4/13 68th Saturday Movie Quick Change 9-11 7.2/13 75th

[te.]

It seems so insane now to put a youth oriented show on Saturdays, but I guess NBC really wanted to try out something new since it initially replaced JAG in the timeslot (which of course ended up being cancelled and moving to CBS). They also later tried Freak and Geeks in the Saturday 8PM slot before giving programming up Saturdays up in 2000.

[Jagger1966]

Network execs never learned their lesson about youth oriented shows on Saturday nights.  In 1980 CBS put Secrets Of Midland Heights on Saturdays at 10 pm where it quickly died.  So a year later when the producers took some of the actors and put them in a new setting as new characters in King's Crossing ABC did the same idiotic thing and put the show on Saturday nights at 8 pm where it died just as quickly as its predecessor.

[DRW50]

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[All My Shadows]

Okay, so The Yellow Rose lol

I'm not sure if the people in charge ever really knew exactly what they wanted the show to be or what they wanted to be about or WHO they wanted it to be about or anything. It started off as "We are NOT a soap, but we do have soapy elements," then it was "Okay, yeah, we're a soap, let's fck sht up!" then it was "We ARE NOT A SOAP, and we need to remember that, guys!" and then it kinda just ended with each episode being a cock-measuring contest between the entire cast except for the two old men and the little girl.

The idea of it being a true primetime soap mixed with classic western was actually pretty awesome, and there's a stretch of episodes that starts with the Champions running an old-fashioned cattle drive and goes into some backstabbing and dirty dealing that really just worked and showed tons of potential in the show's basic premise, but then they dropped all of the characters who could have provided conflict for the Champions, cut out all of the inner conflict in the family, and made it a show about the Champions fighting weekly bad guys. I enjoy a good old-fashioned western, but they had such a good thing going with the soapy side of things.

[Jagger1966]

I bought The Yellow Rose on DVD a few years ago.  I loved the way it started with the Champions vs. Jeb Hollister.  Then two thirds of the way through the season it switches formats to the self contained format and I was bored silly.  What a waste of a great cast.

[Chris B]

The creator of The Yellow Rose was so against the soap label, despite writing for Peyton Place. It’s a shame because it seems from what I’ve heard that he understood the format since many say Yellow Rose started good. Also, Peyton Place is an amazing starting ground considering how well plotted and character driven it was. I wouldn’t look down on that. 

[Taoboi]

I remember this. If I'm not mistaken it's based off of series of YA books from that time.