Primetime Soaps

[Chris 2]

KIng’s Crossing was not a bad concept - shades of Falcon Crest with the father bringing his family back to his hometown. It was just ultimately dull. I remember the pilot had this lightly classical-sounding theme song, and then from episode 2 on, it was replaced with a bombastic sounding theme from Jerrold Immel (of “Dallas” fame). ABC probably thought the show was dull, too, and wanted a more excited theme.

[DRW50]

 

[amybrickwallace]

All I know about that show is that a pre-Newhart Mary Frann was in it. I'll have to see if any of it is on YouTube.

[Joseph]

I can say in advance all you'll find are promos but if you have better luck

[Forever8]

I wish Sisters was steaming somewhere online. 

[DRW50]

Me too. Those first 3 or so seasons are great.

[Soaplovers]

If St Elsewhere can be streamed on Hulu....Sisters isn't out of the question 

[Forever8]

I hope so. I wish Chicago Hope was streaming online too. 

[DemetriKane]

I would like to add the Soul Food series to this thread. I apologize if it was already mentioned, i haven't read through it. It's a very slept on and forgotten show, and did soap better than sister's did imho. #JUSTICE4SOULFOOD

 

[DaytimeFan]

Dame Joan Collins has released a memoir of sorts in the UK titled My Unapologetic Diaries which start in 1989 right as Dynasty ends, til around 2006 when she does the theatre tour of Legends! with Linda Evans. 

By the mid 1990s Joan is back on the Hollywood social scene and she discusses how her contemporaries like Michele Lee and Donna Mills, who'd both done really well with TV Movies at the start of the 90s, no longer get their calls returned. From around 1994 - 2000 Joan is hustling for as many parts as she can get and a million things are pitched, she has a ton of meetings, the networks love her, and most of it materializes to absolutely nothing.

One of the juicier periods of time concerns when she's doing Pacific Palisades and all the crazy bullsh*t that goes on behind the scenes.

For one, Joan hates the scripts and it's generally accepted that the show is not going to be a hit, but when she appears midway through the season, ratings tick up, but later crater when Fox starts moving the show on and off the schedule after it starts having to compete with Ellen right as Ellen herself comes out.

What emerges is that Joan gets along well with Peter Dunne, a former producer on Dallas, Knots Landing, Savannah, and later Melrose Place, CSI, and JAG, and throughout the book you discover that Joan is friends with a lot of producers in different genres, probably much more so than most actors. 

She also notes how friendly the Pacific Palisades cast is to her, especially Lucky Vanous who ends up asking around if Joan is single (she's not and she suspects he wants to hook up for publicity). She knows and likes Finola Hughes from a movie they both made pre-Dynasty, and she likes Kimberly Davies who plays her daughter in the show. Joan dishes about how badly put together the production schedule is and how intrusive FOX is in running the production, demonstrating that Spelling's power has faded.  

Nolan Miller does Joan's costumes and they decide to dress the character in only black and white. There's a good story about Nolan designing a dress for Joan but she secretly thinks it makes her look fat, so she switches it for a Valentino from her own wardrobe at the last minute, and Nolan is momentarily pissed off with her. 

Then there's Aaron Spelling. To hear Joan tell it, Aaron Spelling was very inconsistent: sometimes he'd be warm: he says "My baby is back with me!" when she agrees to join the show, and then other times he's cold: Spelling tells her he'll pay her $45,000 an episode while at dinner at Spago with Candy, Joan, and Nolan Miller, then the next day tells her agent he's only paying $40,000 and denies he'd agreed to $45,000. 

All the while, Spelling's insisted that Joan sign with CAA, who had previously told her they weren't interested, and it turns out CAA is the agency packaging the show, so has an obvious conflict of interest in dealing with Joan and dealing with Spelling and the production company. This manifests when the production company tells Joan they'll only pay her half her salary for an episode where she's only got two scenes, and Aaron doesn't step in, and her agents tell her to take it because they want to protect her relationship with Aaron Spelling, which is also their relationship with Aaron Spelling. 

Joan observes that the Spellings can't hold onto a chef to save their lives, that Candy can't figure out how to work their VCR, and that Tori Spelling's breast implants look hard as a rock. I certainly got the impression that Joan was uneasy around Candy Spelling and felt sorry for Tori and Randy. 

When Pacific Palisades is cancelled, Joan is thrilled and she says it has cured her of wanting to be a permanent cast member in a Hollywood television series and she eventually decides to move back to England and only come to LA if jobs materialize or she wants some sun. I definitely developed the opinion that Joan doesn't actually like living in LA and really did it to make money so she could go back to Europe and live her life. 

 

[Chris B]

Amazon had the complete series of Hotel for around $25 so I had to buy it. Soap content on DVD isn’t what it should be so I decided to finally give the show a chance. 
 

I always assumed it was something light like Love Boat or a Hallmark movie. Simple romantic stories with big guest stars. That’s how the SOAPnet promos made it seem, but it’s actually very different from that. In fact, in the five episodes I’ve seen there’s been very little romance.
 

I’m surprised at how adult the subject matter is. I also think the regular cast is solid. It’s a very balanced show and the episodes breeze by. I expected to hate watch when I was bored, but I’m actually invested. 
 

Bette Davis was terrible in the pilot. The idea of her on a soap is a good one, but she needed a role she could dig her teeth in. Flamingo Road or Falcon Crest would’ve been a better fit for her. Anne Baxter fits in much better and has great chemistry with James Brolin. I’ve heard her name and see her face endless times, but this is my first time seeing Connie Selleca act. She’s very good. I also love what I’ve seen of Shari Belafonte. The married couple, I don’t know their names, but they’re cute fluff to pad out the episodes. I also enjoy Nathan Cook as head of security. 
 

Any other Hotel fans here?

 

[Khan]

*Raises hand*

Of the three, Spelling-produced "anthology" series -- "Fantasy Island," "Hotel" and "The Love Boat" -- I would agree that "Hotel" is the most substantial, for lack of a better word.  Their stories tended to be weightier, whereas the stories on "Fantasy Island" and "Love Boat" were so light, they literally floated away in mid-scene.

Plus, you didn't have some annoying comic relief character like Tatu ("Fantasy") or Gopher ("Love Boat") gumming up the works.

IIRC, too, when Anne Baxter's character is written out of the show due to her real-life passing, the show becomes an all-out soap opera for a minute, with various characters, including one played by Michelle Phillips (later Anne on KNOTS LANDING), vying for control of the hotel.

Oh, [!@#$%^&*].  Now I want Dame Joan to put in a guest appearance on GH as Anna Devane's mom.  (Yeah, I know she was played by Samantha Eggar.  So what?)

[j swift]

All About Eve is one of my all time favorite movies, so I appreciated the irony of Anne Baxter taking over the role from Bette Davis.  It is a shame that they made Anne so benevolent, because one her strengths in All About Eve was being able to switch on and off between kind and evil.

However,  the setting was ill-suited for plots.  By its nature people don't stay in a hotel for long periods of time, and by the 80s, most tourists would dine and explore outside of the confines of the hotel.  So, they had to contrive reasons for the action to take place in the lobby or at the cafe.  There were only so many jewel thieves and con artists that could visit a hotel before it would get a bad rep amongst travelers. 

I mean what would tripadvisor say about these two episodes?

Ep 08 - A convention of racial supremacists try to practice their policy at the St. Gregory

Ep15 - A bar mitzvah celebration at the hotel nearly turns to tragedy when the father of the boy spies a concentration camp survivor who was responsible for the death of thousands of Jews and wants to take vengeance into his own hands.

And they had to repeat plots even in the first season

Ep9 - Hillary (Pat Klous) is shattered when a vacation romance at Puerto Vallarta turns into sexual blackmail,

Ep 22 - A former Queen of racy films (Sally Kellerman) who is now a successful business executive is threatened with extortion by a man from her past

And there was a lot of drug/alcohol stories

Ep 14 - a law student (Timothy Patrick Murphy) discovers his mother (Adrienne Barbeau) has become dependent upon drugs.

Ep 19 - a former singer (Engelbert Humperdinck) with a drug dependency makes a comeback at the St. Gregory

Edited January 29, 2022 by j swift

[Khan]

Hey, don't knock the Engelbert episode.  Papa Khan and I were big, big Engelbert fans, lol.

[j swift]

No disrespect to Mr Humperdink, just to the lack of creativity in the writer's room

BTW isn't odd that Michelle Phillips of the groovy 60's peace band The Mamma's and The Papa's and the shiska goddess in The California Kid kept getting cast as bitchy vixens on Hotel, 90210, and Knots Landing?  I wonder what casting agents saw in her performance of California Dreamin' or Up Up and Away that inspired them to hire her for those parts?