16 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Not only did Paper Dolls get placed in a shaky timeslot, it was also preempted due to the World Series.

Dallas or Knots Landing could handle that..but a new soap needs to be on every week in order to get people hooked.

@te.I would have dropped the Harper angle since the wealthy family angle was already handled.  

Dack Rambo could have been Wesley looking for a model for his cosmetics company, Blair could have still been the 'aging' model, and the red headed lawyer could have been legal counsel for Racine's agency..and her boyfriend could have still done the story on Racine.

 

Dack Rambo acting wasn't anything special when he was on Dallas. He wasn't bad though it was just forgettable. The only time I noticed him was in an episode where he had only a Speedo on.

I was surprised Dallas kept him for the 86-87 season after Duffy returned. He was supposed to be Bobby 2.0.

Edited February 28, 20223 yr by Soapsuds

6 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Dack Rambo acting wasn't anything special when he was on Dallas. He wasn't bad though it was just forgettable. The only time I noticed him was in an episode where he had only a Speedo on.

I was surprised Dallas kept him for the 86-87 season after Duffy returned. He was supposed to be Bobby 2.0.

Well, they cut down his appearances to 15 episodes (out of 29) and pretty much wrote him out. I think it's more that they just didn't want to blatantly drop the character due to the dream retcon. Jamie was also on the show for 12 episodes, despite them killing her off initially in the season 9 cliffhanger.

11 minutes ago, te. said:

Well, they cut down his appearances to 15 episodes (out of 29) and pretty much wrote him out. I think it's more that they just didn't want to blatantly drop the character due to the dream retcon. Jamie was also on the show for 12 episodes, despite them killing her off initially in the season 9 cliffhanger.

Someone on Dallas didn't like Jamie. She was killed off on the dream season and twice the following year. The last with very little fan fare.😂

Poor Jenilee Harrison.  First, she gets treated like [!@#$%^&*] on "Three's Company;" then, she basically becomes the Kenny of DALLAS.

11 hours ago, te. said:

I think they could've put some of those stories off for a bit to be honest and push them later into the season/series. As I said, it was just too busy and I tend to think new shows need to establish their characters first before having a dozen or so plots.

 

ETA: Like in theory, they could've actually used the journalist doing a story on Racine's modelling agency as a way into this world, but on the other hand, you already had Laurie acting as the viewer going in so there wasn't really much point to him. In that sense he could've just turned up later and had the purpose of stirring things up.

Ooh I like this idea.

What was odd was that Dack Rambo made it into the opening credits for his final half season. My guess is that he wasn’t under contract to return at all, but the producers knew it would be awkward for Jack Ewing to just disappear from the canvas after getting hold of 10% of Ewing Oil. So he agreed to return to finish out his character’s story in exchange for getting better billing.

12 minutes ago, Chris 2 said:

What was odd was that Dack Rambo made it into the opening credits for his final half season. My guess is that he wasn’t under contract to return at all, but the producers knew it would be awkward for Jack Ewing to just disappear from the canvas after getting hold of 10% of Ewing Oil. So he agreed to return to finish out his character’s story in exchange for getting better billing.

Same thing happened to Teri Austin in her last season. She became a regular and was in the opening even though she was gone before half the season was over.

On 2/26/2022 at 2:35 AM, kalbir said:

The Monroes was head-to-head w/ Seinfeld. It stood no chance. 

1995/96 ABC and CBS tried to revive primetime soaps on their networks (The Monroes and Central Park West respectively) but they were epic failures.

The show seemed nice to Me loved Susan Sullivan's Character so far she has notes of several 1980's heorines, i guess it was probably because of the time slot 

Anyone Knows of a place one could see Berrenger's episodes????? it's not that rare i assume, since there are clips floating around but i couldn't find anything yet

On 2/28/2022 at 9:24 AM, Soapsuds said:

Someone on Dallas didn't like Jamie. She was killed off on the dream season and twice the following year. The last with very little fan fare.😂

This was disappointing to me. Jamie was a great character and I loved how she was introduced. She was like an improved version of the Lucy character. I loved that she was smart and scrappy and knew the oil business and wasn't afraid to go against JR. She also had the best chemistry with Cliff IMO. I hated when she returned post-dream season and they retconed it to make Cliff and Jamie hate each other. She would've been a useful Ewing to have in those later seasons when they struggled to bring new characters on.

I truly believe that DALLAS' decline in its' later seasons was the result of Larry Hagman exerting entirely too much control over the show.  When you're the face and voice of your show, and the number-one reason why people tune in in the first place, no one's gonna question you or push back on your ideas for its' overall direction, no matter how mediocre those ideas are.

Ratings-wise alone, Dallas had one of the most spectacular rises, and also one of the most spectacular FALLS/DECLINES in TV history. Obviously, a lot of this was tied to the actual quality of the series. 

@BetterForgotten I think Dynasty fell worse and much quicker: #1 in 1984/85, #7 in 1985/86, #24 in 1986/87, and below the Top 30 in 1987/88 and 1988/89. Dallas's decline was a bit more gradual: #1 in 1983/84, #2 in 1984/85, #6 in 1985/86, #11 in 1986/87, #22 in 1987/88, #29 in 1988/89, and below the Top 30 in 1989/90 and 1990/91.

DYNASTY's decline was worse, because the storytelling - or what remained of it after S3 - deteriorated so quickly.  Not only did the Moldavian Massacre provide no real payoffs, but what DID come afterward was ridiculous even by their own, shallow standards.

Dallas was the older show but Dynasty decline was worse. 

1985-1986 season

Dallas 21.9 average season ending rating

Dynasty 21.8

 

1986-1987 season

Dallas 21.3- Dallas was still placing in the top 10 during the season.

Dynasty 17.2- No longer ranked in the top 10 and struggled making the top 20 for the week.

 

Edited March 4, 20223 yr by Soapsuds