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Primetime Soaps


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LOL. I think we can be friends then.

Yeah, fall numbers are generally higher than those in the spring, when daylight savings and warm weather kick in.

What’s interesting is that the “Dallas” episode where Bobby died aired several days after the official television season ended in the middle of May. So the rating for that episode wasn’t counted toward Dallas’ 1984-85 average. Had it been, Dallas would have topped Dynasty for the season by the slimmest of margins.

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LOL!!

But seriously.  I, myself, felt that FC became too crime-driven under Jeff Freilich's watch.  The vineyards, and the fight to control them, became almost an afterthought.  Melissa's gaining control of FC was a brilliant idea, but I think it came two seasons too late.  That, and not the Kim Novak [!@#$%^&*], should have been Freilich's first, big story for the show.

But I have read that critics - well, SOME critics - praised the show during those years for "taking risks," or whatever, and breathing new life into FC and primetime soaps in general; and how even SOD named them, and not DALLAS, DYNASTY or KL, Best Primetime Show at the SOD Awards two years in a row.  Personally...?  I think the music and sets got better, but that's about it, lol.

Imagine, for the moment, if DALLAS and DYNASTY had aired those two episodes - "Swan Song" and "Royal Wedding," respectively - opposite each other on the same night?  Between those two shows, it would have been The Greatest Night in Prime Time Television, lol.

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The crime element was always there, but it was amplified in that era.

Not the awards, but the best of 1987 and 1988 issues. I think the writeups were posted here before.

It really would've been. Spring 1985 was the zenith of primetime soaps as a genre.

Edited by kalbir
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I didn't know this until recently but apparently Les Moonves was at Lorimar/Warner Brothers from 1985-1995 and then went to CBS not long after. When the CBS big three went into budget mode, it was mostly the long-time female cast members that were salary dumped and not the males. Given what we know about Les Moonves, I wonder if there's a connection.

Edited by kalbir
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And now, I'm picturing Dame Joan disavowing her role in the miniseries.  ("Of COURSE that was my twin sister!  I would NEVER agree to appear in such trash!")

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