Primetime Soaps

[I Am A Swede]

It doesn't get enough attention, period.  I absolutely love Upstairs Downstairs. It's my alltime favourite tv-show.  

Please register in order to view this content

From the synopses posted the plot is quite different, but at least one episode, "The Debut" (one of the un-aired ones) seems at least somewhat inspired by the season one episode "The Path of Duty" from UD:

https://www.updown.org.uk/epguide/s1.htm#pod

Edited November 10, 2023 by I Am A Swede

[Contessa Donatella]

Today is Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, and it is an important day for soaps because from Sunday, Nov. 16, 1986, to Thursday, Nov. 20, 1986, six one-hour episodes of the parody miniseries FRESNO were broadcast on CBS, two episodes per night for three nights. FRESNO was about a failing raisin plantation & specifically was aimed at FALCON CREST for obvious raisins er, reasons, but also got in some jabs at DALLAS & DYNASTY. Some said it was the funniest show they ever saw. It was re-broadcast in both 1987 & 1989. Its tagline was "Bigger Than Almost Anything!" The blockbuster cast included: Carol Burnett, Dabney Coleman, Gregory Harrison, Teri Garr, Pat Corley, Valerie Mahaffey, Anthony Heald, Jerry van Dyke, Charles Keating, Melanie Chartoff, Michael Richards, Jeffrey Jones, Bill Paxton, Louise Latham, Tom Poston, Henry Darrow, Dakin Matthews & Peter Scolari.

Please register in order to view this content

  

 

[I Am A Swede]

^^

Funny that Gregory Harrison ended up on the real thing a few years later.   

Please register in order to view this content

[Contessa Donatella]

I laughed out loud!! But, truly, it is more than just GH today. If the BTS drama tales are true, Falcon Crest fired Susan Sullivan to be able to afford to hire him for the next season. Which just goes to show what idiots they were. 

[Paul Raven]

Fresno did not play 2 episodes a night for 3 nights.

It began with a 2hr ep on Sunday and then 1 hr Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs.

After an OK start on Sunday following Murder She Wrote, ranking 13th,Monday's ep , pulled a 15.2/22, which put the show in 36th place. (Parts three, four and five finished 50th, 52d and 51st, respectively.

Fresno was a floppo.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Paul Raven

[Contessa Donatella]

Thank you for that schedule correction! I had a terrible time finding information.

I hate that it did so poorly because I really recall it being so dang funny! Since it really did so poorly, though, why do you think they re-broadcast it in '87 and '89? 

[Paul Raven]

Fresno was repeated on CBS in 89 in July and again flopped badly, pretty much the bottom shows of the week.

I guess it was repeated to try and recoup some of the investment, but even hit mini series repeated badly which was a downside of the genre.

I didn't find any record of it being shown in 87 and it seems unlikely they would repeat a flop show so soon.

[Contessa Donatella]

Wikiwand quote: Fresno was screened three times in the United States in 1986, 1987 and 1989. 

Well, we know that they can & do often have errors so if you found no instance of rebroadcast in 1987 I will correct that in my files. 

[Contessa Donatella]

@Errol   Are you aware of any progress in bringing KNOTS LANDING to a streamer? Thanks. 

[Contessa Donatella]

This just popped up, appeared in my Facebook Memories for Nov. 21, 2020. I have no recollection of it, nor where I got it, 

On November 21, 1980, 350 million people around the world tuned in to television’s popular primetime drama “Dallas” to find out who shot J.R. Ewing, the character fans loved to hate. J.R. had been shot on the season-ending episode the previous March 21, which now stands as one of television’s most famous cliffhangers. The plot twist inspired widespread media coverage and left America wondering “Who shot J.R.?” for the next eight months. The November 21 episode solved the mystery, identifying Kristin Shepard, J.R.’s wife’s sister and his former mistress, as the culprit.

The CBS television network debuted the first five-episode pilot season of “Dallas” in 1978; it went on to run for another 12 full-length seasons. The first show of its kind, “Dallas” was dubbed a “primetime soap opera” for its serial plots and dramatic tales of moral excess. The show revolved around the relations of two Texas oil families: the wealthy, successful Ewing family and the perpetually down-on-their-luck Barnes family. The families’ patriarchs, Jock Ewing and Digger Barnes, were former partners locked in a years-long feud over oil fields Barnes claimed had been stolen by Ewing. Ewing’s youngest son Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and Barnes’ daughter Pam (Victoria Principal) had married, linking the battling clans even more closely. The character of J.R. Ewing, Bobby’s oldest brother and a greedy, conniving, womanizing scoundrel, was played by Larry Hagman.

As J.R. had many enemies, audiences were hard-pressed to guess who was responsible for his attempted murder. That summer, the question “Who Shot J.R.?” entered the national lexicon, becoming a popular t-shirt slogan, and heightening anticipation of the soap’s third season, which was to air in the fall. After a much-talked-about contract dispute with Hagman was finally settled, the season was delayed because of a Screen Actors Guild strike, much to the dismay of “Dallas” fans. When it finally aired, the episode revealing J.R.’s shooter became one of television’s most watched shows, with an audience of 83 million people in the U.S. alone—a full 76 percent of all U.S. televisions on that night were tuned in—and helped put “Dallas” into greater worldwide circulation. It also popularized the use of the cliffhanger by television writers.

The shooting of J.R. wasn’t “Dallas'”only notorious plot twist. In September 1986, fans learned that the entire previous season, in which main character Bobby Ewing had died, was merely a dream of Pam’s. The show’s writers had killed the Bobby character off because Duffy had decided to leave the show. When he agreed to return, they featured him stepping out of the shower on the season-ending cliffhanger, and then were forced the next season to explain his sudden reappearance.

The last premiere episode of “Dallas” aired on May 3, 1991. A spin-off, “Knots Landing,” aired from December 27, 1979 until May 13, 1993. “Dallas” remains in syndication around the world.

[Broderick]

I'm not sure how long it takes to go from conceptualization to script to casting to filming to airing, but Fresno's initial airing in the fall of 1986 was about 5 years past its expiration date. 

Those of us interested in watching a nighttime soap parody had been "treated" to Dynasty  for SEVERAL seasons by the time "Fresno" came along.  "Dynasty" seemed to offer a more "sophisticated" brand of humor than "Fresno", considering Dynasty's overblown caricatures of the rich, absurdly melodramatic dialogue penned in an earnest, childlike fashion, and delivered in a pseudo-serious manner by a cast dressed in ridiculous regalia, surrounded by every conceivable cliché.  By Fresno's 1986 premier, it wasn't possible for a miniseries to successfully parody a weekly series that was a complete parody of an already tongue-in-cheek genre.     

[j swift]

Didn't Fresno also have the unfortunate scheduling date against a big national event that affected ratings?  I think the “Arms for Hostages” deal with Iran was announced in a national prime time address from the White House on the second night and that overtook pop culture that week.

Edited November 22, 2023 by j swift

[Khan]

"Fresno" might have been more successful if it had been a comic miniseries about the behind-the-scenes doings of a hit primetime soap, rather than a parody of one.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Khan

[Contessa Donatella]

Were people getting tired of the miniseries format by then? Personally I thought it was hilarious but it certainly didn't stand up to classics like Sho-Gun, The Thornbirds & Bare Essence. 

[Broderick]

I would imagine so.  I suffered through the first episode of "Fresno" when it premiered, and I found it awfully tiresome.  If we wanted to see "situational humor" in a primetime soap format, JR Ewing, Angela Channing, and Abby were offering that weekly in a more consistent manner.  If we wanted to see dependable "high camp humor", the entire cast of Dynasty appeared to be (unintentionally) providing that.  "Fresno", as it was presented, truly didn't have anything to offer that hadn't already been around since 1980.