14 hours ago, j swift said:

Upstairs Downstairs was a cultural phenomenon on PBS from 1971-1975, (a primetime soap that doesn't get enough attention on this board).

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

14 hours ago, j swift said:

Beacon Hill doesn't replicate the plot, but was clearly influenced by the British version.

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:

Quote

Elizabeth Bellamy, who has been studying in Germany, returns to Eaton Place. Lady Marjorie tutors her daughter in how to present herself and hires a celebrated seamstress to attend to Elizabeth's couture, preparing her for the London season. Elizabeth has been invited to a splendid ball and she's to be presented to royalty. Lady Marjorie's cup runneth over and the excitement, throughout the entire household, is in full throttle. When Elizabeth leaves Eaton Place, she looks exquisite and more than suitable for the royals. When she arrives at this glittering affair, Elizabeth looks analytically around her and decides that she wants no part of any of it. She's an intelligent and educated young woman, with ideas and opinions. She abjectly eschews what she perceives is a mindless, superficial lifestyle, where tedious small talk is the order of the day. She leaves the gala and doesn't tell a soul. Her Ladyship and her father are greatly upset, but Rose talks some sense into Elizabeth when she surfaces in the servants' hall. Each have their duties and responsibilities to perform and, Rose tells her, like it or not, Elizabeth must conform in her very best "to the manner born" way for her own sake and to please her parents.

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

Edited November 10, 20232 yr by I Am A Swede

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.

  

 

^^

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

4 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said:

^^

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

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. 

3 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

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 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, 20232 yr by Paul Raven

29 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

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.

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? 

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.

17 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

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.

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. 

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

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.

On 11/16/2023 at 3:55 PM, Paul Raven said:

Fresno was a floppo.

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.     

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, 20232 yr by j swift

"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, 20232 yr by Khan

17 minutes ago, Khan said:

"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.

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. 

11 hours ago, Khan said:

"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.

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.