Primetime Soaps

[dc11786]

I liked what I watched of "The Yellow Rose" in the early episodes. It drops the serialization around episode 13 or so (I don't remember exactly what episode) and it becomes a bit less interesting in my opinon. I probably should revisit at some point. 

Thank you for sharing about "Rich Man, Poor Man II." I was curious because there was some talk in the proposed soap thread about "Midas Valley" which was written by Ann Beckett, who penned some of Book II. 

I concur that "Second Chances" was rough. I thought they were making some good strides in the last 3 episodes when they launched the post-murder mystery stories. The mystery of the missing Aunt Emily, the romance between Kate and Robert Duncan McNeill's character, and the intruction of John Schneider as Dianne's new business partner in her husband's construction company was great. Phasing out a couple characters was smart, but it had a ways to go from becoming must see TV. 

John Dye and Cheryl Pollack are miscast in "Hotel Malibu" and everything starts to fall apart from there. I really tried to enjoy it, but it is a hard watch. If there were edits available of Romy Wathall's charcter, she was a gem. 

[Khan]

I agree!

[j swift]

A few years ago, I happened to read the original book while in a hotel (the novel served as a decorative feature on a bookshelf).  It is nuts how much it varies from the miniseries.  There's a sister, who is a catalyst for most of the drama in the book, who is not in the TV show.  And most of the characteristic features of the protagonist are missing. 

The miniseries is very long, so it doesn't seem like they were forced to condense much, but the choices made are inexplicable.  It is sort of like when Barbra Streisand adapted The Prince of Tides, and neglected to include the titular character. 

[DRW50]

The pilot episode of what would eventually be the CW's Hidden Palms.

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[DRW50]

A very short-lived "teen drama" I'd never heard of called Palmetto Pointe, filmed on location in Charleston. Per Wiki this ran for 5 episodes, 2 unaired after that, and the project ended in bankruptcy and the cast and crew not being paid (clearly Prospect Park did not learn the perils of this PP alliteration). John Wesley Shipp guest starred. Amanda Baker also appeared, before her work on Night Shift and AMC.

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[Chris B]

I vaguely remember Palmetto Pointe. I wanna say Gabrielle Carteris was also on it. 

I finished Rich Man Poor Man Book 2 which had a very dark ending. It was definitely an interesting forgotten primetime soap. It deserved another year or two. I decided to jump into Second Chances next and I love it. It's a cute little cozy town and the characters are fun. I do think some of the casting could've been better, but overall I could see this show lasting longer than it did. It's a shame they didn't at least get a full season due to the Earthquake destroying their sets. 

[Khan]

Something I've said about every project that the Lechowicks were involved with.  I'd really love to know what their thought processes were whenever they were casting for one of their shows, lol.

[dc11786]

Did you end up watching "Hotel Malibu" as well? Not that I would highly recommend it, but I would be curious to hear your thoughts if you did. 

I felt of all three iterations ("Second Chances" Story 1 [eps 1-7], Story 2 [8-10], and "Hotel Malibu") the middle version was the most interesting. Given that Mike Chulak and Dianne Benedict's relationship seemed to be the second chance of the title, Matt Salinger's casting really did seem to bring down the pairing. I think there was a little bit of charm, but he wasn't really romantic lead material. Maybe if Dianne and Mike were the B-story it would have worked, but it is hard. I thought Dianne and Pete Dyson (John Schneider) had much better chemistry and I was happy to see that's where the story seemed to be heading. Add in Brenda Bakke's mysterious former beauty queen Lara Peterson and Dianne's sudden pregnancy (to accomodate Selleca's pregnancy) meant the story had some steam finally. 

I thought Megan Follows' quirky Kate Benedict was definitely the show's true lead, in my opinion. Her showing up in full cat makeup is one of the highlights of the entire show. I thought she and Richard McGill (Robert Duncan McNeill) were great and Justin Lazard's Kevin Cook worked better as the loser in love in that triangle than pining after Melinda Lopez (Jennifer Lopez). The Emily Howells mystery worked really well for me. I am just not sure if you could have kept Kate in the junior Jessica Fletcher role in a natural manner, but I wish we did find out.

If they needed another revamp, I would have brought in Joanna Russell as Kate Benedict's mother (it might have been harder to pass Russell off as Selleca's mother, but possibly as a stepmother). You could still tell the Joanna Cassidy/Pepe Serna romance but I would have made Joanna a more gray character possibly as a real estate developer involved with some shady figures who would put her involvement with Pete and Dianne's business some tension on both a family front as well as both of DIanne's careers (both construction and law). 

I also would have introduced Romy Walthall as a grifter who was claiming to be an heiress to move in on Justin Lazard's Kevin Cook and win over the Cooks to get their money. I'd give her a partner in crime (let's use John Dye though I'd prefer someone more  adept at playing two faced) who she initially claimed was her brother, but was her lover. You could then have them try and fake a kidnapping or plot a murder only for Walthall loving Kevin and wanting her second chance killing Dye. 

For Melinda, I would have had her work in Joanna Cassidy's real estate office and slowly become more involved with the son of one of the shady figures Joanna worked with. The son would believe his father was innocent, but there would be some crime that Kate would investigate that would prove he was guilty causing tension between Melinda / Kate in the process. 

Of course, not all of this could happen at once so I would probably weave characters in and out. The elder Cooks would probably be written out pretty quick only coming back when needed possibly recast. Ray Walston would probably briefly play out as the third wheel in the Joanna Cassidy / Pepe Serna story threatening the happiness of Joanna Cassidy until the mysterious business figures she associated with had Walston run off the road and left in a coma. 

I thought the original murder mystery story was a flop. I think both Ramy Zada's detective and Michelle Phillips' secretary were in on the murder. I thought things improved immensely once they left.

[Soaplovers]

I watched Hotel Malibu, but I think having Jennifer Lopez be the focus of the spin off was the wrong decision.  She was only selected because she was the only one the three female leads not pregnant.

IMO, I think it would have worked better if it had been Megan Follow's character that had been the center of the spin off.  She was the most interesting of the three leads on Second Chances.

But I will say that there were parts of Hotel Malibu I liked:

Joanna Cassidy was a good lead female character and I loved her rapport with Pepe S.

And I actually laughed out loud when watching Romy Walthall & John Dye.  Neither were evil nor all good... they were grey characters.  

[dc11786]

@Soaplovers I agree with most of what you said. Megan Follows was definitely the strongest of the three leads. I think Jennifer Lopez had presence and charisma, but Melinda felt underdeveloped. Not that I was a huge fan of Kevin and Melinda, but I felt that fell apart too quickly. Maybe if we had to see Melinda fight against the Cooks more before the failed wedding there would have been more investment, but it just didn't work. Even when put in the spotlight on Hotel Malibu, Melinda didn't get more interesting. 

I liked Cassidy. I was a big fan of "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" growing up and it was interesting to see her years later as Ellie when Second Chances was released on DVD. I think Cassidy had more spunk though then I felt Ellie did and would have liked to seen more of it. I don't remember her breast cancer story going very far, but everything on Malibu blends together. 

The only thing that really stood out was Walthall's character Nancy who was such a breath of fresh air. I remember her hiding the dead body and then trying to marry Paul Satterfield's character, though maybe I am thinking of Pacific Palisades. Anyway, Nancy was fun. As I said, I watched on DVD so I had already seen Dye as Andrew for many years on Touched by an Angel so I found it a hard adjustment and I don't know if it played to Dye's strengths.

I know a lot of it is available, but I also wish that the full run of Angel Falls from around the same time was available. I think 4.5 out of 6 episodes are available are on YouTube. 

[Forever8]

A Megan Follows fan page uploaded her scenes in Second Chances 

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[Chris B]

I agree with you here. Megan was definitely the highlight of Second Chances. I just finished it and watched the first episode of Hotel Malibu. It felt like the original series was a pilot that should've been retooled before going to series. They had a good idea, but it didn't come together at all. It also needed to be heavily recast. The collection of characters felt so random and almost every role was miscast.

Only one episode in I can't say that Hotel Malibu was thrilling, but I'll give it more time. Strange that they decided to go that route for a spin off though.

[Contessa Donatella]

 

The Monroes, 1995, ABC, 13 episodes made, 7 unaired, but later aired on SOAPnet 2005. I have 1,2,4,5,6 & 8. If anyone has 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13, please holler.

I also have Flamingo Road, Paper Dolls, Central Park West, S2 of Once & Again, Savannah, 

Pacific Palisades, Dante’s Cove (2005-2007) LGBTQ+, The Lair (2007-2009) gay, vampire

Dirty Sexy Money Complete (2007)

 

[Khan]

IIRC, Jeff Sagansky was still president of CBS, and he was very high on increasing the visibility of Hispanic and Latino actors on the network.  So, I guess it made sense for them to spin off Jennifer Lopez's character, in particular, although I think they would've been better off developing a whole new series for her.  "Hotel Malibu" just feels like something the Lechowicks and Stanleys threw together (and CBS aired) in order to fulfill some obligations.

[Soaplovers]

Probably the back order that was most likely meant for Second Chances