Sunset Beach Discussion Thread

[Ben]

It’s not an “attitude”, NBC would have happily renewed the show had Spelling given up the international royalties, so it was never about ratings at that point. 

Let’s not forget NBC basically buried the show when they moved it to Noon in July 1999 to make way for Passions, which left many affiliates airing the show at 3am or just not at all. 

And we all saw how cheap Passions looked in comparison (nice location shoots for the first week to hook viewers in, then back to shooting the outside inside). 

Yeah, Channel 5 did offer to co-fund the show with NBC and Spelling, but they refused. Channel 5 also wanted to rerun the show immediately after the final episode, but NBC increased the licensing fee to some stupid amount, essentially pricing them out. Clearly, they were bitter over not getting those international royalties they so desperately wanted. 

[te.]

It was always scheduled at noon though?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996–97_United_States_network_television_schedule_(daytime)

That's why it could never gain any traction in the ratings and was doomed from the start. It's a show that clearly targeted the 18-34 year olds who watched the Spelling prime time soaps... yet they put it in a spot where few of those would be home to watch it.

[Matt]

Noon was always Sunset Beach's official broadcast time, but NBC was big at the time about allowing affiliates to air their daytime lineup whenever they wanted to.  Where I lived at the time received 2 different NBC affiliates & while one (Louisville) aired DAYS & AW at the official 1pm/2pm, they aired SuBe at 11am.  The other (Lexington) aired AW at 10am, DAYS at 11am, & SuBe at 1pm.  The Louisville CBS affiliate also aired Y&R at 4pm & the Lexington CBS's affiliate aired Y&R at 9am (a day behind), which it had done since the 70s. 

[Maxim]

I just wanted to post this for someone who may be on the lookout for an easy way to watch - https://archive.org/details/sunset-beach

The entire series from start to finish can be watched and download from this folder in archive.org

I am not the uploader, I just found it while looking around.

 

[Ben]

Thanks for the link @Maxim.

[Joseph]

Does anyone know where I can find a good copy of This Show's Prime-Time Episode "ShockWave" from 1998?????

[Liberty City]

Getting back into Sunset Beach, and since I cannot recall the exact time-frame of where I left-off... I am starting back at the beginning. WHEW. Gotta make it through this Dorothy from Kansas bullshït again. Visually, I appreciate that Sunset Beach did not have the typical daytime feeling from a production standpoint, but I am shocked Robert Guza Jnr was the head writer.

[Chris B]

I couldn't tell you why but I've never as much as seen a clip of Sunset Beach. With BTG coming and you posting this link I decided to finally give it a go. I've watched the first two episodes so far and I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to stick with it.

This is definitely a Spelling soap. I can see how it may have been difficult for soap fans to take, but I like that Spelling did his own thing and didn't change his brand to fit what people think a soap should be. The production values are amazing and I love that he is utilizing his location so well. This is what I want out of B&B being LA set.

I'm going to wait until I finish the first full week because for soaps I view it as a pilot week, but so far I do think they're making the right moves to get new viewers to stick around. 

How long would you all say it took them to really get going? I believe I've heard the show wasn't great initially.

[Maxim]

About 20-30 episodes for me to get really hooked. As I recall... But that was long time ago. Take what I say with a grain of salt. I haven't watched Sunset Beach in nearly 10 years. Maybe even more.

But as a kid, it was my second favorite soap after Bold. I watched it religiously.

And when I found it on the internet 10-15 years ago I watched it again and I remember the start was a bit annoying and then it got good.

[te.]

I really loved the first few months for this reason. He really did make an effort to make it look as close to his prime time soaps at the time, which is why I suspect it went over better in Europe than the US. Of course, they eventually caved in to the US soap fans demand and tried to make it look more in line with the other soaps. It's a shame really since it didn't make the show a success and I thought it looked worse.

The fact that the utilised location shooting so much was  amazing, yet daytime soaps hated it lol. 

[Liberty City]

It was definitely a Spelling production in the beginning, and I think that worked in its favour.

[Liberty City]

I totally forgot about:

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Insane. Absolutely insane. That wouldn't fly in today's daytime world.

I'm also wondering... when the Hell was the opening shot? 'Cause Priscilla Garita did not show up until the thirtieth episode, and Adrienne Frantz's hair was never like that in the series. Must've been at casting, etc.

[Manny]

I got hooked to SuBe instantly. But I was a teenager and European, so as someone said, I guess it was suited more for the younger audiences and went better with Europeans than America.

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I adored the show, even though I found the 3rd year slow down to a painful pace, with a lot of repetition and dragging out stuff. 

I loved the Terror Island and Shockwave storylines. I still think Shockwave was one of the best disasters I've seen on soaps ever (probably followed by the tornado in AMC in 1995). 

I adored Annie and Bette, they are to this day some of my favorite characters in all soaps. 

And after the show ended, I was writing the SuBe continuation for 100 episodes which got published on this SuBe website. It was so fun to do way back when.  

However, I tried watching it from the start during COVID and I could not do it lol

Oh also, I loved both openings. LOVED! The original one was so sultry, sexy, soapy. My God.. everyone was so gorgeous in it. The second one, I love the theme so much. The visuals were less interesting to me, but I still loved it overall.

You could be right. Because later on when they switch Ashley Hamilton with Eddie Cibrian they also update Adrienne Frantz's picture for some reason. I think she's the only one that gets a change in this original opening. Or maybe they change her later on in the year and not exactly at the same time when the added Cibrian, but I always thought it was interesting how she got that update, considering she wasn't even there for the full year. 

Speaking of the openings now, I went to YouTube to watch them and oh my God, those tunes bring back to many memories and take me back to such a nicer simpler times. I got chills and almost started crying.. it's ridiculous. Those tunes will forever make me smile. 

[Liberty City]

My first-watch, I liked it, then swapped to Santa Barbara and tried returning to Sunset Beach, and found it beyond jarring. But I am enjoying it again on my second-go (again, forgot where I left off... I remember wooded areas, but felt like I missed out on so much prior). So, I'm re-watching again and it's fun. It's definitely got that Aaron Spelling/E. Duke Vincent vibe that Beverly Hills, 90210 had.

The sets were so unique to daytime, as well. You can tell Spelling/Vincent wanted a specific look for the sets, and they worked for a Spelling/Vincent production. But, much like Santa Barbara, I imagine they'd be shells of themselves by the mid-2000's.

The first theme is not my favourite; it's a very primetime-feeling opening, almost 90210 feeling. The second theme is my favourite, and then it reminds me of the fall 2005 update Guiding Light got (and I believe they did it more effectively). And the "Shockwave" edit of the theme? Even better.

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I feel like Vanessa Dorman (Caitlin) got an alt-take update. A few of them did. And I feel like Susan Ward's clip was re-edited to not be as faded. Don't know why, but yeah... it's very clear they taped the "opening" prior to filming of the series. Maybe they did it for [most] cast who auditioned, as a "just in case" kind of thing? And man, the upgrade from Ashley Hamilton to Eddie Cibrian was a WIN!

[te.]

I'd assume it was done when they started doing early promotions for the show. It wouldn't be the first time for Spelling to do this - Melrose Place actually started promotion before they shot a second of the pilot and they filmed those character shots that were used in early promos and the ending credits in season one. That's why Billy doesn't have a shot in the ending credits since Stephen Fanning was originally cast and they didn't bother shooting one with Andrew Shue; you can see Fanning's discarded promo shot at around 0:25 here (along with apartments #9 and #11, which never existed on the show):

 

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TL;DR: they were likely shot at least a month or two they went into production since I doubt they did a pilot. Hence Garita being present despite not being on the show for the first month or so.

Edited December 6, 2024 by te.