The `Sunset' also  hopes to rise

August 97

The sun has been slow to rise on Sunset Beach. NBC's freshman soap opera has yet to establish itself as a formidable player in the daytime wars. Shoring up the writing staff remains a top priority, although the NBC Studios show has yet to hire a replacement for former head writer Bob Guza, who officially left the show on Labor Day to take his old job as head writer at ABC's General Hospital.

Guza, who was pulled from his ABC post in June, was expected to leave Sunset. He will retain his Sunset co- creator credit, with Charles Pratt and Josh Griffith. An infusion of new energy certainly wouldn't hurt the show. The daytime drama has averaged a 1.2 rating with women 18 -49 since its debut Jan. 6. For the week of Aug. 18, the latest national Nielsen Media Research ratings available, Sunset Beach averaged a 1.8/7 in households and a 1.1 in the key women's demo. ABC, in the meantime, is trumpeting the return of Guza, who earned an Emmy nomination for his work on General Hospital.

So was Guza always supposed to have a short stint on SuBe despite having created the show? I can't imagine wanting to leave my creation for another show that's already established and has politics. 

 

I miss characters like Annie, Olivia, Gregory… 

It’s high time ‘Sunset Beach’ was released to streaming. Paramount owns the rights. Fans please contact ‘Paramount Global Content Distribution’ on Instagram to petition a release. 

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/paramountgcd

Paramount website: https://paramountglobalformats.com/title/sunset-beach 

"An widowed anthropologist finds new love with a woman who suffers from psychological abuse by her husband, who is also involved in human trafficking."

Da [!@#$%^&*] is even this description? 

19 hours ago, EyeOnFashion said:

It’s high time ‘Sunset Beach’ was released to streaming. Paramount owns the rights. Fans please contact ‘Paramount Global Content Distribution’ on Instagram to petition a release. 

Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/paramountgcd

Paramount website: https://paramountglobalformats.com/title/sunset-beach 

It's crazy to see this coming from their website and yet the show isn't streaming anywhere. You'd think with all the obscure shows on the net it would be somewhere. They couldn't license it to tubi at least? Or pluto?

On 1/3/2025 at 8:57 PM, Paul Raven said:

The `Sunset' also  hopes to rise

August 97

The sun has been slow to rise on Sunset Beach. NBC's freshman soap opera has yet to establish itself as a formidable player in the daytime wars. Shoring up the writing staff remains a top priority, although the NBC Studios show has yet to hire a replacement for former head writer Bob Guza, who officially left the show on Labor Day to take his old job as head writer at ABC's General Hospital.

Guza, who was pulled from his ABC post in June, was expected to leave Sunset. He will retain his Sunset co- creator credit, with Charles Pratt and Josh Griffith. An infusion of new energy certainly wouldn't hurt the show. The daytime drama has averaged a 1.2 rating with women 18 -49 since its debut Jan. 6. For the week of Aug. 18, the latest national Nielsen Media Research ratings available, Sunset Beach averaged a 1.8/7 in households and a 1.1 in the key women's demo. ABC, in the meantime, is trumpeting the return of Guza, who earned an Emmy nomination for his work on General Hospital.

Also, this is actually when I stopped watching, in August 97. I feel like it started strong but quickly became incredibly dull and I couldn't believe how slow the summer was. I haven't looked back sense. 

I know people have fond memories but I can't get through the dull part to make it there. Maybe one day.

1 hour ago, Chris B said:

Also, this is actually when I stopped watching, in August 97. I feel like it started strong but quickly became incredibly dull and I couldn't believe how slow the summer was. I haven't looked back sense. 

I know people have fond memories but I can't get through the dull part to make it there. Maybe one day.

August 1997 is also when the show took a break of new episodes and instead for a couple weeks their new episodes consisted of “recap” episodes where characters narrated what was going on their stories were. 
 

I was definitely disappointed to see Elaine and Paula written out not long after after but honestly by December’97 the show gained momentum going into Terror island and the Olivia/Caitlin baby swap.