Possibly brilliant soaps that never got made

[Sylph]

Which soap operas you wish got made? I'm referring to cases like Michael Malone's New Orleans-based 13 Bourbon Street.

And obviously you wanted to work with her again -- witness

13 Bourbon Street

[the Fox soap created last year by Gottlieb, Malone and Josh Griffith]. First it was supposed to be a late-night show, then it was prime time, then Fox stopped talking about it altogether. What the heck happened?

What

Bourbon Street

was supposed to be and what it turned out to be were two different things. To me, the thrill of the show was that we were going to take the form that I love, which is the five-times-a-week storytelling of daytime, and do it at 11 o'clock at night. And because it was on Fox, we were going to be freer to take risks, experiment, push the envelope in ways the traditions of daytime don't allow. And we were going to have the enormous thrill of starting from page one. And it was going to be set in New Orleans, which, as a Southerner, was very appealing to me. Fox's commitment to the show by then-president John Matoian was marvelous. We proceeded ahead but then the regime changed. A new president came in with a whole new administration that didn't feel Fox was ready to take on that late-night slot.

What were some other examples? Did the Bells pitch a soap to NBC?

[Paul Raven]

In about 83,NBC was set to go with Scruples,spun off from the nightime mini series.

How closely it was to follow that show I don't know.

Susan Flannery was set to star,Pat Falken Smith was the writer and New World was the production company.

I think there was an admin shake up at NBC and the idea was dropped.There was some talk of a lawsuit at the time.I think Flannery was suing either NBC or New World.

Perhaps other posters can provide more info.

NBC also toyed with a spin off of Flamingo Road after it was cancelled in prime time.

There have been many more soaps mooted over the years-possibly all brilliant!!

Hope we can get a good list happening.I'll add some more later.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yes, 'Coming of Age.'

Claire Labine presented a soap titled 'Celebration' to CBS after she was forced off Ryan's Hope the first time around. Of course CBS didn't pick up.

ABC was very close to green-lighting Labine's GH spin-off center on Ned and Lois in the 90's, but went with Wendy Riche's cheaper produced 'Port Charles.' Labine then retooled the show as 'Union Place' and shopped it to NBC, but they declined and decided to go with 'Sunset Beach' instead.

[MarkH]

Flamingo Road was the BEST. I'm still sad it is gone.

I really, really wish that Claire Labine's Bronx-based spinoff of GH had been made INSTEAD of "Port Charles". (Although early Port Charles..before the telenovelas and the supernatural...was interesting to me...UP UNTIL THE TIME we started getting goofy GENERAL HOMICIDE murders. I guess this means I liked Port Charles for a year or something. I was cool with Audrey Hardy getting her head trephined by a power drill :-]).

[Sylph]

I hope so, too!

What do you know about it?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I heard Bill Bell jr was going to EP it, Maria Arena Bell and Trent Jones were going to be Co-HW's of it. It was going to be like what early Y&R and AMC were like, you know, the focus on young romances and family conflict.

However, after seeing the damage Billy and Maria have caused to Y&R recently, I'm glad it wasn't picked up...

[Sylph]

Oh, yes, now I remembe! However, where did you hear this? And how long ago was it?

A funny combination, Trent and Maria, I wonder who are his powerful enemies behind the stages.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I've heard this over the years from various palces, I don't know how accurate the whole thing is.

As for Trent, who knows. It's a shame that a guy who worked with Labine, Long, Curlee, and Bell isn't writing for anything at the moment.

[Sylph]

Extremely terrible title, but what was it about?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Not much is known about it. But if it's anything like what Labine's writing tends to be like, I guess it was very family-centered, multigenerational, socially conscious, and gritty, but with lots of heart.

[Sylph]

So far we have:

1. 13 Bourbon Street :: Linda Gottlieb, Michael Malone, Josh Griffith
2. Scruples :: Susan Flannery, Pat Falken Smith, New World (production company)
3. Flamingo Road spinoff :: NBC
4. Coming of Age :: Maria Arena Bell & Trent Jones, Bill Bell Jr. as EP (for NBC)
5. Celebration :: Claire Labine for CBS
6. Ned & Lois spinoff :: Claire Labine for ABC

[TC]

I seem to remember reading something about a DAYS spinoff located in Manhattan. Anyone?

[GladGirl]

I think the Ned and Lois spinoff was supposed to be Brooklyn based, not Bronx...

Corday was trying to develop a DAYS spinoff called "Pacific Lives" in (I think) the early-mid 90s. Something about Deidre Hall and lots of Hawaii locations seems to ring a bell...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The only DAYS spin-off I've heard about was going to be a JER created and written spin-off. I've fogotten what the premise was though.

Wait, there was also talk about creating a teen-based DAYS spin-off in 2001, during Langan's craptastic HW tenure there.

[MarkH]

Yes, I remember this!