Possibly brilliant soaps that never got made

[JackPeyton]

Barnabas was like 30, not 18.

Matt Czuchry was in the pilot (along with the fab Marley Shelton and Alexis Thorpe), i know i have seen it - granted it wasnt a complete pilot like go to air kick off a tv show pilot it was more of a sales pitch pilot type thing (or thasts how it played out). so i know i have seen it, i just dont know where.

here, i did a search. i seen it at this event

[Paul Raven]

Eric.

My mistake.The Joan Crawford series was to be called'Royal Bay'. Paradise Bay was an NBC daytime soap from 64.

SOD reported in late 87 that the Fox network had made a deal with Gloria Monty to produce a weekly soap that would premiere in Jan 88 and focus on blue collar families.The plan was for a new episode every week 52 weeks a year,with a possible expansion to twice a week.

SOD commented that this seemed like a risky move from a financial point of view and also because primetime soaps were losing steam.

Anyway,FOX got cold feet and the project never went ahead.

[JackPeyton]

There have been reports every few years about shows being created for fox daytime or late night soapyness, but it never happens.

[JackPeyton]

Eric, i am going to hookup mydesktop this weeknd and search dark shadows. i just feel like i have something on it i can send you.

[All My Shadows]

The DS revival, character-wise, stayed pretty true to the original when it comes to ages and such. Because it was the WB, some of the actors and actresses were about 10 years younger than the actors and actresses in the 1960s version. Grayson Hall (original Julia) was about 45 when she joined the show and the actress playing her in the new version was 36. The guy playing Barnabas was 30 while Jonathan Frid was about 40. The only big problem with that, I think, was that the guy playing Barnabas (Alec Newman) and the girl playing Victoria (Marley Shelton) were both the same age when they did the pilot, but in both the 1960s and 1990s versions, the age difference was definitely there in the two characters (20+ years in the original, 10+ years in the 1991 show).

Whatever the case, the pilot was shown at one of the DS festivals with the complete blessing and support of Dan Curtis Productions, and this was back when DC was still alive, so knowing that he signed off on it and that the cast signed off on it really makes me think that we, the audience, missed out on what could have been a kick-ass new show. This was right after Sci-Fi dropped reruns, too, so it would have been the only way to continue to rope in new generations of fans of the show.

[Paul Raven]

The GH spinoff that was talked about in the early 80's was "Young Loves of General Hospital".

I am sure that ABC wanted to capitalise on the mega success of GH at that time ,but because all of ABC daytime was going gangbusters,there wasn't a viable place on the schedule.

Some other daytime shows I remember being mentioned in SOD were Malibu Lifeguards on ABC and a Paul Rauch produced soap for CBS called' The Billionaires'.I'll try and dig out old issues over the weekend ,if anyone is interested in more details...

[EricMontreal22]

THanks JackP

I did do a search and it is true the pilot got a lot of negative buzz at first (which is what I remembered) but then from those who actually saw the pilot (or whatever you call it) apparantly it was quite good--lotsa positive reviews. I guess with the Depp movie in the works (is that on hold?) nothing will happen--shame.

I keep on thinking the itme is right for a supernatural nigth time soap (Yes Buffy and Angel, especially ANgel, counted in many ways and I adore them but it's not quite the same). I know they tried with Point Pleasant but something wasn't right (though I did enjoy the show and intended to watch the unaired eps but never did...)

[edgeofnik]

The KL spin-off that was closest to be made was a "Summer at KL" that would have featured the younger set. However, it was derailed by the strike in 1988. That would have been an interesting way to keep the show alive during the summer.

I loved the DS remake, but Desert Storm coverage screwed things up. (I should say NBC screwed it up by pre-empted and then not pre-empting when they said they would pre-empt. They totally botched that up.)