Rituals

[NadineC]

I've created a video montage with the closing credits of Rituals.

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[DRW50]

 

Great job.

[NadineC]

Thank you.

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[MissPalmer]

thank you for the video!!!

[gimmetoo]

Any idea what Tim Maier is doing now ?  He was great on Rituals !  I wish he had done more acting...

[NadineC]

Unfortunately Tim checked out of show business some 27 years ago and hasn't been heard from since.
Yes, he's a good actor, very talented. Here's his filmography. 

 

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Edited May 11, 2021 by NadineC

[DRW50]

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[Forever8]

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[DRW50]

A full episode of Rituals was uploaded. Wow! I think this is a first!!

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@NadineC @dc11786

[Chris 2]

Wow - is it me, or is the acting really bad? Even the singing Ford dealer at the end is preferable to some of these actors.

Lots of experienced soap vets behind the scenes, looking at the closing credits. The Corringtons, Gene Palumbo, Virginia Browne, Ken Corday. 

I wonder if they really needed to base this on a book. And the name, Rituals, is just horrible.

[te.]

Same with fellow failed syndicated soap "Tribes" - both names makes me think of those syndicated low-budget adventure/action shows rather than soap opera.

[NadineC]

Thank you so much. 

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[j swift]

I re-read the entire SOD synopsis of the show on Tumblr during lockdown and it was a fun read that I would encourage others to try. 

In my opinion, the show suffered because of the "too many cooks" syndrome.  As I read the interview with the original author of the novel Rituals, it was a good starting point for a nighttime soap.  As the title suggests, the plot was structured around a variety of university traditions.  Much like B&B used fashion shows in its early years, I felt like these traditions could be used as tent poles for different plots and would give the characters a reason to interact at various points in the year.  Homecoming, Spring formals, and Summer harvest festivals would have set a timer on certain stories so that you always felt as if you were building toward something.  However, the college plotlines did not do well with test audiences and the other cooks diverted attention to ridiculous business stories, and way too many murder mysteries.   

RIP Phelice Sampler, but she was horribly miscast.  Apparently her character in the original pitch was closer to Renee on Days, a mean bitch with a cruel tongue.  However, she did not do as well playing an earnest P.E. teacher who was given no autonomy.  The fact that the faculty looked the same age as the students, the cheap sets, and hair model male characters did them no favors.  Monte Markham is a one note actor, with very little charisma or sexual appeal, so it was hard to imagine him as a match for any character played by the remarkable Christine Jones.  I remember Greg Mullavey from Mary Hartman, so he came off as being more comedic than menacing.  And neither Jo Anne Pflug nor Tina Louise was ever going to be a viable Joan Collins-type.  However, that ending is pretty iconic...

Edited August 6, 2021 by j swift

[Chris 2]

Thank you! I could never stand Monte Markham and the way he spoke out of one side of his mouth.

[dc11786]

Great to see a full episode in English! I think the first two episodes were online years ago dubbed in Italian. 

I believe this episode is about a week or so after the infamous "murder mystery contest" episode that ended with a bunch of different cliffhangers most of which seemed to be very quickly resolved by this episode. The episode itself was very plot heavy, but, coming off the previous week, the writers were probably trying to maintain momentum when it might have made more sense to slow things down. 

It was interesting seeing Kelly Bennett as Michelle Davenport. This character was eventually revealed to be Sarah Gallagher's daughter by Patrick Chapin, but not before she slept with her half-brother Carter Robertson. It was also nice seeing Janice Heiden playing Marissa Mallory. I liked the potential in that friendship (Michelle / Marissa) but I think Marissa is on her way out. I think her trying to poison Carter was her last hurrah. I was actually surprised they mentioned the poisoning (the issue with the vents). 

I am actually really surprised by how engaging I find Laurie Burton, the actress who plays Sarah Gallagher. I see why the show made her a more central figure as time went on. I believe they briefly paired her with Anthony Ponzini's police captain character. 

The stuff with Christina and Clay was less than appealing. I like both characters, but this just was pure plot. 

In regards to the connection between the book and the show, as previously stated, there were significant rewrites and story evolution that is grounded in the original source material. The Taylor Chapin / Julia Field / Logan Williams set up is lifted straight from the novel. In the book, Judd McBroom would bed most of the female students, which was one of the 'rituals' at the all girls' school. Judd impregnated Charlotte, who married a wealthy bisexual, and passed Judd's daughter Priscilla off as Sterling Lawson's. In the original pilot, Joe Lambie played Judd McBroom, Philece Sampler played Priscilla, and Christine Jones played Charlotte. Also in the pilot was Barbara Crampton as Sandy, who, in the book, is revealed to be the daughter of Priscilla's perceived father. 

When the pilot tested poorly, there were several significant rewrites. In one unused version, the show managed to retain the original source material by keeping the story ingrained in the all girls school but by adding in some significant older characters. Bayard Lawson was the industrialist grandfather of Laura Lawson, previously Priscilla. Bayard would eventually become Patrick Chapin. There was also an older female president who was a sort of Alice Horton type. Sarah Gallagher was originally named Jenny and played in the pilot by Stephanie Braxton. In this alternate version, Jenny had been raped by Turner Lawson, Bayard's son and Laura's "father,"  and birthed a police officer son (who would later evolve into Tom Gallagher).

I recently read a newsbrief about Christine Jones from September 1984 saying that her character had gone from Charlotte Lawson to Ashley Tafton to Whitney Robertson to Susan Robertson to Christina Robertson. So the tweaking was pretty insane.  

Going back to Charlotte / Judd / Prisc story, in the soap, Taylor and Logan were lovers in their youth before Taylor married Carson Field and quickly birthed a daughter, Julia. Taylor and Logan were rekindling their romance and Julia was attempting to act as a spoiler. From what I've read, there seems to be hints that Logan was suppose to be Julia's father, but that was never revealed. I suspect that this was going to replay many of the elemetns of the original source, but they decided to scrap it. Julia had daddy issues and was involved with her older lover Berhardt, who eventually married Julia's frumpy roomate, heiress Patty Dupont. Julia was briefly involved with Clay Travis, who is involved with Christina in this clip, before they paired her with African American cop Lucky Washington. Once they brought on Peter Haskell as C.J., I think they had long abandoned the idea of Julia being another man's child.  

As disappointing as this episode was, it gives me hope more of it is out there.