Texas! Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, thanks for posting & sharing the information. Just add it to the accumulated knowledge. Texas repurposed on TBS in 1983.

[AbcNbc247]

Agreed, that they didn't set up a good cliffhanger on AW. Idk if Alex going to get Iris' plane turned around would've gotten me to watch lol

Maybe if they had only set it up for like a week or something, the cliffhanger on AW could have been Alex seeing Iris at the opera, then you pick up the story the following Monday on Texas. I mean yeah, that's not the best cliffhanger in the world but I think it's better than the non-cliffhanger that aired.

[Contessa Donatella]

But the first 3 episodes are all Iris! ??? Beverlee!!! 

Researching, taking notes, yeah, always do it for a new soap!!

[Maxim]

I wake up when she is on the screen and fall asleep when she goes off. 

[Xanthe]

Didn't they also introduce some kind of middle-eastern political and/or titled family as part of the transition? There should have been multiple threads on the go based on how they seemed to be setting it up. It kind of makes sense that they wanted to have more than one hook, but maybe they didn't pull it off very well.

[AbcNbc247]

Yeah. The plot to kill Sheik Zahedi, which definitely should have happened on Texas, not AW, could have been another good cliffhanger too.

[dc11786]

Part of the problem with "Texas" was it was suppose to premier a month earlier. When the material started airing on "Another World" was when the actual premier date was suppose to be, but it was pushed back. 

I really love the early "Texas" stuff I've seen. The Southern gothic tinged revenge tale between Justin Marshall and Alex Wheeler over Mike Marshall's suicide and the whole Marshall clan reacting so differently to that was great. Striker Bellman as the tragic cuckhold realizing his alcoholic wife is hit the sheets with his "best friend" Alex Wheeler prior to having a heart attack is an amazing dramatic performance from the actor who was so folksy and comical. I thought the set up of Reena and Max with a dash of Justin was great as was the Sam and Justin pairing even if Ann McCarty wouldn't have been my casting choice despite her looking like Carla Borelli's little sister, which worked given they were cousins and Justin wanted both of them. 

The Middle Eastern plot is interesting because they never let Jasmine and Ryan have any physically affectionate scenes despite falsifying a marriage to keep her safe. 

I think the launch was a struggle. I probably would have opened with the surgery plot involving the Sheik and had the suicide on "Texas' proper. 

[Paul Raven]

The storylines had potential, but the deathly pace, some poor acting and the awful lighting all played a part in getting things off to a rocky start.

[Chris B]

This is exactly what happened to me lol. I stopped watching and focused instead on Search For Tomorrow which I found easier to get into when AOL had their P&G channel. Eventually I went back and started with the last 90 minute episode of AW and then powered through the first couple weeks of Texas. Once I was able to figure out what was going on I became invested in the stories.

[Mona Kane Croft]

The essential problem with Texas was that it was a soap opera put together by committee.  And the Corringtons' original idea for the show was bastardized to such a degree, that they didn't even know how to write it.  

I'm not suggesting the Corringtons' original proposal would have been successful, but that is what they were hired to create. Then after they accepted the job, the "committee" came in and started making them change things.  One change after another, until the end product in no way resembled the show they were hired to create and write. How could any creative person be successful under those conditions?

And one more thing -- Texas should have premiered as a 30-minute show.  Then expanded to 60-minutes a couple of years later, if it was successful.  

Edited February 1 by Mona Kane Croft

[Paul Raven]

I recall Afternoon TV magazine speculating that the spinoff would be set in Boston and that Pat Matthews and Kevin Cooke would be involved.

I wonder if this was just guesswork on the part of the mag or that was one of the original ideas floated?

[robbwolff]

There was also a Daytime TV article that indicated that the working title was Another World: Houston and that Russ Matthews was slated to be a main character.

[Contessa Donatella]

Finally, this is an explanation of what Patrick Mulcahey said about being hired to write TEXAS & at the beginning they didn't have anything for them to do. So, being right there, same studio, you know, they set them to work writing AW for a few months.

[Maxim]

Hhahahahha, so it's a shared experience. Hearing all of this does encourage me to give it a 3rd chance. I can push through and I've done it before. I'm very patient when I decide on something. For example when I tried getting into "Edge of night 1979" I had a huge issue with the first 20-30 available episodes - I despised the show at first glance... but boy, oh, boy... when the new storyline started (Evil Nora and the Mansion of The Damned) I was hooked... I binge-watched nearly 200 episodes in 2-3 weeks. To this day this is my personal record. If I hadn't pushed through these first 20 episodes... I would have never ever being able to enjoy the show. I would spend all night watching sometimes 6-7 hours non stop. So... if it's only a few weeks... I'll manage. It's worth it after that, right? 

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[DRW50]

Jerry Lanning and Joanne Dusseau (who is ACTING for her life) as SNL Weekend Update characters - The Most Annoying '70s Couple You Know.

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