Texas! Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

Among the problems with Kin on Texas were that they grabbed him when he left GH reportedly for a huge salary, but didn't have a character or story for him so Jeb was created on the fly. Kin complained that he came in with a heart defect , so was already a week character.

The Jeb storyline was there amongst a whole raft of BTS changes in writers and stories and over the months Kin's presence didn't translate into ratings increase.

When it was clear the character wasn't working and Kin would not stay beyond the initial one year contract, everybody concerned lost interest.

[cody_1990]

Got my book, I must say Jeff Ryder and Patrick Mulcahey are very candid in this. Patrick especially holds nothing back in his dislike of Paul Rauch lol and it’s so nice that Tom got to interview Joyce Corrington, her perspective in the early creation is very nice to read, especially about how NBC and Fred Silverman were against their post civil war idea and went all in on it being a daytime version of Dallas. 
 

I am also glad the overall consensus amongst everyone was how stupid it was to tame Iris, in no universe does Iris Cory work as a heroine. It’s also interesting to read how the original idea was to move Russ and Pat Matthews to Houston, which honestly may have worked better. Long term they probably would have fit in more with that canvas and it wouldn’t have led to total 180 change with the characters. 

Edited March 14 by cody_1990

[j swift]

We'll share notes when I'm done.  Just ordered it on Amazon.  I'm slightly annoyed it's not on Kindle like the Ryan's Hope book, but I'll donate the book once I'm done reading it.

Edited March 14 by j swift

[Soaplovers]

Considering that Reena spent months on AW with a simmering feud with Pat, it would have made sense to carry Pat over onto Texas instead of Iris.

However, wasn't Beverlee talking of leaving AW due to burnout so her being added to Texas was a way to keep her on as Iris?

[Mona Kane Croft]

Texas would have had a ready-made conflict, had Pat followed Kevin and Reena to Houston.  I so enjoyed that romantic triangle on Another World. Pat had been through a lot on AW, but Reena was her first big romantic rival ever. So I was disappointed when Kevin and Reena returned to Houston, leaving Pat without a storyline.  And Russ would have been interesting too on Texas, as he was young enough to be a male romantic attraction, and a colleague of Kevin Cooke.  Having said all that, I would not have been crazy about having two more members of the Matthews family leave AW, especially two of the show's original characters.  

And yes, Beverlee had told Paul Rauch she did not intend to return to AW after her time away, so he offered her the starring role on Texas as a way to keep her at P&G.  I've always understood the decision to add Iris to the cast of Texas was a last-minute decision, and threw the writer's room into a tizzy, trying to shoe-horn Iris into the show.  Perhaps the new book will shed some light on all this, and we will finally know the truth about how it all played out.  

Edited March 14 by Mona Kane Croft

[Contessa Donatella]

Patrick Mulcahey told me that they hired the writing team for TEXAS  & then had nothing for them to write so they put them to work writing AW. Being in the same studio & all. This is work they have not been credited with, at least not online.

But, I personally find it hard to believe they were writing a Southern story & they didn't have Iris in mind. As a matter of fact my impression is that they decided on Iris long before there were any talks with Beverlee. That is why she was in such a good negotiation place & why she got so much money & the star billing. 

Maybe the book will tell us what really happened.

 

 

 

[robbwolff]

I just got the book yesterday and am enjoying it so far. According to Joyce Corrington, the show was developed from the start with Iris as the lead character, a decision that was dictated to them. Rauch did not approach Beverlee McKinsey about Texas until after the bible was created. Corrington has no recollection of the plan to feature Russ and Pat in the new show, though Daytime TV reported on that in early 1980. (That article also mentioned that a possible title was Another World: Houston, which I haven't seen mentioned yet in this book. Corrington does mention other possible titles: Heartland and Gone to Texas).

As for the writing team, from my read, the Corringtons hired their team from Search for Tomorrow. The reason the team started writing Another World was because the decision had been made to introduce the Texas characters on Another World in the weeks leading up to the new show's premiere. The whole Texas production team, including the writers, were most definitely credited on Another World. I clearly remember the credits in the summer of 1980 being organized into two chunks: Bay City and Texas. This video from July 1980 shows this. And Mulchaey definitely appears in those credits.

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[Mona Kane Croft]

How could Ms Corrington's memory here be correct, since at "the start", the new show was to be a period drama set in the civil-war era in New Orleans???  Tell me how Iris was supposed to fit into that?   

[Contessa Donatella]

Mulcahey was talking about not having those credits show on IMDb & wikipedia, NOT missing from the show or the union, etc. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

[robbwolff]

I was referring to the start of the development of Texas, not Reunion. According to Joyce, Reunion was already in preproduction when Fred Silverman nixed the project after an NBC historical romance movie bombed in the ratings. That means that Reunion was scrapped sometime after mid-October 1979 when that movie aired. The Corringtons were then instructed to develop an idea for a new show and encouraged to do something similar to Dallas. They then began developing the bible for Texas and were told "early on" that Iris was to be the main character. If she's remembering correctly, then Beverlee was on board by around February/March 1980 as Joyce describes a story meeting in St. Croix while Another World was on the island filming the climax to the Rachel/Mac/Mitch/Janice story. She claims that the story meeting happened after Beverlee had agreed to be on the new show. The book even features a couple of Joyce's photos from that meeting, which happened on a sailboat.

Edited March 15 by robbwolff

[Mona Kane Croft]

Interesting stuff.  Thank you for sharing.  I definitely need to get this book.  

So it seems Ms Corrington sees Reunion and Texas as two entirely different shows, rather than one show morphing into the other, as I believe most long-term fans have assumed.   

[robbwolff]

I definitely recommend it. From what she describes of Reunion, it seems like they were two completely different shows. Reunion was about a young woman who spent the Civil War in England and then returned home to New Orleans. Rauch claimed in an interview that he developed Reunion along with the Corringtons in 1978. Joyce disputes that, saying Reunion was her and Bill's idea and that it was their idea to bring Rauch into the project. She paints Rauch as being quite a liar.

[Contessa Donatella]

I'm not at all sure that this assumption is valid. IOW, I don't agree that most fans saw the two shows, where one changed into the other.

[Mona Kane Croft]

I just ordered the book. It should arrive on Monday. Will be interesting to have a comparison between Reunion and Texas.  For example, any names in common -- Bellman, Marshall, Cooke, etc.   

[Jdee43]

I like Carla Borelli and was really disappointed with how her character Reena turned out. With better material, she could have been a break out star on this show. But Reena became so weak and wishy washy. It was a waste for all involved.