I didn't see a thread for Capitol so I decided to start one.

CBS premiered Capitol as a prime time special on Friday March 26, 1982, and the daytime premiere was three days later in the timeslot previously occupied by CBS's then-longest running daytime drama Search for Tomorrow.

Capitol was best described as Dallas meets the Reagan administration, with its Washington DC political backdrop combined with the glitz and glamour that characterized CBS's biggest primetime drama.

Despite being middle of the pack ratings-wise during it's run, Capitol ended a little less than 5 years later on Friday March 20, 1987, and three days later CBS premiered Bill Bell's 2nd show The Bold and the Beautiful.

I feel Capitol went on the air so CBS could draw a younger audience to compete with ABC (who pretty much owned daytime in the early 1980s with the action/adventure plots on General Hospital and the young love plots on All My Children). I also feel Capitol was used as a placeholder as CBS was probably waiting for Y&R (which became CBS's highest-rated daytime drama in the 1982/1983 season) to be established among the top 3 daytime dramas (which it was from the 1983/1984 season onward) before they were ready to give Bill Bell a 2nd show.

Clips 3/1984-5/1984

There's been praise of Henry Slesar's work on EON within that thread that has characterized his work on Capitol as a flop, however I disagree.  What I appreciate about Slesar's general approach is the interweaving of plots that makes it feel as if you are watching a bullet train filled with stories. 

Certainly on EON we had the pleasure of watching how Mansion of the Damned evolved into the Margo's murder when Nola Madison killed Margo because of her jealousy of Margo's affair with Elliott Dorn, which in turn had an effect of the Puppet Murders where Elliott was murdered by the Molly Sherwood who housed Draper Scott when he was accused of Margo's murder, and then evolved into the story where Emily Michaels, who was raised by Molly, had an affair with Sharky, who worked for the plastic surgeon who treated faux-Sky.

Similarly on Capitol, we got Thomas McCandless caring for his disguised back-from-the-dead father Baxter, who was in hiding from Victor Markham, whose daughter shot his love rival Mark on his wedding day to Clarissa, Baxter's widow, whose daughter-in-law bore a striking resemblance to the shooter Jenny, who was once married to Zed Diamond, who went on to have a romance with Sen Denning's daughter Sloane.  I think of this as a creative apex for Capitol and I've never considered it to be a flop.

Edited October 28, 20223 yr by j swift

A Full Episode Surfaced

We even get a glimpse of a more Stable Paula!

Yay!

 

I am a huge fan. Never missed an episode. I cannot believe it is not available on DVD in ENGLISH. It was an American Soap Opera recorded in our language. Someone has to sell it.   Please any leads, please email me. Thank you 

@Josephmunecojim has just reuploaded a couple of episodes. 

 

I assume this was around before, but in case it isn't now:

@SFK @Joseph @Nancy L @victoria foxton@Soapsuds @slick jones

 

Edited December 31, 20222 yr by DRW50

@DRW50Thanks! The quality of the video's look really good for a 35-year-old tape.

This has probably been posted before, but this has got to be one of my favorite photos from the show....LOL

On 10/28/2022 at 2:15 PM, j swift said:

There's been praise of Henry Slesar's work on EON within that thread that has characterized his work on Capitol as a flop, however I disagree.  What I appreciate about Slesar's general approach is the interweaving of plots that makes it feel as if you are watching a bullet train filled with stories. 

Certainly on EON we had the pleasure of watching how Mansion of the Damned evolved into the Margo's murder when Nola Madison killed Margo because of her jealousy of Margo's affair with Elliott Dorn, which in turn had an effect of the Puppet Murders where Elliott was murdered by the Molly Sherwood who housed Draper Scott when he was accused of Margo's murder, and then evolved into the story where Emily Michaels, who was raised by Molly, had an affair with Sharky, who worked for the plastic surgeon who treated faux-Sky.

Similarly on Capitol, we got Thomas McCandless caring for his disguised back-from-the-dead father Baxter, who was in hiding from Victor Markham, whose daughter shot his love rival Mark on his wedding day to Clarissa, Baxter's widow, whose daughter-in-law bore a striking resemblance to the shooter Jenny, who was once married to Zed Diamond, who went on to have a romance with Sen Denning's daughter Sloane.  I think of this as a creative apex for Capitol and I've never considered it to be a flop.

I agree, @j swift.  I consider Henry Slesar's work on CAPITOL to be its' best, with Peggy O'Shea's work a close second.

Check out Soap Opera Digest's Billy Warlock podcast...

Interesting tidbits about his year on Capitol.  He was close to Catherine Hickland and especially Todd Curtis and enjoyed working alongside old-timers Richard Egan, Constance Towers and Rory Calhoun.  

Even more great tales from his decades in Daytime (DOOL, GH, etc.)...

On 8/31/2010 at 1:50 AM, DRW50 said:

Did Graves leave because of her personal problems or something else? Did Egan leave or was he let go?

 

I wonder how many of the cast Constance keeps in touch with. I know she sang at Richard Egan's funeral.

I had read somewhere that when Capitol started revolving around the casino (Sam owned one, Wally worked there. Jordy and everyone else would go play the slots....). I wonder if there was to be some sort of a spinoff in the works that was set in a casino...any ideas?

On 6/10/2023 at 12:48 PM, Jermsie said:

I had read somewhere that when Capitol started revolving around the casino (Sam owned one, Wally worked there. Jordy and everyone else would go play the slots....). I wonder if there was to be some sort of a spinoff in the works that was set in a casino...any ideas?

John Conboy had developed a soap called Casino that was set in Vegas but it wasn't a spinoff and IIRC it was for ABC.

They uploaded a number of 1986 episodes over the last week.

I spotted an episode of Capitol from 1983 had been uploaded.