Passions Discussion Thread

[Darn]

 

Why was she fired?

[John]

The story at the time was she QUIT to have a normal life & attend college

[LostinHarmony]

 

Hmm, yet she did Jeepers Creepers 2 right after 

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[John]

Oh I thought you meant Taylor Mountz (Kay)

I have no idea why Lena Cardwell left

[LostinHarmony]

 

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[LostinHarmony]

I recently came across this video from Access Hollywood on Passions before it premiered in 1999. I’m sure it must’ve been exciting back then to be able to catch a soap from the very beginning... if you weren’t a disgruntled Another World fan of course. From those that remember, was there a lot of buzz surrounding Passions back then leading to the launch? From this video the supernatural elements seem to be hidden as well as in other early promos I’ve seen.

 

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[Vee]

 

Yes. But yes, AW, etc. fans were furious.

[LostinHarmony]

 

So sad the blood ended up on Passions hands. Before the show launched Jim Reilly did an interview saying NBC told him early on that the network wanted 4 soaps. NBC’s foolish decision to cancel AW could have been a potential audience that may have otherwise tuned in.

[EricMontreal22]

Hrm I actually remember the promos making it look genuinely spooky in a Gothic way.  I was very disappointed when I tuned in...

[Paul Raven]

I wonder what might have happened had Jim Reilly done an Irna Phillips and deserted his creation.

 

Maybe with other writers Passions could have achieved  its potential.

[LostinHarmony]

 

I often times think about that but from a different perspective. Jim died only 2 months after Passions had its series finale. Had Passions been renewed for a 10th season on DirecTV, I wonder if

Marlene McPherson and Darrell Ray Thomas who were both serving as associate head writers during the entire shows run would have been promoted to head writers. Of course a few years later they would both head write DAYS.

[j swift]

I was just reading the Crane Family Wiki and it struck me that Passions came along at a particular point in internet fandom when everything was cataloged, but there was still a communication barrier between the audience and the productions, (in the age of Twitter no soap could have had that much rape).

 

I remember a character who was heavily promoted by NBC daytime with photos of his long hair and string necklaces; only to disappear from Harmony, like so many of its townspeople (BTW my most vivid memories of Passions were those annual summer hunk photo sessions).   

 

For a soap whose fans recorded every episode with a summary, there were certainly a lot of loose ends.

 

One last note:  I really liked the way Reilly played with time on his soaps.  He would stretch out stories until the audience wanted to scream, and then resolve things in one week or never at all.  It felt like the pace was deliberate, and almost a meta-parody of the genre itself.

Edited December 13, 2018 by j swift

[LostinHarmony]

 

I would love to see that and any other early promotional materials.

 

In the first in-depth article that Soap Opera Weekly did ahead of Passions premiere, Jason Olive was featured as if his role of Frank was going to be a much more prominent character than he ended up becoming. The show teased a possible Frank and Whitney pairing. I wonder if that was scrapped or ever meant to go anywhere.

[robbwolff]

I think it was scrapped. Olive was a terribly weak actor. That was obvious very quickly. I believe he was the original Sugar Hill on GL but never aired. 

[John]

I believe he aired for a week on GL then we got Taye Diggs