Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[ZoeTate]

Now Tranny Lives would have been a certain hit if only they could have brought back Kaye Stevens as Jeri Clayton!

[ClassicSoapsFan]

LOL!!!!! Tranny Lives!!! That would make a good soap opera. Except the name would probably be changed to T-Lives or Trans Lives on NBC but Logo...that's a different story.

[dc11786]

Regarding Pam Long's 'Pretenders,' it was one of the stories NBC developed for its 'Great Escapes' franchise which flopped. The ones that aired were 'The Secrets of Lake Success' and 'Trade Winds.' While the interracial element of TW was a nice change of pace, the story was weak. 'Secrets' was a fun piece of trash where a rich man's mistress (played by Colleen Morris, one of the daughters on 'Valley of the Dolls' soap) encouraged her lover to impregnate his wife because the pregnancy would cause his wife's death. Valerie Perrine played a delightful back from the dead movie star named Honey. It's on DVD and fun way to pass the afternoon.

According to 'Soap Opera People':

[Soaplovers]

I remember that franchise that NBC tried to do... I was in middle school and even I knew that putting it on Friday night was a kiss of the death for the franchise... I would have aired it on Sunday nights (back when all three networks did made-for-tv movies)

[Chris B]

Does anybody know more about Peyton Place 79? I've heard about it in passing, but no details. I believe Elaine Princi played Betty and Adam West was Rodney. Does anybody know a full cast list? I'm going to assume a pilot was filmed.

[DRW50]

Thanks for telling me more about this Pretenders series. It sounds kind of dated even for the early 90's but could have been interesting.

[Paul Raven]

Not much is known about it.Don Matheson (Cam GH) was also in the cast.

[Gray Bunny]

Sarah Buxton could return as Crystal Galore, the tranny porn star.

[John]

Other Potentials

The Callopie and Eugene Spinoff From DOOL

The Saturday Morning Teen Show From Days With Shawn D Belle,Philip, Mimi Jan Etc

When the Days One didnt Fly Reilly attempted it again with the Passions' Tenns but it didnt fly either

The Younger loves of General Hospital in the early 80's

A Summer spinoff of Knots landing Featuring Nicolette Sheridan as Paige, Peter Reckell as Johnny and Tonya Crowe as Olivia In 1989 but Peter was not a fan fave on KL so the show was shelved.

Before Kyle & Oliver got dropped on OLTL, ABC was thinking of doing a web series prequel about them, using both Scott & Brett as Oliver & Kyle. The story woulda been their college years

[DRW50]

I'd never heard that about the web series. I hope that wasn't the reason the show had zero of their backstory, which was a mistake.

[John]

coulda been. Yeah that web show would have been fun

[rcsnj]

Actually, the Passions and Days of our Lives Saturday morning spinoffs were announced around the same time. Harmony High was the spinoff of Passions and was supposed to involve Tabitha. There was talk that the unseen Crane children would appear. Salem High was the Days spinoff and was helmed by Tom Langan and Ken Corday. Reilly had nothing to do with Salem High and didn't create Harmony High after the Days spinoff failed to materlialize.

[DRW50]

Some of this has already been hashed over, but a February 1991 SOD had an article on possible soaps over the years.

A few highlights:

Pat Falken Smith's Scruples, which she started in 1982, would have moved its setting from New York to Rodeo Drive; Smith even got some stores like Giorgio's and the Beverly Wilshire Hotel to let them do occasional location shooting. She wrote in a Jane Fonda-type workout studio in hopes that real celebrities might make cameos. Beyond Rodeo Drive rich, she planned to have a middle-class Jewish family on Fairfax Avenue, working in the garment business. But while they were casting, and NBC was looking for a premiere date, Brian Frons took over, and ended the project in favor of Santa Barbara.

The early 80's spinoff of GH probably wouldn't have featured any GH cast members, and instead would have introduced some new characters to GH in order to then spin them off after viewers began to care about them. This is called "General Hospital II," which was, coincidentally, the early title for PC years later.

Sheri Anderson had an idea for a soap about a Hollywood theatrical agency. She also had a CBS serial called Land's End, which would have been set on the easternmost tip of Maine, about a family "surviving the elements and each other" (Did Sheri write the intro to Survivor??). She saw the town as being like the town in Jaws, people suffering from the weather, stranded.

Henry Slesar in 1968 came up with a P&G spy soap called Cannon, focusing on a leading man who would be a member of a counterespionage group. It didn't pan out, but that got him hired at Edge of Night. Later he had another P&G serial idea called Wild Palms, set in a small town in Florida, a town dominated by a nasty kingpin family who had built the town and dominated everyone. He also pitched Fear No Evil, a Gothic soap with a big supernatural element. For CBS primetime he created a soap called The Savage Generation, focused on life in a Midwestern medical school.

The DAYS Eugene/Calliope spinoff was very very close to going through. John de Lancie was brought back to DAYS to facilitate the spinoff. It would have been called either Keeping Up With the Joneses or Sunny-Side Up. It would have been set in Sunnyside, Queens, the blue-collar neighborhood where Calliope had grown up. Sheri Anderson was hired as story consultant. She said it would have been like Moonstruck. Calliope's father was a dentist, and the family lived over Grandma Jones' beauty shop. They'd all spend time at the deli. They would have introduced Calliope's two sisters. Arleen Sorkin said the show's bible was more about quirkiness and both she and Anderson felt it had a lot of drama, with comedy in a smaller role. Anyway, it never happened, because of the strike, then Brian Frons left NBC and although his replacement, Jackie Smith, said it was one of the best things she'd ever read, she passed on the project.

[SFK]

These are great Carl! Thanks for sharing.

[John]

Thanks Carl. U Rock