Jump to content

“Disney Junior” Replaces SOAPnet in 2012


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 241
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

Yup. Sucky time period or not, it was fun for me to see some of the vintage characters, like the McKinnons and Wallingford, one more time. I wish they would have started earlier, though, like Kathleen's original run and Cecile's visits. Kathleen/Cass/Cecile always had such a fun dynamic. I miss the hell out of watching it every day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

So do I - I really enjoyed just about everything, even when the material wasn't the best. There was always such a sense of community, family, wit. The only good thing about it ending was the last scene was Cass/Kathleen.

Soapnet junked a lot of classic shows in favor of cheap knockoffs of other reality shows, and reruns of reruns, but they still got canned. I'd rather see a network get the plug pulled than see it become this forgettable disposal unit for overrun shows (like what Nick at Nite and TV Land have been in recent years).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

See, I sorta felt that way too when Sci-Fi Channel started airing reruns of Passions back in '05 or whatever year it was, that it was pointless to start watching because, at one episode a day, they weren't gonna get anywhere by the time they pulled the plug. And I think it lasted all of two or three months.

If my #1 soap rerun dream of ATWT and GL airing on Hallmark were to come true, I could see them doubling up on episodes every day since they already air three episodes each of The Waltons and Little House a day, but I'd love to see a channel air a soap in once-a-day reruns, as if it's "brand new," so we could get the same exact experience that the original audience got, as far as time/build-up/payoffs/etc are concerned. But double airings would most likely be the best way to ever go about that, if the network wants to make the room on the schedule for it (though it's no problem for half-hour shows -- slip an hour block of old 70s Y&R in there between Three's Company and Maude on Antenna TV, and I am THERE!).

Speaking of, since I'm feeling listy, what are all the soaps that have been rerun in some way besides special marathons...

Dark Shadows (syndication, PBS, Sci-Fi Channel)

Texas (TBS)

Search for Tomorrow (USA)

The Edge of Night (USA)

Generations (BET)

Ryan's Hope (SOAPnet)

Another World (SOAPnet)

Port Charles (SOAPnet)

Passions (Sci-Fi Channel)

Is that it? This is our proof that soap reruns are an entirely bad option? They have got to do better than that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I don't know how I missed the Another World airings. I never really watched SOAPnet much back then. I had been taping the shows (on TAPE) for years and so even after SOAPnet I just continued taping them....Then when I got DVR I would set the ones I watched every day to record. And when I wanted to watch another soap, I'd just tivo it....But sometime's I'd forget or there'd be an interruption and alas, I got into SOAPnet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Actually, I was relieved about that. Actually, we were about to come on to a period that was rough for me- my 3 favorite actresses leaving the show (Cali Timmins, Anne Heche, Julie Osburn). I never warmed up to Judi Evans completely- she was like a new character IMO. Same with Jensen Buchanan, though she was worse than Evans if only because I'd become so attached to Heche in the role and Buchanan was nowhere near on that level.

I WAS disappointed, though, that we weren't get to watch the Frankie/Cass/Kathleen triangle play out completely. Yes, I know we ended up getting it online, but it wasn't as convenient as having those episodes on SoapNet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

You weren't the only one to have such a reaction. ;-)

IMO, it was much easier to run RYAN'S HOPE in its entirety*, b/c at a half-hour per episode, you could "double up" every day and essentially run two weeks' worth of shows in just one. ANOTHER WORLD, however, was more difficult to re-run, just b/c of its average (meaning, per episode) length. Asking viewers to commit to two hours (three, if you were to include the year-or-so's worth of 90-minute shows), even via DVR, just seems and feels like too much.

* Speaking of, did they ever run all 14 years of RH? I realize 1981-1987 were not great years for this show, but it annoys me how each cycle just stops at '81 or so then resets itself to "day one" w/o any explanations as to what happened in the show's final years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • I think the pre-Barnabas episodes are very underrated both for dialogue and character. They're slow but they really create a world and fill out the characters, imbuing them with heavy dimension that ultimately will have to sustain them for years as the show largely stops writing for character after it returns from 1795. What we know about them by then is what they have to power them. (I don't think the show was bad after, I actually love it in '68 and often in times after that, but it was very different.) I think the B&W episodes with Barnabas' early days are especially frightening - they terrified me as a kid - but the color stuff in '67 is also very strong, especially in the stretch where Julia is on the run, Carolyn is under Barnabas' control, and you get the sense that events have gone off the rails for the regular characters and anything goes. As a child viewer seeing it in syndication on the Sci-Fi Channel, who had no idea who lived or who died, it was a lot. Mitch Ryan is especially powerful in the early pre-Barnabas era as the sort of Byronic Burke Devlin character. You knew they had to kill him once Barnabas comes in, despite Ryan's alcohol problem making it impossible to keep him at the show - Burke dominates the first year or so as the fulcrum character, he's incredibly magnetic and charismatic. You couldn't see him becoming a dupe for Barnabas and Julia, as Anthony George's more benign, mild version briefly does before getting unceremoniously killed off. I always found Burke's offscreen plane crash death very eerie and suspicious, and I think the show does toy with the question if Barnabas' powers somehow got him on that plane and if he took it down. I had always wanted Burke to return one day, in any revival project, as a kind of vengeful power broker and puppet master, driven by Vicki's inevitable demise to get revenge on Barnabas and co. I still have Art Wallace's "Shadows on the Wall" DS bible somewhere. IIRC in the earliest versions of the plot Vicki was going to somehow be tied to the butler or his daughter - Betty Hanscomb or something. I don't remember the exact details. I do know there's all sorts of raised and dropped plotlines and characters offscreen in '66, like Ned Calder, the man they clearly intended to pair with Liz and so on. I've always found '66 very rich, but I don't begrudge the show after for it because it's still awfully well-written, specifically the early Barnabas stuff.
    • I totally agree with this, as most of you seem to. Mary Carney was at least competent and reasonably likable; I just feel like she barely had anything of substance to do before she was abruptly given the hook. And I get the backstory of Kathleen Tolan having done a play with Helen Gallagher, but...at any point did they ever actually READ her before they greenlit her? Because...OOF. First time I saw her on SoapNet was right when this GODAWFUL actress named Charity Rahmer played Belle on Days of Our Lives for all of three weeks before she was mercifully recast; her line readings were straight out of a Charlie Brown special. I remember thinking Kathleen Tolan could have played her mother! In the Frank/Jill/Delia triangle, Delia WAS the one who was cheated on, so I got why she was upset and thought it was perfectly valid in theory at least, but of course it was blown up to Wagnerian proportions including falls involving staircases and tricycles. But with Pat/Faith/Delia I had no sympathy for her...especially because it was mainly with Catherine Hicks's Faith and I really liked her.
    • I was going through those episodes from 1984 and early 1985 before they were taken down. Some of the older characters, like Don and even Tom, looked a little out of place, like they were on the wrong show. But the newer characters were fun. It's too bad they lost the character of Melissa. I guess Jennifer took her long-term place on the canvas. 
    • How I will remember him...

      Please register in order to view this content

       
    • The black and white episodes of the show are very special. An atmosphere the color run loses. Dark Shadows was filmed live-on-tape. They could do a retake but it would be very expensive. I think there was a claim that if actors wanted a retake they would curse. There was also a rumor that at one point Joan Bennett accidentally said "Hollywood" instead of "Collinwood" and that necessitated a retake.
    • Please register in order to view this content

      Angela Lansbury stars as Jessica Fletcher in one of the longest-running and most beloved TV series of all-time, Murder, She Wrote. Set in Cabot Cove, Maine, Jessica is a mystery writer and amateur detective who is quick to outwit both criminals and the police when it comes to solving a murder. Winner of 4 Golden Globes and nominated for 12 consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Actress in a Drama, the series showcases unforgettable guest stars including Tom Bosely, George Clooney, Shirley Jones, Courteney Cox, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Rooney, Tom Selleck, John Amos, Dorothy Lamour, Cyd Charrise and many more. In Murder, She Wrote: The Complete Series, help Jessica get to the bottom of every crime she encounters in this completely remastered collection featuring all 264 episodes, 4 TV movies, and bonus features. Special Features: "Novel Connection" (Crossover Episode of Magnum P.I.); The Great 80's TV Flashback; Origin of a Series; Recipe for a Hit; America's Top Sleuths; The Perils of Success
    • Loved this IG post from Ambyr about how she and Trisha work together. You can tell these ladies go above and beyond the script, and that they really trust and enjoy working together. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJpJufFPOQ2/?igsh=MXBmcWs0YzIwaXVhNA==  

      Please register in order to view this content

    • It is a shame that more characters didn't go the ATWT-Barbara route and make the ingénue into an antagonist. Sort of like they did with Liza/Hogan/Sunny, less successfully. It is a credit to ATWT's creativity that breathed life in that character for years after she was fighting off bulls in Spain.  But, a character like Liza can only have so many true loves and high jinks on the high seas.  They need another reason to be in the story. Liza's wealth, as well as her acumen to see through fraud, was fertile ground for tons of stories.  But, I feel like the business stories for Liza were always about her being easily overwhelmed, rather than exploring things like her leadership and managerial skills.
    • STFU!! Dante!!! This nonsense of blaming Gio is just ridiculous! Alexis and Lucky are becoming so unlikable. Why are the writers writing these characters so poorly?
    • Keith still comes off younger to me. I thought he wasn't that bad for his first day.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy