A New Day in Eden

[Khan]

Are you talking about the one starring Powers Boothe as Jim Jones?  Because, if you are, then I agree with you 1000%.  It was late '70's TV trash.

[Vee]

Yes and yes. I know DRW is a fan. I enjoy many of the performances but it is pure sleaze. IIRC Madge played the character analog to real-life Christine Miller, who was one of the few who protested on the final day in Jonestown. Anyway, we're way OT!

[DRW50]

 

I think the first part is decent in building up the decay and delusion and introducing the central players, but the second part is a horror show, especially when Brenda Vacarro arrives and it officially becomes the Love Boat for cult murders. The runway shootout is so godawful it still makes me cringe from memory. Beyond the performances and maybe the big scene, the only other thing to really remember in the second part is the chemistry between Powers Boothe and Brad Dourif, who would have a lot of fancams if the film was made today. 

(This is off topic, I know, but we may as well talk a bit while we wait a decade for another episode)

[Vee]

Offing everyone left in the cast at the runway (where the characters representing Tim and Grace Stoen, who both survived IRL, get gunned down) was the issue for me. Little stories like LeVar Burton and Madge Sinclair's family or the Brenda Vaccaro subplot (she really goes for it) are one thing but I just can't believe they took that kind of liberty with such a recent and serious tragedy.

[Khan]

You know, when I was very, very, VERY young, I used to watch Powers Boothe play Philip Marlowe on HBO, so it was a little weird to see him play someone SO not like Marlowe years later in my high school sociology class.

Anyways.  Speaking of trash, that's pretty much how I would sum up ANDIE after viewing just one, complete episode: it was trash.  I mean, I think Douglas Marland put a ton of great elements into it that, under other circumstances, would have made for a very compelling show.  But Marland was let down by the "actors" (not to mention, by the production team, who likely thought his writing was not "sexy" enough and would've turned it into straight-on hardcore porn if given the opportunity).

Edited January 14 by Khan

[Vee]

It was absolutely hysterical. And cheap! On paper though, it seems like the psychosexual stories, archetypes and ideas are pure Marland in a lot of ways.

[DRW50]

I thought it was mostly kind of dull, aside from some odd performance choices by Francie, Biff and Miranda, but then this wasn't a "big" episode. What I've seen of this and of Loving Friends suggests they were both struggling to fit between a traditional soap and the racier format for Showtime. I hope we might get to see more. Either way, the scripts and synopses were much more interesting to me.

[Khan]

That, too!  Although, it was lush compared to "GUIDING LIGHT Goes to Peapack."

[Khan]

Maybe it's just my conservative, Midwestern/Great Plains background rearing its' ugly head again, but I can't think of a way to introduce the kind of content that a network like Showtime would've wanted in a soap without it feeling gratuitous and exploitative.

[DRW50]

I think there could have been a way but admittedly I'm not sure how. What I've watched of Eden (the Playboy Channel soap) is a little better at being cohesive, but that was more along the lines of a trashy primetime soap with bonus nudity.

[Khan]

How sad is it that of all the roles that Jack Armstrong has played on television, his role in "Eden" is probably his most memorable (and most likely due to that iconic shot of him in a tight, white speedo)?

[DRW50]

It's also the only one that seemed to suit him, although he at least wore suspenders well on OLTL.

[Paul Raven]

What was the shooting schedule for NDIE?

By the looks of it they probably had a very tight timeline-not much time for rehearsals or retakes.

The same for script editing and revisions.

As many episodes in the can as possible  in the shortest amount of time.

Budgets were TIGHT in those days for cable shows.

Edited January 15 by Paul Raven

[dc11786]

@EricMontreal22 in case you missed this as I don't remember how far across the soap sphere this travelled outside this board. 

The entire show finished shooting before January, 1983. They shot a script a day, which was basically two half hour episodes. The shooting of scripts 26-33 were all done in December, 1982. 

When it was cancelled,  Paul Kent and Dana Halstad came back and shot the conclusion to the serial killer plot when Francie found out that her father Frank had been the rapist/serial murderer and had been faking his paralysis. This was probably in June/July, 1983.