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Pioneers of Television


dragonflies

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I assume they touched on Peyton Place somewhere in the first half because the website does include a picture of Ryan O'Neal and Mia Farrow, but yeah, the bulk was Dallas, Dynasty, and Knots (in that order). The half I saw was really well-done, though. I don't think I've ever seen anything that explicitly focused on the primetime soaps as a set of shows that were different from everything else on TV at the time. Shame that FC wasn't given as much focus. I hope they at least touched on it and some of the shorter-lived shows for a moment.

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PBS always does an exceptional job. It's such a shame that it struggles for funding. It should be America's BBC.

There were so many prime time soaps in the 80s and 90s, off the top of my head: Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, The Colby's, Flamingo Road, Bare Essence, Glitter, Melrose Place, 90210, Pacific Palisades, Savannah, Titans...they really are a genre unto themselves and it's time that they were recognized.

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I recorded it, but haven't watched--but I've enjoyed the past Pioneers of Television (though it's been shown so haphazardly I never know when a new episode is on--I had no idea that the third season had started last week, or about this episode except that SFK made amention about it in the Prospect Park thread--and I really felt they should have done a daytime soaps one first). I hope they do cover Peyton--that really was the first primetime soap, and something other networks had struggles copying.

To be fair, they always focus primarily on 3-5 shows it seems (judging by past episodes I have caught like Game Shows and Sitcoms). I'm excited for the Feb 5 episode as well which will be about miniseries. (If we get a fourth mini-season again next year, surely they'll have to focus on daytime soaps...)

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Same here Eric, I DVR'd the late night showing, but won't watch until tomorrow. I reminded folks in the PP thread after I was reminded myself when the ladies of Knots were on The Talk the other day. I ended up going out to dinner with my dad and his wife and totally forgot about it.

Peyton Place is mentioned in the cable guide synopsis, but as I haven't watched yet, I don't know how much time is devoted to it in the program.

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Peyton Place gets its due, this episode was clearly about the primetime soaps of the 80s. And though I think Falcon Crest has its place, when I think of The Big 3 it's Dallas, Dynasty and Knots Landing.

Larry Hagman, Donna Mills and Joan Collins all got their due and it was nice to see.

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That's true. On the other hand, since Ronald Reagan is mentioned several times throughout the episode, it'd have been nice to include the fact that another, long-running primetime soap starred his ex-wife. wink.png

Seriously, even "The Colbys" got a photo and a quiz question. But FC? Zip. That's not right.

And that discussion about the shows adding "name" actors to their casts in order to goose ratings (which led into the Rock Hudson/Linda Evans controversy)? I'm sorry, but that was more FC's thang than any other's.

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