THR: When Aaron Spelling Ruled Hollywood (An Oral History)

[Vee]

At the link.

[All My Shadows]

Fantastic read. A lot of it is stuff I've known for years already, but it's always so fun to hear stories from the people involved with his shows throughout the different eras. I love that the main takeaway is that Aaron NEVER intended to make critically acclaimed shows - he wanted to give the audience what it wanted, and glamour/fantasy/escapism was it. There's a reason why his shows are still popular in reruns and home video. Interesting comments at the end about how he'd react to recent hits. I'm surprised no one mentioned GoT, which in its prime was like Spelling-goes-mythology.

[detroitpiston]

Great read. No one will ever produce a show like he could. Its a shame Tori and Randy weren't able to carry on the legacy.

[DaytimeFan]

Great read. And I really liked Dame Joan's last word on Aaron being one of the few producers who liked actors. Jaclyn Smith said that at the Emmys in 2006 when Aaron died. 

 

 

[quartermainefan]

This was a nice article but I think Aaron Spelling gets a free pass for the lack of intelligence to his product.   Nowhere was it written popular tv shows had to be moronic, as Norman Lear proved, but shows like Fantasy Island, Love Boat and even Dynasty were intentionally dumb.    Harmless fluff is fine but when half the ABC line up was harmless fluff, suddenly it isn't harmless anymore and you basically are turning tv into fast food TV.  

[SFK]

As others have said, great read, thanks for sharing.  Honestly, I don't need narration nor pictures, I wish that every series/personality I enjoy got an oral history account like this (can hardly wait to crack into the OLTL).

[All My Shadows]

This makes absolutely no sense. Most of his shows NEVER put on the pretense of being "intelligent" entertainment (such a generic and overused term in TV, btw), so why should he even need a "free pass" in that respect? His objective/vision for his productions is articulated pretty strongly throughout this article, and in my experience of discussing AS and his shows, it always seems like people either get it completely or don't get it at all. He did what he set out to do and produced multiple hits in the process, shows that are still successful in reruns and on home video. I'm failing to see what's wrong with that.

[dragonflies]

OMG I never realized that was him in that ILL episode WOW

[SFK]

Randy said, "He used to put Spanish red-skinned salted peanuts in a bottle of Pepsi and drink it. He said it was a Southern thing. It didn't taste bad, kind of like a Pepsi surprise."  Sammy Jo does this in an episode of Dynasty, Aaron must have gotten a kick out of that.