ALL: Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[slick jones]

 

Thanks for the heads up!  Janice will enjoy seeing these.

[dc11786]

I feel the art work in the Broadcasting ad is compelling, but the vague story summary and the screenshots do little for me. I'd still love to see this pop up somewhere, but I think that's unlikely. I am also a fan of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" so the allusion to that with Hawthorne's family history (his grandfather was one of the judges in the Salem witch trials) makes me smile.

There were several attempts to try out a "Dark Shadows" like serial in primetime. There was Covenant with Jane Badler and Dark Mansions with Linda Purl. Those syndication numbers for DS must have been really impressive.

I thought I read once this was created by Stephen and Elinore Karpf, but I couldn't find anything to back it up. 

[te.]

Really interesting that they came as far as advertising it in a broadcast magazine - I guess buyers just didn't bite in order to make it go into syndication? I wonder how the pilot was since, as people has pointed out, Dark Shadows must've done impressive numbers for this to even go from an idea to pilot.

[dc11786]

There was an important trade show, the NATPE bazaar, later that month where the producers were pitching the show so I believe this was to build up some interest for the show before the eating. Once the meeting occured, the show lost most of it's buzz and was considered dead in the water. Stations supposedly weren't interested in it because it was geared towards women being billed as a "cross between Dark Shadows and Dynasty." In late February, Taft and Group W weresaying they would reconsider their marketing strategy andstory again. I can't find much after that. 

[Vee]

Salem's Children with Janice Lynde? What in the hell...

[Khan]

That would have been the perfect tagline in all the ads for the show, lol.

[dc11786]

Another oddity... I think we've talked about the proposed ABC nighttime soap Midas Valley in 1985 which was set in Silicon Valley. ABC burned off the pilot as a TV movie that ended with Robert Stack's character fate left up in the air after I think a car accident. I have found that 6 episodes of the show were written, but obviously never produced. I am not sure why they were written whether ABC asked for some scripts to see what it would be like or if someone thought they could shop it around or if the production company assumed it was a go and went ahead and had the scripts written. Very weird.

[DRW50]

That's fascinating. I wonder if it's a reflection of what a malaise ABC was in by this point.

[te.]

I don't think it's that odd that six episodes were written - obviously it came very close to an episode order, but I assume ABC balked at the last minute. Plus they had The Colby's coming at that point, which might've put another nail in the coffin for Midas Valley. Perhaps they had it as a back-up plan in case The Colby's didn't come together considering that show never filmed a proper pilot presentation. 

[Sapounopera]

Midas Valley promo at 20.31

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Edited August 20, 2024 by Sapounopera

[dc11786]

Your comment led me to dig a little deeper. I also had assumed the show was inconsideration for the 1985-1986 year, however Midas Valley was in contention as a mid-season replacement for the 1984-1985 season. The pilot was filmed in March, 1984. The script for "episode 1" was written in September, 1984. The pilot was fairly expensive. In February, the papers were saying that ABC had put $1 million into it. By August, the reports were saying the pilot had cost $2.5 million. The newspapers listed Midas Valley along with Berrengers as the possible midseason replacement serials. So given the immense cost, assuming that the show would get a pick up seems more reasonable. 

@Sapounopera Thanks for posting the promo. I don't think Midas Valley has made it to YouTube as other primetime soap pilot films have over the years.

I have the pilot script and its very plot heavy, which would be intriguing if the characters were better drawn. There's lots of scheming involving the acquistion of Markov Robotics. Josh Landau has secured a government contract which has led to an attempted security breach. George Carew, the villain of the older set, seems to be in cahoots with foreign entities to try and steal Landau's latest creation, an early form of artificial intelligence. Scattered in between are some romantic complications: Drew and Molly Hammond navigating their relationship as loving exes, Sarah Corey and Josh Landau's slow burning forbidden romance, Lillian Hammond's one night stand with Brad Turner, George's affair with a diplomat's wife Mitzi Kawamata, and Betsy Weiler's attempt to seduce Josh. The episode ends with a huge plane crash spurred by Drew's heart attack mid flight and Seth Weiler and Josh Landau's efforts to remove Drew from the wreckage.

Besides the plane crash, I imagine a bit of the expense comes from the sets which are described as having the latest state of the art technology (the producers of Salem's Children would probably be envious). Lillian Hammond's place alone is described as having some sort of electronic dumbwaiter system. Also, there were at least three different robots described (one being an engagement gift for Franklin Hammond and Dr. Sarah Corey in addition to a security robot and janitorial robot at Lantern). Latern later became Candle when the show was filmed though it loses its meaning (Landau + Turner).  

@DRW50 With the new knowledge that this was proposed for the 1984-1985 season, I would suspect that soapy Glitter flopping fairly early in the season and Paper Dolls gaining some traction among critics, but not audiences, probably made ABC think twice. Also, its possible that the failure of Berrengers also prevented the show from moving forward, but I think that might be a long shot. 

[te.]

That explains why I couldn't find anything about the pilot being produced when I searched for it in 1985! In the 1984-85 season ABC had 29 pilots in consideration - some that did get ordered to midseason. This rather harsh article called them "clones" (which was true tbf):

 

https://books.google.se/books?id=YXdkAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA13&dq=midas+valley&article_id=1343,841005&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjd64HxsYWIAxVYEhAIHUFpLOQ4FBDoAXoECAoQAg#v=onepage&q=midas valley&f=false

[dc11786]

Thanks for sharing. I think we had reached the primetime soap peak by that point so I am not surprised it didn't move on. Additionally, I think setting a show in the tech industry was going to cost a bit of money with the focus on robotics and AI. I don't think the American TV industry was quite there yet unless they were looking at a more serious soap focused on family and romantic conflicts that happened to be set in the world of high tech. 

I received the six episode scripts. I have only made it through one so far but I liked the first episode more than the pilot telefilm script. The show sorta downplays the drama in the pilot film with Drew Hammond on the mend, but still hospitalized, as the series opens. His near death experience has encouraged him to make some decisions: (a) a strong attempt to reunite with his ex-wife Molly and (b) a decision to split his workload with his son, Franklin, who has been handling the businesss while Drew was recovering. Franklin is becoming more aware of the growing romantic tension between his bride to be Sarah Corey and Drew's one-time protege now rival, Josh Landau. In the meantime, Sarah is still being blackmailed by an offscreen entity, but scheming Mitzi Kawamoto has also caught on and is having Mitzi followed. 

Mitzi is also caught by Lillian Hammond who has decided to start bugging her boss George Carew's office. Lillian now knows that Mitzi and George are in cahoots. Lillian doesn't really like Sarah so I imagine (Lillian and Josh were once involved when they were teens) so I imagine Mitzi will eventually supply the information to Lillian as a sorta get out of jail card. Lillian seems more savvy and more centered in the episode which helps. 

The final thread that helps to build a little suspense is the ongoing investigation into the mysterious break in at Lantern Computers where an unknown man has died. Josh is determined to learn who it is while his security chief is determined to hide his own connection to the man; they appear to have been good friends and government agents at one point. Josh is meeting dead ends until a fired secretary from the corner's office states that the man's eyes were missing from the corpse (an ocular scan is used as a security measure at Lantern) just as the episode ends. 

The first episode has a better balance where I felt the scheming in the pilot was more about maneuvering rather than the emotional impact of such actions. There is a little moment at a boardmeeting for Hammond where Franklin sets up one of the VPs to end up trash talking the plan Franklin has to the person who created it which is humorous. Even this seems to be rooted in Franklin's desire to prove himself. Pitting Mitzi and Lillian against each other is intersting and using Mitzi's textile emporium as the scene of some of those revelations (Mitzi is designing Sarah Corey's wedding dress) is effective. It's still hard to imagine Robert Stack as the older roamntic lead though. 

[dc11786]

I have a paper copy of the bible for Woman Inside. Lakin developed this very quickly (about 3 week turn around) and it has some interesting ideas, but I can see why it didn't go into development. The lead Barbara Brooks is quite unlikeable. She is weak and simpering for the most part before ending up having a hot sexual encounter in a hotel room with the sleazy contractor who had been seducing her for weeks while her husband is in a room across from her with his airline stewardess mistress. In an additional document attached, Jackie Smith noted this and stated that she and Lakin had worked out an alternate scenario involving a slow burn romance between Barbara and the widowed teacher David Stratton of Barbara's eldest daughter with Barbara and Dan Hartley (the contractor) having a one night stand that was the result of right place right time rather than slow burn seduction. It might have been more effective, but the main thrust of the story is around the Dan and Barbara affair so it's hard to say if it would have worked. 

I do think Lakin does a decent job providing a counterpoint with Lacey Andrews, the reporter. Lacey is divorced and claims that her affair with the married politician is the ideal situation. Later, it is revealed that Lacey does plan on marrying the politico once his wife dies, though I suspect that the wife's terminal illnesss might just be a ruse to keep Lacey at bay. In the beginning Lacey is constantly going in on Barbara for being weak. It is actually rather unappealing. Lacey only softens when she and her married lover Emerson Forbes are having a cladenstine meeting in the airport bar and Lacey spots Barbara's husband Allen Brooks (who she met when on an assignment) and his lover. 

The group therapy element is intriguing. Mother hen of the group Annette Davidson is dealing with life as a single woman after the death of her husband. She has taken in her mother-in-law who can no longer be on her. Then, there is Jill Wexler, a juvenile deliquent, who received little love at home from her very educated and professional parents Herbert and Lucille Wexler. Jill is alligned with Lacey in most meetings and is equally caustic. Marlisa Diaz is a bit frigid apparently stemming from the departure of her father many years earlier who abandoned her mother. The last of the group is Karen McLeod, who is a mystery woman married to a film exeuctive and won't have a child. The source of Karen's fearfulness regarding having a child isn't revealed, but Karen was worried when she learned Barbara grew up not that far away from where she lived growing up. Dr. Ken Saunders runs the group and he has a wife and child. 

[Paul Raven]

Probably not a soap but of interest in terms of story and stars.

An NBC pilot for the 66/67 season

The Savage Years One -hour color family domestic situation drama centered around family named Savage.

John McIntire, father

maid, Janette Nolan

son, Robert Pickering; Mike Bauer on GL 1968

daughter, Diana Muldaur; recently Ann Wicker on Secret Storm

teenager, Nicolas Surovy; in 1970 on A World Apart, later on AMC

daughter's husband, James Karen- on ATWT around this time

their two children, Marc Winters, Robin Mattson joined soaps as Hope Bauer on GL in 1976

Collier Young, producer; Alex Singer, director. Initial episode written by Betty Andrews. Four Star