ALL: Proposed Soaps Over The Years

[Faulkner]

I still remember, “I now pronounce you SANDY... SWAN!” “NO!”

 

Shane McDermott and SMG had a nice Valmont/Merteuil chemistry, sort of presaging SMG’s role opposite Ryan Phillippe in Cruel Intentions.

Edited June 29, 2018 by Faulkner

[Gray Bunny]

 

Indeed, and well stated. 

 

Side note: Speaking of the character Sandy Swan (a singer), back in my naive day, I was convinced that whoever was doing the vocals for her was the same singer on the radio singing "If You Asked Me To" and "Nothing Broken But My Heart," which of course turned out to be Celine Dion.  Suffice it to say, I don't think she lent her voice to this lil show. 

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[SFK]

 

YES! Robyn Ross played Brooke and I was devastated when she left the show, lol.

 

In hindsight, she had a mature, patrician quality that belied a girl of fifteen. She's what I'd imagine Iris Cory was like as a teen.

 

Absolutely. He slipped so well into the complete opposite type as Scott on AMC. I have an ep I taped back in the day when Bobby is in front of the class showboating and being all "charismatic" (*eyeroll*) while giving an oral presentation and Anita is giggling and eating it all up and poor Scott is looking on like the dog peed in his Fruity Pebbles. I think Shane would have done well with Jacob Young roles like Rick and J.R.

[SFK]

@Gray Bunny yeah, when they moved Swans to early mornings, it was lost on me. I think it came on while I was already on the school bus. It's crazy, because when I was in early elementary and I got dropped off at my grandparents' before school, my cousins and I watched kids programming for no less than two hours on Fox and what is now Fox Plus and CW. It's allllllll morning news now. Same goes for the afternoons and Saturday mornings. We live in a world where network Saturday morning cartoons are dead! Sad.

 

Was she the one with the swan birthmark on the sole of her foot?

[Paul Raven]

Broadcasting magazine May 1999

USA has plans for a half - hour serial called The Avenue, slated to debut first quarter 2,000.

It will likely air sometime between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

"This is a decidedly different form for early fringe, but I think there is an appetite for a dramatically compelling serial in time periods where the diet is local news, game shows, and reality strips.

In foreign countries like Australia and England this genre has been quite successful," says Stephen Chao, president of programming and marketing, USA Networks.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Paul Raven

[SteelCity]

I'm really interested in learning more about "Bourbon Street" and why it never came to pass. All I know is that it was supposed to air on FOX. Any other details would be amazing.

[teplin]

Soap actor/writer Richard Backus: 

 

Michael (Malone) and Josh (Griffith) were developing a late-night soap opera for the Fox Network to be broadcast at 11 pm. It would compete with the late-night talk shows and news programs and would offer a great alternative to those two genres. It was to be set in New Orleans and entitled 13 Bourbon Street. They very much wanted me to write for them, and I convinced the new executive producer at OLTL to let me out of my contact to join them. A cast was hired, a pilot was shot, a studio in Queens was rented, sets were built, and then the executive at the Fox Network who had hired Michael and Josh was,himself, fired and his replacement had to prove that everything his predecessor had okayed was worthless, so he canned the idea of the late-night soap. For a while, he decided it would be a primetime (once a week) show and we switched gears to write a weekly show. Then, after we'd written several episodes, he dumped the whole idea. It was a costly decision as something along the lines of $13 million dollars had been spent on cast, sets, etc. The pilot, which I don't think ever aired, was terrific, but the show was over. Michael was immediately hired at AW in hopes of rescuing that show, and, once again, he brought me with him. The executive producer balked at many of the wild ideas Michael had for the show which is too bad because some of them would certainly have attracted an audience. Finally, it came to a head and Michael was fired, and as his protege, I too was fired when my contract came up for renewal. Not too long afterwards, I was happy to hear that the executive producer was also fired, but the damage she had inflicted was already done.

 

http://ryanshopesoapopera.proboards.com/thread/5001/richard-backus-barry-2009

[SFK]

That's funny, I did a Google search for the 13 Bourbon Street pilot about a week ago, I've hoped it would pop up online for years now. I thought I'd finally lucked out but it was a totally unrelated project.

 

I remember Eric commenting that Michael Logan raved about it. I'm sure Linda Gottlieb or somebody has a copy lying around or knows where to get one.

[Chris B]

Do we have any knowledge of the cast fof Bourbon St?

[Paul Raven]

This from a SOW article in a Sept 96 article re 13 Bourbon St

 

More than 200 eager young actresses showed up at an open casting call in Nth Hollywood Calif Sept 3 in hopes of landing the contract role of Marigold Katrina Jorgensohn on Fox's latenight serial 13 Bourbon St. MK is a would be singer who arrives in New Orleans from a small town in Indiana.

 

During a break in the auditions, the show's casting director. Meg Simon, told SOW, "I'm looking for a girl who is very joyful, a positive person with a great singing voice. She should be pretty in a fresh, clean-cut kind of way." The first major hurdle for the aspirants (who included a number of SAG members) was to sing eight bars of a rock standard."If they can't sing,I'm not doing anymore with them", says Simon,who cast Ryan's Hope for two years in the early 80's. However,she amended that statement with. "It's conceivable that I may see someone who's right for another role I'm casting, in which case I'll hold on to their resume and call them back at another time".

The shows exec producer, Linda Gottlieb,did not attend the auditions. At this point, Simon says she has cast five* of the 21 principal roles. Casting will be announced when all of the principal roles are filled. Production commences in New York in November;the series is set to debut January 1997

 

*Apparently John Beck and Lonette McKee had been cast

Edited February 28, 2020 by Paul Raven

[SFK]

 

Michael Park and Henry Simmons, John Beck and Lonette McKee as @Paul Raven mentioned.

ETA: IMDb has Nicole Forrester listed, maybe she was MK?

[SFK]

Did a little more research... Duke University has Michael Malone's collection of files from from his years in the business including 13 Bourbon pilot, outlines, and scripts.

[SteelCity]

13 Bourbon Street sounds like an interesting idea, and the creators sound so positive and invested about it. I personally hate singing and singing storylines on soaps, but this could have been a fun idea. 

 

It's really disappointing that FOX never got into the the late night soap game. There's a huge field of potential there! If I actually ever get a soap in the air, that's where I want it! No competition and FOX ratings are a bit more lenient. You can also get a bit more risque. 

 

Bourbon Street was such a missed opportunity. I would love to see the Bible.

Edited July 12, 2018 by SteelCity

[Khan]

 

 

Where the hell are Lucy and Ethel when you need 'em?

[SteelCity]

I've got to get down to Duke!

 

How does everyone feel about syndicated soaps? Do you think that's an idea that could be an alternative to the network bullshit?