The 80's, the best decade of them all!

February 5, 20242 yr

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39 years ago this week

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February 25, 20241 yr

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February 25, 20241 yr

16 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Every time I see this topic, I flinch. Or I shudder. Take your pick. As an adult struggling in the 80s, with Ron & Nancy in the White House & their political ideas only really being good for very wealthy people & meanwhile something like a modern day plague was killing more & more friends who were also young adults, ... it would require another term, certainly not nostalgia or the good ole days. But, it does explain why escapism in soaps became a much sought after criteria.

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February 25, 20241 yr

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February 25, 20241 yr

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One of the most iconic moments in sports in the 1980s. 40 years later it's still breathtaking, but back then it was revolutionary.

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February 25, 20241 yr

29 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said:

One of the most iconic moments in sports in the 1980s. 40 years later it's still breathtaking, but back then it was revolutionary.

Gosh, I remember this like it was yesterday. Thanks for the reminder.

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February 27, 20241 yr

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Looking back on the 1980s as an adult.

1984 the peak.

1986 s--- got real w/ the AIDS crisis, Space Shuttle Challenger, Chernobyl.

1989 the world was on the verge of change w/ Reagan leaving office, Tiananmen Square, Berlin Wall.

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1 month later...

April 19, 20241 yr

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@dragonflies brought this up on social media about 80s posters.

This hung over my bedroom wall.

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April 19, 20241 yr

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8 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

@dragonflies brought this up on social media about 80s posters.

This hung over my bedroom wall.

What else hung there

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April 19, 20241 yr

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9 minutes ago, Althea Davis said:

What else hung there

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April 19, 20241 yr

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1 minute ago, Soapsuds said:

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April 19, 20241 yr

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7 minutes ago, Althea Davis said:

Lol

Love me some Duke boys!😂

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April 19, 20241 yr

56 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

@dragonflies brought this up on social media about 80s posters.

This hung over my bedroom wall.

I had a Kate Jackson poster. Maybe I can find it.

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April 19, 20241 yr

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20 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I had a Kate Jackson poster. Maybe I can find it.

I had the Charlie's Angels one too and the Farah Fawcett one.

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April 19, 20241 yr

19 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

I had the Charlie's Angels one too and the Farah Fawcett one.

It was very "Sabrina". One of these.

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Looking back...Primetime Ratings from the 80's

CBS must have known that those aging sitcoms on Sunday had a shelf life but it was difficult to tamper with.
In 82/83 they made the first move by introducing Gloria with Sally Struthers which finished 18th but was cancelled. I guess the whole show never gelled and it felt old fashioned and too dependent on the Bunker connection w/o using it. There seemed to be BTS issues.
Gloria displaced One Day At A Time which moved to 9.30 with The Jeffersons, rather than Alice the new 9pm lead in. That seemed to work OK with TJ finishing 12th down from 3rd and ODAAT finishing 16th down from 10th. Not bad considering they were another year older, but dropping nonetheless.
The real loser was Alice displaced from Sunday and moved to Wednesday a night CBS had struggled with for years. Alice had to do all the heavy lifting, surrounded by new shows and up against 2 strong competitors The Fall Guy and Facts of Life. Within weeks Alice was dropped and taken off the schedule. There was no room elsewhere.
Not a good position for last season's No 5 show to be in. Later in the season it was Monday night after MASH finished up but didn't work and CBS did better with MASH repeats. Then it went to Sunday @8 as CBS moved Bunker to Mondays. Again the ratings were soft.
CBS moving Archie Bunker to Mondays where it flopped.
So by the end of the season Bunker, Gloria were gone and Alice was weakened. Goodnight Beantown was introduced into the mix and didn't take off.
CBS Sunday was going into freefall.

By Paul Raven · 20 minutes ago20 min
GH: Classic Thread

I don't think GH has ever been a show that's featured great writing. It's a show about charisma.
It's also never really been a show about an ensemble. It's really about lead characters. They've been lucky in casting, that their lead characters have had such charisma, that they carried the show to ratings success: Leslie and Laura in the late 70s, Luke in the early 80s, Robert and Anna in the mid to late 80s, into the early 90s.
The closest it came to ensemble and good writing was the mid 90s. By the 2000s though, it was back to lead characters and banking on charisma, writing be damned.

By Jdee43 · 36 minutes ago36 min
GH: Classic Thread

Frank Maxwell outlived Norma Connolly by 6 years. When they were honoring the passing of Aunt Ruby on screen in 1999, did they ever mention Dan Rooney? In fact, was Dan ever mentioned again after he retired and left the show, circa 1988/89, after a 10 year run?

By Jdee43 · 46 minutes ago46 min
Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

Debrah Farentino, who was with Capitol for its entire run, wasn't even 30 years old when the show went off the air in 1987.

By FlyRightOrchestraGuy · 1 hour ago1 hr
Guiding Light Discussion Thread

It was almost overkill in many cases. In hospital scenes, nurses etc were scurrying about, checking charts and having confabs. It was distracting. It was like now they had the money they were gonna spend it!
The soaps had to compete but it was a vicious circle. The more they became popular, the budgets had to go up and so they needed those ratings points more than ever.
Revamps were commonplace and soap actors became 'stars' who could demand more money and hold the shows to ransom in a sense. Soaps ended up costing more than ever to diminishing returns.
And when advertisers began to pull back in the late 80's the whole system started to collapse.

By Paul Raven · 1 hour ago1 hr
The Guiding Light 1951

I wonder at what point Irna changed the direction and structure of the show in anticipation of the move to television?
Irna was enthusiastic about TV and talks about TGL becoming a TV show may have been in the works for quite awhile.
Irna might have been thinking along those lines, knowing TV meant fewer characters and sets. So the decision to pretty much focus on the Bauers.

By Paul Raven · 1 hour ago1 hr
BTG: February 2026 Discussion Thread

I'm glad the subject of sets came up w/o me initiating it.
Joey's apartment was a total miss for me. It definitely looked like Andre's redressed which says to me we may not see it again.
Basically a space with no proper entrance, just doors , a sofa, an oddly placed table with 2 chairs and some random light fixtures as well as ugly decor eg the urn and the pedestal . It looked cheap and thrown together.
Overall the sets and set decor has been a mixed bag.
There are not enough sets for starters.
The country club and Orphey Gene's are fine. Same with Eva and Ashley's apartments as they are supposed to look basic. Martin/Smitty's place is fine. Uptown doesn't look upscale enough with the green walls and as for the airport terminal/mall coffee shop...
The casino back room is awful.
The Dupree house needs a study off the main room. Nicole got an office off her living room but the 'hero' set is confined to one room. And I'd love to know the purpose of that door to the right of the window-a closet?
And the floor plans don't make sense. Nicole's and Bill's living rooms have the entrance in the center with no front door, just a corridor and the fireplace to the left. Too similar.
Soap sets are usually by necessity quite cramped but clever designers have given the impression of more space by suggesting other rooms, creating specific areas etc
Hopefully there will be improvements.

By Paul Raven · 1 hour ago1 hr
The Guiding Light 1951

I suppose this makes sense when she is contrasted to Meta, Kathy, and other long-suffering heroines of her era. Then when Kathy and Meta are gone or going and the new generation of neurotics like Robin arrive, Bert is matured.
Thanks again @Reverend Ruthledge

By DRW50 · 2 hours ago2 hr
The Guiding Light 1951

Bert was such an unusual soap character back in the day. Most soap wives who wouldn't let go of their husbands were rich, imperious types, like Phoebe on AMC or Katherine on Y&R. They were clearly meant to be antagonistic characters, making life miserable for the lower or middle class heroines who truly loved the husbands. Yet Bert was the central female character.
She was so complex. I wish we could see more of that on soaps today.

By DeeVee · 2 hours ago2 hr
Sisters Discussion Thread

I wonder if both storylines were inspired by the real-life Heidi Fleiss scandal, lol. In any case, I feel like Cowen/Lipman told that story just because they wanted to, and not because they thought it was right for Reed (either incarnation).

By Khan · 2 hours ago2 hr

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The 80's, the best decade of them all!

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