Acapulco Bay (short-lived syndicated soap opera)

[te.]

Well, I randomly came across this today:

 

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Seemingly it's a short-lived attempt at a syndicated soap opera from 1995 starring Maree Cheatham, Raquel Gardner and Ash Adams. It's an adaptation of Mexican telenovelas Tu o nadie and Acapulco, Cuerpo y Alma and was presumably sold as either a package of 60 or 120 episodes. It wasn't successful, but I guess someone found the time to upload the series to YouTube in the 60 episodes format; I guess it's a bit of a curiosity as an attempt to break daytime soaps into the syndicated market.

 

[DRW50]

Thanks @te. . I don't think I remember this (or if I do it might have just been a mention here years ago). At least it gave Maree some work for a while.

[vetsoapfan]

I was certain that this would be an atrocious and painful production, but after watching the first episode, it was not as bad as I feared. The acting quality varied, but there were some good actors in the mix (along with some obviously weak ones). The sets were decent, too; not as cheap as I figured they would be. It did not lure me into watching any more (too generic), but it was a curio, to be sure. Thanks for uploading.

[SoapDope]

I was surprised to see Michael Cole. He didn't have much of a career after his early success of The Mod Squad (1968-1973). 

[Paul Raven]

Yes he was a big TV star but never followed through. Maybe he got a bad rep or walked away from good offers ... Anyway he turned up on GH for a while.

It annoys me to see Maree Cheatham here when she should have been involved with Days in some capacity. Their only original castmember still active and Maree never came back .

[te.]

A quick look at his Wiki and apparently he went to Betty Ford in the 90s. So he was an addict and probably affected his behavior off set. Hollywood might not care if you're an addict (a lot of actors have substance abuse issues), but once it impacts the production, you're toast. 

He mostly seemed to do guest spots, so I guess he could pull it together short term, but probably was a mess for longer productions. Aaron Spelling was loyal to actors, but after the Mod Squad movie he only threw him a bone for Vega$ and Fantasy Island and then didn't work with him again for 15 years until a guest spot on 7th Heaven. 

[Sapounopera]

This feels like a porn film with the sex scenes cut for some reason.

[vetsoapfan]

All three of The Mod Squad leads seemed to fade away after the series ended, although much later, Peggy Lipton did turn up on Twin Peaks. It surprised me we did not see much of them after TMD left the air. They had been reasonably popular.

And ITA about Maree Cheatham. As far as we can surmise, Marie is the only living offspring of Tom and Alice Horton (and Maree Cheatham is the only surviving original cast member). The character and the actress deserve a place on the canvas.

And once and for all, I want answers as to whether or not Tommy Horton, Jr. is alive or dead.

[SoapDope]

 I have read Michael Cole was a notorious alcoholic for decades. There was some sort of scandal in the early 70's where he was invited to an awards show in Australia (or was it England) and he was plastered live on the air making a fool out of himself. 

Yes, Maree Cheatham need to be back on Days and Marie Horton should be a legacy character on the canvas. I don't know if Tommy Horton is supposed to be dead, but John Lupton died in the early 90's and the character of Tommy has been off canvas since 1980. They should bring the character back with a good actor. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Matt]

Tommy is officially dead.  Julie mentioned it during scenes with Dick Van Dyke when relating the story of Tommy's own amnesia.

[vetsoapfan]

Seriously? I had no idea. At least now we know, after TPTB exiled the character to oblivion for so long, without explanation.

Uncle Mickey had amnesia much more recently than Tommy. I wonder why the writers chose to talk about Tommy instead of him.

Thanks for letting me know.

I don't suppose Julie explained how and when he passed.

[te.]

IIRC, it was because DvD's character has been in the same war as Tommy.

 

Plus, they had already shown some rare flashbacks in relation with Mikey's amnesia  on Suzanne's 50th anniversary.

[vetsoapfan]

Oh, that's interesting. If DvD's character had also been in the Korean war, it would make sense that he had vague feelings about it.

[dc11786]

FOX tried to launch a syndicated set of telenovelas in the early 1990s. "Acapulco Bay" I believe was the first one. The others were "The Guilt" with George Hamilton in a guest role and "Forever,"which was a restaging of "La Madrastra." I think there was another one that went to the pilot stage "Crystal Empire," but I don't think it was ever produced as a series. These all aired in the 1995-1996 season if I remember correctly. 

I actually used a clip from "Acapulco Bay" this past winter with my middle schoolers. We were reading a story by Sandra Cisneros were the allusions to novellas help to track the time period the scene is taking place in. I showed the clip when Tony comes back from the dead in from "Acapulco Bay" and when he comes back in "Tu o Nadie." My 8th graders weren't super impresssed with the acting on AB lol  

[te.]

Interesting! I had never heard of these - I  of course knew about Tribes and the late night attempt Bourbon Street that never made it to air. I think the main issue is that soaps take time to take hold and I'm guessing Fox didn't have enough power to force their affiliates to air these shows in a set time, especially once they got drab ratings. 

There's an episode of The Guilt on YouTube:

 

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And a trailer for Forever (La Madastra) - a bit hard to see if there's more due to other tv shows being called Forever: