Texas seemed to have an extremely convoluted first year - how quickly did they revamp?

From what I remember of B&B in it's debut year, the show definitely had the imprint of William J. Bell Sr.'s storytelling at the root of it. Sure, they had a number of actors that could best be described, in the words of Douglas Marland as "hair models" but they had the strong presence of Susan Flannery, Jim Storm and Johanna Johnson and Lauren Koslow (and for the material she was given Nancy Sloan was pretty good) in that cast to pull the weight for the others.

Looking at all the preemptions that BTG has had in a short stretch of time, I don't remember B&B dealing with so many preemptions. I feel like Bill Bell Sr would have threatened to take his show elsewhere if they had. Y&R was only its way to become the top-rated soap and sandwiched between Y&R and an Emmy award winning show at that time, ATWT --no doubt, he had a strong hand.

Based on that "Baby Born in the Elevator" nonsense, BTG was clearly trying to do a storyline with Andre, Ashley, and Derek -- which never materialized at all. The writing wasn't there, the acting wasn't there, and the chemistry wasn't there. So glad TPTB realized the entire ordeal was an utter bust and pulled the plug on it.

The writing for Dani Dupree was completely over-the-top initially, almost as absurd as the reboot of "Dynasty", but slowly they made some subtle adjustments that worked to the strengths of Karla & created a mighty likable character out of Dani.

The show has also definitely adopted a much more "CBS/Hollywood" look with subdued lighting and better sound.

Maybe it's because I listen on headphones but the sound for BTG still sounds atrocious to me.

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

From what I remember of B&B in it's debut year, the show definitely had the imprint of William J. Bell Sr.'s storytelling at the root of it. Sure, they had a number of actors that could best be described, in the words of Douglas Marland as "hair models" but they had the strong presence of Susan Flannery, Jim Storm and Johanna Johnson and Lauren Koslow (and for the material she was given Nancy Sloan was pretty good) in that cast to pull the weight for the others.

Looking at all the preemptions that BTG has had in a short stretch of time, I don't remember B&B dealing with so many preemptions. I feel like Bill Bell Sr would have threatened to take his show elsewhere if they had. Y&R was only its way to become the top-rated soap and sandwiched between Y&R and an Emmy award winning show at that time, ATWT --no doubt, he had a strong hand.

When B&B began a good amount of the criticism towards it was that Bill Bell was dusting off 1970s and 1980s Y&R storylines. Acting-wise Bill Bell cast actors he worked with before (Susan Flannery on Days; John McCook, Lauren Koslow, James Storm on Y&R) as well as newcomers so it was a good balance.

B&B first summer had pre-emptions due to Iran-Contra.

4 hours ago, bongobong said:

believe he contractually had to write for SB as he was in first position with that show and joined GH after the show was pitched but before it was picked up. In a way, Guza hindered the show before he started as its HW by reviving GH which was shaky from Labine's year. In many markets, both shows aired in the same timeslot.

That was the contract and the rumors at the time were that he tried to get out of it and stay at GH. Nobody was happy, and the show used his outlines deep into the fall after he was gone.

I still give ABC, Riche, and Labine a lot of credit for finishing the Stone/Robin story even when the ratings were dropping because it was hard to watch and some viewers were turned off by the show doing any story about HIV. The rest of the show did suffer during the last few months of Stone being alive, but they were rebuilding before Guza got there and he did bring the ratings back up.

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

When B&B began a good amount of the criticism towards it was that Bill Bell was dusting off 1970s and 1980s Y&R storylines. Acting-wise Bill Bell cast actors he worked with before (Susan Flannery on Days; John McCook, Lauren Koslow, James Storm on Y&R) as well as newcomers so it was a good balance.

B&B first summer had pre-emptions due to Iran-Contra.

After he stepped down but was still credited as EP at Y&R, Bell gave an interview where he said he thought they could take those first two years of Y&R scripts and update the way the characters speak, but mostly just film them intact with a new cast and have a hit all over again. I remember comments at the time saying he basically already did that with B&B.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by titan1978