I have devoured countless episodes of daytime soap operas. But I've never seen one episode of a primetime soap from the 80s.

If you could watch one for the first time again, which one would you choose?

It seems like some find their footing in the second season. Do any have great first seasons?

Are any of them good from beginning to end?

Most shows are bad by the last season. Do any have good or great last season(s)?

Of course I've heard Who Shot J.R. is must see TV but the fact it was a dream pisses me off...and I've never even seen Dallas!

Please no spoilers but feel free to mention storylines and characters you like.

Thank you!

Knots Landing is #1 with a bullet.

It doesn't really ramp up til Season 3, but there are eps that are solid and important as well as ones to avoid in the relatively shorter first two seasons.

As usual, Vee is spot on. Knots Landing. I admit I haven't seen the final four seasons (yet! I guess they're on... Plex? I should get back into it as it's been a long while for me.) But for most of the time I think it's the Gold Standard of American primetime soaps (and has more elements that we associated with daytime soaps than most of them do, if that makes sense.)

I will say I found the first two seasons kinda fun but they are much more self contained writing--almost like Family from a few years earlier but with less nuanced writing (I think Family is the best written US primetime show of the 70s so that's my bias.) Also, though I was born in 1980, I think I just get some nostalgia from TV that shows houses, etc, of that era. But it doesn't go full soap till season 3, really (though it's not such a big leap in tone from the first seasons by any means--this isn't like Dynasty's first short season.)

Knots Landing is probably the one you could say was good from beginning to end. Of course there were some storylines that were duds along the way but that is true of most shows.

Dynasty was very much a different show in it's first season than it ended up being the rest of the seasons. Around season six is when it starts to go over the top, but the final season sort of brings it back to earth somewhat.

Dallas probably had the most consistency when it came to tone as the first season isn't drastically different than most of the others. It created the standard for wealth on soaps, but was less glitzy than Dynasty.

Falcon Crest felt very much like Earl Hamner's messy answer to his other show "The Waltons". It grabs you from the first season because it lays out the tension very well from the get go.

3 hours ago, EricMontreal22 said:

As usual, Vee is spot on. Knots Landing. I admit I haven't seen the final four seasons (yet! I guess they're on... Plex? I should get back into it as it's been a long while for me.)

Yeah.

All 14 seasons are there. I'm watching Season 13 now

Knot's

I'll echo everyone else in this thread and say KL is the '80's primetime soap to watch. True, the show had its' rough patches, but it also was the most consistent, or most consistently entertaining. It also was the most willing to grow and change with the times, so that it didn't get caught in the same ruts that the other primetime soaps got caught in.

11 hours ago, vote4llama said:

Of course I've heard Who Shot J.R. is must see TV but the fact it was a dream pisses me off...and I've never even seen Dallas!

The "who shot J.R."- story wasn't a dream.

52 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said:

The "who shot J.R."- story wasn't a dream.

It was a nightmare, lol!

It depends on what you're in the mood for.

If you want to watch a soap with an Ingmar Bergman vibe.. Knots Landing would be your soap.

If you want to watch a soap about a family saga with feud, business, and strong male characters... Dallas would be your soap.

If you just want some mindless fun where there are pretty clothes, melodramatic emotions, cat fights, and bitchy lines... Dynasty would be your soap.

If you're in the mood for a family saga that isn't rugged, but can be both mindless fun and intellectual in certain periods... Falcon Crest would your soap.

If you don't want to invest too much time and you want a short lived soap to invest in... Flamingo Road or Paper Dolls would be the best prime time soaps to check out.

4 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

It depends on what you're in the mood for.

If you want to watch a soap with an Ingmar Bergman vibe.. Knots Landing would be your soap.

If you want to watch a soap about a family saga with feud, business, and strong male characters... Dallas would be your soap.

If you just want some mindless fun where there are pretty clothes, melodramatic emotions, cat fights, and bitchy lines... Dynasty would be your soap.

If you're in the mood for a family saga that isn't rugged, but can be both mindless fun and intellectual in certain periods... Falcon Crest would your soap.

If you don't want to invest too much time and you want a short lived soap to invest in... Flamingo Road or Paper Dolls would be the best prime time soaps to check out.

ICAM with these descriptions, @Soaplovers !

To answer one of @vote4llama 's other questions: I think the four major shows - DALLAS, DYNASTY, FC and KL - all had good-to-great first seasons, with DALLAS and KL having the edge over the other two on account of David Jacobs, who created both shows, and his ability to create strong characters and establish tone right away.

FC's first season was good, I think, because it played to creator/EP Earl Hamner's strengths as a storyteller who specialized in family dramas, something subsequent seasons don't do, or do as well. DYNASTY's first season was good, too, and held a lot of potential as an "us vs. them" kind of soap. However, some questionable casting decisions, the Shapiros' own limitations as writers and - as @kalbir has pointed out - Aaron Spelling's impatience with the show and desire to outmatch DALLAS forced a course correction at the end of that season (yes, the one that ushered in Alexis, lol).

Edited 21 minutes ago21 min by Khan