Monday was the 50th anniversary of the premiere of General Hospital.
Port Charles is a special place.
Here's to 50 more - at least!
What I read, write, watch, listen to or do between hot cups of the good stuff.
Showing posts with label soap opera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soap opera. Show all posts
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Monday, September 10, 2012
General Hospital Moves to 2PM
Well, after decades airing at 3:00PM eastern time on ABC,
the daytime drama General Hospital is moving
to 2:00PM eastern/1:00PM pacific time today.
The show has been on fire lately, back to being a soap fans can really enjoy.
Check out the latest promo below!
Tune in to get in on the action!
Friday, August 3, 2012
TNT's Dallas
I have been enjoying the TNT reboot of the classic prime time soap "Dallas".
The characters from the old show on the new include Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) and J.R. (Larry Hagman). All are great to see once again and the actors know their roles so well it is like visiting old friends, or enemies, since J.R. is one of the blasts from the past.
Old characters played by new actors are Bobby's son Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe) and J.R. and Sue Ellen's son John Ross (Josh Henderson). The previous versions of these characters were children, so the recasts aren't jarring. Both actors are good and play the new Ewing generation well, especially trying to find their own place in history.
New characters include Elena (Jordana Brewster) and Rebecca (Julie Gonzalo), the women tangled up with the young Ewing boys, and Ann Ewing (Brenda Strong), Bobby's new wife. All three ladies bring some fresh air to the show and their characters are intriguing. I am especially curious as to what secret Ann is hiding.
So far, the episodes have been great, with a good mix of the old and the new. We have been able to spend time at Southfork Rank - so glad it has stayed in the Ewing family, even if J.R. tricked his way into getting ownership. We have even been treated to some other faces from the past, including Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly), Lucy Ewing (Charlene Tilton) and Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval). Great seeing these folks, and it helps to make us feel like there is still a history and family continuing in Dallas. Hope to see more faces from the past next season, since TNT has already renewed the show for next year.
This Wednesday, starting at noon, TNT will be airing a marathon of episodes from this season, leading up to the season finale at 9:00 P.M.
I remember watching this show back in the 80s with my grandmother. She loved to see what J.R. was up to each week and the show remains a good memory for me. So happy the reboot has been done well and that we all get a chance to visit Southfork and the Ewings once again.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
New Secrets, New Twists! - General Hospital
Looks like interesting days at General Hospital.
Let's hope it is all not too late to save the show from the axe.
Friday, January 13, 2012
A Last Life to Live
After over 43 years of daily shows, it all comes down to one hour.
Today marks the final episode of ABC's "One Life to Live".
This show was always the "back up" show, when I was growing up. "General Hospital" was the big deal at my house, between my sister, my younger brother (for awhile, anyway) and myself. "One Life to Live" was the one we caught if we had time. Usually, it had started before we got home, so it was just a half hour, at most. But I still watched and got hooked, for a good number of years.
I stopped watching years ago and only last summer did I start up again, watching with my family. We are all kinda hooked on it, and if the show had been as good (and as cheezy-fun) as it has been lately, I bet it wouldn't be facing its demise today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Viki Lord Buchanan, played by actress Erica Slezak for 40 years,
had a speech on the show yesterday:
“The fans are so loyal, so passionate, so invested in their stories. I always ask how they started watching Fraternity Row. Some of them were stay at home mothers, taking a break before their children came home from school. Others were college students, with free time between classes. Many of them inherited a love of the show from their parents or their grandparents, who were long time fans themselves.
I remember the first time I tuned into Fraternity Row. I was hooked instantly. I needed to know what would happen next to these fascinating people. Would the hero and the heroine find their way back to true love? Would the villains get their comeuppance? Or would their crimes go unpunished? Would loving families overcome their obstacles? Or would their troubles prove too difficult to surmount?
Ultimately, that’s what soap opera is about: families. Close families, rival families. Even families that are unexpected, or the ones we choose for ourselves. And when a show is lucky enough to be on the air as long as Fraternity Row has been on, these families become extensions of our own. The audience might be upset when a favorite actor leaves, but they’re always willing to welcome a new one. Even when that new cast member is quite different from the one being replaced.
After all, this is a place where people come back from the dead, go off to grade school in the morning and come home from high school in the afternoon. Because for every new face, every new couple, every new family, there are long familiar faces. Some who have grown up before our very eyes. And a few more we hope to watch grow up. We know them so well. They’ve become our friends. We yearn for their happiness, especially when it’s hard won. We laugh as they laugh, cry as they cry and we can’t imagine doing without them. And when things are at their very worst on the show, that’s when we seem to enjoy them the most.
There’s just one thing we have to do to keep them in our lives: tune in tomorrow.”
Victoria Lord, on the ending of One Life To Live’s fictional soap opera Fraternity Row.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, thanks for all the hours of entertainment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Viki Lord Buchanan, played by actress Erica Slezak for 40 years,
had a speech on the show yesterday:
“The fans are so loyal, so passionate, so invested in their stories. I always ask how they started watching Fraternity Row. Some of them were stay at home mothers, taking a break before their children came home from school. Others were college students, with free time between classes. Many of them inherited a love of the show from their parents or their grandparents, who were long time fans themselves.
I remember the first time I tuned into Fraternity Row. I was hooked instantly. I needed to know what would happen next to these fascinating people. Would the hero and the heroine find their way back to true love? Would the villains get their comeuppance? Or would their crimes go unpunished? Would loving families overcome their obstacles? Or would their troubles prove too difficult to surmount?
Ultimately, that’s what soap opera is about: families. Close families, rival families. Even families that are unexpected, or the ones we choose for ourselves. And when a show is lucky enough to be on the air as long as Fraternity Row has been on, these families become extensions of our own. The audience might be upset when a favorite actor leaves, but they’re always willing to welcome a new one. Even when that new cast member is quite different from the one being replaced.
After all, this is a place where people come back from the dead, go off to grade school in the morning and come home from high school in the afternoon. Because for every new face, every new couple, every new family, there are long familiar faces. Some who have grown up before our very eyes. And a few more we hope to watch grow up. We know them so well. They’ve become our friends. We yearn for their happiness, especially when it’s hard won. We laugh as they laugh, cry as they cry and we can’t imagine doing without them. And when things are at their very worst on the show, that’s when we seem to enjoy them the most.
There’s just one thing we have to do to keep them in our lives: tune in tomorrow.”
Victoria Lord, on the ending of One Life To Live’s fictional soap opera Fraternity Row.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, thanks for all the hours of entertainment.
You will be missed, no matter what ABC-TV thinks.
Here is the "One Life to Live" song, as sung by Kristen Alderson,
who played Starr on the show.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Dark Mansions
Yesterday, in my post of Halloween-themed pics, I posted a few "haunted houses". They got me thinking about an old TV movie.
Dark Mansions was a pilot for a proposed TV series, however it was never picked up and instead aired as a one-time ABC TV movie on August 23, 1986.
The show was an Aaron Spelling-Douglas S. Cramer production and was written by Anthony Lawrence, Nancy Lawrence and Robert McCullough, produced by McCullough and Jerry London and directed by London.
The telefilm starred veteran actress Joan Fontaine, Linda Purl, Michael York, Melissa Sue Anderson, Nicollette Sheridan, Grant Aleksander and Lois Chiles.
The plot: Shellane Victor (Purl) is hired to write a book about a wealthy ship-building family, the Drakes. At the family's estate in Oregon she finds that she is a dead ringer for a long-deceased member of the family. Soon, strange things begin to happen that mirror the events that lead to the previous woman's death. Will Shellane fall victim as well?
I remember the very day I watched this, way back in 1986. I had been looking forward to it, as it had sounded to me like a supernatural spin on Dynasty or Dallas, which were very big at the time. The day it was to air, I had gone to my grandmother's house with my mom. As the afternoon wore on, all the adults were making plans to go to Jai Alai or the dog track, something like that. I stayed behind at my grandmother's very rural home. It was no "dark mansion", but it was a bit creepy being there alone.
Watching the movie on her small, portable television set wasn't the best, picture-wise, but the whole experience added a level of eeriness to the show that it might otherwise have lacked. I remember liking it, but it only ever aired this one time and was gone, a footnote in television history.
I have found at least one not-very-positive review for the movie online, but there is virtually nothing else available for it. No pics, no videos, just a short clip of Anderson and Aleksander from the film. It truly is one of those forgotten, brief moments in TV land.
Anyone else remember Dark Mansions?
Greystone Mansion, used as the estate in the film
Dark Mansions was a pilot for a proposed TV series, however it was never picked up and instead aired as a one-time ABC TV movie on August 23, 1986.
The show was an Aaron Spelling-Douglas S. Cramer production and was written by Anthony Lawrence, Nancy Lawrence and Robert McCullough, produced by McCullough and Jerry London and directed by London.
The telefilm starred veteran actress Joan Fontaine, Linda Purl, Michael York, Melissa Sue Anderson, Nicollette Sheridan, Grant Aleksander and Lois Chiles.
The plot: Shellane Victor (Purl) is hired to write a book about a wealthy ship-building family, the Drakes. At the family's estate in Oregon she finds that she is a dead ringer for a long-deceased member of the family. Soon, strange things begin to happen that mirror the events that lead to the previous woman's death. Will Shellane fall victim as well?
I remember the very day I watched this, way back in 1986. I had been looking forward to it, as it had sounded to me like a supernatural spin on Dynasty or Dallas, which were very big at the time. The day it was to air, I had gone to my grandmother's house with my mom. As the afternoon wore on, all the adults were making plans to go to Jai Alai or the dog track, something like that. I stayed behind at my grandmother's very rural home. It was no "dark mansion", but it was a bit creepy being there alone.
Watching the movie on her small, portable television set wasn't the best, picture-wise, but the whole experience added a level of eeriness to the show that it might otherwise have lacked. I remember liking it, but it only ever aired this one time and was gone, a footnote in television history.
I have found at least one not-very-positive review for the movie online, but there is virtually nothing else available for it. No pics, no videos, just a short clip of Anderson and Aleksander from the film. It truly is one of those forgotten, brief moments in TV land.
Anyone else remember Dark Mansions?
Friday, July 29, 2011
Reason #2 Why I Love TV
For my second post in this not-so-regular feature here, I am going back in time.
See, I was a GH fan for decades, from the mid/late 70s up until the early 2000's. I watched through a lot of ups and downs. But in the early part of the previous decade, the show lost its focus.
No longer did history, long-term characters and family matter. Instead, it was all about the mob. Granted, this was interesting. At first. But the show became all-mob, all-the-time. And to make matters worse, death became a quick-hit story plot device instead of something that mattered.
Long-term, important characters were killed off, either for monetary reasons or for supposed story advancement. But all that ended up happening (besides saving money in the budget, I suppose) was a bitter distancing of long-time fans.
After too much bloodshed and character assassination, I gave up. The show - whether it was the writers, producers, whomever - no longer cared about the fans who had been around so long. Budget took priority. The "hot" mob took center stage, apparently permanently. And I, sadly, said adios.
But now I have read that the long-time head writer of the show was dumped and replaced with someone else. For the first time in a very long time, there is new blood in the writing room. I gave thought to revisiting the show I had watched so long. But, still I hesitated.
Then I started to read a few fan reviews. They seemed positive. Also, a long-time character (Dr. Monica Quartermaine) was being brought back. Things seem to be looking positive.
Of course, this comes at a time when it may just be too little, too late for the show. Daytime soaps are falling left and right, including the other two ABC shows, All My Children (off the air in September) and One Life to Live (off the air in January 2012.) There has been news that those shows will be moving online, in some format. And there are also rumblings that GH is poised for a similar fate, if and when it leaves the broadcast airwaves. Seems like a last-ditch way to try and hold on to the shows. But for some fans, better that than nothing at all.
All of that doom-and-gloom aside, we have DVR'd the last two episodes of GH. Will it be the show I remember? Probably not. But I am willing to give it a try, at least for old time's sake.
Maybe it will be like catching up with an old friend. Hopefully it won't just be to say one final good-bye.
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