The Flashback Soaps
There many soap operas that so much we have a fourth posting about them in a lookback fashion.
1.The City
Remember when we talked about the Soap "Loving" ? (If you don't then it's right here) Then you remember when we said the show ended in 1995 and it's famous plot line was a serial killer (ironic , because they killed a serial show). This takes us to "The City", Agnes Nixon , the creator of such soaps : "All My Children" , "One Life to Live", "Loving" , got another slot on ABC to replace her "Loving " . The City began November 13 , 1995 , (or the following Monday from the end of "Loving") the main characters of the soap were those who weren't killed off in "Loving" they moved from the place where all the murders were (not the worst idea) to New York's Soho district in an apartment building. (Wait , are we sure we aren't talking about Friends?) Another thing about The City is well ... it's main setting wasn't the city (that title guy is so fired) it was the loft and surrounding parts.
Are we sure this isn't Friends? / Copyright ABC
One of the biggest story lines for this series was about a transsexual photographer and the fall-out of people finding out until it was dropped because of the subject matter and bad other things. (no serial killers) Remember the serial killer? They tried to bring that back as well by having some of the characters stalked or murdered (contracts are weird) and the killer was .... (ehhh)
Since this show is being covered as a lookback that probably means it's dead (yes , it was killed by serial killer who also stalked Young and The Restless and killed Sunset Beach later on) yep , the show never caught on with viewers. Morgan Fairchild left the show and was replaced by Jane Eliot from "General Hospital" but again not catching on fire as a show. Another factor was the time slot : In the East it was on at 12:30 PM against "The Young and The Restless" (kind of like putting your new show against American Idol in the 2000's) and ABC canceled it in 1997.
An interesting note characters Angie Hubbard (played by Debbi Morgan ) and her son Frankie , started on "All My Children" in 1983 , moved to "Loving" in 1993 and being a survivor moved to "The City".
2. Port Charles
After "The City" was a canceled , ABC did repeats of other soaps until they got a new soap called "Port Charles" If that sound familiar , well that's because it's a spin off of "General Hospital" it takes place in the fictional city of Port Charles , much like General Hospital. (Unlike The City) Port Charles began on June 1st 1997 . There were plans to do a GH spin off since 1996 (maybe earlier but who cares about that?) The first name concept was "GH2 " it would focus on the interns at the medical school across from the famous hospital. It was later renamed to what the show premiered as "Port Charles" and to anchor the show well they had two stars from General Hospital star in this show Lynn Herring who played Lucy and Jon Lindstrom who played Kevin Collins . It premiered in primetime first with a 2 hour start. (That's 4 episodes of plot there)
The Soap had low ratings at first but was finding its own audience , then in 2000 it found it's style it was now going to follow a novella format , so instead of long storylines it was going have "books" (reading is fun kids ) that would be 13 week plot lines self contained in that book.
The "books" were called : Fate , Time in a Bottle , Tainted Love , Tempted , Miracles Happen, Secrets, Superstition, Torn, Naked Eyes , Surrender , Desire, and The Gift .(or the names of my kids) The original concept of focusing on interns also was later waived out.
Yeah we have a green filter deal with it!/ Copyright ABC
The soap did run 6 years but didn't satfiy ABC anymore so they ended it in 2003 , this series ending had to distinctions : it was ABC's last new soap series and when it ended the slot was given to local stations ( to air news and junk) . The late 90's was really the end of new soap series being made for daytime TV .
3. Passions
ABC is depressing me , let's go to NBC as we go to their last ever new soap series ever in America (oh... should have gone to CBS eh?) Let's talk about "Passions" , it began as the century was ending on July 5th in 1999. NBC was happy with the creator of the series because he (James E Riley) was credited with the surge in ratings at "Days of Our Lives". One of the plotlines was Dr. Marlena Evans was possessed by Satan . (you know, an average Tuesday)
Passions was a new soap for Riley to try anything and not get some viewers mad at him . "Passions" had some interesting people and plotlines . Sheridan Crane , was a character who was close with Princes Diana , including having a similar accident in the same Paris tunnel and speaks to ghost Diana (uhhh what?) who urges her to survive. When Crane had a boating accident she gets amnesia (our old soap friend ) and calls herself Diana. We also had a love triangle. (yep it's a soap) Riley must have a thing for supernatural (or really missed Dark Shadows) this show had it witches (Sabrina?) ,warlocks , closet doors to Hell (which sounds like a rock song). We had centuries old Witch named Tabitha Lennox and her brought to life doll, Timmy.
In 2004 , the show went through some changes with many of the original actors leaving the show and new characters were introduced , giving the show a ratings boost.
Fly on the wings of a bird you! / copyright NBC
The Soap was never the highest rated but it did well with key demos (the stuff networks care about) but NBC decided to cancel it in 2007 , this was in part due to the fact they wanted to expand the "Today Show" to 4 hours (ooh lucky us) and they were going to have affiliates give up 10AM in exchange for the "Passions" slot. It ended on September 7th 2007.
But wait , our story has a twist ! NBC owned the show and was looking for someone to pick it up for them and Direct TV did. 10 days after the series ended it returned with new episodes on Direct TV's 101 network (as it was known then) . But that happy moment of maybe a chance of hope didn't last long Direct TV announced they were not renewing the show and it ended in August 2008.
We found a theme in these soaps they were some of the last soaps made for American Daytime TV. Established soaps weren't moving and slots were drying up and also it was getting harder to attract people (thanks stupid reality shows) due to changing patterns of viewers , especially daytime viewers.
That's our lookback , stay tuned next time when we move to a city of witches who are escaping a serial killer.
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