Someone who occasionally posts on the forum corresponds with John Wilder and showed him my posts about The Yellow Rose. He had this to say:
He sincerely appreciates your enthusiasm for the show. He was very proud of it. He commented that the show wasn't really meant to be a nighttime soap. It was sold as a contemporary Western and action series. He wasn't happy with the promotion of the series as a nighttime soap, but felt that he understood the genre because he wrote for Peyton Place for 4 years and knew how to develop plots and characters in a serialized manner. However, he noted that he didn't watch Dallas or Falcon Crest, so any similarities with stories or characters on those shows were strictly coincidental. He said that NBC actually liked the show, but he felt that they should not have scheduled it for Saturday nights at 10 PM. It might've worked better on Sunday. He said that they had a following with working class viewers who could identify with the characters. He said that reading your weeklies brought back good memories of a show he was very proud of working on.
It might be helpful for your friend's coverage of the show, and may make him feel even more right about his instincts, to read the following reviews:
"An honest Texas ranch at last…the first authentic television series about Texas…Someone in the saddle of this production wants to create an action series that is more honest than those to which viewers have been subjected in the past." Terrence O'Flaherty, San Francisco Chronicle.
"THE YELLOW ROSE gives off the unmistakable essence of genuine intelligence." Harry F. Waters, Newsweek.
"NBC says the series is 'in the tradition of GIANT and HUD,' and it is." Richard Corliss, Time Magazine.
"…THE YELLOW ROSE has real dirt, real grit, and real honest-to-goodness characters who embody some of humanity's positive dimensions, rather than the most despicable instincts that are glorified on DALLAS." Fred Rothenberg, The Associated Press.
"THE YELLOW ROSE is not DALLAS or GIANT and it certainly isn't BONANZA, but it is as Chance, that man of one-word brevity, might say, terrific." Howard Rosenberg, The Los Angeles Times.
"It used to be that one of the best reasons for going out on Saturday night was to avoid resorting to network television for entertainment. Then NBC introduced THE YELLOW ROSE…the best new show of the television season.
The show has a sense of morality…Its values are firm and positive, but they are served without corn…The characters are made of flesh and blood instead of the standard TV synthetics. You cannot be sure what they'll say or do, but it generally turns out to be believable and altogether human.
The distinction of THE YELLOW ROSE is to strive for maximum excellence within the limitations of its medium, and to achieve it as often as it does." Jeff DeBell, Roanoke Times & World News.
A couple of critics did compare Rose to soap operas, but very favorably:
"Some of the better new shows are getting terrible ratings…One of the frustrating also-rans is NBC's THE YELLOW ROSE, an attempt to do a sprawling clannish soap opera with a little class and intelligence…But the show has enough smarts, stars and sex appeal to be a hit" Tom Shales, The Washington Post.
"THE YELLOW ROSE may be the best-made, best-written, and best-acted nighttime soap opera this video wrangler has ever seen." Mike Duffy, Knight-Ridder Newspapers.
