Alexis Enters SUNSET BEACH

[Alexis]

I decided to go back into Sunset Beach tonight after watching some vintage Y&R on YouTube all day. However the batteries in my DVD player remote are dead and so I cant forward to where I need to on the disc. So I am having to go over old ground. Meg is back in Kansas with her mum. Tim is trying to get back with her and in cahoots with Annie to keep her away from Ben. I know Ben shows up soon and takes her back to Sunset Beach because that's where I left off.

Finola Hughes has appeared as an ex of Cole who is here to warn Caitlyn off Cole and explain he's a big thief of the sparklers. I guess Spelling was throwing a lot of stunt casting in to get the show going. I forget what soap she was on but I think she also did Charmed a bit later and something else by Spelling.

 

[Willie Oleson]

a bit later and something else by Spelling.

Was it Pacific Pallisades?

 

[Ray&Donna]

She is also well known for GENERAL HOSPITAL and ALL MY Children where she played twins in the ABC soap universe

 

[Ray&Donna]

She is also well known for GENERAL HOSPITAL and ALL MY Children where she played twins in the ABC soap universe

 

[Alexis]

Was it Pacific Pallisades?

Apparently so. I forgot I did that too a few years ago on YouTube.

She is also well known for GENERAL HOSPITAL and ALL MY Children where she played twins in the ABC soap universe

Interesting so those shows crossed over like CBS' Y&R and B&B.
I have decided to keep up with Sunset Beach the next few weeks at least as I am approaching Gabby's rape trial and I remember it back then and thought it was pretty gripping. And I also want to see how rape is handled on a '90s soap as opposed to the way it was handled on Spellings '80s prime time soaps.
Also Terror Island isn't that far away either. I cant believe this was 23 years ago!

 

[Ray&Donna]

Interesting so those shows crossed over like CBS' Y&R and B&B.

Those shows shared a creator so it was at the producers discretion to have a shared storyline. Which can be somewhat confusing at times. John McCook played Lance Prentiss on Y&R in its early years, but he has also appeared as Eric Forrester on occasion.

ABC purchased their soaps from the creators so they all take place in the same universe, although a lawsuit meant that characters from One Life to live who crossed over to General Hospital had to be written out so they could be reintroduced as new characters

 

[Daniel Avery]

In the 2000s, ABC Daytime decided to go full-tilt on crossovers in an effort to cement their viewership. By having the four/five soaps all operating in the same universe, they believed it would keep viewers from changing the channel and watching other soaps. They had characters traveling between the shows having longer-term stories (months or even years, much longer than the usual stunt casting that would last a week or less). They even built linkages between the shows by rewriting the parentage of some characters to make them the product of long-past affairs with characters from other shows. Had they kept up the nonsense, the overall feeling would have been one, three-hour-long soap where none of them were allowed to have a separate personality or identity. They even changed the opening titles of the shows to look similar despite having different casts.

 

[Alexis]

I am interested in how long term soap viewers in the US viewed SB when it originally aired? Was it actually liked or did it seem like it was doomed from the start? While I really do enjoy it, silly as it can be. The thing I feel it lacks is a real sense of history or backstory. Not for want of them trying. I mean they go with the whole Armando jewels stuff and have it all go back to the legend of Sunset Beach. It felt like B&B set itself up better from what I could tell. Then again that was a spin off from Y&R, even thought it didn't actually feel like a spin off. It didn't seem tied to it's parent show. Sunset Beach also doesn't have rival families like most of these soaps do. The only real prominent family is the Richards. They aren't really at war with anyone but themselves. It seems SB was going for a younger demographic and was more geared around love stories and relationship dramas like a teen soap. I wonder if it hadn't have been signalled for cancellation would another family have been brought in to rival the Richards?

 

[Ray&Donna]

I liked SB but I have watched nearly all of the soaps that have aired the past 40 years, even if it was only on YouTube. Sunset Beach faced an uphill battle from the start as NBC had been stuck with two soaps since the end of Santa Barbara, and Another World was in terminal decline as internal forces conspired to murder it. Sunset Beach aired at 3 PM Eastern in most time zones, putting it up against Guiding Light which had been on since 1937 in some form or another, as well as General Hospital which had been the top soap of the 80s. Although the NBC affiliate here experimented for a year or two with Another World at 10 in the morning and Days at 11, with Sunset Beach at 1

 

[Ray&Donna]

I think the show was heavily promoted. Wasn't there a non-nude spread in Playgirl prior to the casting of Timothy Adams

 

[Ray&Donna]

Aaron Spelling was a big name here, and shows with his name on the masthead usually performed well. Aside from Melrose and 90210, primetime soaps were a dead genre here in the 90s. Too many bad memories of excesses of TV ghosts past.

 

[Alexis]

Bill Spencer from early years of The Bold And The Beautiful just showed up as Bette's ex-husband and Annie's lawyer. Annie is now a partner in The Liberty Group with Ben and Gregory. No idea what The Liberty Group does.

Olivia and Caitlyn are now off to Santa Barbara to keep Cole away from Caitlyn. Car crash should be happening momentarily and someone's gonna loose a baby and wake up in a convent as far as I remember? Though I have no idea how this will all work out.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I am interested in how long term soap viewers in the US viewed SB when it originally aired? Was it actually liked or did it seem like it was doomed from the start? While I really do enjoy it, silly as it can be.

NBC hoped that having the Aaron Spelling name stamped on this show would help get people to become curious enough to watch it. It certainly was given a decent budget to work with; as all the other soaps were quietly trimming their budgets and reducing their casts, SuBe (as we called it to distinguish it from Santa Barbara/SB) seemed to have much more freedom to spend money. I assume it was Spelling's people who felt that you had to spend money to make money. I think it spent its entire run in last place, but not by much; the bottom three or four soaps in that period ranked pretty close together. Another World, its lead-in across much of the country, was only a percentage of a ratings point ahead most of the time. When your lead-in isn't particularly strong, you can't ride coat-tails. That's why the Bells demanded that B&B air immediately after Y&R, forcing CBS to rearrange the timeslots to accommodate this, but making it a hit from the first day, and still the #2 soap.

But about SuBe...NBC only had one soap with "buzz," which was younger-skewing Days. NBC kept trying to get old-school AW to "be more like Days," but it just wasn't that kind of show. SuBe was expected to be more compatible with Days, and I guess the more shocking stuff SuBe wrote (Shockwave, Terror Island) did indeed look a lot like the stuff Days cranked out. NBC also had a minority financial stake in SuBe. They promoted the hell out of SuBe, even in primetime because of this stake (I believe), but other than a few bumps in ratings during the stunts, it never grew its ratings. So it did not go down without a fight, but it just didn't have the opportunity to make a mark in daytime because it was on the #3 network and soaps in general were in a downward trajectory. I'm not sure I want to re-tell the story of how NBC screwed over the fans of both SuBe and AW at the same time when they decided to develop Passions, so the TL;DR version is that SuBe got some preferential treatment because of the Spelling connection and because NBC owned a portion of it, but it only went so far.

 

[Alexis]

So... So far Caitlyn and Olivia crashed their car when Caitlyn found out about Gregory and Olivia's plan to steal her baby and tell her she lost it. Then have Olivia pass it off as her own. See Gregory thinks that Olivia isn't pregnant. Confusing as hell. Anyways Sean phoned Caitlyn and told her all about the plan and she goes ape shit and drives off but not before Olivia could get into the car. So two pregnant women in a car driving crazy. Sounds good. It also is totally a rip off of Alexis and Fallon's car crash while Fallon was pregnant on Dynasty season 2. Anyway as the car crashed, Cole was passing in his car and saw them go over the cliff. He climbs down and finds Olivia but no Caitlyn. Then he goes to find Caitlyn and accidentally falls off a cliff too. These cliff hangers that aren't actually cliff hangers... funny that.

Well Caitlyn eventually gets found by a strange mute man who appears to be a mountain man killer type but he's not. He saves her and takes her to a convent. Whist there she has dreams that she's safe and happy with Cole and the baby. Then she starts having these dreams where she has to hand over her baby to an Angel type figure. This is also very much stolen from an aborted idea for DYNASTY where Krystle would have such dreams after loosing her baby. Only it would be the Angel of death and be revealed to be Alexis. Well that's what I have heard.

Meanwhile, everyone thinks Caitlyn is dead. Gregory and Olivia console themselves at the hospital. Then Sean barges in blaming Gregory for killing his sister. In turn Gregory blames Sean for killing her. Sean finishes with his parents and leaves. Cole is arrested for something I cant remember? I think Gregory gave the police evidence of his jewel thievery. Then Sean decides to help break Cole out of prison. Bette helps in this, don't ask for details, just go with it. I have no idea.
I have watched about 10 consecutive episodes here so trying to remember it all.

There was a whole back in Kansas drama between Meg and Ben and eventually she came back to Sunset Beach to be with him and things are going great. Ben is being super lovely romantic, but she's been having those stupid Maria dreams again where there's blood everywhere. Then she finds a box in his wardrobe with blood stained sheets and bloody scissors. Smells suspiciously like an Annie plant to me but hey ho! Actually I know Terror Island is literally just around the corner, so I think that this Ben may already be evil Derek already. I have no idea when the switch happens it's been too long.

Annie and Gregory have initiated their flirting and both seem to be tying to get the other one to side with them when using their voting shares at the Liberty Group. Gregory is impressed with Annie's legal knowledge. Seriously! Apparently she went to law school for 3 weeks. Yea....

Gabby took a lie detector test to prove that Ricardo raped her. She didn't really want to do it but felt she had to. She half hoped it would reveal she was a liar so she could get out of the lie already. However weirdly it said she was telling the truth! Now the lie has got bigger and bigger. In an effort to clear his name and prove his innocence to Paula Ricardo decides to also take one and it reveals he is a liar! EVEN THOUGH HE DIDNT RAPE HER!!! What is this crazy place with lying lie detectors?
Gabby did seem incredibly convincing when being interviewed which just shows how much of a fruit cake she really is! She thinks it therefor it's right, it's true now...
Ok..

Virginia has super upped her crazy bitch game. She's using her son Jimmy to keep Michael and Venessa apart. She's burned down a cabin when they were in it to keep them apart. She's breaking into her apartment and snooping and taking out loud to herself at any opportunity. She cray cray!!! Just hurry up and turn her into a rice krispie treat already!!

Ok that's us all up to date on the goings on in Sunset Beach!

 

[Ray&Donna]

It's been over 20 years but didn't NBC air a condensed version of Shockwave in primetime. There had been a similar promotion of Days earlier in the decade with the John/Marlena story. And even though the network gave up on SuBe before it was three years old, they would in 2000 air with heavy promotion the short-lived Titans. I mean, they promoted Titans like it was the Super Bowl

 

[Ray&Donna]

I remember something about a mortician keeping a dead character locked up in her office because he looked like a romance novel hero. Or was that Kristin on Days?

 

[Ray&Donna]

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1045775/?ref_=m_nmfmd_act_40

 

[Daniel Avery]

Yes, NBC re-edited the 'greatest hits' of Shockwave and aired it as a prime-time special. But I think it aired on a Friday night when few people saw it. I watched it. As a fan of the soap genre in general, I watched it not only because the original plotline was entertaining, but mostly because I wanted to see if they could re-purpose six weeks (yes, six weeks of episodes) into a coherent, self-contained event. I don't recall it being particularly bad or anything being particularly brilliant, but they deserve some credit for being able to do it. I also can't recall if it was one hour or two--I tend to lean toward two hours, since boiling 30 hours of plot into one hour might be too much even for the edit wizards at NBC.

 

[Alexis]

So... Somehow... I have no idea how this is even meant to be possible but, it happened. Sean managed to switch places with Cole in prison so that Cole could escape and go find Caitlyn. Meanwhile Gregory had hired a hitman... Yes! Really, assuming that Caitlyn was dead and it was Cole's doing. Gregory hired someone to kill Cole in prison. When the killer arrives dressed as a cop, he enters Cole's cell and strangles Sean instead. All a bit much for daytime TV but well hey ho!

Later Gregory runs into Cole at the hospital who is there at Bette's insistence that he donate blood in case he is Olivia's baby's father as she my go into early labour. I don't know why they would need blood, but I didn't write it. Anyway, Cole and Gregory argue. It's very shades of Blake and Cecil fighting over Fallon's paternity. They stole a lot from Dynasty didn't they? Then Gregory realises that Cole's escaped and Sean's in his place and rushes to the police station and finds a lifeless Sean in the cell. He's not dead that's just the way he acts... Gregory thinks he's dead though and literally falls to his knees and screams, "Noooooooooooo!" pan out from above as he falls crushed to the floor. He's lost his two children in one day. It's like Shakespeare isn't it?

Then Sean comes to and realises what happens and again he and Gregory argue and Sean blames him for killing Caitlyn and Gregory punches him. These people all need some kind of prescription I think. All this hysterical slapping and punching and strangling...
We cut to Caitlyn awakening at the convent and finding a nun sat at her bedside dressed how nuns only dress in horror films. She's wearing a wimple! I am raised Roman Catholic and have seen a lot of nuns in my day and none have ever looked like nuns depicted in film and TV. There must be a separate order of sisters in California that only appear on films and TV. Anyways, it seems like we aren't even going to get a moments respite from all the hysteria and drama. Caitlyn starts talking to the nun, and explains that she's pregnant and that she cant wait to see Cole and then starts to rub her belly and asks is the baby ok? The nun tells her to lie back and sleep. ALARM BELL RINGS STAGE RIGHT! Caitlyn clicks that she's lost the baby and immediately goes off. She's hysterical, screaming, crying and it's a lot. Her baby is dead. And yes it's an awful thing that's happened but I think that the scene is all too much. This scene would have been chilling and actually heart breaking if it was not immediately after the whole fake Sean is dead bit where Gregory dramatically falls to his knees etc. It's all overkill. There needed to be contrast between these kinds of scenes. There needed to be a bit of normality, or banality to contrast these highly dramatic bits. The scene looses impact they way it's done.
Am I really dissecting Sunset Beach's plot structure? That's enough of that...

 

[Daniel Avery]

He's not dead that's just the way he acts... Gregory thinks he's dead though and literally falls to his knees and screams, "Noooooooooooo!" pan out from above as he falls crushed to the floor. He's lost his two children in one day. It's like Shakespeare isn't it?

Uh...no, it's most definitely not. But I'm glad they finally found something RS could play (dead).

There must be a separate order of sisters in California that only appear on films and TV.

Our Ladies of the Perpetual Soft-Focus Lens, I assume. Or was that the ladies of Knots Landing?

It must have been Sweeps month for so many *dramatic* events to be occurring at the same time. And yes, they apparently needed to pace themselves.