The Aaron Spelling Thread

[AndyB2008]

I've never seen it. The ratings must have been bad for the previous season. I believe that it aired here five afternoons a week until they burned them off.
Kaley Cuoco, huh? Was that before or after 8 Simple Rules?

The final season of Charmed which Kaley was in (with the budget cuts which got Dorian Gregory written off for good and Brian Krause having to appear in fewer episodes) aired late September 2005 in the last year of the WB's life as a separate network.

8 Simple Rules ended in April that year, but it had been dumped to Friday nights by then.

 

[Daniel Avery]

In most markets near where I lived, Sunset Beach aired at 3pm Eastern, right after Another World. This put it against ABC's General Hospital and CBS's Guiding Light, two very "established" soaps who were doing well in the mid/late 1990s. It was virtually impossible for SuBe to entice viewers of those soaps away to watch "something new". I had no idea so many channels aired the show at noon--that was the "death sentence slot" for soaps on their way out, not a slot to start off a new show! At least there was some carry-over from AW to SuBe when it aired at 3pm, since many soap viewers used to be "network loyal"--watching the full slate of shows on one network rather than channel hopping. Noon was more identified with local news shows, not soaps.

 

[tommie]

I have no idea why NBC decided to push the noon time slot for Sunset Beach as you'd think that the young skew of Aaron Spelling's prime time soaps at the time it would be a given to try and push it as far back in the afternoon they could. Maybe it had something to do with Santa Barbara flaming out in the time slot a few years earlier and they were afraid the affiliates just would refuse to air it there instead of local programming? Either way, I think it was an awful move.

 

[AndyB2008]

In most markets near where I lived, Sunset Beach aired at 3pm Eastern, right after Another World. This put it against ABC's General Hospital and CBS's Guiding Light, two very "established" soaps who were doing well in the mid/late 1990s. It was virtually impossible for SuBe to entice viewers of those soaps away to watch "something new". I had no idea so many channels aired the show at noon--that was the "death sentence slot" for soaps on their way out, not a slot to start off a new show! At least there was some carry-over from AW to SuBe when it aired at 3pm, since many soap viewers used to be "network loyal"--watching the full slate of shows on one network rather than channel hopping. Noon was more identified with local news shows, not soaps.

From what I remember as well, Spelling wanted Sunset Beach after Days of Our Lives because it was a stronger lead in and also to attract the younger audience.

But that meant Sunset Beach would have to air at 2pm, when the younger audience isn't back from school or college yet.

 

[Daniel Avery]

NBC certainly wanted their soaps to be more like Days was in that period (that is, bat-$hit crazy), and at times SuBe gave them a run for the money in craziness. Another World was an old-style soap that focused on generational and social-struggle stories, and the show resisted NBC's attempts to "make it more like Days" as long as it could. Procter and Gamble owned AW and if NBC had tried to monkey with the time slots, they would likely have been very upset; NBC could not afford to make one of its top ad buyers unhappy, so AW stayed where it was, earning ratings somewhat higher than SuBe's. NBC ended up cancelling both soaps within six months of one another in 1999, believing they could make more money by owning and producing Passions and giving the other hour back to affiliates. Passions never earned the ratings of AW or SuBe, despite exhaustive efforts from NBC to promote it.

 

[AndyB2008]

NBC certainly wanted their soaps to be more like Days was in that period (that is, bat-$hit crazy), and at times SuBe gave them a run for the money in craziness. Another World was an old-style soap that focused on generational and social-struggle stories, and the show resisted NBC's attempts to "make it more like Days" as long as it could. Procter and Gamble owned AW and if NBC had tried to monkey with the time slots, they would likely have been very upset; NBC could not afford to make one of its top ad buyers unhappy, so AW stayed where it was, earning ratings somewhat higher than SuBe's. NBC ended up cancelling both soaps within six months of one another in 1999, believing they could make more money by owning and producing Passions and giving the other hour back to affiliates. Passions never earned the ratings of AW or SuBe, despite exhaustive efforts from NBC to promote it.

Passions was mainly last in the ratings throughout it's run, except for the period where it overtook Port Charles, the struggling General Hospital spin off which had reinvented itself with a telenovela format to boost ratings and cut costs.

NBC certainly wanted their soaps to be more like Days was in that period (that is, bat-$hit crazy), and at times SuBe gave them a run for the money in craziness. Another World was an old-style soap that focused on generational and social-struggle stories, and the show resisted NBC's attempts to "make it more like Days" as long as it could. Procter and Gamble owned AW and if NBC had tried to monkey with the time slots, they would likely have been very upset; NBC could not afford to make one of its top ad buyers unhappy, so AW stayed where it was, earning ratings somewhat higher than SuBe's. NBC ended up cancelling both soaps within six months of one another in 1999, believing they could make more money by owning and producing Passions and giving the other hour back to affiliates. Passions never earned the ratings of AW or SuBe, despite exhaustive efforts from NBC to promote it.

And Passions reading into it had a plot when it launched involving Princess Diana of all things. Even referencing her death in Paris. (And you thought Paul Burrell was bad Diana-wise)

 

[darkshadows38]

ya know i think i did see the last season i remember they did that season i dunno which one it was i think it was the one before the last where the sisters faked their death in the finale that was a good finale and if i recall that was suppose to be the end of the series but than they got renewed and the series finale if i recall was rather week cause i think Julius McMacan or however the hell ya spell his name? i think he came back for the Finale if i recall. i don't remember much else other than that it's been that long. it was on Sunday Nights here in Ohio at i think 9 pm? i want to say? or was it 8pm i think it was 9pm though. i saw it in repeats cause by the time the show ended i had at the time anyways was pretty far behind in what was going on.

 

[tommie]

To be fair to Passions - it did incredibly well in younger demographics which probably helped its ad rates and was the only new soap that actually managed to garner higher ratings during its run than what it debuted with. It just seems that somewhere in the mid-00s James E. Reilly just went more cuckoo than usual and even the devoted fans started tuning out and it never could recover.

 

[darkshadows38]

i tried to watch Passions i'm for the show being Supernatural and it even had freaking Dr. Bombay in it if i recall at some point. it was even talked about it was a bit like Dark Shadows but that's a far better show to be honest. when Sci-fi channel back when it was still a decent channel started airing the show from the 1st year for a few months but it was i think poorly received so they stopped airing it. i used to tape it to see if i'd like it, it was easily the most poorly acted tv show i've ever seen in my entire life. not one of the actors on that could act. Timmy had scenes were he was fine and others he clearly needed more takes. Julia? i'm going by memory had parts of scenes where she was fine, and in others couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.

i was in a play of the lottery in high school i was an extra i hated it cause being in front of that many people looking at you just isn't something i'm comfortable with.
that was better acted than those episodes i watched. i gave up watching at some point, it's funny because Elisabeth Winstead who has gotten better since a lot better was so bad that my ears when watching that show it felt like they were bleeding on how badly acted that show was. since it was the first year the writing really varied to poor to decent. i went in which high hopes hoping the acting was better and that i'd fall in love with it. i was in high school when it started and i was out of it when it ended.

there were some characters that were likable i will give you that, but it was a work of fiction, you will say but Don it's a tv show no that's not what i mean leaving out the spells and all that no town in history on this planet past for present or even a thousand years from now has a town well every single character in that town look like they could be a model. i know Julia doesn't look like that but other than her and Timmy they all were attractive i mean look at any place on this planet you will see a lot of good looking women of course, and prolly some good looking men too but you also will see people that you don't want to see naked that you hope they keep their clothes on in public.

it's also the only tv show i've seen where they cast 99.99% of it's cast where they all look like they could be models. i'm prolly gonna be hated for this and if i am i am.
it wasn't the storylines that got me to stop watching it was the acting i could not bear it any longer. on Dark Shadows there's plenty of it's cast that could not act so when i watch it and you see a character that can't act get killed off i cheer cause i can only handle so much.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Spelling's 90s prime time soaps (Melrose Place / Beverly Hills 90210) had hit their peak at the time too which probably didn't help.

I also don't think it helped that Spelling's career in general had past it's peak by the time they were trying to launch Sunset Beach (Charmed being the only Spelling hit to launch post SuBe). Throughout his career, he'd always churned out some dross amidst his hits but in the 90's, he was firing off trash like University Hospital, Pacific Palisades and Love Boat: The Next Wave at a rapid pace. So while he had his two big hits, his name in the 90's was more synonymous with shortlived rubbish and a daytime soap from Aaron Spelling wouldn't have the same allure as it might have had ten years prior. In saying that, I loved Sunset Beach and it was a cult hit in parts of Europe.

One Spelling produced show that I don't think has been mentioned is Kingpin, the early 00's NBC Mexican drug cartel drama. Looking at it, I'd say he was involved in name only, as it's not a very "Spelling" show in the traditional sense. It was well shot and well written and was being marketed as a sort of network version of The Sopranos. From what I recall, NBC weren't quite sure what to do with it, so they aired it like a miniseries before canning it. Had it been on FX or HBO, it would've been a hit.

 

[Monzo]

One Spelling produced show that I don't think has been mentioned is Kingpin, the early 00's NBC Mexican drug cartel drama. Looking at it, I'd say he was involved in name only, as it's not a very "Spelling" show in the traditional sense. It was well shot and well written and was being marketed as a sort of network version of The Sopranos. From what I recall, NBC weren't quite sure what to do with it, so they aired it like a miniseries before canning it. Had it been on FX or HBO, it would've been a hit.

I rewatched it recently. It's still good, amazing cast (Sheryl Lee & Bobby Cannavale were great), but after only 6 episodes it felt like they had already told the whole story.

 

[AndyB2008]

I also don't think it helped that Spelling's career in general had past it's peak by the time they were trying to launch Sunset Beach (Charmed being the only Spelling hit to launch post SuBe). Throughout his career, he'd always churned out some dross amidst his hits but in the 90's, he was firing off trash like University Hospital, Pacific Palisades and Love Boat: The Next Wave at a rapid pace. So while he had his two big hits, his name in the 90's was more synonymous with shortlived rubbish and a daytime soap from Aaron Spelling wouldn't have the same allure as it might have had ten years prior. In saying that, I loved Sunset Beach and it was a cult hit in parts of Europe.

One Spelling produced show that I don't think has been mentioned is Kingpin, the early 00's NBC Mexican drug cartel drama. Looking at it, I'd say he was involved in name only, as it's not a very "Spelling" show in the traditional sense. It was well shot and well written and was being marketed as a sort of network version of The Sopranos. From what I recall, NBC weren't quite sure what to do with it, so they aired it like a miniseries before canning it. Had it been on FX or HBO, it would've been a hit.

Pacific Palisades - Spelling was going to cast Erika Eleniak as Laura Sinclair, at least understandable to the US audience because at least she was known for Baywatch and Under Siege, but he went with Kimberley Davies (unknown to the US audience) because of the possible international appeal due to her Annalise Hartman role in Neighbours (this at the time Scott Michaelson was trying to sell her as a big star - clearly he swayed Spelling).

PP as we know bombed in the ratings even with Joan Collins, but worse for Kimberley Davies and Scott Michaelson later was the fact that Rachel Blakely, who came from the same soap and in it the same time as them, managed to crack America with The Lost World - the director John Landis had a hand in that show as his St Clare Entertainment partially produced it.

I also don't think it helped that Spelling's career in general had past it's peak by the time they were trying to launch Sunset Beach (Charmed being the only Spelling hit to launch post SuBe). Throughout his career, he'd always churned out some dross amidst his hits but in the 90's, he was firing off trash like University Hospital, Pacific Palisades and Love Boat: The Next Wave at a rapid pace. So while he had his two big hits, his name in the 90's was more synonymous with shortlived rubbish and a daytime soap from Aaron Spelling wouldn't have the same allure as it might have had ten years prior. In saying that, I loved Sunset Beach and it was a cult hit in parts of Europe.

One Spelling produced show that I don't think has been mentioned is Kingpin, the early 00's NBC Mexican drug cartel drama. Looking at it, I'd say he was involved in name only, as it's not a very "Spelling" show in the traditional sense. It was well shot and well written and was being marketed as a sort of network version of The Sopranos. From what I recall, NBC weren't quite sure what to do with it, so they aired it like a miniseries before canning it. Had it been on FX or HBO, it would've been a hit.

The Love Boat revival with Robert Urich was on UPN compared to the original which was on ABC, which probably didn't help either.

UPN was struggling to still establish itself by this point - of their early shows from when they launched, only 3 programmes lasted longer than one season at the time - Star Trek - Voyager, The Sentinel and Moesha.

I recall Dick Wolf did a show for them called Swift Justice, which was basically The Equalizer reincarnated (even to the point of being set in NY and made by Universal TV) but with James McCaffrey instead of Edward Woodward. It wasn't even as popular as The Equalizer, or even Dick's other shows. ITV in the UK picked it up though for late nights. Although Swift Justice flopped, a couple of it's stars Gary Dourdan and Len Cariou were later to find bigger fame on CSI and Blue Bloods.

 

[bmasters9]

Noon was more identified with local news shows, not soaps.

Or game shows, with one exception-- Super Password aired there from 1984-89 on NBC, IIRC.

 

[tommie]

Pacific Palisades - Spelling was going to cast Erika Eleniak as Laura Sinclair, at least understandable to the US audience because at least she was known for Baywatch and Under Siege, but he went with Kimberley Davies (unknown to the US audience) because of the possible international appeal due to her Annalise Hartman role in Neighbours (this at the time Scott Michaelson was trying to sell her as a big star - clearly he swayed Spelling).

PP as we know bombed in the ratings even with Joan Collins, but worse for Kimberley Davies and Scott Michaelson later was the fact that Rachel Blakely, who came from the same soap and in it the same time as them, managed to crack America with The Lost World - the director John Landis had a hand in that show as his St Clare Entertainment partially produced it.

Pacific Palisades bombed from the get-go - it got a 7.0 rating in the first episode, while the lead-in Beverly Hills 90210 got a 8.1 rating. By the fourth episode it got a 4.1 rating, while lead in Beverly Hills 90210 had 7.7, so it was closing in on shedding half the audience! The episode where Joan appeared actually perked up (5 rating), but then again lead-in Beverly Hills 90210 got a 9 rating. I kind of wonder why they didn't place it behind Melrose Place, especially since they just seemed to air burn-offs/random specials after it at that point in the season since they seem more compatible on paper even if 90210 was slightly stronger ratingswise.

 

[Willie Oleson]

amazing cast (Sheryl Lee & Bobby Cannavale were great)

Speaking of Sheryl Lee, Spelling Television was also involved with Twin Peaks but I don't know in what capacity.

 

[AndyB2008]

Pacific Palisades bombed from the get-go - it got a 7.0 rating in the first episode, while the lead-in Beverly Hills 90210 got a 8.1 rating. By the fourth episode it got a 4.1 rating, while lead in Beverly Hills 90210 had 7.7, so it was closing in on shedding half the audience! The episode where Joan appeared actually perked up (5 rating), but then again lead-in Beverly Hills 90210 got a 9 rating. I kind of wonder why they didn't place it behind Melrose Place, especially since they just seemed to air burn-offs/random specials after it at that point in the season since they seem more compatible on paper even if 90210 was slightly stronger ratingswise.

On my point, would it have worked with Erika Eleniak as Laura as Spelling originally intended or not? Just a thought.

As I wrote before, Spelling was swayed by Scott Michaelson and the possible international sales (hint - the UK, Australia and Europe) to cast Kimberley Davies, even though she wasn't a big name there as I don't recall the Annalise episodes airing in the US, and the US audience at least knew Erika sort of either from Baywatch and Under Siege.

Speaking of Sheryl Lee, Spelling Television was also involved with Twin Peaks but I don't know in what capacity.

I think they were just the production company, as the main producers were Mark Frost and David Lynch through their Lynch\Frost productions. Aaron Spelling and E Duke Vincent got no credit at all like they normally do on Spelling stuff.

Not to mention Worldvision, a Spelling arm which is now folded into CBS Media Ventures, distributed the show internationally, so effectively ViacomCBS now own Twin Peaks. But again this was mainly Lynch and Frost's show.

The ownership of TP by ViacomCBS through Spelling enabled Showtime to be part of the revived series, as ViacomCBS owns that channel. The original series aired on ABC.

 

[Willie Oleson]

as the main producers were Mark Frost and David Lynch through their Lynch\Frost productions

Yes I didn't think it was an Aaron Spelling creation even though there are some obvious similarities with Dynasty.

 

[AndyB2008]

I've just noticed another Spelling soap in 1994 on YouTube called Winnetka Road.

It was on NBC, which would show Sunset Beach 3 years later, and was about a group of people in Chicago, Illinois. NBC wouldn't show the 3rd episode because it was apparently was too violent and it lasted just 6 episodes.

Clearly it had a horror show cast to excuse the pun- what with Catherine Hicks, later known for 7th Heaven (ironically from Spelling) but known at the time for Child's Play, Josh Brolin before he was in Mimic, Kristen Cloke pre Final Destination, Megan Ward before she was battling aliens with Eric Close in Dark Skies (which was interestingly on NBC), and Richard Herd from the original V (which was on NBC).

(On the Dark Skies point, it was plotted by it's creators in the same way as Babylon 5 with a 5 season story. The plan was to start in the Sixties which is why the 1st season is like that, then work each season in decade up into a big finale on New Year's Eve 1999. Clearly the ratings weren't spectacular, not helped being on Saturday night, and the show went a retooling midway, when Jeri Ryan joined and Megan Ward's character got co-opted into the Hive).

 

[darkshadows38]

hmm i guess my account was suspended again it's not anymore that's odd cause i dunno why it does that even when i don't even post anything

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

Currently watching Hart to Hart and loving it. Honestly J&J are fire on screen. Not so much the producing but acting.