World Cup Tournament World Cup of 80s Soap Cliffhangers

James from London

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Falcon Crest Season 4 (Maggie catches Chase snogging Connie causing her to run to Richard’s where she ends up snogging him. The Cartel explode a bomb around them) vs Falcon Crest Season 6 (Emma threatens to jump of the roof, Chao-Li collapses and falls down the stairs, Richard is revealed to be Angela’s son and Dan, Chase and Richard are missing in the San Francisco Bay).

Melissa's accident looks great but knowing what had caused it - everything the viewers had to endure - well, it takes a lot of fun out of it.

Yes, I kind of felt that too. Sending Melissa mad for no particular reason and then having her play the whole thing for laughs was truly painful to watch, and caused long-term damage to both her character and FC's overall credibility. However, the impact of the Season 6 finale on the start of the next season -- the shifts in the family dynamic caused by Chase's death and the discovery that Richard is Angela's son -- are really, really fascinating. The first few eps of Season 7 are among FC's best.

I feel kind of the opposite about the Season 4 finale. Whereas the build-up to the "Who blew up Richard?" cliffhanger was really good soap, the aftermath was a bit anti-climactic.

But if for no other reason than I hate the screeching mess they turned Melissa into in Season 6, my vote goes to ... SEASON 4!

Knots Landing Season 3 (Valene leaves Gary after catching him in bed with Abby) vs Dallas Season 5 (Cliff takes an overdose of pills and Sue Ellen states she won’t remarry JR if Cliff dies).

Everything about Gary and Valene's marriage seems high-stakes because we've witnessed that fragile relationship from the very beginning.
Yes!
Gary and Valene's marriage was what introduced us to Knots Landing and now we were seeing the disintegrating which again was great drama.
Yes!
Val and Gary were the bedrock of the series. Everything we knew of Knots Landing started with them. Even with what we'd seen of Gary, this episode really brought home that those foundations had been build on shifting sand, and the only thing left was to start all over again. It's one of the most important moments in the series' history, and it didn't make false promises.

Yes, absolutely! This KNOTS cliffhanger is as character-driven as soap gets. Without needing it explained, we totally get why Gary revels in his guilt-free affair with Abby but then completely crumbles when Val finds them together and begs her not to leave him. Meanwhile on DALLAS, to get Sue Ellen to go from divorcing JR to falling back in love with him to sleeping with Cliff out of revenge to dumping Cliff when he asks her for money to accepting JR's marriage proposal to getting second-thoughts at Cliff's bedside, all within the space of about fifteen episodes, requires the season to turn her into a bit of a plot-driven moron, which she hadn't really been up to this point.
The Dallas finale didn't feel big enough (as Willie said), was indeed underwhelming (as Angela pointed out) and ultimately didn't really change anything.
As comparatively low-key as it was, I do think the end of this season sets things up perfectly for the start of the next season, which is then classic DALLAS all the way.

But anyway ... KNOTS!
 

James from London

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I think I remember who did it but I don't remember why she did it.
It's odd because she gets a really great last episode, which is actually the episode before the cliffhanger. And then when she pops back briefly the next season to try and finish the job, she's played by someone else. And in-between, no-one is falsely arrested for attempted murder which is the least one expects from a whodunnit. But then, FALCON CREST always did march to its own drum.
 

Willie Oleson

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colbyco

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Yes, I kind of felt that too. Sending Melissa mad for no particular reason and then having her play the whole thing for laughs was truly painful to watch, and caused long-term damage to both her character and FC's overall credibility. However, the impact of the Season 6 finale on the start of the next season -- the shifts in the family dynamic caused by Chase's death and the discovery that Richard is Angela's son -- are really, really fascinating. The first few eps of Season 7 are among FC's best. (...)
- Really FC´s first episodes and last episodes of this season are really great! I was so happy the Kim Novak year was over! After that we got bombed with the death of Chase, Richard´s real mother, Maggie dealing with Chase´ ex lover Nicole (who had so great Alexis-like decadence scenes)! At the end we got Melissa taking over FC and Eric "killing" Richard. Melissa had to choose between love and power!
All between was a really wild (white slaves and ninjas) but entertaining year.
 

Angela Channing

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The voting has now closed and the results are as follows:

Match 1
Falcon Crest Season 4 - 4 votes
Falcon Crest Season 6 - 9 votes

Match 2
Knots Landing Season 3 - 10 votes
Dallas Season 5 - 3 votes

The votes weren't as close this week and there were clear winners in both matches. The cliffhangers going through to round 2 are Falcon Crest Season 6 (Emma threatens to jump of the roof, Chao-Li collapses and falls down the stairs, Richard is revealed to be Angela’s son and Dan, Chase and Richard are missing in the San Francisco Bay) and Knots Landing Season 3 (Valene leaves Gary after catching him in bed with Abby).



Thank you to everyone who voted in last week's matches. Details of the next 2 round 2 matches will be posted on this thread tomorrow.
 

Angela Channing

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The poll is now open for you to choose which cliffhangers you would like to win each of the next 2 matches to go through to round 3.

You may vote for a winner of either match or for both matches but remember you are voting for your favourite cliffhanger, not your favourite episode or favourite soap opera.

Stating the reasons for your choices is encouraged as this makes the contest more interesting and may help others in making their decisions. However, this is entirely optional and you can just state your chosen winner of each match if you prefer.

Match 1

Dynasty Season 8 (
Dex and Sean fight and a gun goes off during their struggle and Krystle is sick and is gone from the mansion leaving Blake to lament that he wished they had more time) vs Dallas Season 7 (Bobby is shot at Ewing Oil by a mystery assailant).



 

Angela Channing

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Match 2

Falcon Crest Season 1
(After the inquest finds Emma was responsible for Jason’s death, Chase takes 50% of Falcon Crest from Angela ) vs Dynasty Season 1 (A surprise witness appears for the prosecution at Blake’s trial, Fallon exclaims it’s her mother).





The vote will close at midday on Wednesday 30th June 2022.
 

Jock Og

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Match 1: DALLAS season 7.

J.R. was the target again but Bobby was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Match 2: DYNASTY season 1.

As much as I would like to vote for FC this DYNASTY cliffhanger brought the show to another level, in terms of the new character.
 

colbyco

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1. DYNASTY - "My god Krystle I thought we had more time"
when I heard it the first time for me this words were not for Krystle only but for the future of the whole show ... "I thought we had more time"

while at "Dallas" there was another shooting ... it feels like every second cliffhanger of this show ends with a shooting

2. DYNASTY - both shows ended their first year in court with shadows of the future ... who is Richard Channing? and "Oh my god it´s my mother!"
Both persons pushed their shows to a higher level. But the way Alexis pushed Dynasty was in a much bigger league than Richard´s influence.
 

Angela Channing

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Match 1
Until I put the comic strip together for this World Cup I had completely forgotten about the Dynasty season 8 cliffhanger so it couldn't have made a big impression on me the when I originally watched it. The old soap opera cliché of life-threatening and seemingly incurable illness for which miraculously a cure will become available in a future episode was employed. However, I liked how John Forsythe played the final scene, even though the storyline was a bit ropey, he was still able to elicit some sympathy for his plight. This contrasts with the Alexis/Dex/Sean scene which was pure over the top lunacy with hammy performances. The fight scene looked more choreographed than a show dance on Strictly Come Dancing and was there any doubt that it was Dean that would be shot and not Dex? That said, I can't remember what the outcome was, as I said previously, I had forgotten about this cliffhanger.

The Dallas cliffhanger was a case of here we go again. In the build up were see various scenes to show several characters had a motive to shoot JR and the shooting scene itself is quite similar to the season 3 finale in that the camera is used as the eyes of the shooter as it surveys the layout of Ewing Oil before the shots were fired. Although, there was strong an element of deja vu about it all, at the time when it was first broadcast it was really exciting and had a bigger impact on me than the Dynasty season 8 finale so my winner for match 1 is:

Dallas Season 7

Match 2
I like the Falcon Crest cliffhanger because it set up the main source of conflict that would run through the duration of the series: who would control Falcon Crest. I loved how Angela, even in the defeat of losing control of her beloved business still found something positive and that glint in her eye and knowing smile at the end was brilliant.

Over in Dynasty, the cliffhanger was unusual because it wasn't really about raising the tension or expectation of a storyline but about raising tension and expectation about something regarding the production of the show, i.e., who would they be casting to play Blake's ex wife. Alexis's appearance in court didn't really add a great deal the proceedings of the case this was all about who would be playing Alexis. As much as I liked the Falcon Crest cliffhanger, I have to give credit to Dynasty for doing something different so my winner for match 2 is:

Dynasty Season1
 

Mel O'Drama

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Round 2 - Week 2




Match 1

Both these episodes represent "firsts" in my relationship with the respective series, which means I'm very fond of both.

This was the first episode of Dynasty I recorded. Or at least the first I recorded as a "keeper", to rewatch and enjoy in the longer term rather than simply wiping it. It's the same reason I gave for my fondness of the Dallas episode of the same summer where Sue Ellen shot JR.

1988 clearly saw a shift in my viewpoint on TV series and home media: I also recorded Swan Song which was repeated over the summer and, later the same year, I made a conscious decision to record and keep every remaining episode of Knots Landing's sixth series on VHS. This magic window of time - where I realised there's no reason I couldn't rewatch a TV series many times in the same way I would a favourite film - changed my relationship with television. For that reason, the ones I recorded in that first year hold a special place in my heart.

Out of context, I've always thoroughly enjoyed rewatches of Dynasty's 1988 finale. It's great fun, and I was far less critical than I would be today, allowing me to simply enjoy it again and again. In addition to those in the captions, there were also little endings and cliffhangers in Steven's decision to leave Denver and Sammy Jo accepting Jeff's proposal while Fallon is in the bedroom, still exhausted from an overlong lovemaking montage with Jeff (in the O'Drama household, a collective sigh of relief at the sex scene's commercial break fadeout was immediately followed by a collective groan when it faded back in and briefly resumed. It was a moment). Blake's final line resonated round my head, so all in all it ticked all the cliffhanger boxes for me.

Meanwhile four years earlier, End Game was the episode that got me hooked on Dallas... and I only watched it through peer pressure. In 1984 I was on a children's hospital ward, and there wasn't a great deal to do but gather in the main ward where there was a large TV and watch together. Someone - I dare say one of the nurses or mothers - had to watch Dallas, so we all ended up watching by default. I must have loathed spoilers from an early age, and I must have been invested early in the episode, because I remember feeling peeved when a staff nurse wandered in and commented that she'd read that Bobby was going to be shot at the end. All the same, I didn't quite believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. The moment itself was very exciting, with the tantalising subjective direction and the wonderfully cinematic score. This was reinforced by a recap of suspects immediately afterwards (promoting a breakfast TV show the next morning) and then the depressing announcement that I'd have to wait until the autumn to find out who shot Bobby (the concept of TV seasons was new to me and I couldn't believe they could make us wait that long). This is exactly as I saw the final scene back then, complete with the following announcements:

During the summer, I lapped up every repeated episode of the season, beginning with Southfork on fire (I had no idea why or how) and running all the way through to the repeat of Bobby's shooting. By the time the new season began, I was a Dallas fan. And I'd also correctly worked out whodunnit.

In another match, I'd happily give this Dynasty episode a vote. But up against such a seminal episode, I can only vote for...

Dallas - Season "Seven"









Match 2


Well, I voted for this Falcon Crest episode before, and it does look like a key turning point. But...

The structure and emotional intelligence of Dynasty's first season made this moment not only iconic but also important and substantial. This is as good as courtroom drama gets. Plus Brian Dennehy's in the thick of it, bellowing out accusations.

It's an easy win for...

Dynasty - Season One
 

Julia's Gun

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This was reinforced by a recap of suspects immediately afterwards (promoting a breakfast TV show the next morning) and then the depressing announcement that I'd have to wait until the autumn to find out who shot Bobby (the concept of TV seasons was new to me and I couldn't believe they could make us wait that long). This is exactly as I saw the final scene back then, complete with the following announcements:

LOL, I remember watching this as it happened too! I was only 9 but was shocked to see Bobby's handsome face with blood trickling down it....
I remember the next morning TV as well, I think it was TV AM on the other side also had odds on who the likely shooter was. Had Sue-Ellen shot Bobby by mistake?
Those were the days....
 

Barbara Fan

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I remember feeling peeved when a staff nurse wandered in and commented that she'd read that Bobby was going to be shot at the end.
Yip, the good old UK press let the cat out of the bag and printed photos of Bobby slumped in chair and falling to the ground after it was shown in USA - after much specuulation that JR was to be shot AGAIN!!
 
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