Yet Again DS Is Linked To Passions In The Press

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And I know some people here see it, but I have to confess I never really have. As I've opined in the past, Passions is about as much like DS as The Dukes Of Hazzard is like Gunsmoke.

But anyway, for what it's worth, check out: Passions is dead...for real this time.

(I honestly feel bad for Passisons' fans because we can certainly empathize that it's never fun when a show you really enjoy is canceled - but I have to say I won't miss the P/DS connections being made in the press. Though one thing I will agree about in the article is that "NBC has been systematically destroying the soap opera genre since it canceled Santa Barbara -- an Emmy-winning, classy romantic drama". And actually, SB was also often compared to DS, occasionally for it (serious) supernatural elements, but mostly because of its willingness to break the mold. I was a big fan of SB, and I miss it to this day.)

[David]

MB, I've watched Passions entire run.
From '99-'03, it was very much a cross between DS & Bewitched & had wonderful things going on.

I do detest the rape/incest fest it later became.

Passions final first run airdate in 8/11.

David

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I saw much of Passions during that time because I videotaped it for my then ailing mom (who watched seven soaps - several that aired opposite each other) and on the weekends I would bring the tape to her and she and often I would watch it while we ate or simply spent time together, or I would at least overhear it while I was doing other things around the house. I initially wanted to like it, but even in those days the show was far too campy and goofy for my taste - hence my comparing it to The Dukes Of Hazzard. DS was many things, but it was never campy/goofy in my eyes. I, like many fans and in particular the DS actors, bristle whenever an article refers top DS as camp. (The actors see it as an insult because they insist they always played everything straight and any supposed campiness in purely in the eye of the beholder. But we've had this debate on the forum numerous times, so I won't go into it any further yet again.)

All that is not to say that Passions couldn't be enjoyable for some. It obviously was - and my mom was one. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with campy/goofy if that's what you're in the mood to watch. But just because Passions and DS were both soaps and there were supernatural elements in both, those things alone don't bind the two together as closely as some in the press have insisted upon doing. The overall differences in attitude and execution were worlds apart between them, just as they were between The Dukes Of Hazzard and Gunsmoke.

[borgosi]

In it's very early days I tried so very hard to like "Passions". I wanted it to feel the empty spot left by the end of DS. It just could not do it.

To me linking DS and "Passions" is like trying to link Hitchcock and Ray Dennis Steckler. They're both filmmakers but that all they have in common. I really like Steckler's work better than "Passions". I always felt like he was doing his best. To me it never felt like the actors in "Passions" never told it serious and therefor I couldn't.

As for linking DS and "Passions", I fully understand that. DS set the standard. It's like James Whale's Frankenstein, whenever a new film in made that is based on Mary Shelley's classic it is compared to the 1931 film. Any daytime a TV show that covers the ground that DS did, in any way, it will be linked and compared to DS. 

[Gothick]

I saw a few minutes of a couple of episodes of Passions during the first year or so that it was on, just out of curiosity.  In one of the episodes. Timmy was naughty and the Juliet Mills character stuck him in the washing machine to "cool off."  A bubble opened up as a "Timmy doll" spun around and around in the machine advising viewers not to "try this at home."

If the show reminded me of anything from the Sixties, it was the Witchiepoo segments of H. R. Pufnstuf.  And then some vaguely pornographic hunk in a uniform would wander into camera range and read some really stilted dialogue off a cue card.  I'm really surprised it lasted as long as it did; the show did not seem to be directed at all and apart from Mills, none of the performers seemed to have had any acting experience or training of any description.  But, as I said, I'm making those observations based  on a couple of brief sequences I watched before switching off the series because the proceedings were too preposterous even for my looneytunes taste.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

then some vaguely pornographic hunk in a uniform would wander into camera range and read some really stilted dialogue off a cue card.  I'm really surprised it lasted as long as it did; the show did not seem to be directed at all and apart from Mills, none of the performers seemed to have had any acting experience or training of any description.  But, as I said, I'm making those observations based  on a couple of brief sequences I watched before switching off the series because the proceedings were too preposterous even for my looneytunes taste.

Actually, your assessment is pretty spot on for what the show was like in the beginning. Critics tore it to pieces, with Entertainment Weekly's review being particularly scathing. At least the acting did improve, however. It would have been hard for it not to have. Though some of the improvement required recasting.

[joe integlia]

i watched passions from day 1 and enjoy it still. the outragous things they have done and still do made it unique. just yesterday a character disguised herself as an ugly betty look a like, another male character got his private parts cut off! his pregnant "son" was drugging his doctor mother so she would botch the surgery and kill the father of his child who is also his father while she tries to reattach his private part. lol

[Gerard]

I only saw glimpses of Passions (basically because a friend of mine was hooked on it).  It did have, of course, all those supernatural elements and it even incorporated directly the theme music from Dark Shadows in one scene.  But I never considered it a Dark Shadows inspired soap.  After all, other soaps eventually brought in supernatural and even sci-fi elements, from Days of Our Lives to General Hospital.  But the one short-lived soap that I saw as "Son of Dark Shadows" was Port Charles, the GH spinoff.  It was to have self-contained storylines that lasted 13 weeks and then moved on to the next one.  But when they introduced the vampire and became a tad more popular, the 13 weeks was chucked (as it was on DS) and PC became the second vampire soap opera.

Gerard

[David]

i watched passions from day 1 and enjoy it still. the outragous things they have done and still do made it unique. just yesterday a character disguised herself as an ugly betty look a like, another male character got his private parts cut off! his pregnant "son" was drugging his doctor mother so she would botch the surgery and kill the father of his child who is also his father while she tries to reattach his private part. lol

Joe is right.
Though the rape/incest storylines grossed me out this past year, the kind of wacky comedy that Joe describes is what Passions does best.

Here's why the show lasted 8 years on NBC:
though low rated in terms of actual number of viewers, Passions often ranked #1 or 2 among the key demographics that advertiisers love:
teen girls & young women.

Direct TV says that Passions was the highest rated original show they ever aired.
But with a $40 million per year budget, Direct TV couldn't make it cost effective.

David

[Mysterious Benefactor]

No one is claiming that Passions didn't have an audience that enjoyed it. And I even conceded that in my second post in the topic and admitted that my mom was certainly someone who did (though she was hardly in the age group that comprised the show's core/target audience  ) The point of this topic, and the point made by the majority of posters is that Passions and DS were far less alike than they ever might have been alike.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

But the one short-lived soap that I saw as "Son of Dark Shadows" was Port Charles, the GH spinoff.  It was to have self-contained storylines that lasted 13 weeks and then moved on to the next one.  But when they introduced the vampire and became a tad more popular, the 13 weeks was chucked (as it was on DS) and PC became the second vampire soap opera.

Yes, Gerard - the latter years of Port Charles were far more worthy of being compared to DS than Passions, even in its supposed heyday, ever was. It featured vampires, time travel, resurrection, mysterious paintings, and even werewolves - and all of it was presented completely straight for maximum dramatic effect, just as it had been on DS.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Another DS reference: US soap Passions axed again. Though I honestly think Passions owes more to the soaps that handled their supernatural elements tongue in cheek than it does to DS.
(It's also interesting, as pointed out by the article, that Passions was never picked up any UK network. Nearly every, if not every other US soap runs in the UK. Many are actually bigger hits there than they are here.)

[David]

(Passions has aired in Canada, France, Croatia, Austraila & several Latin American countries.
But not the UK.
Though I've heard it's got a small UK fan base that watches online.)

David

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Yes, Gerard - the latter years of Port Charles were far more worthy of being compared to DS

And actually, there's such a comparison in this article about Ten actors who helped make General Hospital shine. Scroll down to the Lynn Herring section.

[joe integlia]

and yet again just today passions mentioned BARNABAS COLLINS on todays episode on DIRECTV! I believe this is the 3rd or even 4th time BARNABAS is mentioned on the series. this time JOSETTE is also mentioned! here is the transcript.....
EDNA: ARE YOU OFF FOR A DATE WITH BARNABAS COLLINS?
TABITHA: 300 YRS LATER POOR BARNABAS IS STILL MOURNING THE LOSS OF HIS BELOVED JOSETTE. I'VE TOLD HIM TO "GET A LIFE" BUT SINCE HE'S TECHNICALLY DEAD ALREADY.......
EDNA:(chuckles)DO YOU WANT TEA OR COFFEE?
TABITHA: TEA