SciFi, Passions and the new Doctor Who

[Patti Feinberg]

Does anyone know when Passions first aired?

David, I'm glad for your that a show you love is on.....'that' station.

Friends...vapid...lololol

Patti (but, if I'm being honest...I liked thirtysomething....going to hide now...especially from Rainey & Connie)

[Patti Feinberg]

Hasn't one of DS's claims to fame always been that it's the only soap aired in syndication? (Now, granted, with SoapNet, I guess this could be disclaimed for other shows...but it is only a 'soap' station.)

Now, with Passions on SciFi, doesn't this go into the above area?

Patti

[FireRose]

Hasn't one of DS's claims to fame always been that it's the only soap aired in syndication? (Now, granted, with SoapNet, I guess this could be disclaimed for other shows...but it is only a 'soap' station.)

Now, with Passions on SciFi, doesn't this go into the above area?

I thought that when a show is put into syndication. It is on the open market and any network/cable channel that wishes to purchase rights to air it could.

So in my thinking Dark Shadows still retains the title. Because technically Passions is still being aired on a NBC connected network and it isn't on the open market.  Because if I remember correctly the Sic-fi channel is owned by the same people who own NBC.

So I don't think one can say Passions is truely in syndication. But that is just my opinion.

FireRose

[VictoriaWintersRox]

Dark Shadows still holds the record for being the only network soap to have its reruns syndicated on local stations. I believe reruns of the first-run syndicated soap Strange Paradise were also shown on local stations in the 1970s and 1980s.

Dark Shadows and Passions aren't the only soaps to have their reruns syndicated on cable, though. There have been seven soaps that have been aired by cable networks at one point or another, not including soaps that air same-day episodes on SoapNet:
(1) The Edge of Night (USA, 1985-1989)
(2) Search for Tomorrow (USA, 1985-1987)
(3) Dark Shadows (Sci Fi, 1992-2003)
(4) Ryan's Hope (SoapNet, 2000- )
(5) Another World (SoapNet, 2003- )
(6) Port Charles (SoapNet, 2003- )
(7) Passions (Sci-Fi, 2006- )

[Misa]

Hi FireRose,

Did you misspell Sci-Fi channel, or did you spell it this way on purpose, "sic-fi"?  I think it's fitting since they cancelled DS. If you did misspell it I'm not criticizing. I am a terrible speller, so I wouldn't dream of bringing anyone else to task over their spelling.

But I think its funny. I will call them Sic-Fi from now on.

Misa

[Ian]

Dark Shadows still holds the record for being the only network soap to have its reruns syndicated on local stations. I believe reruns of the first-run syndicated soap Strange Paradise were also shown on local stations in the 1970s and 1980s.

Dark Shadows and Passions aren't the only soaps to have their reruns syndicated on cable, though. There have been seven soaps that have been aired by cable networks at one point or another, not including soaps that air same-day episodes on SoapNet:
(1) The Edge of Night (USA, 1985-1989)
(2) Search for Tomorrow (USA, 1985-1987)
(3) Dark Shadows (Sci Fi, 1992-2003)
(4) Ryan's Hope (SoapNet, 2000- )
(5) Another World (SoapNet, 2003- )
(6) Port Charles (SoapNet, 2003- )
(7) Passions (Sci-Fi, 2006- )

Actually, SoapNet also shows the following soaps:

Beverly Hills, 90210
Dallas
Dynasty
Melrose Place
The Monroes
Paper Dolls
Pasadena
Skin
The Colbys
Falcon Crest
Hotel
Knots Landing
Sisters

[FireRose]

Hi FireRose,

Did you misspell Sci-Fi channel, or did you spell it this way on purpose, "sic-fi"?  I think it's fitting since they cancelled DS. If you did misspell it I'm not criticizing. I am a terrible speller, so I wouldn't dream of bringing anyone else to task over their spelling.

But I think its funny. I will call them Sic-Fi from now on.

I wish I could say I did that on purpose, but it was a typo.

A typo that worked out well!!!

FireRose

[VictoriaWintersRox]

Actually, SoapNet also shows the following soaps:

I didn't include the primetime soaps because it's not that surprising that they've been rerun - after all, at maximum they have 360-ish episodes ala Dallas and Knots Landing. Another World, on the other hand, had something like 8891 episodes, while Ryan's Hope had 3515. Primetime soaps have been seen in reruns for quite a while (starting with Peyton Place), whereas reruns of daytime soaps didn't come about until the advent of cable (with the exception of DS).

[Raineypark]

Dear Goddess......can we just imagine re-running something like "As The World Turns"?  That's been on the air for at least 150 years, no? 

[Satan]

It was grand, and ended when actor Josh Ryan Evans (Timmy the Living Doll) died of heart disease. A big part of Passions died with him.

For me, the whole show died when Josh died. It was nothing anymore. I despise what they did to Juliet Mills after showing off her talent as an actress for the first few years, they stick her in these worthless scenes now where she talks to a baby or spy on people with that bowl. I think it's a slap in the face towards Juliet since she is getting Emmy nominations when she really doesn't deserve it now. In the first three years, especially during Timmy's death, Juliet was amazing. I feel sorry for her. I hope they redo Passions now and give Juliet the stories that she has already shown she can pull off. That's just my opinion and I can't wait for the day when Passions is cancelled because it really sucks now.

I think it's interesting that some DS fans say Passions is a rip off of DS when really it's Port Charles that is most like Dark Shadows. PC started out like DS with non-supernatural stories and then added the vampire and created stories around that. The vampire stories were the biggest part of both shows. I read if PC hadn't have been cancelled they would have done a werewolf story. So I believe PC is a bigger rip off of DS than Passions when it comes to that kind of subject.

Hasn't one of DS's claims to fame always been that it's the only soap aired in syndication? (Now, granted, with SoapNet, I guess this could be disclaimed for other shows...but it is only a 'soap' station.)

I think Passions is the first soap opera to be in reruns while still producing new episodes at the same time. Another World, Port Charles, and those other soaps didn't go into syndication until after they were cancelled. Hopefully this is a sign that Passions is on its way to ending very quickly.

[David]

Satan:
When I interviewed Juliet Mills for Filmfax Magazine & San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter, she said the show was planning on soon sending her & daughter Endora on some very Tabby/Timmy like adventures.

Right after Josh Evans passed, the show tried to bring on more "living dolls" but the audience rejected them, hence Endora, Tabby's daughter.

While the show lost a lot of it's magic with Josh's death, I have to say that the characters of Alistair Crane & Liz are so ridiculously evil, they're fun to watch, and I still enjoy the show.
But Tabby/Timmy was the golden highlight of the show, as the Sci-Fi reruns are making evident!

Port Charles: The werewolf story was underway, and the werewolf, a black woman, was revealed on the show's final, cliffhanging episode.
Port Charles had great potential, and some wonderful moments.
It's our fault for not supporting it.
It's rating for it's las 2 years was a shameful 1.5

David

[Willie]

Well, it's only your fault if you've got a Neilson box hooked up to your TV.  Otherwise, no one knows or cares what you're watching.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

this is sort of off-topic but because they are "cult" shows with a fantasy angle d.s. is often lumped in with shows like 'doctor who' and 'star trek'.

both of these shows have been remade.especially 'star trek' which spawned several t.v. spin-offs and helped create a "world of star trek".

now this is just me but i'm glad that d.s. exists as a perfect time-capsule.i'm glad it was never spun-off into a "world" of cheaply produced,syndicated fantasy shows that clutter up the saturday afternoon t.v. schedule.
i think that would have been a shame.

I was thinking about this and one way that a "spin-off" series similar to what's been done with Star Trek might work with DS would be if, say, a new original primetime network or syndicated DS series was to do a time travel storyline back into the past (like 1897 or 1840) or perhaps into Parallel Time (like a present day PT or 1841PT) and the characters remaining after the original series' character(s) returned to their own time could continue the story from the point the original series' character(s) went back to their own time. The spin-off series wouldn't simply be peopled by characters that the audience didn't know but ones that they'd come to care about over the course of the original series' time travel story. Though, of course, a successful original series would have to be established first - and we're nowhere near that point.    (Not to mention any new DS writers would have to curb any desire they might have to follow in the footsteps of the original DS writers and kill off practically every viable character as the original series' time travel storyline reached its conclusion.)