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Post by topbilled on Feb 15, 2024 17:05:55 GMT
Some TV movies and long-running series are more melodramatic than others. (For purposes of this discussion, I am not including daytime soap operas or primetime soaps, since I think those are very specialized cases of melodramatic storytelling.) Instead, I mean shows that most people consider dramas, but yet they contain stories involving romantic angst and the characters are occasionally battling personal demons.
I would say the TV melodrama reached its peak in the 1980s, because even though not all shows were soap operas, many of them were influenced by the success of programs like Dallas and Dynasty. For example, the final two seasons of The Waltons focused more on the romantic problems of the siblings who were now becoming adults and trying to find their own personal happiness.
We also had series in other genres, such as Hill Street Blues which went beyond the conventional boundaries of a weekly cop show to include the characters' personal issues. St. Elsewhere was structured similarly, though in that case, the genre was not crime-based but medical. We followed the ups and downs of the doctors and nurses not just inside the hospital but outside St. Eligius too. NBC's later medical drama ER continued in this vein.
Specifically, in the posts that follow, I'd like to look at one of Aaron Spelling's hit shows from the 1980s. Not Dynasty, since that is pure soap opera...but I'd like to focus on Hotel which ran from 1983 to 1988 and produced 116 episodes.
Why Hotel? Well, even though it didn't run as long as Spelling's similarly formatted shows The Love Boat and Fantasy Island, I think Hotel goes a bit deeper and contains much more melodrama. The Love Boat had occasionally serious themes, but mostly was known for romantic comedy, so the tone is overall much lighter. Fantasy Island, had light and dark themes, but is remembered more for the supernatural fantasy elements it depicted.
Hotel is a close-to-perfect adaptation of a literary source (Arthur Hailey's bestselling novel, first published in 1965, which was turned into a big screen film in 1967 starring Merle Oberon and Rod Taylor). Of course, Spelling's producers and writers have revised the format slightly to fit into a continuing weekly episodic structure, but the regular and recurring characters deal with various personal issues...and the guest characters bring many assorted social problems to the St. Gregory, which unlike the book and film (set in New Orleans) is set in San Francisco.
Best of all Hotel is chock full of well-known guest stars, and it's interesting to see those aging stars from the golden age of Hollywood acting alongside younger TV stars, some of whom (like George Clooney) went on to become movie stars themselves.
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Post by topbilled on Feb 19, 2024 0:34:55 GMT
I purchased all five seasons of Hotel. I have to tell a quick story here. The first season is the only one available on DVD on Amazon. The series cannot be streamed anywhere. Seasons 2-5 were released on DVD years ago but were never offered again.
But then about a week ago, right before I started this thread, those later seasons were suddenly available on Amazon. As if someone had found the discs in storage and made them for sale. It said there were only two copies available. So I quickly put all 5 seasons in my shopping cart, didn't care about the cost, because I have been eager to re-watch the whole show.
I am grateful I just so happened to look for it on Amazon when it briefly became available again, and now I have all 116 episodes. It arrived today.
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Okay, now to get to the specific seasons and specific episodes. Why did I want to watch Hotel again? Well, I knew the plots were very melodramatic but a lot of good TV from the 1980s had strong production values, smart writing, big name guest stars and most importantly, heart.
I decided to start with season 5 because Ginger Rogers makes her last acting appearance in the first episode of season 5. She was utterly fantastic, didn't lose any of the magic that first made her so good in the 1930s, that great skill (and instinct about character) she carried with her across her entire career. I will re-watch that episode later and go more in-depth.
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But there is an episode I do want to discuss in-depth right now. It's the one called 'And Baby Makes Two.' The episode has two main plots. The first plot involves an infant child that has been abandoned whom Christine (Connie Sellecca) fosters...and the conflicts she has when the biological mother returns to reclaim the baby. I thought Sellecca was very good, almost brutal, lashing out at the woman who'd skipped out and came back. The backstory for Christine is that her father abandoned her when she was 14, after her mother died, and she's never gotten over it. So this plot tapped into all her insecurities about parenting and what's best for kids.
The second plot was even more outstanding. Kay Lenz plays a woman from the midwest who comes to the St. Gregory to surprise her husband (Tom Mason) who's staying at the hotel on business. They've had trouble in their marriage, and since he's a traveling salesman, he's away from her and their sons a lot. She has shown up to rekindle the flame and get their marriage back on track.
Of course, the minute she checks in, she sees her husband with another woman (the always classy Deborah Adair). It's clear he's having an affair, and this hurts big time. Lenz looks up a girlfriend who lives in San Francisco, and she discusses her next option. She decides to fight for her marriage. She goes shopping, she buys the sexiest clothes she can find...then she knocks on her husband's hotel room door to begin their reunion. However, he will barely touch her, won't kiss her, won't do anything.
This is way more than a story about a husband who cheats. It turns out that Deborah Adair's character, a very put together and successful businesswoman, has developed pneumonia. But when she went to the doctor to get treated for it, tests were done and it came back that she tested positive for HIV antibodies. So she has the AIDS virus in her system.
After leaving the doctor, Adair has come to the hotel to tell Mason her diagnosis and that he may also be HIV positive. Some of this works as a morality tale AND a public service announcement, since Adair instructs Mason to also get tested. Meanwhile, Mason has to tell Lenz why he won't be intimate with her, since he's afraid to put her at risk. There are some very thoughtful scenes in this episode.
The best scene, though, has Adair meeting Lenz to explain her side of things...with Lenz trying to make sense of it all and deciding if she can stay married. Also, what would happen if she stays married to Mason and Mason tests positive. The whole thing is brilliantly written and acted.
An episode like this makes me appreciate how important Aaron Spelling melodramas were in the 1980s. The shows often had an agenda, but I think in this case, it's a good social agenda. I can imagine how helpful this particular dramatization was for viewers watching at home...especially ones in the midwest, who thought AIDS only happened in big cities, or to drug users and gay men.
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Post by kims on Feb 19, 2024 1:36:22 GMT
I liked HOTEL and agree with you that Aaron Spelling melodramas were well written. Norman Lear comedies slapped you in the face and sorry to ruffle feathers, even M*A*S*H final season was too preachy for me.
I'll add a slant to your statement that people in the midwest thought AIDS only happened in big cities, drug users and gay men. One underlying thought was that only immoral behavior (judged so in that era) spread AIDS and those people got what they deserved. I lived in the midwest during the 80's and was jarred by the vindictive slant of that reasoning. Many did not believe a blood transfusion could transmit AIDS and people who claimed so were not believed.
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Post by topbilled on Feb 19, 2024 15:01:27 GMT
I liked HOTEL and agree with you that Aaron Spelling melodramas were well written. Norman Lear comedies slapped you in the face and sorry to ruffle feathers, even M*A*S*H final season was too preachy for me. I'll add a slant to your statement that people in the midwest thought AIDS only happened in big cities, drug users and gay men. One underlying thought was that only immoral behavior (judged so in that era) spread AIDS and those people got what they deserved. I lived in the midwest during the 80's and was jarred by the vindictive slant of that reasoning. Many did not believe a blood transfusion could transmit AIDS and people who claimed so were not believed.
I think what impressed (still impresses) me about Hotel is how the writers were able to find the right balance between social message drama and humor. Also, one thing that really helps Hotel over The Love Boat and Fantasy Island is it has the ongoing arc of romance brewing between Peter McDermott (James Brolin) and his right-hand assistant Christine Francis (Connie Sellecca), so there's a little more to invest in.
We never found out much about the personal life of Ricardo Montalban's character Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island. And aside from the father-daughter relationship between the captain (Gavin MacLeod) and his young daughter (Jill Whelan) on The Love Boat most of the regular or recurring characters had sketchy backgrounds. Yes, their relatives would occasionally turn up on the various cruises, but those were usually one-off appearances, so we weren't able to invest in those characters and their personal lives over the long haul.
But Hotel keeps us firmly invested with the relationship that develops between Peter and Christine. Also, two of the staff workers (played by Heidi Bohay and Michael Spound) fall in love, marry and start a family on the show. In real life, Bohay & Spound would marry after the show ended and go on to have three kids. So I guess what I am saying is that Hotel contains more realism than the other Aaron Spelling hits of the 1980s, though it still used a format that was familiar to viewers. |
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Post by topbilled on Feb 19, 2024 15:59:44 GMT
Okay...I want to share my thoughts about the Ginger Rogers guest appearance on Hotel. She appeared in the very first episode of season 5 called 'Hail and Farewell' which seems a rather appropriate title since it would be Rogers' acting farewell. She had been working in Hollywood since 1930.
Incidentally, this was Ginger's third time guest-starring on an Aaron Spelling program. She had done a two-part episode of The Love Boat in 1979 and she also guest-starred on one of his short-lived series called Glitter in 1984. It was now 1987, and she was 76 years old. They have cast her as a channeler. I guess this was the lingo at the time for a psychic medium.
The set-up for this main plot is fairly ingenious. A wealthy man from Georgia (Ted Shackleford) checks into the St. Gregory to meet Natalie Trent, the channeler (Ginger's character). First, it's interesting the writers are re-using the name Trent, since it was the surname of Bette Davis' character in the show's pilot back in 1983. Anyway, Shackleford is recently widowed and he's eager to speak to Miss Trent, a noted communicator with telepathic abilities. He has arranged the appointment so she can help him speak to his dead wife.
At first, you think this is going to play fairly predictably. That Shackleford, rich and grieving, will be conned by Rogers. And yes, she is a con artist...it's interesting how Ginger gives us these tiny suggestions in the beginning that her character is not fully above board. There are the expected seance scenes in Ginger's hotel room. Then Shackleford heads back to his room and goes to sleep. In the middle of the night, he is awakened by a phone call from his dead wife. Is it really her spirit contacting him more directly after the seance?
Of course, we want to find out more...it turns out that Ginger's character is the aunt of the dead woman, and the dead woman is not really dead. She was in a car accident and presumed dead. The real twist is that Shackleford is a villain, he attempted to kill his wife to get his hands on all her money. She survived, contacted her aunt the channeler, and they've been working to fool Shackleford into confessing. A key plot point is that when Ginger's character does her seances she records everything that is said on tape.
Eventually Shackleford realizes what is going on. He sets up another meeting with Ginger, and this time he's going to turn the tables on her and try to kill her too! It's all very suspenseful. What I thought was great was how Ginger is playing a con artist, so you expect her to be the least sympathetic character, but then we end up rooting for her to defeat Shackelford when he is trying to kill her.
One thing that I noticed watching the episode was how many gorgeous blouses and dresses they had Ginger wearing. She has a different Nolan Miller creation on in each one of her scenes. She is noticeably heavier, and it looked like she was having trouble walking (my guess is she may have used a cane in real life, but wanted to stand up and walk on camera without it).
There is a later scene where she is supposed to be fleeing from Shackleford, which was likely filmed with a stunt double since I don't think a heavyset 76 year old gal who probably uses a cane would have been able to run that fast or even run at all (the glimpse of her character running was shot under a table where we only saw her legs as she supposedly fled from Shackleford). But it's still a well-played conclusion, because we sense her character is in great danger and don't want her to end up dead. Fortunately for us, she isn't killed off. All in all, I thought this was a very good final performance for Ginger Rogers...a good way to wrap up a long career on screen.
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