Jan Spears

So, I've passed the episode 150 point (March 4, 1981). It was in February 1981, after six official months on the air, that Proctor & Gamble and NBC began making changes to Texas. The biggest changes were the dismissals of head writers (and series co-creators) John William and Joyce Corrington, and the demotion of Paul Rauch as executive producer of Texas and Another World. (He would carry on as executive producer on Another World.) While I doubt even the most stellar writing would have made a dent against the pop culture phenomenon General Hospital and a resurgent Guiding Light in that time slot, the Corringtons didn't help their cause any with the storylines they did produce in the first six months. Other than the attempted assassination of Alex Wheeler and its aftermath, there were just too many dead stretches with the stories. The other changes occurring in February-early March 1981 involved the cast. Chandler Hill Harben was out and Jay Hammer was in as Max Dekker. I'm not sure the change made things better. Hammer was the better actor but Harben was more convincing as someone who was supposed to be working as the foreman of the Marshall ranch. Also out around this time were Lee Patterson as Dr. Kevin Cook and Ann McCarthy as Samantha Walker. Neither character was working so their departures were not a surprise. Lee Patterson did get a nice farewell scene with Carla Borelli in which their characters set aside their old animosities. On a more positive note, February 1981 saw the introduction of Benjamin Hendrickson (who would go on to play Hal Munson on As the World Turns for 20 years) as Paige Marshall's sleazy former director/producer of her porn epic, Endless Passion. (The Endless Passion storyline would consume the show in 1981 and would involve practically the entire cast in porn, drug dealing, embezzlement and murder.) As for the show's leading lady, Beverlee McKenzie, her storylines were a mixed bag. Anything with McKenzie as Iris and Lisby Larson as her daughter-in-law, Paige, was pure gold as were the Iris/Vivien comedic scenes. But the would-be grand romance with Bert Kramer as Alex Wheeler was a dud. McKenzie and Wheeler had no chemistry and the tale of long lost love regained was not believable. In essence, Iris and Alex were both Jay Gatsby - endlessly trying to repeat the past. A more credible story for Iris and Alex would have been for them to realize that too much had happened in the 25 years since last they had seen each other for their marriage to ever be a success. Finally, the "secret" of Dennis Carrington's parentage was still a plot point in February 1981 and a ridiculous one at that given how many people knew the truth: Iris, Alex, Eliot, Paige, Reena, Ryan, Dawn, Terry (and probably some others I can't remember.)

If the subject is dead, you can depict the subject any way you like. Mommie Dearest (the movie) is the ultimate example of that. No less than Christina Crawford has criticized the movie for deviating from her book in sensationalistic ways. But in the case of a living subject (and particularly a subject who may not want anything to do with a production), the creative team behind the production has to be very, very careful not to defame the living subject. I have no idea what Amanda Burden's relationship (or lack of such) is to this production. But I can envision a whole team of lawyers saying behind the scenes not to include her except in the most legally defensible of ways (i.e. Mentioning that Babe Paley had a daughter named Amanda from her first marriage).

I've never read anything about Slim Keith and Bill Paley being anything more than close friends. She's still living and I can't imagine she would give her consent to be depicted in any intensive way in this. FYI - Slim's memoir (Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life) was published around the time of her death in 1990. I read it 30 years ago. The impression it left with me was that Slim herself was not especially interesting but she knew some very remarkable people. Interestingly, the chapter that has stuck with me is the one where she writes compellingly about her stepdaughter, Bridget Hayward.

Episode 134 (February 10, 1981) - At long last, Vivien arrives from Bay City to resume her function as Iris's maid/confidante! Also, the Wheeler mansion set debuts for the first time. (It was formerly the Marshall family home in Houston.) Finally, Dennis and Paige announce their marriage to Iris and Alex, which kicks off the 'Endless Passion' storyline. This is about the point where a lot of changes start occurring in terms of the cast and production staff. Throughout 1981, many more changes would occur; culminating with Beverlee McKinsey's departure at the end of November.

The reveal in Season 5 that Amanda was Alexis' daughter was great and I liked how she was a constant irritant to Alexis throughout the season. But Amanda's whole story in Season 5 seemed to have no special purpose other than for her to wear the wedding dress at the 'Moldavian Massacre'. (And she did make for a stunning bride in the season finale.) Ultimately, though, the only place for the character to go from there was down, especially given the character's somewhat awkward origins and motivations.

Dynasty was never the same without Pamela Sue Martin and the edgy restlessness she brought to the character of Fallon and to the show itself. The introductions of Diahann Carroll as Dominque and Catherine Oxenberg as Amanda compensated - in part - for the loss of Martin. But too often in Season 5, the show resorted to importing guest stars (Rock Hudson, Ali MacGraw, Billy Dee Williams) to lull viewers into thinking the storylines were more compelling than they actually were (and had been during Martin's tenure).

Episode 109 (January 5, 1981) - The Chicken Coop makes its first appearance. 'The Coop' was such an important part of events on Texas in 1981 - it deserved to be in the closing cast credits!

I agree - too many characters and not enough interaction between characters who should have had some. (Courtney barely interacted with her three siblings and Terry only ever really interacted with Rikki.) I watched episode 91 (December 9, 1980) this afternoon and it's the last episode for the character of Dawn Marshall (and her portrayer, Dana Kimmell). You can see how disconnected Dawn had become from the rest of the show by the end of 1980 because she only had farewells with her brother, Justin, and her grandmother, Kate. She didn't say goodbyes to Courtney, Paige (understandably), Ginny, Max or Elena in her final episode. And she left Houston knowing the big secret about Dennis Carrington - that he was Alex Wheeler's biological son. But there wasn't even a farewell scene between Dawn and Dennis where she might have made veiled comments about how so many people (Iris, Alex, Paige) were deceiving him.

The beginnings of Texas went back even further than the summer of 1980. For instance, Another World introduced Reena and Kevin in the fall of 1979. Then, Texas stories launched on Another World for weeks (if not months) before the actual formal launch date in August 1980. If you weren't watching Another World in the run-up to the airing of the first Texas episode, you would have missed critical story elements such as Alex Wheeler spotting Iris at the Houston Opera and Mike Marshall committing suicide and been totally lost once the series actually debuted. The early days of Texas were confusing! I've always thought that the writers for Texas were trying (at the beginning, anyway) to emulate the great Harding Lemay, who had taken Another World to such success in the 1970s with a very Broadway style of writing. Unfortunately, Texas debuted at precisely the same moment (summer 1980) when General Hospital was becoming a pop culture phenomenon with the first of its two Luke-and-Laura 'Love on the Run' storylines. What took General Hospital to being the peak of all things in 1980-81 was very different from what Texas was doing. What had been innovative in the 1970s on Another World suddenly came across as old-fashioned on Texas. I don't agree that it was but there was nothing Texas could do against the General Hospital juggernaut.

I've made it to episode 80 of Texas (original air date: 11/24/80). Episode 80 ended with a great Friday afternoon cliffhanger. Just as Iris and her long-lost love Alex Wheeler were pronounced husband and wife, Iris's ex-husband, Eliot Carrington, shot Alex with a high-powered rifle! (Eliot was played by Daniel Davis - the future Niles on The Nanny.) As for the show itself, it had definitely picked up speed by late-November 1980. The biggest improvement was with the show's central character - Iris. After weeks and weeks of boring scenes with Iris either vacillating about whether to marry Alex or playing concerned friend to Reena, Iris's old fighting spirit from Another World began to reassert itself. Helping matters immeasurably were the introductions of the none-too-stable Eliot and Lisby Larson's character, the scheming Paige Marshall, into the Iris-Alex-Dennis storyline. The biggest weakness remained the character of Alex Wheeler. I've never been wild about the actor who played Alex. But my bigger objection is in regard to how the character was written. The show made the classic mistake of having Iris extol him to the heavens while his actual actions told a different story. His carelessness contributed to Mike Marshall's suicide. He carried on with his best friend Striker Bellman's wife for 20 years and then dumped her when Iris showed up in Houston. He threatened to expose Eliot's past in a Cambodian prison camp unless he left Houston so Alex could claim Dennis as his son. The audience was supposed to think he was this great prize . . . but he really wasn't. Otherwise, it's possible to rewatch the first 16 weeks of Texas and see which characters would get the heave-ho in late-1980 and early-1981. Like any new soap, there was still a lot of shakeout to go.

Sidney Kirkpatrick based his book on the materials King Vidor had gathered on the William Desmond Taylor case and then set aside. The book really takes you into the freewheeling silent film era when the studios were just starting to get themselves organized. It also conveys how scandals then were truly scandals and how the tabloid press was already working at full force.

I highly recommend Colleen Moore's autobiography, Silent Star, which was published in 1968. Silent Star recounts Moore's rise to stardom in the 1920s but it also doubles as a history of the silent and early talkie eras in Hollywood. The book is very episodic - entertainingly so - with numerous digressions about various movie stars of the period. (Moore finished in the Top Ten of the Annual Money Making Stars Poll from 1925-1931. So, she knew everyone in Hollywood!) I would also recommend Sidney D. Kirkpatrick's book, A Cast of Killers, which discusses the director King Vidor's attempts to solve the murder of director William Desmond Taylor in 1922. Moore plays a big part in that book. Finally, Moore was a shrewd investor which left her very wealthy right up to her death in 1988. She even wrote a book on the subject of investing, How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market.

Greta Garbo performed a great kindness to John Gilbert after their relationship ended. With the transition to sound in 1929, Garbo's career at M-G-M rose to even greater heights while Gilbert's imploded. (Gilbert is considered one of the greatest casualties of the transition to sound if not the greatest.) In any event, M-G-M was prepping Queen Christina for Garbo in 1933 and they cast Laurence Olivier in the role of the Spanish ambassador. For whatever reason, Garbo didn't like how things were going with Olivier. Since she had cast approval, she went to Louis B. Mayer (legendary head of M-G-M from 1924-51) and asked to have Olivier replaced. Mayer told her she could have anybody she wanted. Garbo replied "Jack Gilbert" and Mayer promptly threw a fit because he hated Gilbert. But Garbo held firm because she knew how much Gilbert had done for her when she came to M-G-M in the mid-1920s and he was still the bigger star. The actress Colleen Moore (herself a huge star during the silent movie era) wrote later: "I have always loved Garbo for this last, wonderful gesture - to try to give Jack his career again. We all loved her for it."

I don't think there was ever a long-term estrangement between Joyce and John. There was a short-term rift when Three's Company was transitioning into Three's a Crowd because Joyce felt that John should have told her privately what was happening rather than her having to find out about it in a staff meeting with everybody else.

In the show's early weeks, Texas did introduce some retroactive continuity regarding Iris and her motivations on Another World. In the retroactive continuity, Iris - as a young woman - had met and fallen in love with the penniless Alex Wheeler. He abandoned her because he didn't think he was worthy of her. Alone (and pregnant with Dennis), Iris's energies turned negative. I don't know if this was an improvement on what had come before. I think Iris was more interesting for not having a motivation on Another World beyond being naturally spiteful. Certainly, Iris in the early weeks of Texas didn't make for compelling viewing. She spent most of her time sitting on Reena's couch sighing about the possibility of being reunited with the now fabulously wealthy Alex. The show made a course correction in 1981 by bringing back some of Iris's old personality. But instead of the Iris-Mac-Rachel triangle, we got the Iris-Dennis-Paige triangle. Iris transferred her incestuous love for her father to her own son! The post-Iris year (December 1981-December 1982) was great, and the show did indeed find its footing independent of Beverlee McKinsey. It was too late, though. While the storylines were compelling in that final year, viewers had deserted in droves when McKinsey left. Texas went from a survivable 3.6 rating for the 1981-82 season (September-April) to a 2.7 in the 82-83 season (September-December).