Texas (1980-1982) - General Discussion

[Jan Spears]

I thought I would start a distinct thread for the small but intense group of soap fans who loved the NBC soap Texas during its 2 1/2 year run and still remember it.

Texas started life in August 1980 as spinoff of Another World and was conceived as a starring vehicle for Beverlee McKinsey, who was then at the peak of her popularity on the parent show as the malevolent Iris. At the show's start, Iris moves permanently from Bay City to Houston to be closer to her son Dennis (played by Jim Poyner). There, she meets various Houston denizens, including her long-lost love Alex Wheeler (played by Bert Kramer).

For several years in the 00s, complete episodes from the show's first year were available for download on AOL. Consequently, fans have posted episodes online so that the show's fans can watch uncut episodes in sequence.

I've started rewatching the show from episode 1 (August 4, 1980) and have finished the first five weeks. Like all new soaps, Texas had a lot of growing pains in its first months. Watching the episodes again, I would say that the early days were better in some respects than I remember them as being and worse in other respects. On the plus side, two casts members who would dominate the series until the very last episode - Carla Borelli as Reena and Jerry Lanning as Justin - came roaring out of the gates from moment one. Borelli, in particular, was endlessly entertaining - she was married to her staid husband, Dr. Kevin Cook, but attracted to Justin and ranch hand Max Dekker (and probably half in love with her own father, Striker Bellman.)

On the negative side of the ledger, I had forgotten how boring Iris was during the first few months of Texas. The hellion from Another World suddenly (and somewhat implausibly) morphed into a conventional soap heroine fretting about her son and her rediscovered love (Alex) from a quarter century prior. The lack of chemistry between McKinsey and Kramer didn't help matters. The powers behind Texas must have hoped that McKinsey and Kramer would have Victoria Wyndham/Douglass Watson-level chemistry but it wasn't to be. (If you know what direction the show took by the end of 1980, you know that the casting/character mistakes were rectified soon enough and Iris [as a character] reverted to her original personality.)

In any event, I hope there are Texas fans here at Primetimer Forums!

 

[Laura Holt]

I watched this with my Mother and just reading your post here has brought back lovely memories of afternoons with my Mom ironing as she watched her "soaps".  Another World and then Texas were her favourites.  Am I remembering right when I say they knew the show was being cancelled and actually had a true finale?  With most soaps, as we all know, there is no beginning and no end, you are always in the middle somewhere!

[Jan Spears]

23 hours ago, Laura Holt said:

Am I remembering right when I say they knew the show was being cancelled and actually had a true finale?  With most soaps, as we all know, there is no beginning and no end, you are always in the middle somewhere!

Yes. NBC cancelled Texas (and The Doctors) with enough advance notice that the show could resolve its standing plotlines by the very last episode.

The final episodes were very satisfying because most everything got resolved. Also, for fans who had stuck with the show from episode 1 in August 1980, there was the satisfaction of knowing that the principal characters who had been present from the start - Reena, Justin, Paige, Billy Joe - had become better versions of themselves by the last episode in December 1982. (Reena, especially, had come a long way from her beginnings. By the end of the series, she had found true love with Grant Wheeler and made peace with her mother, Vicky Bellman.)

Edited September 10, 2023 by Jan Spears

[SomeTameGazelle]

I remember Texas although I don't recall much other than Beverlee McKinsey's starring credit. I did not realise until a couple of years ago after seeing/reading an interview with McKinsey where she praised Daniel Davis that Niles from The Nanny had played Eliot Carrington (Iris' first husband) on Texas (not on Another World where the character was originally introduced as Dennis' father).

[JAYJAY1979]

I think Iris became not quite like her AW personality because she wasn't around Mac/Rachel.. so she seemed more like an adult instead of always trying to get her daddy's attention.

I had heard that the last few months of show was quite good and it's ironic that the show gets canceled just as it found it's footing.

[Jan Spears]

On 9/17/2023 at 9:01 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

I think Iris became not quite like her AW personality because she wasn't around Mac/Rachel.. so she seemed more like an adult instead of always trying to get her daddy's attention.

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!

On 9/17/2023 at 9:01 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

I had heard that the last few months of show was quite good and it's ironic that the show gets canceled just as it found it's footing.

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).

Edited September 21, 2023 by Jan Spears

[Jan Spears]

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.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Jan Spears

[JAYJAY1979]

I watched the first 5 episodes and I was kind of lost because it felt like I was stepping into the middle of an ongoing story... and to my surprise there were 4 to 5 weeks of scenes of Texas that were shown during Another World's 90 minute experiment that shouldn't have been done.

I understand that the creators of the show were based in New Orleans and that Iris was shoehorned into the show at very last minute so I can understand why these early episodes feel so disjointed/off.

To me, I get a sense that this was an attempt to be like a Tennesse Williams play only in Texas instead of the south.  We had a drunk Vicky confessing her long term affair with Alex, Reena/Vicky having a toxic mother/daughter relationship, and the Marshalls (Justin and Dawn) having a vendetta against Dennis while Paige seems to be an interloper for Terry/Clipper's relationship while Courtney seems estranged from the family and transfering her guilt over her late father onto her new flirtation with older doctor Kevin.

 

[Jan Spears]

On 11/29/2023 at 6:49 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

I watched the first 5 episodes and I was kind of lost because it felt like I was stepping into the middle of an ongoing story... and to my surprise there were 4 to 5 weeks of scenes of Texas that were shown during Another World's 90 minute experiment that shouldn't have been done.

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!

On 11/29/2023 at 6:49 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

To me, I get a sense that this was an attempt to be like a Tennesse Williams play only in Texas instead of the south.  We had a drunk Vicky confessing her long term affair with Alex, Reena/Vicky having a toxic mother/daughter relationship, and the Marshalls (Justin and Dawn) having a vendetta against Dennis while Paige seems to be an interloper for Terry/Clipper's relationship while Courtney seems estranged from the family and transfering her guilt over her late father onto her new flirtation with older doctor Kevin.

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.

[JAYJAY1979]

On 11/30/2023 at 8:19 PM, Jan Spears said:

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 think people were also expecting the soap to be like Dallas..which was in the midst of a 'who shot JR' frenzy...and it didn't have that same energy.

I think part of the problem was too many characters.  Marshall's had 4 of the 5 siblings on the canvas, along with a sister in law of the presumed dead 5th sibling, their father,  and their grandma.  For several weeks, Courtney had little to no interaction with her 3 siblings nor her grandmother.

Dekkers had all 4 siblings plus aunt on the show with a sibling hardly interacting with her 3 siblings nor aunt.  She was islanded off with Clipper/Iris/Alex/Ryan.

It seemed as though Dawn/Elena had the same functions as did Terry/Courtney on the show.

It would have been better to keep some of the siblings off screen and be introduced later.  Eventually Dawn, Terry and Courtney were dropped (with nuggets mentioned for awhile of what they were up to).

I think by 1982, the show had wisely made the Wheelers the main family 

[Jan Spears]

On 12/5/2023 at 2:04 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

I think part of the problem was too many characters.  Marshall's had 4 of the 5 siblings on the canvas, along with a sister in law of the presumed dead 5th sibling, their father,  and their grandma.  For several weeks, Courtney had little to no interaction with her 3 siblings nor her grandmother.

Dekkers had all 4 siblings plus aunt on the show with a sibling hardly interacting with her 3 siblings nor aunt.  She was islanded off with Clipper/Iris/Alex/Ryan.

It seemed as though Dawn/Elena had the same functions as did Terry/Courtney on the show.

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.)

On 12/5/2023 at 2:04 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

It would have been better to keep some of the siblings off screen and be introduced later.  Eventually Dawn, Terry and Courtney were dropped (with nuggets mentioned for awhile of what they were up to). 

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.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Jan Spears

[Jan Spears]

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!

[Jan Spears]

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.

[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.) 

 

Edited March 14 by Jan Spears

[Jan Spears]

I've reached episode 200 (May 18th, 1981).

Between episodes 150 and 200, the production made several cast changes. The character of Terry Dekker (Alex Wheeler's secretary) was written out, Clifton James replaced Robert Gerringer as Striker Bellman and the character of Steve Marshall was SORASed.

The most important change was losing Robert Gerringer. I thought he was more believable as Reena's father and Vicky Bellman's husband. (I also have a soft spot for the actor because he played Dr. Woodard on Dark Shadows in 1967.) Losing Terry was no great loss because she had no story and seemed disconnected from her three siblings (Max, Rikki and Elena) and her Aunt Maggie. The SORASing of Steve was actually an improvement because now the show had a younger actor who could be an active participant in the Ryan/Ginny/Barrett drama.

The Endless Passion saga is now is full swing with the Houston police arresting Paige for the murder of Chris Shaw and then Dennis confessing that he did the deed. Meanwhile, the drug dealing at the Chicken Coop and the drug smuggling/embezzlement related to World Oil are happening in parallel and, eventually, all of the different threads will coalesce into one mega-storyline and engulf many of the characters. (That being said, there are times when the Endless Passion storyline feels like it would have been better on The Edge of Night rather than on Texas.)

The Ryan/Ginny/Barret triangle is absorbing but there is an endless feel to it. The biggest highlight is Barrett (who is slowly becoming mentally unstable) trapping Ginny in the storm cellar on the Marshall Ranch. Creepy!

Iris's story is great in relation to Endless Passion. But her storyline with Alex is practically non-existent by this point, and episode 200 starts the chain of events that will lead to Alex's death and Bert Kramer's exit from the series. (More departures and arrivals [including such future core characters as Grant Wheeler, TJ Canfield, Lurlene Harper and Ruby Wright] happened in summer 1981.)

As for the secret of Dennis Carrington's parentage (Alex Wheeler is his biological father), Dennis still doesn't know the truth after 10 months of the show being on the air and one month away from Alex being written off!

 

 

Edited May 17 by Jan Spears

[Jan Spears]

I'm up to mid-July 1981 in the series, which is just shy of what was then one full year on the air (even longer if you consider that some stories appeared on Another World before Texas went live under its own name.)

At this juncture, Texas was existing somewhat uneasily between what it had been at its launch in August 1980 and what it would evolve into - Texas: The New Generation. There were a lot of cast additions in June/July 1981, including such future stalwarts of the show's New Generation phase as Grant Wheeler (Alex Wheeler's brother), Lacey Wheeler (Grant's daughter), Lurlene Harper (the Marshall family's neighbor) and Ruby Wright (Billy Joe Wright's sister). On the debit side of the ledger, the show wrote off two characters who had been stalwarts during the first year - Alex Wheeler and Courtney Marshall.

Killing off Alex was not surprising because the character as written and played just wasn't working. But his departure from the series had a significant downstream impact on the series. The central event at the start of Texas was Iris rediscovering her long-lost love Alex. With Alex dead, there was really no compelling reason left for Iris to remain in Houston especially since her son Dennis Carrington had zero interest in being a part of World Oil. 

Eliminating Courtney was perhaps more of a surprise given how the character had been front-and-center for the better part of a year. But the character was also disconnected from the core family she was supposed to be a part of - the Marshalls. Courtney rarely interacted with her siblings Barrett, Justin and Paige and only did so when someone needed her medical help. Since pairing Catherine Hickland's Courtney with Kin Shriner's Jeb Hampton didn't result in a supercouple, the show probably decided it was time to get rid of the least necessary Marshall.

Finally, the storyline revolving around Alex being Dennis's biological father ended up being a complete bust. Dennis only found out the truth several episodes before Alex died. So, all the endless back-and-forth about Dennis's parentage resulted in nothing from a storyline standpoint when it could have played out for years. It also left the character of Dennis in the same position as Iris: Without Alex, Dennis had no more reason to stay in Houston than Iris did.

Edited July 7 by Jan Spears

[Jan Spears]

In episode 235 (original are date: July 7th, 1981), the audience was given some updates about Terry Dekker and Dawn Marshall:

• Iris mentions that Terry wanted to return to Houston from Paris in order to attend Alex's funeral. But Iris decided not to postpone the funeral so that Terry could attend.
• Kate receives a letter from Dawn saying she is moving to Paris and that she has sold her share of the Marshall ranch to Justin. (This is all part of Justin's plan to get controlling interest of the Marshall ranch so that he can start drilling for oil.)

[Jan Spears]

August 1981 was an eventful month on Texas as the show's writers killed off the character of Max Dekker (played by Jay Hammer) and then wrote off the character of Jeb Hampton (played by Kin Shriner). (Max had been on the canvas since the series launched and Jeb had arrived in October of 1980.)

Killing off Max and sending Jeb to Dallas in pursuit of Courtney Marshall left the show with a pronounced imbalance - there were too many female leads and not enough male leads. This problem would continue throughout 1981 as the show's producers and writers continued to retool the show in anticipation of launching Texas: The New Generation once Beverlee McKinsey (Iris) and Jim Poyner (Dennis) were gone in November 1981.

As for Iris and Dennis, the writing for both was seriously off-kilter in August 1981. Dennis is clearly mentally ill given his obsession with his soon-to-be ex-wife Paige. (He wants to show her porn film in public.) But Iris comes across even worse given her irrational belief that Alex's nephew, Ryan, killed him. Her attempts to destroy Ryan make her seem like a total flake. In writing the character of Iris, there was always a fine line between loving to hate her and just hating her. The writers got on the wrong side of that fine line because Iris at this point is completely unbearable. (One wonders what Beverlee McKinsey had to say about this behind-the-scenes.) 

 

[Jan Spears]

Two important events took place on Texas in September 1981. In episode 286 (9/16), David Forsyth joined the case as T.J. Canfield; a role he would play for the remainder of the series. Forsyth, of course, went on to a long career in soaps after Texas folded - first on Search for Tomorrow and then on Another World.

The second - and even more important event - was the debut on 9/28 of the second - and better - opening theme. I loved the second theme immediately. It had that epic feel to it which really suited the show and the characters.