moriarty@uw-june (Jeff Meyer) (03/05/84)
Not a huge amount of difference between my view and Bruce's, as I feel St. Elsewhere has changed some (as has HSB), but to append the term Soapish to St. Elsewhere is absolutely inappropriate. It brings up a larger question, though: what is the difference between a soap (either afternoon or DYNASTY-clone) and a show like Hill Street or St. Elsewhere? Basically, I'd put it at this: Both the aforementioned shows deal with problems faced by people in extremely trying professions; it deals with these problems realistically, and gives the stories realistic conclusions (many times there are no "nice" solutions for problems). For instance, Westphall's overworked schedule (and the excellent shows dealing with his autistic son); the rapes (I found these not soapish at all, and frightening as HELL!), Pressure on Frank in HSB, etc. Also, the characters (except for a few eccentrics like Ehlrich and Belker (and even they have very realistic sides)) are well characterized and not mono-emotional... I mean, no one plays "the seductive women who screws everybody up (no pun intended). Soaps (again I go by only a few of the ones I've seen are either about people with problems blown out of proportion (who is stealing whose guy/girl/wife/husband/daughter..... ad nauseum), and/or has totally unrealistic problems (I understand from friends that General Hospital is turning into The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Hee hee ... in joke for frequent net readers)). Good point about Cathy Martin, Bruce.... I tend to think something really nasty (i.e. permanent) has happened to her. She was one of the few one-dimensional characters on the show. Actually, I prefer St. Elsewhere over the Blues. Any comments? The Napoleon of Crime | Currently skulking around | UUCP: MORIARTY | {...decvax!}uw-beaver!uw-june!moriarty | ARPANET: AKA -jwm- | moriarty@washington
beisel@trwspp.UUCP (03/08/84)
You are correct Jeff. Perhaps soap was not the proper word. I just feel that the writers are leaving too much hanging at the end of the show. In addition to looking forward to another well written show, I wonder who is the rapist, what happened to Kathy Martin. All these comments are are quite irrelevant because last night's show was excellent. Did anyone catch the small filming error in the show on 3/7. At the end Kathy Martin and Mr. Entertainment were having a long talk; when they were shooting over Mr. Entertainment's shoulder he had a rag over his left shoulder. When the camera switch to looking over Kathy's shoulder the rag was gone. Quite amusing. No more complaints about St. E. I am happy again. Bruce Beisel