Retro Dynasty?(From David)When critics screened the pilot of this new primetime soap at NBC's press previews this summer, the reaction didn't make producer Aaron Spelling happy. At all. Critics saw it as a retro-Dynasty remake, camped up and spoofy with its big hair, hydraulic cleavages, and cringe-inducing, sappy dialogue. The stars are a bevy of soap has-beens: Victoria Principal (Dallas), Yasmine Bleeth (Baywatch), Perry King (Melrose Place), Ingo Rademacher (General Hospital), Jack Wagner (also of GH), Casper Van Dien (90210), and Peter Williams (Central Park West). The pilot ends with Bleeth's character, Heather (what else?), slyly announcing she's preggers with her stepson's baby. She says it on the way down the aisle to marry the poor schnook's dad. Yipes! In-joke casting, right? Spelling bristled at the suggestion. His shows aren't soaps, they're "dramas." And the wacky plots and Olympic eyebrow-arching are meant to entertain average working folk. "There are too many people in our country who are poor, who work hard," said the man who lives in a mansion the size of a shopping mall. "They come home to relax in front of their TV set. I don't know that you get that relaxation from Cops or all these reality shows. I think we should entertain them." Titans (which already has picked up a nickname among critics that can't be printed here) is entertaining in that can-you-BELIEVE-this way that makes a good-bad show into a must-see. There've been soapy developments behind the scenes of Titans, too. Perry King's character will be zarched soon after the premiere. And it looks like the mother-daughter duo played by Principal and Bleeth has been rewritten as a sister act. Oh, Aaron. |