Thursday, February 25, 2021

Thursday Movie Picks_Romance Tropes:TV Edition-Love Triangles

 


Should I be so jaded and say...finally! Absolutely no disrespect to the revered Wanderer, but I am now having my fill of romance. That does sound horrible doesn't it? Anyway, it is the last Thursday in February(EGAD!! Where the hell is time going?) which means it is TV time and we are celebrating the love triangle. I have never been in that kind of threesome but I know it exists and I had to pick 3 TV shows that have this angle. Let's see what I have come up with and then, check out Wandering Through The Shelves to see what everyone else chose. So many TV shows are now on Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Gulu, Zulu that I don't see any and refuse to dish out more money. I actually long for the days with ABC, CBS and NBC had all the shows. I lucked out since I watched a ton when tv was actually free(OK we had to put tin foil on the antenna to get a better quality picture but, it worked). Did I rant again? Anyways(Don't count how many times I use that word), here are my 3...

1. GENERAL HOSPITAL-1963-PRESENT


Yes, I watch this show, got a problem with that(trying to use a Brooklyn gangster accent there). This is now the longest running show still in production in the U. S. and I am still enjoying it with all the angst, anger, deceit, lust, love, improbable situations, murder, mayhem, dogs and cats living together, well, you get the idea. My mom watched this show right from the beginning so I grew up on this show and remember the original love triangle between Dr. Steve Hardy, Nurse Audrey and other nurse Jessie. Alas, poor Jessie, Steve only had eyes for Audrey who was a real slutty slut slut pulling Steve's..er...chain until finally realizing that Steve was the man for her. Later, we had Scotty, Laura and, yes, Luke with Luke winning Laura(never mind the rape incident..pishaw!) and marrying her in the biggest daytime event in TV history. From there, we had many other love triangles with young ones doing a quad triangle..wait..you know what I mean. I love that some of the people that were around in the 1970s are still on the soap.

2. SOAP-1977-1981


This is a hilarious show that took its cue from all the ridiculous plots from the soap operas on daytime TV. It has 2 sisters who love each other, one married a middle-class slob while the other married into a very wealthy family. The down to earth sister, who married the nice working man slob, has an adult son from a previous relationship who is supposed to kill his step dad. She has another son who is gay(Billy Crystal) wondering if he should have a sex change operation but who also is like his mom-nice and down to earth. Finally, her husband has a son who is nice but his ventriloquist dummy is a sarcastic a-hole. Meanwhile, the sweet, naive, daffy other sister(Katherine Helmond) is married to a jerk who sleeps around. They have 3 kids a nice older sister, a not so nice other sister and a young boy who gets some time in with his teacher. The sisters' dad has dementia and thinks he is in WW2 while the Butler(Robert Guillaume) is excellent in sarcasm and leaves to get his own show(Benson). Of course you have love triangles that are more than a few plus a priest who falls in love(that created a big stir in the news), murder, mobsters, aliens, a demon child plus so much more. It always ended on a cliff-hanger that you had to tune in next week to find out what happened. It was very funny(especially when Crystal's character is hypnotized, but can't break free and believes he is an old Jewish man. If you are looking for political correctness, you will not find it here.

3. LOST-2004-2010


I was a major watcher of this show and would still watch it again with all the intricate goings on in this TV show. It starts off when a plane leaves Australia and crashes with the front half of the plane on one side of this F%$@-up island and the other half(you learn later) on the other side. You find out, soon enough, that something is not quite right on this island when a man who could not walk, can now and a woman, who had terminal cancer, is now cancer free. The leader of this wreck is a nice guy, a spinal surgeon, who soon develops feelings for one tough gal, Kate, who is a fugitive. Rounding out the trio is Sawyer a bad ass con man that loves Kate too and she is not sure which way to go-the angel surgeon or the nasty devil..Sawyer. There are many other major twists and turns this series takes which made my mom lose interest in once the plot went nuts. She liked the simple people on an island and learning who they are plot lines but once other people came into the picture including some dark killing mass, she gave up. 

Can you think of 3 that fit the TV show bill?

33 comments:

  1. Never one for love triangles. Soap was funny though. Two words - Billy Crystal.
    Television used to be free, although we got what we paid for with crappy reception.

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    1. Soap was great. Yes, reception could be bad.

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  2. Hi, Birgit!

    If you're looking for love triangles aplenty, look no further than soap operas, known for the last three decades or so as "daytime dramas." Like your mother, I watched GH from the beginning when Steve, Audrey and Jessie were the main characters and grabbed the primary story lines. I continued viewing through the 70s and 80s which includes the glory years of Luke & Laura. Someday I plan to marry Holly Sutton-Scorpio (Emma Samms). I always got a kick out of the brooding Scotty Baldwin. In the clip you posted, you see Chris Robinson who played Rick Webber. As Wiki reminds us, Rick was also involved in a love triangle: << Robinson played Rick Webber #2 on General Hospital from 1978 to 1986 where he was involved in a triangle with his wife Lesley Webber and the married Monica Quartermaine. >> I also remember Chris for his 1984 TV commercials for Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup. Wiki sez: << The commercials aired on national television, and began with the quote "I'm not a doctor, but I do play one on TV". >> In the mid 80s I worked in TV entertainment and produced commercials of my own. I drew inspiration from that Vicks spot and borrowed the line for a commercial I made for a TV repair shop. In the vignette I played the role of a "TV doctor" who operates on sick television sets.

    I was not a viewer of Soap, probably because I tend not to like shows that poke fun at a genre that gets very little respect as it is, the daytime drama, even though daytime dramas are home to many fine actors and actresses who need to memorize tons of dialogue in a very short amount of time. For the same reason, I am not fond of rock & roll parody groups that mock authentic groups of the genre.

    I watched Lost from the start until around the midpoint of the series and then abandoned ship. I was in love with Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly in the main role of Kate.

    For decades, from the very beginning in the early 70s until the mid 2010s, I was also a regular viewer of The Young And The Restless. Arguably the biggest and most incendiary love triangle on Y&R was the threeway of Jack, Victor, and Nikki. Then there was Victor, Nikki and Ashley, Sharon, Phyllis and Nick, Phillip, Katherine and Jill, Phillip, Nina and Christine, and Brad, Traci and Ashley. (I have often been mistaken for Brad Carlton and mobbed at malls by women with romance on their minds.)

    Have a super day, dear friend BB!

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    1. Yes Steve, Audrey and Jessie were the top 3 for many a year but how I love the Quartermaines. Scotty is still on the soap! Victor, on the Old and the Useless(sorry can't help myself) like to dip his...er...toe in many a gal's pond. You are like my mom who gave up the ship with Lost. I didn't realize you dislike satire done in this manner.

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  3. Never watched General Hospital, but I did watch Soap and I too loved Lost. Disappointed in the ending though. Off hand, can't think of any shows with love triangles.

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    1. I liked the ending to Lost and early on, I thought they were deAD BUT IN "NO MAN'S LAND. Oops..hot the caps. I almost went with Cheers-Sam, Diane and Frasier.

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  4. My husband was really into Lost but I never watched it week to week and was always confused when I did pay attention. I remember Sawyer and Kate though lol

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    1. That is one show you must see every episode or you will be more lost than they are.

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  5. Birgit,

    I remember Luke and Laura from General Hospital. WOW, that was years ago! Soap TV series was a lot of fun but I don't remember the love triangle in it, though. We have yet to watch the series Lost but have it in cue. Now, you really got me curious to see it.

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    1. Luke & Laura were the rage when I was in high school and the Ice Princess. Hope you like Lost

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  6. I grew up on General Hospital! I haven't watched in YEARS though but my favorite love triangle on that show was Jax, Brenda and Sonny. I was SO invested in Brenda and Sonny's relationship it was insane.

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    1. Yes, that was a huge triangle but Brenda always went back to Sonny.

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  7. We share Lost! I hated the doctor with a passion, and hoped Kate and Sawyer would end up together from the first episode.

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    1. The poor doctor...no one really cared for him. I wonder if the actor's actual personality was shining through as I heard he is not very nice. I would have picked Sawyer in a heartbeat.

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  8. Ah, Luke and Laura! When I was working second shift, Mary would watch, and I would watch with her. That was right around the time of the big wedding... Doug Sheehan was on GH for a while, as I recall. One year he came to Chicago for St. Patrick's Day and was riding on a float, wearing a kilt and holding bagpipes. Mary loved that.

    Mary will occasionally subscribe to one of the streaming services if there's something she wants to see, then let her subscription lapse until there's something to see. I subscribe to Locast, a service that streams local free TV so you can watch on your computer or phone. Since I'm spending my evenings on the second floor of the house for my leg, I watch "Green Acres" and "Hogan's Heroes" that way in the evenings.

    I remember when the networks would run movies during primetime. ABC always did the films like "Antony & Cleopatra," "Bridge On The River Kwai," and "Flower Drum Song" on Sunday nights, while CBS featured movies on Friday and Saturday night (they used to run "The Great Escape" once a year) and NBC ran movies a couple times a week. A lot of Westerns... Even better, the local stations would run movies almost every night and during the day on Sunday. All that entertainment at the cost of watching a few commercials. Those were the days...

    There are a few streaming services like Pluto for which you don't pay a subscription and the movies and TV shows are supported by commercials. We still get all our TV with an antenna, just like in the good ol' days. I really have little use for first run TV: everything I like has been off the airv for years...

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    1. I had a crush on Doug Sheehan so I would have loved to have seen him in a kilt. We had movies for a Sunday afternoon which I loved and Saturday Night at the movies with the great host, Elwy Yost who always got some great interviews to discuss the films he was showing. I miss watching some fun westerns like Bonanza and High Chapperel. Actually our Hamilton station shows all retro tv every day during the week and I wish i could have it on while working but that can't happen. Right now, we do like New Amsterdam and FBI.

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  9. I watched General Hospital on and off since I was a kid (I remember the whole Jessie, Audrey, Steve huggermugger-a little trivia the actress who played Jessie was married to Jeffrey Hunter at the time of his death) but was never overly fond of Luke & Laura and that whole storyline. But I remember ALL the hubbub over them.

    I loved Soap! Katherine Helmond was perfection as spacy Jessica and Cathryn Damon sweetly charming as Mary. Everyone really dove right into the spirit of the show but my particular faves outside of the two sisters were Benson and Burt.

    I was all in for Lost at the beginning and probably for the first four years or so but then became less consistent with watching. I started watching for Matthew Fox being a devout Party of Five fan but also liked Sawyer a great deal so I was torn who should end up with Kate.

    For some reason this was tough for me, probably because I had my three movies all lined up for the theme (Design for Living, Trouble in Paradise and The Old Maid) and then realized it was a TV week! After some hair pulling I turned to early shows.

    Our Miss Brooks (1952-1956)-High school English teacher Constance Brooks (Eve Arden) is hopelessly enamored with handsome but obtuse science teacher Phillip Boynton (Robert Rockwell). They exist in a sort of limbo land where Mr. Boynton takes it for granted that Miss Brooks will always be there. That is until Connie moves to a new school and the gym teacher Gene Talbot (Gene Barry) tries to sweep her off her feet. At last Boynton’s dander is riled up enough to fight for her.

    The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963)-High school student Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) is hopelessly in love with Thalia Menninger (Tuesday Weld) who hardly acknowledges his existence while Zelda Gilroy (Sheila James) likewise pines for him. Even after Thalia moves away and Dobie, as the title says, constantly falls for a series of beautiful and unattainable girls Zelda continues to yearn.

    Petticoat Junction (1963-1970)-When crop duster Steve Elliott’s (Mike Minor) plane crashes near the Shady Rest Hotel in Hooterville he’s taken in to recover by proprietress Kate Bradley (Bea Benaderet) and her three daughters Billie Jo (Meredith MacRae), Bobbie Jo (Lori Saunders) and Betty Jo (Linda Kaye Henning). During his convalescence he and Billie Jo start to date but once he decides to stay in town, he realizes it’s Betty Jo that he really loves.

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    1. Oh gosh Josh, I am supremely late again. I did not know she was married to Jeffrey Hunter and I thought I read that there are suspicions that he could have been killed by his wife...hmmmm. Jessie was always a favourite of mine much more than Audrey. I recall the Ice Princess and love the Quartermaines but I never understood how Laura could love her rapist. This is called writers wanting us to forget the old storyline once they realized who they had in the midst. Soap is great and it is on but during the week day when I am working...so is Benson. I would have gone for bad boy Sawyer....bad of me. I never got into Petticoat Junction and never got the chance to watch Dobie Gillis not Our Miss Brooks starring one of my favs, Eve Arden.

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  10. I watched ABC's other soaps, not General Hospital, until I gave them up in my 20s (for no reason, really). Soaps definitely qualify for the triangle thing. I was just a touch too young for Soap when it was on (but I was a huge fan on Benson). I don't know what shows I'd pick. My brain isn't functioning on this level today.

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  11. The soaps are a great romantic triangles. I haven't watched General Hospital since college and the days of Luke and Laura. Wow, thanks for the memory.

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    1. So many watched at that time and then left, I stuck with it and still do.

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  12. Sawyer is my wish for Kate. They mellowed when they were together.

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    1. There was something always judgemental with the Doc so I go for the ruff and tumble sawyer

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  13. Long ago I watched some soaps on CBS because I grew up with my mom watching them. Eventually, the only one I watched was Guiding Light. A character named Reva was in love with a handsome, young man named Joshua but married his father. They got divorced and then I think Reva married Joshua, but I'm not sure. The last time I watched Guiding Light was the day before my daughter was born in 1986. The day she was born I didn't watch and never watched again. It ended up being canceled, probably because I quit watching it (yes, I'm powerful). On Gilmore Girls, Lorelai was in love with Luke but he dumped her. She married Christopher, Rory's father who was her on-again, off-again guy for years. They got divorced and after the series ended and four episodes were made for Netflix, Lorelai finally married Luke. Carrie Bradshaw loved Big on Sex and The City, but he was always screwing her over. He told Carrie he'd never get married again and the married another woman and then got divorced again because he was having an affair with Carrie. Carrie got engaged to Aidan but that ended because of the affair with Big. Carrie and Big got married in the first Sex and The City movie, but only after he jilted her. I am so glad my life is not this complicated.

    Love,
    Janie

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  14. Oh, I finally found a free moment and was hoping to jump in here with some of my trademarked razzle-dazzle but, unfortunately, I don't know diddly-squat about TV love triangles. Helck, I don't even know much about just reg'lar triangles.

    Oh, well, I stopped by to say 'Hi', anyway.

    Hi.

    ~ STMcC
    DogGtor of Alcohology &
    King of Inebriation Nation

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  15. I know I've seen lots of love triangle movies. First one to mind is Cabaret with the triangle between Liza Minelli and Michael York and the other actor.

    But TV shows? Really. But I don't really watch too many TV shows. From 1979 to 1981 I got kind of hooked on General Hospital during the Luke and Laura and Scotty affair. I saw a few episodes from each of your other picks. But for me nothing comes to mind.

    Gosh, I'm bad enough coming up with movies sometimes, but these TV show categories kind of throw me.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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  16. Great choices. Let's see...

    Cheers: Sam, Diane and Frasier.
    Freaks and Geeks had several good ones and even found some interesting variations on the old theme.
    And actually, Star Trek Next Gen: Worf, Troi and Riker.

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  17. I've never seen any of these, although may of my friends LOVED Lost. I would LOVE to see Soap, though. It sounds like just what we need right now.

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  18. Hope your weekend is pain free and filled with good movies:)

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  19. I haven't seen a single one of your picks, and I've never even heard of Soap! I definitely need to check that one out!

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