Rituals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Headline text

Rituals was an American soap opera that ran in syndication from September 1984 to September 1985 in 260 25 minutes episodes. It was created by Gene Palumbo, Ken Corday and Charlene Keel. It aired in the New York area on WNEW/Channel 5.

[edit] Cast

   * Dennis Patrick: Patrick Chapin
   * Jo Ann Pflug: Taylor Chapin Field Von Platen (1984)
   * Tina Louise: Taylor Chapin Field von Platen (1984-1985)
   * Andrea Moar: Julia Field
   * Marc Poppel: Brady Chapin (1984)
   * Jon Lindstrom: Brady Chapin (1984-1985)
   * Assemble Markham: Robertson casing
   * Christine Jones: Christina Robertson
   * Tim Maier: Jeff Robertson
   * Greg Mullavy: Eddie Gallagher
   * Kevin Spirtas: Tom Gallagher
   * Kin Shriner: Mike Gallagher
   * Mary Beth Evans: Dakota Lane (1984-1985)
   * Claire Yarlett: Dakota Lane (1984)

[edit] About Rituals

Much as Santa Barbara would try to do but in a tongue-in-cheek way, Rituals sought to be overly serious, not too campy, but it just couldn't find anything original, a problem that plagues numerous soaps.

The show sought to ride on the names it could get on the show (again, much like Santa Barbara) with the likes of Tina Louise, Joann Pflug (they played the same character), George Lazenby, Greg Mullavey and then soap icons like Kin Shriner.

Monte Markham was a seventies staple (perhaps best known as a kidnapper in Airport '77), but the show had soap actress Christina Jones at the center of the show.

She was Markham's wife, Christina Robertson. Markham was Carter Robinson.

Then there was the rich Chapin family, with grown kids named Brady and Taylor. Did no one have a first name for a first name in this place? Carter was at odds with the Chapin family.

Sharon Farrell was good for laughs and was put to much better use on the YOung and the Restless as Tricia Cast's mother.

But by far the strangest thing was the casting with young actresses with piercing eyes, in the case of Brady Chapin, a young moppet haired fellow, whose gaze was clearly supposed to overwhelm the viewers.

When none of these worked, characters would be recast with livelier specimens.

But no longer did they have that gaze! The show would actually do a contest.

"There will be a murder. If you can solve the victim, the motive and the killer, you will win a prize!" Now how on Earth was someone supposed to solve that? I guess the characters went around yelling at each other.

In the end, Greg Mullavey, who was the working class dad, was offed.

Toward the end, Carter Robinson would learn he was actually the illegitimate son of Poppa Chapin, making himself a Chapin, half-brother to Taylor and Brady.

And so the show tanked.

It actually had a conclusion. Characters would marry and run away, Kin Shriner rode off on his motorbike, someone was shot and for the life of me, I can't recall who.

May have been Peter Haskell.

But the shootist was Christina. She in turn would become a nun and tend to a wheelchair-bound Carter.