No nook or cranny of America’s rich pop culture is too obscure to escape the enthusiastic attention of award-winning author Tom Lisanti, whose 11 books tempt fellow aficionados with titles like Dueling Harlows, Talking Sixties Drive-in Movies and Hollywood Beach and Surf Movies.
Now comes Texas, an exhaustively researched and super detailed examination of soap opera’s stab at launching a daytime modern Western in the mold of the nighttime hit Dallas. It lasted only from 1980 through 1983. Its story is not going to fall through the cracks, however, not with Lisanti on patrol.
Lisanti tells the story of Texas largely through lengthy verbatim interviews with many who were so deeply involved in its conception, development, and production. The storytellers were working professionals in a boom time for both Western television hits and a bountiful soap opera industry.
At the end of the 70’s and the beginning of the 80’s there was a plethora of soaps to watch on all three networks, from mid-morning to late in the afternoon. At the time Gloria Monty’s General Hospital ruled the medium with the popularity of the Luke and Laura romance. But other shows were just as interesting, including NBC’s Another World which was expanded to a record 90 minutes by its legendary executive producer Paul Rauch.
Nighttime TV also had its soaps, including Dallas, which premiered in 1978. Following the Western theme, in 1980 NBC launched Texas amid rumors that it might be transferred to primetime if it succeeded.
Rauch, often praised for his panache and artistry as the top gun at Another World, was the producer of Texas, at the same time keeping the reins of AW. He brought with him several AW alums, including star Beverlee McKinsey, known to fans as the glamorous Iris Carrington. His writers were Joyce and John William Corrington.
The Texas supporting cast was both interesting and colorful. Carla Borelli, who played Rena Dekker, was an outstanding beauty. The show’s character actors included John McCafferty as Billy Joe Wright, and Kin Shriner, fresh from his role as Scotty Baldwin on General Hospital, as Jeb Hampton. Beguiling as well were Caryn Richmond as ingenue Elena Dekker and Catherine Hickland as Dr. Courtney Marshall.
Texas, chronicling the lives of two oil-rich Lone State families, took on its challenge with zest and high hopes. Its stories of the fortunes of the Wheelers and the Marshalls delved into love and break-up, marriage and divorce, true parentage long hidden and finally revealed, and the uses and abuses of power. Since so many in the cast were young, the show had a special appeal to a young audience. The young cast was known for socializing, They even spent summers together in the Hamptons.
In the end, however, the competition was overwhelming. The sun set on this Texas prairie, dotted as it was with oil wells. But, as Lisanti’s absorbing interviews record, good memories remain.
Texas is published by BearManor Media.
Two corrections: “Texas” ended on December 31, 1982, so it didn’t sir until 1983. Also, Joyce and John William Corrington weren’t soap newcomers when the created what would become “Texas”, as they previously had served as head writers on “Search for Tomorrow”.
Thank you dear Sedrick for the corrections.
I love Texas!! This post not only made me nostalgic, it just sold a book, as well. Off to Amazon I go. ❤️
Hi GL–I used to love Texas too—-it was always fun to visit their Brooklyn studio. Carla Borelli used to like sitting in the lobby of her luxury Upper East Side apartment building and doing interviews. What a gal!