Generations: Sample Episode #1

Sam Whitmore

Generations: Sample Episode #1
NBC
1990
Soap Opera
VHS
B-

This short-lived, 1989-91, soap was one I watched pretty faithfully but it just didn't catch on.  (Wikipedia says it came in 12th in the ratings out of 12 or 13 soaps each season.)  It was interracial and only half an hour, two things that set it apart from other soaps of its time and before.


The regulars who appear in this episode:

• Robert Gentry as Jordan Hale
• Debbi Morgan, who was a semi-regular on the first season of What's Happening!!, as Chantal Marshall
• Stacey Nelkin as Christy Russell
• Gail Ramsey as Laura Whitmore McCallum
• Kelly Rutherford as Sam Whitmore 
• Robert Torti as Lt. Kyle Masters

Watching this today, I could easily remember the story lines, and not just because of the helpful expository dialogue that comes with the territory.  Sam was arguably the star of this episode and the series.  She was gorgeous and glamorous but also self-deprecating, feeling in the shadow of her perfect niece Monique, who was only one year younger than her.  

Chantal Marshall, also gorgeous and glamorous

This episode showcases not only her insecurities, especially in regard to her mother, but also her position in a romantic quadrangle.  Wealthy, middle-aged businessman Jordan Hale is interested in her, while her boyfriend Kyle's fellow police officer Christy is after Kyle.  We see Christy setting up a scheme, with Jordan's help, to make Sam think that Christy slept with Kyle while Sam was in Hawaii, and we get to see the scheme succeed, all in thirty minutes, mixed with other plots, like Chantal's ambivalence about the sports star she successfully prosecuted.  (For drunk driving?  Something like that.)  Kyle and Chantal are friends and have a couple nice scenes together.  The main weak point is Sam's older sister Laura and her even blander husband, whose name I've re-forgotten after a few hours.

I don't think I was trying to preserve this show for historical reasons and I wasn't collecting it, although we do have another episode coming up.  Probably I just taped it for viewing later and then it ended up preserved in amber as it were.