"Flamingo Road" - First Episode Review

[JT]

Well I watched the Spring 1981-1982 primetime soap "Flamingo Road" last night on Goodlife TV. Instead of showing the show's the first episode, they began by cutting the 1980 TVMovie in half. The first half last night aired last night, and boy, was it grand! Here is a little review for the show:

"FLAMINGO ROAD"
starring (in the TV movie)
Mason Adams as Elmo Tyson
Joel Bailey as Tony
Michael Baseleon as Slade
John Beck as Sam Curtis
Woody Brown as Skipper Weldon
Howard Duff as Titus Semple
Morgan Fairchild as Constance Weldon
Mark Harmon as Fielding Carlyle
Dianne Kay as Annabelle Troy
John McCann as Aareth
Kevin McCarthy as Claude Weldon
Cristina Raines as Lane Ballou
Barbara Rush as Eudora Weldon
Stella Stevens as Lute-Mae Sanders

PLOT:

It starts off with shots of the last night of the annual carnival, including dancers, and one of those thingys that you hit with the mallet and the little thingy goes up and the bell rings (lol). Anywayz, after awhile of that, we see Skipper Weldon and his girlfriend Annabelle Troy, they're enjoying the festivities. Then we go to the Weldon mansion on Flamingo Road. There, Constance Weldon, her fiance Fielding Carlyle, and her parents Claude and Eudora are eating dinner. They take it out to the patio where Fielding, the deputy of the city (Truro, FL), gets a call from the sheriff, Titus Semple. Titus wants Fielding to go check out to see if the carnival skipped out of town before paying the city. Fielding goes, and sure enough, they skipped out of town, leaving but one person behind: singer Lane Ballou. Fielding finds Lane sitting under a tree, listening to the radio and eating a tiny amount of food. Fielding brings Lane to the diner (I forgot what it's called!), and they get to know each other more. Throughout the episode, Fielding helps Lane in some kind of way, from a drunken man in Lute-May Sanders' saloon to helping her get a job. Now, Fielding's boss, Titus, wants Fielding to stay engaged to Constance Weldon, because her family has lots and lots of money (thanks to a paper mill company). When Fielding and Lane begin to have a full-fledged affair, Titus begins to try to stop it. Late one night, at the end of the episode, Titus sets it up so that when Lane is walking down the street, a drunk (who is really an actor) will try to get a little somethin' somethin' from her, and when she refuses, the drunks hollers "Leave me alone you whore!" and the police cars come up and arrest Lane for solicitation, and that's where it ended. Of course, there was more throughout the episode, but it was more of like an introduction to the characters and places. It's a REALLY great show, imo, and I can't wait for Constance to become more of B-I-T-C-H! And then of course there's the second season when "Dark Shadows"'s David Selby becomes a cast member as Michael Tyrone, a villain who uses voodoo on everyone in Truro. But all in all, it was a very great show, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Oh wait, I couldn't have enjoyed every minute of it, considering it was raining hard, and my cable company likes to turn off the digital channels when it rains hard, so I missed 15 minutes of it. The other 45 were great though! For those who have the Goodlife TV Network, it comes on Mondays @ 9:00PM (central).

[JT]

Here's a picture of Constance. Isn't she purdy?