PAPER DOLLS

My good friend Alan directed me to a website the other week where you can order DVD's of your favourite shows. I have been at a hankering for my 80s soaps. Dynasty is getting a 2nd season release later this year and Dallas is out but for many of those gone and forgotten shows, I wanted to look back at the campness and fabulousness of all the trashy glitzy 80s. So I started with a show that lasted half a season in 1984. Dallas and Dynasty were top of the ratings and a new show was cast with a powerful ensemble of primetime players and veterans with some new faces thrown in aswell. The cast list is incredibly long.



Morgan Fairchild is Racine with no second name like Cher or Madonna and she runs her own modelling agency. She has hot model Taryn Blake (Nicolette Sheridan) who has been a model since she could walk with an interfering mother Julia (Brenda Vacarro) A hot new model Laurie Caswell (Terry Farrell) comes to her attentions and the storyline centres partly around Laurie's success. Racine's best friend is Blair Haper Fenton (Mimi Rogers) who is an OLD OLD OLD model at 30. Blair's father is Grant Harper (Lloyd Bridges) who runs Harper Worldwide and use Racine and her models for various cosmetic lines. Racine is having a semi relationship with Blair's brother, Wesley (Dack Rambo) who is desperate to take control of Harper Worldwide himself. Racine and Wesley scheme to do this throughout the 14 episode run and generally destroy other character's lives. Racine is fabulous and calls everyone "Darling" She gets all the best lines and best furs although Julie Blake (Vacarro) has some crazy furs and sounds as though she's smoked 60 cigs a day since she was in nappies. Here's a selection....

RACINE - Darling, did you see what she had on? You know, I heard they're doing experiments to prove that polyester causes cancer in rats.
GRAYSON - Racine, of all the people in Manhattan you're just as nasty as I am. We should have lunch more often...

RACINE - Those famous Harper family dinners. Forks on the left, knives in the back.

RACINE - Darling, a little word of advice for the future... when a lady has a hot tub in her bedroom, it is NOT Mother Teresa's apartment

RACINE - I think the only time I've ever seen you well-dressed was when you were naked.
CHRIS - Yeah, you think about that a lot?
RACINE - Not really. One screening of your porno movie gave me the general idea.

Anyway, there's stalkers and high fashion and songs from the 80s that everyone knows except they're not sung by the original artist so it sounds like karaoke. There are boardroom shenanigans, big hair, bad acting and kidnaps. I'm suprised that it didn't last longer. Last night I had a Paper Dolls marathon with David and Stewart and am gutted at the ending, thee wasn't enough drama for me and too many questions unanswered. It was also strange seeing many actors in roles I'd never even thought they'd done. It's high trash and more to the point, high camp which makes it ideal for this blog. Now all I need are some shoulderpads, tease my hair back and paint my fingernails blood red like Racine and I'll be almost a Paper Doll myself!