Fun silliness changes events from the 1977 TV movie, making Allison alive (catatonic other than telling illegitimate daughter Megan (Marguerite Hickey) off screen all about Peyton Place) and bringing back characters like Hannah Cord (Ruth Warrick) and Ada Jacks (Evelyn Scott) as well as the original Steven Cord (James Douglas) while giving an 80's feel with the rebel without a cause teens. One of them is Constance's younger daughter (Deborah Goodrich) who is resentful of Megan's arrival, creating a new bad girl to take Betty Anderson's place.
Barbara Parkins, as Betty, is engaged to the ambitious John Beck, continuing to resent the presence of the Mrs. Danvers like Warrick, observing everything and keeping big secrets. She may be still the Peyton mansion housekeeper, but she's every bit as imperious as the grand dame of Pine Valley, Phoebe Tyler Wallingford. Warrick has a lot of fun in her few scenes giving Parkins hell because she knows she can't be fired. But there is a joy to her when a secret is exposed, and she is delightful to watch, although I came out of this knowing absolutely nothing about Hannah Cord having never seen her on the TV series.
Is this the parallel universe version of "Peyton Place" with its "Dark Shadows" like switch to an alternate world, or should we just forget about 1977, or should we just not care and enjoy each one for what it is? Flashbacks of Mia Farrow are seen as Norman Harrington recalls his past. With the growing love between young folks, the older folks fear incest with Megan and Dan (Bruce Greenwood), Betty and the late Rodney's son. It gets a bit convoluted but it's fun nonetheless with the soapy structure. There's no revelation how Rodney died in this parallel universe version of the show, so there is a lot missing in the way of exposition.
It's pretty obvious from the start who the villain is going to be and they get pretty much the same type of pay-off as the villain from the previous movie from the other "PP" universe. I didn't feel a passion for a good percentage of the young characters, and there was nothing special about the veteran characters to make me want to start trying to watch the original series once again. (I found the set-up for the original series a dreadful bore in spite of having loved the two big screen films made at 20th Century Fox.) By this time, prime time soaps were beginning a slow decline, and it was obvious from this that a series would not return any of them to Peyton Place, at least not in the veteran cast member's lifetimes.
Barbara Parkins, as Betty, is engaged to the ambitious John Beck, continuing to resent the presence of the Mrs. Danvers like Warrick, observing everything and keeping big secrets. She may be still the Peyton mansion housekeeper, but she's every bit as imperious as the grand dame of Pine Valley, Phoebe Tyler Wallingford. Warrick has a lot of fun in her few scenes giving Parkins hell because she knows she can't be fired. But there is a joy to her when a secret is exposed, and she is delightful to watch, although I came out of this knowing absolutely nothing about Hannah Cord having never seen her on the TV series.
Is this the parallel universe version of "Peyton Place" with its "Dark Shadows" like switch to an alternate world, or should we just forget about 1977, or should we just not care and enjoy each one for what it is? Flashbacks of Mia Farrow are seen as Norman Harrington recalls his past. With the growing love between young folks, the older folks fear incest with Megan and Dan (Bruce Greenwood), Betty and the late Rodney's son. It gets a bit convoluted but it's fun nonetheless with the soapy structure. There's no revelation how Rodney died in this parallel universe version of the show, so there is a lot missing in the way of exposition.
It's pretty obvious from the start who the villain is going to be and they get pretty much the same type of pay-off as the villain from the previous movie from the other "PP" universe. I didn't feel a passion for a good percentage of the young characters, and there was nothing special about the veteran characters to make me want to start trying to watch the original series once again. (I found the set-up for the original series a dreadful bore in spite of having loved the two big screen films made at 20th Century Fox.) By this time, prime time soaps were beginning a slow decline, and it was obvious from this that a series would not return any of them to Peyton Place, at least not in the veteran cast member's lifetimes.