Sunset Beach

Sunset Beach was the best show on NBC. I even prefer that over the Passions. They're storylines were great and they didn't spend a whole month on one night. I hope the US has the nerve to put it on syndication because I miss this soap.

Upon viewing Sunset Beach for the first time, I like most others viewing this show will be instantly thrown by the garish, bright colours allowed by the particular camera lens used.

Add to this the masses of fantastically healthy-appearing, bronzed characters with their all too perfectly sculpted facial and bodily features and I would defy anyone not to be hypnotized by this show.

Having seen "The Bold and the Beautiful", "The Young and the Restless", and "Melrose Place", after initially having been hypnotized for a brief 5 minutes or so I began to see this programme with my active-mind. Rational thought took over and the bad memories of the aforementioned soaps began to taint Sunset Beach. However, upon viewing only one episode, it was clearly apparent to me that this was special.

For me what makes this such effective, enjoyable escapism is the acting performances from most of the cast. Sure, the acting can be "Over The Top" (meaning unnecessary) at times most of the cast are actually very good. One of the most impressive of the cast in my own opinion is Peter Barton as the bad Police officer Eddie Connors. Barton's manipulative, devious yet likable delivery gives this role fantastic credence. Barton is followed closely by fellow Police officer (actually detective, hem hem) Hank Cheyne as Ricardo Torres. Ricardo is the heroic sort who you find it difficult to dislike. Cheyne symbolises truth and honesty, however there is a great deal of emotion beneath this.

Most impressive of all however - and directly opposed to the Torres character in the sense that there is almost no emotion shown - is Sam Behrens portrayal of successful business man, meddling father and often sinister Gregory Richards. Behrens's delivery of the debonair, amazingly practical, driven and successful Richards is almost always utterly captivating. In fact the entire Richards family have the bulk of the best story lines in the first year of Sunset Beach, each one is fantastically delivered by Behrens.

If ever there is a moment coming where you feel that Richards will have to show some emotion, chances are he will not. When a rare moment of emotion, other than the slightly frequent anger/impatience/intolerance is displayed by Behrens it is quite something to behold.

Therefore, as the characters are so well represented, the story lines deserve a lot of credit.

In my opinion the first 10 months of Sunset Beach was most enjoyable. However that fantastic scenery of the beautiful beach and its surrounding domestic habitat's, coupled with the bold story lines and mainly great characters elevates Sunset Beach above any other daytime soap EVER.

Sunset Beach was, and is, the best thing ever on TV. There's never been anything like it and to be honest I don't believe for a minute that there ever again will be either. It is SO full of hopes and dreams. And very much like in real life, some of them come true and some of them don't. But it does give the viewer some hope of a better tomorrow. Just enough excitement, romance, action, humor, and bizarre things to suit even the pickiest viewer. GREAT acting! Really makes you sometimes confuse it with reality, but you notice the difference when you look around yourself and don't see such hunks around you :(. The worst mistake ever made by the human race was axing the show. Now so many people will be missing that little escape from reality and it's really sad :(.

I started watching SB as we fans call it when Channel 5 (UK) showed it around 5pm. Instantly I got well hooked if you are a fan of the cheese sub-genre of Spelling you will love it. The trick with this soap is to treat it as light,spoof entertainment. All in all I love it but like Danish blue cheese it may be an acquired taste. If you are one of these people who only watches quality shows with really good subversive story lines with a perfectly crafted backstory DO NOT tune in but if you need a bit of light fluff to brighten your drab work-a-day life I would suggest you just sit back and enjoy the total fantasy of these sexy guys and gorgeous girls on Sunset Beach.

Back when I was about 14 (21 now) i used to tape this thing everyday so I could watch it when i went home for lunch and every day a couple of my mates would come watch it too. We loved the Ben / Derek plot sooo much (I may have even made a tape where edited those bits together n cut all the rest- i'm usually quite normal, honest). A funny thing I noticed recently is that on one of my other favourite shows, British sit com Game On they used to mention watching sunset beach like they were taking the mess out of how rubbish it was- but this was 2 years before SB existed so I have my suspicions that someone saw game on and decided to make said crappy soap. Anyway I did prefer the original theme tune (the one used at the end of later episodes written by one Tim Truman, which I notice happens to be the name of one of the characters, in case you forget it was the guy who had a flashback where he shouted noooooo for about 3 months when he was in a coma. For addictive crappy TV SB is far and away the best. Its so bad that its brilliant!!! its also a load of fun when you see the stars in other stuff. Paula was in mulholland drive and the punisher! and Meg was in.. Wild Things 3 or was it 2?- use the search if you are interested. Alas Ben, once tipped as 007 is in general hospital!