Sunset Beach

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.

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!

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.

This was a great soap opera. Although sometimes the acting left a bit to be desired (and I'll admit that despite being a huge fan), it was one of the most creative and interesting soaps on TV. Many of the stars of this show went on to really bright careers (Eddie Cibrian and Jason Winston George among them), but some have faded into Hollywood nothingness. Sometimes the show was cheesy, but that was what made it so great. It wasn't old and tired like some of the other soaps. It was completely fresh, new, vibrant and colorful. It needs to be put back on the air so other soaps stop rehashing the same ideas. This soap was funny, entertaining and really great. Terror Island was one of the greatest soap angles of all time. Aaron Spelling's finest achievement ever.

I hadn't really ever watched a soap opera before, but "Sunset Beach" isn't really your average soap. It was much better. That's probably partly due to the fact that Aaron Spelling was behind it. I remembered seeing ads for it and then during the summer I decided to see what it was all about. After the first episode I was hooked! I would tape it everyday, so I would never miss an episode. Sadly, NBC decided to trade it in for "Passions", which I liked at the beginning, but that's another story... Basically, I just wish that it was still on the air. The plots weren't very realistic, but they were fun to watch (especially the "Terror Island" special. A great take-off on "Scream"), and that's what TV and soap operas are all about. The show had such a wonderful cast- I'll really miss them - It was such a wonderful show!!