Generations

1989

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1

7.4| 0h30m| en
Synopsis

Generations is an American soap opera that aired on NBC from March 27, 1989, to January 25, 1991. The show was groundbreaking in that it was the first soap opera to feature from its inception an African-American family.

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Reviews

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment
GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious
JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
mark.waltz While this well written daytime soap did not make it to two years on the air, it was certainly a much better soap than the two NBC shows which followed it, "Sunset Beach" and "Passions". "Generations" made the attempt to move daytime into the modern age by having a core black family, ultimately writing out most of the white characters who had shared the initial spotlight with. The Marshall family had struggled to build up a successful ice cream business, and in the opening weeks, sought to purchase the house of the deceased Hugh Gardner, a miserly old man who was estranged from his soap opera actress daughter. The Marshalls were associated with Hugh, his daughter Jessica and the upper middle class Whitmore family, although there was an unexplained rivalry between Ruth Marshall (Joan Pringle) and Laura McCallum (Gail Rae Carlson), the daughter of attorney Rebecca Whitmore (originally Patricia Crowley, oddly recast with Dorothy Lyman during the show's last weeks), who employed Ruth's mother, Vivian (the marvelous Lynn Hamilton) as her housekeeper. The show dealt with racial issues, had odd comedy surrounding Hugh Gardner's crazy sister Mary (Minna Kolb), and ended on a cliff hanger with Ruth's husband, Henry Marshall ("Days of Our Lives'" James Reynolds) having a heart attack after discovering Ruth kissing Rebecca Whitmore's ex-husband, Peter Whitmore (soap vet Ron Harper). While several popular "All My Children" stars (Lyman, Linda Gibboney, Debbie Morgan and Robert Gentry) had major parts on the show, it wasn't enough to bring over "AMC" fans, although the show was praised for the storyline of the Marshalls moving into the Gardner mansion and facing objections from the racist Charles Mullins who had a black mistress. Soap vet Marla Adams gave a marvelous performance as his glamorous wife Helen, afraid to stand up to him over his prejudices and when she did, brutally beaten for daring to defy him. "Generations" did end up re- run on BET, but other than the critical praise for some of its controversial and unique story lines, did not get the attention and confidence from NBC that it deserved, making it one of daytime's biggest "missed opportunities".
Ayça Erman Especially the generations born in 80's learn their born hours according to the Dallas hour.(For example there was one hour to Dallas or Dallas was almost finished..)For that time period that crosses with my childhood the most important soap opera was certainly "Generations" and probably you remember the hot blond in that program was Sam..Men and women everybody was loving Sam at that time period in Turkey.And yes women also love her cause all women were fake blonde and all of them desire to look like Sam..:)I'm sure if you're from 1980 and upper generation and watching Gossip Girl, probably you are giving the same reaction that i gave.. THAT'S Sam! And she's still gorgeous!!!:)Kelly Rutherford who was born in 1968 and has a child, like in "Generations" still beautiful and a woman with style.She's wearing suitable clothes to her age and at the same time she's also natural and elegant.She is showing women how to wear clothes at this program without loosing their femininity especially for the ones at their 40's, wearing 20's clothes. (by Moda Vitrini)
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budikavlan First of all, "Generations" was an NBC soap, not ABC. Second of all, as a prime time series, the tenure of "The Drew Carey Show" has no bearing on the decisions which determine the life or death of a daytime program. No matter how much a viewer loves a show, the show will die if the ratings aren't high enough, and "Generations" ranked far behind every other daytime drama for its entire run.The concentration on African-American characters was both what made the show unique and a large part of the problem with it. The creator of the show evidently went out of her way to portray the characters as normal, down-to-earth, middle-class Americans. Unfortunately, it is "abnormal" characters which spice up the drama. The main family on "Generations" were the owners of an ice cream parlor. Much of the day-to-day action was mundane, even banal compared to that on other soaps of the period.Even if "Generations" had clearly excelled over its competition, it would likely have lived a short life; it was on the lowest-rated network (in daytime ratings anyway), it had an iffy time slot, and it was a cold half-hour launch, in a time when virtually all of the shows were an hour. So it was doomed to end up an admirable but regrettably short-lived effort.