Sunset Beach

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.

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.

Wobbly scenery, hysterical acting, unbelievable plotlines - someone tell me how TV could possibly get any better?

Please please - don't let it get cancelled. If the rest of the world (judging from the comments here) doesn't want it, we in Britain certainly do!!

And I want to be an Assumpta Fitzgerald to Antonio's Father Peter!

Simply the best soap ever. Someone gave it 0 out of 4 - I can only assume they meant 10 out of 4!

I remember I checked out the first episode of the show, I thought it was different (film, not tape) and I remember I wasn't impressed till I heard that Eddie Cibrian (one of my favorite actors) joined the show and I said maybe I check out the show and after that I got hooked. I was hoping somewhere NBC would keep the show on as of today but they cancelled it and I kind of figured that once Eddie was leaving to do "Third Watch" I said to myself goodbye Sunset. But it had some hilarious stories to watch and I love the cast. It was different for the 90s as well as up to date stuff like cyber romance, Annie's craziest fantasies, (which I am glad that NBC never cut the scene out that Annie fantasized that Sean and Caitlin walked on their mother in bed with Rose, the maid) and kudos to the crew for putting that structure of that story together and sticking by it when they knew they were going off the air. I miss the show, but thank God for VCRs which I taped most of the episodes. So I could say I still live back in Sunset Beach. Just wish they were newer episodes, that someday Aaron Spelling would do a miniseries of the show and show us what these characters are doing. I also had the laugh when Meg finally married Ben and she fell asleep and dreamed she was in Ludlow after all these years with the existing cast there. I want the show back.

Hi I loved Sunset beach, and I am really enjoying the reruns on UK TV at the moment.

If you like your soaps gritty and realistic then don't even bother watching, but if you want to laugh till your sides split, and get taken away from your humdrum life, then tune in to SB.

It has everything that normal soaps try their best to disguise, for example; sets that shake every time a door is slammed, recurring scenery, and best of all absolutely ridiculous plots.

It points the finger at so many soaps out there, and takes the mickey out of them, if you like ironic and sarcastic humour then this is definitely the soap for you.

From the masked killer on Terror Island to the earthquake and simultaneous tidal wave, (that put all the cast in jeopardy), it is the best and funniest soap to ever be made.

You may think that the story lines covered in the three years that the show ran are so ridiculous that they would not appear on other soaps, but most seem to be loosely based on story lines from other, trying to be serious, ones.

It is plain and simply a take on all the soaps ever aired, and I'm so glad that it was made. Thank you Aaron Spelling, you made the best daytime soap ever.