Caray, Caray!

This question isn't about outdated cliche storylines, but about viewer reaction to what happens on the screen while the series is still in production.  It's also about viewer ratings and how that affects what they do.  A few examples of past decisions:

Pasion de Gavilanes (Telemundo, 2003-2004):  This was the most successful series Telemundo ever had in the 7PM EST timeslot.  Good story, writing was decent, cast was attractive.  At some point after the first third had aired, Telemundo made the episodes shorter so they ended five minutes early and the next program (Prisionera) began at 7:55 instead of 8PM.  The last chapter of the story was extended to twice the length it should have been because the network wanted to keep the ratings up in the time slot.  This series was rerun twice in the US, edited to its appropriate length in terms of the correct pace of the story.

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Labels: fantasma, gavilanes, telenovelas, triunfo, weekend

Hola a todos! Hello everyone on Caray Caray!

During my recent vacation I flew to New York City for the People en espa~ol Mas Bello 2010
fiesta on May 20. As the blog's unofficial photographer, I was permitted to enter and
stand in the corner with the other photographers in the press room at the event.

Here is the link to see the photos I took both outside the venue and in the press room:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/locococonut/sets/72157624315803300


Jody

Labels: clon, Cuidado, dinero, entertainment-news, gavilanes, heridas, manana, mundo, pecado, sortilegio

Okay folks, this is it for PdG. It's been a lot of fun.

Juan tells Grabiela to hang on.

Juan summons all his strength to try and carry Grabiela out of the swamp.

Meanwhile Feonando is sinking in the quicksand (arena movediza). He begs for Juan to help him but Juan pays no attention to him.
So he sinks...
until he's gone.

Juan is at the end of his strength when his brothers and Swamp Tio find him and Grabi.

Extra cute shot of Juan David seen through the door when Swamp Tio is leaving the Hacienda.

Anibal figures out that he is Ruth's father but Eva doesn't admit it or want him to ever mention their relationship to anyone else. Anibal agrees and they part.

Juan David and Abuelo welcome Grabiela home from the hospital and they have a big party.

Finally, Sarita and Franco get married.

The three couples ride off into the sunset to be happy forever.

Aside from the three principal couples, the only person who had a successful romance in the novela was Melisa. Armando was already involved with Rosario and Ruth with Antonio at the beginning of the novela and we didn't see any of Pepita's romance. Everybody else: the fruit sons, Quintina, Eva, Dominga, Olegario, Martín, Leandro and Benito ended up just as they began romance wise. Interesting.

One thing that I have been wondering about is why this novela worked so well beyond the attractiveness of the stars. It really didn't have most of the things that are so common in other novela like secrets that last the entire novela, switched babies and such like. Compare the plot of PdG to the plot of FELS, for example.

Monday, ECDD!

Labels: gavilanes

Two more days left!
For those following along on You Tube, we are up to the end of 192-4

Sarita and Franco visit Rosario who says that she really loved Franco but didn't know how to handle it and did bad things.

Juan overpowers Feonando and takes charge. Here Grabiela and Feo are 'eating locally.' Later, Juan manages to catch an eel that they eat further demonstrating his superiority to Feo as a wilderness guy even though he is crippled.

The guy who knows the swamp finally shows up from Canada and it turns out he Los Reyes long-lost uncle, Anibal. He is known on TW as the Swamp Tio. It's perfectly obvious that he is Ruth's father, too, which provides a reason for the resemblance between her and Libia. He organizes an expedition into the swamp to find Juan and Grabiela.

Juan modestly refuses to take off his wet shirt in front of Grabiela citing her disgust of his shirtlessness when Los Reyes were building the cabaña. We see a flashback to that early part of the novela and Grabi must have been crazy not to have wanted to see this every day.

Labels: gavilanes

Dínorah gets bitten by a snake or something while rolling around in the mud with Juan and spends most of the episode chewing up the scenery before Feonando finally shoots and puts her out of her misery.

She has visions of the men she killed, her father and Belinda.
She tries to get a kiss from Juan but he won't oblige.
Finally Feo shoots her...
and she rolls into the water.
Otherwise, the police are doing nada, as usual. The Elizondo girls are cleaning up Grabi's Hacienda and de-Feonanding it. Hortensia finally comes to terms with Libia/Ruth and Franco offers to invest in Hortensia's business. Ruth offers to partner with Benito on a chain of hamburger restaurants. Rosario wakes up and wants to know where Armando is.

Labels: gavilanes

Well, I can't let PdG end without doing a memorial to the demise of Juan's beloved truck. Here are some pics as it sinks into the swamp in Friday's episode.













Camioneta - en paz descansa.

Labels: gavilanes

It's a standoff at the Hacienda Elizondo. The bad guys are fighting amongst themselves inside and the good guys are waiting anxiously for something to happen.
Juan and Grabiela are hostages.

Norma and Sarita wait outside with Franco and Óscar

Rosario comes to try and convince Armando to give up but it all goes horribly wrong when Armando, jealous to the end, tries to shoot Franco and wounds Rosario.

Unwilling to live without Rosario, Armando makes the police shoot and kill him. Rosario isn't dead though and she is rushed to the hospital.

Back at the Hacienda Reyes, Don Martín feeds Juan David.

Do we need a reason for a cute picture of Juan?

The Rosales comes to beg Dínorah to surrender but she ends up shooting at them. Although briefly considering that they might have been at fault for the way Dínorah turned out, they decide she is mentally ill and leave resolving to forget they ever had a daughter.

Labels: gavilanes

We're hurtling toward the end of PdG, folks.


Horténsia tells Martín what she is going to do to Filemón when she confronts him.

When Horténsia finds out that Filemón promised to give Esperanza a half interest in the store that he doesn't even have, she tries to crush him like a bug. Miguel and Manolo ignore their father's pleas for help.

Norma and Juan make up after Juan chews Norma out for going to the Elizondo hacienda on her own.
Dínorah tortures Malcom to find out where he and Carmela hid Grabiela's jewelry.

Abuelo is finally back with his girls. He drops the bombshell that Dínorah is at the Elizondo Hacienda.

On the theory that it's ok if a man does something heroic even if it is stupid, Juan, on crutches no less, goes alone to the Elizondo Hacienda.

He overhears Malcom and Carmela talking about Grabiela in the basement.

Labels: gavilanes

From Tuesday's episode, Juan asleep in the hospital.

Benito and his bunch of harpies.

Eva gets back at them by threatening to reveal what she overheard their activities when she was a servant in Grabi's house.

Dínorah ends the brawl and Feonando's gambling get together.

Pepita comes to the Hacienda with backup but still doesn't find out what happened to Don Martín and Grabi.

Juan, Norma and JD have a picnic after Juan comes home from the hospital.



It's always jarring when characters on a novela who have been basically used for comic relief are brutally offed.

The car crash was less than convincing. I guess they weren't going to risk actually harming those two vintage cars. I didn't really understand why Raquel decided to play 'chicken' with H&R. Think of all the lives that could have been saved if these people had cell phones!

Libia's warning dreams to Ruth seem to work better for her relatives - she has saved Juan twice but her warnings about Grabiela and Raquel and Calixto were not as effective.

Benito and the nasty harpy 'friends' of Raquel hit a new low today. Who would make such remarks at a funeral?

Other than that, nothing much happened: Grabi's still in the basement; Feonando's still losing at cards; Martín is still in the sanatorium; the inhabitants of the Hacienda de los Reyes are still in the dark and Pepita and Rosario know a lot but don't tell anyone useful.

Labels: gavilanes

Raquel finally tell Benito off but it doesn't look too good for her and Calixto after Ruth has one of her dreams and Raquel decides to visit the Elizondo Hacienda.
Of course, Don Martín just misses Manolo and Manuel. Is there really only one wheelchair in the whole sanatarium?


Norma and Juan have an inane conversation in the hospital.

Bustillo and Violeta plot to kill Don Martín while Hortensia listens.

The gang decides to sell Eduvina's jewelry for charity.

Hortensia warns Don Martín and pretends to be sleepwalking when discovered by Violeta.

Ruth has a mysterious dream about Raquel and Calixto and Libia.

Hortensia's youngest child was insufficiently briefed on the subject of Esperanza when he visited his mother.

Labels: gavilanes