Oh darn, I left it too late to vote - but I would have gone for Dynasty and Connie, which wouldn't have changed the outcome anyway.

 

And yet I'm still hearing "Beach 'em" in my head when I read the name.

 

@Seaviewer So do I, truth be known.

 

Match 15- Melrose Place
Match 16- Dallas

 

Match 15
Desperate Housewives. So many wicked characters and amazing cliffhangers, I found it extremely addictive. It was not a perfect show, absolutely not, but some of the dark comedy worked for me. The only thing I really don't like is the title, it's too inherently satirical and besides that none of them actually looked like a desperate housewife.
"City On Fire" was a cracking episode, and the hurricane and the plane crash and the supermarket hostage episode, etc etc.
I have yet to see the first 4 seasons of MP (the best of, according to fans) but I'm not really in a hurry.

Match 16
I've never seen The Young Doctors, only The Flying Doctors. Dallas wins this match for me.

 

Match 15: Desperate Housewives
(tough choice, but Melrose's first season and last seasons weren't as good as the rest, therefore, I vote DH).

Match 16: Dallas

 

Match 15) Melrose Place - I've never seen either show so I tossed a coin and it was heads so Melrose Place it is.

Match 16) The Young Doctors - this is an easy one for me as it is my favourite ever soap opera. I used to love coming home from school at 3:30 pm in the afternoons to watch the goings on at the Albert Memorial hospital which was always high on melodrama. I've seen every episode ever produced when it was broadcast on ITV Granada daytime from 1983 until 1993.

As @Mel O'Drama rightly states, the hospital closing was a great go out for the serial and it was a fitting finale that original cast member, Gwen Plumb should be the one to turn out the hospital lights for the final time.

But all in all a fantastic show.

Oh, how I yearn for every episode ever produced to be released to DVD.

 

1. Desperate Housewives - I thoroughly enjoyed this show and it had some great comedy moments. It lives at the bottom end of my 10 fav tv shows ever. Susan was my favourite as her clumsiness and heart in the right place often remind me of me ;-) All the leads were great in their roles. Melrose was fun in season two and three but lost the plot after that. But DH was consistently good all the way through. Original too the way it moved forward five years instead of like Dallas trying to dreadfully wipe out one.

At least Marcia Bree Kimberly Cross can’t lose in this round ;-)

2. Dallas original - my third fav show of all time. You know the reasons why lol. I watched The Young Doctors which was very popular in Oz and NZ. It remains just hovering outside my top ten shows of all time. Rebecca Gilling, Judy McBurney, Peta Toppano, Cornelia Francis, Lynda Stoner, Gwen Plumb, the list goes on, so easy to watch. Peter Lochran, Peter Bensley, Eric Oldfield, Alan Dale, Tony Alervaz. All so watchable and several swoonworthy.

Nu Dallas wouldn’t get a look in but the oldie was a goodie!

 

Match Fifteen
I have no great love for Desperate Housewives - except for maybe seeing Nicollette Sheridan transition between Paige and New Alexis. They said it was gonna the new Knots Landing, but it really wasn't, unless your idea of Knots is nonstop Anne and Claudia thought bubble scenes. Granted, I gave up about two thirds of the way through Season 1 so maybe things changed after that.

I've never made it all the way through Melrose Place either. I waited patiently through the early stand alone episodes, enjoyed the soapiness of Seasons 2 and 3 and then lost the will to live somewhere around the end of Season 4/beginning of Season 5. I have vague memories of some the later seasons, with mostly new characters, which I found surprisingly enjoyable, but I never got to see the final season. Looking back, I think my favourite period was when it just started to become a soap, when Jake hooked up with Jo and Alison had her fling with Evil Cole Gioberti. I'm not sure it ever quite lived up to that early promise, except for maybe that one end-of-episode cliffhanger when Dead Kimberly turned up at Michael's door in the rain.

I'm pressing my button for ... MELROSE

Match Sixteen
This one's easy. I've never seen YD so I'm pressing my button for ... DALLAS -- Old Dallas, New Dallas, Early Dallas, the whole mad saga from tip to tail.