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It was supposed to be the BBC's lavish alternative to EastEnders, taking Albert Square's winning formula and flying it to the Costa Del Sol - with fresh characters, more bust-ups and jazzier sets.
Instead, Eldorado became the most infamous flop in soap opera history, canned in 1993 after just a year on air with thousands of pounds frittered away quicker than a wealthy expat in a Malaga beach club.
Since it was ruthlessly axed by Alan Yentob, as he began his shake-up of BBC One, tales of the chaos in the fictional town of Los Barcos have been rife, with wild stories of collapsing sets, run-ins with mobsters and boozy nights-out ensuring the show's legacy lived on.
The truth behind the Beeb's doomed adventure in sunny Spain, however, has been hard to come by with most cast members looking to keep schtum about the saga and move on with their acting careers.
Until now. With the soap enjoying a rerun on UKTV channel U&Drama, Jon-Paul Gates, aka Los Barcos bar manager Allan Hindle, has bared the secrets of Eldorado in an exclusive chat with MailOnline and recalled that one BBC icon was responsible for the show's frenetic start.
'I think the idea behind it is that we were originally going to replace Terry Wogan because Wogan I think got a golden handshake from the BBC,' the actor, who was a teenager when Eldorado first aired, said.
'And they needed a prime time soap, not to replace EastEnders, but certainly to compete with it.
'Wogan, in his infinite wisdom, decided to cut short his contract, which meant that instead of us going out in September that year, they desperately tried to get us to go in July.
'This meant they focused on all the young talent, including myself, who had virtually no experience instead of focusing on the more established talent - the likes of Patricia Brake and Jesse Birdsall and Campbell Morrison.
'And so the transmission date was pushed forward to July. And obviously with the set not being completed, and the scripts were rushed, I think it was on a hiding to nothing at the outset.'
To lump the blame entirely at Wogan's door is obviously harsh. The BBC threw everything at Eldorado in the hope that it would land the decisive blow in their ratings war with ITV.
Filming around Coín, near Malaga, they drafted in an experienced set of producers - including EastEnders creators Julia Smith and Tony Holland - as well as a vast multi-lingual cast and a team to build a fictional village on a remote hillside.
And the public were initially drawn in by the promise of 'sun, sea and sangria' with an impressive eight million viewers watching the show's opening episode in July 1992.
Things soon dipped and, amid relentless press criticism, Eldorado's audience plummeted to around three million, a drop in the Mediterranean compared with Coronation Street's 20m and EastEnders' 15m.
Crisis talks were held, producers were sacked and scriptwriters were shipped to Spain to get the sinking ship back afloat.
It worked. Morale reportedly improved and, most importantly, the soap's ratings soon returned to their original solid figures.
But the departure of Jonathan Powell as the BBC's controller in 1993 provided the crippling blow for the fledging show, with the incoming Yentob deciding that the headline-grabbing programme was not worth the bad publicity.
Jon-Paul said: 'Everybody was complaining about the fact we're in recession and the BBC supposedly were running this high-profile, no holds barred soap in Spain.'
This was not the only problem with the show. Yes, some of the legendary yarns about its chaotic production possess a grain of truth.
'I mean, talk about "mañana" with Spanish builders,' Jon-Paul said. 'That was definitely the case.
'One of the producers, a guy called James Tedesco, who was this Australian... he was a property developer or something, and he talked his way into being part of production, presumably because the BBC needed a property developer.
'Part of the problem with the set was that he was in control of building it and I remember when I was doing a scene with my screen brother, it was persisting down with rain and some of the ceiling came in.'
Things went from bad to worse when a group of locals visited Jon-Paul's on-screen pub and rather liked what they saw.
'My character ran a beach bar but the Spanish decided to build an exact replica about 20 yards down the beach,' he joked.
'We had all this noise going on, hammering and sawing, and we could never really shoot anything and had to move the set.'
Given the show's location and plotlines, it is hardly surprising some colourful - and slightly concerning - characters started arriving at the scene, including infamous bank robber Ronnie Knight, who was once married to EastEnders and Carry On icon Barbara Windsor.
Jon-Paul said: 'He was trying to get a part on set. I remember talking to him as a youngster and he was also trying to get his girlfriend at the time on the show.'
As for the legendary nights out on the Costa Del Sol, it was all part of a dream gig in the early days of his career.
'I socialised a lot with the actor playing Dieter - the German chap [Dieter Schultz],' he recalled. 'We used to go out a lot.
'And also Jesse Birdsall, who played Marcus Tandy. He was a man about town and he, very kindly, gave me advice and we had a few nights out in Fuengirola and in Marbella.
'It was a fabulous life to be honest with you.'
But it was all painfully short-lived with the final episode confirmed for July 9, 1993 - just 368 days on from the opening salvo.
More than 10 million fans watched the premature conclusion, leading to unsuccessful calls for the BBC to change its mind, before Eldorado melted away like a discarded Solero in the Torremolinos sun.
Its legacy lived on, however, both literally through the famous abandoned set in southern Spain and in print through those who continued to mock it.
For Jon-Paul, it acted as a stain on his developing reputation which could only be remedied by a name change.
Once going by Jon Morrey, the up-and-coming actor wasted no time in opting for a moniker which 'rolled off the tongue a bit better'.
He explained: 'I was advised by my agent that because it was unsuccessful, it might be wise at my age to change my name.
'It's not as though I didn't like my name, but I think I was swayed at the time by Jean-Claude Van Damme. I mean Jon-Paul is actually my real Christian name, and I just thought Morrey did not quite have the ring to it, so I went with Gates.'
Jon-Paul has starred in around 100 feature films since Eldorado, typically playing the villain, inevitably placing him on the same set as some of the world's most iconic actors.
He fondly described Heat star Danny Trejo as 'very cool, calm and collected but very guarded' which he put down to his 'involvement in LA gang culture'.
Succession icon Brian Cox meanwhile was 'brilliant, a great guy'.
Longer in the tooth, more professional and able to reflect on the mistakes of 30 years ago, perhaps now is the time for Jon-Paul to dust off the Sangria pitchers, rig up the Estrella taps and reopen his Los Barcos beach bar?
'Obviously, I'd want to play some sort of different character,' he said, when asked about the possibility of an Eldorado comeback.
'If I was to play some sort of businessman for whom maybe some sort of property or deal had gone wrong... yeah, I'd be up for that.
'Maybe I would do more of a drama serial but I don't think I'd entertain a soap anymore.
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