44 replies to this topic

[doolfan]

Hey everybody I'm new here and wanted to post something that's been on my mind. I know a lot of fans have discussed this before but I honestly cannot believe how much Y&R changed under MAB. Half the characters we saw on our screen were from ABC soap operas. We saw stories that absolutely didn't add up or make sense. We saw several fan favorite characters leave, the sets and lighting looked cheap and we endured some characters being ruined. I almost barfed when I saw MAB's Soaps in Depth interview where she stated "I don't want Y&R to lose it's brand. I want people to still be able to flip through the TV channels and click on Y&R and know they are watching Y&R." That comment just shows how much self denial that woman was in. For 2011 and most of 2012 I couldn't even recognize Y&R. Like I stated earlier it was all ABC soap stars and new characters. Some days I would flip through and wonder if I was watching All My Children or General Hospital. One day it's hey there's Jessie and Angie and Annie and then the next it was hey there's Robert Scorpio and Laura Spencer, It was ridiculous. Her four or five year tenure destroyed Y&R. I'm just so disappointed. I'm seeing signs of improvement and am hopeful that JG and JFP will restore Y&R to it's once former fantastic self.

[Soapsuds]

I watched today and the show was still blah....good parts were Nina, Paul, Katherine and Cricket...everything else was rather boring and useless like with MAB.

Edited by Soapsuds, 19 November 2012 - 03:41 PM.

[doolfan]

I agree. But I will say that today's episode was probably one of the better ones that I've watched the last two years. It might have been a little dull but it didn't trash history and stuff. But yes I agree it still has a long way to go. lol

[edgeofnik]

Seriously people. Is there one "era" during the past 15 years where people said the show was right on the mark? I remember with each regime, people talking about the destruction of Y&R and then be so happy when a new one was brought in only to say that was worse than before. I know many of us love the 80s for Y&R, but it did brings us great stories like Brad held in a cage by a lioness! I've thought each era has had some good "A" stories, but those would be become fewer and farther in between. And the bad ones, just sucked - Neil going into the gutter, Phela, Relique, Patty (overall and unnecessary destruction of a character), Sara/Lauren, Schictor, and I know I'm forgetting many, many others.

[doolfan]

I know we've had several bad regimes but most of the stories you just named were MAB stories. IMO she did the worst damage to Y&R. Bringing on ABC soap people and people from past primetime TV shows. Y&R became unrecognizable. At least with LML we did have the majority of the characters we love.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

Phillips return was terrible! As was Cane's "death" which gave us one of the most annoying characters on this show in awhile. Shictor was nauseating.

[doolfan]

The Meggie storyline was awful too. lol. MAB polluted Y&R with so many bad stories these past few years. If my math is right she wrote over 1,000 Y&R episodes out of 10,000. That's a heck of a lot of crappy episodes. I did enjoy the Kay/Marge story and Kay's senior moments. But that was pretty much it. I would've enjoyed some other stories had they have been character driven and not ruined characters. But those Christmas episodes where characters got a look at their life past/present/future got old quick. She could've at least come up with some more original Christmas themed episode instead of taking the same outline every year and writing it for a different character. How about just showing the families together. Opening presents, enjoying each others company, ETC. lol I could go on about Y&R and MAB's tenure forever!

[chicklitsandfantasies]

That bitch Meggie kept coming back! And she was making phone calls from jail like it was her office! And why the hell did they believe anything out of her mouth after she tried to kill Victor? Victor's Christmas and Nikki's Christmas epis were the worst of the bunch.

[Chris B]

This new regime will crash and burn as well. Jill Farren Phelps is safe, but Josh Griffith won't last a year. He'll either get fired or they'll bring on a high profile writer as a Co-HW to give the show direction. The show was boring as hell when he wrote it the last time and it still is. There is a reason MAB won out over him, even though he's more experienced.

The problem with Y&R is that every writer wants to change the show. I do appreciate that MAB at least seemed to appreciate what came before, but she wasn't experienced enough to execute it. She was trying to marry too many things she loved like her love of sitcoms and art. If you look at B&B, they've updated the music in a way that makes sense (while maintaining old cues) and they've updated the way the show is directed, but it still looks like B&B. It still looks like a Bell show. With the changes at Y&R, I don't see that. The casting doesn't feel right, the pacing isn't right, it's just not very Y&R. It feels more like an ABC soap. I truly believe the only thing that could save the show is getting Jack Smith or Kay Alden back. It needs to be written in the Bill Bell style and the only people who understand that are people trained under him.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

What about MAB's stories showed her appreciating what came before? It was more like a bad attempt to recycle stories so she and her team wouldn't have to think up any of their own.

What's wrong with the current casting at Y&R? They stopped hiring people who had no business being on Y&R though they need to dump some more people.

[CarlD2]

MAB appreciated her nostalgia, and that was about it. She rewrote key stories in the way she saw fit, not caring whether or not it made sense or ruined the characters.

If anything Griffith doesn't care about changing Y&R enough. As long as the show is still about Adam, Phyllis, and Victor, nothing will change.

[y&r_fan]

There is a reason MAB won out over him, even though he's more experienced.

Maria's last name may have had something to do with it...

I do appreciate that MAB at least seemed to appreciate what came before

It was quite clear that MAB resented what came before her by the way she kept dredging up Bill Bell's old stories and ruining them with disastrous retcons.

If you look at B&B, they've updated the music in a way that makes sense (while maintaining old cues) and they've updated the way the show is directed, but it still looks like B&B.

Were you watching B&B when they first updated the music, etc. in 2008? It was horrendous. It took about a year for them to fine-tune the production model.

The casting doesn't feel right, the pacing isn't right, it's just not very Y&R.

JFP's casting so far has been right on the money. Robert Adamson and Hunter Haley King are fantastic. The pacing is better than it has been since before LML. It feels more like Y&R than it has in years to me.

[y&r_fan]

If anything Griffith doesn't care about changing Y&R enough. As long as the show is still about Adam, Phyllis, and Victor, nothing will change.

Like it or not, those characters are the big sellers. And it isn't just about them - Jack, Victoria, Billy, Avery, Nick, Sharon, Noah, Summer, Fen, Paul, Christine, Jill and Katherine are all in frontburner stories as well.

Edited by y&r_fan, 20 November 2012 - 02:37 AM.

[juniorz1]

Just popping in to say that the demise of Y&R doesn't begin or end with MAB. Don't give that idiot more credit than she deserves.

You see, it all started when Kay Alden was ousted, Jack Smith went on a power trip, Ed Scott and David Shaughnessy were fired, etc.... TONS of sh!t went wrong and then Lynn Marie Latham happened. With a husband named Bernie Leftovitz, or whatever his name was, we should have smelled trouble. But the bitch distracted us by letting Nick and Phyllis f#ck like rabbits for 6 months and was hailed as the second coming. Her only good move, which was making Don Diamont the lead he should have been by then, was trounced by her terrible storytelling abilities and the most trumped up, convoluted backstory was created for a character who had basically remained a blank slate hunk for 20 years and the show went to sh!t.

The ENTIRE directing team was pretty much fired- you know, the ones who were unbeatable at the Emmys in the 80s and 90s? The creme de la creme, champagne, gothic direction of the show was replaced with ABC-lite and pointless extras so we'd actually believe that Newman Enterprises has employees?

Y&R has gone off the rails and back many times over the years. I think Pheila was a HUGE mistake, Kimberlin Brown's 2003 return grossly mishandled, and the Lauren/Sarah/Patty/Emily mess to be absolutely unforgivable. Talk about going above and beyond the realm of possibility and the world we used to visit and escape to became a facade and a shell of its former self.

I would HOPE that veteran, successful professionals like Jill Farren Phelps and Josh Griffith, can bring us back to the days of the slow-burn, well-rounded, umbrella tales that were sometimes resolved, and sometimes went unresolved (much like in real life).

If you check out http://boards.soapop...n-its-entirety/, you can watch some of Jill's past work as an EP, on a little show called "Santa Barbara" that was far ahead of its time. This storyline, writing, directing, and acting kicks the [!@#$%^&*] out of anything on the air right now!

Edited by juniorz1, 20 November 2012 - 08:37 PM.

[CarlD2]

Like it or not, those characters are the big sellers. And it isn't just about them - Jack, Victoria, Billy, Avery, Nick, Sharon, Noah, Summer, Fen, Paul, Christine, Jill and Katherine are all in frontburner stories as well.

JFP never had any problem chasing off big sellers on her other shows. Clearly her days of full power are long gone, but Y&R desperately needs a revamp. I honestly think many viewers are now repulsed by some of these characters, and I don't mean "love to hate," I mean, turning the channel, deprogramming the DVR.

[Paul Raven]

Well ,it was MAB and her embarassing version of Y&R that had me finally stop watching after more than 30 years...

[Chris B]

What about MAB's stories showed her appreciating what came before? It was more like a bad attempt to recycle stories so she and her team wouldn't have to think up any of their own.

Yes, she shows a knowledge of the history be repeating and/or re-writing the history of every past story lol. I didn't say she did it well or did it right, but she made it a part of her Y&R. I don't think the new writers know anything about the show. THey have a script editor who's never watched soaps and Josh Griffith has very little experience with Y&R and I doubt he knows the history or tone of the show. He came after everything was dismantled.

It was quite clear that MAB resented what came before her by the way she kept dredging up Bill Bell's old stories and ruining them with disastrous retcons.

I think that was her inexperience. She didn't know how to create an original story, everything felt like a ripoff of something. WHen she did go original (chipmunk), she failed miserably.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

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Yes, she shows a knowledge of the history be repeating and/or re-writing the history of every past story lol. I didn't say she did it well or did it right, but she made it a part of her Y&R. I don't think the new writers know anything about the show. THey have a script editor who's never watched soaps and Josh Griffith has very little experience with Y&R and I doubt he knows the history or tone of the show. He came after everything was dismantled.


I think that was her inexperience. She didn't know how to create an original story, everything felt like a ripoff of something. When she did go original (chipmunk), she failed miserably.

JG has knowledge about the show and they still have people on the writing/production team with knowledge about the history of the show. I can't remember which writer it was but just last week they reminded the audience that Victoria had been kidnapped before by Gary and BB said the credit for that went to a longtime script writer.

Please don't give MAB more credit than she deserves which is none at all. She didn't display knowledge of the show's history. More like she went on wikapedia pulled out the major storylines and badly redid them. MAB has been apart of the family since the 90s at least that's long enough for her to have gained some knowledge about the show.Especially sicne she was pimping the fact that she did some script writing in the 90s.

All anyone has to do is looks at Sharon to see what a mess MAB made. She tried to ruin Jill too, the longest running character on this show. Please the wannabe socialite has no respect for history of Y&R.

[Khan]

With a husband named Bernie Leftovitz, or whatever his name was, we should have smelled trouble.

First of all, it's Lechowick. Second, what are you implying with this kind of statement?

[DramatistDreamer]

I must be perfectly candid.

I still enjoy discussing the show (its history, it's storyline merits, it writing, its characterizations) but Y&R does absolutely nothing for me these days and it hasn't done so for at least 3 years, now. I don't hold out much hope. Only a major reconstruction of this show would give it hope of lasting beyond 5 years. A reconfiguring of who are it's main characters and screen time as well as types of storylines and their implications. People are watching the scandal in the Pentagon and C.I.A. with more interest than they are Y&R right now.
From what I've seen (and I admit, I've watched very sparsely as of late), the story construction and the action in each scene is tighter, the actors appear more engaged, and their output is better-- but content-wise, Y&R has a long way to go. Perhaps Griffith is taking the moderate, gradual (slow moving) approach reimagining the stories on this show.