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Y&R: Sally Sussman and Kay Alden OUT, Mal Young IN


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Does anyone who follow the UK soaps have opinions regarding MY's work as a writer or HW?  Is his track record in that department a good one?

 

I wish I could feel bad about this -- and to some extent, I DO feel bad (at least for KA) -- but SSM, IMO, never should have been allowed to steer this ship.  Her track record outside of Y&R has been terrible, and much of what she did this time around just didn't work.

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From his Wikipedia about his tenure at Brookside: "Over nearly a decade, he worked his way up to become the show's producer in the early 1990s. His tenure was criticised for taking the show away from its social realist roots towards a more sensationalist, ratings-chasing format. He achieved record ratings for the series and for Channel 4."

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How in the world is anyone surprised by this? Sally's Y&R was boring, dry and dull as hell.  I couldn't understand at all the praise it was getting on this board, it was absolutely awful as were her demos. 

 

The show was hitting 16 and 12 weeks straight of record lows in the demos, there's no way they were going to keep her around. 

 

Sucks about Kay Alden though, she deserved better than to have her legacy tied to this awful stint from Sally. 

 

Mal being EP and HW is a horrid idea and I hope it is only temporary. One would hope that after the fiascos that were MAB and LML as HW and EP they wouldn't actually make the mistake of doing that again.  They need to get a real HW, maybe even bump up Janice Ferri Esser and give her a fresh, young co-HW

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He was in charge of Eastenders during a big period for the soap, although others under him made a lot of the decisions. That era of the show was very noisy and trashy though, along with having a lot of pulpy drama. I can't see that happening on Y&R.

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I wish these actors wait until the person start writing before they give the new writer praises.

 

I have a feeling he's not going to make it like the rest of these revolving door writers. Bringing back Kevin is his first mistake. I'm sure more to come.

 

Mal if you reading this KILL KEVIN OFF & make Bella Billy kid. Victoria only need one kid, find away to take away the other kids. GET RID OFF CHELSEA & HER CHILDREN. Find away to de age the twins or get rid of them. Bring back Devon sister for Reed.

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LOL. The buttkissing on twitter begins. I see it with all the soaps and I'd kinda rather none of them said anything.

 

Not saying Sally was super great but there's promise Mal is any better. Be careful what you wish for ... but I'd love it if he were great.

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At least going in, several characters have been salvaged from the likes of Latham, MAB and UpChuck. We can thank Sally for doing that.  

 

 

A lot of people put way too much into the interview with Sussman. She wrote checks that she couldn't cash. She made mistakes like anyone else. Was I unhappy? Yeah. 

 

I, myself, am glad she brought Marla Adams back and fixed Sharon. I'm happy with Brash-n-Sassy--and I never thought I'd say that. Nikki has some "kick" back in her step. Cane is tolerable. There's a same sex relationship on the horizon, something else I doubted would happen

 

 Anyone that wants to keep their job will tweet. great things, but please quit quoting the MAB fanatic, one can only stomach so much of that. She did tons of damage to the show.

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+1

Heh. Reading the responses on Mal Young's twitter announcement that was linked in Thompson's tweet, so many are begging Mal to keep Sharon sane. I hope he does. I'm not wanting wacky sleeps with everyone bonkers Sharon. I'm sure Sharon Case has fun but it's not in the character's best interest that she revert to the joke she became. Sharon doesn't work as the town pariah.

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I don't think any of this is terribly surprising. Their tenure started slow - too slow for me eventually, though I was liking a fair bit of it - and it was clear from early on there was major tension between Sussman/Alden's preferences and the kind of show Young and CBS/Sony preferred to keep making. The seams between that classical sensibility vs. the scripts, the cutting, the production style showed often. The whole bit with Miami and Dylan, while it ended on a good farewell episode, never felt like it had anything to do with the Y&R those two women knew. Every episode seemed profoundly caught between two worlds, two schools of thought.

 

I think they could've been bolder faster, though I understood wanting to rebuild things carefully. I also think Mal Young was too outsize a personality to tolerate a bigger creative voice than his for too long. Now he has it all and no excuses. We'll see what he does with it.

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Personally them giving him full reign leads me to believe they're just letting him hang himself but we'll see. Maybe he'll be good. I'm willing to give it a shot but if the last few months are any indication ... meh.

 

I agree there were too many cooks in the kitchen. You could clearly see it was a bit of a mess. As Vee said, the show Sussman/Alden wanted it to be, and what Young/CBS/Sony wanted it to be. There was a definite shift. And once Billy/Phyllis got back together, the writing was kind of on the wall.

 

I hope Marla Adams sticks around. I like Sharon sane. I like Nikki more than I have in a long time. Certain things I liked. The show wasn't perfect but a soap with so much interference never will be. No one will be pleased with everything. I also think they need to reel in the writing for Hilary, it's too all over the place. And enough with Victor twirling his moustache. He's not very viable anymore as a character IMHO. He's so isolated and lacks any bit of charm he may have had. Nothing about him is likeable. Victor's death could fuel a lot of story for years to come. Maybe it's time.

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