Chris B

This is why I don't get the outrage of her exit. They tried to give her story and we know she tanked that story and has been phoning it in for years. She's lucky to have lasted as long as she did considering the performances she was giving. They needed to get rid of someone likely for the budget and also, as we saw in the ratings, killing off a major character can generate good ratings and story. Who else would yall recommend they have gotten rid of with a similar pay? She didn't seem like she wanted to be there. Hell, she definitely doesn't seem like she wants to return and yet her fans are still begging for her job back. I just don't get it.

It was either Ryan's Hope or GH and of course once GH went to an hour it became one of the biggest shows on tv. I think it was one of those things where you had to strike when the iron was hot. To launch a new soap and be as successful as Ryan's Hope was, it needed to happen early on. Once GH became the focus everything changed.

Something I realized after reading the recent oral history on Ryan's Hope is that Claire Labine had more to do with it's demise than I originally thought. Yes ABC could be a disaster at times, but so could she. She had a habit when leaving the show and returning of throwing everything out, even popular stories and characters to try and bring the show back to her original vision. She couldn't evolve. Her biggest mess up is in the early 80s when the show was booming in the ratings and ABC wanted to expand the show to an hour. She turned them down and GH ended up going to an hour and the rest is history. It's crazy to think how different things could've been had she agreed to that. Of course the show was ultimately displaced by Loving and put in a timeslot it could never be successful in. Had she allowed them to expand the show to an hour that would've never happened.

I know for Bill Bell, he always regretted changing Ashley Abbott's paternity. I also personally felt he made a mistake by eliminating the entire Foster and Brooks families. They could've found room for at least a couple people per family.

I wanna say those plane crash episodes are in Prime's classic episode collection. I noticed the last time I checked they added a lot more episodes to that collection. I need to go back and watch some of that. I love a good event story like that.

Guza's GH was great, even when it became The Sopranos. He knew how to balance the violence with the mob with romance, had strong teen scenes, strong female characters and he could craft an event like no other. I do understand why GH fans were conflicted about him because some of the vets did suffer when he wrote the show, but you can't deny the impact he had on that show. For Michele Val Jean it's literally the perfect choice. It's someone she knows really well and someone she knows can get the job done. She's creating an all star writing staff and I'm excited to see what they give us.

I was reading the article about the break and sweet Harold tried to kill Paul?! There is still so much I don't know lol. I'm excited for the break and I hope they give us a nice cliffhanger. I took a long break after Toadie's exit but I've recently begun catching up. The show is still good and I love all the characters, I just needed some time off since Mackenzie and Toadie were my favorites. Right now I'm loving Terese hitting rock bottom. I thought it was heartbreaking when she called Piper and she was too busy to see her. I hope they consider bringing one of her kids back for her or some sort of family. I want to see Terese come out of this stronger than ever. Another story I love is what's going on with Wendy and Andrew. I've seen some complaints since technically she isn't cheating, but an emotional affair is often worse than a physical one and I love that they're playing this. I'm excited to catch up and see some of the stuff I've heard about like the Ramsey family return and Chriselle Stause finally arriving. I'm happy to hear things have remained good while I've been away. Lastly, I'm not worried about the show getting cancelled like some are. I always watched the show on Prime and if anything, I think making it a Prime Original will only give the show more visibility. On the few times I would checkout FreeVee, it did have some interesting stuff, but since it was another separate app, I rarely really dug in to watch anything. I'm happy the show is now with the other Prime Originals so people don't have to search for it.

This is the next episode in my rewatch and I had forgotten what a wonderful job they did developing this story. I think I had blacked everything out and thought it was a "very special episode" sort of thing, but they did a good job of developing Olivia's addiction, why it happened and how it affected the entire family. Yet another reason I love season 8. For a new crop of writers they did a really good job of re-freshing the show but keeping it grounded and centered around the characters we love.

I understand Doug isn't coming back, but why would you kill off a core characters daughter if you can't bring her parents back? Why bring back Ian Ward but Paul and Dylan aren't around? It's bad writing. Killing Heather is a waste of a legacy character who had potential and a bad story all around.

It's insanity lol. He's gotten more action off the show than his last few years on screen. But this is what Josh Grittith does, he loves off screen stuff. It reminds me of finally remembering Keemo only to kill him off screen. Such wastes of history.

I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm excited for the first major character they add once the series is on air. There is always a missing piece or two waiting in the wings. I can't believe we have a new show to look forward to and new storylines. For the most part, the current soaps are going in circles. It's nice to be able to anticipate something different for once.

I still can't believe they killed Heather off to begin with, but this is kinda confusing. Daisy would've made sense, but Jordan and Ian Ward? Ian Ward would've made more sense in a Nikki/Dylan/Paul story, but with none of them here? And if Jordan wanted to torment the Newman's, why would she pick Sharon and Heather as her vessel to do that? It doesn't make any sense.

I am no fan of hers, but I do find this shocking when you consider where the story is. I wouldn't mind Emme Rylan returning. I thought her Abby had strong chemistry with Bryton and she had more presence.

I don't think that's unrealistic with the studio they chose. The potential for cliffhangers and event stories is also much bigger if they do utilize all that Assembly has to offer. @Liberty CityThank you for that post! I do agree, I don't get the sentiment that the overseas soaps are less soapy. Hell, I'd argue that Coronation Street looks exactly like a US soap just with some outdoor shooting. Eastenders is the gold standard, but I think Hollyoaks and Neighbours also do a really good job from a production stand point. My hopes for a more modern production model is just steeped in my desire for the show to be a proper success. The better the show does on streaming, the longer it'll be on the air. International sales are going to be important as well. Also, it's been 25 years since our last soap. Why not be ambitious?

The soap that I feel has the perfect hybrid model is Neighbours. They have two studios, one indoors and one outdoors. It enables them to have a seamless transition between scenes since everything is designed by the same people. They do go on location on occasion, but having those standing outside sets give it more of a community feel.

I feel like the American soap model can work if it was done in the way it was 20 or more years ago, but the only soap that pulls it off now is GH. Days it's not even worth mentioning it's production model and the Bell soaps have finally been hit with the shrunken sets and limited amount of sets which limit what they can do in terms of story. I don't think having location shooting and exterior sets is anti-soap, it just opens the movement up and prevents things from getting repetitive.

I'm hoping for a more modern look. In the streaming era and the effort to attract newer viewers, I think that would help. I also think launching a studio based soap would hurt efforts to syndicate in other countries. Now if they do go fully studio based then I hope it leans towards what GH offers which is big sets and sets for pretty much every character so all the scenes don't take place in the same 4-5 places.

I don't mind them filming ahead. That's fine as long as you have competent people running your show. I know the UK soaps and Neighbours are all months ahead and these shows are not only better than our soaps, but much more ambitious. We still need to take into account a holiday break which could be 1-2 weeks and also Michele mentioned interior and exterior filming. We know this studio has the capability for regular location shooting so it's possible that's whats happening. If that's the case, that could also impact how far ahead we think they are.

Happy to see that first look picture! I think they all look great. I don't mind the late Feb premiere either. It gives them more time to promote the show.

I wonder if they'll film any teasers specifically for promos. Similar to what Passions did. I'd like a combination of both, but of course will take what I can get.

Me too. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw her directing at some point.

You can tell they have Black hair and makeup people. I'm so excited to see how everybody looks on screen. Victoria Rowell spoiled us because she paid for her own hair and as a result was able to show us many styles. The typical daytime way is to slap a shake and go wig on an actor and their look can't really evolve. It'll be nice to see Black beauty celebrated and handled with care.

A reminder that if CBS follows the last two years, they will announce their midseason schedule next week. Of course with it being an election year I'm not sure if that changes anything although in 2020 they released it on November 11th so that probably won't have an impact. If this is the case, we should be learning when Beyond the Gates will premiere.

I've always said, until they give me a reason to be nervous, I'm staying positive. We can't control the election or what CBS decides to do. All I can focus on is the show being good and hopefully gaining an audience. If it has an audience I doubt they will dump it or do anything to try and whiten the show up. That's going to be the biggest test, the numbers.

Yes and better lighting. You can definitely use a green screen and make it work, but the way they do it is lazy. In the articles about it they mentioned it was build on another part of the ranch. I wonder if they'll have someone else move into the new ranch or if they'll just get rid of that set entirely.