Chris B

I feel like the latest they could go into filming would be October due to the holiday breaks in November and December. That's if they're sticking with a January debut. News should start coming out late-August/September as we get closer to October. I'd hope they don't rush the filming part of it. It's not uncommon to miss with certain bits of casting so it would be nice to give themselves some space in case someone needs to be replaced, or if they see something isn't working on screen and they want to scrape it before it airs.

I noticed in an article about The Bay casting, one of the new cast members is listed as being from The Gates. https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/jackie-zeman-general-hospital-the-bay-special-episode-1236067738/amp/

I'm late responding, but this was such an amazing movie! This is what I want to see represented at the Oscars, but I'm doubtful. June Squibb and Richard Roundtree both were brilliant, but everybody in the cast was. Parker Posey and Clark Gregg were both amazing and the actor playing Thelma's grandson was a charming deadbeat. It had a good mix of heart, comedy and some clever action. I wish we could get more tv shows/movies around people in their 80s and 90s. We don't see it enough, but when we do it shows that there is something there worth seeing.

That's any show in development. I wouldn't expect any news until they get closer to a start date. MVJ has made it clear things are moving fast and furious behind the scenes. I don't see how it could help to announce anything until you have a strong list of actors to announce. I would imagine August/September will see more announcements. They will likely start filming in the fall to be ready for January. I wouldn't imagine they want to wait until say November in case they need reshoots. I would guest September/October for filming to start.

I enjoyed season 12 of Knots Landing and I felt like the finale was more the new writers coming to set things up. I could be wrong though. John Romano was all wrong for the show and recently when re-watching Party of Five, I noticed in the 5th season I was really struggling to connect with the show. I checked the credits and surprise surprise, John Romano was the new showrunner. That man does not know how to write a soap.

While I do think they missed an opportunity to tease The Gates, I’m not worried about it from a promotion standpoint. There’s no way they’re going to be launching their first soap in decades and not giving it a big promotional push. In fact, I really don’t have any true worries other than what production model they take. The Bell soaps have been reduced to green screens and shrinking sets and I’d hope for a more modern look, but I think it’ll be better out of the gate than many are suspecting. Michelle has posted about writing so from a writing standpoint, they have time to perfect their product. This isn’t Port Charles which was basically put to air with no plan. Plus, I respect her taste level. From GH to B&B and Ambitions, I do feel she knows what it takes to make a good show. Also, as much as people love to hate Jamey, Ambitions was strong out of the gate and a lot of that was due to the impact of MVJ and Susan Dansby, so we know she knows how to launch a show. I’m really curious when they will start filming. What is everybody expecting? I would hope they start filming in August/September that way they can see how things are turning out and make tweaks if needed.

They for sure don’t have the NBC episodes but they do have several of the earlier years. Pre Covid they had plans to stream those but it got delayed and now I don’t think they have any incentive to post those since they seem to have given up. Ever since they changed it to free streaming you can’t save your place. I still don’t get why they cancelled the subscriptions. Surely some money is better than none. But now they don’t have to answer to anybody about quality since it’s a free service

September 18, 1992 according to SOW.

I personally want a physical release just so I can own it forever, but I know I won’t be able to resist and will end up buying it on streaming as soon as it’s out.

On the message board that provided the updates on Dallas’ HD transfer, someone said they got confirmation from a WB rep that Knots and Flamingo Road are ready and got music cleared already. At least Knots should be streaming before the year is up.

Because LA is too expensive. GH is the only soap that manages to still have a substantial amount of sets that also are big. The Bell soaps keep shrinking what sets they do have down and have a very small rotation. For this show to be successful and draw in new viewers it needs to look more modern than what we have. Filming in Atlanta gives them an opportunity to expand what they can do in terms of sets and location shooting.

It’s primetime. I wonder if anything will be said at the upfronts. I imagine we’ll know the cast in the fall, but I’m curious about when we’ll learn of filming locations and BTS staffing which would need to be completed sooner. I’m very curious to see what the writing team, directors, etc look like. And I’m still hoping for Atlanta over LA for a filming location.

I do have to say, theres so many wonderful Black actors to pull from, but Victoria Rowell being cast would truly be the ultimate “get” and full circle moment. After literal decades of advocating for Black people in front of and behind the scenes, it would be the best gift she could receive. So many people have benefitted from her work and id love to see it come full circle in that way.

Speaking of Ryan’s, I never understood why they never brought on the oldest daughter as a regular. I know at one point they brought her daughter on but I don’t think the mom ever came on. With all the recasts and a desire to expand the show, it seems that would’ve been a no brainer. They could’ve properly cast her and given her a husband and a couple of kids.

It’s a start. Despite some naysayers, I’m happy to see how much attention the show got on Twitter. I hope more people sample it as a result. If the show is smart, they’ll send a few people over to attend the Emmys and also do a press tour here to raise awareness. If they go in prepared, I could see them getting more nominations next year. They need someone to help them focus in on who to submit and what to submit.

Joan clearly has body dysmorphia. She was getting unnecessary work during Knots Landing. I think what makes her look so strange now is she has all that filler in her face but didn’t get her lips done. That combined with the nude lip just make her look strange.

I think they’re cousins. TJ’s dad is Curtis’ brother but don’t quote me on it. Overall I’ve found GH to be so exciting to watch. I know many haven’t been pleased but I love these early stages when a new writer is trying new things, cleaning up old messes and making their mark. I feel like the most immediate change is how character driven the scripts have become and the longer scenes. I can actually sit and focus and I feel like the actors performances have gotten stronger due to the improved scripts. There is also a much stronger focus on family and relationships which is great. It’s a bit unique to be given the task of creating a return for Jason as their first story but I think they’ve done a good job with it. I can’t wait until they settle in with the Jason stuff and can start introducing their own stuff. There’s rumors of some exits coming in the summer. Once they start writing people out and introducing new people, we should get a better idea of what they want to do. I’m excited because the show is overdue for a shakeup.

What do you mean about revenge agenda? I thought she came in wanting to reset the characters who were being written wildly out of character. She fixed Sharon, the wrote of dull characters like Chelsea, Chloe and Kevin who were overdue for exits, she gave Cane his best story ever and I liked how she wrote Hillary, Devon, Mariah and Nikki. I think she did a lot in her short time and nothing she did hurt the show. You can’t say that about any other HW on Y&R in recent years. She deserved at least a year which I hope PM/EK get on GH. It seems like today people expect changes immediately but in a soap that is more difficult. I appreciate both teams taking a more old school approach and trying to fix the characters before jumping into major stories.

It’s crazy Sprina fans who call everything racist. I, a Black man, was called a racist co*n because I said Tabyana could work on her dramatic scenes. Keep in mind I didn’t tag her, the show or Sprina. They seek people out and attack if you’re even remotely critical of that couple. Shannon Peace, the Black breakdown writer who was fired knows how they are and has been fanning the flames since she left. It’s obvious she’s mad she got fired. After posting a bit making fun of Laura Wright, she tried to say the new writers aren’t committed to Black stories because of their episode counts in March. They’ve been here a month and were given instructions on what story to lead with which is Jason’s return. Even with that, they’ve written more meaningful scenes for the Black characters than we’ve had in a year. Any claims racism was involved is laughable to me. The way she’s acted since she left speaks a lot about how she is and I can only imagine how she was behind the scenes.

Another area where I think this benefits CBS is that if they're trying to attract a Black audience, they have multiple avenues to promote and support this show. First, they have to cast it right with actors Black viewers will want to tune in to see and also they have BET and BET+ which could provide other windows to air the show.

I don’t envy anybody taking over this show but they’ve done a good job so far. We went from 20+ stories, quick scenes with no depth to a show refocused with longer scenes, a family element at the forefront and real character development and clear motivations. I can’t wait to see where the show can go in the coming months. I do agree we need cast cuts and I expect them to come as contracts come up. I hope Cody and Sasha are first. Steve Burton was dreadful during his last run (after delivering solid work on Y&R) but he seems motivated again. I never expected to enjoy a Jason storyline. Im also not someone who likes kids on soaps and while the acting could use some work, it’s so nice to regularly see the characters with their kids and how the impact of Jason’s return effects them. I find it very odd how teens have been largely eliminated from soaps in recent years so it’s nice to see them starting to develop a new teen scene. We know Jason’s return was a requirement so I feel we still haven’t seen an idea of what these new writers want to do. I can’t wait to see them start to launch their own stories so I can see how that goes.

It’s an easy choice for them and that’s to cancel The Talk hence why it’s being developed for an hour. They’ve tried everything they could to revamp that show and expand its audience. It’s time for it to go. I also do think B&B could be in trouble if this is successful. CBS has no ownership in it and I’m sure they have comments on the quality (which don’t matter for the same reason). I could see them dumping it if they feel they have tow successful shows in Y&R and The Gates.

I bought the Hotel box set because it was so cheap but it gets boring to me because it’s not serialized. I’ve watched the first season and now I will pop an episode on if I’m bored. Some of the episodes are good and it’s fun to see the guest stars but it’s nothing special.

I’ve been saying for years that soaps are more viable than people think. I don’t think this news is that shocking if you really think about it. The biggest issue was that nobody seemed to be willing to look at soaps and care to do anything with them, but with minimal promo these soaps are getting similar ratings to what airs in prime time and they’re all higher rated than all of these celebrated cable shows. The biggest thing that was held against soaps was their budgets but that simply isn’t true anymore. I recall an article around 10 years ago putting Days budget around 30 million if I’m remembering correctly. Look at all of Peacock’s shows and they’re paying that much or much more just to get an 8-10 episode season. Some of these streaming shows have budgets in the hundreds of millions. With them bleeding money, they need things that can drive year round subscriptions and that’s soaps. We don’t have an indication of how the Bell soaps do on streaming but Days and GH are both top ten on their apps (and for what it’s worth, so we’re AMC/OLTL back in the day). Then you have things like CBS picking the Daytime Emmys back up, prime time specials for GH and Y&R, a four year renewal for Y&R and two years for Days. Clearly these shows are doing better than were giving them credit for. I also think a new soap has a better chance of success since they will have a second platform for viewers to sample it with streaming. Just imagine how much better something like Passions would’ve done if it was in the streaming age and had that second window. The key is going to be that they have to modernize it. It can’t have the old soap look. I’d consider filming somewhere like Atlanta where their budget can go further. Maybe they can get a studio that can support regular exterior filming. A large Black cast is another plus and if the stories are modern and in line with what we get in prime time, it could reel in viewers. Now if it’s the same dated and tired stories we’re getting from the other soaps then of course it won’t work, but I imagine they have better sense than that.

ABC has enough soap properties that they don’t need to pick up B&B but GH is regularly in Hulu’s top ten so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that AMC reboot revisited either on Hulu or ABC. Post strike I feel like everybody is looking at affordable alternatives and now that’s soaps. I am not surprised by any of this and I’ve been anticipating something big for soaps since Days went to Peacock. There is not other explanation for the surge in subscribers they got last year. A year of Days costs less than any of their other scripted programming and is driving year round subscriptions to them. Of course they won’t publicly say that but there is no other reasonable explanation. Now with The Gates, I can’t say I feel bad if something does happen to B&B. Brad hasn’t been trying and hasn’t allowed that show to evolve. You cannot convince me that anybody is putting in any effort this year. You know CBS must be fuming looking at the show and not having any input in it. My question is: does Brad even care? I just can’t get a handle on him. He seems to have no ambition outside of B&B and he has no passion in the show either but for whatever reason wants to be the HW.