Chris B

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.

Considering how convoluted their stories are, is it any surprise their story for Jason’s return was turned down? I can only imagine how insane and over the top (not to mention, dragged out) it would’ve been. In general, i think Jason is a character they really struggled with. I don’t think the show wanted to waste such a big return on a bad story.

Jada Rowland was hard to take because her introduction was so slow an repetitive. Overtime I grew to enjoy her as an entirely new character, but she had nothing in commn with Carolee Campbell's Carolee. One frustrating thing was when they'd do re-created flashbacks with her, she *still* felt like a new character. The made no effort to make them similar besides both having short black hair.

I am surprised EW did an article on Generations of all things. I've always said I think soaps are more valuable to streamers than they admit and I'd love to see Generations make a return on Peacock. It could either be a good low cost primetime reboot or even a daytime companion to Days. The original had such a short run it would be easy to add for people to binge and if you get back Vivica, Jonelle, Debbi Morgan and Kelly Rutheford you'd have strong enough names for people to sample it. Would definitely be a smart move for Peacock, but it all depends on if Sussman can get in the room and pitch it.

It’s shocking to me that the show was so popular when they wrote because like you said, the repetition and flashbacks drove me crazy. At one point I took a year off just to catch my breathe. I’ll never forget Carolee’s year long pregnancy. Personally I’d say it was good through 1970 then when the Pollocks took over until 1975 they had their highs but it is very slow and one dimensional as Khan said. After that they started the revamp and I loved what Margaret DePriest did with the show. She only wrote 1976 and set the show up perfectly only for Douglas Marland to take over which was another mixed bag. It took him a long time to get a handle on the show and once he did he was fine.

I love the idea of GL's Peapack reboot, but they should've put an EP in place with experience with the format. The camera work and music was just dreadful. Also, there would be random scenes of people standing in the woods and on the side of the road. It was like they felt it was so special being outside but didn't understand how to make sense of it and tell a compelling story. I also wonder why no US soap builds a standing outside set. That's why the UK soaps are able to seamlessly film outdoors because they have outdoor town square type sets they can regularly use.

Homewreckers on soaps are pretty common. I wouldn't say it's even close to the worst thing a character did on this show. In fact, what's to come for Karen is *much* worse, but I won't go into details because of spoilers. The quality dips when Rita Lakin leaves the show, but it's still watchable. The Pollocks wrote the show I think 71-75 and this was a very popular time for the show. They did some good work but the stories tended to go on for a long time with lots of repetition. Once they left and the show began looking into transitioning to an hour they expanded the cast, sets and storylines and while some didn't work, I do like the overall change to the show as they began to expand things.

I was going back and reading this thread and saw this. Personally I think Kirsten Alderson has the spark and experience to make Summer interesting with the writing being the way it is on Y&R. I'm shocked they auditioned experienced soap actors, two Emmy winners and went with a newcomer. The actress in the role is fine, but incredibly bland and as a result the character has gone from a lead to an expendable supporting character.

There are things that didn't work but I really love the later years of Knots. Full transparency, the first time I watched, I originally started watching with the season 6 finale, so the later years are what made me a fan. Since then, I've seen the complete series several times and they still hold up for me. On my most recent re-watch I had a newfound love for season 8, which is Latham and Lechowick's first season. I know reviews are mixed on that season, but I loved the overall look and style of the show, especially after the excess of the previous season. Those regular revamps kept the show fresh as opposed to a show like Dallas which felt so dated in its later years. I loved Karen's kidnapping, the backstory surrounding it and the introduction of Paige.

I really loved Karen. She was wrong to seduce Matt although I loved the storyline. To me, that's the only bad thing she did. I loved her beyond that and always wanted her to find happiness.

Debbi Morgan did some amazing work when she returned to AMC! You can take any scene of Victoria Rowell on Y&R. She truly embodied that character and I'd say Dru was one of the greatest soap characters of all time. Now while I don't have a specific clip, I've been watching ATWT from 1998 and I just finished 1999 and Cassandra Creech was such a strong addition to the show that I'm shocked she didn't stay until it ended and become a big star. She was heavy in story in 99 and more than held her own. As I continue watching Im reall curious how she ends up being written off because her performances are so strong and her character is connected to the core families.

Right before GH announced the HW change, I saw an article about the drastic revamp of UK soap Hollyoaks and that made me so excited for what might happen here. Hollyoaks was DEAD. Ratings were down, the quality was awful, it lost it's timeslot and was moved to a smaller channel. I truly thought it would be cancelled and then these new writers came in and in just a couple of months, the show is better than it has been in over a decade. What makes the GH move so exciting is because it seems well thought out and planned. We know this was in the works for months and I'm curious who else was looked at for the job. I feel like they actually handled this the right way instead of what we typically see were the just rotate the same names in with no plan. The best example was Sally Sussman who Y&R interviewed and made start working less than a week later with no storylines mapped out. With no soap doing a HW shift in so many years I'd given up on any real improvement. It felt like they'd each just ride out into the sunset. The fact that GH is not only making this change, but hired someone known for quality is impressive. I'm going to fully support them and hope for the best. If this works out I hope it motivates the other shows to make changes. The current state of US soaps is pretty shameful and it doesn't have to be that way. The numbers are still good compared to primetime and cable. You just need people who have talent and care. Hopeully Frank and the network let this team cook and don't shoot all of their ideas down.

Oh he was awful in those stints as the town lawyer but in that initial stint with Lila, they had potential as real full time characters.

For ATWT I thought the AW crossovers were awful. I’ve started a rewatch with 1998 and I’m now at the beginning of 2000 and these crossovers were awful. The focus was on Jake and to a lesser extent Vicky, but I don’t think Jenson fit on ATWT at all (I also didn’t like her on AW). With that said, they could’ve broken them up and send her back to Bay City. I imagine the purpose of the crossover was to bring in AW viewers but a disrespectful move like that would never help achieve that. I’ll admit that Jake fit in better than Vicky, but the real stars were Cass and Lila. I’m surprised they weren’t the ones to cross over full time.

I’d put that more on Ron but I also don’t think Jamey is a bad writer. I think his talents are wasted at Days though.

I know people are excited by her but I can’t say that I am. It’s more wait and see. I’m definitely happy the behind the scenes toxicity is over but it’s hard to know if she’ll have much of a vision. The show needs so much work in terms of writing and the overall look of the show. I hope she’s up for the challenge.

I thought the way Mary Frances was handled was awful. Even with the way they changed her character, I don't understand why they didn't just keep her around instead of the bland look-a-like. I also wasn't fond on Kathleen Noone's character who I feel they didn't know what to do with. I think the show would've been better served making Robin Strasser a regular and moving her into the cul-de-sac. Another missed opportunity I felt was Sid's daughter Annie. She could've come back around season 8 or 9 and since she was now an adult, they could've taken her anywhere they wanted to. She also could've been a contender to replace Abby and would've likely had a similar relationship with Karen. The ultimate missed opportunity has to be Lucy. I get Charlene Tilton wasn't the greatest actress, but when she returned for her second run she had greatly improved and the way they wrote Lucy was much better but it never went anywhere. My ideal fancasting for her would've been in Vanessa Hunt's role in season 14. It would've made sense for her to move back once Val died to help Gary with the twins and the Vanessa aspect would've been easy to slot her into since she was a globetrotter and we didn't have much info on what she did when out of Dallas. I also think it would be interesting how she handled being around Gary and Kate considering she always had a contentious relationship with him.