Chris B

Truth Be Told had Michael Muhney in a recurring role during season two and now in the currently airing third season, Reign Edwards from B&B is recurring as a girl being sex trafficked. It’s wild watching her go toe to toe with Octavia Spencer. She’s grown soooo much as an actress.

I know it’s the Sony element, but it amazes me they still won’t bring her back yet she works year round for them directing and acting in their streaming movies. Hell, they put her on one of their prime time shows, but they still wanna be petty about Y&R? They’ve be lucky to have her.

I hate how the article reduces Mamie to the Abbott’s surrogate mother, which is true, but her return should lead to story for her actual family.

All of these returns are fantastic, but I never thought I’d see Veronica Redd as Mamie again so that is stunning! I hope and pray we get a scene with Jill! The only thing is that I wish they’d finally buckle down and bring back Dru or at least Olivia. With all the media stories, Leanna should’ve been a regular pop up here and there. It’ll be nice to see Gina back with Danny and I’ll always root for Nina, one of the greatest Y&R characters of all time. She deserves a contract!

I noticed Margaret DePriest's name in the credits and decided to backtrack and see she's been HW for about two months. Bob Cenedella's stint flew by! The one thing I've noticed with DePriest is while Cenedella reestablished the show as a family soap with a variety of sets, more characters and more family drama outside of the hospital, DePriest kicked the action into high gear. She was responsible for Steve and Ann having an affair while led to Carolee's explosive exit, Althea's accident which led to Nick's return, Stacy's issues with sex, Matt and Maggie's relationship problems, etc. I also see she's bringing on the Dancy's. It's so interesting to me that the show had two good HWs who infused new life into the show and both got replaced after six months. Then Douglas Marland comes on and from what yall have said, the show becomes very slow and boring and of course he writes of Althea, a core character, but he got a full year. I can't believe I'm so excited for his tenure, I just find it so interesting that he failed here when I've only heard (or seen in the case of ATWT) good things about his work.

I’ve heard about these development deals and it just sounds like a trap to lure in a rival soap star or keep someone around. While some did manage to get a TV movie or two, I don’t recall many (if any) getting a successful prime time show on the air. I recall Terry Lester had a similar deal when he left Y&R. I’m not sure if his was tied to a daytime role as well though.

I’m happy for Sasha. I hope the rumors aren’t true that she’s being replaced due to all the crazy DC changes. Hopefully the film does well and she’s well received enough they decide to keep her for the Supergirl movie.

I’m in March 1976 and I finally reached Carolee Campbell’s exit as well as the special 90 minute episode which saw Nick return. First, I must say, both of these returns are huge, huge losses for the show. I know they recast Carolee fairly successfully, but Carolee Campbell had such spunk and was a unique actress for soaps, so recasts tend to be difficult in these cases. It looks like her replacement is good, but more of your typical soap heroine. With Nick, he slipped back in like he’d never left and instantly he makes everything better. From his energy with Matt (who is now acting more like Nick) to the chemistry with Althea, he is just brilliant. They should’ve offered him anything to stay. He has a way of being frustratingly angry but so tender at the same time. I’ll be sad when he leaves again. Now on the subject of 90 minute episode, I thought it was successful. The show has already expanded the canvas enough that if they decided to make the show longer, it would’ve been the perfect time. It’s a shame they didn’t expand to 60 minutes which might’ve saved the show.

I agree. I'm getting impatient for those additional episodes. The way I'm running through the series, I'll be caught up before I know it. I need to slow down in case they don't upload those episodes anytime soon. I know at one point they accidently uploaded some episodes from 1980 and fans were able to watch them before it was discovered. That was over a year ago so it's pretty crazy to think they had new episodes ready to go so long ago but still haven't done anything with them.

I mentioned this recently in The Doctors thread the Mike Powers back from the dead story is one of the worst I've ever seen. The funny thing is they had two BFTD stories at the same time and the other one was played out much better. Karen had "died" in a plane crash, but they had revealed in an episode shortly after her death that she was alive but lost her memory. They waited until they were ready to properly bring her back before really diving into the storyline and it was paced well. With Mike, they revealed he was back, recast him and had his recast on the frontburner for EIGHT MONTHS in another country, before they revealed he was alive to his family. It was so insane that one recast didn't even make it to town to interact with the characters who knew him before he was replaced with another actor. For months he would have the most repetitive scenes with his love interest and I cannot imagine how difficult it was to watch in real time. When you have a character in a different location from the main action, you can only tell that story for so long without it getting boring. Either you need to have a good amount of characters for them to interact with, or you need to limit the amount of screentime it gets.

Neil's death and the memorial to Kristoff was the last thing to have me bawling. Prior to that was Storm's death on B&B. I still re-watch those episodes every now and then on YouTube. I strongly feel those are possibly the best episodes this show ever had. Everybody came to play and were committed to those scenes. MVP's were Katherine Kelly Lang and Jennifer Garies (who I didn't expect to be able to carry her own). Of course Heather Tom was the most heartbreaking and she really cemented herself as a character Brad had to keep with her performances. The moment she learned she had Storm's heart and her eulogy at his memorial service was some of the best acting I've seen across any platform.

I'm still really enjoying the Bob Cenedella tenure. You can tell they're taking the first steps to turn The Doctors more into a family soap and I think the changes have mostly worked. One thing that doesn't work and helps explain why she got written off is Althea's storyline. She was in a great relationship with Tom and they had strong chemistry and that was suddenly ended and they've put her with this boring older man named Scott. I don't know if this relationship will be long term, but I now see why Marland thought she was expendable if this is the type of dull writing she had when he arrived.

I see a lot of fans excited that they made Fen gay, but that just cements the fact that they'll never use that character lol. If he couldn't get screentime straight, he's definitely done now.

My grandparents were CBS loyalists and my grandma would record the lineup for me and deliver it to me, which is how I kept up with those soaps. I didn't realize any other soaps existed until I discovered Knots Landing and Falcon Crest on SOAPnet and that is what got me into the genre overall. The CBS soaps aren't even soaps, they're "our stories" and are just a thing in many Black households. Once I realized what the genre was, I got two VCRs and would use one to record NBC and one to record CBS (taking over duties from my grandma) and then I would use SOAPnet to watch the ABC soaps.

I started watching Y&R again for Danny and Daniel's return and it always shocks me when I tune in these past couple years and everybody is running around town so tense and there's always this sense of dread like something big is about to happen, but it never does. It's such an odd way of telling a story. They often set up the right types of stories that could have big dramatic pay offs, but the pay off is either off camera or just doesn't happen.

It's an opinion show, but there should still be more professionalism when interviewing someone. Hell, even when Sally suggested Brad could get a story consultant, the co-host said "Michele Van Jean is there!" That is not her job and now you're shifting the blame to someone you know Sally is close with? I get opinions, but you can't listen to that interview and tell me they executed what they were trying to say well.

Wow! I'm stunned! I LOVED her as Heather and remember being confused when her screentime dwindled before she left. Later finding out why she left was sad, but I'm glad she's turned her life around and is back! I hope this becomes a long term thing. Heather and Adam were a great couple and could be revisited as well.

She mentioned that they like dopplegangers, swapped babies, back from the dead and obvious tropes like that and she wasn't interested in telling those type of stories.

I'll try to give some cliffs: - First of all, she said the show has been absolutely awful since 2006 and is a shell of itself. She doesn't feel like anything can improve the show because of the heavy interference of CBS. - The full story of her getting hired is that Angelica McDaniel called for an interview. She wasn't looking for a soap job and was working on a documentary. When they met she gave vague ideas of what she'd like to do, but she told them she hadn't watched since she left in 2006 so she'd need time to prepare before creating a story bible. She was told she'd be able to have six months without interference to write the show she wanted to write. They gave her two months to create a story bible, but Chuck Pratt suddenly quit when he got a primetime gig and she got a phone call saying she had to start in one day. She told them that was impossible, but they said she had to do it because they didn't have any other options and she already accepted the gig. - The Devon/Cop/BLM inspired story was her first big story and when they shut it down, that set the tone for her stint. She really wanted to tell this story and when they decided she couldn't do it, it soured the experience for her. She mentioned that the network interference is extreme and Sony has completely turned over creative control to CBS so you literally just have to do as they say. - She felt like Michael and Lauren were neglected so a focus of hers was giving them a story. - She wanted to make Jill's heart attack a bigger storyline, but it was difficult to schedule Jess because she didn't want to work as much as they needed her. - Tessa/Mariah was a big problem for the network. She had to fight for them to kiss, but the network was very upset and pushed back expecting a big backlash. In the end there was no backlash, but the network still wouldn't support the storyline. She said this was the story she was most proud to get on screen. - She wanted to expand the male canvas because too many characters were related. She loved telling the Cane/Juliet storyline, but it was another storyline that had a lot of interference that she couldn't tell the way she wanted to. - She had a great story idea for a "Who Shot Hilary" story, but they wouldn't approve the story. - She watched Y&R from day one and she was part of a writer development storyline and wrote a bible which got her hired. She wrote her bible based on what was airing and Bill Bell picked certain stories directly from her bible: the creation of Lauren and Dina's return both came from her bible. She had a great story for another family, but Bill Bell couldn't use it because he'd already written them off. - When Michele Val Jean headwrote General Hospital, she was hired as a consultant. She was excited to work there, but Wendy Riche was fired and Jill Farren Phelps wanted to take the show in a different direction so she didn't last past her first 13 week cycle. - She's written a one hour project she'd like for streaming and has a treatment for Generations as a one our series. The Generations reboot is something she mentioned she's really going to try to make happen. I feel like the conversation about Days on Peacock clicked with her because she brought this back up multiple times. She said that Days on Peacock is a blessing in disguise and it doesn't surprise her that their audience migrated. She said she feels Y&R would struggle the most if it went to streaming because the audience is so old. - For Days, she said working with James Reilly was amazing. He was one of the nicest people she ever worked with. She hated the Sci Fi and outlandish stuff he did, but respected the mark he left on the show. She tried to ground the show more and she used Mike/Carrie as an example of why a writer should watch the show. She said that relationship was developed as a fluke when she noticed the actors had chemistry when watching the show. - Some of the co-hosts kept bashing Brad Bell really harshly, but she wouldn't take the bait. Ultimately they asked if she'd be willing to write for the show and she said no, but that's all they could get out of her on that subject. Side Note: I get Brad is a mess, but it was cringe constantly saying such negative things about her, knowing she can't co-sign or comment on stuff like that.

I enjoyed Do Revenge. I remember watching it and being surprised it was on Netflix, but then I remembered we don't really get teen movies on the big screen again. Although she wasn't featured much, I liked having Sarah Michelle in it because it felt like passing the torch in a way. Kinda like how Molly Ringwald showed up as an adult in teen projects.

This reminds me of something I dealt with years ago when Television Without Pity was a thing. I'll never understand it, but there was someone who would take my posts from here and repost then there, as if it was them making the posts. It was so bizarre because it wasn't actual articles, but just me talking about my feelings about a particular show. I'll never understand why people do things like that.

I struggle with that show because some of the hosts can be very...crass and inarticulate, but I managed to make it through most of this and found it to be an interesting interview. I love hearing more about her 2016 return because the more I hear, the less sense it makes. I don't understand how they reached out to her, hired her with no bible, then gave her one notice to start writing the show, yet still didn't give her at least a full year to prove herself. How do you knowingly hire someone who is telling you they haven't watched the show in 10 years and has ZERO story written and expect it to work right off the bat? It's just insane. Then to hear the extreme level of network interference is just bizarre to me. I feel like at NBC they just don't care because Days seems to tell whatever story they want to tell. It amazes me that there are still people behind the scenes nitpicking Y&R and GH. You'd think at this point they wouldn't care as long as the shows are underbudget. I feel like in her last stint she completely transformed the canvas and made the characters feel like their true selves. Had she been allowed to actually write, I do think it would've been a great show. I haven't enjoyed the show day-to-day since she left. Even in those early periods where not much was happening, it was just so nice seeing different characters interacting and talking like you know they should. I also think her choice of exits made perfect sense. I liked the love she gave Days and hopefully she has a good manager who can pitch her Generations reboot to Peacock. They got their biggest hits with Bel Air and The Best Man, so I'm sure they're open to shows with Black casts. I'm not sure if she knows that, but now would be a good time to reach out and pitch to them.

Oh you're in the Peter season. This was a very odd year for the show. It had some good episodes, but I don't understand what the overall point of it was. The Peter storyline was just bizarre and although I liked Katherine, I never felt the story lived up to the characters potential. Now season 8 is one of my favorites. I loved the introduction of Jamie and the way she was originally written. Had they not been such a male-centered show, she could've been a valuable asset at Ewing Oil who actually made sense in that environment. She had great chemistry with JR and Sue Ellen. I also am one of the people who enjoyed Donna Reed. She was a different Miss Ellie, but you knew that when you cast her. She did the best she could in a horrible position. I'm glad Dorothy Malone turned them down, but the fact that those are the types of actresses they were going for, shows they wanted to take the character in a new direction.

@VeeAm I right to think you're watching the Holly Harwood season? That was a messy season, but the final three episodes are classics, so I'd recommend those.

I agree that SMG doesn't always appear to pick the right projects and I feel her career could've been much bigger if she wanted it to be, but I have to respect the fact that she only does exactly what she wants. I'm sure she's turned down some big projects, but clearly leading a more low-key life and focusing on her family was more important to her. I have to respect that.