titan1978

I kept thinking he seemed familiar!

Another thing to point out- other than what Bill Bell did, soaps used to actually write a bible of story projections, and had less meetings/interference with network execs. I cannot imagine how bland and short Josh’s 6 month projections are. The process of having other writers in the mix, like breakdown writers, also allowed for fine tuning and was another step to get the temperature of what was working or not. Allowing the HW to make changes based on that week’s filming scripts easier because they were looking at the air shows, near future scripts, and long term. To move the ship relatively smoothly instead of just dropping things abruptly. It’s a hard job, made harder now by budget constraints, very tight schedules, etc. What I keep coming back to is who actually thinks he is doing good work at Y&R? There is no going back to the Bell days. But at least try something!

If anything, there were times it looked better than it had under JFP, who truly gutted the look of the show. It was the first time she arrived on a show and I thought a it started to look worse under her as EP. She brought in the bland.

it’s better than the one on GH! But that is not saying much.

And people often forget the title gave him the power after struggling with Conboy during Y&R’s first era. But he didn’t do the day to day job of EP. He had Conboy, then Wes Kinney, then Ed Scott. And those three were talented EP’s with a point of view. He certainly had control, but he wasn’t doing the actual job. If anything, if Josh wants to be a show head and run the writers room like primetime, he should be building up a strong team. Not tearing it down.

For everyone that keeps posting how it is possible to write a strong network daytime soap with very limited writing teams- it was. But nobody working on these shows now has shown that kind of talent in decades. Decades. The likes of Harding Lemay, Labine and Mayer, Nixon and Bill Bell are long gone. The firings are awful, not just because they were breakdown writers and script supervisors. It’s because Josh is still there. I love this genre but once again, if you have to cut costs to the point of what we now see onscreen with Y&R, perhaps the time has come for drastic change or to plan for an ending within the next year.

This is truly the most shocking soap news to me since Frons cancelled AMC and OLTL at the same time. It’s not the cost cutting- that is happening everywhere, and there is also the potential strike coming up. It’s the fact that they are eliminating everyone but Josh. If anyone should have been fired from Y&R it’s JG. Having him as a nearly sole creative vision is insanity. He’s beyond a hack at this point, and no visionary. This is awful news.

For me the subtext of that scene, especially at the time, was that Bobbie is actually more upset with Luke. He’s been making digs about boring domesticity to/about her. He’s been getting under her skin, which leads to the Damian affair. That and the fact that Tony was so taken with and had an almost instant bond with Laura. She’s just taking all that frustration out on Laura. And Laura absolutely is pushing her buttons by letting Lucky do whatever he wants in Bobbie’s house. But I think the anger is truly about Luke’s needling. I have always liked that Bobbie and Laura have a tenuous relationship after the ‘93 return. Sometimes good, and sometimes it can be nasty. Which is fitting for their history and characterizations.

Any longtime fans care to comment on Francesca James as Kitty/Kelly on AMC? They didn’t share any screen time as far as I know. An interesting way to bring her back to the show. Was this successful?

@j swiftI agree to an extent. What we need are scenes with Portia saying this out loud to Trina and Curtis. And maybe some exploration of her own background and how much she was torn between stability with Taggert and her wild side with Curtis. Play the beats, not just the high drama. During the Nikolas reveal, even as angry as Luke and Lucky were, you could see Laura telling them what happened and how traumatic it was for her, and they did understand even if they still didn’t like it. We need some of that here.

I am truly shocked by Veronica Redd. Leanna Love was one of my favorite characters ever on Y&R. She was one that was always fun to watch, and Nina and the storyline with Phillip/Katherine/Jill is what made me tune in to Y&R consistently in the first place. I now have a reason to at least tune in some for the anniversary!

Like all executives, there are good and bad things about Gloria Monty. The issue became other soaps chasing what she was doing, as those writers moved on to other shows from her earlier teams. Sheri Anderson was a writer on the GH team during the Luke & Laura heyday, and I think you can see that all over her supercouple heavy years at DAYS. As tacky as the Ice Princess was when it comes down to weather machines, etc, the whole show was still very strong and had traditional roots still visible. I think the real damage comes just after that, with Luke the hero and Genie leaving the show. Pat Falken Smith returns to introduce Anna/Robin later, and the show is pretty well written then. IMO Monty/PFS together are the architects of what I consider the GH style. Does she get too much credit? Maybe. She certainly produced the hell out of strong material written by Marland and then PFS. But Bill Bell respected what she was doing, even if it was nothing like his style. I do think her ego got the better of her several times in both her tenures.

The best one that did the most for the show in my viewing was Nikolas revealed as Laura’s son from the island on GH. It used history in a good way, and the couple was never the same again. Same with Belle on DAYS. Also Kendall Hart on AMC was a great one! One that I think was a mess but I enjoyed was Lily/Rose on ATWT. I enjoyed Rose, even if it made little sense on Iva’s part. Worst has to be the unabortion on AMC. Just awful.

I didn’t see Leslie Charleson in the photo. I wonder if the show will comment on her status. Is she retired, or recuperating? I hope we get to see her again as Monica, if only to say goodbye if she is ready to leave.

What would you say is the tone that comes to mind when you think of the soaps you have watched? For me it’s mostly what they were when I started watching them, even if they moved on from that eventually. GH- an adventure show, even during Labine’s realism it still had that energy. DAYS- romance, romance, romance! Y&R- moody and gothic, while also being kind of reserved. Like old school Hollywood films. OLTL- harder to pin down for me, but even in the 80’s it had an upper crust, northeast vibe. AMC- Community, everyone knew everybody.

Another thing that the glory days had- for the most part we had strong writers across the board. So you got to see even plot heavy storyline oriented shows like 80’s GH, or The Edge of Night being meticulously crafted, with attention to important beats and reveals/climaxes that had true impact.

According to Twitter Liz was attacked in the park this week. The scenes of her struggling to hold onto the park bench and then crawling out of the shrubs later are still harrowing. I will always respect the writing team and producing team for not sensationalizing this at all. It was told with a maturity soaps often glossed over, especially in the super-couple era when sexual assault was often played as an obstacle to the main couple being together.

How did that happen? I was literally in the Classic GH thread! Wild.

Wrong thread.

Right? It’s wild to me that anyone is surprised that they receive so many pages in the magazine. In that fantastic old We Love Soaps interview Denise Alexander pretty much says it all- Lesley/Rick/Monica got the show to number one, and then Luke and Laura took it to the stratosphere. Yes they get a lot of attention for what was essentially a very strong show all around. But they hold a unique place among daytime television.

GH used to have several levels of income on display until soaps started ignoring stuff like that. While it was common for the doctors to be at Kelly’s due to the closeness of the hospital, those characters didn’t rent a room upstairs unless they were down on their luck. Characters like Lesley, Rick, Bobbie and Tony certainly were making good livings. But they were not the Quartermaines, their homes reflected that. Laura’s house was in a diverse part of town (as was Bobbie’s Brownstone and Jason’s motorcycle shop) surrounded by lower income families, compared to Sean/Tiffany and later Sonny’s penthouse. OLTL tried to bring that feeling back with Angel Square. They made attempts until we hit 2000 or so, then nope.

In the larger picture, what I remember most from soaps of the pre 2000 era was a willingness to take more chances. We had much more variety in character and storyline- not everybody was wealthy, characters had richer lives in that we saw them interact with family, friends, lovers, and co-workers. You saw love stories of many different types too- young love, affairs, toxic and realistic marriages, etc. Another thing I did was sample many shows. I always kept an eye on GH, OLTL, and DAYS. But I would watch other shows for a period of time, sometimes years (Y&R). There was the option to move to other shows then. What soaps did not get right back then was the same across media of the times- not enough actual diversity in front and behind the scenes.

It’s another example of what a soap fan with a true understanding of the history of the show would do vs something very mainstream like PEOPLE magazine. There is no denying that L&L were going to be prominently featured. But my ideal cover would also have Jessie and Steve from a vintage photo. I am happy it’s not just a montage of Luke & Laura surrounded by Richard Dean Anderson, Richard Simmons, Demi Moore, Jack Wagner, Ricky Martin, etc. hopefully the magazine doesn’t also focus too much on those folks either. We do know that Monty never did it again though. So she clearly understood the issues.

Her animosity with teacher Willow was more fun too. But I would be fine with the character going away, didn’t care when MS was there. And now while I enjoy CW, it’s a waste with this mess of a character.

He has been, but other than AJ, never directly a main character that wasn’t a rival mob person that I can remember. Although he was indirectly responsible for at least Lilly, original Kristina, and probably more I am forgetting right now. And this is Nikolas, Laura’s son. That alone adds more weight in my eyes. I will have a hard time just letting bygones be bygones for this one. Even if it was accidental.