BetterForgotten

Valentini produces this show without emotion and in a very sterile manner. You should feel more from some of these scenes, but they're produced in such a factory settings way that you're drawn away. It's the actors who try doing the heavy lifting, and the production does not support them.

MVJ herself will need to be accountable to several corporate entities (CBS, NAACP, and P&G) and doesn't have ownership interest in this show from what we know - I just hope they give her the space she needs to do her job after things launch and get under way.

The video with MVJ walking around and greeting the cast and crew before the table read is so damn cute, lol. This is this woman's life work and her legacy, and you can tell she's very appreciative and conscious of that. I'm so proud of her, I always knew her work was outstanding and stood out when watching her work on GH in the 90's (and beyond). She got a raw deal when she was eventually HW there. She even managed to make much of the nonsense that passes for a soap opera at B&B slightly watchable when she was tasked with key scripts. She always wanted more of a platform to tell stories her way, and I am glad she has that now. More than anyone else still working in daytime television, MVJ deserves this moment. I wish her and the show nothing but the best.

I’ve always thought Hansis was awful, it’s always extremes with him - either he’s dull as dirt or highly animated and over the top.

Also, BTG is coming from a black creator, which Generations can’t claim. It is a lot more significant for a lot of reasons.

But also, looking at the initial press materials for Generations, NBC seemed to shy away from saying it was specifically geared towards black viewers, and that it was the first soap with an “integrated black family “ from inception. They seemed to place more emphasis on “integration” vs. “predominately black” in their marketing materials.

Generations was 30 minutes.

With Steve Williford moving over to Beyond The Gates, he’s probably going to have to take a look at that directing team to ensure Sally McDonaod and Owen Renfroe don’t carry all the burden.

I see director, Steve Williford, at the table read as well.

Or found directors new to daytime, but much like writers, they were probably moving quickly and needed people who they knew could get the job done quickly at launch.

Daytime soaps are different, IMO. You do need to give the actual product a few months to see if there is any momentum and if its identity is set up properly. Generations didn’t level up until NBC mandated Jorn Winther come in as Senior EP to guide/school Sally Sussman Morina on what it actually means to produce and write an interesting daytime drama (but once he had given that show any momentum, it was already too late).

Two of the directors (Williford and Pascarelli) are friends of Julie Hanan Carruthers and she mentored them at AMC, so not surprised by the directing choices. Seems JHC is leading the technical production as we all had suspected.

They're probably doing that to start off, but I can't imagine they'll have the bandwidth to do that for every single script given the volume of episodes to produce.

Susan Dansby appears to be credited as MVJ and Guza's Co-HW. That writing staff is...a little questionable though. No new writers, all from the recycled daytime system. I had hoped they would try to recruit new and diverse writers (even as script writers) and train them to progress up. That's a bit disappointing to me, but I understand they were probably also in a bit of a rush and needed people who could produce the work quickly and had worked under this type of system before. Those 3 directors are sourced from within the current daytime system as well.

Actually, I do like the idea of characters being teased or mentioned but they don't show up for a year (or further down the line). Kind of like what EastEnders did with Pat in its first year. Just don't hire him, Michele..

Nina Averson stunned me as a kid, and was a huge reason why I followed Y&R especially closely during that era. She was so perfectly cast as Cassandra. She was only on for just over 3 years, but I remember feeling really sad when Cassandra was killed off, lol.

Cassandra Rawlins for Y&R, if only because her house set lingered on for like 2 decades on the show after her demise. I also feel like her story was a huge reason why Y&R took the #1 ratings lead outright as it coincided with it.

I guess Ed isn’t wasting time making some changes, MTS said on the red carpet of the 13k episode celebration that they have a new costume designer, who she calls “amazing.” David Zyla was the customer designer over the past few years.

Not BTG related, but MVJ related nonetheless:

Melody Thomas Scott Says Working with Husband Edward J. Scott Again Is 'Just Like Old Times' (Exclusive)

@vanguard - patience, they’re obviously making these casting announcements in batches leading up to the premiere.

He seems to have a lot of natural charisma, and he's sexy as hell. I hope it translates well on-screen, and his acting is sufficient.

Hopefully these relative unknowns can act or have a lot of charisma/sex appeal. Soaps are reliant on creating new/breakout performers, so this will be crucial to the success of this new show regardless of what the creative material entails.

The Talk is ending in December regardless, so CBS will need to figure out what they’re filling that time with if BTG isn’t ready. Will they air reruns ofThe Talk only until then for an extended time?