Eboneece

Shelly will have served as GH’s HW for 4 years, which is longer than Claire Labine and tied with other greats such as Pat Falkin Smith and Norma Monty. Such an amazing accomplishment and staying power.

I personally most enjoyed the Alzheimer’s story, the Ryan saga, everything Ava Jerome, Nina’s redemption, and the real Jason. 

This is shocking. Brava to Shelly for a job well done!

At least her replacement will not be Barbara Bloom!

45 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

MAB forced Jess Walton off the show and quietly let her contract expire. It was JFP who convinced Jess to come back (if only on a recurring capacity). MAB stupidly thought she could use Genie Francis to phase out BOTH Jess Walton and Melody Thomas Scott and it backfired.

 

Jess talks about her love for JFP here, and yeah, she was not a MAB supporter, lol.

 

 

Thanks for clarifying. I didn’t know that interview existed! I stand corrected about Jess.

you guys are right. Jill’s backstory did get convoluted. Jill as a Fenmore never made sense to me, but JW and TEB have an entertaining on-screen dynamic. I’m just speculating here, but I wonder if MAB’s team felt like they need to secure Jess Walton’s and Jill’s place on the canvas. The year before the Jill Fenmore story, JW went through a contentious and highly-publicized contract dispute with Sony. At the time, other than her longstanding relationship with Kay, Jill had sort of become an odd woman out on the canvas. Sure, her son Billy is an Abbott. Phillip’s resurrection also failed in that same year. Again, this is just speculation. The 2009-10 period was an odd one for the Jill character.

I, too, was a fan of the Nina/Ronan story. I wish that TPTB had made more of an effort to keep Jeff Branson. Today’s canvas would benefit from the Ronan character’s presence.

I did not hate the Meggie character. I thought it was interesting how MAB tied her to Murphy.

I know that I’m in the minority here,  but I also loved Genie Francis’s Genevieve when she was first introduced. I thought she was deliciously campy. I loved the set they created for her too. It was only during Francis’s last year that I thought the character had run her course. She became too needy. 

If I remember correctly, MAB and Co. created Sarah Smythe when they couldn’t get Kimberlin Brown back to reprise Sheila. I think that KB had been involved in an accident. KB’s availability was also a factor in LML’s creation of Pheila. Sheila’s involvement in stories in 2005 and after never made sense to me. Y&R basically ignored developments from B&B without explanation. What happened to Mary Warwick aka Erica Lovejoy? Where was Diana Marone? I can’t totally lay blame for any of this on MAB... she was dealing with convoluted stuff inherited from Jack Smith, Kay Alden, and Lynn Latham.

The Cane stuff was bizarre. I don’t think that MAB wanted Cane (or Caleb) around. Behind the scenes network and Sony politics forced the show to rehire DG.  MAB only became invested in Cane when she could hire Genie Francis as his mother.

Totally agree. It was also strange to rarely hear from Sheffer during his years at Y&R under MAB. Either Bell or the other co-HW Scott Hamner or co-EP Paul Rauch generally spoke for the show.  The criticism of Bell was oddly personalized in retrospect. Much different than Brad Bell. I suspect some sexism at play here.

Maria also attempted to position herself as Bill Bell’s heir apparent. Again, in retrospect, I wonder if this was a PR move on part of the Bell family to solidify power.

Except for the very end of her run (even then basically only the Victor and Sharon stuff), I always found things to enjoy about MAB’s Y&R. I watched much more regularly under MAB than any of JFP (except for Fall 2013 and then Fall 2014 through Winter 2015).

I would have replaced Frisco with a Quartermaine. Otherwise, a decent list!

MAB’s best stories were the Kay/Marge redux, the end of Victor/Sabrina, and everything Phyllis. Her tenure gets a bad rap because of the double dopplegangers, fireplace fetus, and the Diane fiasco.

So exciting! Frelly are pulling out all the stops this summer!!

59 minutes ago, Marlenaphan said:

 

Are you insulting me? That’s rude. I’ll take the high road though, and won’t stoop to your level. You’ll just be added to my ignore list.

 

Port Charles became a great soap when it embraced the supernatural and sci fi. All soaps are boring unless they have supernatural or sci fi elements. 

19 minutes ago, Marlenaphan said:

Port Charles was awesome during the Tainted Love book in the summer of ‘01. 

yeah if by “awesome” you mean appealing to the lowest common denominator. PC was terrific during the HW stint of Karen Harris, Jonathan Estrin, and Barbara Bloom in 2000. It had a real chance at success then, the year before those awful telenovelas.

Just now, Darn said:

 

That is sad, he was one of the FEW good things about Port Charles.

true that! Chris was a consistently entertaining character.

1 minute ago, Darn said:

Nolan North (Port Charles) is the voice of Tony Stark in the new Avengers game.

 

 

I am glad that he is still getting work. It is a shame that he was on a show as bad as Port Charles and that he hates soaps because of it.

Devon’s story has been the biggest misstep of Josh and Tony’s regime. It would have worked better to situate him in Chancellor orbit, move into the estate, and bring back Yolanda/Harmony. Have Yolanda attempt to make herself lady of the manor and get into conflict with Jill. Once that is established, bring back Mishael Morgan to fight with Yolanda as the rightful woman in power.

2 hours ago, Marlenaphan said:

When I think of the Hall twins, I think of Deidre and Andrea, but to each their own.

You are so correct! I thought the same thing when the second twin was cast!

4 hours ago, Marlenaphan said:

Everyone needs to throw their support behind Days. It’s finally good again for the first time since 2006.

turds

Freddie is hotter than Chandler. Always has been

Y&R and GH are surging! I am so glad that Josh and Tony’s numbers are improving. I am sure that Stafford’s return will boost them even higher. Y&R is starting to feel like home again. Props to Shelly over at GH too.

1 hour ago, will81 said:

Not sure but I think Jack Smith might have come on a bit earlier, like 78-79. I do believe Sally Sussman came on about 82-83.

 

The interesting thing is Y&R was battling AMC for the #1 spot in late 79 into early 80. It was hitting #1 constantly. Within 6 months of the shift to an hour AMC was #1 and Y&R had dropped to #5. Considering Bell hated the move to an hour and the show he was writing was #1 and dropped to #5, he must have been pissed off about it all.

 

Not to confuse people as I know GH hit #1 that year, I am talking about a very brief period from about Dec 79 - Feb 80. GH was a definite 3rd for this period, but I guess once Y&R faultered it was a battle between GH and AMC for the remainder of the year

Thanks for this detailed explanation! Makes much more sense to me now

As much as I love Staff, her return feels very short term. I could see Gina back if we get a regime change in the next year or two.

Kay Alden has never minced words about how traumatic that early 1980s transition was. I can only imagine the pressure of going to an hour plus having to reboot the cast at the same time. This was also the period in which Bell brought on Jack Smith and Sally Sussman right? Other 1970s writers like Elizabeth Harrower left around then too.

11 minutes ago, Vee said:

 

Careful now.

Whew. I am thankful that you are here to keep me in check!

YR - A-

Josh and Tony are harkening back to the classic Y&R senses and I couldn’t love it more. Adam recast is terrific. Can’t wait for the Staff to return. Just speed it up a bit. Update the opening credits.

GH - B-

Shelly’s character driven, modern writing is mismatched with Frank’s terrible and uninspired production values.

Days - F-

Cancel.

B&B - B+

Loving the new additions to the Logan fam. Love the stellar production values. Acting is wonderful.

I hope they update the opening credits once these casting changes have taken effect. Half the cast won’t be in the credits if they do not.

8 hours ago, DeeeDee said:

And next year marks Amelia's 15th year on Y&R.

Gross. I think that I had been mentally blocking out that Amelia has played Victoria for about 3 years longer than Heather Tom.