Planet Soap

I can appreciate actors not wanting to be slaves to the writers, but actors who aren't involved in the writing process (or actors who cannot write) shouldn't have too much say in storyline direction.

Yeah, he seemed to want Luke to be this dark nihilistic abyss of a character. I like mid-90s Luke — a family man running from his past.

Seeing Jake rebuking a resurrected Jason on today's GH got me thinking back to Jake's "death" in 2011. We talk about the destruction of the Quartermaines but boy were Spencers decimated! Why on God's screen Earth would they have Luke drunkenly run over his grandson? How did he escape those charges again?? The scene ahere Luke tries to get Jason to kill him, Also makes Luke look ugly.

Lol I will say the Chicagos and Law & Orders are a few of the appointment views left on primetime. Law & Order Thusday fills the void for me since Shonda's TGIT ended.

Yep. Im also active in tv news message boards and many posters there think the news is the only way stations/networks can plug syndication holes. They've even been pushing the idea that CBS will develop its own version of NBC News Daily and GMA 3--God no. And the trick is, all America news programs cover the same thing with little international reporting outside of US interests. How many different newscasts need to tell me that the Baltimore Bridge collapsed and do a panel discussion on Princess Kate's cancer??? The justification for all day news is that people watch TV for quick hits throughout the day, not continuous viewership of one channel. Thus, it doesn't matter if they show infinate hours of news. At this point I'll take sitcom & reality show reruns, maybe even some HGTV home improvement stuff in syndication, just no more news. Hopefully The Gates is successful and it revamps the genre.

Yup. The questioning blackface controversy helped NBC exects usher Megan out before her contract was up, when they realized they wasted money. The Today Show should just be cut to two hours. It's a shell of it's former self. But, with syndication as dry as it is, I'd hate to see 2 more hours of local news be the alternative. The Talk was a more friendly and non contentious alternative to The View at first. It quickly became a cookier cutter pc opinion show used to promote CBS products. "The Real" (another View copy) ended up being better.

I would love to see The Talk go! I just haven't seen anything suggesting that CBS is ready to give up on it. Looks like this is the suggestion lol.

The problem with that is, how will a 1 hour soap fit into CBS's line up? One of their shows will have to get canceled, trimmed, or take more time away from affiliates. Some CBS stations such as WANF Atlanta even have a 3pm newscast (AD REVENUE) so they might send the new show to a graveyard slot like 1 AM.

30 minutes is definitely the best way to go in this day and age. Less time to fill, less charachters to fill that time, thus cast members to pay (and all the costs associated with that). IMO soaps shouldn't have expanded to one hour to begin with, because of the increased burdens of filling scripted content five days a week. Plus, correct me if I'm wrong, none of the soaps that started out as an hour were successful. **i'm suggesting Y&R be cut to 30 minutes. The show already struggles to make an hour interesting, and (ancient history but) even Bill Bell originally thought that the hour expansion was detrimental. As unlikely as that is to happen...do we really need a full hour of the Newman kids battling for the company--again, or Nikki drinking--again.

I wonder how they'll fit this into the CBS schedule. Perhaps: 10 Lets Make a Deal 11 Price is Right 12 Local News 12:30 Y&R 1 NEW SOAP: The Gates 1:30 B&B 2 The Talk This is probably simplest way to accommodate the new soap without massively altering or confusing CBS's daytime lineup. Y&R remains in it's successful 12:30 ET slot, Gates airs at 1 to get the carryover audience, and the fans don't change the channel because they know Bold is coming on right after. I doubt the The Talk or the game shows will be sliced to 30 minutes. I also don't see the veteran B&B getting canceled for a new soap. As awful as the show has become, it's still number two in soap ratings, and has international appeal. I've seen people in other message boards suggesting B&B be expanded to an hour---if they cant fill 18 minutes without repition they definately cant fill a full 38. Another issue is the paciffic timezone where the cbs schedule is totally different.

Yes, Molly's dad is Sonny's brother Ric (name of charachter and actor). Therefore Molly is Sonny's neice. Molly's sister Kristina II is fathered by Sonny, making them sibblings and cousins🤨. Sonny has had way to many kids, misacarriages and still births fathered by him. Frank era retcons have also severely confused family trees. GH is like Marland era ATWT in that we have a massive cast of characters who all interact and have connections with each other. It would probably be easier to follow if GH was like Bell era Y&R, charachters only intereacting with a few others in their bubbles.

Reading up on the Pikeman deal, apparently Sonny is okay with dealing arms but not drugs, lol. Is that any better especially in the midst of a gun violence epidemic? How did Jason become a militaristic super soldier? He was a med student before the accident and I didn't see him get any formal training after. At this point, about 30 years into Sonny & Jason, we have to apply an extreme suspension of disbelief, especially when it comes to their quasi morality. SB: I would argue that since 2017, Jason has overtaken Sonny as the male lead of the show.

It makes no sense the way Sonny is acting toward Jason. He must still be jealous after walking in and Jason and Carly about to consummate their marriage. How in the world is Jason bail eligible? I see where Sam is coming from, but she's behaving like Jason's last two disappearances was his fault. Moreover, did Sam not think having kids with a mobster would create problems from the get go? Seeing Molly as the ADA furthers my conclusion that characters in law enforcement --especially on a show like GH where the criminals are a part of the community---should not be attached to the canvas because of clear conflicts of interest. Sonny is Molly's uncle and Jason was his lieutenant.

Copy. At that time my understanding was the mandates were something that would be in place for the immediate aftermath of the virus not forever.

Yeah, did Joss really think Sonny was above premeditated murder lol. Why is Cyrus still around? He should have had his single story then been taken out like Shiloh. After all these years, it's still ridiculous how the gangsters (Sonny) have been integrated as members of the comcommunity and are friends of the mayor and law enforcement. Still baffling that Sonny and Ava on speaking terms when she is responsible for Morgan's supposed death. I might be in the minority on this one but the show (or at least Sonny's orbit stories) feel complete with Jason back. I did not find Sonny or Carly that interesting in the absence of Jason lately. I don't mind Jason being a part of the canvas, just he & Sonny don't need to eat the show like they did in the 2000s. If it was clear that Burton might come back after the vaccine mandates, GH should have just written Jason as missing instead of repetitively killing him off again.

Honestly shocked to hear this. I love it because daytime TV lineups are saturated with news. I'm fearful because soap writers seem incapable of making good TV anymore. I hope it succeeds but if B&B and Y&R are any indication of the quality we will get--oh brother. Will this usher in the genre's revival? Let's see. My advice: keep it to 30 minutes. I wouldn't even do five days a week. I'd do B&B Mon-Wed 1:30 PM, New Soap Thu-Fri 1:30 PM.

I know this thread is about misconceptions with in the genre but... The idea that The Simpsons is the longest running show and SVU's Olivia Benson is the longest running female character on television. People fail to add the *in primetime astrix to those titles. This shows a lack of reguard, dare I say dismissal of soap's history and contribution to television.

GOOD. What would CBS have replaced it with, an NBC News Daily/ GMA 3 copycat? Local affiliate schedules are already news heavy. The crazy part is despite affiliates relying more heavily on journalists for ad revenue, TV news reporters remain some of the lowest paid degree holders while sales teams take home most of the bank. Current executive thinking is that the audeince is isn't watching one station all day. They supposedly tune for quick hits, so it doesn't matter if a TV station schedule is all news. But I miss the days when you could keep your TV on one station for hours because there was an array of diverse and quality programming. That being said, Y&R is in rough shape. I can't believe it's still #1. Josh Griffith needs to go.

Y&R and GH rule this thread. Y&R: Cassie, John, Rex, Brad, Colleen, Drucilla, Diane GH: Justus, Emily, Alan, AJ, Georgie, Tony, Luke, Jake

I liked SJB's run as Claudia and it was better than Tamara Braun's return as Kim. The writers did good in making Claudia a trouble maker like OG Carly was, not a nice woman like Kim. Unlike Kim's tenure Claudia's was actually concequential to plot, especially concerning Michael. SJB's return was too short though IMO. The last time Sonny was interesting. Love that scene.

Y&R's Kay & Marge (1989-90) was well done. We saw the logistics Clint took to Make marge look like Kay, copy her soeech pattern, her signature and even her sexual habits. Marge even went as far as having her appendix removed like Kay to be identical to her. Apparently the 2008 revisitation of that storyline (which I saw as a child, my first memory of Jill) was well recieved. If I'm not mistaken, Jeanne Cooper won her Emmy for that. I need to go back and re-watch.

GH needs a new EP as well but Frank supposedly keeps the show under budget with a multitude of sets so I'm guessing he stays till the end. He's going on 12 years already!

Yes! Mentally for me, Riche era GH begins at the 30th anniversary with the red saxaphone open. It is weird to see her work with the old open attached. I really liked the Bill Levinson writing era, it had a very serious tone on top of GH's overall humanist heartfelt vibe at the time.

All My Children: Co Executive Producers Wendy Riche & Linda Gottleib, head writer Claire Labine to capture the emotional warmth of 90s era GH. Y&R: Executive Producer ? , Head writer Michael Malone -90s writing style-(for that mystical novelistic work) Current GH: Headwriter Douglas Marland to manage the large cast, Executove Producer Wendy Riche. Good emotional depth right there. B&B: Executive Producer Aaron Spelling DAYS: Executive Proucer Paul Rauch, head writer Bob Guza for over the top action with an 80s OLTL 90s GH tone.

Yep to everyone who said Y&R. To their credit and detriment,they never abandoned veteran characters for younger ones. This also resulted in an underdeveloped new generation to take the manual, or be invested in. The younger charachters up until the Nick & Sharon era stuck. Everyone after that except maybe Billy fell off. Abby, Devon & Lilly aren't that interesting. Cassie and Colleen were killed off for no reason. Moses, Reed, Faith, etc are nowhere to be seen.