Planet Soap

OLTL: Todd raped Blair... only she thought he did...because it was a brain tumor that made her misconstrue rough sex. Was that a rewrite or the originally planned story?

The concept of this thread is hilarious!

Liam would be the biggest earthquake, Finn would be concequential but not as big. Thomas (again) would also be a massive scandal. 

18 hours ago, ReddFoxx said:

In the Los Angeles market the local news airs at 11 am and then gets an entire block from 3-6 pm. It is completely excessive.

KTLA has news from 4am-2pm then again from 3-7 pm not to mention they produce entertainment shows at 2&7pm. From what I've seen, their not like CNN with  panel discussions, to film airtime, it's all packages an anchor read overs. Just excessive. panel discussions, to film airtime, it's all packages and anchor read overs. I agree with @SteelCity less hours is more when it comes to news.

12 hours ago, cody_1990 said:

Absolutely. CBS network has also always had a better relationship with their affiliates than ABC and NBC. Mostly because CBS had more successful years than the other two. NBC is the worst. Because they had some really horrendous years in the 70s and 80s, they became beholden to their affiliates, in part because of them threatening to leave the network. They always let affiliates dictate their daytime schedule. Airing network shows in whatever time slot they wanted, or not at all in some cases. That played a part in the ultimate failure of all NBC soaps after 1980. Affiliates had to make money. Programming 6 hours of news a day and airing syndicated shows is money in the pockets for the affiliates. That’s one of the “nails” in the coffin of soaps that isn’t talked about very often, network affiliation pressure.

Interesting. CBS did have a rocky period with affiliates. In 1994 when Fox bought NFL rights, dozens of their affilates defected to Fox. And in cities like Atlanta CBS was forced to affiliate with bottom feeder stations with high dial numbers ---Ch 46.

2 hours ago, titan1978 said:

I usually agree. However some of the best plots on GH came from a willingness to listen to the actors about their characters. LC brought the idea of Monica’s breast cancer to Riche, and they ran with it. Genie in some of her first conversations with Wendy Riche brought up those two years that Laura was gone was fertile ground, and long enough for her to have a child and fully recovered. Guza ran with that one. Tony created the overall ideas for the L&L return, and Lannie fleshed it out with the writing team.

 

Well there was some conflict with it, because Claire Labine said Wendy would send her to talk to Geary about stuff they knew he would not like in her We Love Soaps interview. So he’s not fully creating that narrative later. She acknowledged that she just wasn’t capable of writing that 80’s action stuff he wanted to do all the time, and that Luke as a family man and what that means interested her. She did say he was always gracious about it with her.

Fair points

2 hours ago, titan1978 said:

He had a lot of layers too. You had the danger stuff with Frank Smith and the issues with being Sonny’s partner. His fatherhood issues with Lucky and Laura. His relationship with Laura as she was happy to be back home and he was more inclined to keep running. They also still had a believable romantic connection. He and Bobbie had a very specific dynamic. There was a lot of fertile ground and it didn’t feel like his maligned opinions at the end of his tenure.

I loved Luke during Labine’s run. Truthfully, I still thought he was a wonderful character until the Felicia affair. Which tracks, because I need Laura to help make Luke palatable, and that was a point on the show where Genie felt they had stopped writing for her. She was just miserable for like two years as she grieved Lucky and the end of her marriage.

I enjoyed him a bit more again when Lulu arrived as a teen, and he was pulled away from being selfish all the time. But it got worse from there.

That’s the willingness part. What should be a collaboration sometimes becomes outsized on either end- a character way out of character to support a plot, or an actor refusing things or actively sabotaging the intent of the show (Burton with SJB’s Carly towards the end of his first run, KM clearly tanking her Jason reunion to stay with Billy Miller, whatever the hell happened with Liason/JaSam in the mid 2000’s, etc).

I remember reading an interview with Zenk about how much she hated Bitch Barbara on ATWT, didn’t agree with what Marland was doing, and fought against it. And then after the fact realizing that probably saved her in the long run because the show could see her as more than just a victim. Sometimes they should just act!

What happened with SJB and Steve Burton  I've read before that the reason Jason and Carly (an obvious couple) have not been paired is because of Burton's refusal.

I've also seen it suggested that Kelly Monaco wanted to be paired with Billy Miller instead of Burton. I can believe it.  Monaco has not shown in one ounce of enthusiasm in her acting with Burton---then again her acting's become dull with everyone. Maybe I need to rewatch, but I never bought Billy Miller as Jason, nor have I felt any spark between him and Kelly Monaco. 

Britt and Jason actually felt like a decent pairing before the writers screwed that up.

It sucks that Genie never got full respect as she should have been the Viki Lord of GH-- the longsuffering CENTRAL female heroine. At least she's getting some of that now.

1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

I can appreciate the protectiveness and ownership Tony Geary felt for Luke. The problem was he became so absolutist about things being a certain way that the audience saw him play differently. And that he himself spoke differently about before he got burned out.

I can get behind TG not wanting to play the same Luke and Laura dynamics. But to have that be so ingrained that they can’t even have Genie on the show was ridiculous. And I know that was JFP too, not just Tony.

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. 

8 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

I suspect they only had Luke do that because he’s the only one that could have gotten away with it without actually being killed by Jason. 

Geary loved playing this type of sh!t though.

JFP would later do a semi knockoff of this story on Y&R with Delia’s death, which has, of course, stuck. 

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. 

1 hour ago, SteelCity said:

Even sitcoms are basically dead now. It's all drama. Chicago Parks Dept/FBI: Antarctica/ Law & Order: Traffic Court

It's starting to feel like the networks just don't want me watching TV!

That's why I personally need The Gates to succeed. Soaps are a passion of mine and I don't want them to die. 

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.

6 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

I'm in a Facebook group that posts tons of vintage TV listings, and it never ceases to amaze me how much variety there used to be in network daytime. Even with an adequate supply of soaps and games, there was still plenty of room for primetime repeats, movies, talk shows, cartoons, local programming, etc. You would think that with 24/7 access to news via cable and the internet, surrendering time to the affiliates would offer more than what it has over the last 20-25 years.

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.

19 minutes ago, SteelCity said:

The Talk really does just suck! Too bad NBC hates soaps and they believe that the Today Show is their pride and glory. They could produce two new soaps for years on just the money spent on losing at least two hours of that crap. Remember how much they wasted on Megan?

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. 

1 hour ago, Chris B said:

It’s an easy choice for them and that’s to cancel The Talk hence why it’s being developed for an hour. They’ve tried everything they could to revamp that show and expand its audience. It’s time for it to go. 
 

I also do think B&B could be in trouble if this is successful. CBS has no ownership in it and I’m sure they have comments on the quality (which don’t matter for the same reason). I could see them dumping it if they feel they have tow successful shows in Y&R and The Gates. 

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.

39 minutes ago, j swift said:

https://www.soapoperanetwork.com/2024/03/the-gates-cbs-george-cheeks

George Cheeks - President and CEO of CBS, (also an excellent Grindr profile name)

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. 

2 hours ago, vanguard said:

I'm leaning towards The Gates being an hour-long project, or at least that's what I'm hoping for.

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.

1 hour ago, Aback said:

How is that even possible? Y&R is 1 hour. 

**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.

2 hours ago, DeliaIrisFan said:

Thank you!  Yes, I know Carly is Michael's birth mother, and AJ was his bio father - well, unless Carlivati or whoever rewrote that at some point.  And Molly's father was Ric Hearst's character, I think, so that means she's related to Sonny as well?  It all just seems really excessive, and made this week's fight scene that was already bad in every way somehow even stupider.

I also didn't know how long Ned and Olivia had been together, so I assumed Ned was Leo's biological father.  That's an interesting detail.

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.

3 minutes ago, Khan said:

For me, the problem has always been that I am being asked as a viewer to invest myself emotionally in these mobsters, when I know what real-life mobsters do and the impact they have on our communities.  Even though Sonny and Jason have been sanitized for our entertainment, that doesn't change the fact that in order for them to appear at all sympathetic to the audience, their adversaries, including those who work in law enforcement, have to be depicted as incompetent, psychotic or somehow more amoral than Sonny and Jason are by comparison.

I'm not saying GH glamorizes or romanticizes organized crime - although, let's be honest, Sonny and Jason (and Luke) have received more than their fair share of propping over the years - but I do think it's irresponsible for any show not to portray the full reality of organized crime or even show these sociopaths - and that's who and what mobsters are, ladies and gents; they are, at their core, sociopaths - receiving true comeuppance in the form of lengthy imprisonment and/or death.  I felt that way when shows like "The Sopranos" were all the rage, and I definitely feel that way today, in 2024.

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. 

6 hours ago, Jdee43 said:

I had to laugh; whenever Sonny does something stupid or is acting weird, it's always his meds; he's not taking them or someone is screwing with them. We've seen this many times through the years. How about for once going with the reason Sonny acts like this is just because he's a bastard? The on-going attempt to explain away or gloss over his ugly, evil aspects and make Sonny ultimately lovable and a good guy is ridiculous. A cuddly mobster and his hit man has never and will never work on a daily soap opera.

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.

On 3/20/2024 at 6:27 PM, Contessa Donatella said:

They would have had no way to know the mandate would be overturned in court. 

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.

9 hours ago, John said:

They know this. They are showing Joss as the true hypocrite she is.

Joss has been a hypocrite for a while now. Its not like she didnt know Sonny ran a MOB and Jason as enforcer killed for him. What did she expect Dex as his new enforcer was gonna do, pour coffee?

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

5 hours ago, Liberty City said:

How would you categorize Sarah Joy Brown's return as Claudia? 

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. 

3 hours ago, Khan said:

If anyone really wants to know how TPTB at GH felt about Claudia, look no further than how they dispatched with her: blow to the head with an axe handle, followed by a burial in the woods.

The intensity of this scene makes the whole, shitty story that led up to it almost - almost - worthwhile:

 

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.