Planet Soap

Great observation! I liked that Brooke put their feud aside in trying to defend Stephanie's life at a time of crisis. Brooke does have good in her, despite her notorious antics. Cold to say but, I like that Stephanie didn't break and feel sorry for Sheila when she was about to off herself (after years of terrorizing others). It's telling that Stephanie was the only one in the room who didn't discourage Sheila from doing it.

To clarify my post, it was a family member of mine's idea that CBS's should have been coy with marketing BTG as a majority black soap. I don't think that move was a mistake, because it peaked my interest. I even responded to @DRW50 saying: "you cant' win" which is my acknowledgment that even being coy about the cast's race would be picked apart. As for Y&R and B&B's ratings, thats why I said in my original post "that must speak to audience loyalty"---which is my acknowledgment that ratings and quality are mutually exclusive. Believe me I know quality doesn't dictate viewership, otherwise B&B would be dead last The idea wasn't to conceal the cast. It was the opposite. Again my move in that suggested idea would be to show the majority black cast prominently (without labeling it a black soap). If people try to criticize, then point them to towards the majority white casts of Y&R, B&B, GH and DAYS and ask them why they aren't complaining about that 🤷‍♀️. Then the racists are the only ones making the show about race. At the end of the day, both of you are right in saying that racists will not watch the show no matter how it is marketed.

It happened briefly in 1995 when Brooke (and others) stood in front of Stephanie when Sheila held her at gunpoint (at 11:04)

Yup you can't win. In that scenario, I would use the racist's argument against them and say "We never announced the majority black cast because this was never about race. Most of our cast members just happened to be black because they were qualified for the job!"

It's baffling how Y&R and B&B remain in the top spots. Neither of these soaps have been good since 2013. Young is the most boring soap on television, and Bold is the most repeditive. That must really speak to audience loyalty. General Hospital is no prize but it's certainly more creative and a lot more happens than on the tatter two soaps. GH and BTG should be in those top two spots based on quality. Family of mine sguggested CBS shouldn't have announced BTG was an all black soap. They should have put it on the air and let viewers come to that realization themselves. If anyone complained about a "lack of diversity", just say it "wasn't intentional", then compare it to a cast photo of B&B and Y&R and say their majority white cast "isn't intentional" either, LOL.

Go to Facebook soap pages and you will see the barrage of white commenters who will not watch a "racist" "DEI" majority black soap. I truly applaud CBS for taking the risk and putting a new soap on air in 2025 ---a minority majority soap at that. I thought Nicole's husband Ted was pretty good. Sucks that he's being recasted. Same about Tamara Tunie. I expected her to be this Stephanie Forrester level Grand Dame. Instead she's the equivalent of GH's Lila or ATWT's Nancy. A wise loving grandmother who doles out advice but has no story---a talk to character. Anita reminds me of Dominique Devereaux on Dynasty, a black grand dame with so much potential, who turned out to be mild and well liked, with not enough story. I really thought Nicole was going to be her nemesis based on promos, I didn't expect that to be her daughter. BTG has gotten better and flowed smoother since it's premiere date.

Did anyone catch that at Will Trent episode featured the 2003-2004 faces of the heart open, with will in there lol. That was my favorite version of the open. Especially loved the character names. The only think it lacked was 2002's shot of Luke & Laura's face rising at the end. https://tvline.com/features/will-trent-general-hospital-faces-of-the-heart-theme-song-1235436139/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR6pvM37q116Gnm5KWF2wugLhfLohb0x9ySBLzBqmBFShZ3w9iFETYnBW_G-3Q_aem_Grc94CMDFBiz1k-9fPSjCA#

I love that after years of absence, Anna has been a primary player on modern GH for over a decade now. Compared to other veteran cast that we brought back at/around Frank's trnure, she's been on very --- if not the most -- consistently.

Best feuds: B&B: Stephanie vs Sheila: much is made about Steph's feud with Brooke and Sally, but Sheila was her most formidable opponent. It was the only person I ever saw Stephanie be afraid of. By 1998 Stephanie was clearly intimidated by the crazy woman when she threatened Thomas and shot her to take baby Mary. (Forgot I posted that already) Y&R: Kay vs Jill: enough said. This drove 40 years of story. Y&R: Nikki vs Diane: their fued drove story from 1997-2002: everything from Victor's marriage, to the vasectomy, to the Veronica Landers shooting, to sperm gate. OLTL: Viki vs Dorian...enough said. So much back history and RETCONS all revolving around the all consuming ghost of Victor Lord GL: Reva vs Annie: loved Annie's crazy antics. GH: Alan vs Monica: these who may have been married, but they were their best opponents. Their toxic yet loving marriage was great television and comic relief. ATWT: Kim vs Susan: Susan's affair with Bob in 1990 drew me in, it was very compelling to see an upstanding Mid-America do good or character cheat on his wife. But it's even more interesting to learn that both Bob and Kim were cheaters, and the feud goes back further.

exactly, I'm only supporting this for the sake of keeping the genre alive. Otherwise B&B is well overdue for cancellation based on writing. For the love of God, get rid of Brad Bell, bring in a new writing regime, and remove Liam, Hope, Steffy as core characters. Please find something else for Brooke, Taylor and Ridge to do other than an endless triad. The sad part is a 30 minute episode of B&B --as trash as it is -- wi keep me awake longer than a full hour of Y&R. The latter is so slow and dry.

SMH! I haven't watched Y&R so I can't speak to how prominent they are making their black characters. At the very least the bold and the beautiful is prominently featuring some Asian cast members, with an Asian villain.

So Kristina is a mechanic now eh? I hated Molly reaching out to repair the bond first, further allowing Christina to skirt responsibility. Kristina was remarkably restrained after discovering Ava not helping Sonny. I expected her to explode more than that, especially since her next move was to kill Ava. That scene reminded me of Tracy and Edward in the 70s. Good to see Stephen A Smith took a pause from his beef with LeBron to make an appearance on GH lol! Sasha taking up for Sidwell was just embarrassing. Kirsten storms looks fantastic. Maybe it's because I don't watch any of her scenes when I browse through online , but it seems like she lost the weight overnight!

B&B and Y&R have been begging for cancellation with the quality of storylines they've put out in the past few years. I think The Edge of Night has been off the air too long to work as a revival. Maybe the niche core fan base is still string, but I'm not sure the wider populous of soap audience is that familiar with it. To me me, AMC and OLTL are the best options for revival. they seem to be mentioned much more in layman circles than ATWT or GL. But again, despite our rebbo era, a lot of of the writers and actors who made cancelled soaps special are dead. Reviving some of these soaps would essentially be name recognition only. Maybe it's time to just make new soaps and build a new generation of fans, and characters. This is a premature question, and I don't want to jinx anything, but how long do we predict Beyond the Gates stays on the air?

Agreed. Y&R is the least interesting soap on the air right now. How it remains #1 is a testament to audience loyalty. I'm surprised she lasted this long. At this point I would like to see Amelia and Heather Tom swap roles. Amelia can pull off a kind and timid character like B&B's Katie, we need Heather's boldness back in Victoria. I can accept the Jess Walton and Peter Bergman recasts but I have never felt Amelia Heinle as Victoria.

I knew that would be a controversial pick. To me Dante hasn't added any value since he returned was with Sam. Regarding Sam, I never wanted a long-term character like her to be killed off, I would've preferred they either gave her some storyline, Kelly Monaco acted better, or they recasted her role. They could've even written her off the canvas and brought her back in a few years with refreshed ideas.

In addition characters like Shiloh, Esme, Sam, Dante, Drew, Cyrus remained way past their expiration dates.

I agree with the comments about Jason's lack of story. The last time Jason was interesting is when he was with Brit. While I liked the idea of having a marriage to Carly drive a wedge in their relationship, it was poorly executed. I don't think Steve Burton should be fired however. It's clear Maurice Bernard has given up on acting for years now. The last time I was riveted by his acting was at Claudia's birthday party in 2009! Maybe have Jason step up and be the head of the organization while Sonny takes a backseat? Maybe bring back tension between Sonnny & Jason and make them rival organization heads? IDK something other than Jason is an easy going, all knowing, all comforting protector. It's clear their next move is to pair him with Sasha to add some drama.

I was tempted to say Brennan was Australian but from years of mistakenly believing Finola Hughes was Australian, I said maybe not.

So is Brennan not European anymore? It's always odd when accents get dropped or added with recasting. Biggest example, acting like Ridge on B&B doesn't have a European accent, after the recast. Joan Collins having a British accent taking over his Alexandra Spalding kind of works because she's supposed to be a grande character. Recasts aside, there is Victor Newman. He clearly has a German accent but we're acting like he was born in America lol. Anyway, back to GH

I was going to say It would be cool to see some income diversity which is a-typical of soaps today, but you make a good point. The family is very large and we could do with certain characters split off or eliminated.

Came here to say the same. Model minority representation might've been more critical in the days of the Cosby Show (which I loved) when we had less black programs on TV. But today where there are a whole swath, I think we have the space and freedom to show imperfect black characters. If everyone on the show was a great human being, as to positively represent black people, it wouldn't be compelling television. In soaps we have so few black characters and leads I get why positive representation matters. Moreover I get that flawed white characters don't have the same representation pressures because they're a part of the majority/ in-power group. But again, I refer to my point above.

Been saying this should be airing on BET. SON says limited run but this should be for good.

His promos were funny and the best. ABC's Love in the Afternoon aside, CBS had the best promos from the late 80s to early 00s! I agree. Brenda Epperson's Ashley feels way more put together than Eileen Davidsons more messy character. I could not see Brenda Epperson stealing sperm and hiding paternity amid a cancer diagnosis. The only similarity I saw between portrayals is when Brenda's Ashley went crazy after the Blade/Rick reveal.

Agreed that We need a competing Grand Dame for Anita. Based on the promos, and without reading the description, I thought that's what Nicole was going to be.

I'll put this here instead since discussion is shifting to March. A little laugh to hold us over until tomorrow😂