EllenP

These last few posts made me go look at the 2003 and 2004 ratings. Remember, this was also Barbara Bloom’s first year as head of CBS Daytime. All of the CBS shows started to tank in the ratings in fairly short order after her arrival. ATWT and Y&R’s collapses were most alarming. Hemorrhaging 700,000-1,000,000 viewers year-to-year. Weirdly, GL’s demos were not terrible relative to the show’s past performance.

Barbara Bloom caused irreparable damage to those shows and other than a few peaks here and there, the shows began their downward descent under her watch.

Did Bruce Barry leave on his own or was he a budget cut victim? I seem to recall a long time director and/or producer getting the ax during first massive budget cut that CBS/PGP imposed on Wheeler’s reign.

Dang the Grand Phoenix is so fugly and cheap looking. Pieces of that set are recycled from the Vegas bar from the first day we saw Stafford return. I get that they’re going for contemporary, chic, and sleek... and it does resemble many of the larger chains. But, ew. Not Y&R. Bring back the GCAC, or better yet... the Genoa City Hotel. I do not hate the Society set, but wish we could see another restaurant in town.  I would love to see The Lodge or The Embers again.

About the ranch, are we supposed to assume that the new set is just a different part of the house from the ikea living room with the staircase?

Glad to see MM back! I love her screen presence regardless of the character

2 hours ago, AdamNewmanFan said:

Opening credits update.

Beth maitland is in it now

Hooray! Beth hinted at this a few weeks ago on Twitter. This is the first time in 2 decades that she has been in the opener.

She is so regal. I always thought she would have fit in well on Y&R in a grande dame role that wasn’t as forgettable as Audrey North. 

Y&R’s Friday HH number is so sad. 

I wish some more 2004 would pop up. I used to have it on VHS but the videos disappeared during a move! I also used to have a ton of 2003, including all of when Jill learned Katherine was her mother and when Ashley got in the car wreck. Y&R went on location a few times that year. Remember Jess Walton running to stop Billy and Mac from having sex? Sad all of the story momentum from that period would end in a few short years.

The best story that DG and Cane ever had was when Maria Arena Bell had him shot right in the neck artery on those church steps.

Michelle Stafford has effortlessly reinvigorated the Phyllis character. For me, she is the best. thing on the show. I was all in for her recent scenes with LLB. The only problem is that I would like to see Daniel back and her more in the Abbott orbit. I want her to get a home set and opening shot soon.

1 hour ago, edgeofnik said:

My comment about age: Replace BM with ED (1 year difference). The show toyed with CAsh before Eileen was shipped to DAYS in 2012. We all know what this is about.

 

Bell was a genius when he created Traci. Except for the prurient suicide attempt, Traci has been a remarkable and groundbreaking character, which is mainly because of BM's skills as an actor. I'm sure it was easy for her in the 80s because I bet she received a lot of direct or implied pressure to conform. Frankly, it's bold of this regime to attempt giving Traci a romance after all these years. 

Excellent point about ED! I am glad that someone said it.

The Rosales family continues to be contrived, bland, and forced. They are all the worst characters introduced since the MAB era. I think this regime is strongest post MAB, but you can still see Anjelica McDonalds’s fingerprints all over everything. Everything she does is commercialized walmart cookie cutter blah. My point is that the show wildly swings from moments of the classic feel and storytelling touch to zany rom com contrived immature BS.

honestly why would anyone watch Y&R live if you can pay like $7 a month for CBS all access commercial free? It is so much better than slogging through the show when it airs or ff-ing thru commercials. Someone else said it before me, but Y&R is always listed as one of the most popular shows on the CBS app.

Loved Nelson as Phyllis, but she always read a few years older than Stafford to me. Her SL in 1998 with Danny and Cricket was one of my faves, but idk if she would have worked in later versions of the character

On 6/26/2019 at 8:38 PM, Marco Dane said:

This was my first soap magazine... Episodes.... I wonder why they stop publishing them....

These are so cool. I wish that CBS had done something similar!

On 6/26/2019 at 3:21 PM, victoria foxton said:

My first soap mag was the  SOD issue featuring the GH 25th anniversary. I was at a supermarket. I was 13 and my mom bought it for me. Over a year later. At a newsstand near my high school. I was buying comics. When i came across the first issue of Soap Opera Weekly. I became hooked to the soap mags. Which i used to read during study hall. I never felt any shame buying them. Even through i'm an albino hermaphrodite.  Adopted by traveling gypsies. 

On 6/26/2019 at 8:18 PM, YRBB said:

 

I see you picked up on that, too

Transphobia, huh? Cool.

1995-98 soaps really helped to raise me in some ways and I coveted any soap magazine I could get my hands on. Sometimes the local public library would have old issues of the mags in the free used book section.

Anyway I felt like an outcast buying this magazine and I could feel the Kmart cashier’s eyes piercing right through me. I am a black trans woman adopted by white parents and this was before I transitioned. Boy, I wish we had self checkout then, even tho I would still have to hide it from my parents

Who else remembers the 1st soap magazine they purchased?

Mine was the December 5, 1995 issue of Soap Digest. I was in 7th grade, love(d) Nikki Newman, and HAD to own this issue. I had just come from a family xmas party and the kmart in town still had the old issue on the shelf three days after the holiday. It was a month old issue, but I just didnt care!

3 minutes ago, xtr said:

 

I think that the complaints are valid. He's bringing back a bunch of people that hardly anybody is asking for and that are not needed. How many white women in their late 30's/40's does this show need? This show needs to bring back men in their mid 20's to early 30's. (like Fen/Noah). There is a void in that group. Kyle doesn't have hardly any friends or rivals and Ana doesn't have any one to date. They keep bringing back all of these basic boring imitation vanilla flavored characters. I do believe it's not going to help the show. And that it may very well either.

The show could anchor the late 20s/early 30s group with Abby, Devon, and Noah... but there is two primary problems. 1. Melissa Ordway is terrible and always will be. Marcy Rylan is the best Abby and had presence. 2. Writers dont think that Devon can anchor the Winters-Hamiltons on his own. He now doesnt have family to anchor him to the canvas. 3. Noah hasnt had a solid actor in a while. RA is hot but idk his deal

4 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Hi @JONNYSBRO/ @Jerry675 / @Eboneece and whatever alias I'm forgetting. 

Thank you for such a  warm welcome. I do not know these people, but apparently I should? I just joined this site a couple days ago. I’ll go somewhere else.

I enjoy the way the show feels, even if it is boring some days. JFP pushed JG out of power before he could really do anything of consequence in 2013. Sure, I think that he outlined Delia’s death, but he wasn’t around for its execution. Seems like JG wants to have what he couldn’t back then because of JFP.

I will take nearly all of the 2013 cast over another contrived and annoying Rosales.

2 hours ago, Cruising Soaps said:

Am I the only one that enjoyed Genie on Y&R?  

I loved her as Genaveve! She can come back to YR after JFP fires her at GH.

Y&R really needs Nikki driving more story.