Romalotti

As soon as I saw your post, I bought the book for $10 on Kindle and just finished reading it. It’s a good book with lots of information I didn’t know about before. Bill Bell will always be one of my creative inspirations. Thank you for leading me to the book!

I’ve been watching the show for the first time. I’m at the end of season seven and I agree with pretty much everything you said. Season seven was the first season where I felt disconnected from the show. It felt like there was no plan and characters were suddenly pawns of the plots and nothing else. Half of the cast disappeared for multiple episodes and when they WERE onscreen, they got thrown into one disjointed storyline after another. It’s kinda sad that the show fell off so far, so fast. But your opinion of season eight has me a little hopeful, at least.

I remember the scenes you’re talking about. It’s very early in the first season. Chase and Maggie act surprised that Angela would do something so underhanded when Angela had JUST done something underhanded in the previous episode. Actually this happened because they reversed the airing order of two episodes, rather than the writers trying to be explicitly episodic.

Personally, I love Marquita Goings in this role and I’ll be saddened to see her leave the show. So, with that in mind, I am a bit forgiving of the writers for stalling the poisoning plot. I figure when Hayley is exposed, she’s leaving the show soon afterwards and I don’t want her to go. That being said, YES they need to advance this storyline. Hayley was revealed to be a scammer back in OCTOBER. It’s over half a year later and the only advancement in the storyline is that Lynette has come and gone and now we are back to square one — Hayley brazenly poisoning Bill’s drinks in public. 🙄

I kinda wish I knew more of the inner workings of the soap world. Like, did they sideline Nicole because they only budgeted for a certain amount of actors in an episode? Or because she is needed for multiple episodes later in the week so they wanted to give her a day off? I need to find a good autobiography written by a soap scribe. Too bad Bill Bell never wrote an autobiography. It would have been a classic and we could have learned so much from it.

At this point, I’m convinced that Nicole running off during the cotillion wasn’t a mysterious plot point and the only reason it happened was that they needed a valid reason why Daphnée Duplaix wasn’t in the next episode that took place at cotillion.

I haven’t read every post in the thread but I just have to mention Michael Graziadei who plays Daniel on Y&R. He's gorgeous and a great actor too. Kinda makes me wish I still watched the show…

I just finished season one, episode 80 last night. So far, the show has a “once upon a time” quality to it — It’s like the epic prelude to an amazing generational saga. When I first started the series, it felt like I was watching two completely different tv shows: one about a rich family in the high fashion world, the other about a lower middle class family who is struggling to get by. The character of Alex was the initially the only one who crossed back and forth between the families….then we learned that Beth and Eric had a past together…then we saw Brooke befriend Caroline…then Brooke met Ridge and Thorne…and as of last night, Rocco has made contact with the Forresters too. I was NOT expecting Rocco to come running in out of nowhere (what was he doing in the parking garage anyway) to rescue Ridge and Caroline from muggers. And he didn’t just rescue them, he went all Lorenzo Lamas on them (either Lance Cumson OR Snakeeater) and started doing ninja kicks and jumps and other moves that were straight out of a 1966 Batfight. Meanwhile, Ridge just stands there like a lump and watches Rocco kick ass. I’m glad they finally connected Rocco to the Forresters. I have a slight crush on Bryan Genesse and I always get a little more excited when I see he’s in an episode. But I have no idea how he would exist in the Forresters’ world but I can’t wait to find out!

I look forward to your posts every day! Even though I usually read them before I get home to watch the episode at dinner time. A little teaser is always nice!

Oh wow, I’d be thrilled to get Loving in some form! It’s an outright tragedy they wiped so many tapes of old soap episodes though. Imagine a streaming site where EVERY episode of EVERY soap ever existed.

Bill Bell was able to create the B&B app because the Bell family owns B&B. I don’t think any other soap, even the Bells’ Y&R, is owned by its creators. I imagine the networks or maybe sponsors like Proctor and Gamble own the other soaps. So unfortunately, it’s unlikely we will see another soap come out with an app. That being said, if they ever made all the Y&R episodes available, it would be a dream come true. Other soaps I’ve wanted to watch: Sunset Beach, Loving, Capitol, Passions… In a perfect world, we could sit around watching Edge of Night episodes from the 60s but nearly every soap from before the 1970s erased all their old episodes. 😞

If Tomas had to play a scene where he was grieving over Kat dying, he would look like he had a mild case of indigestion. Fortunately he hasn’t had any “big scenes” yet.

This is very comforting. It’s rare to see a company respond positively to feedback and address it like this. Hopefully someone mentioned the background music issue — some episodes (at least in season one) have the background music so loud that you literally cannot hear what the actors are saying. I had to rewatch a few episodes on Tubi (the very same episodes are fine on Tubi) because when Eric and Stephanie were having an important discussion about their marriage, Stephanie in particular was impossible to hear. Even the subtitles didn’t make an attempt haha. I’ll happily subscribe to this app forever as long as I can enjoy the episodes without having to guess what they are saying.

If the writers don’t kill off Tomas as part of the “Hayley is a con artist” storyline, they are gonna regret the hell out of it later. Kat and Tomas are a cute couple but hardly soulmates. The show wouldn’t miss a step if Kat started dating someone else.

What ideas do you think were seeded in the first season? Asking because I have a LOT of storyline ideas for this show haha. I agree with your thoughts — I love the show but it’s not going to be great unless SOMETHING changes. The storylines don’t seem to have many twists and turns like on classic soaps. Where’s the big storyline that encapsulates over two years of the show that keeps us glued to the screens? Leslie COULD have been a big bad villain like Sheila on Y&R/B&B but she’s gotten too cartoonish as she’s backed away from causing any real trouble (booking a bunch of wedding venues to spoil Chelsea’s wedding day is NOT what I call a “supervillain” move).

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I plan to keep watching until I get tired of it? If that makes sense? Until I die? Haha. I don’t have a planned stopping point. I’m just watching one or two episodes a day

Now THAT would be a twist. Maybe her breakup with Ted was more difficult on her than we were shown, and she secretly began moonlighting her way up the ladder in the illicit plasma business, trying to fulfill the empty part of her soul that Ted took when they broke up. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The cotillion and the rest of the episode was fantastic! Best episode of the show in a very long time, possibly the best ever. The anniversary party episodes were great but this time out, we had TWO big events happening simultaneously. And yes, I agree with other posters that the plasma storyline was poorly executed from the start BUT at least we are getting an exciting conclusion. If Derek is the one who is going to die (which I’m willing to bet money on at this point), I’m glad he will die saving Jacob. When I first saw him pop up at the warehouse, I thought he was gonna get shot as an “innocent bystander” sort of thing, possibly including him being the reason the plasma bust doesn’t go as planned. But it looks like he’ll be dying while heroically saving his friend, which is a more fitting end (in my opinion). Plus I have really liked his character since he started working at the clinic and stopped being quite so obsessed with Ashley.

Jacob’s “street talk” will always be funny. What I don’t understand is Jacob is married to the daughter of a former supermodel. He’s a part of the biggest, most influential family in the DMV. He’s gonna be at the warehouse when the Impaler walks in and if the Impaler is ANY of the characters we already know (Joey, Lia, Carlton, Kial), they’re going to step in the door and instantly realize Jacob is a cop. Everyone in town knows him. I hope his police backup is ready to storm the warehouse immediately because there is NO WAY Jacob will not be recognized UNLESS the Impaler is a new character.

I wish I had fancy clothes to wear because I’m crazy enough to do this. Although I think the cotillion is going to be on multiple shows so I may not want to get dressed up for three or four nights straight. I’m really looking forward to this week for the first time in a long time. Possibly the first time since the anniversary party episodes. I love the show but it’s hardly been riveting these past few months. There was last year’s Chelsea kidnapping story but we all knew Chelsea was gonna be okay so the dramatic stakes were low. But this week we have Bill probing into Hayley’s past, the cotillion drama, the climax of the plasma ring story, and that mysterious spoiler on Friday about the McBrides. This better be good! I really hope the writers don’t blow it.

I wish they would write a truly suspenseful storyline with lots of twists and turns but I’m afraid they may be incapable of doing so. Something like Sheila’s original run on Y&R that took over two years to fully play out. They tried with the Allison stalker story but that came out of nowhere and was over just as quickly. I just want a good, long, classic soap story that makes me excited to watch every day. Maybe a murder mystery? They’re gonna need something big after the plasma storyline (which seems to be wrapping up now) and after they finally conclude the Hayley/Bill storyline. I just want to know the writers are capable of giving me some of that old-fashioned, layered storytelling.

Can anyone tell me why Smitty is interested in talking to Lynette Wise? He apparently didn’t know she left town so I can’t figure out why he cares enough to grill Tomas about it. Maybe I missed something?

Please share anything you have! I am a huge fan of the show. Although I admit, I don’t think I’ve seen a full episode since 2009 or 2010. However, I’ve been watching from the beginning on the new app. It’s the best 22 minutes of my day!

Good idea! I was thinking along the same lines recently. How hard would it be to send your B-crew out to shoot some establishing shots to use for the show? I can’t imagine it would cost much money at all.