Khan

So, Victor Newman gets the upper hand on Barbara Ryan. It's like I'm having some sort of acid freakout and all these CBS Daytime stars are merging into one show. What's next? Will Dr. Ed Bauer from GL tend to Nick's paper cut of a wound?

Part of me can't stop laughing at the notion of OTT Jordan hiding inside the air vents like the villain in a Lifetime Original Movie. Of course, Michael did the same thing when he was stalking Crick --, er, Christine, but it wasn't nearly as silly as Jordan.

The thing about Bill Bell was, most of the time, whenever a particular story wasn't working, and he knew better than anyone when a story wasn't working, he'd drop it ASAP and move on. Very rarely did he keep pursuing something that wasn't clicking either with himself or with his audiences.

It depends on when NBC announced that they were cancelling AW. If the announcement was made after the show had fired Littlefield, then the show probably realized it wouldn't make sense to recast, knowing they had only so much time left before the finale, so they effectively re-hired him. Anyway, that's my guess.

Well, that's important to know, because if I had been in David Paulsen's shoes, I would've negotiated some way for her to return - if not for the full season, then at least for part of it.

I think Wings Hauser and David Hasselhoff should have switched roles, with Hauser playing Snapper and Hasselhoff playing Greg.

The best opening sequences give you a sense of the show you're about to watch. The openings for the Bell shows, for example, really push the notions of youth, glamour, vitality. You know you're gonna watch beautiful people suffer beautifully. GH's classic opening, with the ambulance speeding past the hospital, lets you know that their show is about action and excitement. Even if the actual show has little to nothing to DO with medical drama anymore, the opening still keeps you on the edge of your seat. But what does GENERATIONS' opening really tell you about the show, other than blacks are people, too? It doesn't evoke anything other than an AP History lesson. They could have followed RYAN'S HOPE's lead and just showcased both black and white characters cavorting around the streets of Chicago and it would've given the audience a better sense of the show.

I agree. I think they would have incorporated an oblique reference or two to the tragedy, with characters mentioning it briefly in dialogue; but aside from the one-year anniversary tribute that you've mentioned, @Mona Kane Croft, I don't see them incorporating the actual event into ongoing stories.

I agree. Also: fans have the patience to sit through a story that unfolds slowly, but not if the story is told badly.

Again, ratings were dropping across the board for all soaps. Apparently, TPTB didn't take that into account.

I agree. Instead of feeling sorry for Claire, I want her to (be exposed as a fraud and then) disappear (and take her "aunt" with her). It's as if the man is afraid CBS and/or Sony will interfere, so he's telling stories as fast as he can before they get the chance. "Yeah, Josh, about this Claire being Eve business -- " "Too late! It's already wrapped up and now she's moved onto having Chance's baby!"

Yes. IIRC, Carl noticed the scars while laying in bed with "Rachel" and realized she was Justine.

I'm not saying Bill Bell wouldn't have had someone poison all the Newmans simultaneously...but I am saying he would've taken more time to build up to it. A LOT more time.

I'd say the transition was seamless for the most part. After all, Kay Alden had been with Y&R since 1974, so she knew the show. Furthermore, even when Bill Bell was still head-writing, she had played such a part in the conception and development of so many storylines that it'd be nearly impossible to tell the difference between her work and his. (Same goes for Agnes Nixon and her protégé at AMC, Wisner Washam. Washam officially became HW in 1981, but reports suggest that Washam probably was head-writing with Nixon sooner). Unless you paid attention to the credits, you wouldn't have known when Bill Bell's work officially ended and when hers began. At least, not until the sperm switch. (I won't go into THAT storyline, lol). Personally, I think it was a mistake to bring in John F. Smith when they did. I think Alden was HW'ing the show just fine (again, sperm switch notwithstanding, lol), but I think TPTB panicked when the ratings dropped - never mind that ratings were dropping for all soaps and that Y&R was still number-one - and decided she needed a Co-HW. And I think it was an even bigger mistake when then-CBSD president (or vice-president) Barbara Bloom had Lynn Marie Latham to join them. At least Smith (and Bern/Jones) had had a long history with Y&R, so they knew the show like Alden did. But LML had no prior relationship with Y&R, nor was Y&R ever her kind of show. Anyone who'd seen her work on other shows - BERRENGER'S, KNOTS LANDING, HOMEFRONT, PC, etc - could've told the network as much. Her hiring was truly the moment when Y&R fell from grace.

Never say never!

Maybe next year, Lifetime could do a "Ladies of the '70's" movie with women like Lynda Carter, Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith.

I've always believed that the best way to know how to write/produce/direct a show like Y&R was to go back and watch the kind of glossy melodramas that the studios made in the '50's: not just the films that Douglas Sirk made for Universal - "All That Heaven Allows," "Magnificent Obsession," "Written on the Wind" - but also films like "Peyton Place," "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," "Cash McCall," "Executive Suite," "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit," "A Summer Place," etc.

Wow, @Franko, thank you for gathering all that information! Looking at those stats, it seems Gloria Monty's second EP'ing stint at GH was an even bigger disaster than I remembered. For example, just 3-4 months after the Eckerts were introduced, Fred and Angela, the patriarch and matriarch of the family, were written out; and less than five months after Nancy was introduced, SHE was killed off! Unless those quick exits had been the plan all along, I'd say either Monty or the network recognized right away that her new vision for the show was all wrong.

I agree. Even Mondays wouldn't have worked, because of "Monday Night Football." ABC would have needed to push back DYNASTY to January; and in 1989, that kind of programming was unheard of on American TV. I have a feeling that if ABC had renewed DYNASTY for another season, the budget would have been slashed to ribbons. Even fewer exterior scenes than there had been in S9, and probably more off-the-rack wardrobe, too. (Bye-bye, Nolan Miller originals!) Moreover, Linda Evans was already gone and Joan Collins had made it clear she would not be back. John Forsythe probably would have returned, if only to maintain some continuity. But the main cast would have been down to him, John James, Emma Samms, Gordon Thomson, Heather Locklear (because, after all, you need some "eye candy" for the men to look at, lol), Stephanie Beacham and Tracy Scoggins. If the rumors about Diahann Carroll returning for S10 had been true, that would have made eight regular cast members. Unless the plan was to lean heavily on recurring/supporting players who could be paid less, it would have been a very, very thin cast.

I'm happy for CZ, who obviously relishes being back on daytime. I just wish she had a character with staying power, not a psycho who's already been written into a corner.

ICAM, @kalbir. For awhile, however, he succeeded. Even DALLAS flirted with becoming more like DYNASTY during the "dream season."

ABC would have needed to think outside the proverbial box and hire a HW with little-to-no previous experience in soaps. Or, if we were talking about post-Pat Falken Smith, maybe someone like Susan Bedsow Horgan, since she loves everything related to Gaelic culture.

The most important thing to remember about Bill Bell and his work is how much emphasis he placed on letting his stories unfold slowly and carefully so that we understood exactly what his characters were always thinking. He was never afraid to take his time with stories, and he was never afraid to allow even his "good" characters be seen in less than flattering ways either.

For sure, I think Douglas Marland would have respected Labine & Mayer's vision enough to keep the Ryans and Ryan's Pub front-and-center. He might have been okay with writing for the Coleridges, too. The only question mark in this situation is Delia. In Marland's hands, Delia either would have become boring or overly kooky.

Better yet, name her "Margo," like I said upthread, and bring on Hillary B. Smith or Ellen Dolan as her and Eve's OTHER sister, "Barbara."