Khan

Coming This Fall to WarnerMount Plus: Stephen Amell is a ex-cop-turned-private eye who lives the ultimate alternative lifestyle in "The Naked Detective"!

I hope so! From what I've read, Douglas Marland was never the type to criticize other writers in the business. He always encouraged creativity. I want to be like that. I WANT to encourage Ron Carlivati - and Michele Val Jean, and Josh Griffith, and Bradley Bell, and Chris Van Etten and Elizabeth Korte, and every other individual who works BTS on these shows - because I know how grueling the business can be, especially when you're being asked to do your best with no time, no money, and no real support from above; so it's always a miracle they're able to get anything on the air, let alone anything remotely watchable. (Besides, picking these people apart everyday doesn't accomplish anything for me except feed into my delusions of grandeur; and the closer I get to middle age, the less inclined I am to with my delusions and fantasies). But, dammit, even with knowing what I DO know about the levels of creative and other interference that occur on an everyday basis, there's still no [!@#$%^&*] excuse for these shows (or for the folks who write, direct and produce them) to be so godawful. Life as a soap creative wasn't any easier for Marland (or Agnes Nixon, or Bill Bell, or even St. Irna). They had to crank out product under similar constraints. Yet, even their worst days remain more enjoyable than what I'm slogging through today; and that's because they didn't give into complacency, laziness or defeatism. They didn't waste their time and ours on petty bullshit, because they were too thin-skinned to take criticism from viewers who are intelligent enough to know good from bad; and they didn't use their stories and scripts as excuses to pat themselves on their backs for being soooo creative either. They just kept their heads down and did the work.

If he'd just knock off the nudge-nudge-wink-wink in-jokes, stop airing out his latest grievances against certain actors and TPTB in his scripts and on social media and dig deeper into his characters' psyches, he might be a more captivating storyteller. (Heck, that's my wish not just for Ron Carlivati, but for pretty much all TV nowadays. Dig deeper! Show more layers! Your audiences will thank you!). But he just seems content on penning Sean Kanan fat jokes and making show-eating meta commentaries on DAYS' already sorry state.

Perhaps, people are realizing that change must begin at the local (city/state) level. Nevertheless, I won't get my hopes up TOO high.

I'd dig a little deeper into the characters this time around. After all, there's only so many times you could watch well-endowed men and women jog down the beach in slow motion before it all starts to get old, lol.

Why, thank you!

I agree! They made even the worst of Guza's stuff palatable. One of the most annoying things about OLTL's final years, IMO. Every time I turned around, there were Dorian and Viki, trapped together. Again. And it's not as if the first time they were trapped together (during the Malone I era) was all that great, ya know? In fact, I still remember agreeing with Marlena Delacroix that those scenes (in the ruins of Victor's secret room, when they were trying to rescue someone who'd been trapped underground and realized they needed to drill through one of the walls or something) were nothing more than Erika Slezak and Robin Strasser getting sloshed on warm champagne and tossing bitchy one-liners at each other like every shitty episode of DYNASTY. Yet, for whatever reason, the show thought it was such a smash that they had to do it again (...and again...and again...and again...).

I'm a year-plus older than Ryan Gosling, so I probably was in the target demographic for JER's DAYS (or, at least, I would've been, had I also been female, lol). Yet, because I had watched DAYS for much of the '80's, I felt his stories were a serious downgrade for the show. '80's DAYS might not have been the most realistic show on the air, but I think their characters still were reasonably intelligent. In JER's hands, however, everyone was suddenly a total moron, unable to piece together even the most obvious things 'til the story said so.

Well, the show was called ALL MY CHILDREN, after all.

Well said!

For some reason, I had him mixed up with Matthew Metzger.

Um, yay, lol? (I mean, it's good to hear he's doing okay, but...).

Because, those who work in this genre are so scared of losing their jobs that they close ranks, making it impossible for newcomers even to get a toehold. Gone are the days when you could cold call Irna Phillips (or her secretary) and ask whether she's needing any new writers on GL or ATWT, or Bill Bell would ask if you'd like to write a sample script for his show (Y&R) after interviewing him for your senior thesis.

Same here. MEK will always have a special place in my heart, and I truly hope he's doing well IRL, but Martin has been a bust as a character. Which is a shame, because Laura could use a brother or half-brother on the canvas.

No, it's not a bad thing. KL did it all the time! But ripping off an '80's sitcom (that wasn't "Cheers" or "Newhart" or even "The Cosby Show")? Nuh uh, lol.

To me, that's the essence of Jill. Not just that scene, but the fact that Jill has always been driven by her need to live the kind of life she read about when she was younger in entertainment magazines. That's a kind of character you don't see anymore on soaps.

You think so, lol? I mean, it WAS interesting to see Viki sling hash and not have it blamed on one of her alters. So, I'll give him that much. I truly, truly wish he hadn't brought up the John Stamos Twitter feud. That [!@#$%^&*] needed to stay dead and buried. But, Ron's gonna Ron. Oh, and Ron? In case you're actually reading this? Gigi falling through the ice? You were ripping off "Uncle Tom's Cabin," weren't you?

The first time I saw Viki at that diner in Paris, TX, I said, "This is 'Alice.' That son-of-a-bitch has ripped off 'Alice'." Sure enough, lol! I actually believe Ron Carlivati when he says he watched a lot of TV growing up, because I was the same way. I think that's why it always scares me whenever one of my ideas happens to be in sync with one of his. He's a very engaging personality. I understand why so many people BTS love him and love working with him. I just wish his stories were as engaging (and that he would stay his ass off social media).

"How you gonna get that kind of money?" "Work." "Where are you gonna go to work?" "On the streets." Maybe the most honest conversation between two kids on TV that I've ever heard, lol. Thanks, @DRW50 !!

LMAO!! It says a lot that both Jeffrey Tambor and Peter Bonerz played "Hart" in the TV series. Clearly, no one BTS had a true handle on that character.

Where's the old "Look Who Loves the Soaps!" column when you need it? But seriously. I'm glad Gosling recognizes how hard and how fast those actors have to work at putting over the most ridiculous storylines. Erika Slezak was right: it's NOT easy to do, and so many people who've tried have failed at it, too.

Such an insane way to write out your show's most popular female, but they really had no choice. TG wasn't going anywhere yet, apparently, so writing them out together wasn't an option. They could have had Laura leave Luke, but that wouldn't have made sense; and they could have killed her off, but that might've closed the door to GF ever returning. (Plus, it just would've been so cruel for L&L fans to endure such a loss so soon after the wedding).

I remember, too, there were many fans online who actually preferred Hayley Sparks over BE and who wished she would replace Ehlers permanently.

I would agree! All it would take is for one grade schooler to sing it at some beauty pageant or talent contest to make me hate that song forever, lol. (It'd be like the little girl who sang "I've Cried My Last Tear" at my mother's former church. Your LAST tear? You haven't even cried your first!)