Members GL FAN Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 Did anyone hear that Guiding Light is bringing back Marah Lewis and November 17th is her first air date? Celebrating the soaps.com is reporting this. Kimberly J Brown got the role who use to play Marah when she was little. I'm so excited because she can act. They are also bringing back Shayne Lewis, but the part is not casted yet. It looks like they are bringing these 2 characters back for Reva's big reveal and for the departure of Tammy and Johnathan in the new year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AbFabGL4ever7 Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 So they are de-aging Marah? How is this girl gonna look standing next to her ex jeffrey o'neil? I sure hope that they haven't cast KJB. Yes the girl can act, but what are TPTB thinking? When Marah left she was a aspiring fashion designer in college and went to Paris for some great opportunity and she was still boinking Jeffrey!!!! If anything they would bring back Lindsey Mckeon or recast because her and Jeffrey will of course have to interact. That's why this just seems so off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jess Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 I don't think action necessarily means tornadoes, plane crashes or prison breaks. I think action means movement and suspense. DOOL, I admit, has me very curious about who that is with the glove and the fixation on the Bradys. It's action in the sense that it is mystery. Tess and Nash captivated me over the 2005 summer because of the good romance. I still think Nash is a good character and I'd like he and Jess to get together. LOL. Anyway, it wasn't action in the plane crash sense, but it kept me interested. So I think soaps need action in the way of good story tellling and movement. Every now and again a good rescue whether it be from the arms of the wrong lover or evil people is good. OLTL's action is really very gimmicky and as a result it has not longterm benefit. The same is true of AMC and GH. I think action is a well-designed story arc, where emotion or suspense moves constantly to the point of a fine climax or conclusions. It's like a play or an opera. For instance, I thought the Todd and Kevin rivalry of a couple of years ago was action in the sense that it continue to build and had two actors with a great chemistry -- non-sexual -- playing off of each other. Remember is school when we discussed great literature, it was couched in terms of man (generic to include females) vs. Man, Man vs. nature, Man for himself. Those are still the great components of literature. I think that is the componets of action and story telling. Soaps don't have that now. Daytime is neither writing those stories right now nor hiring actors with the chops to consistently pull those stories off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SteveFrame Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 I totally agree with that statement 100%. I think many fans realize that but the sad thing is that many fans don't. There is a vocal fan base out there on soaps now who have no idea about the history of many of the shows or who is important to the base of the show and they speak out for many of those new characters. It makes me so sad to read statements on message boards - some here and some on other message boards. Just recently it was posted that something like when a person reaches around the age of 70 they should automatically lose their contracts and go to recurring. And then yesterday I read somewhere that at age 73 a actor is not capable of driving story anymore and that the torch needs to be passed on to other characters. I agree that there is an age where certain characters will need to take the backburner to other characters. In fact all characters need to do that from time to time regardless of age. But the biggest mistake that all the soaps have made is neglecting the characters that are important to the history of the show. They are the characters that people and esp. the fan base for that show know and care about. When those characters go or are backburnered then the fan base gets angry and will quit quicker. I think that is definitely what has happened to OLTL. I think some of their new fan base is made up of the Michael Easton fan base from Port Charles. Without them in there tuning in everyday, there is no telling what OLTL's actual rating might be. Because there is not much left there for old loyal fans anymore. The vets on there are just about totally ignored now. It is sad. And unfortunately it seems that the behind the scenes folks are listening to this younger or newer fan base, and in many instances favoring these new folks. Right now on the majority of the shows on the vets are pretty well ignored. Y&R made that mistake for a long time but with Lynn Latham they have corrected that, and the show is getting more praise for it too. The only ones that are still ignored I guess are Jess Walton and Jeanne Cooper to a certain extent. Hogan Sheffer was bad about ignoring the vets during his stint on ATWT. I can't remember Helen Wagner, Liz Hubbard, and Eileen Fulton being hardly ever used even for brief scenes under him much. Under Pasanante we get to see them a lot more now. They don't have big stories but they are there now. I hope Hogan learned his lesson on that because he did get flack for it. AMC and OLTL to me are the biggest offenders now. They seem to be getting rid of their vets right and left right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cal3 Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 But the converse of that is also true. OL didn't need ME in 2003 when he joined nor was he wanted. The ratings didn't suddenly reflect a huge increase in viewers because of his arrival. They have, however, reflected a clear decrease since his arrival. How much of OLTL's loyal following has walked away because of the vampire that ate Llanview? What's left might be his residual fans who followed him from PC but are we better off now or would we have been better to keep the loyal fans we had then who kept the show in the high 2's and occassional the low 3's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SteveFrame Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 Oh Cal, I 100% agree with you. If I left the impression that I liked it I didn't mean too. I think OLTL would have been a whole lot better off without Michael Easton. You are right the loyal fans that have been angered far outweighs the Michael Easton fans who came aboard. I just think it would have been funny if Michael Easton had gotten away for Frons to have seen what the ratings would have been. They may actually be in the 1's. I honestly believe that much of the original fan base for OLTL is gone. I would think they may be averaging around 1.8 or 1.9 right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bree Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 Cal, I have to say "the vampire that ate Llanview" made me ROTFLMAO!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cal3 Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 LOL you just have to laugh or you'd cry at this point. I don't know if I agree with that or not. While I do believe ME is a part of what has driven away viewers I tend to be more convinced that it is those that have been loyal to the show forever who are the ones still sticking it out. Is he responsible for a .6 difference? I don't think RH's Todd even had that kind of impact. But for the sake of argument, if he did, if ME is part of the state of being that has dropped OL almost 1.0 then shouldn't he be gone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SteveFrame Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 Cal, I think he should be gone, but that is me. I guess it depends on what Higley and Frons and gang are looking for. I think they honestly think that if they stick with him that he and the other faves will bring OLTL back up. I mean either that or Frons is secretly trying to ruin ABC Daytime one. I mean we have to assume that somewhere up there likes what is happening. I mean they keep doing it and allowing it to happen. And now AMC is starting to do the same thing and is becoming more and more unrecognizable. At least for a long time they were holding on to their vets, but now they are getting rid of them too. Back in the 50's and early 60's, NBC had a network head over daytime who hated soap operas, and he worked every way he could to sabotage them. NBC to me could have had some really good soaps at the time, esp. From These Roots but you have got to have network heads who believe in it. It wasn't until the mid 60's that NBC really got behind their soaps, and then really in the 70's. ABC now either doesn't believe in them or they are going for a different type of audience. They took and turned Port Charles into what some call a cult hit? Is that what they are going for with other shows too? I just don't know. But I do feel that OLTL is the one hurting the worse. I can see the others still having a glimmer of hope to pull out, but in many ways I think OLTL is beyond repair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RogerNewcomb Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 I know people who have watched ATWT for a couple of years and were shocked to learn Lisa is Tom's mother or that Nancy isn't related to Katie somehow. You'd never know who is who based on just watching the show. There are too many interlopers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SteveFrame Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 Once again I agree with you. And why would they not. For the last 5 or 6 years under Hogan we hardly ever saw Lisa at all, and there was no interaction at all. It wasn't until here recently that we got scenes between Tom and Lisa again. And even though JP has been doing better about featuring the vets, she is not doing a good job on some things. For instance, why would people not think Katie is related to Nancy. Over half of Nancy's scenes now are with Katie, when they should be with her own grandchildren. And even when we had the special episodes for the 50th there was not one section of the family episode that involved the Hughes as a family. Nancy was just some old lady in the town in a segment of the Katie story. And then Bob & Kim were just aunt and uncle in the Ryan family story. So even though I appreciate JP for giving us back the vets, she has a longgggggggggggggggggggggggg wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cal3 Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 I tend to think that Frons is just that out of touch with his audience. The arrogance that Frons, Valentini and Higley display is mind boggling but it does suggest a complete disconnect with their audience. How that came to be is the question that I have. I suggest that it is audience disconnect and arrogance because not only is OLTL repeating it's same mistakes again and again they are the same mistakes you see on AMC. I also believe that they want a new audience but I'm not certain that audience exists except in their minds. My belief is that they truly believe they can hold the existing audience by training us to accept this while they believe they will court the audience that may not even exist. To me it is a failing proposition and they are mistaken if they believe they can train the existing audience to accept the unacceptable. If the rumors of the continuing blood bath at OLTL are accurate then there is no hope of putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Toadstool Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 I think you've hit the nail on the head here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ZaraB Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 OLTL had a hole to fill when RH left. I remember when I heard Port Charles was cancelled, my first thought was 'what an expensive way to get a new Todd." OLTL would have been better off if Michael Easton had taken the part of Todd Manning rather than force OLTL to create a new character. Todd Manning has the history and relationships on canvas to justify the airtime and story they want to give the actor. He's not RH, and Trevor has done a good job when the writing was there for TOdd Manning, but now it favors Spenser. In one way, TPTB have reaped what they've sown. They've created the monster, now they have to live with the ME fanbase that appears to hold the whole show hostage. ME was able to hold out for what is rumored to be a huge pay increase. I would think Disney management would realize that if they cannot cut him, you need to decrease his utilization, so that he becomes less critical to the canvas. The technique that they've used on the vets SHOULD now be turned on him as the costliest actor on the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Toadstool Posted September 22, 2006 Members Share Posted September 22, 2006 Apparently Easton was originally offered Todd but turned it down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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