OLTL writer

[R Sinclair]

If you kids need a new EP for One Life, take Julie Hanan Carruthers... PLEASE

[BetweenHeaven&Hell]

Vaguely lol The babysitter part I remember, and barely the Tess part...hmm, it's coming back piece by piece lol - thanks!

[daysfan]

Sorry AMC fans, and I think she should be out of the soap business for good, but you can keep her. I can watch OLTL under Valenti. I can't watch AMC under her.

[Scotty]

Don't think so.

How would AMC fans like to have Frank Valentini for an EP?

[cal3]

That gets my vote for excellent post.

More random thoughts.

OL has a tendency to run it's villains into the ground. See Mitch when he was killed by Todd/Jessica. There are only so many times you can bring a character back from the dead --segue into Carlo. TC is an amazing acctor and his last run was a disaster. Of course that all goes back to the point about OLTL always failing to tell the wrong story. Nobody cared about John and Carlo, Carlo's history is with Viki, Kevin, Asa and, yes, Antonio. None of that was played for anything beyond a splilt second of Duke's kidnapping and a split second mention of Antonio as Carlo's heir apparent. I doubt the retun of Alison would do anything to generate ratings either. What might generate some interest, is a return of Todd ,but even that is questionable at this point. They had a golden opportunity with Duke's death to bring back Lee Ann in a vengeful manner. Not so much of a stretch given Du Anne's history and her own as pass Max's son off as Kevin's, but they always fail to capitalize on their own history. That's not to say I care all that much about Lee Ann or her return but the show does need some multi-dimensional villains to stir things up.

It takes more than Viki or Nora's face or insert vet's name here to have meaning. They need to be recognizable for the reasons viewers fell in love with the character in the first place and there needs to be a story worth watching.

John is a huge problem but he has a lot of company. I honestly can't think of a male character who is worth the time to watch.

The newbie invasion is an even bigger problem. Bringing on more new characters and slapping a familiar family name on them is meaningless. The collary to that is bringing back a one time favorite character and bestowing a the fav name on them while they bear little resemblence with the initial character is also meaningless.

Nothing would have saved Margaret. Her original conception was correct -- glorified day player. Sometimes that really is all that a character ever should be.

Ginger, had a lot of potential and they should have gone there with Duke. Instead they were already well into their incest/psuedo incest story that anyone with two brain cells to put together should have known was a bad idea.

Dena and Frankie need to learn to cut their losses. They have a stubborness where they continue to push what has failed with some deathwish that it will eventually work.

[Scotty]

^^Wonderful post Cal. You are absolutely right about everything you said.

[daysfan]

Cal, you just made a great post.

You are so right when you said OLTL has run it's villians into the ground. Carlo, Mitch, Margaret, even Victor Lord has been run into the ground when he returned in 2003. He should have stayed dead. That messed up everything with Tori and the death back in the seventies.

[SlezaksOLTL]

Great posts everyone.

For me it always goes back to the writing and how incredibly insulting and condescending it is towards viewers. There is nothing smart or intelligent about the show, and worst of all they toss history out so much that the core of the show is shaky to me these days. The overexposure of McBain, Spencer and putting essentially support characters/actors into lead just because of their looks has pretty much shaken the foundation of this once great show. We all know writers have favorites, but under Higley it is so apparent it is bad for the show and bad for viewers too because of the overexposure which leads to bad ratings too.

All I really want to know though is when Higley will be gone and when does Ron C start having decisions on this show and when his co-HW writing shows up. Sadly Higley is still the one doing previews, which means she is still running the show, and running it further into the ground, when will we be rid of this disaster?

[ZaraB]

And is there a female? Unless you worship at the feet of St. Evangline of the huge eyes, you are flat out of luck. Blair is relegated to double-minded villainy so Todd can adore Van. Jessica is sacrificed so that Antonio can move on with newbie Talia. Natalie is sacrificed at the altar of John ( or is it a full-fledged temple?).

Have they cut ANY losses? It seems they killed SPencer only with gritted teeth.

I've felt like I've watched train wreck after train wreck. Paige one didn't work. Paige two didn't work, so let's recast a third time - and she STILL gets most boring character, even with married to the lead supervillain and a mystery son. And spoilers had talked about yet another twist on it.

I really doubt Marty can carry the story they seem to have planned. The character is far from popular enough to survive a pairing with John, and what would be the point of pairing her with Miles? It seems the character is already floundering for purpose beyond the inconvience for Starr and Cole. And that could easily have been a judgemental, watchful non-Marty parent that could have grown into a new Manning foe..

Vincent may be played by an attractive actor (not to me, but some), but why is he in love with Natalie? RJ had so much of the motivation to do so much of Vincent's first story that it's still hard not to think of him as RJ lite.

[cal3]

I thought the rumor was that RC was the force behind Feb sweeps.

ETA: No I can't name a female character worth watching either. I have some hope for the salvation of some but it diminishes every time I read the previews.

No I don't think they've cut any of their losses either. The only thing the character of John comes close to being successful at is being devisive. Evangaline claims that title for the women. They killed Duke which I guess was a loss in his supersoarsing but it cost them more than simply sending the character away to visit Lee Ann and then having age appropriate Duke return in a couple of months. They may have finally killed Spencer but it sounds like his ghost lingers in a bad way. Marty became a disaster when they retroconned the gang rape to a drunken night gone ary.

[Scotty]

Well, another thing with OLTL is that there is no payoff for any of the storylines...

they killed Margaret, the Mitch Laurence murder was forgotten about, and no one ever actually pays the price when they committ a crime.

And all the bullcrap about the 25-year-old murder of a character we never saw or heard of until last year just adds to the frustration.

Sticking John McBain into every single storyline is not going to raise the ratings. That greased up hairball couldn't act his way out of a paper bag.

Spencer, Ted, Claudia, Paige, Layla, Britney, Cole, nuMarty, Langston, Tate, Miles......who cares anymore? Most of them are rarely seen (with the exceptions of Cole and nuMarty), and they are nothing more than props for others.

It's stupid.

[daysfan]

Scotty you are right too. Also that brings to mind that supposedly while Viki is going against Dorian and dating Clint, Nikki Smith is still "alive". Clint and Viki talked like they were going to handle the situation with her too, but they never did!

[cal3]

They have no pay off because they always play the wrong emotions which goes back to their writing the wrong stories.

Two examples -- TJ and Zane. Two kids almost nobody cared about. Margaret's child has zero appeal to many/most. Todd's bastard that he has tried to kill on more than one occassion and only suggests he cares about when the spd of the day occurrs doesn't make him a child that is all that investible. M/M and Rex and Adrianna added to the mix to attempt to generate some interest falls flat for many because we just saw this story with Kevin and Kelly, M/M just got married and can have their own children and many would more enjoy seeing them try than receiving insta kid and Rex and Adrianna don't work on any level. They did the same thing with Zane. Few cared about Duke much less Duke's child. Kelly was the one who didn't want a sperm donor's kid and Kevin was the one who suggested it. Yet they didn't play out any of that. Where Kelly finally coming to grips with her baby obsession might have held some interest, all they did was reinforce Kelly the Uterus of destruction.

Consider how changing some of this up could have made must see tv out of turn the tv off and run. Instead of killing Duke off, have Kevin discover K/D together in the rectory. He leaves and Duke prevents Kelly from following only for the tornado to hit. Kevin's presumed dead. Kelly is pregnant with Kevin's child as we learn that not only did Spencer pull a scam on Kelly as in he never fixed her he did the same with Kevin. Kelly can't stand the sight of Duke and retreats into the coven's strong hold. Duke has to face the family and come to terms with his guilt and relationship with his "dead" dad. Meanwhile the audience knows Kevin's alive -- pick either Spencer's "guest" or in a hospital or something. You give Viki, Dorian and Clint all something to play out that has some emotional tag to it through Kevin and Kelly rather than Clint drone on about the loss of a grandchild he had one scene with. Of course that was never going to happen because that story involves characters Dena didn't care about.

Dena's so out of touch with her audience and what it is they find interesting in the characters she always blows it by focusing on the wrong emotions and that impacts the pay off.

[daysfan]

GREAT post Cal AGAIN! ITA.

But, even though many do not care about Zane or TJ and this is not meant as offensive but I think they should. TJ is a Lord and a Manning(I consider them a key family too just because of history with Irene, Tina, Todd, etc.). Zane is even bigger just because he's a Cramer, Buchanan, Lord, and most of all Victoria Lord's great grandson. That's just my opinion.

[ZaraB]

TJ could be important story. Todd has always before done the extreme for Starr. He hasn't had much opportunity with Jack, but there is plenty of drama about this child. However, Dena is so focused on Todd/Blair/Evangeline that there's been no consistency to Todd wanting or hating this child - nor even an honest talk with Viki about it. She threw that away so Evangeline and Todd could have that comfort kiss.