OLTL Discussion: Week of April 9th

[Brandeis]

And no REG, (maybe)

The effects of keeping that stinkhole Easton will be felt for years.

[Heatherhcb]

Yesterday's show...

Cole/John- Boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Highschool- I love Brittany!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I though that Marcie was going to break out in "There's No Business Like Show Business"

I love Micheal. I really don't care about Todd any more, so I say Michael gets to keep the baby.

Todd/Blair- well I enjoyed the snark and the guessing game, but Trevor looked bored as hell in those scenes. I am tired of seeing Kassie carrying his azz. I am looking forward to the Todd vacation.

Loved hearing Kassie humm the OLTL theme song!!!!!!

I still love Jash. The writing sucks, but if you mute it, the magic is there!!!

Miles and Marty are soooo boring. Bad Miles is interesting. Funny how he is the only one to see through Rex's lies.

************I miss David!!!!*************

[Scotty]

I just have one quick comment.....

I loved Blair humming the OLTL theme while she was on the plane with Todd yesterday.

That is all....carry on.

Now back to my lurking...

[cal3]

I'd say she dumped and agree that she was dumped on and encouraged to leave. Based solely on what we saw play out on the tv and nothing more there isn't anyone who will ever convince me that they offered her a new contract that she turned down.

I agree with Zara about ME as well. They moved heaven and earth to keep him for some unknown reason yet they did nothing at all to keep HT. In fact quite the opposite. They don't write for her for most of her existing contract then they go off in some unpalatable direction with the character which even the actress admits wasn't a positive move. Then they fire Hugh which was part of the story they were pushing for her and then a short time later there is a 24 hour period when DG is gone and the decision regarding her departure is reached. It begs the question as to what story or future for her character was offered to her if you believe she turned down a contract.

[baller]

liked that we finally got to see Brittany and Langston...hoping that the teen summer storyline is going to include a lot more of them

[Cat]

Eh. I'm not sold on Brittany & Langston as the future of OLTL, to be honest.

I'd rather have more Blair and Starr bonding moments, like on Monday's show. Best scenes of the week so far.

And Monday also made me feel bad for Jessica. She was on the brink of tears as Antonio and Carlotta congratulated her about Jamie. She is totally cornered -- she knows that Jamie is the one who is going to get hurt the worst in all this. As for Nash, I wish FM would stop shouting out his lines all OTT.

I like Antonio more now. Not because Jessica cheated on him (couldn't care less about that, Asstonio has done his share of cheating on girlfriends, too) but because he's not doing that Huff 'n Puff thing and because he's all bandaged up. KDLR looks like he's living with some hellish physical pain.

[Jess]

That was so funny when she started humming that. KDP is one of my favorites, I admit. LOL.

One of my biggest gripes about daytime viewers is they don't like a character that is part of an ensemble cast and all of a sudden it's kill em off, dump em. Daytime is so fanbase driven now, and that is a huge problem because the vast majority of viewers don't congregate to fanbases. So what you get is a bunch of fanbase crazies, stomping up and down and writing letters. Then those characters are on five days a week. There is no story that can remain interesting five days a week. It just can't be done. Most days John McBain is just there.

You don't see Young and the Restless out there stirring up fanbase wars.

Jash is a victim of really poor writing. So were John and Natalie. So were Todd and Blair through much of last year. Clint, Dorian and Viki and being written poorly now, so by all means it's the fault of the actor who plays Clint. Jessica and Nash are/were a very very popular couple. They, for a long while, were about all Higley did right. So instead of moving the story along and building off of their chemistry, she drug it out so long that it became painful. Then, by her own admission, she decides she has to pander a little bit to the Jessica and Antonio fanbase, so she marries them off. Ignore these damn fanbases. It really is an illusion of enthusiasm.

Dan G. and Heather Tom were expendable because they don't ignite fanbase wars. They also deliberately don't do so. Go over to SOC, there is a thread right now about who all should be fired so that OLTL can keep REG. Even Carolyn Hinsley and SOD piled on during the ME contract talks. Let's fire Dan G. to keep ME. It's just nuts. I just edited this because I don't think REG in anyway would be encouraging that kind of thread and my previous wording made me what I despise. LOL.

Daytime is a dying industry. Fanbase hysteria and pandering isn't making it any better.

[Cat]

That is off-the-charts crazy and just totally insensitive and wrong.

Don't TIIC realize that Y&R is at #1 (despite some of its current faults) precisely because it tries to avoid pandering to fanbases? Because it rotates (or used to rotate) SLs so that pretty much most of the cast got story in the course of one year?

An ensemble cast is what pulls the ratings in. Ask any viewer of Desperate Housewives. Grey's Anatomy. They want everybody featured. God, can you imagine how crap Grey's would really be if ALL they featured was Meredith?

[cal3]

I loved PR for her brief stint as Lily on AMC. I also liked what I saw of her on OLTL last fall. They need to keep her and groom her for the future.

There are any number of characters the show needs to get rid of and Evangaline and Todd are at the top of my list. For CH and others who are so happy to sacrifice other characters for their favs, they need to remember that not everyone thinks their fav is so great. Of course t hat is why we once had ensemble casts where everyone got a story and fans were happier. No one minds waiting while the characters who interest and entertain them move from A to B or C stories if they know that the rotation will move back to A story in time. It is also easy to walk away when you are bored to tears by the chosen and their repetitive scenes day in and day out.

[Jess]

I think so too Cat. OLTL's cast is not too big. There is no reason to start unloading people. The show is on five days a week, rotate stories. Grey's Anatomy in my opinion is what daytime drama once did so well. Same with Deperate Housewives. Even Friday Night Lights (my favorite show LOL) is a soap opera. I also love Brothers and Sisters. Oh well, enough of my nighttime daytime favorites. LOL.

Get you a good cast and rotate the stories. OLTL does have a really really good cast too.

[Jess]

I really enjoyed the Blair, Starr and Jack scenes. I am liking Antonio more because he isn't being written as a jerk. Finally, I wish KDLR well on his surgery. He does look like he's hurting.

I guess if I wasn't a big Jess and Nash fan, the Jamie story would probably be good soap opera. It kind of shows the conflict and is Jessica trying to be the perfect little princess when she just isn't. She always tries to make everyone happy and is so controlled by guilt. I think it would have been stronger had she had conversations with her family or friends about this. One of the shortcomings of no one on the show having friends, LOL, is that it prevents those conversations.

I agree about the yelling. I kind of get tired of characters on the show screaming to show emotion rather than just showing emotion.

[Lskreet]

I agree no need to start dumping actors. OTLT does have a good cast and it would be much better if they did rotate stories. They have too many scenes that are unneccesary. For example yesterday, did we really need to see Natalie, Marty and Miles at the gym? Those scenes could have been cut out and they could have shown Marty showing up at the police department to find John and Cole.

I really think Port Charles was onto something with doing a story for 13 weeks and then moving on to something else. That way you can rotate your actors and every will get a chance to be frontburner. I'd like to see one of the bigger soaps try this. It's time to mix things up because the status quo isn't working anymore.

[Jess]

I didn't think I would ever say this, but I agree. It would keep all the characters on the canvas and I think it would give some of those actors an opportunity to do prime time and movies when they weren't in frontburner stories.. I don't think anyone would have to disappear for 13 weeks, but it might be shorter story arcs and a broader focus. I think PC made a mistake focusing too heavily on a couple of characters, but OLTL would not have to make that mistake.

I admit I'm a little curious about how the GH nightime drama will work. I read that it would focus on the hospital, particularly Robin and Patrick. I'm glad. I was afraid it would be mob central.

[cal3]

Malone and Gottlieb were the first to go with the short story arc on OLTL in the early 90's. It was a resounding flop then and I can't see it being anything else now.

We do need balance and rotation and we do need stories that don't meander around with no purpose for years on end. Still we need story progression where the ending of one story sets the beginning of the next.

We also very much need the friendships and family relationships that a rotation of stories should permit to develop.

I can't agree that the show has a strong cast. If anything it's the weakest I've ever seen. The strengths for the most part seem concentrated in the older actresses who are rarely seen and then only to prop what doesn't work and the female teens. The male cast would IMO best be described as lacking.

[ZaraB]

Port Charles started the thirteen week arc with a rotation -- but that is FAR from how it ended. By the end, they struggled to keep Caleb front, center and functioning -- how many times did they 'kill' he or Rafe off? Lucy, Ian, Kevin were afterthoughts, younger cast not EHP, BG, ME or KM not faring much better. The repeatedly farfetched supernatural stories did eventually end in its cancellation.

Rotation of characters should be one of the cardinal rules. Characters and stories lose steam with neglect. Do we really WANT Spencer's murder trial to have yet ANOTHER twist? It gets hard to care about Nora, Viki, etc when they are seen so rarely. It's very chancy that up and coming stars will stay (witness AMC, where ER, RB, and now now reportedly AH are moving on after driving heavy story for years.) The next big thing is very chancy -- Miles, Marty, etc may be slowly gathering a following, but they aren't exactly going to replace REG or Todd in the next few months. Keeping what you have or had should be far higher on the priority list than it is.