OLTL: Debating Ron Carlivati & The Show

[Vee]

For the last time, you crank: Anna Cascio wrote [!@#$%^&*] like JR, Laurie, and the teens and Carlos the janitor on AMC. She and Rayfield were placeholders loyal to Frons while he waited to get someone else. No one needs to hire her and her buddy to be the head writer of anything.

I know you've decided that since you have obsessively memorized the name of every member of every American soap's writing corps that you are somehow qualified, but your writing isn't terribly good and you're not going to write the show, and nobody here is going to mention your name to anyone in order to get you to eventually write the show, and in the meantime, given the quality of that writing, you can hardly pass too much judgment on the vastly superior new writers writing dialogue for OLTL. Ron Carlivati may not be running on all cylinders yet, but he doesn't make me cringe like Dena Higley, or you. He's giving me a show I can be almost proud of again, and it's only gotten started.

Stop campaigning for a job you will not get and making this thread your bully pulpit. You have become the crazy old lady talking to herself on the street.

[Sylph]

Bravo, Vee! :lol:

P. S. Can I now totally off-topic push my own agenda: rehire Mary Masters as scriptwriter for ATWT!! She's awesome!

[dragonflies]

Carlavati is okay so far, I just haven't seen anything spectacular from him yet.

Todd's worse a cartoon than he was under Hackley. They need to cut the character free

[ZaraB]

I see Carlivati moving in directions that SHOULD work in the long run, but how long will the long run take? Some of them I like, some of them I don't like, but make sense.

The baby paternity/custody story is the strongest story of what Higley left RC with -- it is 'sweeps worthy' but it seems to be the ONLY story in town because of actor availability, or possibly just waiting for sweeps. Too many other stories are just beginning, seem to be filler, or around stunts/guest shots. I'm not sure where some characters go from here -- esp. Marcie and Micheal.

Jess and Natalie in a storyline together? It should work -- of all family relationships, a twin relationship, even a fraternal one, should never be ignored. Newcomer John Brotherton reminds me a bit too much of Ryan, but seems to be helping Natalie tremendously. I think just getting out of the McBain orbit will do tons for the character's likeabiliy. The BE story is taking too long to build because they have no other contract characters regularly there with any stake in the business.

Somebody had to have killed Spencer. Making it Lindsay was out of the blue, but gave Bo, Lindsay, and Nora some story/airtime. The arrow had already been pointed at most of the obvious, high-airtime suspects. I can see the rather irate reaction of fans watching, feeling cheated by having the entire thing shown in backstory.

Todd and John will be in scenes together for sweeps. I wish the show would just cut their losses with McBain already. I never got the character, and have little patience for his demons or his damsels in distress. However, since the show is six degrees of separation from Todd, giving this character scenes and a relationship of sorts with Todd only makes sense. Enemies working for a common purpose is classic soap, yielding tense moments and humor twined together. It's gotta be better than John and Marty making paper airplanes.

It's hard to believe Viki will get story, yet it is tied to a large string of new characters. Dorian gets story, getting tied to one of the teens. It is seeing the characters, more than we did under Higley. Since I don't think we need FF's character at all, and think Langston has gotten Starr's personaility, I'm barely nuetral on these stories to begin with, despite liking airtime for Dorian and Viki.

The show has shown significant improvement - but ratings are still falling as some storylines do anger fans.There may be no good way out of where the canvas was.

[R Sinclair]

Whew! That was better than sex!

[RuAsRuAnAu]

Record lows for a show many people claim to be great? I understand declines in ratings, but RECORD lows? No way. Where are the Gloria Montys? The Wendy Riches? The Linda Gottliebs?

[Vee]

None of whom are head writers. Looks like you're not qualified for the show after all! BTW, all of ABC took that hit last week, not just OLTL.

[RuAsRuAnAu]

Vee, I already have a well-paying career. Thanks for your concern.

What is happening to Llanview's diversity (social, economic, political, spiritual, racial etc)? At its core, OLTL is about diversity and how it affects our one life to live.

[Vee]

OLTL can worry about diversity once it's cleared out its old stories and gotten re-focused on characters the audience cares about. I'm not really interested in tossing in more multi-cultural newbies without a solid foundation first in place and a clear vision for the future. That's how we got useless characters like Vincent and Layla.

Look, you made your mind up when you started this so-called "debate" thread; Carlivati is wrong, you and Anna Cascio are right. So if that's how you're always going to feel, why not leave it to other people to discuss?

[AddictedToSoaps]

Well said!!

[Scotty]

The low ratings are not spefically OLTL related....just look at the numbers for AMC and GH. It's ABC as a whole. It's not just one or two soaps that are down, it's all three. To me that puts the blame squarely on Frons.

[RuAsRuAnAu]

Does anyone know what type of feelings Carlivati has towards Frons & Valentini? All I know is that Carlivati contributed to Higley's firing, and I would not be surprised if he is trying to get Valentini to leave. Frons seems to be too powerful for anyone to kick to the side. I have appropriately named him Ultimate Ruler-Master King Frons. He is definately in the top 5 of TV's most powerful executives.

Now that Carlivati has been OLTL's HW since 9/11/07, I would give him a C.

[leevo64]

I think OLTL is fantastic right now. It's got a little bit of everything. It's not some complex, internal struggle mess that McTavish likes to write. Nobody is worried about their family's dark legacy of mental illness, no sperms have been stolen, there's no murder mystery (unless you count Death and the Saybrook family), no rape, no mafia plot... the show is spot on in its execution and then some.

Some people don't like the Langston story. I think it's good, simple stuff that is pleasing to the audience because it involves good people doing good things. The Paris, TX story is great because it gave Viki some great stuff to play and introduced two new characters, Gigi and Charlie, who are not being overwritten and who are realistic people. The Tommy saga is some of the best stuff on soaps if for no other reason than the variety of stuff we are seeing in it - Lee Ramsey, John/Marty/Todd/Blair, Marcie in a gay bar, Marcie in post-Katrina New Orleans, Michael's life falling apart... it's good soap. I think the smaller stories, such as the fun-filled Antonio/Talia love story and the Jared Banks story, are really endearing.

The only thing wrong with the show is that it makes the other soaps on the air look like trash.

[MichaelGL]

I agree! OLTL is rocking right now. To me it's daytime's version of 'Ugly Betty', nice balance of comedy and drama.

[timber west]

I do not agree with this.

I think it is totally false becasue I think a tr00 fan would like the show no matter what, support when times are bad etc.