B&B: Should Brad Bell stick to producing?

[JackPeyton]

Thorne really should just kinda be like ya know what,f all woman.. im going gay.

[PJA]

This is more old soap than a bad thing, IMO. When she last wrote a half hour soap (Y&R) it was normal to only ever feature five or six characters per episode and scenes were longer as it was more character driven. I think that's what Alden brought to B&B. Yes the scenes were long, but they weren't repetitive and I actually feel like she understood the characters better. People are finally taking Brooke to task and seem to be growing. I wasn't crazy about every storyline (which I think were more Brad's ideas), but the quality of the scripts was high.

B&B is anything but character driven. For the past 6 months it has been the most plot driven it has ever been.

[Sylph]

Yes, yes, yes! It has really become awful, "dark and brooding and unappealing". She has destroyed it.

[NYC123]

Yes.

B&B has been so good!!!! Right now it is boring but still it is good compared to soaps these days..............

[JackPeyton]

B&B is great right now, is it better than it is when BB is making it great? No. But he m akes this shot great like 2 months a year, so.. and with him when its bad its horrid.

[MarkH]

I couldn't fully parse this :-), but....

I think the show is in a VERY WEAK spell right now. Despite this, there are moments of greatness.

"Pam is angry at Donna. She accuses Donna of killing her beloved Doberman, Tiny, with an overdose of artificially sweetened lemon bars. Donna threw them to distract the dangerous dog. She was rattled by Pam at the time, after having had her skin tanning, tooth bleaching, and hair dyeing all sabotaged by Pam in the previous week".

You read that, and it is high camp. Not bad...that's part of the B&B formula. Moreover, Alley Mills is doing what she can with the material. (Jennifer Gareis, on the other hand, is simply reaching her limitations as an actress, and can't do much more than screech and whine). But the whole story is built on eggshells. Pam was made suddenly crazy. It was OBVIOUS who sabotaged Donna...but Pam roams free without consequences. Donna TELLS Eric that she is in jeopardy, and he basically doesn't listen (making that character of Eric more dull and stupid than ever). Show-lynchpin Susan Flannery is left to--literally--mug and react in the background to all this foolishness.

Okay, let's take another one:

"Brooke, who is ostensibly committed to long-time love Ridge, finds herself drawn inexorably to ex-husband Nick. Nick is in a custody battle with Taylor for their child, whose custody Taylor lost after a recent bout of breakdown and alcoholism. The tale is complicated by the fact that the baby is biologically Brooke's, but was implanted in Taylor by accident. Meanwhile, Brooke's daughter and sister enter into a rivalry over Nick. Taylor is bolstered by her affair with Brooke's son, Rick. Ridge is not attentive to his wife at this time, fearing instead that his ex-fiancee (Ashley) is in jeopardy by being stalked by Brooke's suddenly homicidal brother Storm".

OH MAN. Just read it. I shaved some details. JUST READ IT.

This is beyond campy. Add that to the fact that Jack Wagner, Kelly Lange, Ronn Moss and Eileen Davidson all seem PROFOUNDLY bored by the material. Layer it up with the fact that Kyle Lowder is playing his role as uber-sappy (and Hunter Tylo seems truly unhinged...even in her sane moments...just disconnected from all normal reaction and response...a twitchy mess), and not even the performances save this story. Then, there is the 'sudden personality change' piece...as Storm flips a switch and goes nuts (or seems to be ), and even long-time suffering ingenue Bridget flips a switch and turns into a bitch against her aunt-Katie for "Nick's" affections.

Here are my questions?

1. Where is the RELATABLE human drama?

2. What stories dramatically challenge the actors?

3. Who, in which story, is likeable? Who is "love to hate"?

4. Whom are we ROOTING for in any of these stories?

5. Where is the innovation and freshness? (Well, I'll say the lemon-bar poisoning and the scrambled egg stories DO have innovation in them).

======

Now, here is what would be more compelling to me. Two examples:

1. Ashley is appalled at the relationship merry-go-round her life has been. Ridge is too. But, they cannot deny their attraction. So, THEY GO SLOWLY. They commit to getting to know each other. They work on some shared projects (e.g., crushing "Beauty of Nature's" next fragrance line). Maybe they deal with some shared adversity (e.g., Hope and Abby both go crazy because their paternities are SO mixed up).

My point is that we see these two develop a mature, adult relationship together.

2. Stephanie looks in the mirror and realizes how much of her life she has wasted on Eric. She lets him go...sincerely and without malice. Then, she decides to re-invent her life. Options:

- lose weight and get healthy...and find a relationship in the process

- realize that her sexual coldness all these years was because she was denying to herself that she was really a lesbian

- go in league with Jackie Payne and create, despite their mutual rivalry, a stunning and imaginative clothing line for the mature, full-figured woman. [i realize this doesn't totally connect with the 18-49 demo they want...but I think young people would watch]

If you want the young demo:

- Recast Phoebe/Stephanie with a young, singularly talented actress (e.g., think today's version of Anne Heche or Ellen Wheeler). Go the route, somewhat, of "good twin vs. bad twin". I'd like to see a situation where the twins have to rescue each other, repeatedly.

I also agree that B&B desperately needs a gay man...a core character. The story MUST NOT BE HIS GAYNESS. I like how Y&R is doing inter-racial couples these days (Lily/Cane, maybe Karen/Neil, certainly Victor/Sabrina)...where the couples JUST HAPPEN and no one cares about ethnicity (Damon/Phyllis and Daniel/Lily were other good examples). So, that's what I'd like to see: A gay Forrester return to the fold (not bi...gay). And he just goes about his life...the typical B&B relationship mess...with men.

I personally would make it Thomas. Yes, Thomas has been with two women (Lorenzo Lamas/Sydney Penney's daughter...but they were chaste...that was the puppy love of an under-18 boy; and Amber...but she was a sexual barracuda and most boys that age could 'get it up' under her ministrations, even if they were tending gay--especially if wanting to convince himself that he was straight), but he was very young.

I think, in his time away, Thomas could have realized that he is gay, come out to himself, and now to his family.

I'd like to see the honest portrayal of gay life in Thomas that we never get to see on the meeker ATWT. [This will NEVER happen...it is a Bell show].

[detroitpiston]

OMG, great post MarkH!

[DeeeDee]

Amen.

[Sylph]

You hit some good point, Mark, but there's stuff I don't like in your post. More later.

[JamesF]

Interesting post Mark and I think your ideas could work to bring something different to the table. For me personally, the show needs to be:

a) refocused on the fashion industry. This involves corporate intrigue and branching out to find characters in other settings like the old days. Models, photographers, designers, fashion journalists with axes to grind. Nobody seems to have a real job on the show any more. Fifteen years ago we watched Eric lose the company he loved and Stephanie be thrown out of an office she'd had for years. Who would care these days?

b ) Do camp but play it straight. Nobody can deny that Brooke and Stephanie's BeLieF slapfest was camp as a row of tents but the tension was palpable

because the story was so involving. That's what the show should be doing instead of killing off dobermans.

c) Bring in an undeniable villain even if it means finding a reasonable way to get Sheila back on the canvas.

d) Strengthen the youngsters. They don't have to be boring ingenues and dull pretty boys in teenage love triangles. There is plenty to do with the teenage set.

e) Kill off the Eric/Stephanie relationship and give Steph a new man. Their divorced status was the lifeblood of the show for years and having them pretend to be soul mates has never worked. They are infinitely more interesting apart than they are together.

[DeeeDee]

Steph & Eric work much better as friends than soulmates.

[MarkH]

Yes, I could buy this. Something new and different...but a business rivalry would be much welcomed.

"camp as a row of tents"...never heard that one, but LOL. I think B&B needs humor, but maybe it needs a camp-vacation for a while. It has made the show shallow and superficial and hard to invest in.

I don't know...that can tend to camp. I only want Sheila (or her Kimberlin lookalike. Sugar) back if she doesn't have to hide in the shadows. Sheila's first B&B stint...where she walked freely among the Forresters....was best.

This show's utter failure to keep interesting youngsters will ultimately kill it. This MUST be remedied in a permanent way. For me, neither the fetching Kyle Lowder nor the vacuous Mackenzie Mauzy cut it.

I actually like them most when they're at each other's throats...yelling and insulting like dogs. That's when there is heat. Thus, I'd love to see them in a rivalry story. She was GREAT when she kneed him in the stones :-).

[JackPeyton]

i want Drew Tyler Bell's Thomas back...

[MarkH]

He could still be gay Thomas. Hell, dude is ALREADY a good dancer (albeit tap dancing) But I thought he was cute, and he could definitely pull this off.

Although I would freely take Brandon Beemer in the role.... Beemer feels more like the TRUE heir to Ronn Moss.

[Sylph]

Well, as always on a daily basis this show can be really, really good. But if you look at a larger picture, it has been in the rut for quite some time. Or should I say – ever since Kay Alden came?

High camp?! You've gotta be kidding me! This has no sophistication nor wit, I don't know how can it be called camp, especially high camp! But you'r comment about that other episode being "beyond campy" hits the right spot: the show has gone beyond the came into a trashland of awfulness that only rare birds want to watch. I struggle with this show, and have been struggling for a while, it's just not something I want to see on B&B. The problem is only partly in the stories we're seeing now, the major problem is that the show risks not having a vision of its future development: for years it has been about Brooke, Stephanie, Eric etc., characters that totally lost their credibility and at the same time, the show killed many great characters which will probably never get back.