Ron Carlivati interview

[Jess]

He is overrated, and he is boring. And you are right, nowhere do you bash a poster. Bashing posters also isn't tolerated. Although doing so in the defense of RC might be.

Wales, as Cat will tell you, I was no huge fan of REG. However, people started watching this show when she came one and they stopped when she left. I think a show can get away with canning Dan G. OR canning REG OR canning Forbes OR canning Phil Carey OR canning other characters. When you start adding them all together, it's a pretty big hit. Do I think Forbes March leaving will have a big effect? No but nothing would make me happier than if it did. I'd love to see this show suffer for firing people just cuz it wants to.

Ryan, no one needed to be let go, senior cast member or junior cast member. There are five contract newbies at the most recent count -- Jared, Gigi, Charlie, the Kevin Spiratus character and Gigi's faux daddy whose name I can not remember. The argument that Forbes had to be let go for the return of "fan Favorites" is suspicious.

And Jay, oh come on! It's not exactly a state secret that your man Frankie was upset about Dan G.'s comments in the article that started on this board and certainly was instrumental in his dismissal, that he thought Phil Cary's time had come and gone and that he and Forbes have had disagreements about the direction of the character and petty issues like Forbe's hair. There have also been comments by other actors on the show that Frank would not even negotiate with REG. Also, I really find it difficult to understand how Frank Valentini escapes any responsibility for any story on this show, including those written while RC was on strike.

[Wales2004]

I didn't get the impression that you were a huge fan of hers. I'm basically just disagreeing with your statement and I mentioned some of her fans but I didn't personalize it to you since I didn't think you fell into that category. I still disagree with you on her impact because she didn't increase the ratings when she came on the show. People didn't really start noticing her until they paired her with Michael Easton which triggered off fan base wars. I know that there were people that watched the show only to see her or them as a pair but not enough to impact the ratings to any noticeable degree.

Michael Easton is said to have this huge fanbase and they were responsible for getting him back on PC but OLTL doesn't seem to have benefited from them so the question is how many people is huge?

[MTSRocks]

In this day of daytime dramas, I think hating on Ron Carlivati is just pointless. The man is doing a good job for OLTL, and instead of finding his minor faults, we should be embracing his many triumphs. I wish I could say the same for other soap writers, but they are far too delusional to understand the concept of creative writing 101. BTW I'm not saying that we ALL should love everything he does, but attacking his every misstep just takes enjoyment out of the overall structure of things.

[David_Vickers]

Great post MTSRocks!

[detroitpiston]

I heart this post.

[dragonflies]

I haven't seen many "triumphs" from RC. IMO he hasn't done much for OLTL. It's still as boring as it was under Dena. Sure characters aren't OOC for the most part, but overall I am not seeing anything special about the show

[Sapounopera]

I have to say I am shocked to see that not everybody is thrilled with RC's work. During the DH the show was as good as dead.. It's not only the storylines that matter to me, I want to care about the people I am watching, this is the way to get a soap viewer hooked on a show.

(Again, sorry if my english is poor, I live in Greece and follow the soaps through the net; anyway, I hope you understand what I am trying to say )

Under RC I grew to love Viki again. The Paris, Texas storyline re-energized a very tired character and introduced us to a number of lovely characters and interesting situations. Viki and Charlie, their romance was so sweet from day one. BTW Brian Erwin would have made a great Clint Buchanan, don't you think? I love Gigi and Shane, seeing more of Roxy and Lindsay, watching Natalie and Jessica act like sisters, the return of Addie, Jared Banks, Todd and Blair. I can see that RC cares for these people and he wants to make us care as well. In my opinion he is the best things that has happened to soaps for a very long time. Characters interacting with each other, a blend of drama and comedy, watching Llanview as a community and not as a TV set, now this is something!

Every RC episode had some special moments and I can't even think of another soap right now that has this. Hearing people complain about him seems crazy to me, I am afraid that the times when we used to watch soaps and discuss them with our friends are so over. Now we have the net and we have spoilers up until July and we are no longer viewers. We are all little soap experts I guess...

Gary Tomlin managed to ruin a great show. I can't stand watching Cole and Starr, I hate this version of Todd and Blair and everything else makes no sence and is boring to death. It is so obvious that he doesn't care for the characters or the audience for that matter. Can't wait for RC's work to start airing again!

[ian]

If I wanted to see the same thing re-hashed before my eyes, I'd watch B&B.

Honestly, those who are in the minority simply can't bawl their eyes out simply because MORE people disagree with them than agree with them. SON is not supressing your opinion, and it isn't promoting one agenda over the other, it just seems that the majority is in favour of something else... It's like - how 20% of American support Bush and like 70% don't... so does that means 20% CAN'T support Bush? No. It just means that they will find a hell of a lot less support. So, if 70% agree with RC and 20% don't, that 20% are equally entitled to vocalize their opinions (and they can do so without saying the same thing to the nth degree ad nauseum - cue the finger twirling).. and their opinion may be disagreed with, but it will likely at least be respected, as long as they dont annoy the crap out of everybody. If nothing ever changes and things just keep going around in circles, any soap fan will tell you that's a good time to think about changing the channel.

And can mystery sender please share the love and send me the RC interview? Thanks.

I personally am excited for the summer and am watching OLTL after a break of a couple years, can't wait to see what the Ron is cookin'. Looking forward to the Blair with the Backbone, and of course, TINA.

[Cheap21]

Ron C, is one of the most overated head writers to come in a long time. People swear he's a god. While the show is better now than it was under Higley, its not "great". I think most would be better after the crap we had to endure under her and Malone. Ron is good, but he's not all that

[JackPeyton]

RC is a god, but only when you compare him. Up to DH, B&E, Guza, etc...

however OLTL is such a bore. and it has been. but it coems back to what my and RC discuss on the show.. a good, yet boring show vs a intersting yet kinda stupid show.

[Cheap21]

I actually think out of the 3 ABC soaps, OLTL is the most interesting at the moment. Im sure Tina's return will only make it that much better

[Jess]

You know I agree with you on most of this. I actually liked REG when she first came on the show as Mitch's attorney. I also think she is a wonderful actress. I must admit that I believe and I say this with a little bit of previous comment remorse, I must admit the show was better with her than without her. I also don't think bringing on popular new actors like ME has much of an impact. I'm not fan of his, but I also think too much was expected of him. Again, when he first came on, I thought, this really pretty good. He and Bo had a great chemistry. When he became overexposed, I think it hurt him. The same thing about ratings effects and bringing on characters can be applied to Tina's return. I also don't think AE is here for the long haul. I think she is going to be like Tuc and like Caddie (spelling) McClaine on AMC and any number of resurrected characters on GH. They are going to be sweeps month or summer roll outs and then they will go away. I think Tina's return is designed to bring on a fresh new crop of newbies.

On the rating drop, you know, I think we aren't going to agree. I think it's cumulative. It's having people invest in characters and then just dumping them, and again, I think the reason many are dumped is backstage politics that really needs to be corrected.

[Wales2004]

It might possibly work that way but I think the intent is to lure back older viewers who may have been fans of the show and/or character back when she was on. They might even think some viewers of Passions will follow her. It doesn't look as if Farah Faith gained them enough DOOL/Mimi fans to make a dent in ratings but they might think a former cast member will.

I agree in part with you here. There isn't one specific thing that affects the ratings that they can pinpoint. Otherwise they'd likely make the effort to fix it. I just think that people get used to actors coming and going that they don't necessarily impact the ratings. There may be instances where it' seems more clear that this may the case and it is usually when an actor returns for a short stint. If the ratings were averaging 2.0 before an actor returned and during his stay they averaged 2.2 and then went back down to the 2.0 average the week after his stint ended, then it's easier to attribute the gain to him. An actor may leave and a bloc of viewers may go with him but there's no obvious impact if another bloc of viewers return and/or new viewers offset the departing viewers.

Backstage politics will probably always persist because in order to eliminate it then the person at the top would have to be impartial and promote impartiality and that's hard to come by.

[MichaelGL]

Great post. I agree, especially about Viki. Ron Carlivati rejuvenated the character of Victoria Lord Davidson, and also made me care about Llanview as a community.

I would like to point out that while RC has introduced a couple of new characters, he's chosen to have them interact and form a connection to characters that have already been established. Jared=The Buchanans/Renee, Gigi-Viki, Marcie, Rex, etc., and Charlie=Viki, Rex, etc.

Simply reading the excerpts from RC's interview, I am so excited about what the summer holds for us as OLTL fans. It's amazing to see a HW of a soap today point out the problems with their soap (problems that fans have pointed out) and have a desire to fix it.

[LoyaltoAMC]

OLTL could be the best written soap of all time, but it wouldn't make a difference sandwiched between two other low-rated shows. When you're the bridge between a 1.9/2.0 (AMC) and a 2.2/2.3 (GH), your ratings are going to remain in that range. Sure, there was that one week when Higley started that the show beat GH by .1 or something with the culmination of the Nora story, but that kind of situation is an anomaly. I know that Ron's writing sparks viewer interest and critical acclaim, but I don't see it doing much for the show's ratings as long as AMC's and GH's ratings are in the toilet.