Y&R: Fire Maria Arena Bell and Josh Griffith!!!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yeah, ok, I'm not going to sit back and watch mediocrity, I don't care whose writing it. I can think for myself, thank you very much.

So what there's an imporvement over Latham's material, that still doesn't mean the show's consistently good, which it's not.

[dm.]

A person knows what's best, I guess. I couldn't handle almost anything Latham wrote and that's why 2007 didn't include Y&R on my soaps list. But this time around, I'm not ready to give up on the show again. Mostly because if I quit Y&R, I'll be off daytime for good. It's the last remaining link.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I'm down to watching none American soaps right now, they all suck! It's going to take some storyline and behind the scenes changes for me to give most of these soaps a chance again.

[Sylph]

This is all so very strange to me... As if there was some kind of race who's watching more soaps and who will in the end persevere for the longest amount of time or something like that...

I honestly don't know if I can think of any other reason. Maybe people also like terrible writing, I don't know... I bet a whole lot of other people hate the show too or find it nothing special and very lethargic, but somehow they fear the negativity and just keep repressing these feelings and telling themselves "It will get better."

[dm.]

Yes, as a fan, I hoped it would get better after Lynnie was thrown out, but it has been freakin' 8 months. And it still ain't getting better (just take a look at the fall previews). I will hold on for a little more time, but not for long. I'm enjoying primetime, and I'd actually like to watch the same sitcom for 6 times than watch any soap. Y&R is the only thing that's still holding me on daytime. And I'm wondering how many people out there are doing the same thing (for Y&R or any other soap).

[Sylph]

Oh, I expect massive exodus from daytime once the primetime season kicks in.

Also, for example, I don't understand MarkH's attitude — and this is not the only one I don't get — that he will stay with his soaps, no matter how awful they will be, until the (bitter) end. Why?

[Becki]

I'm in this exact same boat. I watch more out of habit than anything. And even then I find myself fastforwarding through almost the entire show.

[rangethatrover]

I actually just took Y&R off of my DVR list. OLTL my other show is just as bad right now, although there is at least some humor and Andrea Evans. Otherwise it is pretty unbearable.

I get my fix right now watching Youtube- old Y&R, OLTL, and even some AW which I never watched before.

These shows have forgotten 2 things- suspense and making you want to TUNE IN TOMORROW.

The storylines are as dull as dishwater.

[Greg's GL]

Actually, I don't think Y&R is that bad right now. I'm enjoying most of the stories, and for the most part it is entertaining to me, so I plan on sticking with it for now.

However, I think the show could be much better with a more competent EP.

As far as MAB and HS go, I think they're trying. Some of the stories are working, others aren't. They have to realize when a story isn't working and either A) fix it or wrap it up. At least they have gotten back to writing characters in character (for the most part) and the bones are there for this to be a great soap. An EP change is really what this show needs. JMHO.

And really, it could be worse. LML could still be running the show.

[MarkH]

Ah, invoking my name, eh?

Well, that's not totally accurate. There was a time when I watched, every day, AMC, OLTL, GH & Y&R. I also closely monitored SB. Then, there was a year or two when I was devout AW and Y&R, with an eye kept on AMC and GH. Since 1987, I have pretty much only regularly watched Y&R and B&B (with a few years off when I lived overseas).

Now, the only show I watch 5 days a week is Y&R. I'd say I watch B&B (correction, FF for the most part) 3 days a week...maybe just 2. And I usually regret those two.

Translation: I have drifted away from a lot of shows over the years. The only common denominator in each of those lists is Y&R.

Y&R I stick with for reasons that have somewhat to do with the show, but mostly to do with the role that the show has played in my life. I have lived many places since the late 80s, and Y&R has followed me everywhere. Even when I lived overseas, I used Usenet (pre-WWW) and 6-week-delayed-ship-rate SODs to keep up.

Y&R has the familiar faces and places that have been a throughline of continuity in my life, even when my actual life has had all kinds of new vistas and adventures. In that sense, Y&R has represented a kind of "home" for me. In addition, Y&R had (and has) intergenerational ties for me. My late grandmothers watched it, and it was something we could discussed. My parents used to watch it (they are off it now) and my aunts and uncles and cousins still watch it. So, when I get back to Canada, it is the thing we can always use as a conversation starter.

All the way through high school, I'd often get home at 4 or 4:30 (even when I stayed late with the debate club or to edit the school newsletter or whatever nerdy thing I was doing back then), and in Canada, that was precisely when Y&R would come on. Dad would get home from work at about 3:30. We'd go into the family room, and the dog would come too. Upstairs, mom would be watching...but on ironing days she'd be in the family room with us, watching too. Many a dinner--which usually was at 5:30 pm, minutes after Y&R was over--started with a conversation about the show.

In other words, Y&R is in the fabric of my life. I scarcely have an elementary school or junior high or high school or graduate school or postdoc or junior faculty memory without Y&R in it. When I was going through major milestones in my personal life, I often also remember what was happening on Y&R at the time.

That is very hard to quit.

When Y&R goes bad, it affronts me personally, because it is a member of the family. But, like any member of the family, I can't just abandon it. I rail to save it :-). I rally for it.

When Y&R finally goes dark--and it will--I cannot imagine what the underlying through thread of my life will be then. I know that sounds pathetic...but that is how deeply it is ingrained in my personal narrative. (I even modeled my prom Tails, way back in the early 80s, after the white Tails that Eric Garrison wore to romance Ashley Abbott on the roof of Jabot. Again, I know that is pathetic...but there you have it. When Paul and Danny and Andy all started tucking their shirt collars INSIDE their sweaters...I soon followed suit ).

I think Y&R earns this special loyalty because it still, for the most part, is recognizable. I have never felt that same allegiance to AMC or OLTL or whatever...in part because it wasn't so ideally situated in my life...but in part because there is very little that harkens back to my experience with the show.

Marceline has talked about nostalgia as the ruination of the soaps. I suspect she is right. But for me, nostalgia is also the glue that binds me occlusively to my show.

Ah, but today Nelson is reporting that MAB and Hogan Sheffer are ALREADY feuding.

Really?

This show is doomed...and I'm starting to worry that MAB is a cancer...because she's butting heads with several folks.

[dm.]

This worries me. I'm sticking with the show, but I'm already tired of all the freakin' changes. None for the better.

And I'm worried that MAB will end up victorious because her husband wouldn't remove her for Sheffer. Ugh.

[Cat]

^^ Greg's GL summed up my feelings perfectly, too.

Better than LML. There is stuff there that keeps me watching. Other stuff less so.

I'm not at the point when I gave up the show under LML -- Phyllis screeching in jail, Out of our Asses etc.

I will say, Sylph, that there is one thing which keeps me monitoring certain shows sometimes, and that is a board like this.

[MarkH]

Does anyone know hard numbers?

Sony owns what %?

Bell owns what %?

Corday owns what %?

Please, somebody must know this.

Also, does Bell have the "managing" agreement (i.e., show running agreement?). If they have a contract to run the show, how much power does it give them?

This all feels like power plays to me. Like Ed Scott was foisted by Sony on Corday, I wonder if Hogan Sheffer was foisted by Sony on Bell. I really need to know!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

But Maria Arena Bell HAS ALWAYS been a cancer. What logic is there to hire your wife, who has no Head Writing experience and hasn't written for soaps in 20 years? There is none! This show is being run into the ground by ego-driven incompetent amateurs!

There's several cancers at this show, and they are: Bill Bell Jr., Barbara Bloom, Steven Kent, Maria Arena Bell, and of course Josh Griffith.

[dm.]

They probably kept Maria because they hoped that one day they'd be able to say "Bell saved the soap!"

But that ain't gonna happen.