Maria Arena Bell a Puppet HW?

[MarkH]

LOL, you have a theme.

But I agree.

IN THAT SENSE, I think adding Hogan is a good sign. It says someone is awake at the switch and decided immediate action was needed. They didn't even give Maria much more than a MONTH as solo HW.

On the other hand, the ACT was right...but many of us fear that the CHOICE was misguided.

But, honestly, SOMETHING must be done.

If it were me...even if I hired Hogan...I would have immediately pressed KA, JS (they both work for Bell, and could have been hired as credited consultants), Ed Scott (he works for Sony). And then I'd hire COMPETENT researchers to poll viewership...not these lousy cheap focus groups in Los Angeles malls. REAL research.

[JackPeyton]

i dont. as i said, the mroe things chnage the worse they get.

[MarkH]

Okay, I buy that. LML may have WEAKENED the viewership base--reduced their tolerance for nonsense, esp. in the second half of her stay--so that there was less willingness to give MAB some room to grow. After the show started tanking creatively again, viewers (even those with NO awareness of the behind the scenes stuff) say 'this is bad after bad...I'm done!'. Yeah, that is a very valid point. The "indirect effect" of LML's damage to the show. (Or even Jack Smith's before her).

yup, that's been happening to me lately too. I actually think it is kind of cool

Oh...okay. Your next assignment is to add the MAB era! :-)

[Ann_SS]

Also, think of the money that MAB squandered on that ridiculous location shoot for 60 something year old Victor's romance with Sabrina. This shows MAB has a poor grasp of the soap audience. The money could have been used to have a Restless Styler location shoot to spice up the quad from hell or send some of the younger set on Lily/Cane/Chloe/Devon or Kevin and Jana on a summer adventure. Victor and Sabrina spending copious amounts of time drooling all over each other is not DRAMA. Neither is 60 something year old Gloria with her TWO 60 something year old beaus. Why on earth would anyone want to watch this crap? Women 18 to 48 and older want to drool over hard bodied men. It is just about summer time, why haven't Brad or J.T. or Daniel or Neil or Nick taken their shirts off as yet? David Vickers is nicely parading around OLTL in his undies.

The one thing I have learnt from watching soaps all these years is that it can always get worse when it comes to poor storytelling from "savior" headwriter. LML wasn't always on track, but I thought that she just needed a co-headwriter with experience to bring her back from her worse instincts. LML did get the need for drama even if it made us roll our eyes. She didn't let the fall out be meaningful, but at least we got some drama to have fall out.

[JackPeyton]

im glad someone understands what i met.

i dont like it. i type my posts with diff tones eve if yall dont know what tone i use for what post i do and it throws me off, lol.

[Sylph]

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Here's a solution:

Fire Griffith and Bell.

Bring in a new EP with experience.

Promote Natalie Minardi Slater to HW, maybe Hogan can be her Co-HW since he was just hired.

And before anyone comes in and knocks Natalie, at least she's more qualified for the job than freakin' Maria Arena Bell.

[Sylph]

Your hate has hit epic proportions! From Maria's biggest fan to her absolute enemy no.1 in no time!!

Being more qualified means nothing to me.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It seems the only thing she did well was wrap up Latham's crap. There's nothing special about her writing after she started her own stories.

Are you saying that Maria should stay on, despite the deplorable condition the show is in?

It's OK to like her as a person, but she sucks as a writer and shouldn't be HW. PERIOD.

[Sylph]

I'm not saying a thing.

I have a question for you: why Natalie Minardi Slater?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Because she's worked in various positions on the show over the years and is the longest serving member on the team at the moment. If they promoted from within, they'd also save a lot of money with her.

They appear to be too cheap to hire someone else with better experience and quality writing at the moment...

Then tell us what you're really thinking.

[Sylph]

You know what I'm actually saying? I'm afraid of the future and what it might bring. That's all... I don't want another Lynn Latham or anything resembling the Nazi woman. And with these people in charge, that's what we're going to get.

[DaytimeFan]

I think Natalie Minardi Slater is *the* answer. She's been with the show 10 years, worked various jobs, worked on the show when the show was still pretty good, already there...and most of all...that young fresh perspective that TIIC seem so intent on exploiting.

Failing that...I wouldn't be unhappy to see Sally Sussman Morina surface. She'd be Latham-esque...but with more Bell focus since she worked Y&R in the 80s. She's far from flawless...but I enjoyed her stuff at DAYS...for better or for worse.

Sony and the Bells need to admit that they've been WRONG WRONG WRONG with how they've ran Y&R for the last 3 years if they ever hope to get the ratings up and stable.

[Drew]

while I love the LOL factor of that graph (LML drop), it's not accurate as the ratings point system changed from where the graph starts, to where it ends.

[Sylph]

Being on production staff then becoming an AHW isn't actually various jobs.

I explained this in The Directors and Writers Thread to sheilaforever. Look it up.