Ellen Wheeler hopes to save the daytime soap....

[JONNYSBRO]

The major big question is how did you like Ellen Wheeler the actress not the executive producer? What did you think of her as Vicky/Marley or as groundbreaking Cindy Chandler who died of AIDS in the 1980's?

[Felix]

I’d like to share my views on GL, since I think I provide a different point of view from many posters here. (I could be totally wrong about that, though).

I am an eighteen year-old. Before 2005, I never watched a day of soap opera in my life. Frankly, I don’t think that you’re going to get the youth to watch soaps, no matter what you do. Soaps are “uncool.” Soaps are on while people are at work/school, and if you happen to be home during the day, there are about a million other ways to entertain yourself, most of them involving a computer. You could throw three billion dollars at a show and make Shakespeare the head writer, and teens and young adults wouldn’t watch.

So, why did I, a fifteen year-old, start watching soaps? Let me put this simply: Because I wanted to watch a soap opera. Honestly, at the time I didn’t care about the writing. (To those of you who understand the reference, the first Days story that I watched was the Alex North story). I wanted to have a show that I could watch every day, that featured the same characters as it always had. I wanted to be a part of the history. I wanted my shows to be a constant in my life. I wanted a soap.

So, if GL’s new production model is designed to attract younger audiences, it’s a failure. If it’s designed to cut costs, that’s fine. Personally, I would have preferred that they kept the few sets that they had. I think that erring from the traditional soap model is a mistake. Soaps are a niche. Though there may be armies of people who will never, under any circumstances, watch a soap opera, there are those who will.

But what is GL now? It certainly doesn’t look like a soap opera. The haphazard semblance of story that changes from day to day doesn’t feel like soap opera. Nevertheless, it is still a soap opera. What the new model has done, then, is make young viewers who happen upon the show ask, “Why is this poorly shot independent movie on TV?,” and make soap viewers ask “Where is GL?”

As for the writing, I think that GL has some of the best dialogue writers in the business. Honestly. Can you imagine what they could do if they were given actual story? The issue is, as has been stated many times, there is no long-term story. I think that that is starting to change now, but for the past six months, GL has been completely schizophrenic.

A great deal has also been said about the legacy of GL. I have watched GL for all of a year (on-and-off). Perhaps the suits at the show think that viewers like me don’t care about the show’s history, but they are wrong. Indeed, the history is perhaps the single most appealing feature of a soap opera. And now the question is raised, what SHOULD happen to GL? Cancellation? Continuation? I want desperately to say continuation. I want to believe that this era is just a small blip on GL’s history. I want to believe that GL has a future. But it does seem that time has run out. The ratings show that viewers continue to defect. The new model has failed. I want to believe that if GL turns back into GL that it can be saved, but how much time is there?

I refuse to believe that this is the future of the genre. If TPTB insist on it, then there will be no future, for once you have turned the soap viewer off from the soap, what else do you have?

I take solace in the fact that there is Youtube, so that new viewers like me can see what once was. I also take solace in the hope that, somehow, this show, this genre, will turn around. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Let soaps be soaps. If you build it, they will come.

[Greg's GL]

jonnysbro - I really can't answer that question, as I never saw her in either role. I've watched CBS soaps for the most part.

I have seen a few posters though, that have expressed admiration for her work on both AW and AMC. I will have to check it out on YouTube.

Now I'm curious - how does her past success as an actress have any bearing on her ability to executive produce GL? I realize there have been quite a few former actors/actresses to move in to the role, with varying success, but do you think one has any bearing on the other?

[Greg's GL]

Wonderfully written, Felix. I'm glad you shared your view on the show. I couldn't agree more with what you've posted here. You did provide a different point of view, but an informative and interesting one.

[Vee]

Even less people will watch soaps if they all follow in the footsteps of GL, which is currently at the bottom of the barrel. You act like GL is blazing a new trail when just about everything in terms of numbers and audience feedback would indicate the opposite. If a show is unrecognizable, what right does CBS or anybody else have to tell fans they need to watch it and support "the future of soaps" when almost no one young or old likes it? GL's not the future. At least, it's not a future anybody wants to see.

That's actually not the question. She was a wonderful actress. She's a terrible producer.

[EastMA2]

Excellent point Greg's and ICAM. I'm not against this production model by any means and I admit it has gotten better since 2/29. I DO give Wheeler credit for thinking outside the box and I do believe she has tried very hard to save this show. I know the old GL is gone for good, but because quite often there is still so much silliness - like the 2 level courtroom - and holding Spaulding meetings in a field - I think the show should have gone off the air when it had a little dignity left. With the rate the actors are bailing, the final episode will be centered around G and Daisy marrying. Shudder.

[Soapsuds]

GL is definitely gone. Alex and Alan were in a scene today. But I could have cared less. The set was so small/tiny. There was maybe 2 extras seen in the corner of my screen. And no suspense to the scenes. It was pure background noise as I posted on SON.

[Greg's GL]

GLisNo1 - yes that laughable, implausible courtroom set was completely over the top. How did they think they could pull that off?!?! Isn't there ONE producer on that show that thought "This set sucks!"?

I really, really hope that the "final episode" that you describe will never come to fruition. But, knowing EW/DK it is quite possible. <SIGH>

[RoseVioletDaisy]

But don't forget that in the second to last scene of the final episode, we get to see DingBatDaisy make the vital decision that will set the world ablaze: will she be marrying ScumbagKillerForHireGrady or MommasBoyWithRageIssuesRafe? Oh, I just can't wait!

[Greg's GL]

I am slowly coming around to this conclusion as well, my friend. It's sad, but for all the reasons most of the posters have placed in this thread as well as my own, that appears to be immeninent.

RVD - I LOVE your sarcasm! But bite your tongue - we don't wanna give EW any more "brilliant" ideas.

[Contessa Donatella]

I totally agree that we are in complete disagreement.

[Contessa Donatella]

It's not a case of 'admitting' as far as I am concerned, or anything I need to be thanked for. I've been posting about it all along as he seemed to be going off the rails until he finally landed off over yonder somewhere. Now, granted, he is still an excellent Director, but that's not what he was hired to do at ATWT. And, my Lord, as EP he is all over the place! At least I got to see Jen Lenhart nail him on one of her last days!

[Contessa Donatella]

If by blameless you mean perfect, ya know, I don't consider anyone perfect or above criticism!

But, a total Amen, sing it, Hallelujah, to this!

[Contessa Donatella]

Now there's a show that I watch & TiVo & even save some episodes, but, I mean the look of it is hideous! I have no idea why Frons likes that look that they've applied to the whole show.

[MarkH]

What an awesome, awesome, awesome quote .

I finally read that SOD interview with Kim Zimmer tonight. (I'm a subscriber, and I got the issue that should have arrived last Friday tonight. Sigh). It really is a beautiful, heartbreaking interview. But she has this one line about the new "verisimilitude" that sort of aches with the conflict between "realism" and what it means to be a soap:

"I could've quit in January...but it was too soon for me to make that decision because I was hopeful. If I had January back again, I don't know if I could be as hopeful because now I'm sweating my balls off in Peapack....and I know Ellen loves the reality of that, but people still want us to look good and they still want us to be beautiful."

When I look at the (apparently short lived) fan love for Ron Carlivati's fantasy-filled OLTL, with loads of people saying "it was a return to classic soap" or "soaps as they ought to be"...it leads me more and more to the conclusion that soap fans don't want reality-based stories or modernization IN THE MAIN. (There are exceptions). But I think most people want what Kim Zimmer herself once called (and this phrase was also used in the Jossip thread) "Calgon take me away" moments.

I think Ellen Wheeler may well have begun to uncover the formula for the next generation of daytime drama. But this next generation will NOT be "soap opera" or "melodrama", and the old generation of soaps needs to die to make room for this next thing.