Journalist Jonathan Reiner resurfaces

[MarkH]

Jonathan Reiner posted a comment to Marlena DLC, basically supporting her positive perception of Paul Rauch. He is apparently now working in "the industry" (I wonder as what??) in LA.

JR got a lot of negative commentary, at least when he followed Michael Logan as the voice behind TVGuide.com's soap coverage.

I personally liked him and was grateful for him. To suddenly have "free" soap coverage and chats (Logan started it, and I forget where in the chronology Kape et al. took it on--before or after Reiner?)

I have been grateful for each and every TV Guide soaps columnist (not SO much Delaina...but I did enjoy Daniel Coleridge, despite his unique voice of advocacy).

Today, TV Guide.com offers only irregular soap pieces, usually just press releases and repurposed Logan columns that appear weeks after print.

Something today's soap magazines don't understand is that some of us care as much about the people behind the scenes at the shows and mags/sites as we do about the shows and actors. So, it was nice to see an update on Daniel.

The last year has been filled with "welcome returns" and "new arrivals"...certainly Marlena and (briefly) Alan Carter (via Jossip) and Mimi Torchin (via several podcasts) and now Jonathan. Although the Canadian TV Guide columnist has been controversial...and sometimes even dysfunctional...there is no denying that his weekly columns have also invigorated the genre.

I feel very good about the state of "reporting" on soaps, even as it is slowly moving from the paid press to the blogosphere.

[SFK]

I liked Jonathan, though he had a tendency to work gay bars lameish blind items into his columns every now and then. I was not too thrilled with Delaina. I did like Michael Maloney who responded to some of my questions during Jonathan's tenure.

[boldfan01]

I remember Jonathan from his earliest online soap days. Before Al Gore "invented" the internet and the 'Net hit the mainstream, online services were all the rage for people to interact in the world of cyberspace. AOL kind of created a bridge between those online services and the Internet as we know it today, but before AOL, there were services like Compuserve and Prodigy. I remember being members of both at one time, and in the mid 90s, Jonathan was the resident soap columnist for Compuserve's soap forums. He used to hold weekly chats on CS and would even give spoilers and news tidbits, which I always thought was kind of cool. He was also the first person I remember referring to Soap Opera Weekly as SPW instead of SOW, since he never wanted to say he worked for a sow.

As the Internet grew more popular, the Compuserve forum presence dwindled and Jonathan moved on, and I seem to remember his tenure at TV Guide Online being post-Kape. But I still have fond memories of those CS chats, so it's nice to know that he's doing well in the industry now.

[MarkH]

Wow, interesting stories. Anybody know what Jonathan is now doing in LA?

[GladGirl]

He's now a very successful primetime reality show producer... started at SoapCenter and has produced Big Brother, Starting Over, Gene Simmons' Family Jewels, the Big Give, Blow Out, the new Pam Anderson reality show and a bunch of others. Even won an Emmy. He also produced segments for the Daytime Emmys for several years. I'm shocked this is "news"; I thought some other eagled-eyed poster would have seen his name on the credits...

[R Sinclair]

I knew about Soap Center... I don't watch a single reality show if it's not Making the Band.

[boldfan01]

The only one of those I watch is BIG BROTHER, but I admit I never really paid much attention to the credits given the way CBS "shrinks" them at the end of the show, so I guess I never noticed that. But that's a pretty extensive list, and the Emmy win is cool, too. Glad to hear he's doing well.