OLTL: 2 Actresses Exit

[Sylph]

This Ron lovefest is such a strange, bizarre phenomenon... I don't know what could explain it.

[Vee]

Clearly we all forgot to clear our opinions with you.

[marceline]

I actually have a theory about that. But it's probably more suitable for a separate thread.

[SFK]

I don't follow, are you talking about Natalie on AMC?

BTW, I wonder if Melody play Janet at Natalie's funeral. Remember Janet snuck in and said, "Bye Natty" but we didn't see her face.

[Vee]

I'm sure that will be as much of a delight as your other 20 rationalizations as to why ordinary people would dare to like a soap you do not. It couldn't be that they just disagree with you.

[rangethatrover]

The one thing that gifts me comfort with Ron being OLTL's headwriter is that he LOVES the show. He respects the show. He obviously loves its history.

I hope things will come together.

And I want Andrea to stay. Even if it means her coming back every now and then.

Tina was always campy. Andrea is playing her as she always has.

It kills me to have this iconic character compared to Rebecca from Passions. ick.

[marceline]

Wow. You are just spoiling for a fight aren't you?

I don't criticize people who watch the show. I criticize Ron and certain people take it personally.

[Sylph]

Well, I would looove to read it!!!

[rangethatrover]

Let's be real, the show is extremely, extremely, hit or miss.

I like the balance of all age groups though.

Sadly, OLTL is the best soap on ABC.

I want to read your theory too!!!

Who cares if people get offended. free speech sweetie.

[miajere]

Watch it- Ron's my father!

[marceline]

First I'm not talking about people who are watching the show and liking it. I'm talking about the members of The Holy Tabernacle of Carlivati. There's a difference and those of us who bear the scars of their pitchforks and torches know the difference.

So my theory: It's not really about Ron, not completely. It's about what he represents.

For years on these boards, we've been hearing what soaps "need" and the refrain has been pretty familiar: they need writers who respect the genre, they need to focus on core families, respect history, showcase vets, show more love in the afternoon, etc... So along comes Ron. He's been working at OLTL since God was a toddler, knows the history, loves the show, rose up through the ranks, blah, blah, blah.

And essentially he becomes the nostalgia crowd's version of a Jedi Knight: a lowly peasant trained in the old ways sent to save the universe. The Force is strong in him. Maybe he can save us from the Empire!

He takes over the show and does everything "right." Vets, core, romance, camp, and so much history that he practically rips a hole in the fabric of space-time.

At first everyone celebrates: Yay! Skywalker has vanquished Vader (aka Higley!) The rebels dance! The Ewoks hug C-3PO! But then the ratings drop.... perhaps Emperor Palpatine (Frons) is still calling the shots. Is that a new Death Star I see in the sky?

Maybe.... and THIS is what's freaking out the Carlivatians: Maybe the Force isn't as strong as they thought. IOW Ron represents everything soaps supposedly "needed" to succeed. If he fails, the genre goes with him. That's why they go for the jugular in his defense. They aren't just defending him, they're defending all soaps everywhere.

But it's just a theory.

[tylerbo20]

days shoud scoop her andrea evans up asap....she is a great actress...could play anyone..

[Vee]

I've heard this same condescending, nasty doctrine from Evangeline fanatics online. When they got themselves really high on their own supply, they would occasionally fancy themselves Marshall McLuhan and begin to get on their little soapboxes about "the future of soaps" (that is, when they weren't dialing the NAACP to complain about the breakup of John and Van - a true story no matter how much they deny it). They thought that one two-dimensional, fawning character represented a singular breakthrough in the world of daytime soaps and that they were the chosen people of the future. It was just as wrongheaded then and it's still crap. It also ignores what soaps are built on, and what the audience is about.

Soaps cannot live on vets, history and old glory alone; Days of our Lives is constant proof of that, as they remain deadlocked by their aging supercouples and try to throw "red meat" - flashbacks, montages, sex scenes - at their fanbases to pacify them, while being unable to tell a new story. Fortunately OLTL does not have that problem. Since RC started he has introduced new characters, new couples and new ideas while drawing on the rich history of the past, and acknowledging what vets and history can do for a soap if they are mixed in with the new. They are the lifeblood of soaps. Without history that informs the future, soaps are nothing. Without an audience of young and old fans, soaps are nothing.

When RC signed on as HW I did not expect much and it took me a while to be sure I wasn't getting screwed. He didn't do it with a bunch of cameos and a lot of history remembrances, though. All we'd had up to that time was the one-off episode with the guests at Asa's funeral; anyone could do that. He won me with a long period of many weeks of solid storytelling with plots like the Buchanan Enterprises intrigue with Jared and Natalie, in a way BE had never really been featured before, ever, bringing the show into the future by taking on business storylines, like the ones that have made Y&R #1. He won me with the custody battle between Todd and Marcie - certainly something totally locked in the present and the future of the show - as well as the rekindling between Todd and Blair that was done in a fresh and intelligent way I had not seen before, and the new romance and story for Viki in Paris, TX with Charlie. None of these things were pablum for the addled old masses you seem to take us for. I am in my twenties and in the prime demographic for this show, I am thinking of the future, and yet I love the man's work. Maybe I just have a wider view of what the future can involve than you. I did not say the show had to have Evangeline or Kevin or Joey or David or Max or Asa or whoever to succeed and make me happy. I just asked for a well-done, well-written show about a lot of interesting people, young and old. That's what he gave me, and often enough that's what he still gives me. It's not perfect, as I don't like every story or every couple, and I wish there were more AA characters. But compared to the storytelling he's given us at least 75% of the time, these are concerns I can wait on.

The concepts you disparage are still the concepts that drive daytime and will allow them to survive. That is not an RC issue, that's just a fact, and you dismiss these things at your own peril, especially when you have absolutely nothing to replace them with. At the same time there is always a necessity for new characters and new ideas, and RC has used some of them. Whether or not they are characters you like is your problem, it's not everybody else's, and you don't get to ignore those new things because they don't fit your case. You can talk down to us as much as you like, but maybe I wouldn't be so awful to you if you stopped for a single moment, listened to what people tried to say to you, and then the way you talked to them, and stopped getting high off your own supply, stopped trying to harangue us about how only you understand what soaps really need, and stopped being so fuckin' condescending. Because as it is, Professor McLuhan, right now the future of soaps - any soap, not just OLTL - is passing you by while you sit here sneering at us.

[Jess]

Oh, I see.

[Sylph]

And it's a damn good one! I think you're totally right. This is exactly what's happening.