OLTL's Carlivati to be demoted or fired?

[Drew]

history's hardly mattered to its parade of head writers lately

[David_Vickers]

ABC would be stupid to fire Ron Carlivati. Maybe hire a co-head writer to write with him. I loved the returns of Addie, Tina, Cain, Dallas, Marty, but some of the stories dragged or lacked esp. Marty/Todd, and Tina/Mendorra/Carlo, but now that things are picking up with Marty and Tina being involved with her family, it's gotten a lot better.

[David_Vickers]

Wrong Ron. ONE LIFE has greatly improved under Carlivati and he's an excellent writer and not overated. He has brought ratings increase. ONE LIFE has hit the Top 5 a lot in the last year. Useless characters??! I don't who you're calling useless on ONE LIFE, but ONE LIFE is a pretty well-rounded soap. IMHO, ONE LIFE, DAYS & AMC are the 3 best soaps on the air.

[daysfan]

Although this does come from RB, in some ways I could see it if, as stated in TVGuide Canada about Andrea's exit and Ron wanting her to stay, that if by some chance he went up against Frons and it cost him his job. BUT, I certainly hope not because I have overall enjoyed his tenure, some of the best stuff OLTL had gotten in years.

Although, I'll agree that he sorta lost it during the anniversary and everything got far too camp-infested. As much as I love just about all the returns this year(I mean the characters and actors/actresses), and Ron has been able to weave the majority of them into story somehow, I will say that the returns are getting tiring. Maybe its just because they are so temporary most of the time. I mean I know everyone can't return long term, but the very brief returns can get annoying after some time. I mean again I love everyone they've brought back, but we've been overloaded with returns.

As for Ron going to another soap...eh, I'll pass. It depends. Ron knows the history of OLTL and was a fan of it for years and years and wrote on it for many years before being promoted to HW, which is what I felt made him so good. Not to say he's not a fan of other soaps, but I think it'd be a big flop if someone just automatically sent him to the HW chair at a soap he had never seen one episode of in his life.

[nell17]

When Ron first took over and all through May sweeps I was singing his praises because I could get into every single story line he had, Star's pregnancy, the Rex/Adrian, BE takeover. Those were umbrella stories that used every single character in a realistic way. That's not the case now. The show turned too dark and sleazy for me...Todd's turned into Spencer Truman trying to steal babies and playing freaky mind games with Marty, the Brody/Gigi/Rex gets way too much airtime, Tess is attempting murder and kidnapping, and Clint has a murderer trying to take Langston away from Dorian. It's all a WFT? Plus IMO, the 1968 and Mendora story lines should have been 2 two episode thing like Vicki in heaven, not weeks and weeks long. I still think writing is good on surface, but maybe he needs help with pacing and plot twists. A co-head-writer might help with that.

Raven? It seems that she, Nelson, TV Guide CA and Daytime Confidential all get together and compare notes. Lately, Raven seems to only post a "column" after The Suds Report comes out.

[rhinohide]

I honestly don't know what to think. I hated Dena Higley's writing with the fire of a thousand suns, so I anticipated Carlivati's promotion to headwriter with eager anticipation. I was wowed at first. He cleaned up Higley's mess expeditiously which was job #1. Then he began to create stories that were the stuff I had dreamed of. BE was elevated. Love in the afternoon seemed to be returning to my daytime. The vets were taking a more active role in the show's storylines. And then after Nash's funeral, everything seemed to go to hell in a handbasket.

I don't believe the current ratings can be laid at Carlivati's feet. I just think the viewers have been hanging on by their fingernails for quite a while now and everytime the show falters ever so slightly, a few more jump ship. There is no margin for error anymore.

That said, the writing has been so spotty. Sometimes very good, and sometimes just abysmal. I can't figure out what causes the swings from day to day. Many times it's the dialogue and the direction. It's the execution that fails. Carlivati has taken some pretty big risks, and I am not sure what the return will be. But I find it hard to believe he went from practically brilliant to so awful he should be fired in little more than a year. I think firing him would be too hasty at this point. And as so many have pointed out . . . replace him with what. A failed writer from another soap? This all smacks of throwing the baby out with the bath. Maybe he needs to be reigned in a little. A co headwriter might be a wise choice. I've always thought the problem with Higley and now Carlivati is that Valentini is weak and ineffectual as EP. Looks like Teflontini escapes accountability again.

[phloeishot]

I say bring Ron over to DOOL to write with Chris.

[Vee]

Of course you do.

[marceline]

Ron wouldn't work as a writer anywhere else. He's singularly focused on OLTL and it's bygone glory days. I doubt he realizes that there are any other soaps on the air or even knows what year it is.

[Cat]

I hope this is a joke or just a mean-spirited rumor.

How quickly people turn. At least RC's a writer who cares about the history, loves the show and features a wide cross-section of the cast. Including rebuilding the Buchanans and the Cramers!

Perhaps the people who started this rumor would prefer Dena Higley -- da best writor in da hole werld! OMGZ!!11!! Tess&Nash 4-eva! Starr&Cole 4-eva! High School Musical 4-eva! david fumero iz so hott! OMG Jolie rox! i *heart* john mcbain!

OLTL has improved LEAPS and BOUNDS from that hellish mess which featured, like, 6 actors on all. the. damn. time. Viki appeared three times a year at best. Honestly, I'd rather watch the 1968 SL all over again than remember the long drawn-out agony that was the Jolie break-up/f*ck/break-up cycle. And no, I'm not some Carlivati obsessive, just a OLTL viewer.

[Aback]

I couldn't have said it better, Cat. Big agree!

[JONNYSBRO]

I talked to a well known source about this rumor, it is BALONEY FOLKS. Absolutely no truth to this rumor at all. Carlivati is loved by Frons/ABC. The man won an emmy his first year as head writer. He has stumbled but OLTL is still ahead of AMC. I think if anything Ron might get a co-head writer like a Carolyn Culliton but fired absolutely NOT. Ron has been with OLTL since 1996 in every role on the show. He knows more about OLTL history then anyone else. In fact anytime any writer needed to know about history or characters between a scene they would call Ron. Tom Casiello has even said everyone looked at Ron as the OLTL encyclopedia, they asked him all questions of OLTL. Dena Higley loved Ron Carlivati, he was one of her favorites because always told her all the history she needed to know. She would call Ron up to ask him questions about charcters. That is why Ron became her co-head writer for that fact. If they got rid of RC, he would be snapped up like that.

[marceline]

From what I read Raven's spoilers never mentioned firing only that he would be demoted so it sound like your source is actually saying the same thing she did.

[Jess]

RB is as right as often as she is wrong. I wonder what the reaction would have been over here had DH or Guza been the writer in question rather than St. Ron the Overrated.

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

Ron is a writer. He'd work on any show, just like half the hacks who have never watched the show they wrote for but still at one point and time, put out some good stuff. It's a Soap Opera. Anyone with a pen and an understanding of soaps could write one.