ALL: How to Break a Soap

[DaytimeFan]

I'll tell you why Susan Flannery has directed GL...Brad Bell is afraid of Ms Flannery retiring. He's petrified of it in actual fact. Directing keeps Ms Flannery happy so he made a call to Wheeler (not Bloom as he doesn't speak to her) and asked. Wheeler, of course, said yes. Brad thinks the happier Ms Flannery is the longer she'll stay at B&B. It's got nothing to do with the production model which is an unmitigated disaster.

I think DAYS was broken by JER's spectacular first run as HW. I say the show was broken after that point for two reasons.

1-The show went into the realm of the unbelievable and was very gothic.

2-Nobody ever topped JER. Even JER's second run couldn't top his first.

The audience that loved JER's first run never got what they wanted again after he left. His first run was just sensational, it was his vision of a soap opera...it got viewers. Although I happen to love Sally Sussman Morina's subsequent run she was not JER, nor were Brash and Cwikly, Dena Higley, Beth Milstein or Hogan Sheffer. JER set the audiences expectations at a level they never got to experience again. THAT is what has broken this show.

For me, GH was broken once it became General Mob. GH was once an ensemble show and it is now a disaster driven by a handful of characters, all of whom are under 50.

[Aaron]

As much as Mo's death CRUSHED me emotionally (no single storyline before or since actually made me sob like that!) I still feel GL had tons of life for at least a year afterwards. So it's hard for me to say that was the single event that broke the soap for me.

I disagree that GL didn't play out the aftermath of Mo's death. Ed's journey was especially powerful. Watching him deal with the guilt and struggling to relate to Michelle, watching him almost topple back into alcoholism, rebuild his friendships and finally find love with town outsider Eve Guthrie was very compelling.

I think GL truly started to slip when they lost Beth Ehlers and replaced her with Sonia Satra as GL's new heroine, Lucy Cooper. Satra was, imho, one of the WORST actresses to ever appear on daytime, and she was totally outpaced in the Brent/Marian saga by Frank Beaty. Come on, who WASN'T hoping Brent actually tossed Lucy off the top of that lighthouse? LOL.

But it was the ill-fated return of Kim Zimmer that finally killed GL for me. Her return, first as a "is she or isn't she" ghost was a total slap in the face of the audience. Then, she was shoehorned back into Josh's life, and the writers forced Annie into the role of cartoon villainess. After that, it was just an endless cycle of Movie Of The Week stories for Kim, culminating in the clone story. That was the definitive JUMP THE SHARK moment for GL, I believe. The show's never truly recovered from that abomination.

It's had moments of glory since, sure, but ultimately the focus was shifted to events, plots and environments as opposed to characters and history. Once a show does that, it's finished.

[Kylie]

I agree with your whole post, but the highlight part is what most hits home for me. Someone on another board asked me why Josh still bothers me, he's gone. And I tell them it's simple, I didn't want him gone. I wanted him not to be the unabortion. I loved Colin. I thought he was a good actor, and I thought Josh was written really well and could have made a great son for Erica.

Hell, that's what I'd always wanted most for her. A son. So I was behind Colin from the start.

To me, Josh was a plot point. He was something that Megan just wanted to use to create a little drama. I actually don't believe that ABCD thought people would care that much. (On an interesting side note, I have an email dated September 2005 that is a reply from Brian Frons about Josh, in whichshe confirms the storyline is exactly what so many said it couldn't be.)

I think the biggest thing for me, was the one time, and the only time that Susan commented on Josh, she seemed as confused as we all were. I kept thinking, if she's as confused as we are, then how can she give this story what it needs?

I could have been okay with it. I would have never liked it. But I could have been okay with it, if AMC had give both sides time to tell their story. But almost from the start it was Selfish/Evil/Bitch Erica vs. Miracle Worker Greg Madden. There was no shades of gray. Joe, Tad, Jeff, all practically crawled up Madden's ass, after they kissed his feet. It was sick. It was one sided and lacked any kind of compassion of death. I kept waiting for someone to make me feel like the reversal of history was worth it.

Even though Josh is gone, what he stood for is still there. He's still the unabortion. He's still the tainted memory of what should have been Erica's only son.

I've never acknowledged him as her son. Nor will I ever.

[leevo64]

What has 'broken' GH for me is the slow but steady killing of the Quartermaine family. I didn't complain much when Alan and Monica fell off the burner into cameo status, because I knew that they were still living in Port Charles, going along with their dysfunctional lives. It didn't matter to me when AJ left town with Lydia because I knew that AJ could still return to Port Charles and continue to cause trouble for his family, Carly and Sonny. Lastly, I hated Natalia Livingston's Emily Quartermaine, but I knew that eventually there could be an Emily recast because the character was so important to the canvas. So when AJ died an anti-climactic death in a cheap mystery a few years ago I was a little bit shaken. The character was made into a completely black/white villain who WANTED to hurt Jason in that car accident, then unceremoniously killed by Michael... or that therapist... or who cares? They killed off Alan and Monica's eldest son, who was born during a famous snow storm, who was thought to be the son of Rick Webber, who was a recovering alcoholic, who shared a son with Carly, a SPENCER. I was angry, but I got over it. Then Alan died during a very moving, emotional story with lots of closure with the family, but was given a joke of a funeral. Then later that year, Emily - another character we watched grow up on the show - a young girl taken in by Monica, best friend to Elizabeth, rape and breast cancer survivor, soul-mate of Nikolas, was STRANGLED to death at her engagement party, in a beautiful gown, happily glowing in her life. The death was distasteful and destroyed a character with over ten years of history. The problem with all of this is that there are now three 'official' Quartermaines left - Edward, Monica and Tracy. It would be almost impossible to erase the damage (with the exception of perhaps bringing back Ned, Dillon, and Brooke Lynn, but those three have always been peripheral characters). The show may go on, but it'll never be the same.

[Cat]

^^ IA levee that it was the build-up of corpses -- especially those with "Quartermaine" on the gravestone -- that finally got to me. All that death. All those bodies. All in order to destroy a much-loved core family. I think AJ may have been the worst for me. That's when I guessed that GH was gone.

Georgie's death sealed it. The flippant manner in which it was done. Yes, I know they brought back Kristina Wagner and the ham who played Dillon for the funeral. Before hurrying them out of town again by the end of the week. It was all so "B" story next to the ongoing mob saga featuring Sonny, Carly and Jason. You could tell TIIC did what they had to do to produce competent story but that was as far as it went.

Not only that, but I just couldn't face seeing the same few characters pollute my screen a moment longer. At least with Tamara Braun, Carly became tolerable. And there was something about Jennifer Brandsford that evoked vulnerability. But with Laura Wright, it soon became clear that this person, Carly, was a hateful, hectoring bully. No shades to the character, just lots of screeching designed to secure a daytime Emmy nomination.

I didn't care about Michael's bullet-in-the-brain coma, knew that it was all just a plot-point to make us feel sorry for characters I couldn't feel anything for. When I had tuned out in the past, something about some of the characters pulled me back into the show. This time, there was nobody to "pull me back in," LOL.

[DeeeDee]

And Justus (more of a Quartermaine than EMILY) wasn't even mourned.

[rangethatrover]

Oh god yes, Sonia Satra.

We were "blessed" with her presence on OLTL as she was yet another Friend of Jill.

She was horrible.

[All My Shadows]

I can agree with this. The whole thing was no-doubt an attempt at a sensationalized, "Look at what we did!" type of storyline. There was never a plan for Josh to be on long-term, I don't think, which is why he just faded away in the background. The thing with Zarf/Zoe was the exact same way...there was never an attempt to weave these characters into the show and have them establish relationships with appropriate characters. They came, they caused drama, they either faded (Josh) or left (Zarf).

And Colin love will almost always make me oblivious to anything else, so yeah

[Mitch]

If they were on screen, Holly could never have filled Mo's shoes. She was way too neurotic and different a character then Mo..(I could see Holly rolling her eyes and being very sarcastic when people came for help.) I do think that Mel could stand in as a younger Mo. The actress brings a calming air to her role but she has proved she can be a spit fire when crossed. I dont understand soap writers today. They think that every character has to be on constantly (Tammy Jon, Gush) or they are NEVER on and dropped to recurring. What happened to tent pole couples on contract?

I have to disagree that Wheeler is the hot young producer who can adjust to this new format. She was trained on the old production process, and you can tell she is not comfortable with the new one(not that she was good at the old one.) It was just as if she was watching her fave show, "The Hills," and just copied that, thinking she was hip. The bad music playing under the scenes, the quick cuts and the weird shots (though branches, etc.) that didnt work for the scenes or the show. A real hip young producer would have forged a new style, instead of copying someone elses.

I really do think the format could work, I thought yesterday's show was pretty good. There are still problems, as why that whiney damn music starts moaning over a scene when its not needed, the scenes are too short (the format cries out for good long scenes) and Wheeler jumps around in her sets too much. Why were Josh and Reva at the Towers, when Olivia and Nat were at Company? It seemed to be daytime (as it always is) so why is Reva sitting at a bar and nuring a drink when it made more sense if she would be hanging out at Company...and then Josh and Olivia could share a scene, etc. Everyone is in their own weird little world.

[tanyia2]

No way in hell could Mel ever become a younger Maureen or Bert. The character thinks that she is better than everyone else plus she are morales are so high the pope couldn't touch them. After the horrible way she treated Rick I am not sorry that she is not used more.

[EricMontreal22]

Remember the first Josh? He wasn't actually that bad--at first I wondered why they recast (I think they felt he came off too nice) considering he was better than most of the new male actors they had hired on the show recently who weren't recast were...

But yeah I think you're pretty much right though I'm not sure when Josh came on if that's the direction they were going with (remember he slept with Dannii, and then they barely even spoke). As for Zarf/Zoe when he came back after the brief Summer cameo for the transgender story they even said it was short term--the actor is a pretty big stage actor and made it clear he wasn't devoting more than a few months to the soap. And his story existed precisely in an island (despite some pallid attempts to mix him in with the Satin Slayer story)--which is too bad. I know most people HATED the character and the story, but I grew to like it and at the time felt it was the only AMC story that was being written in any decent way.

E

[Cat]

Garden of Eden + Tropical Temptation + Twins in a comet = Days doing a triple-axel over the shark.

[JackPeyton]

ha, i disagree.

I eman, they ere all uber bad, but the thing that broke days was without a doubt Melaswen Island. Mostly ebcause the previous three were for the most part balanced out.

[Cat]

LOL, I guess. Those instances I mentioned were close to MY breaking point. I tuned out. But the serial killer stuff had me on the edge of my seat. I just didn't know how JER was going to get Marlena out of this one. I figured "Marlena" had probably been Samantha since she returned from Stefano's clutches in the late 80s and that she was now, somehow, malfunctioning and Samantha's sociopathic tendencies were breaking through. The real Marlena was bound to show up!

I was relieved Grandma Horton didn't really choke on a doughnut, though, or that Maggie hadn't been gruesomely murdered after all but that island... you are right. It broke any trust I had in the soap after that. Nothing, not even death, would ever move me again. There would be no consequences to any actions, any events. No pay-off.

[JackPeyton]

Yeah, i eman they sucked anmd im sure did tune alot of people out, but it wasnt as if the show copuldnt recover from that. And again i think little damage was done due t other nonc razy awful storys at the time. But the island stuff - thatw a diff. thatw as the ONLY story. and it was a fakeout of a very bold daring storyline that did have people watching and wondering wtf are they gonna do now? lol.

and i figured it was a Marlena clone that stefano had made years ago in a storyline. I forget what, but i think he had her in a gold cage in Paris? or some [!@#$%^&*] like that. He made like 5 Marlena clones and sent them out into the world.

But yeah, what i bolded, thats why i stand by that the island storyline broke the soap. It didnt even try and recover from it IMHO.