Raven Beauty says writing changes to OLTL

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

That would just continue the cycle that we all hate so much, including yourself. Dont fire him, get him some help. He knows the show, he's watched it for years, knows characters, knows history. What more could you ask for in a head writer? OLTL is lucky to have someone heading the writing team who gives a damn about the show. Just ask GL.

[rangethatrover]

I want to understand the second part of her clue about the surprise that will be a "peace offering"..

And I also want to know what leading man is bolting.

I PRAY, PRAY, PRAY it is the godawful John McBain.

[marceline]

The history thing hasn't served him or the show too well has it? Basically he came on board, dropped a bunch of familiar names, bungeed back some old faces, tossed some old plots in the microwave and served them up with a flourish. He's the Rachael Ray of soaps.

Maybe they should change Ron's title to Head Historian. It would be more accurate. He could spend his day listening to Wham on his Walkman (no iPod for RetroRon) researching old stories while someone else does the actual writing.

I don't get that part either. Will the peace offering be something that happens on the show or behind the scenes? Regardless, a peace offering to one group of fans can easily be a spit in the face to another.

[Ms. Chandler Quartermaine]

OMFG....

That is the best diss on RC I have ever heard, bravo!!!

[MarkH]

I agree with you...not just about this show but about daytime.

We KEEP throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Over and over and over again we villainize these show writers and runners, and simply dump them. (Ignoring the important role of corporate interference).

I acknowledge that SOMETIMES completely replacing someone who is totally creatively bankrupt or out of touch makes sense. Often, though, what is needed is a little help...a little support to shore up the weak parts.

Collectively, we complain that the daytime genre loses touch with its history...forgets character throughlines...changes motivations on a dime. That is a consequence of this constant replacement mentality.

I honestly think a healthier attitude...and one we fans should encourage in almost every case...is "fix" not "replace". Now, I realize this could sometimes lead to a "committee product" which is NOT an improvement.

Let's personalize this to Carlivati. Many people, earlier this year, and also late last year, saw that this was a creator of immense gift. There was MUCH to recommend him. That is still in him! Who knows what has gone wrong?

Beyond that, even in his current controversial story, I am appalled that some viewers are not willing to take a long view....to see whether this story IN FACT disappoints as much as it CURRENTLY seems to.

This is not unique to soaps. People out there are crapping their pants because of where the stock market is TODAY. Never mind that we all know, rationally, that you need to take year-long or decade-long views of the market. People with short times to retirement should have been watching the bubble and adjusting their portfolios 1-2 years ago (as many wise people did). The wise people took the long view. So it is with soaps. Have we become SUCH an immediate gratification culture that we can't allow a writer to play out his/her beginning, middle and end? Tarty has an OBVIOUS end game...anyone can see it. So why not let it play out? Why "off with his head" to the HW? Why not judge him on the long-arc story? I would say that if the long-arc story disappoints people so much...that WOULD be cause for some kind of change, IMO.

[MichaelGL]

Hmmm you had me until you stated this, I don't see how dropped a bunch of a familiar names that were there before. I can only think of Phil Carey's Asa and Forbes March's Nash and perhaps Miles Lawrence.

That's the problem I don't think many people see it, I don't think many viewers have the patience to sit back and watch a story play out, especially over a long time. It seems to me that anyone who had Bill Bell's sense of pacing would be toast in today's enviroment. Bell was notorious for letting stories play out for months and even years with big pay offs in the end.

[Vee]

By "peace offering," Raven of course means, "any one of several actors my devoted cultists have been screaming for." It could be literally anyone. Her "spoilers" are always a Rorschach test of the reader; whatever you want to happen, she will cater to with a bit of vague, leading speculation. If you want to see Roger Howarth back, she might mean that; if you want Renee Goldsberry, she might mean that. Everything she writes is calculated to keep the maximum amount of fangirls happy. It's carrot and stick. This is the street corner shell game Ravenbeauty plays with every show she has no real info on, which is most of them.

[marceline]

I meant dropped as in "name dropped." He started throwing around familiar names as a way of saying "See I know history! Don't you love all this history?!" Allison, Tina, Asa's ex-wife what's her name, Iguazu Falla, Mendorra, blah, blah, blah. They were all just the cream of mushroom soup, tuna fish and cornflakes in the Carlivati Canned Goods Casserole.