OLTL Todd/Marty II: Exactly Why Soaps Are Dying!

[Antoyne]

I would think killing off entire families, focusing on the mob, and ignoring history would be the thing killing soaps..I stand corrected.

[rhinohide]

Not by me Antoyne. I agree that killing off entire families and core characters and a flood of new characters no one cares about, and botched returns of old favorites are what is killing daytime. This travesty is just another in a long list of bad stunts IMO. Truthfully, I don't think it's any worse, or better, than many others we've seen.

[LoveZendall]

Hmmm....THIS is killing soaps? I don't think so. I agree with Antoyne. Ignoring history is a bigger killer of soaps than this storyline, which is not ignoring history at all, but rather capitalizing on it. Ignoring Todd/Marty's history would be having Marty fall in love with Todd as a fully cognizant person, which she is not right now. Her amnesia is the mitigating factor--she is a blank slate. When she gets her memory back, there isn't going to be any more Tarty love. She will want to kill the man, in all likelihood. Todd, as a character, CAN come back from this IMO---he, after all, does not have amnesia and he is truly in love with her. He will lose her once and for all when she snaps out of her amnesia. He'll pay the price. It'll be a long road back to redemption for him, but IMO it can be done. And I say that as someone who isn't a huge Todd fan to begin with. I'll bet SH was fully behind this storyline--because of the amnesia element. In fact, didn't she give an interview when she first came back where she talked about wishing Marty would have amnesia, and then she was happy when FV told her that was the way they were going?

[brimike]

^^^ LOL! She said she wished Marty had amnesia because she admitted to not having watched Christina Chambers in the role, and had no idea what had happened to the character after she (Haskell) left the show. So if she had amnesia, she wouldn't have to do research. It was a joke she made. :-)

[asa]

You know what kills soaps? Being stuck in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. There's a reason that the genre is going strong in prime time--it's that the genre lends itself to degradation and controversy but the only controversy between the Todd/Marty romance is that it's tame and the marms are up in arms about it.

[marceline]

Interesting. When CC said that she hadn't watched any tapes of SH's Marty some people wanted to drag her through the streets. They never should've brought Marty back, no matter who played her. The character ran its course.

This story sucks on three levels: 1.) Ron is trying to co-opt Malone's glory days, 2.) in his attempt to put his own stamp on it he's ignoring the history he supposedly loves so much and 3.) in the end this is just another Fronsian stunt.

[brimike]

Oddly, they keep going back to the Spring Fling story with her. For awhile (the Patrick years), whether you liked them or not, at least the character of Marty evolved in some way beyond what happened to her that night at the frat house.

It's like when B&B falls back on Taylor/Ridge/Brooke, or ATWT would have Rosanna fall back on not being able to have a baby, or Sonny feel betrayed by (insert name here). It's one thing to have a character driven by something, and have a throughline... but when their entire shelf life is based on one thing, it just shows a lack of imagination, and that yes - maybe a character has run its course.

[miajere]

IA, but oddly enough this current MArty isn't dependent upon that evolved Marty. Sounds like the HW should have looked a little more into this. The current Marty is now de-evolved for however long the writers need her to be. ( so was Dena's Marty.) I'm with Marceline- I think this character had run her course, and should've been left in the past. What use is evolution, if it's no longer apart of the fabric of characters' decisions?

[EricMontreal22]

I'd like to think we've come a ways since 1980.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

GH also ignored the rape for years and pretended that what happened wasn't really rape initially. By contrast, Marty's rape was always brought up and is ALWAYS played as a fundamental aspect of both Marty and Todd and their relationship in regards to one another.

[EricMontreal22]

Right. I mean DAYS under Bill Bell (who likes his rape stories) had the infamous rape (Laura I think?) where she also ended up marrying him. But I just don't think you can get away with that now--and as yous ay in those cases it wasn't nearly so clear if it was rape or maybe "semi consensual" etc etc. With this it was always crystal clear (I'm not saying they should make "iffy" cases less clear, just that when it is so clear as this...)

Santa Barbara had that infamous bti where they kinda pointed out GH's hypocritical ness by having Eden go on a talk show complaining about how rape was romanticized on a soap opera. Of course SaBarbara wasn't perfect--many found it in poor taste to have the VERY graphic rape of Eden then turn out that the gynecologist who inspected her after was the rapist--the actor who played the gynecologist pointing out, rightly IMHO, that women have enough trouble trusting gynecologists especially after something like a rape anyway. But SB was always pretty irreverent.

However--and I genuinely love and usually agree with Marlena's articles, I disagree with the title of this piece. I don't think the Todd/Marty II story is really emblematic of the myriad of reasons soaps are dieing right now...

[Southofnowhere]

This story hurts real people and it's just plain SICK!

[daysfan]

IMO, the rape of Marty is different than ANY other rape that has happened in Daytime. Whether its Luke/Laura on GH, Bill/Laura on Days, or even EJ/Sami on Days. Because with the Todd/Marty story, it has ALWAYS been emphasized way more than any of the others, and Michael Malone made it into a gigantic, historic story that left its mark. With these other rapes, maybe I'm remmebering wrong but from what I know on any of them, the rape either wasn't played on, it wasn't shown, or just wasn't as brutal. In fact, maybe its all of them.

With Todd/Marty, it was dark, grity, and VERY brutal. We saw three men, not just one, rape her with absolutely NO mercy, and after the rape, Todd continued to threaten Marty, and if I remember right it had some negative effects on Powell Lord(one of the rapists), and of course Kevin was accused and there was the huge trial. Again, the rape was capitalized on, and also, a major difference was that when the rape originally happened, there were no intentions for a Todd/Marty romance. With Luke/Laura, EJ/Sami, and I think Bill/Laura, it was kind of always known that it would turn into romance.

And I agree with alot of Marlena's points, if not all of them. It was a great column.

Numerous things are wrong with this story, numerous things. It is all disgusting, and it nearly made me even sick to watch it.

For one, I feel it as offensive to any victim of rape out there. Man or woman. Because as many others have stated at various times, Todd is just raping Marty all over again. Mentally. She may have been willing to sleep with him this time around, but he's messed with her head. Its just rape without the physical brutality.

And also, one of my biggest complaints is that this is destroying the characer of Todd. Now yes he may have seemed beyond redemption back when he raped Marty too, but since then, Todd has done many bad deeds, but there has been significant character growth, and everyone knows that. He was no longer just the sick college frat boy. And Ron was writing him pretty good until the strike, even he had Todd grow. But then Tomlin reversed it with Cole/Starr, but then Ron continued it and had him go and do this. To me, this destroys any progress Todd ever made. This makes him just as evil, malicious, and demented as he was when he raped Marty. And I feel this has pushed him beyond redemption. I just don't see how he can be redeemed after what he's pulled this past year. And if they try it will have to be one brilliant story for me to buy it.

I feel this story HAD potential, at times, it was very intriguing, and it almost could draw you in. But, and I could see Frons being behind this but this has gone so far I don't care, whoever wrote this went about it totally wrong and I could see any writer or producer having enough SENSE not to have them actually have sex. They should have known that was past the limit. They should have known how offending it was. They should have known how many fans they'd downright enrage.

And it will forever severely taint Ron in the eyes of many, especially those who already hated him before this. It sure has in my eyes. I liked the guy, I really did, but I don't know if his reputation can ever recover from this, in my eyes or others(as Vee also said). And he promises big payoff, but I don't know if ANY payoff could ever make up for Todd and Marty having sex. And I don't even expect it to even try to measure up to being satisfactory.

Overall, it is just a sick, sick story..

[EricMontreal22]

Well they did show the Luke/Laura rape/"seduction" but you're right on your points--it was quite different from the Todd/Marty one (again rape is rape, and I'm nto trying to downplay that, but the way tis shown does make a difference). Yeah Powell actually, about a year later, turned out to be the "masked serial rapist" in one of my least fave Malone stories (partly cuz I was really growing to liek Powell and appreciated how they had him sorta be the reluctant rapist--group pressure and all btu still made it clear he was at fault), apparantly cuz of the trauma or something.

I kinda disagree about redeeming Todd though--regardless for me he's always been a character I've liked best when he's been a mess, complex, but basically bad guy. I dunno why soaps feel they have to redeem everyone. But I do agree that this has written him into a hole (I didn't know it was Tomlin who wrote the COle and Todd stuff but that I actrually found fascinating--how Todd was so blinded by what he did to Marty that the only conclusion he could leap to when he saw Cole in bed with Starr was that he raped Starr--a sort of not being able to get past what he had done and so projecting it onto Cole. It coulda raised fascinating points--like has Todd *ever* truly outgrown seeing sex as a sort of means of asseritng power over someone else? anyway...)

[ZaraB]

This may not be the entire reason soaps are dying, but it is a large part of why ABC soaps are driving away their audience. It's not just one story, but the continuous diet of them. At OLTL, it's not just the re-rape of Marty, it's the stepson rectory sex, the month long shots of dead baby floating in the river. The major stories aren't cliffhangers where people can root for one or two characters..it's showcasing the worst of humanity in some of the most bizarre situations, not an echo of what the viewer or his/her coworkers/friends might be facing.

Todd has been the central character of OLTL for years. He's not the 'heart' of the show, as Viki was, but he IS the character who 'defines' the show right now. (I still suspect production has been ordered to make John McBain the center, and RC is just doing that more slowly). This storyline decimates what has kept Todd's character from becoming the cartoon villain a list of his misdeeds would lead one to believe. First, it decimates his relationship with his kids, especially Starr. The father who fought for years for custody, and the relationship, throws it away with a plan to steal his grandbaby, taking Marty with him as well? It takes away his brain, his cunning...and to some extent even his humor.

DH did a very good job trashing the Todd and Blair relationship, but RC is the one pushing the whole family beyond repair. I don't recognize ANY of the three Mannings in this one. I never bought Starr giving bland Cole the time of day, but giving HER baby to Marcie? Blair gushing over distant detective John McBain? Todd turning his back on all three kids and Blair for an unseen grandkid?