OLTL: Thoughts on Ron Carlivati

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

That's crazy. I detest the Tarty storyline, but Ron is a good writer who deeply cares for his show. He hasnt sizzles in my opinion. his ratings on most days score higher than AMC and pretty close to GH. Dont question whether Dena would have went there, she would have and it would have been one of her famous "events". Ron took a risk idea and made a story out of it, something Dena Higley could never do.

[miajere]

I can't compare Ron to Dena- they're so different. But I'm not a fan of his work. But he's managed to do something very few writers can do- which is keep his fans wanting more. I think he's overhyped, but so is everything in the soap world with a passing grade these days. I can't say there's anyone who could replace him, and therefore view him as all the show's got- and from the looks of his supporters- that ain't at all bad. He has even managed to inspire people to want more from this industry and expect results.

Up until Tarty- I was a casual viewer- But after the story broke and with his interviews during the story line- I started to view him along the lines of Brian Frons, FV, and tptb....and since I don't negotiate my television time, I won't be watching for quite some time. It was risky, and I'm probably one of the few casualties, and I'm pretty sure that won't affect anyone's working day...but I just can't do it....maybe in he future something will "pull me back in".

[quartermainefan]

I don't get why people are so down on Mendorra. Every soap and soap wannabe can sell you a tale of babies and infidelity, but how many shows gave you a star impersonating a masked executioner?

Or time travel, or a dog named David Vickers? And it is the same show that had Dorian take over the company that led to Nash's death for more serious fare? And the whole baby story with Starr? What other soap writer out there tried to serve up 31 flavors this year?

[All My Shadows]

LOL! I almost thought you were serious. Carlivati ran extremely hot and cold. For every serious episode of drama that also had the appropriate amount of comedy, there's a "Who Wants to be Shane Morasco's Father!?" thing. And as far as the Mendorra [!@#$%^&*] goes...ugh. I said it before and I'll say it again, if I could just have one story where a normal person has conflict with another normal person, I'd gladly give up a million stories about lost jewels from mythical lands, queens and kings and princesses and princes. Those stories have their place, I know, but don't give me that after you've given me months of deep domestic/family stuff. It's like watching early "Ryan's Hope" storylines immediately turn into "Santa Barbara" storylines within in two weeks. Both are great, fun, entertaining types of stories, but you just can't flip flop back and forth between them.

[JackPeyton]

hes good. but way overrated.

that simple IMHO

[quartermainefan]

I don't get this either/or thing. Why do you have to give up all the stories about mythical lands when he did give you the simple conflict between normal people stories the rest of the year? Why can't you flip flop between the two? Variety is the spice of life and it's better to have both than just have a deep domestic story starring Todd and Blair and follow that up with something totally different....like a deep domestic story starring Todd and Tea. The time travel and Mendorra stories were a welcome relief from the uniform mentality that has taken ahold of all soaps--that they all must tell the same type of story again and again and again. That's not what made ABC daytime rise to their heights in the 80s but it is what led to their downfall in the 90s.

[rangethatrover]

I hated OLTL this summer, but I think it is the best soap on the air for the last 2-3 months.

And you have a very valid point, no other show has every type of storyline that OLTL tries to offer (sometimes to its detriment, sometimes succeeding)

OLTL tries to give high drama, humor, adventure, camp, fantasy...

This summer OLTL apeeared to be trying to appeal to EVERYONE- and I respect that..

But in the end, it was a little too much goofiness. Tina deserved better. I loved Mendorra at first. I loved the 1968 storyline at first. But both went on too long...

OLTL has a little something for everyone. It is the most balanced soap on the air in terms of storylines.

[All My Shadows]

Well, for me, it's exactly like what a lot of others are saying. His writing can be very DIDish. I was looking forward to seeing more fall out from certain stories, like the stuff with Jess/Tess/Nash's death/etc and Starr and Cole's rift, and I guess they gave us that, but I feel that the show was overpowered by the other stuff. The Jess/Tess stuff was born out of Jess's realistic devastation of losing her husband, but the outcome turned out being Tess locking Natalie and Jared in a secret room, hidden from everyone else, and Tina finding out and keeping it a secret didn't help. The other stuff just flew in from nowhere. Bo is dealing with the realistic situation of finding out that Lindsay lied to him for months...and so he gets struck by lightning and goes back to 1968! I was invested in these storylines heavily and wanted to see the fall out of those stories...but instead, I got a bunch of stuff that just didn't have anything to do with anything. And Mendorra...I don't know about that [!@#$%^&*]. Someone's gonna have to explain the relevance of that to me, because I've been watching again for the last couple of weeks and I've come across nothing that lets me know that that happened, and it's the same with 1968 (barring Bo's Christmas present for Rex, that awesome shirt!). I'd understand if RC was coming in and cleaning up someone else's dull plot lines, and so he puts out this stuff to erase people's memories of what was on in order to start his own storylines, but this was all one person writing, and so...it just comes across as DIDish to me.

And so maybe it's not necessarily that it's the fact that he chose to do the more nontraditional type of stories, but more that those stories jumped out in the middle of stories that were already going on. And also that there was no long-term effects of any of it...what exactly did we get from 1968, Mendorra, and Nat in a Box? Jess/Tess is at St. Anne's as a result of NIAB, and Cristian met that chick Vanessa because of Mendorra, but really...what else came out of any of it?

And wow, I just typed way more than I'd planned lol

[leevo64]

The 1968 story resulted in Rex learning that he was Shane's father and Bo coming to terms with his problems with Asa. It had a fatherhood theme that was much more realistic and honest than anything you'll find on most of the other shows.

To everyone who is comparing him to Maria Arena Bell - I've seen Y&R and yes, she is a VERY good writer, but Y&R and OLTL cater to very different audiences. I once read an article in SOD about supernatural stories on soaps and the EP at the time - not sure who it was - said that supernatural stories don't work on Y&R. Y&R's had a pretty consistent run in the years its been on the air and has always focused on character-driven family drama. OLTL, on the other hand, has a schizophrenic past that began with socially conscious storytelling (Carla Gray, for instance), later dove head first into 80s camp with Eterna and all the ridiculous Paul Rauch era (which many people loved) and eventually came back down to Earth with Billy Douglas and the AIDS Quilt and Marty's rape. After Michael Malone's first tenure the show began its descent into the generic 90s soap fare, copying other soaps' ideas and offering the viewer nothing special or original. Ron Carlivati has brought back the originality of OLTL. Is it schizophrenic? I wouldn't go that far. I think that the entire show adds up quite nicely. It's all rooted in humanity. The camp usually comes back down to Earth. Tess' ridiculous schemes came back to bite her so hard that she lost her baby; Dorian's Joan Collins' impression resulted in Nash's death; all of David's shenanigans are leading up to the Buchanans losing everything. The character-driven stuff is beautiful, especially Dorian and Langston's relationship and Viki and Charlie's love story.

So does Carlivati have DID? I don't think so. I think he just writes OLTL as a melting pot of what it's been during its entire run on the air. I think it's a good thing.

[Vee]

It's not perfect, and RC is not perfect. But OLTL is still the best soap on ABC, and probably the best other than Y&R. I give OLTL a lot of [!@#$%^&*] when it needs it - especially on Todd and Marty - but that story has become mesmerizing since November, and it's a great mix of comedy and solid drama, which can and should be done. Flops and successes he is the best HW OLTL has had since Michael Malone's first run.

Nor do I think fantastical stories like Mendorra are incompatible with hard-bitten gritty drama - you can do both in one hour, in fact, that is the magic of soaps. I remember when Malone juxtaposed Max and Luna vs. the ghosts against the advent of Todd or something, and the tones couldn't be more different. But they worked. The problem is the Mendorra story was done on the cheap, and didn't utilize as many characters as it should have. It was lazy, and it was not done right.

As for Dorian taking over BE, I totally disagree it came out of nowhere. Dorian had been building her scheme against Viki, Charlie, Clint, etc. since the day Clint dumped her, and the day she found out Charlie was Jared's father and then, when she learned he knew Viki. She had been obscuring her plans from us, the audience, but that was what made her dangerous and exciting as a character again, instead of defanged. For much of early '08, I had no idea what Dorian's endgame would be with these people she was toying with, but I knew she had something big in mind, and when she came into the BE shareholders' meeting, it all came together.

[All My Shadows]

See, I don't like the idea of such an important and anticipated event as Rex finding out Shane's true paternity happening during a mini-storyline involving time traveling. I think that there could have been other exciting ways to get to that point while also tying it in with Bo resolving his conflicts with Asa. I understand that other enjoyed the 1968 stuff and saw great value in it, but it was all lost on me. I guess it's all subjective. I'd rather have a more visible divide between the fun campy stuff and the serious dramatic stuff. If it was the other way around, and they were doing a majorly campy tale of whatever (time traveling, mythical foreign lands, monarchies and what-not), and then after a major point of the story, it got uber-serious, I wouldn't know how to take it. Do I take it as the fun, light stuff that it had been, or do I take it as the heavy stuff that I feel like they want it to be?

[Faulkner]

Snark did an almost surgical take on Carlivati's writing and the problems with it. And I agree with a lot of it.

http://snarkweighsin.blog-city.com/novsweeps08.htm

[Vee]

I don't doubt Y&R is probably better; it almost always is better than everything else this decade. But I've disagreed with Snark before, and I disagree that OLTL's characters are not flesh and blood or three-dimensional. They certainly have been at times since July or so, but not since the big reveal in November.

I condemned the Tarty storyline in my own columns, and feel that the good drama today was not worth the initial cost to the characters. But all I can do with it now is watch the story as it goes forward, and for the most part I find the show riveting despite my deep disagreement with the original premise.

[Dan]

God I love Snark. Brilliant analysis!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

OLTL's brilliance tends to lost in the horrific day to day writing. They have too many scriptwriters who think they're writing a sitcom, and not a soap opera. They try too hard to be humorous, and it doesn't feel natural at all. The overall dialogue on this show is stilted and hokey. The other soaps tend to have one or two brilliant scriptwriters, not OLTL IMO. There's no heavy hitter on their writing team, Carolyn Culliton is misused horribly in that Script Editor position and Frederick Johnson is writing outlines. Other than those two, no one else on that team is really distinguished or that good, IMO.

I just don't think that "voice" of the characters is very strong on the show. Carlivati's writing, like most HW's, is hit or miss, but his team doesn't do that good of a job of translating his vision. Frank Valentini isn't that good on the production side of executing Carlivati's vision either, IMO.