All: TV Guide's "The Worst in Soaps 2008"

[dragonflies]

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Trying to be fresh and hip, Guiding Light switched from a classic, studio-bound soap to one shot on location in drab, charmless Peapack, New Jersey, with jumpy, nausea-inducing minicams, tinny sound and harsh, unflattering lighting(Kim Zimmer, call your lawyer!)

CBS defended the makeover as "a work in progress" and since then much of this artsy-fartsy, indie-flick stuff has been dropped, but why should we be patient while a show gets its act together? The message--that viewers are that unimportant--just seemed so rude. Foolish too. Ratings have dropped 21 percent since the "progress" began.

Suicide is Painful

Watching Days of Our Lives owner Ken Corday systematically destroy his soap--by sticking with his dreadful headwriter Dean Higley, axing his dynamic show-runner Ed Scott and dumping his two most popular stars, Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn--has been unbearably sad. And, clearly NBC is too mired in its own problems to care.

Mad Men

Head Writer Ron Carlavati and exec producer Frank Valentini beautifully resurrected the flailing One Life to Live, then trashed it by sending Bo and Rex time-traveling to 1968 and rehasing a 20-year-old storyline about the crown jewels of Mendorra. The latter--with criminally bad acting by Andrea Evans(Tina) and Kevin Spirtas(Jonas)--was the dumbest, most exhausting plot of the year.

Flack Attack

Proctor & Gamble's PR department publicly blasted Soapnet.com for posting a Perez Hilton item that outed a top As the World Turns star. Then P&G took out ads promoting ATWT on Perez's Web site.

And the Winner Is....

Apparantly nobody. CBS and ABC have refused to broadcast the Daytime Emmys in 2009 and, at press time, there were no other takers. Not even Soapnet wants the damn thing. Now how pathetic is that?

[Southofnowhere]

Who was the ATWT star that got outed?

[Khan]

I am not sure, but I think his name rhymes with "Dan Kansas".

[Cashton]

Michael Logan has always seemed to me to be the only true soap journalist in the biz. He's always got the best scoops and his insights and opinions I usually agree with. And he doesn't have to announce himself as a "thinking" columnist either because you can read his columns and know that for yourself.

[Southofnowhere]

I see. lol Thank u muchly.

[Rakesh]

Thanks for posting.

Nice list.

Michael shouldn't have brought this up again... Not a lot of people know about it.

[SteveFrame]

The thing that I don't get is how people keep saying that the firing of Edward Scott was a bad thing at Days or even the firing of Hogan Sheffer for that matter.

I don't even watch the show as often as others do and I can see that it wasn't totally a bad thing. Yes they brought a few good things to the show in particular good direction and good dialogue. But they were also responsible for just as much bad.

Sheffer's stories were terrible, and not only that the show didn't even have the feel of Days of Our Lives while he was there. It seemed like some other show. And characters like Stefano didn't even seem like Stefano. The Stefano that Sheffer wrote was some castrated Stefano who couldn't instill fear in a fly.

Then Ed Scott was evidently responsible for some backstage upheaval in much the same way that evidently Josh Griffith was at Y&R. Things were so uneven for so long, and although they aren't perfect right now things seem to have stablized backstage and it is even seen onscreen.

I agree that Higley needs to go, but keeping Ed Scott was bad for the show. Corday and Scott could not work togehter and as long as Scott was there nothing would ever stablize on the show. Corday was never going to allow a writer in there that Scott trusted as he wanted someone in the studio that has his interest at heart. Scott didn't.

I think it is funny too that if Days does survive the next contract cycle that as bad as Higley is - everyone may owe Days salvation to her. She did something that Sheffer couldn't do and that was stablilize Days ratings. If she was the one who wrote during the strike and everyone says she was things really started to turn around for Days in February. And then since the Olympics things have really been good. And despite all the bad that is being said - you do hear good from many people who said just what I did that right now even with it's problems it does feel like you are watching Days when you turn it on.

[smadleyb]

I was wondering that too.

As for Peapack - I've not been there, but I'm not sure I'd say it's 'charmless' - just a little vacant - aren't there any locals there they could use for extras or background filler?

[MikeGoldy]

What is the big deal if people know about it? It's a pretty open secret and certainly nothing to be ashamed of

[MikeGoldy]

AMEN! I think the show is quite good right now, certainly better than during most of Hogan's run

[Soapsuds]

I thought a lot of people knew already?

[Rakesh]

Same here. But everytime this subject is brought up, lots of people(Not talking about this board) don't; so I assumed that...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

On his last point, I thought we were supposed to hear of a new home for the Daytime Emmy's by early December, it's almost the new year and we still haven't heard anything.

[Toups]

The team of Scott/Sheffer kicked major ass. From October to January, the show was very good. Ever since then, the show has gone downhill. Stupid strike.

[DeeeDee]

There's always QVC...