GL: Lights Out?-TV Guide Article

[SFK]

To be fair, Marj brought neurotic (if not psychotic) Myrna Clegg with her to GL years before Conboy showed up.

[MichaelGL]

My how the mighty have fallen.

Anyways it's been weeks since the last rumor of GL's cancellation. For a minute there I thought it was the apocalypse.

[MichaelGL]

I'm not quite so sure about that. Have you seen the episodes leading up to when Roger was shot? The most convincing scenes Marj ever did as Alex Spaulding.

[DaytimeFan]

Bingo!

GL looks like an internet series. MarkH and I both agreed some weeks ago that GL looked surprisingly good on the computer, for whatever reason it translates across the internet in a far more attractive way than it does on television. That said, Y&R looks perfect through both methods of transmission. It looks great on the internet, great on television and great on my IPod...it's clear that GL survives simply because Bloom has not yet found her version of The View. Everyone in the business knows that's what she's after because Barbara Walters has proven that it is a viable format that gets good ratings and is cheap to produce. Consider that each view host makes between $500,000 and $2,000,000 a year (aside from Walters who is paid by ABC News to the tune of roughly $12,000,000 a year), that means the talent budget, max, is $8 million a year. Compare that to a soap, there is no comparison, The View is cheap cheap cheap to produce.

Soaps either need to be done to the highest visual standard possible, as Y&R is done, or they simply need to not be produced at all. There is a network wide mandate at CBS Daytime to pay attention to outdoor scenes, you've seen it done at ATWT and B&B. Y&R simply ignored this mandate and chose to do location shooting for special occasions. ATWT and B&B are doing their damnedest to get it right and they are succeeding. GL has failed and it's time, like bellcurve so rightly puts it, to excise this disaster before it eats away at daytime television as a whole.

[SOAPSFOREVER]

It's way past the time to pull the plug on this show. It's never going to recover in the ratings. It's been in the basement for years. It's sad to let this gem go, but its luster has been so badly tarnished that it's painful to watch. I know true fans of the show feel differently, but enough already. The patient has suffered long enough IMHO.

[MarkH]

I vacillate between this perspective and the one that applauds the experiment.

IF, as Michael Bruno has implied, GL continues to generate more revenue than it costs, then it is NOT time to pull the plug. Instead, the numbers mean that there are enough viewers to sustain THIS particular form of the product.

I am experiencing an opinion shift on this. As long as enough viewers exist to pay for this product, why cancel? The argument, of course, would be that GL is also creatively bankrupt...but the regular daily viewers apparently don't agree...they still tune in.

The other issue is that the show is now starting to spin stories that viewers are actually responding to...you can feel the critical "warm up". Otalia is generating true positive buzz (whatever direction that story is headed in...even if it is just a close female friendship), and the

has many people excited. So, put it all together, and I think it is worthwhile experimenting.

Some folks have said, "why not just have cancelled GL and created a new show or a spinoff?" Maybe that is true. But we all know that new shows need at least 5 years to take off...and that is not sustainable in this market.

Instead, what they have done with GL is akin to an old car that was sent to the wrecker. They have salvaged the pieces they could, and they are making a new car out of it. That approach won't please someone who wants a fancy new car. But some people ARE satisfied -- or at least, their needs are met -- by such a Frankenstein/rebuilt car.

I am inclined to believe that April 2009 is the end date for this show...more because of the broader economics of the network...but my hat is off to Ellen Wheeler for trying something new. My guess is that her production model will serve as the template for a future soap...wherever it will appear...on whatever network...in whatever daypart...a decade from now or whenever the Phoenix rises again. That is a contribution.

Clearly, they spent all of 2008 working out the production kinks, and only in 2009 is the creative state of the show being readdressed. That was probably a mistake...but you spend your budget on what you can. It took more courage to try this approach than to just shutter the production.

[Ann_SS]

GL's cancellation is not a good thing for the soap genre. In addition to, the people who will be put be out of work. GL's cancellation will hasten the demise of ATWT. P&G is likely to decide to get out of the soap business completely sooner than later with the economy in such terrible shape.

Unfortunately, I believe that the April 2009 may be the end also, but I am hoping that GL gets a reprieve and survives until next year.

[marceline]

OMG! I could totally see her working something like the Sharon Gless role in Queer as Folk!

[SFK]

That's EXACTLY where she belongs. I will never forget this mental image of Reva... it was when she had cancer, she was in the hospital with Josh talking to some doctor, bad news, she wasn't saying a word, but there she stood. She was pretty heavy at this point, in a curly red Carolyn Jones as Myrna Clegg wig with a little cowboy hat on top her head and boobs out to *HERE*. Her eyes were watering, it was a tense moment, but this visual, I could not help but laugh. This heartfelt moment, but she looked just so brash and trashy.

If GL is cancelled, I want to see her on Broadway in August in Osage County or something, or some Tennessee Williams... but that Sharon Gless on QAF type on a primetime series, most definitely.

[Southofnowhere]

She would never take a such a role because she doesn't like the gays!

[Supersage]

Several GL viewers are beginning a grass roots effort to save GL. If April is the deadline by which CBS has given GL, we don't have long to 1) get the ratings up and 2) convince CBS to give GL another year. I have heard through various sources that lowering fees this summer isn't an option for GL (they have been lowered as much as they can be at this point AND have Telenext/PGP make a profit). The time is now if we are to do anything about it! We are asking past and present viewers to watch GL on a daily basis, as well as send one Duracell battery to CBS to show support of the show. Spread the word! If GL falters, you can expect other soaps to wither away, too.

[Rocket Man]

Thanks Supersage, I certainly will send them a Duracell and I encourage others to do the same.

[marceline]

Really? Something about her just screams fag hag to me. Of course I could just as easily see her standing outside Ole Miss decades ago with a "Keep the Races Separate" sign but that's more "Reva" than Kim.

[Rocket Man]

Where in the world are you getting this information that KZ doesn't like the gays? Did she personally state this to the media or the public? Did she write a letter to you that she does not like the gays? Did she tell you in person that she doesn't like the gays?

If I were you, I'd rethink what you just wrote because you are committing a defamation of character toward Miss Zimmer and it's totally uncalled for.

[MarkH]

This (fallacious) claim against Ms. Zimmer stems from the fact that she chose to pull her son, Jake Weary, out of the role of ATWT's Luke when it became clear that Luke was going to be gay.

Many people have accused Ms. Zimmer of homophobia as a result of that decision.

Ms. Zimmer's position, at the time, was that her son was still young (in high school), not even through college, and both the time commitment of a front-burner storyline and the public attention were bad decisions for a boy as young as her son. She thought Van Hansis was a perfect choice, both because he was a fully grown man, and because he had had the chance to complete college, etc.

In retrospect, given HOW MUCH attention Hansis has received (including unwanted attention from Perez Hilton), this seems like it was an appropriate maternal decision. Young Weary reportedly wanted to devote more time to hockey too, and that was inconsistent with the time demands of his emerging front-burner role.

It may also be that, if young Mr. Weary was a typical young man, he was personally uncomfortable with playing gay or sexually confused. Ms. Zimmer may have agreed to play "the heavy" (i.e., pulling her son out of the role) in accordance with her son's wishes. Again, that seems like good mothering and not homophobia to me.

In any event, accusations of homophobia in Ms. Zimmer are unsubstantiated, and should not be levelled without evidence, IMO.