GL: Ellen Wheeler

[bellcurve]

I've seen ads for GL during Y&R and B&B. Maybe not alot of them, but the lower-rated shows are always gonna get the shaft unless they have a good story coming up.

I roll my eyes at every one of them because they soften the images to make GL look more slick and expensive than what it is, or they will only use their pretty location shoots.

[Vee]

Try speaking truth about Ellen Wheeler's utter incompetence on USENET (more specifically, rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs). You'll be in for a real good time.

Oh Jesus! I blogged that one! It looked like a snuff film! It looked like Hostel.

[DRW50]

I would like to see a permanent shift away from corporate stories, since GL no longer has the budget for even a boardroom set. I would like to see Alan have as little to do with Beth as possible. I would like to see more Bauers brought into the show. They don't even have to pay out money to bring back old people. Just bring in some Bauer cousins. I would like to see a return to kitchen sink drama, emotional stories involving close-knit friends and family which do not have to involve kidnappings or shootings or death all the time. I would like to see sympathetic characters, or people viewers can at least understand. I would like to see more use of Billy and Vanessa, since they both have decades of history on the show which can be exploited. I'd like to see Bill and Lizzie paired up for good. You can get truckloads of drama from strong, complex couples, and GL has those (Josh/Reva, Mallet/Dinah, Bill/Lizzie, Olivia/Natalia) if they can write for them.

I also don't understand why Cyrus is still on the show, they may as well write him out when Grady goes. I'd also write out Daisy, and Ashlee.

Is Doris still on the show?

[jfung79]

And I have read other people saying just the opposite, that GL has to have more corporate stories mixed in with family stuff because that's what the Spauldings were like in the 80s.

I don't have a problem with not having a "boardroom set" -- meeting rooms don't have to be fancy schmancy anyway.

There's another post in this very thread about how even Rick shouldn't be on and the show would work so much better with just the Spauldings, Lewises, and Coopers.

Seems to me fans cannot agree on the basics about what to do to improve the show, so I don't blame the show at all for just going with what it feels works while listening to the fans, rather than trying to please everyone.

I agree! And I think the show is taking the right steps towards these kinds of stories lately.

He'll be the only youngish eye candy once Coop is gone, not including Rafe who is barely on. Combine that with Murray Bartlett being a good actor too, and I want him to stay. Bill is great, but is not eye candy in the conventional sense.

They're barely on anyway.

Daisy is serving a useful role right now as confidante for uncle Bill. Her being there also makes it more likely that the show will recast Harley, so I want her to stay.

Yes.

[DRW50]

The Spauldings were still a vital family in the 80s. There's some potential with Phillip's return, but I think the days of Alex or Alan being the electric characters they were in those days are gone. The Spauldings used to have such intensity, with a side of camp.

Corporate stories and rich families are more than boardroom sets, they're also part of showing a wealthy lifestyle. The clothes, the parties, the manner. That's difficult when the budget means most of the scenes are practically filmed in a basement or side room.

The ratings fell when GL went on a Bauer massacre in 1983-84, and again when they killed off Maureen in 1993. I think many fans slowly moved away from the show when the Bauers were displaced. Rick may be of no further use as a character, but I don't see why the family has to go. The background of the family, working class people who struggle to raise themselves up, is one which I think is suitable for the current format of the show. Even if the show got away from that original idea, the idea still remains.

Murray Bartlett's very handsome, he has his moments as an actor, but Cyrus is such a murky character and all the character he has ties to are leaving or are gone, unless they're going to put him with Daisy, or back with Marina.

I guess they could put him with Blake, if she shows up again. I still don't understand the point of that stupid storyline she had with Coop.

[Mitch]

Wheeler is not to blame for the financial mess....MADD, Rauch and Conboy are. Yes, MADD was grooming Wheeler to replace Rauch but, in typical MADD outdated "cover my fat ass," mode chose Conboy which was the final nail in the coffin. I do think that Wheeler would have done quite well with Taggert...I think they could have moved forward while still respecting the core.

I also think that Wheeler does do some things most producers would not do, like keep actresses like Dusay, LK, BC, MK around. I know we bitch they are used enough, the budget is the budget. However, I do think that those actresses arent used effectively (i.e. Alex propping up Alan instead of being a force herself) if you have someone for the day dont have them come in and say one line, mix them up in a bunch of scenes.

I do blame Wheeler on squandering the whole Phillip is dead storyline and Roger's son returns with a vegance. She trusted a bad writer to carry these two stories out which could have really been a spark to get this show going. I also have to heartily disagree that she should have stuck to the Spauldings and the Coopers. I am sorry, but the Coopers are a weak family used as props for Gush. Their best asset Harley is gone and the whole family has fallen apart (Marina just doenst work as Harley lite.) Phaseing out the Bauers was the dumbest move she made..as the show transitions into the new look we needed the show to still be "GL," to get us into the process. Turning the Coopers into BauersLite was a diservice to both families and the show, (the Coopers were ment to be a lower middle class dysfunctional family who are trying to keep it together, but Kreizman wrote them like they were distant cousins of the Hughes family.) If Wheeler had to move the Bauers aside the smart move would have been to build the Marlers up. Ross is the patriach of GL and he and Blake are a soap anomoly...they have three kids which belong to both of them. The smart move might have been to have the focus on the Marlers and cast some preteen actors to play the kids so we get to know them and see them as family unit. Hell, they could have moved Ross and Blake into the Bauer house...keeping Rick as the town doctor,(moving him into the lighthouse) good friend to all Judge Lowell type and moved forward, dumping Marina and bringing back Sam in her place etc. The Coopers have their place,but not as the glue to keep this show together, so I think that is the dumbest move that Wheeler made.

I think Bloom is more to blame then Wheeler, however, I do think that a stronger EP could have met Bloom's demands and kept the core of the show together.

I think she can reignite interest with good writing and a nod to the past. She is doing just that with Hurst and GA's return and rumour has it that the Bauer family will be expanding...might not save the show but at least it can go out on a higher note then the wretched last three years.

[DRW50]

I agree with you. Focusing on Ross and Blake, bringing in more of their family, would have been a key decision. I think firing JvD was a huge mistake. He was the closest they had to a center.

I think the Coopers have two problems which marginalized their appeal even for the last few years Harley was in town. Frank and Harley were both defined through being abandoned by their parents. I don't think the relationship Harley and Frank had with Buzz was ever as compelling as their struggles when they thought he was dead, but there were still possibilities and emotions left unexplored. I believe the biggest problem with the Coopers is the lack of Nadine. I'm saying this as a huge fan of Nadine, but I thought she was the heart of the Coopers.She also added a sense of humor which the family sadly lacks and has lacked for a long time. She represented all of their best and their worst qualities and her scenes with her children were always standouts. The strongest memories I have of Frank are often from his scenes with Nadine.

Harley and Frank both had a comic touch, even if the humor was on the sarcastic side, for many years. This was seeped away year by year (the last time I really felt like I saw "my" Harley was when she returned for the 1997 ball and got into a big argument with Reva in the ladies room at the country club) and the family became so sad.

I'm happy to hear the Bauers may be expanding. I have no interest in seeing Michelle again, but I'd like to see some new characters.

[Mitch]

You nailed in on the head with the Coopers, they just arent as interesting as a family now that they "have it all together" and its one for all and all for one. I think this is an example of Kreizman's laziness, he joined the show as an intern in 96 and he failed to do any research on how the Coopers were written before that. The most interesting thing about them were that Frank and Harley were the core of the family, Nadine and Buzz could never share that special bond that they had....they both needed their acceptance to be part of the family, and both of them were always going to resent them for abondoning them. One of my fave scenes was a throw away line when Nadine came back into town and Frank remembered how she would let him stay up late and watch Johnny Carson and eat friend chicken out of the bucket. Totally Nadine, totally quirky and totally Cooper. Now they are selfrighteous and bland and blah.

I also agree with the poster above about the sets. Wheeler created all these sets but they were closets. She should have had fewer larger, well built sets, most of them public spaces...a big Cedars set (set more of the action there and have more of their characters work there,) Spaulding Offices, the Beacon Lobbby, sprinkled in with more family sets like the Bauer kitchen, the Spaulding Study, the Boardinghouse kitchen/family room for the Coopers/whomever is living at the Boardinghouse..and get rid of that wretched police station!!

The old soaps used what, about five sets and the audience ate it up. Just make those sets look warm and inviting (my biggest problem is that all of the sets are cold and depressing, I would hate to see how Wheeler decorates her house

[DRW50]

I was hoping when they started aging Frank's kids and Harley's kids, we'd get to see the family evolve in a believable way, but even when Aubrey Dollar, who had the most spark of any of the Marinas, was in the role, I never quite believed in her relationship with Frank. They never explored most of Harley's relationships with her children. Even Susan/Daisy, both times, just became about her resenting Harley, her screwing up, and Harley having to step in. Even bringing back Dylan turned out to be meaningless.

I blame a lot of Frank's malaise on the way they turned Eleni into a cheater and had her shipped off. I think Frank's been lost ever since then, he's just been a generic leading man. That and making him into a cop.

I still miss that diner, even after 10 years.

[Mitch]

God I hated that diner set and the generic "ethnic," people they would fill it with! Though I hate the Coopers taking over the Reardons stomping grounds too (ehhh, Buzzard is sleeping in Bea's old room????)

Frank lost his spark long before they made Eleni into a cheater. He really lost it as soon as Melina left. Frank was really just an extra character they would have fill in until Melina came in and gave him a lift. When she left, the energy and the purpose of Frank left..Melina really did prop Frankie D up. I always felt they should have written Frank out along with Melina and not recast her role.

I agree, Frank, not the brightest bulb in the pack is not great as Chief of Police. When Frankie D has to recite those cop lines he just isnt believable. Add to that Frankie D is getting more stuffy and uptight the further he advances into middle aged, and he is not the Frank of yore (when he was younger he had the nice, though dim bulb guy charm and a sense of humor, which I dont see in dull uptight Frank.)

[DRW50]

I didn't mean the set (although I liked the set they had before Rauch revamped), more the opportunity to get to see another side of the tracks, and because many of my favorite Cooper scenes took place in the diner.

Melina definitely helped Frank D. but even without her, he had some wonderful moments with characters like Blake. For a long time I was hoping GL might re-explore that relationship. I think like Rick Bauer, Frank just became a very generic character, he lost any purpose besides the boring guy who gets women who stay with him until they find someone more charismatic or with more money.

[Mitch]

Agree...I think GL thinks of Frank as "Chief of Police," and Rick as "doctor," making both loose their charm.

I do think we need to see the other side of the tracks..but the diner set, even before Rauch was so damn ugly...(geez, Wheeler would have loved it!)