OLTL: Logan rant in TV Guide

[dragonflies]

One Life to Live head writer Ron Carlavati is having a ball making fun of Buddhism these days, but his plot-which has scam artist David Vickers abstaining from sex and seeking enlightment as a Buddhist monk-is degrading, insufferably stupid and, in this new age of Obama inclusiveness, totally uncool. Did we really need to see Dorian(the legendary Robin Strasser) drop down out of camera range and perform oral sex on David while he tried to meditate in his sacred robe?(ABC Daytime refused to comment on why it allowed the profane scene). For centuries there's been a place in drama for sharp religious satire. But this is no "Tartuffe". And Carlavati is no Moliere.

[All My Shadows]

I didn't like the blowjob scene at all, but it wasn't because I thought it was profane...I just thought that it was a totally ridiculous stab at trying to bring the LOL, but it was just random and stupid.

[Rakesh]

Grow up, Logan! It is time for Daytime to go back to doing daring stuff.

[DRW50]

I've been surprised at some of the backlash against this Buddhism story. Haven't various forms of entertainment been making fun of Buddhism for years?

Perhaps they should have gone after Kaballah instead.

I didn't think the blow job scene was that degrading but I've seen these comments from Logan, and from Marlena. Maybe my standards have fallen too low.

[SarahJoyBrownFF]

Oh my goodness! There are definitely other things to rant about Mr. Logan. Christianity is the most disrespected spiritual walk on television you don't see me weeping about it's treatment.

[NorrthCafe]

I thought it was offensive to RS's Dorian who would never have taken things that far just for money - and she'd do A LOT of unsavory things for cash.. She's never sold herself. She would also NEVER have betrayed Mel by using his death and his memory as a ploy to land David.

[MichaelGL]

Logan, c'mon are you still mad that the TPTB at OLTL didn't invite you to that cast party? The guy has had it out for OLTL ever since.

[rangethatrover]

I CAN'T STAND LOGAN more than Nelson, even.

Offensive? Stupid?

I find it intelligently humorous. It makes me laugh hysterically in a good way...

Its nice that a soap still does humor.

Its the rest of OLTL that concerns me.

[All My Shadows]

I'm in no way a longtime viewer of OLTL, but even I felt that the blowjob was so un-Dorian. I'm not saying that she wouldn't do it, but I'm just saying that there are about a hundred things she would have done before doing that. She could have sucked Clint off for BE if she wanted to, but she didn't. She played HBIC and took it over.

The show can be sexy and funny. Drunk Rex dancing in his drawers on a pole was sexy and funny. Dorian sucking David's dick was not.

JMO.

[dragonflies]

Well given under Carlavati he had her disrespect Mel's memory by getting Charlie drunk, but yeah Dorian we know wouldn't do that, but Carlavati doesn't seem to care about stuff like that

[evermore]

It's not that I find the buddhism scenes offensive (tho I wouldn't argue with someone who does), they just aren't humorous. Making fun of a guy in a robe... as if that's never been done before. Mike Meyers didn't pull it off in the Love Guru last summer, and OLTL isn't pulling it off now. This should have been a week-long story that is lasting far longer than it has -- just like the 1968 story line. I don't hate Ron, but I finally agree with everyone who says he needs a co-head writer.

[SFK]

From what I understand, it was Robin's idea, and if anyone knows what Dorian would or would not do, it's her. I think we have to stop looking at this as Dorian degrading herself and realize that many women own their sexuality and enjoy doing that. Dorian was having fun, and sex has been a large part of her relationship with David. Remember when he thought Blair was (*cover your eyes kiddies*) riding him, but it was Dorian who'd slipped in and gotten in the driver's seat complete with blonde wig? In that scene and in the b.j., it's Dorian wieldng the power, not David.

[DeliaIrisFan]

I think the point is that Dorian didn't want to suck off Clint...with David, she shares a mutual attraction and a long history that has included love/lust. In that context, I have no problem with it. Hell, I'd volunteer to do it - even without an entire company at stake - and I can't say that I would not do it just because the company were also part of the deal. I have great respect for Marlena (and for Tom Casiello, who said similar things) and they have given me pause for thought, but I really can't see the harm in this. I don't personally think that performing oral sex is demeaning; and I have no problem with a soap staging a love scene in such a way as to imply that it is part of a healthy sex life between adults.

And under Malone, Dorian was capable of marrying her daughter's attempted rapist to get a stupid diamond; and under JFP, Dorian was capable of running over Jessica and causing her miscarriage and letting someone else take the fall, etc... I'm sorry, I genuinely believe that you can put whatever name you want in the credits these days, but there is still going to be a committee of executives and number crunchers who will dictate ridiculous plot developments that their market research is convinced will shock 18-34 and/or 12-17 year olds into watching. But through all of that, for me, on-screen, Carlivati's Dorian has come across as a lot more entertaining - and a lot more human - than she was in those past disasters. I'll take what I can get.

I'll agree that the story has gone on way too long. It was farcical and illogical from the get-go, so it should certainly not be driving months of story. At very least, the idea that Asa could plan to reverse his first will a year after his death with an additional will that none of the original heirs knew anything about does not make sense, but if it had led to Dorian succeeding in getting David to marry her and them having to work together as a couple to beat the Buchanans then I might have enjoyed the ride. With this outcome...not so much. But I don't think a co-head writer will fix much of anything. I think he already has a co-head writer - a whole conference table full of them - who probably did some kind of focus group, made up of probably the same people who went to see that Mike Meyers movie, and they said they liked it so now it's going on and on and on. I look at OLTL - or any soap in the past decade - and I don't see a proactive approach to storytelling coming from any one person's vision. I see an unwieldy mish-mash of competing mandates being answered to. With OLTL, I just find, more often than not, something that appeals to me as a viewer; and if I don't, I tune out for a week or a month and the next time I watch it, I see something that does pique my interest. For that, I will credit Carlivati and his team.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

ITA. The Buddhist stuff isn't offensive, it's just stale. It's been done a million times before, should've lasted a maybe a week, and is dragging on far too long. I also don't think Carlivati is a bad writer per se, but he does need help deciding what is a humerous, short term phase that pushes story and what is a worthwhile long term story in and of itself because on his own he doesn't seem to know the difference.

[Vee]

This whole outrage over the Buddhist storyline seems retarded and manufactured. I'm loving it, personally. It actually seems to have an emotional core, like most Carlivati stories; David's conversion seems genuine, and I worry about him and care for him in a totally different way than what I did before. A similar (but more long-term) and equally innovative inversion was done with Addie's character in 2007.