Y&R: Week of June 15-19, 2009

[cara mia]

I cannot even begin to understand why TPTB took Adam down this path. My goodness, he would have instantly made the Scoobies and/or the Chilly/Lane stories watchable by having him make a play for one the women. And for revenge, I suggested the idea of locking Jack & Victor in a dungeon and feeding them barbecue Zapato. Still dark but not too dark to come back from. I have a sneaking suspicion the reason they're not suing CE is because they were planning on killing off Adam anyway -- November sweeps indeed. What a waste of a legacy character.

[Cashton]

They're not gonna kill him off. I'll bet anything they won't kill him off.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

DAYS has gained the most viewers of any soap this year. Y&R took a massive nosedive in the ratings alst year, under MAB mind you, that anything was sure to be a positive gain this year. As recent weeks have shown, Y&R is starting to actually LOSE viewers from a year ago, so now it appears that the show is actually flat when compared to last year.

Could a lot of this Internet interest be due to the fact that Y&R is the most widely available American daytime soap opera on the net? Every message board I seem to visit has a very negative opinion on this show. Look at the Sony, SOC, CBS, and other big soap message board sites, they aren't too pleased with the show either. It seems split here at SON.

I don't know about colleges, because we don't have concrete date on them. Y&R's 18-49 and 18-34 demos appear to be consistent with last year.

This show has been on this dark and misognistic trend since last summer when Sabrina and David died, IMO. Only, for a few months, the darkness was mixed in with a lot of different things. Now, there is no diversity in terms of storytelling. I don't want everything to be all dark or all light, I want variety, which Y&R used to be able to offer me.

[Juliajms]

Leave Zapato out of it.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Let's go down the list of storylines MAB and company's storytelling flaws:

-Can't write corporate storylines.

-Can't write for the minority characters (OK, the Winters).

-Can't write strong female characters.

-Can't properly develop and write for new characters.

-Is a big fan of disgusting plot points that turn many off and are seen as offensive.

-Has potentially caused a core character (Adam) to be irredeemable and has written him into a tricky corner.

-Can't write romance stories.

-The 20's set is given horrible stories, like this art storyline.

-Doesn't write for almost half of the canvas, yet always writes for favourite characters repeatedly.

Feel freed to add more to the list, but more and more, I'm definitely fed up with Maria Arena Bell, Hogan Sheffer, and Scott Hamner's vision for this show.

[Cashton]

But again, DAYS lost the most viewers last year. Y&R has the most market share - and you say Y&R is starting to get flat - but that's after a sweeps where they hit a 4.0 for the first time in a long time. The Kay/Marge s/l was very classic soap story - and had many folks very happy! The flaring up of the quad, MJ and Adam going Dark Phoenix has made it all seem dark at the moment, but we have had many light moments and many light s/l's.

[BadZoe]

I don't blame CE for quitting, this show is on the fast track to ultimate soap suckiedom.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Actually, Y&R lost more viewers than any soap last year. I believe DAYS gained viewers overall in 2008, since 2007 was their massive nosedive.

They hit a 4.0 in the dailies, I don't recall them hitting an overall 4.0 in quite some time.

Until it was milked for too long and the kidnapping crap happened.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

If only we could get Maria Arena Bell, Hogan Sheffer, and Scott Hamner to quit.

Sure, the next writing regime might be worse, but it's a chance I'm willing to take at this point.

[DRW50]

The central story which this regime started with was all about women being murdered, psychologically tortured, literally chopped into pieces, dying painful, lingering deaths. When that started, I thought, "Well, Hogan has arrived," and this current story also bears his trademark, along with much of the way Billy is presented. The most positive stories have involved Katherine, and as she's an older person, Hogan and possibly Hamner may not care about her. MAB probably cares, as she is such a central part of Y&R history. So MAB focuses on the more life-affirming stories Katherine had with Murphy, while the other headwriters focus on the uglier elements.

[Juliajms]

I wonder what would happen if Jack Smith/MAB co wrote the show?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Actually, that would be an interesting and possibly good mash-up. Smith didn't really care for Katherine/Jill, but MAB does, so I'm sure they would still be apart of the show in some evident way.

They would both know the characters and the history of the show.

Smith did say he never wanted this horrible quad to last for very long, and look how long both LML and MAB and company have dragged this thing out. Though, Nick and Sharon were Smith's big money couple that he always found story for, so that might piss some people off.

Overall, I don't think I would mind it. This is coming from someone who was happy Smith was fired too. You know things must be bad when I would take him back.

I think he's actually a blend of classic Y&R with the plot-driven stuff from the Latham and MAB eras.

Though, Smith would have to STOP his Fisher-Baldwin pimping. Give Michael and Lauren possibly a good story, but screw the rest of that family.

[rhythmchyc]

You would think after years and years of miscarriages on not only soaps but television and film that whoever wrote this damn story would know the details of it by now. I cannot believe this was handled so shoddily.

And they should know their audience much better than this. As the majority of us are women, particularly women with children, we would know what goes on in a miscarriage. That's a real shame they got this wrong.

Adam sitting on the floor complaining about "all the blood" and us not seeing him burn the clothing just a barely bloody towel? That was not enough evidence that the baby had been expelled.

I do agree with MarkH that this would be difficult for any actor to work through. It's a shame that his departure became solely about his alleged homophobia. This miscarriage story is really sick. Eesh.

[JackPeyton]

maybe his exit had a lot more to do with Adam being a baby killer than his alleged homophobia.

[rhythmchyc]

That's totally what I meant.