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

[rhythmchyc]

Discuss what's going on in Genoa City... and everything else, apparently.

[cara mia]

Burning Questions of the Week

If an inanimate person [Victoria] is hit by an inanimate object [Crate], does a tree still fall in Brooklyn?

If Nina went into the PI business and took all of Paul's business, how many months would it take for Paul to figure it out?

In addition to ob-gyns who get too, uh, involved with their patients & ex-cons willing to risk a return to jail just to drive him around, who else is in Adam's contact list?

Jack's pining for Sharon: Manly or Maudlin?

Besides little Kitty, what else has Mary Jane stuffed & made good as new?

Mac's newfound sluttiness: Brain Tumor or did she accidentally mistake Murph's viagra pills for her daily vitamin C?

[MoTheGreat]

HA HA hee hee Thatnks so much.

[YRBB]

The first Victor/Ashley/Nikki triangle!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Remember when it wasn't a chore to watch this show a few months back?

[Sylph]

Which tells us that with this team, things do not look well... It will be good for two weeks, then a dreck for the next six months.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I wonder when Hogan's contract cycle is up, Hamner too.

August will make a year since Hogan debuted in the credits, and I don't know the specifics of Hamner's case.

I can see Sheffer and Hamner's WORST attributes all over this show right now. Of course, MAB deserves most of the blame, since she lets this crap slip through.

This summer is so going to bomb, especially with MAB pimping her beloved art storyline to the press.

[Sylph]

Oh, I wish I knew that, too! But I doubt it they'll get rid of both! We're not so lucky...

I wish I could be nasty and say: I want Y&R to tank in the ratings this summer because that will force them to make changes. Because if it tanks, it'll mean a faster death. It'll die this way too, only dying will be slower.

So, it's doomed in any way. I wish there were a normal, positive way to force these people to re-think the concept and "vision".

[MTSRocks]

LoL already.

Dammit I wanted to start this thread! Haha.

[Chris B]

I'm looking forward to this week which will be heavy on Nina's story. I think she show could rebound when it shifts focus back onto the Chancellor's. That was what was driving the ratings for most of the year, so those are their money characters for now. Those writers didn't need to keep Katherine frontburner nonstop, but why did they drop Jill? Esther? Even one or two days a week they could show Jill dealing with her lack of a mother, adjusting to life with Kay now, something. Throwing her with two dead characters in a silly story is dumb. They need to treat Jill with the importance that she deserves. Position her like a female Jack or Victor.

Honestly, I think the problems with the show are less about story and more about character. They need to look at each family and see whats wrong before they can write a GREAT story. The Chancellor family is solid and well cast so it's easy to write for them. The Abbott's are severely fractured and the ones that are around (Jack, Ashley, Colleen) never interact. The Winters are Lily--them. The casting is wrong, the characterizations are wrong. It's all wrong. The Newman's are stuck with a fading supercouple (Victor/Ashley), a mediocre recast (Victoria), a son off in his own universe (Nick) and a central star on her way out (Nikki). If they just reestablish these few families, strengthen the casting and write them as families, the stories will come easy. They're falling into focusing on specific characters and forgetting family and the ensemble that makes this show work.

I'm still fully enjoying the show, but I see the many problems people see. It's more something in the future I worry about. If they continue where they're at now, it's going to be bad, but it's not hard to recover either.

[MTSRocks]

I don't mind seeing less of Jill/Katherine right now. MAB has been good to them. Plus, Jess just came back from a contract scandal, so...

[DRW50]

I think Y&R has two headwriters (Hamner and Sheffer) who don't like friendships, or bonds which aren't toxic, or families. They only see families as vendettas or as a negative force. This was their writing on ATWT and PC. Sheffer made Oakdale the coldest town this side of the North Pole.

Budget cuts and poor casting of previous teams takes a toll, but they still could have had Nick find out Victoria was injured. They could have Billy or Jack worry more often about Ashley.

Part of what drove Y&R for years was strong, complex family bonds, especially the Newmans. The family is so broken now, and this is after Y&R rushed to have Victoria and Nick reconcile with Victor last year, so it's not a deliberate writing choice, they just don't bother to write relationships for them.

Sheffer also doesn't like to play the beats of a story. He likes short attention span writing. So it's sex, trauma, sex, violence, and more of the same.

[classicmoment]

I'm looking forward to this week which will be heavy on Nina's story. I think she show could rebound when it shifts focus back onto the Chancellor's. That was what was driving the ratings for most of the year, so those are their money characters for now. Those writers didn't need to keep Katherine frontburner nonstop, but why did they drop Jill? Esther? Even one or two days a week they could show Jill dealing with her lack of a mother, adjusting to life with Kay now, something. Throwing her with two dead characters in a silly story is dumb. They need to treat Jill with the importance that she deserves. Position her like a female Jack or Victor.

Honestly, I think the problems with the show are less about story and more about character. They need to look at each family and see whats wrong before they can write a GREAT story. The Chancellor family is solid and well cast so it's easy to write for them. The Abbott's are severely fractured and the ones that are around (Jack, Ashley, Colleen) never interact. The Winters are Lily--them. The casting is wrong, the characterizations are wrong. It's all wrong. The Newman's are stuck with a fading supercouple (Victor/Ashley), a mediocre recast (Victoria), a son off in his own universe (Nick) and a central star on her way out (Nikki). If they just reestablish these few families, strengthen the casting and write them as families, the stories will come easy. They're falling into focusing on specific characters and forgetting family and the ensemble that makes this show work.

I'm still fully enjoying the show, but I see the many problems people see. It's more something in the future I worry about. If they continue where they're at now, it's going to be bad, but it's not hard to recover either.

Of course you have a valid point, every story that Y&R has front burner right now could have went either way. I don't think it is about what family they choose to write for, I don't know I am going to chance being presumtious and say that Great writers would love to write the dynamics of these characters and families. There is too much a rich history and compelling story potential. There are many characters Y&R could stand to fix or do away with even, sure; but it is not even that the characters that are currently front and center is the issue the issue is the writing. My point is that what I fear about shifting it back to the Chancellors, they'll just find a way to botch their story too. Here is to better Y&R DAYS:

[cara mia]

What's ironic about the whole "Art" plot is that MAB fails to see what makes "Art" an interesting subject for fiction. Unless you have the money to pull off a glamor caper like the Thomas Crown Affair, most great movies/fiction about Art are about egos, fights, the toll the art takes on the artist, or breaking barriers and shocking the establishment with new work. Think Pollock, Dreamgirls, Lust for Life, The Agony and the Ecstasy, even Soapdish, Noises Off, WKRP in Cincinatti, and of course classics like Singing in the Rain. Goodness knows all MAB has to do is look in her own backyard for plenty of story about temperamental artists, the art/money question, etc. It would have been far more interesting if Daniel & Amber went off in different directions. What if Daniel were a terrible artist, hackneyed and derivative, and everyone knew it but couldn't bear to puncture his dream? What is Amber was a fabulous designer, started her own business and became too much of a star for Daniel? You could still bring in all your characters -- Jana and Kevin taking sides. Jana might feel Daniel needs to be coddled. Kevin might think Amber is right to resent Daniel's jealousy. Victoria could invest in Amber's company and JT might start to feel that he has a lot in common with Daniel in feeling overshadowed by his wife/girlfriend. If TPTB would just recast Colleen with an actress who can actually show up to work, it would be pure soap to have JT turn to Colleen to plump his ego. And isn't that the fear that a lot of successful women have -- think Star is Born -- that their men can't handle their success? There is so much that can be done with these characters with real human stories that would make us care about them. If I think Victoria is a joke, why do I care if a box hits her on the head? It's just a laugh. Is that it for Y&R? Cheap laughs? Can MAB or Hogan or Scott or Tom C or any of the writers sit there with a straight face and say that they expect us to actually worry about Vicky? Dreadful.

[MTSRocks]

I swear Billy Miller and Elizabeth Hendrickson (especially Liz!) are just :wub: