B&B: How Would You Save It?

[Dr Neil Curtis]

-expand to an hour

-Recast Kristen Forrester with Mary Beth Evans

-Marry Off Ridge and Taylor and send them off in the sunset

-Recast the following:

Donna Logan (Beth Chamberlain/Sandra Ferguson)

Katie Logan (Tamara Braun)

Beth Logan (Victoria Wyndham/Marj Dusay)

Stephen Logan (Ron Raines/Stuart Damon)

*that would bring those characters back to their real age group

-Give Thorne and Felicia a story.

-Susan Seaforth-Hayes would join the cast as Joanna Manning

-Do a few good crossover stories with Y&R.

-I would slowly redeem Shelia Carter (Kimberlin Brown)

-I would cast a african-american family consist of:

Monti Sharp, Tracey Ross, Amelia Marshall, Brooke Kerr, and Michael B. Jordan

-Traci Abbott would be apart of the B&B cast

Thats all i can think of now

[y&r_fan]

* Write out Felicia.

* Put Ridge and Taylor back together and keep it that way.

* Recast Thomas. (Blair Redford?)

* Write out Marcus.

* Reunite Eric and Stephanie; pair Donna with Bill.

* Bring back a recast Zende (and Tracy Melchior's Kristen on recurring).

* Bring on Nicholle Tom as Bill's daughter and a love interest for Thomas or Zende.

* Reuinte Thorne and Katie.

* Pair Jackie with Clarke (and maybe write out Owen).

Really? Do tell!

[quartermainefan]

I'd add more sex, more skin, amp up the camp, and air it at night. They bring on occasional ex-primetime actors, run it in primetime! Also better production values because even the best soaps look pretty primitive and/or dingy with bad lighting. You have a show with Betty White, Morgan Fairchild and God knows who else, along with insanely handsome guys like Brandon Beemer (who just has to shut up and take his shirt off), why squander it at 2 pm? If it catches on it could be an official guilty pleasure.

[JackPeyton]

First and foremost, a new HW, co-HW, and EP.

Then, focus on the women. The men on this show suck and are played by limited actors. So focus on the women. But not the logan sisters only. Brooke, Donna, Katie - along with Felicia and a returned Kimberly. And Bridgett needs to be so worked on as a character, but her too, of course, as Ashley Jones is the best this show has to offer.

and can we amp up the romance, passion, sex, and fashion? thank you.

and please, stop trying to be clever and the arrested development of soaps. you CANT pull it off. You dont even come off as a SOAP wannabe. You come off as trying to hard.

oh, and how to do this? idk... but maybe have Nick & Bridgett recommit, and then have him turn around and sleep with Katie and Brooke find out and expose it. You know, put her daughter first for once, and have Bridgett write Katie off and demand Brooke do the same. And then have Donna do it too... leaving Katie alone, and she turns to her BFF Stephanie who welcomes her into the mansion and back to Forrester.

And then murder mystery time. Kill Nick. Who did it? Brooke, Bridgett, Donna, Eric, etc... and write Jackie off unable to deal with this all and write Lauren back into the fold, taking over Spectra and merging it with Fenmores and taking on Forrester. Wrap up the murder mystery quick status and then move on to the love and sex and secrets in the afternoon.

that gets rid of dead weight, nick and jackie, creates family drama and sets up alliances and fueds and returns it to fashion.

[Cat]

Ahhhhh, yes. My favorite bi-yearly How Would You Fix B&B post. Not being snarky. I live for this thread.

1. Demote Brad Bell. Like jp said, hire a new HW and co-EP. Amello mentioned Jill Farren Phelps as EP -- genius idea. HW would, of course, be me. Uh, actually, it would prob be better if it were Esther and Richard Shapiro, or Bridget Dobson. I would pay to see JFP and Bridget Dobson working together again.

2. One hour show. Well, in actual fact, 36 minutes of running time so, practically half-hour and some change.

3. Get rid of of those drab, godawful opening credits. Bring back the original pump-me-up score and those gorgeous color stills. Use B&B's latest photo campaign for the updated stills. Dump the character names but keep the actors' names, maybe ending with

"And

Susan Flannery

as

Stephanie."

4. Work on the pace of the show, which is SO speeded up that Bell can never play every beat of his SLs properly. Dump the everlasting Brooke/Ridge/Whoever triangle, though, which is one slowed-down SL which needs to be put down.

5. The writing is [!@#$%^&*]. Literally written on the back of an envelope. It isn't just the actors who don't care. It's the writers laughing at how crap B&B really is. Let's at least have writers who love what the show used to represent. So bye-bye Kay Alden.

[Cat]

6. The cast:

- Give Sally Spectra/Darlene Conley the Irish funeral and send-off she deserves. Bring back CJ, Kimberly and Adam to make up the numbers, if need be. Morgan Fairchild should play Skye, Sally's newly-wealthy younger sister.

- Jackie vs. Skye. Let's get that hamfest going.

- Speaking of Sally's legacy, I was thinking last week how Pam is sort of carrying that forward in a way. The actress is a gem and should definitely be featured more because I get the same happy feeling watching her as I did with Sally and Saul, etc. She and Stephanie are awesome, too.

- CJ. Back on contract! Sean Kanan as Deacon, too.

- Get rid of Nick and Ridge who are well past their sell-by date. Anyway, Wagner needs to go to the new Melrose Place show. Would only keep Ridge if he became a full-on villain and kept far away from Brooke, Taylor or anybody else's vagina. Tomcat Ridge is too old.

- Thorne. Eh. Ridge-Rick are the new bro rivalry. Perhaps it is time he ploughed his own furrow in NYC.

- Eric, God love him, is heading towards Recurringville.

- If Donna didn't have Pam to play off of, I'd want her gone, like, yesterday.

- Heather Tom as Katie is really the only Logan with potential (if the only. Hadn't. Killed. Storm. Yes, I know I keep saying it. I want it carved on my tombstone). Katie and Bill could be the next hot love story -- if they handle this one carefully.

- Reveal the Rick & Steffy "love story" to have been a big ruse on the part of Steffy in revenge for Phoebe's death. The gaslighting of Rick begins!

- Brooke returns to her business roots. And Felicia FINALLY steps into the limelight to be groomed as Stephanie's rightful successor (and as a frontburner character). Brooke vs. Felicia becomes the next big business face-off. I have a feeling that Lesli Kay and Ric Hearst would have a very interesting chemistry. And we all know that Brooke & Whip once had a marriage of convenience. Is it still just a business relationship?

- Whip is a chancer, has few boundaries, has a thing for ladies' lingerie and is a deeply unusual, complex leading man -- but a leading man nonetheless.

- Keep Susan Flannery on at all costs. Give her all the vacay and directing work she wants, though. The transition from Flannery to Lang & Kay needs to be done gradually and carefully and have YEARS of overlap. In the meantime, have Stephanie cut the umbilical cord between her and Ridge (and the ties to Eric) once and for all. Stephanie's independence as a SL should NOT be dropped now!

- Jackie & Owen are, of course, delightful and I love them. I love whoever said Owen's bisexual past should be revealed. I'm thinking Marcus was part of that past and they need a confrontation-leading-to-a-kiss as some kind of pay-off to the SL What is Owen hiding? Speaking of... time for some acting lessons, Marcus. Or a recast.

- I love Bridget and Ashley Jones. She is a full-on heroine who is funny and decent and AJ honestly tries to minimize the sap thrown her way. Getting rid of Nick is going to help her loads -- because now she needs to confront Deacon and what he did to her. The next love-hate relationship is here (think Sami & EJ).

- Deacon & Whip: bromance in the making. I also think Bridget and Felicia need to be tight as sisters/confidantes/BFF. This, of course, will piss Brooke off no end. CJ and Rick always had a very interesting friendship dynamic, stretching back to when they were 10. Next stop: Steffy needs some friends.

[JackPeyton]

YESSSS!

[Cat]

[!@#$%^&*]. I hate being at the end of a page/beginning of a new one. half of my Totally Readable & Relevant Post is at the end of page 1.

[Sylph]

[DRW50]

That was me We agree on the important things (bring CJ back!). I wish they could have a service for Sally.

I think Eric lost his purpose as a character long ago.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think this show is heading in a direction that it may never come out of. Much like GH, it's very trapped in its ways, it appears to be hopeless, unless Brad steps down and puts someone else in charge. But that's very unlikely to ever happen.

[Juliajms]

At least B&B has it's character structure intact. The same cannot be said for GH. The best writer in the world could take over at GH and that show would never be the same because so many of the core characters have been killed off and/or destroyed.

[BoldBeauty]

The changes I would make......

1. Get rid of the Logans. All of them.

2. Ridge and Karen Spencer together. Karen back full time.

3. Taylor in a triangle with Bill and Whip.

4. Eric groveling at Stephanie feet, begging her to come back to him, and she refusing.

5. Eric and Donna divorcing.

6. Jackie M and Forrester Creations as total equals, have Jackie M winning a few rounds to begin with.

7. Powerstruggles at Forrester, Jackie M and Spencer Publications.

8. Break up Rick & Steffy for good.

9. Amber can return to B&B along with Deacon.

10. Thorne and Felicia ends up with power to be big players in corporate storylines.

11. Nick and Felicia.

12. Oh, and have Brad Bell and Kay Alden say bye-bye to the head writer positions and stay as consultants only.