Y&R: How would you improve it?

[MarkH]

Eye candy, whether you like men or women, is a perfectly viable reason to watch soaps. It's not the ONLY reason, or the MAIN reason. But otherwise, why are Ashley Jones and Brandon Beemer traipsing EVERYWHERE in swim suits this week on B&B? I don't mind eye candy as one reason to watch soaps.

[bellcurve]

But how is "eye candy" going to SAAAAAAAAVE the genre, when there are other means and options to getting that kind of visual stimulation?

[Greg's GL]

Obviously, pacing is a big problem on this show. No one wants to see the same stories on every day all week long. TPTB have to go back to what the standard used to be: Mon-Wed-Fri were one set of stories and Tue-Thu another set. Then alternate them. I can't believe that it's that hard to do.

And it seems to be after "settling in" for the first few months, Mr. Rauch has begun to show his true colors. The man can produce a soap, but I get the feeling that he's double-dipping into the story projections and adding his two cents. That needs to stop.

I will say that Carl has made some good points about Sheffer and I think he's starting to influence my opinion of the man.

[Chris B]

You know, I don't think it would save the genre or Y&R, but I do agree with Sharon Case when she says there should be more casual nudity. Just more swimsuits, shirtless scenes, people not so buttoned up in their bedrooms which we see often now. I've always felt the type of clothes Adam wears don't fit his living situation. He's far too dressed up for a man who can't see and hardly leaves his room. I wish the show still had that GCAC lounge area with the hot tub where everyone would go have a drink and relax. It was also a great place to mix the younger kids up.

What I'd do to save Y&R is keep only Maria Arena Bell and bring in a writer who cares about character driven storytelling and families. One person that comes to mind is Claire Labine. That's a writer I've witnessed at her best on multiple soaps and know what she can do. I want someone similar to her. If they intended to bring someone back, I say bring Jack Smith back and make him full co-headwriter. See what happens. Bringing back more Bell writers could help the pacing of the show even if they have little impact on stories. If they flesh these stories out, give us more character driven scenes and family interaction, it would improve even the worst stories.

Another thing I'd do is fine a talented black writer who loves soaps and give him or her a position on the writing staff. Clearly these racist writers view minorities as aliens and can't write for them. If they think it's so hard, bring on a black writer who can show them that black people are no different from anyone else. I guarantee you whoever they bring on would integrate them into the canvas too. It's gotten so bad that someone truly needs to be brought in *just* to enhance the Winters family. And Victoria Rowell *must* return, but I'd make it the major story for next year.

I'd recast Victoria and Colleen. Write off Kevin, Jana, Gloria, Jeffrey, Lauren and Michael. All characters are tired and dull. This could give the cast some focus and make room for cheap newbies (Phillip IV, Chloe, Tyra, etc.) and returns (Phillip III, Dru).

[DRW50]

Ashley: Adam, why have you started wearing a banana hammock?

Adam: I have no choice, this is all I could find!! Don't you know I'm blind?

Ashley: I saw all those pretty dresses in your closet, and those dark wigs.

Adam: You know I only save those for...erm...my Cher tribute act.

Ashley: I love Cher! You're so respectful of history, Adam. The kids today are dressing like Lady Gaga. You're my best, best friend.

Adam: Well, I've got you, babe.

[Greg's GL]

LOL! Too funny, Carl. :-)

[lovely_m]

Did Victor every try to hire someone to teach Adam how to live with his blindness or not?

If they hired Labine, they would have to get rid of Paul Raunch. I heard they were terrible together on Guiding Light.

[MTSRocks]

Writing like this:

[cara mia]

The problem with Y&R is the problem with most soaps. Writing that's driven by plot, not character. MAB or whoever is the voice for the writing team just does not understand the fundamentals of storytelling.

Example #1

We know that Victor is supposed to be a smart guy. Therefore, if you're going to have Adam or Mary Jane or anyone con him, his nemesis needs to be super clever to pull this off. Instead, we have Victor being an idiot. Why doesn't he install his own security camera? Why didn't he ransack Adam's room? Why doesn't he move Ashley out of the ranch and into the GCAC? Why doesn't Victor use some muscle to get MJ out of town? Etc. MJ should be smarter than we've seen and so normal & lovely around Victor that he doesn't suspect her. Otherwise, why is he tolerating her? As for Adam, instead of the silliness with him getting thin enough to take of his ankle bracelet, he should have been conspiring WITH a truly twisted Estella (with her being motivated by a desire to see Nikki & Victor reuntied)and they should have made it clear to everyone that Ashley's was "crazy" and that only Ashley heard or saw strange things. That way it would have been reasonable for Victor not to suspect Adam or Estella. But now that Victor knows Ashley is being missed with, Victor seems incredibly stupid not to have a crack security team going through the house for evidence.

Example #2

Nick the dick. Remember when Nick walked out on Sharon a few years and she was crying and pleading with him not to leave her and break up their family? Oh, wait, you don't remember that, do you? Cause it never happened. Cause Nick only married Phyllis after Sharon told him to [!@#$%^&*] off. Cause Nick, while happy to have an affair, was not keen on breaking the unit with Sharon & Noah. Now we are to believe that Nick is willing to walk out on Phyllis & Summer -- the package -- to be with Sharon even if Sharon is carrying an Abbott baby? WHAT?! That is not Nick. Yes, the character is deeply flawed but he always hated that his father & mother weren't together. Nick is all about family. He aches for Cassie, he longs to be accepted by his father. Nick does NOT love any woman more than he loves his parents or his children. This is or rather was a core trait of this character. To have Nick place his romantic "feelings" above his need to preserve his family is the height of stupid writing. The only reason Nick has been acting like a ping-pong ball is justify this stupid quad. Now we've reached the point where Nick has so lost his identity, who gives a damn who he picks.

[lmfan]

I don't really see the lack of casual nudity as a problem when there are so many other problems on this show. In fact, we have had more nudity and plenty of sex scenes on the show and most of them just ring hollow because the partners most of the time are using each other as mere receptacles or to just get off with no feelings for one another. There is no romance and little love in these scenes. And too many characters are jumping from one bed to the next, some in the span of hours. And that's not sexy. It's disgusting.

I agree they need someone who values character driven story over plot driven story. I don't get how those in charge can't see that what the fans hated about LML was her plot driven writing. They don't seem to see that what turned the fans on late last year and the early part of this year was that it was character based drama. We cared about what happened to Katherine and how others dealt with her loss. Why did fans love Murphy and Kay? Because they were a romantic pairing who cared about each other. Even going back to Michael's special episode. That was recieved well because the whole episode was character driven and allowed neglected actors to play around with their characters and show sides of them we hadn't seen in years.

Obviously you don't like the entire Baldwin-Fisher family, but come on Michael and Lauren are not dull characters or tired. If you can find story for 20 and 30 yr vets then you can find story for Michael and Lauren. They have been just stuck propping their family and Phyllis for years now.

CLB and TEB can play anything the writers throw at them convincingly, but they need to write for them. I don't care who the character is, if they don't get the writing then they will be boring. I always thought giving Michael some health scare like a cardiac event could really cause some conflict between Michael and Lauren and have Lauren finally put her foot down about Michael's family. They need to give Michael and Lauren their edge back and stop being only used as others' caregivers or talk tos. For goodness sakes, MAB was able to write Esther plenty of story this year. Esther? And yet she can't figure out how to write for Michael Baldwin and Lauren Fenmore apart from being props for his family.

Same goes for the Winters and even characters I don't care as much about like Victoria and JT. She needs to put some effort into other characters rather than the same ones she has favored all year. And why do we need all those cheap newbies? How many 20 to 30 year olds do we really need? Everytime I turn around they are adding another young actor to this show which takes away airtime from vets.

[DRW50]

Ada Now that was a soap opera matriarch.

[y&r_fan]

I don't know why everyone hates the Baldwin/Fishers (or at least some of them). I think they bring something to the show. I wouldn't want any of them (with the possible exception of Jeffrey) to leave.

[alphanguy74]

I was HALF kidding. I know one can rent a falcon movie, BUT... you can't get the acting talent and the eye candy in the same package. That's why I loved QAF. Anyway.. this a show that is watched by primarily women and gay men, and we have more tits on this show than we can handle! The kind of beefcake we had in the 80's and 90's would be ok... when you had Terry Lester, Don Diamont, Eddie Cibrian, poolside in speedos. That's waht I'd like to see. I STILL remember that scene in Jill's office, where she was fantasizing about Ryan McNiel in his underwear... and you had Scott Reeves standing there in these lgiht gray boxer briefs.. WOW. I wish that was on youtube!