Members Y&RWorldTurner Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 Maria has too much of an ego and power hunger problem to demote herself and let other people Head Write this show by herself. I think Maria, Hogan, and Scott Hamner all need to go and fast. Y&R won't recover if they stay there, things will just get worse and worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MarkH Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 Oh, any show is salvageable. Even Passions was, in principle, salvageable. But even I start to worry a little for Y&R. It's just unrelenting, all this death and deception and ... On another board, a bunch of folks think Dru is coming back from the dead because she got mentioned this week. The plotting has become so sh!tty that if you even MENTION a dead person, some viewers now expect a resurrection. They're not even playing the moral fallout anymore. Why didn't Amber need a shower and seem haunted by that Deacon sex? Why didn't she ACT like a rape victim? Because the writers don't think that is rape. They think that's just Amber being the sexual libertine she was with Billy and on her porn site. Uh uh. As Jodie Foster proved in The Accused, even a slut can be raped. I keep worrying unrelentingly that they will kill Zapato. I don't know if I can stomach anything after that. Then these sh!tty rumors about Colleen drowning. Maybe that is alll smoke and mirrors, but I want some sincere joy. I'm watching Lily -- the one realistic story these days -- wracked with cancer and a low probability of survival. I don't care if this is a soap...I'm so tired of the suffering. At this point, I really wish they could shut the show down for a month, play a "best of" classic episodes series (with plots that relate in some loose way to the present), and after that month do some ridiculous retcon (there was Libidizone in Lake Geneva, but they filtered it out), and then the show can return to some semblance of itself. How many psychos are we up to? Three with Ashley, I guess. Dead babies, dead cats, dead chipmunks (that will not die). Colleen Gone Wild. It's just all so different from what it was six months ago. It's literally "how can it have fallen so fast"? But in that, I still take hope. If the show can implode in 6 months, it can rebuild in six months. I truly believe that. But I'd be reassured if MAB would go do one of her Nelly Branco interviews NEXT WEEK and say "Folks...I have made mistakes. I recognize them, and I'm fixing them". I know that isn't going to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dm. Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 There is no hope unless these three are fired, I guess. Their true colors came out after they had a good period and it's now in the same league as Latham (and Goutman, Passanante, Pratt, Guza). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Y&RWorldTurner Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 If we all accept daytime is dying in a few years anyway, nothing is really salvageable, and again, how many times has this "give it time" excuse been used in daytime over the years, and nothing really gets better for a long enough time? The honeymoon period for this writing regime is over, they're approaching their one year mark, and they started to falter a great deal a few months ago. They aren't going to get any better. You are right, the show is very problematic right now, but many of these problems have existed in some capacity since the beginning of this writing regime (like death and women being victimized, hello Sabrina). The show won't get away from this brand of storytelling unless this head writing team is fired and replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BadZoe Posted July 29, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 Can a show where almost every character has been trashed so much be fixed? I had hopes, but it's like the writers are just determined to make everyone so disgusting. My stomach has been turning for a while now, but now my enjoyment of the boards is starting to wane as a result. I don't mind dark shows, Dexter and True Blood are two of my favorites, but at least they have some humor and levity to them, something Y&R is completely void of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dm. Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 If you ask Maria, the "humor" part is one of their best qualities. Yeah, right. Delusional much? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Y&RWorldTurner Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 And her humour makes PERFECT submissions for Outstanding DRAMA SERIES at the Daytime Emmy's. This is who we have leading our show, people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dm. Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 I know, but why can't Sony/CBS see this? Do Bells have that much control? She could cement herself on that position for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Y&RWorldTurner Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 If Sony and CBS care and pushed harder for change, it could happen. Sony does own the majority stake in the show after all. I'm not intersected in any rationalizations for why MAB is staying, the fact is, her vision for this show hasn't worked in a long-term capacity for this show since day one, the ratings erosion that happened during her tenure proved that. Especially when the show was at a 4.0 only a year and a half ago and is now at a 3.4. We need change and if the show is ending anyway in a few years, I think they should hand it over to a HW who trained under Bill Bell for a while. I think that's what Bill Bell would have wanted for this show. Not a bunch of outsiders plus his inexperienced daughter-in-law running things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MarkH Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 How will you cope if she stays? I mean, besides turning it off. Y&R is doing much better than you think. It tops SoapNet (and has shown growth). Online views (which are increasingly moving in a profitable direction) is growing. CBS definitely profit$ from the online views (in fact, they own the streams that Hulu and MSN etc show), and probably participates in the profits from Soapnet (since they had to agree to that). Brimike has said -- and it sounds right -- that nobody is interested in creatively saving these shows. The sole goal is to maximize the profit they can still yield, and then they'll die. IF YOU ACCEPT THAT CBS DOESN'T CARE beyond that (and has no interest in long-term sustainability, because they view soaps as a genre whose day is done), you'll get ZERO support from CBS for upsetting the apple cart again. Sony, seeing shrinking market share everywhere, is probably happy that Y&R is actually HOLDING ON (from their perspective) with the CBS+Soapnet+streams, plus international sales. Sony knows that no replacement is going to GROW the business, and they don't GIVE A SH!T _whatsoever_ about the creative state. In my view, ratings need to fall to 2.0 in a six month period before anyone is fired/replaced. Don't believe me? Look at what is going on to the viewership and demos of GH at ABC. Guza and JFP seem safe to me. MAB will be the final headwriter, I feel. ATWT and maybe Days die in 2010. The ABC soaps and B&B are gone by 2012. Y&R hangs on to 2016. Nobody gives a sh!t beyond that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BadZoe Posted July 29, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 2016 is a little generous for Y&R if things don't improve and fast. I am usually pretty open minded when it comes to portrayals of depravity, and for me to be reaching my breaking point hopefully means that many at home feel the same and will be speaking with their remotes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Y&RWorldTurner Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 SoapNet and internet streamings bring in very little money compared to the ad revenue the show gets from airing on CBS. It makes little impact and difference. Well, we just have to remain optimistic that this show will find a better Head Writer and ratings will remain steady. You give Y&R by itself until 2016? I don't know if a single soap can remain by itself that long when the others are gone years before that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MarkH Posted July 29, 2009 Members Share Posted July 29, 2009 Well, today you're right. But it shows that there is a future for this show on platforms that surely reflect the future. Well, that's just an extrapolation of decline trends. Truth is, none of us knows, especially in this changing economy. On sheer numbers, it does seem Y&R will be the last to be cancelled. When? Depends on what cup of tea leaves we gaze into Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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