Y&R: Potpourri Thread 2

[dm.]

Compared to the cr*p we see today, MAB's solo reign was good. Boring, but better than this.

[DRW50]

I agree. I thought some of the story had long term potential, like Niktoria being estranged from Victor, Victor happy with Sabrina. The Sabrina/Adam relationship could have been a barnburner with time. There was a lot of stupid stuff but nothing that bad, although the John double was a mistake.

What I hate the most about the Phillip return is how easily some of the show's defenders, like Branco, blamed the problems on Thom Bierdz. As if that story was in any way curtailed because of Bierdz. That was over practically by the time he got to the studio from the parking lot. And then when the other homosexuality = shock value story also ended abruptly, that was Yani Gellman's fault, naturally.

Those running Y&R now always seem to find a way to make the actors take the fall, the actors become the ones who are to blame. It will always be, this actor isn't talented enough, isn't dedicated enough, wants too much money. Or at least if they are not favored by production.

[Sylph]

MarkH, you asked whether it's good to be pessimist.

I don't know. I have no idea.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Well, surely it's hard to remain optimistic when the show keeps on disappointing and only gets worse with time. Especially when writers don't seem to learn from any of their mistakes.

[Sylph]

Mark is now predicting the 2011 cancellation.

[MarkH]

LOL!

[Sylph]

[Vee]

Did one of the showrunners lose a bet with the people at AMC and GH? Are they now required to let Frons, Pratt, etc. steer the ship? It seriously seems as though Y&R woke up one day and said "you know, our show just isn't bad enough to compete with all the other bad soaps on the air. We need to even the playing field and go bad as well!" It now resembles some of the worst of GH, AMC and even OLTL in the last five or ten years. It is becoming a bad ABC soap.

[MarkH]

Thank you, Barbara Bloom!

ETA: I don't say that ill-advisedly. She wanted Ted Shackleford kept on the show, and she insisted/greenlit the "twin brother" who replaced him.

I can fully see her saying "Haiduk is terrific. I insist that we don't lose her". I can even see her saying "Watch the psycho recover? Fill in her backstory? Boring. Only old people care about that sh!t. Bring in a double with a mystery!"

At this rate, Haiduk will be playing a vampire on this show before too long.

[Vee]

It's just like the blockbuster Lily/Ava storyline on AMC! I predict that Haiduk's dual role will also slink offscreen unnoticed sometime next year.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

How is Bloom to blame for everything Maria Arena Bell and her henchmen let happen?

I don't think it's anyone coincidence that the worst tendencies of Maria, Sheffer, and Hamner are apartment all over this show. Bloom isn't coming up with these stories or the one executing them.

It seems that many like to deflect blame from Maria and her henchmen and place it somewhere else. Not saying you do, but Y&R wasn't like this way before this writing regime was there, even when Bloom was at CBS during the Smith and then Latham eras.

[Sylph]

And a seductress mermaid.

[DRW50]

This is all very Sheffer. He brought back Andre/Tony on DAYS and then the Simon/Donovan nonsense on ATWT. He also tends to be desperate to become as out there a possible to get attention.

I realize I blame him for everything but I get tired of seeing this stuff carted to his soaps.

At least we haven't had anybody shoot a corpse yet.

The sad part is that some of this crap probably wouldn't even get on an ABC soap. The Terroni twaddle for instance.

[Vee]

I thought Hogan was very suited for Days (or AMC) if he'd had more free reign. Y&R is not his type of show, IMO. You can see some of his problem areas or more outre choices on display here, as well, but I don't think it's all Sheffer doing this at all. Wasn't Josh Griffith on the writing staff for a while? He wrote some [!@#$%^&*] at OLTL in 2003 and 2004. And I'm not familiar with Scott Hamner or Maria Bell's past. How many HWs does this show have?

The Silver Chipmunk sounds like Sheffer to me. The treatment of the minority canvas is all Paul Rauch.

[DRW50]

The psycho women played as bad camp, the cavalier treatment of rape, a psycho woman raping a man and no fallout from that, a man raping a woman and the implication being that she wanted it but was too weak to admit it, the woman being forced into marriage with the rapist and perhaps wanting that to happen, that all carried over from ATWT or DAYS to Y&R. His writing for Billy and Victor also reminds me of his writing for men on his other soaps (Craig, EJ). The pointless darkness in the writing reminds me of a lot of his stuff like killing Benjy, Patch in the nuthouse. The animal killing is also from ATWT. He killed several pets there for shock value.

I agree that the hostility towards minorities is all Rauch.

Both men seem to revel in misogyny.

I guess the lame "mysteries" are Hamner. He did this crap at PC. He probably writes the Scoobie stuff too.

I don't know what MAB does.