Y&R: Nelson's New MAB Interview

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It also helped that this was Bill's show and he knew the characters better than anyone else will or ever could. He created the show.

Maria is an admitted amateur who is still learning the basics of soap opera writing.

If they must keep her, can't she be given a consultant role at the show and let someone with more experience and someone who loves Y&R write for it?

The idea of Hogan Sheffer, Scott Hamner, and Paul Rauch invovled in this show troubles me greatly too. I see all of their WORST attributes all over this show.

The actors can only do so much when the writing isn't on their side.

Would you rather see your favourite actors in good storylines or storylines that make no sense or are laughable for all the wrong reasons?

I enjoy certain actors, but I certainly don't think a show is good if they are on. If their storylines suck, the actors might be good, but the writing isn't there to back it up and thus the overall show isn't good. But that's just me.

[alphanguy74]

But I think the writing HAS been good for Doug, and ESPECIALLY today for Beth and Tricia. Who I think the writing has SUCKED for is Eileen. Only the last couple episodes has she gotten something meaningful, IMO. I just don't understand this wankfest over Muhney. People are saying he has layers and is playing brilliant subtext... I'm a bitch that notices EVERYTHING, Alvin, as you well know. I love a subtle actor, hell, I even noticed Yani Gellman's "mon lisa" smile after the sex with Adam... but I don't see SH!T in the way of subtext or depth in Muhney's performances. Is there something I'm missing? He's an OK looking guy, but not so blindly gorgeous that he can skate by on his looks... I just don't get his appeal. I get his appeal for the producers, he's a team player, obviously, and has a great work ethic... and is enthusiastic. And that's GREAT. But I see other fans still talking how great he is, and I just don't SEE IT. And she watned to show that people who harm animals are dangerous... my goodness, I shot 5 squirrels in the last 3 weeks, what does that make me?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think Nelson has an agenda. After the firestorm he caused with the Chris Engen stuff and calling him a homophobe repeatedly, he's over-hyping Engen's replacement in a move to make his readers think that he is a superior actor and a friend of the gays.

Truthfully, though Maria's Y&R was directionless as hell before Sheffer showed up, I think Sheffer and Hamner were her real downfall. The show right now is utterly different from the directionless bore Maria wrote by herself for most of 2008.

I think if Maria got a better Co-HW, preferably a writer that understands basic soap rules and loves Y&R, there can be some hope. And only ONE new Co-HW...

Or maybe Maria can keep her Co-EP title and hand over the writing duties to this more qualified writer.

IF we have to keep her, can't she just get rid of Sheffer and Hamner? Those two have brought nothing but their worst attributes to this show and all of the havoc they've reeked on other shows has been brought to Y&R with them.

It's time for Maria to cut her henchmen loose and preferably cut a lot of that writing staff she has. The day to day writing is atrocious, and I can only attribute that to her huge writing team.

Maria HAS TO ADMIT there's been MISTAKES in her management of this show sooner or later. Starting with getting rid of Sheffer and Hamner would be a move in the right direction.

[DRW50]

I don't believe fans have anything to do with any of the heinous storytelling on display. Hogan Sheffer has written for three soaps. Each of those soaps has had very bad pacing. I remember on DAYS, they glossed over Kayla being forced to take a kidney out of a comatose man who was like a brother to her. This man was taken from his bed, to a warehouse, and Kayla was forced via threats to take out his kidney. This was all brushed over, his own wife never even reacted. They had Lexie return as some feral lost soul, and then she vanished for months at a time, completely normal offcamera. Yet other stories, like Sami/EJ/Lucas, would not move an inch and would be shoved at viewers 4 days a week for a year or more.

It's the same at Y&R. Phillip returns from the dead after twenty years and tells his family he could not stomach being around them. This is glossed over in LESS THAN A MONTH. Meanwhile, other stories go on for an eternity and nothing interesting ever happens, they are obviously just dragged out for the sake of being dragged out.

I don't believe this show has a problem with dragging stories out. They just suck at storytelling. Ashley's gaslighting and the Shick/Phick hell of 2009 are among the worst I can remember in Y&R's history. And they never, ever end. You can see the contortions they go through to keep these stories going as long as possible.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Pretty much.

[bellcurve]

You know, I actually didn't MIND that directionless bore. I'll come out and say it.

But a year, two years from now, I probably would have. I felt like Maria was still trying to get a feel for the characters, their identities and lives. But knowing what I know now, that would have taken a [!@#$%^&*] eternity.

God, you would assume she'd learned her lesson, maybe not from seeing Hogan Sheffer(because he's got Emmys on his mantle), but definitely Scott Hamner and not only his allegiance with Lethal, but his crazy lackluster run as PC's solo-HW. As often as she probably reads the boards for her history lessons, surely, she would know how toxic and awful Scott Hamner is.

I'm thankful Lethal pinned General Homicide and Carmen Mesta on him. It makes perfect sense. Just watch and wait for the "Who Killed Adam" during November Sweeps, with Ashley being haunted by not only Raya Meddine's Adam's Apple, but Michael Muhney's Facial Wasting.

I know that you've mentioned previously that Y&R was never a huge dialogue show, but damnit...does the dialogue have to be THAT BAD?!

And even though the pacing is awful, the day to days aren't much better. People are far too concerned with keeping their jobs instead of giving queen bee mere suggestions on what would HELP.

What bothers me the MOST about this is that, no matter what era of Y&R I casually or intensely tuned into to, at least prior to Maria, there was never this awful, flippant way of telling the story. Even during LML, if the story was bad, it was never in a way where it made Y&R seem like some average, basement bargain soap. At least it seemed like Lethal tried for better. Maria just seems content with her show and her vision being an absolute and utter joke.

[Heyou]

I'm well aware of this. Twenty years ago Bierdz was mediocre but twenty years later, he's more than just rusty, he's awful, IMO!! Yes, his unfortunate storyline has sucked but he didn't do it any favors either.

The mere fact that MAB is having to defend her writing, is priceless and should be all that's needed without us having to dissect it.

[alphanguy74]

I think Hamner copies far too much of his storytelling from his daddy... you ever watch an episode of the Waltons? Crisis of the week, just like Little House On The Prairie. But I suppose in prime time, that type of thing isn't so bad. You just can't PACE a serial like a [!@#$%^&*] prime time show! And Muhney's believeability isn't helped by the fact that he LOOKS OLDER than BOTH Morrow and Heinle.

[MarkH]

So, going meta...but I must confess I devour each of NB's columns.

Yes, I see many of the issues you do...but I also confess that it is a smile-inducing loopy ride--the likes of which does not exist anywhere else in the daytime genre.

We have analogized him to Perez Hilton before...and that is accurate. The "me me me" persona is part of the act (anyone who saw him on the CW knows that there is a quieter man underneath), and (like Perez) he sometimes goes TOO FAR. But the column is a wild and entertaining romp on a consistent basis.

He succeeds in doing what we have done here (i.e., evoking a response), when so little else in the daytime genre does. If he went away, I would miss him fiercely...and that is not to say I support all that he writes or does, or that I don't see the flaws.

As for MAB...you know, as long as her interview means "The Bells retain operational control", I don't care about the rest. If I don't like what I see, I'll tune out.

As I have written on SON elsewhere today, my hope is that we'll see plausible backstories for Adam and Patty that unfold in real time and are satisfying. I obviously crave a deeper, slower storytelling...and one where things make sense. But whether this happens or not, I find it very reassuring that some outsider-of-the-week is not going to impose a foreign vision on the show that has ZERO link with its evolving identity.

[dragonflies]

LOL she probably loves everything she writes, so she probably doesn't think she made any mistakes

[MoTheGreat]

I don't want to meet Maria in her land of denial. Her denial might rub off on me. & I'll be making excuse like other posters for her shitty storylines.

[DRW50]

No, you'll be saying, "I'm happy with everything I have ever posted!! Ever!!!!!"

Then you'll dress like a bag lady and start trying to push artwork off on people.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Total WORD.

[MarkH]

I understand what you mean about "flippant" way of telling story. I think that is a near-universal complaint among us here.

But what do you mean about "does the dialogue have to be THAT BAD?!". Do you have any specific things you're thinking of? I mostly haven't minded the dialogue (although I actually thought it was often better in the LML era...I thought the sitcom writers actually got some wittiness in there), but I'm eager to know what badness you're perceiving.

I did have some difficulty with that elitist "Chicken Parm" stuff from Amanda Beall...but that can't be what you're talking about.

[Stevie]

I'm still in shock at how she feels nothing is wrong with these storylines?