Y&R episode discussion

[Cheap21]

Adam is absolutely despicable. He is the WORST excuse for a human on any soap

Was BM's hair really this color? What a bad dye job. Looks like someone took her pic and messed around in Photoshop

[y&r_fan]

Yep. It was really that color.

[Chris B]

Cheap, actually she returned later and her hair was a combination of that candy orange and grey. It was a mess, but she looks great now with the blond hair. It took years off! Right now I haven't watched any of this week. Trying to catch up on last week, but it's painful. I skipped tuesday and watchs weds-thurs for Jill and Kay and watched most of Friday, but it was painful.

I just wonder why the show suddenly started telling all these stories that were just told on other soaps. AMC and B&B both did heart transplants recently and the upcoming story has been done by just about every soap on air and never as good as the Knots Landing original! Just give it up already!! I wish MAB would butcher storylines from canceled soaps so it's at least not so fresh in us viewers minds. Copying current soaps which are all competing to get canceled seems silly.

[DRW50]

Amber is pregnant. Is the father Daniel, or Deacon, via Deacon's rape? Amber considers entering a nunnery, but finally stands outside of the new Bardwell's Bratwursts stand. She tells Daniel and Deacon that she is going to live her own life! As she shrieks her bold choice to the men in her life, the sheer decibel level of her voice causes the B in the Bardwell sign to smash her on the head, killing her instantly. Daniel and Deacon feel strangely relieved.

Sharon and Nick plan to remarry. Their flower girl is little Shick, the beloved daughter they rescue from Adam's clutches. Horror of horrors, Shick is kidnapped by a gorilla! The gorilla turns out to be Noah in an ape costume, planning to take Shick a more peaceful life in Gorilla City. Nick realizes he has neglected the monkey part of his heritage, and he and Sharon don their own gorilla costumes and plan to go live in the wild. Sharon is struck down by a tranquilizer dart from Phyllis. Will she live or die? In the final scene, Paul Rauch has old friend Victoria Wyndham wander through the Chancellor mansion, replacing photos of Phillip, Rex, Brock, etc. with Ada, Jamie, and Mac. When someone cries out, "You have nothing to do with this show!" Wyndham fires back, "So what? Neither does anyone else left on this piece of sh!t!"

Danny returns to sing "Danny Boy". Terrible Tom returns, revealing that he was actually Joe Novak under an assumed name. Kate Mulgrew appears as the ghost of Mary Ryan, telling them that Soapnet is canceling all soaps and that Brian Frons sucks.

Neil gets a new job selling ice cream. Tyra pays a visit, hoping for a second chance. When he tells her no way, she tries to seduce his old friend Henry Marshall, who was, until a week ago, her biological uncle. Henry resists, then keels over from a heart attack. In lieu of a cliffhanger, a booming voice reminds them that black people are not allowed in Genoa City, and they can ask Obama to get them a job.

A serial killer stalks Genoa City. The Newman family is killed off systematically, until finally, only Victoria is left. The killer reveals herself to be Gwyneth Alden. Gwyn spits venom: "I haven't worked in 15 years, and YOU, YOU have worked CONSTANTLY!!! And you have nabbed the finest pieces of tail at every job, while I pined after Jeremy!! JEREMY!!!!" A panicked Victoria, almost managing to snap out of her usual coma haze, tells her that she saw Trisha in Oakdale. Gwyn leaves, but not before pushing Victoria and Morgan Fairchild down an elevator shaft.

Nikki and Victor remarry. A crazed Krista Tesreau aims a gun at Ashley, and as she plans to pull the trigger, the credits roll. Paul Rauch stomps a painting under his foot, then puts his cigar out on an ugly gold lame skirt. "MY vision," he spits as he walks away.

[MarkH]

I'm with Toups. I strongly advocated for the baby switch...but this one has a bad start. What has hung me up the most? A silly point...chemist Ashley would NEVER take a drug while pregnant. She KNOWS better.

[DRW50]

Do you think those at Y&R now know Ashley was a chemist? Many of the writers are new. They may just see her as a generic businesswoman, if they even know she ever had a career.

[MarkH]

Not just a chemist--a biochemist. Someone whose raison d'etre was to produce products that would receive FDA approval -- i.e., not cross the blood-brain barrier, be toxic, etc.

If ANYONE, _even_ when she is off the rails, would know not to take tranquilizers while pregnant...it is Ashley.

I love baby switches. But this one was premised on Sharon passing out (something not explained until late in the game -- 'she lost a lot of blood' --) and Ashley passing out by taking drugs she would not take.

I compare this to the delicious Sheila switch...planned for months...slowly and shockingly revealed...facilitated by her status as a nurse...nurtured for years...augmented by the horror of Lauren losing a baby (Dillon) she'd come to love (the first time Bill Bell relented on killing a baby since -- I believe -- DOOL). Us suffering with Lauren for months that her baby was truly alive -- and agonizing with Molly as she struggled to say the word "baby". Perfection!

I get goosebumps remembering that baby switch. For this one to work, we needed everyone to be rendered stupid, drugged, or near dead. And we needed Snidely Whiplash in the middle of it. Oh, woe!

[Cheap21]

I find the thought of Victor getting Colleen's heart after how nasty and vile he's been to her absolutely disgusting. I really cant beleive Y&R is going there. Id rather Tracy say no and let her heart go to a more deserving person

Ashley is clearly insane. I dont think theres much rationale to apply to her

[durk]

I just saw the 10/1 episode and even though this baby switch story is starting out horrible, SC did really well in those scenes... thank god for god actors on this show because otherwise the stories would suck that much more

[Cat]

OMG!

Yesterday had some good scenes: Jill's birthday -- and Kay leaving to go help out Nikki, thereby hurting Jill's feeling. And Peter Bergman was superlative yesterday.

the idea that this old coot gets Colleen's heart, though? Wrong wrong WRONG. I checked out Serial Drama yesterday and one of their Y&R posts went through Colleen's near-death dream sequence -- including this bit:

The Curious Death of Colleen Carlton

And THAT is why Pricktor should never get Colleen Carlton's heart.

[MarkH]

I often miss that site, because they seldom discuss Y&R/B&B. But what a perfect review and summary of much of what is wrong with that story. Some of the comments that follow further elucidate what was wrong with the staging.

I am now obsessed with that old Hogan Sheffer story from his ATWT days:

[DeeeDee]

Really Morrow?

Really?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Guys, just admit it, this show is every bit as bad, if not worse than the final months of the Lynn Marie Latham era.

This show doesn't have a chance of getting better unless Maria Arena bell, Hogan Sheffer, Scott Hamner, and a few staff writers are replaced.

[SFK]

Wow Sharon, Valene Ewing called, she wants her most memorable storyline back ("But I heard them cry..."). I know she watches from time to time, and I REALLY hope JVA was watching today.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

There's nothing particularly intriguing about any of the characters in this baby switch. Adam and Michael Muhney's portrayal is so flat, yet over the top and one note that he isn't an intriguing villain to watch. The Sharon character has been brutally hacked away by these writers, and Ashley hasn't had a personality or some common sense since she came back to this show.

Needless to say, this storyline was a huge strategic error, and one that was done purely for shock value to cover up the fact that this writing regime cannot write properly pace, or properly executed character-driven storylines about basic elements of soaps and human life.

If this show continues like this, the bottom will fall out, and it will fall out hard. I see another major ratings erosion soon, and it's already started if you look at the long term trends.