Jump to content

October 12-16, 2009


Toups

Recommended Posts

  • Members

Glad to see all the shows up in Total Viewers and some in HHs.

Also the plusses from last year are good to see too. Only GH is down over 100,000 viewers from last year.

(+362,000/+646,000)

(+233,000/+87,000)

(+24,000/+339,000)

(+129,000/+96,000)

(+70,000/-111,000)

(+165,000/-17,000)

(+133,000/-5,000)

Glad to see ATWT up in both categories. Y&R and AMC...I dont get their high numbers. AMC is a trainwreck..IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 74
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

It wasn't meant to be offensive and this has nothing to do with training viewers or anything of the such but some of the boards are honestly no different than blogs where people seems to comment and react to the most negative things and things get amplified by 1000 percent online. I know that in the past myself there have been characters and couples or stories I enjoyed on soaps as an offline viewer or didn't find particularly offensive and coming online you'd think it was the end of the world and earth was falling. And sorry but I do think in many cases there is a lot of follow the leader aspects to online. That of course is my opinion but as it happens everywhere else online, I have no idea why soaps would be different. Viewers political opinions or example get influenced watching Fox News or MSNBC or CNN so thy would online posting be different.( Hearing peoples understanding of the healthcare plan was a scary example of the media's influence on understanding and opinions of a lot of Americans. ) I do think this board is atypical in that respect though and there is intelligent points and dialogue that goes on here.

And it's anyone's choice to leave a show when a particular character or couple leaves, that's each viewer's decision. I am really going to be very interested in seeing what happens at AMC or Y&R with those key departures. Neither show is really doing anything much IMO. And you're right AMC doesn't have much. But I am one who thinks AMC doesn't have much anymore anyway aside from David Canary and Susan Lucci. While I recognize the popularity of Zach and Kendall(and I do know they are popular), I haven't enjoyed any couple on that show since the days of Leo and Greenlee or even Ryan(who I detest) and Gillian.

And while I am the last person to defend Brian Frons, I think his comments are many times so offensive the true intent is overlooked. I think his comments about training viewers while incredibly ridiculous and offensive, had some truth and validity to it and it's something every television show does to an extent, gearing stories and characters in a way to influence how the audience will accept them or it. It doesn't always work and is why characters and storylines flop, but is also works a lot also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

LMAD is still on CBS's schedule and is still airing in most markets.

Why? LMAD failing won't bring GL back or discourage any of the other networks from considering cheaper programming than soaps for their daytime lineups. Everyone at GL is already out of work, why wish the same fate on the crew of another show?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I understand where you're coming from with that point. I was making the same point when people were wishing GL to be cancelled because of the new production model having supposedly already effectively killed it and resulted in the firing of a lot of crew. I was like, why add to that with more firings? Huh? GL being cancelled wouldn't give the old crew their jobs back.

But this is different, because LMAD failing would be more evidence that any new game show would be a ratings failures in the key W 18-49 demo, and combined with the soaps' newfound stability or resurgence in the ratings that WILL save the remaining soaps. And soaps employ a lot more people than game shows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The best story Minshew's Kendell ever had (at least theoretically) was when she was in a coma for weeks. I tuned in expecting to get some relief finally. She never shut up! :lol: I never saw a coma patient talk more asleep than awake. They leaving will probably cause ratings to rise 20% resulting in an across the board bump all the way to Nightline! :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

A lot of Y&R viewers will probably disagree, but, to me, Y&R is the best it has been in years. It really reminds me of what the show was from 1987-95, when I got addicted to it : long-arc storylines clearly progressing from A to B to C.

Some of you complain that the storylines are predictable, but that is precisely what I like : that way, one can really anticipate the character's reactions. It also means they don't act out of character.

If you find the show is too dark, just remember the late '80s : Jessica died from AIDS, Steven Lassiter was killed, Cassandra died after the awesome George Rawlins murder mystery, crazy Lisa Mansfield trapped Brad in a cage, David Kimble died in a trash compactor with the word "killer" on his forehead, April killed her husband Robert... And I forgot the Sheila Carter saga...

Now we have Adam and Patty who did nothing worst than these past characters, and what is really innovative is that they are characters from the core families of the show.

But, at the same same time, you had quiet and poignant scenes to explore the reactions of each character, like the ones we saw after Colleen's death : don't you think Beth Maitland was amazing in these episodes ?

And why complain about a baby switch storyline ? To me, these are classic soap storylines, just like love triangles and murder mysteries...

Yes, Y&R is VERY dark show right now, but so was the classic Y&R written by Bill Bell : we can't blame the current writing team to try to recapture the darkness that makes the show so unique.

I agree that Colleen's death is very surprising and sad, but don't you like to be surprised and sad when you watch a soap ? As for the future, Steve could have a daughter of his own from a previous marriage, when Traci has no child anymore, and that could cause tension in the couple...

Regarding Eric Braeden's exit, I think this could be a chance to really add suspense in every future storyline : Victor was always... victorious in every situation he was put in, and like some of you said, he was involved in almost every storyline. But that was the character, he was there to win, and we liked him for that... or not !

If he ever comes back, his rivalry with Jack will be awesome to watch.

If Melody Thomas Scott agrees to stay without Eric Braeden, I think Nikki could start to drink again, alone and sad in the Newman ranch, like Katherine in the Chancellor mansion in the 70's. It could be revealed in Katherine's will after her death that Nikki was really Katherine's daughter and she would be given the mansion.

I even imagined she could eventually meet James Warwick to help her in these difficult times : MTS and Ian Buchanan would be awesome together.

And if she leaves, then the writers have the opportunity to create new characters and build the future of Genoa City (we don't know anything about Sharon except her mother, or about J.T.'s family) or have the Brooks family back in Genoa City or Jill's brothers...

The possibilities are endless with such a rich history, and the current writing team is brilliantly exploiting it.

Just my opinion and you may, of course, disagree.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm not that invested in Y&R as I have been other soaps but I definitely saw an upswing at the end of last year into maybe the first 6 months of this year. And while there may be a good foundation for the show, the storytelling of late has not been that compelling. Yes I think Beth Maitland is amazing as always but Colleen's death was such a waste especially just months after her fathers pointless death. I have no issue killing off long standing or legacy characters if there is significant impact to the canvas. Brad's had none. Now with Victor returning and having received Colleen's heart, is there a possibility we could see more significant impact to the show. I don't know but I don't get the point of killing off significant characters to just only play out story for a week or so and then dropping it when there could be tons and tons of story to tell.

There are going to be some new storylines kicking in, Sharon with Adam, Billy taking over Restless Style(I am getting bored with Billy by the way) so we'll see how things progress.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Just watched the episode concerning Olivia's drug use and Abby's persistence, etc. Donna Mills did stellar work in this episode, as did Tonya Crowe and Brian Austin Green (Brian).
    • But by Dinah and Hart...Hart especially looked as if he could not tie his own shoes!  Ed, Holly, Alan, Alex Henry and Vanessa among others were not able to put Roger down....Dinah???
    • The preaching seems to end before the Barnes settle in late December, 1981. The stuff that felt overly religious (the Davidsons believing a miracle will save Lori rather than a surgeon, Jeff's miraculous recovery from a beam of light) was quickly nixed because it wasn't working. The closest thing that you get to that under the Barnes is when Dennis Fraser, the drunk driver who killed Nora and Scott, turns his life over to god. The born-again redemptions out of nowhere seem to stop fairly early into the Barnes' run. I do think Miriam's transformation was much more delicately done with her turning on her bestie Nancy because Nancy was seducing Charles, Miriam's wealthy father, so Miriam offers to testify for the Davidsons in the trial against Nancy over possession of Nora's house. In turn, Nancy repays the favor by pumping an emotionally distraught Miriam with barbituates while Miriam carries on her affair with low level thug turned political aide Norm Elliott. Miriam is used by everyone into her life and finally lands herself in the hospital becasue she has become so addicted to the pills. At the hospital, it is the friendship and kindness of the Davidsons that brings Miriam to a more peaceful place. The Davidsons ability to forgive is both appealing and, at times, dramatically limiting. In this case, the Davidsons lead Miriam to her new Mama, Ione Redlon. Now, under Vinley, Miriam is determined to reconnect with her son, Frederick, and her ex-husband, Paul.   My bigger issue with the Barnes' writing is that they write the storylines with twist endings that sorta come out of nowhere. I know the resolution to the Kate Carrouthers mystery sorta plays out like that so I am curious to see how I feel about that.  The biggest change throughout the writing teams has been the view of morality. Winsor had many characters who could be viewed purely through the lens of black and white, but others explored the shades of gray (often younger people). The brief head writerless period was much better at embracing an action doesn't make a person and there characters were much more gray or at least evil at a more local level (Nancy, in this period, only flirts with her brother-in-law where as later she is actively providing pills to Miriam to keep her addicted and away from her own father). The Barnes, for the most part, seem to embrace this level of political corruption that seems to permeate throughout the show making it clear that power (as well as money) is the root of evil. Even criminal Vince Cardello is presented as less evil than Charles Carpenter, though Carpenter's murder of a resident of his complex was rewritten to relieve Carpenter of any responsibility in the matter. Vinley's work seems more into exploring the why or delving deeper in general. Babs Farley, the hooker who is looking to reclaim her life, is such an intriguing character. She is given such meaningful monologues regretting her decisions and desperately trying to keep away from the hands of her former pimp, Ron Washington, who hasn't appeared yet. Monk and Fernandez seem to be wrongly accused of Lori's attack and there seems to be hints of racism that the show is looking to address. Marianne confronts Gil about his feelings towards God in relation to their mother's death years earlier.  There does seem to be a layer of misogyny to Vinley's work, but it's early so I'll be curious to see how this plays out. There are a lot of attacks on women (Lori is nearly raped, Babs was beaten, Nancy is on the verge of being blackmailed for sex by Tab, and the Russ / Marianne / Gil scenario has hints of toxic masculinity. It's very early so it'll be neat to see if that is maintained.  Jerry TImm lasts about a year I think (March, 1982 - March, 1983). One of the episodes on TouTube has a comment suggesting that Timm was fired by CBN because he had done something in his past that came to light. It didn't seem to be clear what that was.  I like what I've seen of Timm as Gil. He has such a presence that it covers up some of his weaker acting choices. It's unfortunate that he didn't get to play as much of the Gil - Stacey - Amber triangle as his replacement does.  
    • I believe it was Mark Arnold's family that taped all the shows. It was the same with Ariane Muneker - her mother bought a video recording machine in the 1970s, at a time when that type of technology was really expensive John Wesley Shipp's parents also taped all his shows, and has a complete library of every single episode of every soap JWS has appeared on. Same for Cynthia Watros. When the Soap Actors parents pass away, and there are all these VHS tapes in dozens of boxes, it is shame to waste all that. 
    • Personally, I felt that the deletion of the original music from the girls' slumber party episode, and the axing of REM's Losing My Religion from the ep featuring Brenda and Dylan breaking up, were the most painful. The changes really damaged those episodes. I dropped the DVDs after season two, but I've been told by other viewers who kept going that tunes from all the seasons continued being replaced, and the situation only got worse as the DVD releases progressed. Yes, penny-pinching from those in charge was the principle issue, but I wonder how much better the DVDs would have sold if such poor choices had not been made in the name of cost cutting. On the other hand, when Time-Life put out the Vietnam-war era classic China Beach, they dug deep into their pockets and ended up clearing the rights to a whopping 268 (!!!) of the original tracks. This represented 96% of the total. TPTB said that when they were not given permission to use a few of the remaining pieces, they substituted different singers' versions of the exact same songs, in order to preserve the show's integrity as much as possible. The CB set was expensive as heck, to be sure, but to me it was worth it.
    • Oh I knew it was common (I did not realize Muenker's channel was gone - I'm glad I saved all those videos). I just didn't realize it was the case with the rape episode.  I never really felt like she dominated the show in her second stint either, although I can see where she probably did. I can feel it more in some of her first run, because the show was much different before she came in and suddenly a woman we'd seen for a year was [!@#$%^&*] and marrying an entire family.  In that sense Reva is more like Babe than Erica Kane. One of the more infamous AMC lines was, "Babe is love." You just know HB would have said that line about Reva at some point.
    • I disagree; if this were Chris Clenshaw, then I would be worried. But it's a new producer coming in to clearly create the canvas they want to create, and I'm okay with that. Re-introducing characters to shake things up and possibly take some other ones out of the canvas. It'll be interesting to see the finished product.
    • I am ready for our first full week in what feels like a while! They worked Sweeps month!
    • Beyond the Gates: A The Bold and the Beautiful: F Coronation Street: B Days of Our Lives: B- EastEnders: A+ Emmerdale: A- Hollyoaks: B+ General Hospital: C Neighbours: C+ The Young and the Restless: F For me, Beyond the Gates, EastEnders, and Emmerdale led the pack during Sweeps month, with Coronation Street and Days of Our Lives following. General Hospital and Neighbours sit in the middle with what I'd call a "take it or leave it" kind of Sweeps month, and the Bell soaps bombed (per usual).
    • Actors doing this is pretty common. I used to work for a company that produced a very successful sitcom back in the 70s. Actors who were guest stars on the show would ask to be provided tapes of their episodes. I assume they do it for a variety of reasons, i.e. to create a reel of their best work. I know of some soap actors who have uploaded saved work to YT. One is Ariana Muenker, who played Christine Valere on GL. She was uploading scenes from her many soap roles a few months back. Unfortunately, it looks like either she or YT took the channel down. Sharon Gabet and Mark Arnold help the EON YT channel by providing saved episodes. Along with EON eps, Arnold shared a guest stint he did on GL. Those episodes are really interesting because they involve the introduction of Nola's character, which was tied to the Roger storyline. When he came back after faking his death, he hid out at the boarding house. Nola being a snoop figured out something was fishy with him. She ended up helping the police. Very worth seeking out. I don't think anyone else has those episodes.  Makes you wonder if there's more out there than we know of because actors don't want to be bothered to run a YT channel. Can't blame them because it's a lot of trouble, but if only... I agree. While Lucci definitely used her fame from the show to build her brand and get work outside of AMC, Erica was always part of an ensemble. Yeah, she got a couple of whacky stories (like the "unabortion") but she never took over to the detriment of other actors and stories.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy