OLTL: SOAPnet March Preview

[Leia]

That many?

[DeeeDee]

That's just the girls.

[All My Shadows]

I wanted them to test the waters with Jade and Aaron sfm. Elena and Agim would have been HOT.

[DRW50]

Most of them were dead, or gone, by the time the Buchanans showed up, although I see your point. But now the Buchananas themselves have been slowly phased out for the likes of Rex and John.

[Vee]

I don't think the Buchanans have been phased out, but they will never have the prominence they once had as long as special consideration is given to the likes of John and Rex by the network. Word has it Frons did not like the BE stories.

I also am not at all convinced Layla is out in the cold re: Cris. Sure, they might throw a black woman to the wolves if it was just that simple, but it's not - Brody and Jessica are a young white couple, popular, and favorites of the HW. I think this is just a recall of the old Viki amnesia story, with Cris as Tom Dennison and Brody as Clint.

[DRW50]

I don't understand when soap heads started thinking business stories were too much for our tiny minds. MADD and Frons both had that view and look where it got their shows.

Buchanan/Lord timeline:

Meredith died in 1973

Victor died in 1976

Tony only somewhat relevant with George Reinholt in the role, never important after Reinholt was gone

Buchanans arrived in 1979.

If anything I think the Buchanans helped keep Viki and her children relevant on the show, as Clint was a solid rock for Viki which enabled Rauch to be able to twist and turn her character as well as Cord being used as a solid rock when they did the same with Tina.

It just bothers me because there is no reason Kevin and Joey should not be on this show. Kevin and Joey are gone, Cord and his children are gone, Natalie's main story is about John, Jessica is so degraded as a character, Clint has a story now but that has not been true a lot of the time over the years and may not be true again when Amanda Setton leaves. I wouldn't be as bothered if they were being phased out for strong characters, but Rex? John? Todd?

I don't mean to compare this to what has happened with the Halls or Rachel or other black characters on soaps, don't get me wrong. I do think that a lot of this type of storytelling goes hand-in-hand, as, instead of core families or social issues, you get a stripper.

I think there's a decent chance Layla might stay, in a supporting role. Either she will reunite with Cris and they won't be seen that often or she and Cris will break up and she will be shown sometimes being friends with someone, like Fish and Kyle.

Brody, it's hard to say, I think there's a lot they can do with him but I also think he does not fit the profile of a Frons male. I guess it depends on what they want to do with Jessica. They may just try to find someone new altogether for her.

[Leia]

I actually liked Jade and that Bonnie. What was the actress' name?

Maybe the notes were mixed up at the network and they think Kevin and Joey are black characters?

Using that logic I am inclined to agree with you, however I do recall that Jared and Natalie were headwriter favorites were they not?

[DRW50]

That Bonnie was Napiera Groves. Her last story was pushing Marshall Travers out a window after yet another Hogan Sheffer "let's make rape kind of hot or blurry" story.

[Vee]

Yes, they were; however, Natalie is Natalie, who Frons doesn't really care about but who he needed for John, and Jessica is the crown jewel who he adores.

I believe Daytime Confidential has said ABC is blocking any attempts to bring Kevin back full-time and is postponing this Joey recast search that has been going on for almost a year.

[Vee]

Re: Lamman Rucker. I don't think much of anything Tyler Perry, but at least on that sitcom he is allowed to appear as a handsome male lead of some sort, a nice guy who the audience enjoys and can relate to. It is sadly emblematic of daytime's regression in the last 10-20 years that all daytime was able to do with Rucker was make him a rapist and a drug kingpin. With rare exception, the modern black male on daytime is either a criminal or a neutered supporting player.

[Leia]

I liked her with Isaac? I was young at the time but I remember he had pretty white teeth. Marshall was played by Lamman right? ATWT had 2 black men on at the same time.

If that's the reason why Jared is gone then I'm sure Layla is nixed.

I'm convinced of it now. They must think he's black.

I'll never understand how 2 networks looked at an actor of his calibre and all they could come up with is RAPIST. He's not even a loveable rapist like Todd. Just a RAPIST.

And he falls for the modern black female who is a receptionist at the police station. Maybe Layla needs to get employment at the strip club.

[Vee]

Not if they're fine with Brody, which I think they are and who, let's remember, is white.

I really liked Paul Taylor(?) who played Isaac on ATWT but they did nothing with him. And Peter Parros was a nonentity.

I understood why they made Layla work at the PD to give her connections to the rest of the canvas, to John and Oliver and so on, but there were other ways to do it. As much as I hated Layla's relationship with Adriana and their overnight "fashion empire," I thought it was idiotic beyond words that they had sold their company for a hefty profit, yet Layla was somehow unable to afford an apartment of her own and had to go work as a desk clerk in civil service. I liked what it led to - the relationship with Cris, and rooming with him and Oliver - but I got the sense that they would not have done that dance with the employment situation with a white character. Well, actually, they have in the past, I can remember equally implausible job scenarios for white characters (including Natalie's stint as receptionist - WTF?), but still.

[Leia]

He was very handsome. I remember my mum and my nana were so surprised to see someone who was so darkskinned on the show. If it's hard for Blacks on daytime it's 10x worse for the darker-complexioned Blacks to survive.

But it is unbelievable that she would suddenly become devoid of her entrepreneurial ambitions. I am surprised Adrianna is still working in fashion while Layla has forgotten all about it.

Natalie working as a Receptionist was stupid but I did like the other position she held. I think she was an Investigator for the LPD.

[DRW50]

They had three black men on ATWT at that time (Isaac, Marshall, Ben), but Isaac was on the way out and after the initial excitement over Marshall, complete with rumors he would be one of James's sons, he took a sharp turn in that awful rape story and was quickly written out. Then Ben lasted for another year or so for a curtailed pill addiction story and that even more awful story where Jessica and Margo fought over "Doc Reese."

I don't think the writing was ever great (I really disliked the way they degraded Jessica), but ATWT was probably the closest to any soap in the past decade of building a strong black family unit. Suddenly, it was just gone like that.

[Vee]

And none of them were doing a thing, really, except Marshall. So I could understand the initial excitement at the time. All Ben and Isaac ever did was worry about Jessica and Bonnie. I didn't buy or care for Ben and Jessica, at all; it seemed like a limp way to just smash the black characters together by default. And frankly Parros was in no way in Tunie's league.

I will disagree about ATWT's prospects back then. They had three floating black men, two related, all orbiting one mother and daughter. I think both AMC with the Hubbards' initial return and OLTL until the firing of Duplaix's Rachel had much more potential. OLTL still has some to work from, I just doubt they'll utilize it properly; I think Rachel was the compass and the long-running character which all fans could care about, and where many of the black and white characters intersected, whereas Layla has a different circle of friends and extended family and a different appeal to fans who also enjoyed Rachel. This worked when you had both women because just because they were both black, that didn't mean they had to know each other or be friends or hang out all the time; I don't think they ever even met, at least not thus far. They were part of different worlds, just like people IRL.

I agree Layla should still at least be an entrepreneur, but I would've liked to see her go back to acting. She could have gone to star on Bo, Megan and Snoop's old soap Fraternity Row, providing a fun story for her and her end of the canvas and allowing for another meta-commentary on the state of daytime.