OLTL: Couple Out

[DRW50]

The longer Terrell Tilford stays the more I think Bernice Clifton is making casting decisions.

[Leia]

The spec on the net is he will be soon paired with Layla. They'll both be written out as soon as they fall in love instantly.

[quartermainefan]

Maybe all these firings will have a silver lining. It was back in 2006 or so that DOOL was forced to let go of roughly 10 front burning actors to save on money, and then again in 2009 they got rid of four of their vettiest vets. OLTL is in a precarious position so there just may be no choice in letting go of all these actors.

[SFK]

I feel like what has made OLTL so special in recent times is its rather strong and varied recurring/supporting cast. They REALLY need to carefully choose where they're cutting their "fat". As Carl has often pointed out, these characters have provided great respite from all of the storylines I'll categorize as falling under the Todd and Rex umbrellas. The show has not by any means been perfect, but I have at least appreciated the presence of a rather varied community of characters, even when storylines have been of dubious quality. And if they can't even deliver some consistently good Viki, Dorian, Bo, Nora material, the show might as well Kish its ass goodbye. I think Kish, even moreso than a Michael and Marcie, was a great couple to keep in the pocket, a lot of potential there. I just don't know what to make of the show right now, it's been a doozie of a week, OLTL's most dramatic month of behind the scenes brouhaha in recent memory. I wish I had faith that they know what they're doing.

[EricMontreal22]

Someone recently said on here that AMC as of late feels under populated (ok it has for a while now) and OLTL over populated--and while that's true (especially of AMC), I agree with you SFK that one of the best apects of OLTL recently is the fact it feels like a varied community. And yeah DAYS did well (more or less) when they trimmed their cast. The thing is, the expensive vets aside, I felt they did this with more thought than OLTL seems to be doing... I mean yeah I'd be upset if ES or RS is cut, and I'm not suggesting that, but...

[quartermainefan]

If I were running OLTL I might give RS a rest for a few months. The Dorian character should be a little more special than it has become in recent years, and I just don't know that I would have written Dorian as having a kitchen, let alone spending so much time in it.

[DRW50]

Dorian is a plot device. She gets things going. Todd and John can barely tie their own shoes, they can't do anything. They don't bother to write for the character herself.

[EricMontreal22]

I love her kitchen but maybe it's because soaps these days never seem to have a kitchen anymore..

[SFK]

I've resigned myself to the fact that *my* Dorian lives on YouTube.

[DRW50]

It's just an awful drought. Fine -- say Sky, Kyle, and Fish are not important characters, say they aren't tied to the canvas (even though OLTL once had a history of tying fringe characters to the heart of the show). Say that Rachel is just not worthy enough of being a heroine. So what do we have? A lot of leading men who look like they would rather be tied to the front of a truck than be onscreen, and a lot of women who are, honestly, shockingly weak and sad.

I don't understand what the people behind these decisions have in mind. Are we going to let the good times roll with Todd/Tea/overaged miracle child or Todd/Kelly, TweenJessica, Rex/Gigi, and John/woman who twists herself into a pretzel over his affections, with an added bonus of Ford the sociopath in training? Is that what will get the ratings up? Is this the stuff that was SO damn good that it shows those icky minorities singlehandedly kept the ratings from going up?

[Vee]

Dorian has carried mountains of [!@#$%^&*] for years now and Strasser's more subtle performances may have suffered for it, but she gets it done everyday. Cut her down and you'd lose a lot of people which OLTL can no longer afford to lose, including possibly me. And I watched in 2006.

On surface, no, losing these people who have been cut is far from the end of the world. Most are not directly connected to the canvas and can go without an obvious gap; the problem is that they represent the show's essence, what's always made it work, that kind of nuanced, risky storytelling and diversity. Removing them removes almost everything different or unique from the show's current storylines. If they can replace them with equally interesting performers and characters, okay, but I still think there was no reason in particular to dump Rachel or at least keep Kish on recurring if there was a push at ABC to back down on them. In the meantime, OLTL would be very smart to show some faith with its audience by rehiring Dan Gauthier and others, like Roger Howarth, on contracts.

[DRW50]

Robin does go over the top but in the face of so much passivity there's less room for quiet playing. Everyone around Dorian shrugged at Mitch. Her family, even when they knew they were targeted for death, were more interested in how horny they were or which man needed to be supported. Viki, Todd, they also shrugged. Basically, Dorian and an alcoholic having a nervous breakdown were the only people who were even remotely concerned about Mitch. If they didn't have so much of Llanview as so devoid of inertia and if they wrote the Cramers as having more strength than there would be room for a calmer Dorian.

[Sylph]

Why do you think so? Carlivati is on the same level of hackdom, but probably cheaper.

[edgeofnik]

I'm curious if certain Soap writers/media will continue to pimp OLTL as the best soap, blah, blah, blah after this. If suddenly, OLTL is the worst soap, then we know what the real agenda is. The reality is that soaps are watched by mostly old people and women, who aren't tuning in to see guys hook-up. I wish things were different, but they aren't. (Just look at the number of states who have voted against gay marriage. Even our President and his administration is against it.) I'd rather focus on the positive: at least ATWT, GL and OLTL did take the risk and had more than superficial storylines.

[silascrocker]

Goodbye One Life To Live, They were the reason I have been watching.

GL is gone, ATWT is going, There just is no reason to watch daytime anymore...........