Y&R: Latest Arrogant Garbage From Maria Arena Bell and Hogan Sheffer

[DRW50]

They let Hogan out of the trough? I haven't seen any interviews with him in ages.

About what you can expect. They certainly do love Canada, don't they? I do too. So why don't they dump Y&R and replace it with reruns of You Can't Do That on Television.

[Sylph]

That's ALL?! Nothing about Whitesell's stupid ideas, the janitor, We're not Passions!, No, we're not stunt casting! D'oh!

[BadZoe]

This interview is kinda funny when it read it using my dimwit air head voice for Maria. Too bad I can't post it.

[DRW50]

This interview was torn to shreds at a number of sites while SON was down, so everyone already said what I would have said.

I did hate the part where Hogan got his butt kissed over his supposed ATWT brilliance and he went on about how he had "broken the rules" and he didn't even know what the rules were. Please. That's not a good thing. The handful of stories that didn't suck during his time at ATWT were classic soap stories. Everything he did that "broke the rules", like seeing rape as hilarious, helped kill ATWT.

[bellcurve]

I would have ripped this a new one, but the board was down yesterday and I went to "the board that shall not be named" to post my thoughts. I'll repost what I posted there since the whole thing is laughably exhausting to me at this point.

I have to wonder whether Nelson was going for irony in this interview.

These people are so full of themselves and have absolutely no idea what daytime television is about. The talking down to the audience, the justification of these bad doppelganger stories with a throwaway line about "being a nurse in the same hospital where you had your plastic surgery," down to the laughable comment about how the production values excel. It's absolutely astonishing.

The Reilly comparisons are rich coming from Hogan and Maria. They're trying way too hard. And yeah, Maria was a "friend" of Reilly. That probably entailed shaking his hand at a cocktail party and giggling to Billy about his weight.

What people just do not understand about Reilly 1.0 at DAYS is that the show was great because of some of the outrageous stories, but also because Reilly drove us up the wall wanting MORE. His payoffs were fantastic as well. Oh, and let's not forget Reilly 1.0 also had CHECKS AND BALANCES, under Ken Corday, Tom Langan, and NBC who probably told him "hell no" to any of this extremely weird story ideas.

As much as Maria hates Barbara Bloom and Margot Wain, she desperately needs someone from the network or from SONY to tell her that the level of misogyny, the lack of cohesive storytelling, and the downright inanity of this show is doing longterm damage for the Y&R brand. She needs to understand that being #1 and #2 means nothing to CBS at this point. They don't own these shows and year after year they continue to lose money on them.

And Barbara Bloom is more concerned about getting promoted than she is about the soaps. And can you blame her? Maria has had her fingers in her ears the entire time, not even bothering taking any sort of advice from her chief of daytime television, who has consistently worked more years in daytime television than her, not only as a soap executive, but as Head-Writer of a soap opera! After being trashed and disrespected likely behind closed doors and in an interview, Maria can't seriously expect to believe Barbara Bloom doesn't want Y&R to fail. Bloom is gunning for Nancy Tellem or Dawn Ostroff's job. And she'll do everything, even allowing the hacks in charge of the Bell lot to self-destruct to the point where she uses their timeslots to make her vision of network TV's GSN complete.

Maria's ego is SO beyond her that she can't even see this coming down the turnpike. Or maybe she does and she just doesn't care.

And I want to laugh at Maria and Hogan when they say "there are no egos." Are you f*cking kidding me? Maria can't do a single interview unfiltered with tough questions. She's like the Sarah Palin of daytime television. Someone without an ego would be able to address their critics and all of their concerns. Someone with a f*cking writing degree from Northwestern should seriously know better. She has an ego. It's clear in the way she speaks in interviews, especially her earlier interviews where she talks about "my show and my vision." I don't mind people who are egotistical, but for f*ck's sake, have the talent to back it up. Don't spend your studio time shopping at Nordstrom, flipping through Neiman Marcus catalogues, and giving these masturbatory, self-congratulatory interviews.

[Khan]

VO: This interview has been brought to you by the Canadian Tourism Commission. Inspire the world to explore Canada.

[Sylph]

Thank you, CarlD2 and bellcurve!

[catsmeouch]

As a Canadian, I feel the only thing Arena Bell and Sheffer got right in this interview was their assessment of us. Other than that, it's all BS.

[juniorz1]

I'm also going to copy & paste my post from "that other board that we're allowed to cuss on."

What, no mention of Darius McCrary's casting as Malcolm? That wasn't a casting coup? If you're gonna lick their !@#$%^&*] Nelson, you may as well go all out.

Oh totally. Yvonne Zima was the PERFECT choice to play Daisy- totally reminds me of Kimberlin Brown. Not only does she look like her, but she clearly has the same chops. [/sarcasm]

Marcy Rylan is the perfect choice to play a character who is supposed to be under 10 years old. Since she was born years after her nephew Noah, who is 16, an actress in her mid-20s is perfect.

Darius McCrary has done TONS of different things. He started off as Eddie Winslow and then......

And they're right- I find it totally compelling to watch the man-chick from Ace Ventura in a guest role. I hear she's dressing up in a catwoman costume for the part- it's part of Emily's sick plan to gaslight Patty.

Who cares? Oh yeah......this just goes to show that Nelson does his homework. Well done Branco!

[juniorz1]

Totally a strange transition to go from headwriting two soap operas to headwriting......a soap opera. How strange that must have been for him. He doesn't pay attention to anyone other than himself? What the [!@#$%^&*] is that supposed to mean or prove? Don't get it. And where is the irony in saying this is the best job he's ever had? As a writer himself, he should have a better understanding of the term irony. What really sucks is that I thoroughly enjoyed most of his stint on ATWT so for him to say that Y&R is the best show he's ever worked on......well, unless he's referring to the Bill Bell years, he clearly is a terrible judge of his own work. I'd be laughing my ass off on those conference calls too- but for entirely different reasons! Hey- I got an idea- Sheila, who had plastic surgery to look like Phyllis, should have a sister, who has plastic surgery to look just like Lauren, who knows Patty, who had plastic surgery to look just like Emily, and the sister should try to kill Phyllis, the woman who her sister had plastic surgery to look like. I'd be busting a gut! Sadly, the network SHOULD be screaming at him. Those suits probably actually have better ideas than the dreck he, a professional writer, is putting out.

Yeah, the most important aspect of the job is anyone is fair game to be fired. To her own detriment, Maria has hired a bunch of morons to help turn the champagne of soap operas into malt liquor.

The key is NOT having an ego? Oh Hogie- read the [!@#$%^&*] interview- your egos are massive! And I LOVE that he admits that the janitor has been writing the show- no wonder! "Well, Maria, ma'am, if you gots on doppelerganger, why not two doppelergangers?" "Hey Hogan- we got a story that completely disregards history, is completely misogynistic, and turns all of the characters involved into total morons- How about you commandeer that one? I think it's right up your alley." "10-4, Hottie McTottie." And lookie- he's STILL trying to convince us (or himself) that they don't have egos.

Doesn't sound egotistical to me in the least! Sadly, that last quote was literally 2 sentences after his "We don't have egos" bullshit!

Umm, Days of our Lives is the ONLY soap that's in the black right now, so I wouldn't say that Y&R is the only show doing extraordinarily well. And apparently losing half a million viewers on a year to year basis is considered doing extraordinarily well to Sheff. Puh-leeze.

LMAO. Most of Chris Whitesell's idea's are stupid? Yet his entirely fresh take on the doppelganger story is to have TWO doppelgangers? That's supposed to be fresh & original? That's like saying- "Hey, instead of bringing on an evil twin, how about we bring on an evil triplet, a nice triplet, and one that falls in between? After all, it will provide Emmy Oscar tapes.

BWahahahahahahhahhahahha. Oh, so they DID know they had two doppelgangers on at the same time? I guess Carolyn wasn't the first one who caught it. And sorry, "Patty, it's me, SARAH! How about I kill Phyllis and you kill Michael?" is NOT intertwining two stories at all. It's called having two characters that know each other. Do these two understand what a [!@#$%^&*] umbrella story is? It's when 2 separate stories actually come together and turn out to be connected. There was no connection here- just a couple of nutjobs that happened to know each other and decided to work together. GOD, the [!@#$%^&*] stupidity of that statement makes me boil! The PSEUDO REEMERGENCE OF SHEILA? Um, no. You brought on a sister that you made up that the audience doesn't know, two kids that Sheila supposedly had that never existed. Why on EARTH would Sheila have become so fixated on Scotty if she had [!@#$%^&*] TWINS at home? Retards. But you know what? I agree about Bregman- she was great! (not sarcastic- I really thought she gave a strong performance in the dual roles, unlike Haiduk)

Clearly, they don't read the message boards. Our frustration has always been that we DO know where these stories are going from jump and we're made to watch [!@#$%^&*] unfold when we've already figured out the beginning, middle, and end. And it IS a bad thing you DUMBASSES! The ONLY thing we've been talking about is what utter [!@#$%^&*] you've turned what was once one of the most well-plotted, character driven soaps into. We didn't complain about Adam getting away with [!@#$%^&*]- we complained about all of our beloved characters being turned into total MORONS to facilitate him getting away with [!@#$%^&*]. Not to mention violating two of our most beloved heroines in such a vile, disgusting way just for the sake of a crap payoff. As for the ratings "jump"- all that says is nobody wanted to watch your [!@#$%^&*] storyline until you finally killed off the !@#$%^&*]. I bet the ratings would skyrocket if everyone involved in this Patty/Emily [!@#$%^&*] got together and brutally murdered those two as well. Instead, they kill off Sarah Smythe, who was at least slightly entertaining, and found a new "clever" way to keep the neverending Patty [!@#$%^&*] going.

[juniorz1]

Sorry for the multiple posts but it won't let me have a certain number of quotes & I want this post to read properly. To continue:

The fact that anyone could even make such a comparison (as Y&R to Passions) should speak VOLUMES to you Maria. Bill Bell would roll over in his grave if he knew that his daughter-in-law/protege's vision has resulted in his creation being compared to Passions. I'd take it a step further and compare Y&R to Cop Rock or Pacific Palisades or.....God, I can't even think of a show as bad. And please STOP blaming this [!@#$%^&*] on Bill Bell. Bill Bell NEVER had one of his characters cause a heroine to have a miscarriage and proceed to throw the fetus into a fire. Bill Bell never had two doppelgangers. Bill Bell never had a period where his most talked-about character was a stuffed cat. Bill Bell never had a character rob banks dressed as a chipmunk. Sheila is not back in a different form- we've got her lame sister who doesn't even compare. And I see not one bit of psychosis in Lauren's 3 week storyline. And give me a [!@#$%^&*] break- we're not falling for the "don't worry, we're gonna have character-driven, boardroom storylines- just give us another month. BULLSHIT. IT AIN'T HAPPENING AND WE ALL KNOW IT. Why the [!@#$%^&*] did I have to sit through Patty/Emily, Sarah/Lauren, and Adam to get to character-driven storylines? Seriously, I'd say they're talking out of their asses but their asses could probably come up with better logic than THAT!

But you don't feel guilty about brutally killing off the damn dog? :eyeroll:

How do I even respond to this? First of all, I actually LIKED when she was fixing LML's errors & even Jack Smith's (the Kay/Jill related [!@#$%^&*]). But then she goes and repeats one of LML's BIGGEST errors- PHEILA! And she does it with the same characters, in the same storyline, in the same setting. What the [!@#$%^&*] currently on air parallels ANYTHING from the Bill Bell years? Be specific Maria. Stupid spoiled whore. And dude, NO, the MAJORITY OF YOUR FANS ARE NOT ENJOYING THE SHOW. There is NOTHING positive on the web which speaks VOLUMES. Even the most ardent supporters like MarkH & Alstonboy or whoever it is think the show is dogshit now. Dude, most Y&R fans have been watching for 10, 20, 30 years- no WAY are the people that have watched this classic, character driven soap are enjoying this drivel.

Buck off Maria. You wouldn't know a traditional Y&R story if you cut & paste it off the archives.

Again, a continuation of my post because of the quoting issue (can't we FIX that?):

Yeah, the whole week really "popped" It was like a feature film- totally. Plan 9 from Outer Space comes to mind.

:blah:

ALL YOU GUYS HAVE DONE THIS ENTIRE INTERVIEW IS PANDER & TALK DOWN TO THE AUDIENCE!!!! ALL OF YOUR STORYLINES INSULT OUR INTELLIGENCE. You're doing the best work possible.............for writing at a Kindergarten level.

Still don't know the form. You broke the rules on ATWT & it worked. I got news for ya- MORE THAN 20 [!@#$%^&*] PEOPLE HATE IT ONLINE. 100s, 1000s, we ALL universally hate this [!@#$%^&*]. I've never seen the Y&R fans more united & it's all because we ALL SEE THAT WHAT IS ON OUR SCREENS IS UTTER [!@#$%^&*]. DAYS isn't playing it safe. Neither are OLTL or DAYS. You guys aren't playing it safe- you're not playing with the full deck either. I really liked what he did at ATWT, but the #1 rule of the genre is what works on AMC doesn't work on ATWT & that stuff doesn't work on B&B and their stuff doesn't work on DAYS, etc... A Bit of Jim Reilly on Y&R? GREAT? [!@#$%^&*] NO. Jim Reilly stuff fits on Passions, and to a lesser degree, DAYS. But there isn't room for Sheffer on daytime anymore, much less Jim Reilly. Don't they realize that each show that decided to copy Reilly garnered an EPIC FAIL for doing so? Oh I forgot.....Paul Rauch was the one who tried to emulate him most and look who's the EP of Y&R.

[juniorz1]

Ok I have to hold off for a minute before posting this one because of, you guessed it, the quoting issue.

Oh for pete's sake, there's that irony word again. Um, we all get it, Canadian or not- We [!@#$%^&*] get Y&R. YOU guys are the ones that don't get it. Does Hogan know what dry humor is? Because there's nothing dry about Y&R's humor at all. Jack Abbott used to have the dryest sense of humor on the show and now they've got him uttering such slapsticky [!@#$%^&*] as "The Bradcicle!", referring to the father of his niece, ex-husband of his two sisters, and the man who died tragically trapped under ice after saving Jack's own step-son. Any sophisticated person would know that two doppelgangers knowing one another and one of them getting the idea to get the plastic surgery because the other one got it (for NO reason at the time- Patty couldn't have known and didn't know that Emily would eventually fall for Jack) is ridiculous. Any sophisticated person would know that causing a woman's miscarriage and then burning the dead fetus is vile. I could go on & on, but what's the point? Point being any savvy & sophisticated viewer would want to vomit when they went from a well-plotted, brilliantly paced, and extraordinarily detailed written show to a crapfest compared to PASSIONS that something stinks in Genoa City. Namely, a fat misogynistic hog and a silver-spoon fed debutante who think they can serve up [!@#$%^&*] & come up smelling like roses.

As for balance...... :eyeroll:

Oh. My. God. There are no words.

Wow- look how healthy soaps are- rather than doing evil twins, they're doing doppelgangers now. And not one, but TWO! Actually, 3 if you remember that Jeffrey Bardwell is still on the show (when DID he last air anyway?)

They picked the right episode, that's for sure. They just better pray that nobody voting happened to catch Adam dressed in a purple dress causing Ashley to fall down the stairs, miscarry, and then sweeping the fetus into a fire, then the convenient hysterical pregnancy that followed, right down to hysterical labor.

He'll like it just fine once he realizes you can get free meals for simply gambling. You know, taking a chance? That's what Y&R does best after all, takes chances.

God help us. What are you gonna report on- who had the biggest bulge? How Michael Muhney was robbed of a nomination? Honestly, I'm too tired to even continue with this tirade.

MEMO- Hogan Sheffer. MAB. Scott Hamner. Paul Rauch. Nelson Branco.

You're all [!@#$%^&*] hacks with your heads in the damn clouds and you wouldn't know good soap from Passions. Hell, Saved By The Bell had more interesting storylines than this [!@#$%^&*].

And I LOVED Dustin Diamond as the Zach Slater doppelganger.

Sad, I can't come up with a solid closing for all this- probably because this interview was as incoherent as the storytelling on Y&R.

[catsmeouch]

Thank God for this thread...it's allowing me to see who the Canadian-haters are.

[juniorz1]

If you're speaking about me & my post then

I'm from Niagara Falls, NY. I have Canadian relatives. I have nothing against Canadians.

Whatever. You're a troll. You're annoying. I don't hate all Canadians, but I do hate you.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't see anyone anti-Canadian in this thread. I do, however, see people who have a problem with Hogan Sheffer comparing the literary greats of Canada to the awful writing on Y&R.

Also, they seem to insinuate that Canadians gravitate towards the rushed, outlandish, doppelganger-driven, and one-note psycho overload mess that Y&R churns out these days.

Also, their failure to acknowledge Y&R has been a success in Canada for years, way before they got there, when the show was a much different show creatively. Not to mention, Y&R benefits from an opportune timeslot on Global in most Canadian markets...