OLTL: Discussion for the week of November 29th

[DRW50]

This whole thing with Joey/Aubrey - have any insta-romances ever worked on OLTL, where people have this relationship which was mostly offcamera? I guess there was Kyle and Fish, and I did like them a lot once they got together, but I kept hoping for some flashbacks.

I hope this works out, as I want Joey to stay around, but throwing him in with Aubrey and with Kelly so quickly...it seems like relationships don't have the slow pacing unless it's to drag out secrets.

[HeedTheMessenger2.0]

I didn't expect that at all... who is she talking to? Is she working for someone? Dun dun dun. Very interested in this story and I, although in the minority, have always liked and continue to like Kelly.

I really really really hope that Dani is not raped by Eddie... or that he rapes anyone for that matter. But I could see them going there... I agree with the above statements about some foreshadowing with Dani's talk of being a virgin and Eddie's entrance and comments to her. They will totally try to play up the "Todd was a rapist so it's ironic that his daughter was raped" potential but please no!!!

[DRW50]

I don't think they will actually have him rape her. I think he will threaten to and come close, possibly, but it won't actually happen. My guess is we might have a story where we won't see what happens, and then when we see them, Danielle is standing over his dead body, or something.

[Soapsuds]

I watched today and Terri is still playing Katie. She is just as annoying to me on OLTL as she was on ATWT. I flove Tom Degnan...his shirtless scene...mmmmm...he is the only reason I watched and to see Terri sorry ass acting. I do like HBS and John Wesley Shipp former ATWT cast members. And of course its nice seeing Kim eats a lot Zimmer...lol

I agree ATWT treated him terribly...but David K wrote him out. He ended the story. Had he not joined ATWT ....Degnan would have stayed but we wouldnt have gotten Reid...ESS. I wish we could have kept both on ATWT.

[DRW50]

If Terri and Degnan work out then I hope OLTL might hire ESS. Have him come in as Dan Wolek or something.

[SFK]

I guess you all have the benefit of having watched him on ATWT, but it's still way too early for me to give this Joey the emphatic thumb's up. I will say however that he's doing a fine job of playing into a certain "idea" of Joey that we've seen before. Joey is a nice guy and a bit of a dork, but he was never supposed to be a kinda milquetoast drip. I feel that creeped in with BMH, and i'm seeing some of that in the new guy. But again, still soon.

Aubrey baiting Joey for a compliment and having that secret phone call, yeah, she's definitely going to be a little naughty. And the fact that her first scene was on a plane as well further helped me to be reminded of Roseanne Delgado. As long as she brings something new and different, OLTL has had very spotty luck with its naughty girls in recent years, and just when the better ones are heating up (Kim/Hannah), they're off the show.

[DRW50]

I think the milquetoast thing started with Don Jeffcoat.

To be honest, as much as I liked Fillion, he also became kind of dull when they stopped writing for Joey (or at least stopped giving him good material) in 1996.

I think they just don't quite know how to write men who are good or nice or considerate. At least they are making an effort, hopefully.

Is she going to shoot Tea?

[Bright Eyes]

Interesting, OLTL was on Chelsea Lately again tonight. Someone in her office obviously watches.

[SFK]

Or OLTL is pimping themselves to Chelsea like they are to Perez.

Carl, I was going to say Jeffcoat at first, but to me his run felt more like Joey's loss of any maturity/manhood he'd acquired in his NF years. Not bland so much as juvenile. And I agree, it's not like NF entire run was the holy grail of Joey, it definitely dipped. And as good as he was, he had one helluva scene partner in Robin who made him look even better, same with Erika. The one thing that has always bothered me about every adult Joey or Kevin is how different regimes use them as figures, like the title "Viki's son" is some sort of blank slate and they can play fast and loose, creating new characters as they see fit and not sticking to a solid enough through-line of who these boys were and now are.

[Soapsuds]

i am bias...i do have a soft spot for Degnan.

[Vee]

I like Degnan but long term I think ESS would be much stronger in the role. Unless Degnan has untold depths I have yet to see - which he might, who knows.

[DRW50]

ESS is so naturally good at the sarcastic one-liners that I think they would too easily attach those to Joey, which to me isn't his character. I would say make him Kevin if TPTB will not get over their issues with Dan Gauthier, but I really like Dan and anyone who replaces him will have a tough time with fans. CJ Roberts he is probably too old for.

That's why I tend to lean more towards someone like Dan Wolek, or perhaps a long-lost child of Tony Lord (a twin to Brian Kendall or something - they could have Jacquie Courtney come back for a few days) although I guess it's silly of me to speculate on all this anyway since most of these ATWT hirings won't pan out (remember all the rumors that Michael Park was going to be Daniel Wolek).

[Vee]

Well, sure, ESS got pigeonholed into this sort of jokey House clone on ATWT but I think what interests me more is his (IMO) proven ability to do gripping, serious material that allows him to have strength, but with an undercurrent of real passion and humanity. There's a steel in his performance that is what Joey needs to counterbalance his artistic temperament and kindness (like Bob Krimmer as Andrew, who played a maniac on Babylon 5 with the same intensity he brought to the lower layers of his gentle OLTL role) which the Joey character has had with IMO all his portrayers - even Don Jeffcoat and Bruce Hall. The problem is that several of the actors could not carry stronger material, and/or came off wimpy when the show occasionally attempted to write Joey as a forceful character. I think Stevens would have this well in hand. I can't see Rex pushing him around or Aubrey cuckolding him for long. I also selfishly would like to see them play out a church scandal story given Joey's role in that, and think Stevens could knock that out of the park.

As for Dan Wolek, that's a role I'd like to see recast but ESS is way too young. Dan is in Kevin's range if we're being kind with the aging - he was born several years before.

I've said before I think the show might do well to bring Tony Lord back as a creepy scheming Lord patriarch in the person of a David Selby or a Peter Simon. Say he went native out in the Middle East a la Brando in Apocalypse Now and has been draining the fringes of the Lord empire for years since, until someone - like Todd - gets wind of strange transactions and goes to check it out, then gets waterboarded by his big brother. Let's face it, Todd deserves it. The one hint to who this cryptic corporate thief is would have Todd finding the remnants of a crushed old photograph on the floor of an abandoned lair - scraps of paper showing a boy's face. Eagle-eyed longtime viewers could make it out as the face of Brian, Tony's long-dead son, but it would not be underlined in the dialogue or stage direction. I have thought about this too much, you may notice.

[DRW50]

I guess I confuse Dan's age with the last actor's age sometimes -- I think Michael Palance was about 20 when he played Dan, and ESS is about 38.

I definitely think ESS could do vulnerability but the show tends to have so many snarky, one-liner guys with no real soul to them (Todd, Rex), and ideally I have thought of Joey as a contrast to that, and since ESS might have been typecast as Reid's more sarcastic side, they might not want to write beyond that.

I do agree that Joey should have strength as well as sensitivity and I also agree that Degnan might not be able to deliver that. I'm hoping things will work out. I'm mostly waiting to see how people react to/how the show writes this Aubrey/Kelly stuff, if it's a character-killer. We are two of the few who seemed to like BMH and I think his potential was killed more by the pairings they threw at him than by anything the actor did in the role.

I really like your idea about Tony's return. I'd also like to see him take the Lord family money -- I don't see any real reason why they need money at this point. It would be an interesting story if Todd and Tea stayed together and she decided, even though she has money of her own, that she wants to move back to Angel Square and help continue reviving the neighborhood. Todd would probably end up having some very all over the place reactions.

Peter Simon, David Selby...I would also suggest Michael Tylo although he's a bit hammy sometimes. Scott Bryce too. If it's a short-term role then Anthony Herrera, possibly.

[Vee]

I don't think BMH was exactly Nathan Fillion. He was not a great actor. But he had things he could do well, especially early on with Viki and the St. James stuff, and I thought he was learning quickly given that he had come over from playing a 1950s sock hop geek on Passions. He was able to project a little strength and more importantly - unlike any Joey since 1997 - they seemed interested in promoting him as a major young lead. He had a "gentle giant" quality with Robin Strasser in their brief scenes, and he reminded me more than a little of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker. But Jessica Morris was even worse than he was, and together they were just terrible and she dragged him down. Playing him as an action hero, at least in that story they had where Troy locked Jen and Lindsey in a rubber room with a serial killer and Joey broke in to save them, was hilariously awful.

I preferred him to Don Jeffcoat by far. Don Jeffcoat and his pubic hair beard which was supposed to signify that Kelly's rejection had made him "dangerous."

As for Tony - Scott Bryce is too young. I could see him playing Dan Wolek in a pinch, but he's a bit too old as well for that role. Of course, I'd wanted to put Blair with Dan Wolek, and now Ted King is coming so I'd rather see Dan's kids around or something.