Soap Opera Digest "Just My Opinion" One Life to Live

[ChitHappens]

Carl, are you trying to tell us to not listen to Carolyn Hinsey? Please be clear...

[psychofan]

Maybe not for you, but I have seen more positive response to the current GH than I can ever remember seeing for it in the last 10 years. There will never be a writer or storyline that pleases everyone, but this is as close as I've seen it come.

[MrQuartermaine]

Not to mention that a ton of GH crew members were let go to make room for OLTL crew members. GH didn't only get Howarth, Alderson, Easton, Lozano, & DePaiva, but a whole lot of longtime GH crewmembers were fired & replaced with ones from OLTL.

[ChitHappens]

Lawd, don't even get me started on that!

[SFK]

I think the closest we'll get is exactly what we're getting right now: OLTL characters on GH. I'm sure ABCD has a stack of pitches for inexpensive reality/specialty/talk shows that they'll continue to plug into those slots depending on the failure of the last.

I could potentially see the GH hour becoming this sort of crammed "everything to everybody" soap slot potentially including AMC characters. I would never totally rule that out. Stranger things have happened.

[Eric83]

In a perfect world I wouldn't have minded some characters from AMC/OLTL who had little to no history coming onto GH. People like Griffin, Frankie, Madison from AMC or Brody, Vimal, Rama, Cutter from OLTL they could have fit in and not be so forced unlike characters like John McBain who has basically been shoved down our throats and has yet to have a real purpose.

[BingCherry]

Is it wrong that I'm already psyching myself for Ryan Lavery's arrival?

[JackPeyton]

Yes.

[Chris B]

The tide will eventually turn and someone will do a new version of OLTL or AMC, but it could be 10 or 20 years from now and it probably won't be in the same format. TV is running out of ideas so eventually they will visit the soaps for inspiration.

[DeeeDee]

Just AMC.

[Errol]

Exactly. As Hinsey herself said, the "Dallas" reboot took 21 years. Why the heck does she make it sound like OLTL is being returned to the air tomorrow in her column? That's why I responded to her column: Carolyn Hinsey’s It’s Only My Opinion: ‘OLTL Will Be Back’

[Vee]

Why does Carolyn Hinsey say anything? She's an idiot. This is not news.

[EricMontreal22]

I was going to bring up Loving--it was also massive in South Africa, and one of the more successful American soaps in France--and it was a pretty traditional Agnes Nixon soap, so I think format (and maybe the fact that it began airing in those countries shortly after it was created) played a part, more than the actual style of soap.

[marceline]

Yes. On many, many levels.

I wonder how those crewmembers feel about RC/FV being treated like soap saviors.

[VirginiaHamilton]

CH, let me preface this by saying that you are the Maya Reubens to my Doreen Jackson (and I mean that with the utmost affection).

However, we are simply on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to this for various reasons (of which I've stated more than a few times):

1. Out of the 3 soaps that have existed in the last almost-decade (I'm counting from the time that PC was cancelled), GH was by far the worse of them at the time ABCD made the decision to lower the axe on both AMC and OLTL. IMO, the fact that that show was considered to be the 'chosen one' by ABCD (or, particularly, Frons) while the other two soaps were treated like red-headed stepchildren (especially OLTL) is reason enough for there to be lingering bitterness towards the former - especially when some GH fans have deluded themselves into believing that their show's current existence is deserved.

2. Had I not bore witness to the fuckery that was showkiller Guza's 'vision'/bootleg Janet Wood's misogyny/Frons' 'tutelage' over the past 10+ years or had Cartini'd succeeded the Labine/Riche regime (a.k.a.: the last time that GH was truly worthy of the accolades that it received), then I'd definitely believe that Cartini were dragging this soap down and out to ruin it. Since I've seen first hand of what damage that Godawful Guza/Frons/Phelps regime had done to it - damage they gleefully executed as a means of pissing off longtime viewers/actors in order to twist this soap into a quarter-water version of the shows/departments that they couldn't even pay to land a job on/in - I refuse to pretend that what we have here today is worse than what we were subjected to before.

3. Despite my vocal Cartini support (which is honestly motivated by my lingering bitterness from that horrible previous regime and the hypocrisy that some have exhibited in response to the changeover to Cartini), I don't believe that their farts smell like roses and that their touch turns everything to gold. I have my share of complaints about their almost-year at GH (namely, their refusal to completely get rid of the trash that has polluted GH for far too long, for fear of inciting the wrath of the Guza apologists) and my criticisms about them in general (namely, their shoddy treatment/writing for Black characters in spite of them touting themselves as beacons of diversity). However, their strengths ultimately outshine their shortcomings because they shown and proven over a short amount of time that they have a better grasp of this almost-50-year show and its history than the Godawful Guza/Frons/Phelps have had in their entire run. The fact that Robert Scorpio isn't running around like the court jester that showkiller Guza made him out to be instead of the strong heroic man with a plan that bolstered GH throughout the 80s pretty much proves that to me.

Pretty much.