One Life to Live OLTL: The Prospect Park Era (old production thread)

[Vee]

The thing is, Pepperman didn't say anything offensive or aggressive. She cited, from a question given to her by the interviewer, that they'd had to rewrite heavily in a short amount of time when their deal for the GH actors fell apart. All of which was public knowledge by now. From there you've got people calling her "Jon", all sorts of names, etc. and going ape over how "terrible" and misogynistic OLTL supposedly is. All of which is either untrue or in the case of the personal attacks, out of order. And that all came out of Ron simply retweeting from Fairman's interview ad and talking about Pepperman.

I think there are plenty of wildly over the top attacks about Ron every week, and I think most of the people who 'critique' him on twitter are making fools of themselves even when they sometimes have valid points - they deliver them in the craziest ways. I'm not excusing them. But in this case, it's a unique situation because Ron himself set off this chain of events by casting personal aspersions on the harmless stuff she said, and then a slew of people stepped in to trash the woman and the show on his behalf.

[cassadine1991]

+1 million..

Who knew that interview would invoke this nonsense, but I kind of expected it to happen

[Vee]

^^^^ I'm Not With Him.

[greens_dupres]

I think this is exactly it. I definitely don't think everyone who enjoys RC is crazy Adelaide. I enjoyed many things about his OLTL and loved his GH from last fall up to the 50th. But this time, he just seemed to jump in & attack by tweeting back to Fairman. And there really wasn't anything to attack. If he had wanted to do a similar interview himself responding to some of how the PP stuff went down according to Ron, I would have been cool with that. But tweeting a response when she didn't even mention him and certainly hasn't tweeted about him was just unnecessary and unprofessional IMO. And now the stuff where JP is getting called a drag queen and stuff is just totally vile. I'm sure Ron gets a lot of vile crap too on Twitter but so far none of it that I've seen has been directly sparked by anyone high up at PP or PP OLTL getting antagonistic on Twitter. And I think that's the difference this time.

[Antoyne]

<3

[marceline]

That's Carlivati in a nutshell.

[LindaTNo1]

Both RC and JP have their supporters and so they will get behind who they agree with and be a backer to them. Is JP a "pawn to PP? Who knows? Is PP playing fans puppets to go along with all their decisions and think they are naive dummies who will buy into them hook, line, and sinker? Who knows? Let Michael Fairman interview RC and he can give his criticisms concerning how JP is running OLTL and what he would be doing right now if he were the man in charge. It is OK if showrunners and previous showrunners offer their opinions. JP and Ginger Smith are at the mercy of PP since it is PP's production company and their project. JP said in her interview that PP is not in favor of bringing people back from the dead and that tells me that PP is reading scripts and being assertive in their rights to put their two cents worth in, as far as the writing goes. They make out the checks and sign them. But that surprised me that PP is involved with direction and writing of both shows, maybe. I did not think that they were that much hands on with things.

[allmc2008]

TPTB have always had there hands in the writing process to some extent.

Even in my 1984 book "Writing for the Soaps" it mentions how Irna Phillips was subject to that. Also, in 1963 Agnes did the Bert Bauer utirine cancer story and PGP didn't allow her to use certain words.

I am OK with them doing this as long as they are not damaging the show like ABC did.

[Vee]

So, it's come to my attention (or rather, to my email inbox from a friend of mine - I can barely navigate twitter on my own) that apparently some of the people we were upset with on twitter are now, in turn, upset with us here on SON for talking about them. So I'm going to do something stupid that I probably shouldn't, because I'm in a giving mood and I obviously like a debate.

There are a lot of crazies out there on both sides of the unfortunate OLTL/GH divide, and I often find a lot of the complaints about Ron Carlivati or most other stars, especially on twitter and sometimes on here, to be way OTT and insane. I thought some of the comments about Kristen Alderson and Chad Duell's relationship were ridiculous and shameful. I try to keep my remarks measured and fair about Ron, because I do think he's done a lot of good work. I don't think Our Ronald is a curse on OLTL's history - I think he got a lot right, and I was one of his biggest supporters before most of the Internet knew his name. But I also think he has huge problems as a writer and a lot to answer for in the last few years of his soaps, especially when he apparently drinks and tweets.

Personally I still enjoy his shows and I think he's done a lot for GH, but I now enjoy his more recent work on a very different level from why I enjoy the current AMC and OLTL, or the OLTL of my childhood in the '90s. Camp is just not the be-all end-all, and I feel too much of Ron's work is now predominantly camp, or good ideas mired in deeply problematic and/or lazy bullshit. It wasn't always, but it is now. And I think OLTL is not his house by right. I've watched the show 20 years, OLTL is no one's house. It belongs to its own history, and a great many stewards, Ron and Frank among them. When they left, it moves on without them - and frankly, I welcomed the change, despite some good years. Like Paul Rauch, they'd had their time. I think the current OLTL is far from perfect, and uneven on its good days. I just don't think it's what you think it is, at all. I enjoy both shows. I don't want anyone cancelled or fired. I just want some more rationality and balance. I don't think it's Ron/GH vs. OLTL. I think too many people think that, though, and that too much criticism of one or the other means you're just a "hater".

As to us. SON is definitely full of its fair share (or more) of idiots, rejects and misfit toys and I've always said so, but I don't think most of us in the last few pages (except for a few of you dumbasses - you know who you are) have been too outrageous or unbalanced or unfair. And in terms of the larger picture in fandom I just think there's plenty of insanity on both sides of the aisle. I'm really sorry if I personally find it hard to understand the viewpoint of people who claim I'm being vituperative and insane in my remarks while they're calling Jennifer Pepperman a man and making some sort of ninth-rate Scrappy-Doo version of a soap podcast entitled - let me check this - "PepperMAN's Prolapse". That's ridiculous. But upon perusal of what I've received, some of you others seem relatively sane, just as I am, I'm told, relatively sane.

So here's the thing, lurking friends I've never met - I am happy to talk to you and discuss this difference of opinion about the show rationally if you'd like. Just hit up in my PM inbox at the top of the page. Make an account, and hit me up. I'm not gonna insult you, I'm not gonna call you names, I'm not gonna send my twitter friends after you because I don't have any on there - I just can't join twitter and deal with the tomfoolery that is microblogging in 2013 on a regular basis. If you want to discuss OLTL and its merits and flaws, we can do it right there if you prefer, or right here in this or another thread if you'd prefer. This is actually a 335-page thread about OLTL's production that has been going on since the show's relaunch - it's not "about you" or your friends, but you came up in the last couple pages by way of Ron's unfortunate twitter tantrum, which in turn came up in here because of Pepperman's interview. Nobody's out to get you. If you've got beef with crazy fangirls on twitter that's their business and doesn't have anything to do with us. But if you want a real discussion and not to just trade insults with carrier pigeons, you can hit me right here. Toodle-oo. Last time I'm gonna broach this.

[EastMA2]

Vee, you're not as important as you think you are.

[Vee]

I never claimed to be, dear.

[marceline]

Vee and I have a well documented history of enmity so I say this knowing that it will probably destroy our little truce. But all good things must come to an end.

I don't think it's a matter of Vee overestimating his own importance as overestimating Carlivati's. At some point, it's time to stop letting that emotionally stunted drama whore and his cognitively damaged cult of sycophants infect any and all parts of this cracktastic echo chamber known as the online soap verse. He's just not worth it and if his crazy little church wants to throw shade at SON, then &#33;@#&#036;%^&amp;*] 'em.

This is the reason I hate when people drag the FB and Twitter [&#33;@#&#036;%^&amp;*] here. With a few exceptions, this is an intelligent board and responding to the FB/Twitter stuff just drags us all down.

[Vee]

Oh, that post doesn't upset me at all, marceline. I don't know why you thought it would. I wouldn't necessarily agree with some of the language about Ron and some of those fans, but I agree with the overall point. I just figured I'd rather confront the issue head-on then have to hear about people ferrying it back to and from here and twitter, which is what I expected to happen with some of our more excitable posters, and which I find tremendously tedious - "this is what they said on SON, this what they say on twitter." No thanks - cut out the middle man, come talk to me privately and settle the hash.

But you're correct that unless those people are willing to debate rationally on the board it's not a public issue. I guess I just wanted to get out in front of what I anticipated being another several pages of we said/they said in the future.

[cassadine1991]

I love Twitter and Facebook, but oh at times, the people you deal it.. One of the reasons I love the block buttin

[Winchester91]

This little feud is getting both shows some attention, so I'm cool with it.