Y&R: July 2013 Discussion

[y&r_fan]

I wish CBS/Sony would step in and get rid of Steve Burton. He's a waste of screen time and money that could be put to much better use. Dylan and Chelsea can ride off into the sunset AFAIC.

[Ann_SS]

I completely agree. The casting has been pretty solid, except for Burton who is as dreadful here as he was on GH.

[DramatistDreamer]

Interestingly enough, of all the former ABC actors to be cast on Y&R, the actor with the most potential is the red-headed actress who used to play Siobhan (I think she now plays Melanie?). She is just devious enough that she could tow the line between enemy and lover to devious Adam. Sharon never made it for me as Adam's love interest and they de-fanged Chelsea to make her into a sappy, heroine.

Previously, the only person who could make Adam interesting in any romantic sense of the word was Skye and that was because Adam was never on sure ground with her. In this sense, Melanie may make the grade.

Even the guy who just came on as Stitch. I find him more interesting than Dylan.

[frequentsoapfan]

Step in? He wouldn't even be on the show if they didn't want to use him as a ratings ploy which only worked his first week.

[y&r_fan]

Pretty sure Burton's hiring was a JFP thing.

[frequentsoapfan]

She had to run it by them before casting him. CBS even milked it with that appearance on The Talk. Obviously they thought he'd bring over a ton of viewers.

[y&r_fan]

And they were wrong. Hopefully they'll see that and send him on his way.

[Ann_SS]

This whole paternity has been a bust because of poor performances by the actors and characters behaving nonsensically.

[frequentsoapfan]

MS and JM have just been absolutely terrible in the acting department

[Y&RWorldTurner]

You can tell MS checked out a long time ago, it's hard to tell if she's even present in her scenes anymore.

Morrow, per usual, is his lackluster self.

[DRW50]

I've never quite understood the need to revisit that story in the first place. If it's to show that Nick is bad and Jack is good, that doesn't matter much, as Nick will still be his usual overaged frat boy self, while Jack will still be weeping in the corner as always. There is little to be gained out of Jack having another child, as the relationships he has with his current children, the one the show remembers, isn't exactly enthralling. I guess it has knocked Phyllis for a loop, but she's survived worse.

Sometimes the past should stay the past. Sadly, the only one at Y&R who understood this was Bill Bell.

[Taiah]

Burton ain't going anywhere. Its obvious others up top like McDaniel love him. It ain't just JFP. Dylan is such a snooze and so is the syrupy fairytale Chylan pairing. Stitch is the only watchable one in today's scenes but who gives a care about these war stories, Sully, etc.

[soapsnstuds]

Going to have to skip today's July 3 episode.

From the looks of yesterday's preview, it's going to focus heavily on Dullan and his (yawn) past.

I've heard that Steve Burton's own mother flips the channel when it's a Dullan day.

[DramatistDreamer]

To a certain extent I agree.

I do think though, that had this storyline happened when the quadrangle (Jack/Phyllis/Nick/Sharon) was still relevant, it would've had enormous payoff, if written by a capable writer (a big "if" with Y&R in recent years).

When Summer was an infant or a toddler-- I'd even give it a bit of flexibility but they made the mistake of SORASing Summer to ridiculous heights, which is hard to get around. Mistake #1

Josh Griffith has a noticeable problem drawing stories to their conclusions (has anyone noticed this?) and he's handicapped even further by the fact that he should've told this story his first go round as a writer, but I guess perhaps he didn't have the chance before he got booted/left/whatever. Regardless of what might've gone on behind the scenes to make this not happen, the reality is there is a relatively small window in which to begin and execute these types of stories, I'd say 2 years.

ATWT, which did one of, if not the best reveal, unfurled theirs over a 1.5- 2 year period. In that case, the audience and several key characters began to learn the truth at least a year before Lily, a teenage girl found out in a shocking scene. Lily was a teenager but still a relatively new character: she'd first appeared on ATWT in '84, was recast in '85 and by '86, pretty much everybody began to learn the truth except Lily, who didn't learn the truth of her origins until

'87. And it was well paced, well timed, well acted and definitely well written.

Y&R has none of those things in Summer's paternity reveal right now. It began well enough but the acting and the execution have been a big fail for the most part. And MS and JM, who the storyline relies on, have not been doing well at all. JM is sort of limited in his acting skills and MS simply doesn't give a damn at this point. And it shows.

[frequentsoapfan]

I disagree that Summer's age is a problem. I like that she's old enough to actually be involved in this story and have an opinion. There's more impact on her then if she were a toddler or a baby.