Y&R Discussion Thread October 2013

[DRW50]

Scientifically impossible. And his fantasy boyfriends got a show canceled.

I think at this point the people who work on Y&R matter less and less. It's all generic Sony pap. The reason there is more anger now is because those in the soap "press" who pushed MAB or Sheffer are not doing that for the current Y&R people.

[sheilaforever]

Good point.

But I also think the current Y&R feautures just the same old bag of tricks AND stories (so much for JFP not messing with the writing...) seen on GH just 3 years ago or so - and it was a failure even back then - that it is pathetic. But as a production house SONY sure knows how to produce failures, let it be movies or tv series. One Breaking Bad does not change that.

[DRW50]

I agree, but this is how Y&R has been for a long time. When I see people here complaining about stories, I agree with you, because I remember most of you hating this stuff no matter who wrote it. But when I see complaints from the same "journalists" who gushed over Y&R when the whole show revolved around Kevin in a chipmunk head, Patty Jane killing animals, and Adam having Molester MD feel up Ashley as he throws her fetus in the fireplace, I don't buy it. This is not about Y&R's quality for them. This is about whose ass they don't want to kiss.

Y&R will never change until they stop using the same failed stories that have killed soaps over the last fifteen years. Sadly that doesn't seem likely to happen.

[JONNYSBRO]

Y&R

Monday: 3.5/4,948,000

Tuesday: 3.7/5,095,000

Wednesday: 3.5/4,746,000

Thursday: 3.6/5,085,000

Friday: 3.3/4,721,000

These were the breakdown ratings almost 5.1 million for 2 days. JFP is getting the last laugh

[ChitHappens]

I adore you

Most of the people who signed that petition are Syphillis and Sham fans!

[DaytimeFan]

Not quite. Look at those Friday numbers, the show bottoms out, when it should be at its height. As well, if JFP can't sustain these numbers, which I am 100% certain she can't, this momentary blip will be for nothing.

[JONNYSBRO]

Actually if u notice Friday numbers usually lowest of week. All JFP is doing is laughing her ass off at her haters. I have no doubt the Delia storyline will continue to bring highs. Daytimefan u have to even admit these are stellar ratings.

[DaytimeFan]

No, I don't. These ratings may be a high in 1.75 years, but they are not consistent, nor are they sustainable.

[EastMA2]

Of course the numbers won't sustain. Jill blew the budget with this story, but the impact was great. JFP keeps her job. JFP is teflon. And I applaud her!

[JONNYSBRO]

Ur right nobody lasts this long in the soap biz without knowing what she's doing. The haters will hate I seriously believe she loves all the publicity. Hey if people are talking about me good or bad they are talking.

[DaytimeFan]

That's something I don't think you're comprehending. I don't hate JFP. I never have, I think she's an interesting woman whose sustained a long career in a hard business. And I don't think she's even half of Y&R's problem, that goes down to the horrendous writing of the last 7 years or so.

Ultimately, what's happening on Y&R will not benefit the show in the long run and as someone whose loved the show for decades, I don't enjoy what I'm watching at all.

[ranger1rg]

The most abused phrase on this and other soap boards is that "the actors are phoning it in."

Posters say it because they think it makes them sound intelligent and insightful. It doesn't. If you like an actor, fine; if you don't like an actor, also fine. But please don't resort to the pathetic "s/he's phoning it in" when you can't and don't explain what that means.

[Chris B]

A lot of people bring this "hating JFP" thing up when defending the show, but most people were okay with her until the quality of the show went down as the year went on. A shocking number of people, including myself, were receptive despite what we all figured would happen (which now has).

[DRW50]

One of the reasons it's brought up is because almost as soon as she was hired, the soap "press" went to town in histrionics, with talk like she was going to fire everyone to replace them with Hollywood Heights cast members. If JFP is fired tomorrow, you will hear all sorts of talk about how brilliant Y&R will be again. And as long as the person who replaces her kisses butt the right way, the show will be proclaimed a paradise even if every episode is devoted to another character opening a vein.

What's happening to Y&R now is, in my opinion, what would be happening to it if anyone was in charge, unless Sony gets new leadership. And I say this as someone who has never been a fan of JFP's.

[DaytimeFan]

Exactly, the "you hate JFP, she's awesome, laughing all the way to the ratings bank, loves when fans hate her etc..." is a deflection for actual criticism of the show. I don't hate JFP, never have, still don't...what I see with her is that she is very good at following a directive from her higher ups, she did it at Santa Barbara, she did it at GL and AW, she did it at OLTL and GH, she gets a mandate and she runs with it, confidently. If anything, I respect her ruthless single mindedness.

What we see at Y&R is a Sony mandate: an unfocused, sloppy, poorly executed, generic betrayal of Bill Bell's vision. That isn't JFP's fault, we'd be seeing this under anyone Sony hires (like we did with that hack bitch from the depths of hell LML) because Steve Kent and Steve Mosko don't understand the show, never have and appear to have contempt for how Bill Bell ran his ship and those associated with those days.

Ultimately, an EP only has so much influence and control, JFP is the type of EP who can follow a mandate and throw in enough of her signature tricks to make that mandate work for the short term, short enough that her bosses are pleased with themselves and their decisions, but long term enough that she has a job for years after the lustre of her bag of shocking tricks has worn off.

The piss poor, bland, unexciting, unoriginal, hacked up writing at Y&R has been the problem, and will continue to be the problem. Regardless of who the EP is, be it Ed Scott, David Shaughnessy, Jack Smith, LML, MAB, Paul Rauch, Griffith or JFP, at Y&R it really is the HW who makes or breaks the show, that the EP is now given the authority to hire the HW (which never happened in the Bell days) is where we find a causal link between JFP and the bad writing at the show.