Another Y&R actor out??

[Vee]

Doesn't change the way I feel about it.

[Vanguardian]

EEK! I wasn't expecting a change in one's feelings, but nevermind. LOL.

[DRW50]

It's not even about the actors as much as it's about a "oh yeah? sez you!" moment. People don't seem to remember that Y&R did these types of stunts over and over during MAB's run, bringing in ABC names who were supposed to shock and thrill us because they were THAT awesome and ABC just SUCKED because they never showed these precious babies enough love.

And what did Y&R get for it in return? Aside from one or two actors, nothing but a long, ugly string of flops.

[Vee]

I know you're not, relax.

[Vanguardian]

DAMN! LOL.

[Vee]

It's amusing to realize we're now in the inverse situation.

I wish people would stop focusing on the constant, incestuous crisscross poaching - the idea of 'gaming' the soaps. None of this stupid fantasy football crap matters if the shows are largely wretched and poorly written, and getting slowly but surely exterminated with dwindling future prospects, or with nothing that much of the online press will support.

[MontyB]

I'm kind of wierded out by the JFP love. Well, I have no love for her. Her stint on OLTL was horrible. I don't know if the firing of MM is all that great. Knowing her, she'll recast the part with Kevin McClacthy or Timothy Gibbs. I woundn't be surprised.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

I hate that true fan bs.

I hope this is just the start because quite a few others have long overstayed their welcome too.

I also didn't think MM was all that talented. All he knew how to do was snark

[DRW50]

I don't love JFP. I will always be angry about many of her decisions at GL and OLTL. I think that as time has passed, a lot of her control has been taken away, and while she's not a helpless flower, I think many of her decisions at Y&R, and likely at GH too, were mandated. I think at Y&R she is probably just there to execute the tough decisions MAB would apparently not execute, and Y&R needs that.

It doesn't mean I think the show is great, because I don't - other than Jill (Foster Abbott), I don't have all that much investment in Y&R now. But I think that she's doing things that someone had to do, and it's long past time that happened.

[rlj]

Doug Davidson ‏@DougDavidsonYR 3h

Honestly, JPF's is not to blame. She is terrific. Today's events don't reflect her leadership. Trust me, there is more to the story.


Doug Davidson ‏@DougDavidsonYR 3h

The Young and the Restless is a team sport.



Doug Davidson ‏@DougDavidsonYR 3h

Please know we love you guys and we will continue to bring you the best show we can. I've got at least 20 castmates that vow the same pledge

[MontyB]

I have no investment at all. I've only watched in small patches over the past few years, so maybe you are right.

[sheilaforever]

Doug is a team player...

It's probably bull but that the kind of stuff you say if you're championing for your show...

[Vee]

I have no love for JFP. I'll never forget what she did to my show; I watched her take the OLTL of the 1990s, my home, apart piece by piece, day after day, and some of what she did there can never be undone. And I also saw up close what she did to GH over the course of many years, and two very different, very ruinous phases.

There are certain things she was once good at long ago, in very small doses and in very controlled circumstances, like her early days at GL, where it took a village to make that show what it was. But it's clear all of that is gone. Her Y&R is the same bleak dirge she's been producing for decades, an artlessly-processed formula which she birthed after all her talented writers were run off GL, which she cultivated and made into a brand at AW and OLTL, and which she gave a vague sheen of "we're just like cable!" faux-legitimacy at GH. There, GH's overly large coffers (stolen from OLTL's piggy bank) and Guza's dime store primetime prose made her tacky, repetitious and often grindingly nihilistic house brand that had already grown stale into something a tired and phoning-it-in daytime industry mistook for something new and respectable. Guza was part of that, but we can also thank James Franco. More than that, you can thank an industry and a press that had grown accustomed to calling GH and its head writer the flagship regardless of the larger picture in front of them day by day.

The truth is that most of JFP's usual cliches and pet stories, characters, themes, etc. were very restrained for much of her GH run; after she and Megan McTavish flamed out together, Guza was in primary control. Her influence seemed largely limited to the same gloomy production values. But you could still see her same old macro-formula peeking through every time Guza was indisposed, like during the writer's strike of 2008, when suddenly the show was all about color schemes and goofy themed introductions a la 1992 and Rick Hearst. If he'd gone for another couple months we'd probably have been reintroduced to Sonia Satra and Time's Champion Kale Browne.

At CBS JFP doesn't have her GH money, or Bob Guza or even Brian Frons. All she's left with is the same old gloomy dirge. And absent most of her accumulated pets and tricks, for whatever reason, it seems she's just trying to make Sony happy by doing some sort of paltry remake of her and Bob's GH, sans Bob or the money. On a very tight budget. They've now got the most boring post-millennial ABC soap I've ever seen running at 12:30 PM, and I don't think even Jill's work has ever been this boring before. She's there, Steve Burton's there, a couple hand-me-down writers are there and it just doesn't matter. I wonder how long it is until someone calls Bob Guza. Which would be absolutely horrible, BTW.

It's fascinating to watch Y&R completely destroy itself in so many very different ways over the last 5-7 years, and all because Sony or CBS wants an ABC soap, or more likely they just want it off the air. But there's always been one thing Jill is still good at, and that is firing people. At least this time she is amusing me firing all the ones the Internet worshipped.

[Ann_SS]

Where exactly is the love that you see for JFP here?

[DRW50]

Did you watch any of GL in 1994?

I think you make a lot of good points. I don't feel like there's any type of squad of people praising JFP for her great production work and great onscreen product. My reaction is more based on her being attacked for anything and everything regarding this show, including many things that never even happened, yet some fans continue to claim have happened (like her hiring all of her her friends - do people honestly think Steve Burton is her friend?). There's this idea which drives me up the wall, the idea that Y&R was Elysian Fields before she arrived to burn it all down. It's an easy, cheap way to look at a show, and a way to use a show to suit your (figurative you) own agenda.

Y&R has been rotting away for a long time now. And people acting like this is something JFP did, and that Bill Bell would be spinning around in his grave, angers me.

JFP is no Bill Bell, but people who talk about legacy and dreams and blah blah blah should remember that Bill Bell fired major actors too, people the show supposedly would never be able to live without.

The show is not successful because of certain actors and their screaming hordes on Twitter. For a long time now many people have refused to accept this, and it's just continued the rotting of the show as a result. While I think it's probably too late to salvage Y&R, I think if it ever is salvaged, the firings of the last year have been one of the first ways to start a path to that happening. And if Sony ever gets their head out of their ass, it might eventually happen.