Y&R: TMZ reporting on Michael Muhney

[Ann_SS]

Well, it does warm my heart to know that he is basically unemployed in the soap world and is scrambling to get anything published about the soaps.

[Vee]

He has his online pamphlet. I have no idea what else he actually does to make money at this point.

[DRW50]

I got into it with them too, which was assholish, as I'd just started here, but I felt like I had to warn people about how awful Sheffer was. In the long run I still wonder if MAB was, somehow, even worse.

I do miss Mark posting here.

The idea of oh it's a gay story that doesn't have a saintly, suffering coming out tale, how great. Well, maybe, but not when it's a shock value plot device.

I remember all the talk at various places of how brave Muhney was for doing the story. That story was about as brave as an episode of Two and a Half Men.

[tubeviewr]

And some folks still want him to go back to Y&R and trying to blame this all on HK. Jeez...

[ChitHappens]

Too much!

[BetterForgotten]

I think deep down Mark is a nice guy, but he often followed whatever DC and Nelson fed to him blindly, and had a way of subtly trying to belittle everyone who didn't agree with him and then claim it was the other way around on Twitter (maybe it wasn't intentional, but often came out that way, and I'm sure I and others were guilty of doing that to him as well). I have nothing against him, and I do think it was probably partly my fault he no longer posts here (we just strongly disagreed about Y&R a lot), though I had stopped watching and commenting on Y&R by mid-2010 until MAB was fired.

If it wasn't for the initial hype story with Chris Engen being fired and Muhney coming in to do a "gay kiss," I don't think Muhney would've lasted as long as he did. That terrible intro gave him an in with folks like Nelson from the beginning who propped the hell out of his non-talented ass.

[Vee]

Since we're apparently going to talk about people anyway in the thread, I will say I had respect for Mark until this year, and he's embarrassing himself these days. Especially today on this subject.

[Antoyne]

Where'd MarkH go?

[DramatistDreamer]

I knew that the story would get out one way or another one day...still, I was surprised to learn that the day would arrive so quickly.

Like others, I got the sense that something was up when MM did that 'exit interview' and he sounded so contrite, which was never his M.O. That really sent up a red flag in my mind that he knows his actions are what led to his termination. I don't know why that fact seems to have gotten lost among certain rabid fans and soap bloggers.

Even though I've never cared for MM nor his interpretation of the Adam character, I don't believe in demonizing people. On the other hand, this doesn't seem to be a one time lapse of judgement. It seems to be a pattern, perhaps covered over in the past, leading to even bolder, more aggressive violations. He deserved to be fired, he knows it and his fans should have let him leave with some veneer of dignity but they pressed for facts without heeding the age old warning 'be careful for what you wish for...'

And some of the nasty responses directed toward HK, really do put a ugly stamp on some of the reasons why Daytime dramas are dying-- refusal of many fans to adapt to the times and social mores of today. Certain things may have only caused a shrug 40, 50 years ago are no totally unacceptable:

patting your co-worker on the fanny or calling your administrative assistant 'gal' or 'girl' may have been fine when Rosalind Russell and Carey Grant were in that movie but it is distasteful now; like calling a grown man 'boy'. Just. No.

Rape turned to romance or falling in love with your kidnapper/torturer may have worked well in the 1980s but it's generally seen as disgusting today.

Some soap fans need to get into the 21st Century and all this encapsulates.

[JONNYSBRO]

I heard reason why this is released is because SONY and CBS are furious about Maria arena bells comments something that makes her like a complete idiot. It really makes her look bad how dare she go around using this just because she is so pissed she was fired. I am hearing don't ever ever expect Mab to ever darken y and rs door again and Jill was so angry about her posts.

[DRW50]

Thanks for mentioning this. I was talking about his posts at the time. I hadn't realized he'd spoken out about Muhney until I saw this. I just wanted to clarify.

[Vee]

I really doubt MAB was a direct cause of any of this.

[Ann_SS]

I posted earlier about my suspicions about the timing of the TMZ drop. I do wonder if MAB was partially the target there.

[Vee]

Why would they give a damn? MAB can't do [!@#$%^&*] to them or to the show. And it's not like the "Save Michael Muhney" fan campaign was gaining much traction, especially after the original report broke.

I think it was just inevitable - the story broke weeks ago. It was going to hit the mainstream. People can pretend to have amnesia but this was being discussed a while back.

[DeeeDee]