The way they get away with it, I think, has to do with at least half the veteran or B-cast being on recurring. And of course, the ever-increasing gap in story cycles to make sure people don't go over minimums.

They would cycle story like this at OLTL, and they would stockpile veteran guarantee episodes to see to it that Erika Slezak, Hillary B. Smith, etc. got played up full force during sweeps. But at OLTL there was rarely this much downtime for any of them, the balance was usually much healthier. They would play them less for a few weeks or months, then when the right period hit they would ramp it up.

Edited July 23, 201411 yr by Vee

RC is not serving JZ. LH, JL, IB, FH or KS to their potential. So the argument at least they are on is bull [!@#$%^&*]

I won't pretend to understand or think I can do this job because I can't, but it might be a little bit more doable w/out so many cast members. Rocket science is not necessary to know that these newbies are out of control. I honesty think adding so many characters with little time between arrivals is really a confession of not knowing what to do with characters long term.

None of the other soaps seem to have this challenge, now do they?

Oh, I completely agree. 40 ish regularly appearing characters, plus the other people they have to service when needed (Diane, Max etc.) is simply too many. I think Ron was hinting that he was hitting his limit as well without outright saying it.

I think we'll see some exits at sweeps time. No doubt Ava isn't long for this world, Sabrina could go at any time, Felix could get written out with Lucas whenever Ryan leaves, plus the actress who plays Britt's original contract is up in November (though I would be shocked if they didn't re-sign her). I just think there are possibilities for exits, we just have to be patient for some of the arcs to play out. Hopefully if characters exit (I don't even care who at this point), we will feel like we can breathe.

I will say this, we were supposed to have about four more new characters regularly appearing at this point but most of it has been delayed or scrapped (honestly not sure which). Just picture how crowded that would've felt!

Is it safe to assume Serena is around the corner? The name dropping of her has become obvious. I can't imagine I'm going to like how she's written. Just a strong hunch for some reason.

I understand we don't know all that they go through (I would like to know, hence why I asked the process of writing, to scheduling, etc.) but UK soaps at 25 minutes can better balance 40-50 characters (yes, budgets are probably higher, etc.). It doesn't seem like it'd be THAT hard to better balance things out. We just shouldn't see people only because their storyline is needing to be played.

Lord, Jonny, PLEASE stop.

Why in the hell should I just sit here and accept Jackie working when I don't even recognize Bobbie and she can't even share more than one second with her son but Julian can get an entire episode talking to someone he didn't even know a year ago about Lucas's love life?

Edited July 23, 201411 yr by KMan101

Spending a whole hour looking for that brat Spencer ...what a waste and then wasting more time with brain dead Maxie and her marriage to the Aussie twit...this is must tv from FV and RC?????

Spending a whole hour looking for that brat Spencer ...what a waste and then wasting more time with brain dead Maxie and her marriage to the Aussie twit...this is must tv from FV and RC?????

That begs the question should the uS soaps adopt the UK model. If its to save money Roll the shows back to 30 min and take hiatuses like they do. Neighbors airs til Jan then returns in March

Or maybe the model Port Charles had during its last three years

Edited July 23, 201411 yr by John

Seems like Ron doesn't want to admit he's burnt out and has reached his limit, ALMOST reminds me of what happened Josh Griffith last year at Y&R

Why is Britt in cahoots with Spencer? Does she not realize that Nikolas can just look at Spencer's texting history? Like seriously, does she think Spencer pays for his own private phone bill?

Thank you. This is my exact thought every time they show Britt and Spencer texting. So stupid.

It's nice to know we weren't completely bamboozled about those four (or five) new hires. There was too much detailed info on them floating around for months and months, dating back to midway through last year on some.

And I'm sorry, but Ron will be dragged out feet-first before he lets them write Sabrina out. Certainly not this year.

And honestly, look, it's been a long year. Over a year, since this show got really messy for those of us who are more charitable like myself. I can only have so much patience for so many arcs to play out when they finally play out some arcs (like Dante, Lulu, Maxie, Georgie, Britt and Ben/Rocco) and then the arc that replaces it is even worse and even more dragged out. I waited for a lot of lousy stories on this show to end over the last twelve months. Some have ended, some have not, but almost all of them since about May of 2013 have been piss-poor.

Edited July 23, 201411 yr by Vee

I did mention they had to massively overhaul the Lucy/Scott/Bobbie story so that's probably where these cat fight scenes came from.

Do you know why they had to overhaul it? And why there seems to be so much planned story that just falls by the wayside under Ron? (Was this the case on OLTL? I don't remember.) I could understand it if recurring actors aren't available in the time frame the show wants them -- but I somehow doubt Lynn, Kin and Jackie have other acting commitments to attend to.

I don't remember OLTL outright scrapping or really pushing back major story the way GH has this year as well as last summer, with Laura, Lucy and the Deception stuff back then. They did it sometimes, but it was almost never stuff this big that was cast and scheduled and on the tip of everyone's tongues.

I can't speak for alexisfan but what I knew (or rather, heard) of what was planned involved Lucy, Kevin, Scott, their daughters and a sexual harassment or battery allegation by one of the girls. That was months ago so it may be bullshit.

Edited July 23, 201411 yr by Vee

Do you know why they had to overhaul it? And why there seems to be so much planned story that just falls by the wayside under Ron? (Was this the case on OLTL? I don't remember.) I could understand it if recurring actors aren't available in the time frame the show wants them -- but I somehow doubt Lynn, Kin and Jackie have other acting commitments to attend to.

Poor planning and pet usage. They can't focus on anything outside of their pet of the moment. Time sneaks up on these idiots because they "write" as they go.

Do you know why they had to overhaul it? And why there seems to be so much planned story that just falls by the wayside under Ron? (Was this the case on OLTL? I don't remember.) I could understand it if recurring actors aren't available in the time frame the show wants them -- but I somehow doubt Lynn, Kin and Jackie have other acting commitments to attend to.

This begins back in 2013 when GH was planning the deception rebirth with Lucy , Laura and Milo as their Model. But supposedly they couldnt afford to build a new set. Ha Ha why not redress an old set. Then Genie left because she wanted more than recyrring. Im not sure how this affects Bobbie/Lucy/Scott since it seems like RC doesnt know what he is doing

It affects them because they had one story planned (and, I think, shot) and dropped it. Instead they dropped this random new [!@#$%^&*] with Lucy and Bobbie in.

Edited July 23, 201411 yr by Vee

They filmed it with them but dropped it anyway. That is wasted money