Y&R: Sally Sussman Speaks!!!

[Vizion]

 https://daytimeconfidential.com/2017/08/10/sally-sussman-speaks-out-on-young-and-restless-and-lesbian-love-story

 

Some excerpts:

Daytime Confidential: Mariah and Tessa kissed last week on The Young and the Restless. What was the genesis behind telling a story where two seemingly straight women fall in love?

Sally Sussman: When I came into Y&R last September, I had one day's notice to start the job. I had been traveling in France with my feature documentary [Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey], and hadn't been watching the show for several years. So, I had nothing prepared and never have started a job like that before. But because of the change happening so fast, I had to jump in with both feet. While starting to write the daily shows, I came up with several stories that I pitched the network; one of which is the love story between Mariah and a new character named Tessa. This is a love story; it's not a gay story. It's about falling in love with a person, not a gender. It is about Mariah and Tessa's self-discovery and it catches them both off guard. People fall in love unexpectedly for all sorts of reasons. Some they understand; some they don't.

 

DC: Per usual with LGBT stories on daytime, some fans are loudly voicing their disapproval on social media. Did you anticipate this?

SS: Before the kiss actually aired and the audience was starting to sense where the story was going, I was told by CBS that they had been getting a lot of negative comments. Because I had been away from the daytime genre for 10 years, and was aware that many other soaps had done stories featuring LGBT characters — some as long as 20 years ago — I was honestly a little taken aback by the depth of the negativity. It made me quite sad. When I created Generations, my goal was to make the African-American families where you didn't see race. I had hoped with this story people wouldn't just see gender; they'd feel the honest love between the characters.

 

DC: Y&R fans on social media are questioning the timing of your decision to retire and the launch of the story. Do you regret not being able to stay on and tell the story yourself?

SS: The two events are not related; this storyline was approved last October. The material airing now was written in May because the show is three months ahead of air. I know a lot of fans got upset by the only interview I did while at Y&R, which was last October with Michael Logan. He had been faithfully watching the show throughout all the head writer changes and really wanted answers to the loose ends that were left by my predecessor. What he didn't know is that night I had to fly to Vancouver where my 61-year-old brother just died suddenly and unexpectedly. He was my last surviving family member and it devastated me. Thinking about future stories for Y&R was the furthest thing from my mind, so I just made up a bunch of stuff because I hadn't gotten the chance to write a long-term yet. At that point, I honestly didn't think I could make six months in the job. So I'm thrilled to have made it to one year.

 

 

Also...Sally lets folks know that this was ALL HER IDEAS and she didn't have a bunch of network interference, she was in TOTAL control

 

"But I take responsibility for every scene in every episode as it was all done by me. As head writer you can't farm this work out to your writers or anyone else; to do this job properly you need to be in the trenches on every episode and every scene. So if the audience liked what they saw, great. If they hated what they saw, then I feel badly and disappointed but I know it goes with the territory. I adored my writing team, most of whom I'd never worked with before. They were fantastic to work with, but your writers don't make up the shows. They look to you to guide them and tell them what is in each episode. The same goes for the network and Sony. They give notes of course and most of their notes are actually very helpful and thoughtful. I never had any issues with the network or their input; we had great long-term story meetings, lots of good back/forth; lots of laughter."

Edited August 10, 2017 by Vizion

[cassadine1991]

So CBS/SONY didn't give her time at all to write a bible and on top of that her brother died. Damn...

[Vizion]

Just now, cassadine1991 said:

So CBS/SONY didn't give her time at all to write a bible and on top of that her brother died. Damn...

 

I mean, that's horrible, but then she needed to DECLINE THE INTERVIEW or postpone. Why the hell would she just "make up a bunch of stuff?"

 

Also, she made it clear that she didn't even think she'd stay in the job more than 6 months. What a mess. Like why was she even hired? This was all so stupid.

[YRBB]

Where's the cringeworthy stuff? I like the comments about Mariah/Tessa, saddened by the negative reactions. I also didn't see a lot of praise. Her jumping into it without a long-term plan actually makes sense now that I think of it. The subtle feel of aimlessness. Maybe that's why Ashley was suddenly talking about her father lol I find it hilarious she's admitting she made up stuff for the interview that so many have been quoting as the bible for so long now.

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 Unusual, but then look at all the hacks who make it up as they go and see if it sticks. Clearly the network was fine with it, since they hired her without long-term projections.

 

She has a certain directness to her, and I think her comments about the audience being used to the campier stuff is particularly spot on. Many, including on this board, have gotten used to it and they don't even realize it.

 

Classic soap can't come back. The majority of fans today cannot stand it. They wouldn't know how to deal with it. 

Edited August 10, 2017 by YRBB

[ajsp35801]

Sally is a disappointment. You mean to tell me that the end of that promising and timely Fenmore's story with Lauren  was all her?! The writing for Hilary vs Mariah, all her? These poorly developed newbies, Sally? That Kevin and Chloe exit. Sally? I can NOT...

[Vizion]

7 minutes ago, YRBB said:

Where's the cringeworthy stuff? I like the comments about Mariah/Tessa, saddened by the negative reactions. I also didn't see a lot of praise. Her jumping into it without a long-term plan actually makes sense now that I think of it. The subtle feel of aimlessness. Maybe that's why Ashley was suddenly talking about her father lol I find it hilarious she's admitting she made up stuff for the interview that so many have been quoting as the bible for so long now.

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 Unusual, but not much different than hacks who make it up as they go. Clearly the network was fine with it, since they hired her without long-term projections.

 

1. It's 2017 so saying that you "don't want people to see color" or "don't want people to see gender" is problematic. 

2. Not only did she have no plan for the characters, she didn't watch the last 10 years of the show.  Who thought it was a good idea to hire her? 

3. She just made up everything she said in her interview to Logan? Why not just decline or postpone it? What? 

4. She made it pretty obvious she had no intention of staying in the job long. She wasn't committed to it. It's awful that her brother died, but her commitment was gone. 

5. The entire thing about Greg was nonsense, SHE was the one who wrote Kevin and Chloe's reunion so what is she talking about? He wasn't too involved with Chloe at the time SSM took over. They were finished. She reunited them.

6. It was CLEAR very early on that Sally cared more about that doc than she did about figuring out how to make Y&R better and she made that pretty clear in that interview.

7. A LOT of people here tried to blame a lot of the poor ideas on network interference and Mal Young...it's clear that Sally's failures were hers. 

 

She took a job just to take it. Her heart wasn't in it, she didn't care, she didn't think she'd stay long, she had nothing planned, she bs'd interviews and made stuff up as she went along for a show she hadn't watched in a decade. Just no. 

Edited August 10, 2017 by Vizion

[YRBB]

LOL Where was the outrage when Latham, MAB, and Pratt did all that?

[Soaplovers]

That could explain why Kay Alden was a consultant cause SMS hadn't watched the show in ten years.  It makes sense why the first few months were aimless..lots if nice scenes..but no ling term story.

 

At least there started to be some structure and ling term potential with the Dina story as well as the Mariah/Tessa..and Cane/Juliet stuff.  It's a shame Kay Alden couldn't have stayed on as a consultant with Mal Young.

[Vizion]

Just now, YRBB said:

LOL Where was the outrage when Latham, MAB, and Pratt did all that?

 

What is the deflection? The excuses people make for Sally are hilarious. The show had 16 weeks or something of record low demos under Sally who could not have cared less...you know what nevermind. You love Sally, it's cool. 

[Khan]

As bad as I feel for her losing her brother, I must say, excuses are like assholes, Mrs. Morina.  Everybody's got one.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Khan

[YRBB]

1 minute ago, Vizion said:

 

What is the deflection? The excuses people make for Sally are hilarious. The show had 16 weeks or something of record low demos under Sally who could not have cared less...you know what nevermind. You love Sally, it's cool. 

 

Calm down. Relax. It's OK. I "love" her?

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 I didn't even watch most of her run! I agree with most, if not all, the criticisms made. All I saw was a weirdly done, unusual HW transition story, and an explanation (as I wrote above) as to why we saw the half-baked show we did... sprinkled with some good, honest observations.

 

So... where's the cringeworthy stuff eliciting this freak out from you?

[DeeeDee]

This show is a mess.

[YRBB]

7 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

That could explain why Kay Alden was a consultant cause SMS hadn't watched the show in ten years.  It makes sense why the first few months were aimless..lots if nice scenes..but no ling term story.

 

At least there started to be some structure and ling term potential with the Dina story as well as the Mariah/Tessa..and Cane/Juliet stuff.  It's a shame Kay Alden couldn't have stayed on as a consultant with Mal Young.

 

Yep.

[Vizion]

5 minutes ago, DeeeDee said:

This show is a mess.

 

And honestly A LOT of the blame needs to go to Angelica and Sony cause it was obvious they didn't care either. Did they even ask her what her plan was? Or talk to her at all about her thoughts on the show? Or just offered her a job that her heart wasn't even in? I still don't understand why she took it but a lot of this falls on CBS and Sony just saying whatever, we just need a HW, let's just offer it to someone. 

 

They don't care about saving this show or even keeping it afloat. Sally basically said "I was really unprepared for a job I didn't really want to do." Ok. 

Edited August 10, 2017 by Vizion

[cassadine1991]

Kay Alden should've been co-HW and map out long term stories