Y&R: Sally Sussman Speaks!!!

[StepBack]

 

But you paraphrased what I said, and cut out the rest. Not really sure what you're trying to say here.

[edgeofnik]

There are so many sad and not plausible statements in that interview. Bottom line: She actually found a way to make me NOT respect her as a professional. Good riddance.

 

The best - couldn't make Kevin gay because involved with Chloe. She had no problem quickly ending Hilary/Devon. Terrible. 

 

Tessaih set from October. That explains why Mariah shared hardly any scenes with Tessa until May. Right. She was too busy having Mariah/Hilary playing a 1980s rivalry. 

[Sapounopera]

 

I think it was a horrible idea that ruined an epic story that was similar to a greek tragedy. The deaths of Phillip II and Phillip III made Kay and Jill the women they were. And you ruin this for what? So that TB can play gay for two scenes?

 

How about Phillip II faking his death as well in order to live his life as a woman? Can you imagine Linda Evans playing the part and joining the show in order to bicker with Jill? This is how bad the Phillip III MAB story was to me. 

 

 

My fantasy for every single show. What would Douglas Marland do? With Days, AW, Search etc. 

 

 

Now as far as this interview is concerned. Part of me thinks that Sally "had" to say some of these things for whatever reason. Damage control? For whom? I have no idea. However she took responsibility for

e v e r y t h i n g. She made it very clear that it was all Sally. Maybe too clear. If everything was so perfect, I don't think she and KA would have "retired" on the same day. Perhaps it was MY's plan all along to keep them around for a few months or he thought that he would be able to dictate story and they would deliver "Bell-style"?

 

The show was way too inconsistent for it to be one woman's project. The sudden changes in Scott, Kevin and Victor say something different.  

 

I guess many of our questions will be answered when Mal Young & the Restless premieres . Let's hope he is good. 

 

 

[Cat]

I don't understand the amount of hate this woman is getting. JFP/Pratt did not get this much. People here are talking about her like she is LML or MAB and has ruined the show irreparably. Hardly. Her stories may have been meh, but at least she kept the show on a mostly even keel. Do I think she's on a par with William J Bell, Kay Alden or Jack Smith? Lol, no way. But she is being very honest in this interview about her faults and her lack of drive as HW. She's 100% taking the blame for the show of the past year, which is more than the showkillers I mentioned above have EVER done. 

 

The show as it stands currently may not be on fire, but neither is it in the 'scorched earth' state it was at each of the times LML, MAB and Pratt were fired. Y'all acting like she left it like Pratt left AMC -- gutted.

[DRW50]

 

They got tons of hate from their other shows. By the time they got to Y&R people were burned out. They also came not that long after some horrendously unpopular writers and producers, so again people were burned out. 

 

With SSM I think people had high expectations. I never did but many did so they may be more annoyed as a result. 

 

I'm not sure her interviews ever do her a lot of favors either. 

 

I agree.

 

They should have played up the self-loathing, which was a fairly big part of his character the first time around anyway. His faking his own death because of a reaction he wouldn't have gotten and having to face the consequences of this with Kay, Jill, Nina, the son he never knew - this could have been compelling, even with the acting issues. Instead it was rushed through in about a week and the only reason it was done was because MAB wanted to check off a box and say, "Bill didn't do this...but I did!"

 

She sure did...

[Cat]

 

I can see that. My experience with JFP has been unreservedly negative, I just don't like her style or her favourites or her Emmy-bait SL tropes, so she and I are never going to mesh, lol. With Pratt, it has been more mixed a viewing experience (I loved Sunset Beach), but I can see how my bias against them as a team is reflected in my previous post.

 

My expectations of SSM were more predicated on Kay Alden being a helping right hand, but I was never a fan of her work per se. I know Y&R can never return to the way it was in 1977 or 1990 or whenever. It has been decimated over the past decade and some things are irreparable. We just have to deal with the raw material these writers and EPs have to work with currently -- while also trying to hold some of these under-achievers to a higher standard if we can! I think SSM had plenty of criticism doing her run, too, and her interviews promised so much more than she could ever deliver. And that is probably what people are venting about this thread -- she never executed those stories.

 

I guess I am surprised by the depth of the anger directed at her, though, it kind of puts her on the same level as writers who truly ruined some soaps, and I don't think she is quite on a par with them.

[KMan101]

 

This. Very well said.

 

+1

[MichaelGL]

I completely agree. 

 

IMHO she left the show in better condition compared to how it was when she first arrived. 

[ajsp35801]

 

I'd already responded to the rest. Lol

 

 

 

Regardless of what says in exit, I think she tried to make that Devon/Mariah pairing happen in earnest.

[Soaplovers]

I am curious if mariah/Tessa was approved last oxtober..ehy she even tried devon/mariah?

 

While Marland is talented...i don't know if y and R would have been a good fit...only cause y and R w asnt a shoe about an interwoven community...since a lot of the characters hasrdly ever interacted.  That was an element that set the show apart.... he oddly w asnt a good fit for The Doctors from what I read.

 

I think SSM just w asnt made to be a head writer.  Generations struggled especially at the start...though her Days of our lives was decent.

[KMan101]

In theory she tried to do a few things, like give Lauren a story but then it quickly became about Gloria, the car crash with Devon and aftermath with Hilary was good, Sharon's reset was good, she tried to reset Victor but it amounted to tea parties and episode after episode with Faith (who subsequently disappeared and then Victor's redemption was thrown out the window). She sent Summer off to Bali and she still hasn't returned so I appreciated that. She tried to make Phyllis single for a while but that was thrown out the window. She brought Dina back (I don't care for Alzheimers on soaps so I didn't like that aspect). I liked Jill's initial return with closure with Katherine and Colin ripping her off and her heart attack but it made no sense to re-pair Colin and Jill after that and because of Jess's semi-retirement Jill's not around as much as she should be. I thought there was potential with Nikki dropping Victor staying strong and then him forcing the piano recital thing (but it all never came together as it should and it's hard to buy Nikki kicking Victor to the curb because she ALWAYS takes his ass back so it's hard to invest in that). She actually did try to write the women stronger. Victoria was more in character but Heinle sucks for the most part. But then Phyllis hopped back into bed with Billy and looks pathetic and desperate. Lily forgives Cane over and over again. Victoria mopes about how awful she is. Lauren disappeared, etc.

 

In hindsight I think she tried to do some solid things but the execution was slow, lackluster and boring (and things clearly shifted around April/May). There weren't many stakes. Ironically the characters I like least, Cane/Lily/Victoria/Billy had stakes with the Juliet drama. And under her we were almost rid of Kevin! That gets a big plus in my book.

 

I think most of the newbies were lackluster and I think many of them came from Mal and she had no interest in them, so they had little development. Not making excuses and Mal's at fault as well for having hired lackluster actors in said roles. Scott was miscast. Jordan's actor is too laid back and boring, Ravi was sucked of his personality after the ridiculous makeover and isolated. I don't think Zach ever had long-term written all over him. I'm 50/50 on Tessa. I like Juliet but she's a plot device. Charlie/Mattie actors are green and they shouldn't have aged Lane's twins because Khalil looks like their sibling (though she's stepped up her acting a bit and I actually think she plays 'mother' well). Reed came on too hard too fast and now he's ok but the singing is annoying and he needs a haircut.

[Aback]

The interview sounds like some half-baked PR damage control.

 

Oh and how were we supposed to know for sure that Dina had Alzheimer's? Apart from reading the interview...

[DeeeDee]

 

That's not saying much. She followed Pratt so she didn't have anywhere else to go but up.

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[KMan101]

 

No, it's not, but she didn't do that much damage either.

[Sapounopera]

 

We have said that about many writers, but the next one always found a way to make things worse.

 

Sally is leaving and Sharon is a normal person again, the Abbotts are a family and have their mother back (I hate the Alzheimer's idea though), Cane and Lily -whom I hated for years- are involved in a very interesting story for once among others. Within six months another writer might have brought Dylan's presumed dead first wife whose brother is a mobster and part of a WTD with Billy and Victoria, killed off Jill and made Ashley a serial killer.