Bradley Bell "The Horrible HW of B&B"

[YRfan23]

I think it pisses me off more (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong) that the soap press never criticizes the show for all its wrong doings like they seem the others....you ever hear ONE negative comment these days and they continue giving Brad Bell these undeserved accolades...aren’t he and Michael Logan like bffs are something stupid like that???

 

i guarantee if someone other then Brad Bell took over in 92/93 the show would have been off the air by 1997...maybe I’ll be kind and say 2003.

[edgeofnik]

Two things happened in 2015 that undermined the amazing momentum that started the previous fall:

 

1) March 2015 - After finally getting a diverse leading lady, turning Myrna into Myron. Worse: universally acceptance;

2) July 2015 - Aly's illogical death. Worse: The Vine's 'Mur-DAH!!!' 

 

I tried to stick with it - on and off - but now only if I'm visiting my mom and it's on. Even then, I'm usually doing something else. It's too bad. 

[Faulkner]

TV Guide dropped Michael Logan’s soap column, so that’s one cheerleader gone (although he still tweets soap stuff, which in 2018 matters more).

 

I do wonder how much international matters. I’m sure it could find another platform in the U.S. to pick the show up, but they’d net nowhere near the license fees a big broadcast network would provide. I think it would be crippling honestly if CBS ever cancelled it.

 

B&B has a cushy timeslot, and it’s much harder to replace a half-hour slot unless they decide to hand it back to the affiliates who want hourlong news at noon.

 

I wish B&B would take more advantage of its LA locale too, but doing that on the regular costs $$$$$ that the show probably doesn’t have.

[~bl~]

I agree about the Aly death, that was the beginning of the show being broken for me. Loved her, as she was the oldest of the Stephanie/Eric grandkids, which makes it worse. And Thorne has no other kids. Why couldn't they have let her go for mental help? 

[soapfan770]

Brad just lacks creativity and keeps endlessly recycling the same plot formulas with no forethought. This is why stupid plots like Steffy and Bill occur or why we see Ridge and Brooke get hitched for the 23rd time. The soap press has been lazy for a good twenty years running; give a dazzling interview like Hogan Sheffer and to some extent Corday and you're get a free pass. 

 

The terrible thing about Aly's death is aside from it being very unnecessary is that Brad has literally done absolutely NOTHING with the annoying Ivy. Which is a good thing actually but I have to wonder why oh why Brad insists on keeping Ivy around to do nothing. It's like how Brad kept Megan Conley around for years doing nothing but be a gossip only to be given a fascinating above and beyond exit story. Plus we lost Oliver off the show as well. 

 

The Maya tale has been an overall unmitigated disaster, and has left Rick and Maya essentially backburned unless its sweeps week and they get baby-fever and Obba Babatundé drops in to give a hammed up homophobic/transphobic speech. 

 

Speaking of which, poor Sasha was completely wasted. 

[YRfan23]

A damn shame, because Sasha had the potential of a super bitch in the making....

[Soaplovers]

When Bradley Bell managed to create an interesting African American family that had a lot of potential and story angst to play.. yet opted to make it a short term deal before going back to the stupid same ole same ole.

 

And lastly, getting Kimberlin Brown to come back.. and where is she again?

[NothinButAttitude]

One story that they were entertaining (and I glad it got dropped) was Ridge and Bridget flirting with each other. It was obvious Brad was gonna pair to the two together. I found it to be dreadful seeing as Ridge was once believed to be her father and still had a fatherly role in her life post Eric being her father. Also, they are siblings by default. I just found the whole thing to be gross. 

 

I thought Brooke banging Oliver was stupid as sh-t too. Brooke knew damn well what Ridge felt like as she'd been riding him for 20+ years at that point. She knows young peen from seasoned peen. Also, Oliver knew damn well that wasn't no Hope when Hope was a damn virgin. We all know Brooke is 'loosey goosey' too. I just found that story to be absurd. 

 

Taylor carrying Brooke's child was a stupid story too. It was all for shock value and went nowhere. Nick is forgotten. So is Jack. So is Taylor. The story was moot. Just another story to give Brooke a baby with all the men on canvas. 

[Sindacco]

The thing I hate the most about Brad is how he recasts characters that have been backburned or off the show, and all of a sudden they are the center of attention. He doesn't care about the actual character, just his latest flashy actor, until he gets bored with them and they leave with no real exit.

 

And yeah, it's bizarre how little critique he gets in the soap world.

[DeeeDee]

Now that The Spectras have gotten old, which B&B family will Brad resurrect next?

[DaytimeFan]

 

 

Beacham played herself. And it was preposterous. I can only imagine she did it renew her SAG medical insurance.

[dragonflies]

Regarding Ivy, it was reported recently that Ashleigh quit the show. Can't blame her, she's literally had nothing to do but be a prop for SteffyLiam

[DRW50]

B&B has been poorly written since 1996 or so, with a few years here or there of quality. I just assume that people get used to it.

[Cat]

@soapfan770 Thank you for that incredibly comprehensive list! I had burned the memory of Brooke and Thomas ingesting aphrodisiac berries from my brain! 

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 And Poussay Poussay Poussay! Every time they played that song, Brooke was all "This song makes me feel sexy!" This song prompted her to bang Oliver in the dark thinking it was Ridge.

 

One SL I remember being completely horrendous (and which has also been scrubbed from the B&B collective memory) was one of Brooke's many marriages to Widge. They ended up in some made-up Latin American country called San Carlos or something. 'San Carlos' was having an uprising of rebels led by... Sheila Forrester.  At the wedding (which included Ridge's new Marone brother, Nick), Sheila and the rebels attacked the ceremony as it finished, and Nick and Ridge went into Action Man mode. Aging Ken Doll Ridge foolishly grabbed a rope to swing at somebody but ended up tumbling into a fiery smelter. That very night Brooke and Nick had grief sex because it was all too traumatic. The next day, Ridge showed up alive and well; turns out Sheila had faked everybody out with the smelter and kidnapped him. But the whole thing triggered a 9-month WTD SL which was painful beyond belief. I don't even remember the name of the child she ended up having. Jack?

 

Bradley Bell imo is the worst HW in soaps in recent memory (and yes I watched Days through some pretty awful eras). He has zero imagination, and every plot is a seventh repeat of one done in the early 90s. I def agree with all of you that Ally's death was a turning point. This character could have powered feuds and rivalries for the future -- an obsessive Stephanie type. She had so many psychological idiosyncrasies you don't really see on soaps anymore. She also represented revenge for the way Thorne had been shuttled to the side all these years. The fact that Thorne lost his wife and later his child in the worst possible way really bothered me. And now Bell has recast Thorne with a 'name' I couldn't give two f*cks about.... sigh. Maybe this is his way of distracting from the Ally debacle.

 

I really wish he would stick to EPing and promote one or more of the writers on staff to full HW. He really has some talented writers working with him, but you wouldn't know it.

[Fevuh]

In general it's always bugged me that the characters on this show are apparently world-famous but no one ever notices them or recognizes them.  Myron was the "lead model" but no one notices her and there's no papparazzi and there wasn't when the 'big reveal' happened.  Stephanie Forrester being homeless (that was in the fairly early days)  but that one cracked me up as well for the same reasons.  She's Stephanie Forrester but no one could identify her....like she was homeless on the street and in a shelter and no one recognized her.  But they're world famous.