OWN picks up Jamey Giddens scripted show!

[Antoyne]

I truly don't get all the hate. I must be missing something. Haven't the fans been shitting on the soaps for YEEEEEARS now. I don't recall a time on this board that the shows were not being shi.t on and I've been a member for 15 years. What's the issue?

[xtr]

 

I agree. What is Jamey guilty of that a lot of other soaps fans haven't been guilty of? The only difference is he had a podcast/website. A lot of soaps fan criticize the soaps. Some of them including right now wish that the soaps would be cancelled. I'm seen people say they wish Days and Y&R would get cancelled. Did Jamey ever go that far and say he wish that the Prospect Park soaps would get cancelled? Even if he did he isn't any worse than people that wish some if not all of the remaining soaps would get cancelled.

 

Even some of the people that loved the Prospect Parks soaps, probably at  least at some point, heavily criticized the original recipe versions of AMC and OLTL. I remember those shows, (especially some of the writers from them) getting heavily bashed during their last years, before the reboots.

 

 

Edited January 25, 2020 by xtr

[Khan]

To me, Jamey Giddens is the type of soap fan who doesn't believe a soap is a soap unless all the women in town are drenched in jewels and furs and either slapping the piss out of each other or stroking the tanned, toned and waxed chest of a swishy young male named "Stone."  Moreover, each scene has to end on some gay-gasping, pearl-clutching, monologue-spouting plot twist, or else the show is a total waste of time.  I'm not saying you can't ever have camp on a soap opera, but it can't be that soap's entire foundation.  (Sadly, the makers of "Dynasty" have never learned that lesson.)

 

If I could offer Jamey one word of advice, it would be this: Read.  Read often, read a lot and read something more illuminating on the human condition than Playgirl magazine or a Sidney Sheldon novel.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Khan

[DRW50]

 

What put me off about DC was not criticism of the soaps - it was the water-carrying for certain soaps, and the dismissive view toward fans who had problems with those soaps, or with the people who made them (especially Ron Carlivati). This dismissiveness carried so far over into their worldview that they were openly contemptuous toward the PP soaps, still waiting and hoping on that "Frankenron" hype train that never really arrived.

 

I remember when I first came on here and even though there was a fair amount of support for MAB and Sheffer's Y&R, there was at least some diversity of opinion, enough to make me feel relieved. There was no such diversity on most other sites - instead I would read Branco's stuff or DC and just came away with the sense of oppressiveness and pushing of viewpoint, instead of genuinely caring about a soap. 

 

There were plenty of attempts at catchphrases about "soapy goodness" and "hair models," and plenty of attempts to show us how hilarious and clever they were and how cool they were with the powers that be, but I never felt any real care, any real passion for a soap. I just felt a lot of coldness and cliqueishness. 

 

That's probably a good way to get a following for your site and your podcast, and to get noticed by the right people in the industry, but when you run a soap yourself, that means you have to get the same soap fans who felt shut out by your content. 

 

I certainly never went around telling people not to watch his show, but I also knew that someone like me, who didn't watch soaps like Y&R in the late '00s or OLTL in its last 5 years and think these were the ideals of storytelling, would ever be welcome as a fan. And I wonder how many others who used to read DC back then felt the same. 

[ChitHappens]

 

But why is Jamey immune to folks criticism?  Why can't folks go for his jugular like we do everyone else?  He's special because?  Don't forget, folks really disliked him long before Ambitions.  Jamey cut writers and producers down and his cult followed his lead.  When Miller and Staff CHOSE to leave YR, remember how Jamey dog walked TIIC?  He was pissed about not getting a writing deal so he took the opportunity to get back at the show.  He was ruthless!  Prospect Park?!!!!!!  Now, he couldn't sustain an audience from week to week and we should be outraged or feel bad?  

 

He's only getting back what he gave.  

[DRW50]

 

Sometimes I forget about all that breathless Miller hype. I remember he was supposed to be a movie star, so was Chandler Massey, so was Wilson Bethel...

[Mona Kane Croft]

I disagree with Jamey for his fondness of camp and Ron C's type of writing (plus a few other things).  But I don't dislike him.  In fact, I admire him.  And remember,  he wasn't the only commentator on DC.  I remember when they had a different weekly podcast for nearly every soap -- back when there were 9, I think.  And I thought the commentators were more or less cheerleading for each of the soaps they covered.  They were critical, of course.  But so am I.  When a soap is bad, I criticize it.  That doesn't mean I hate the show or want it to be cancelled -- it means I want it to improve.  I think the DC gang (in the old days) had a similar goal.   

[All My Shadows]

Nah, the difference is that Jamey, just like most of the "modern day" soap "journalists," really really really really sucked at hiding his personal biases towards certain shows, writers, performers, etc. Go look up the Daytime Confidential article from when the news of AMC and OLTL's cancellations broke. That's when I found myself firmly in the "nothing this motherfcker has to say is important" camp. It was petulant and disrespectful at a time when the soap press needed to be reverent and supportive.

I am absolutely one of the people who thinks the remaining soaps would be better off cancelled. IDK if I've ever said I wished they'd be cancelled, but as someone who buried AMC and ATWT, I'm here to tell you that as much as you will miss your soap, you will be totally fine with not watching it sink lower and lower with every episode. That's just my POV. Our genre is a complete joke. Those on the outside either don't pay attention to it or ridicule it when they do, and those on the inside are struggling to find any enjoyable morsels. It's just miserable.

Edited January 25, 2020 by All My Shadows

[sivad40]

Jamey also championed some actors and actresses that some soap fans hated on a personal level for arbitrary reasons.. 

[Vee]

Khan is right - for a long time, Jamey's entire perception of quality soap used to be '80s camp from his childhood. He would forgive shows a lot for a taste of old school camp or a flashy, pointless casting move. He played a lot of favorites. He never to my knowledge fully disowned his endless "bring back Muhney" cries. He took the PP soaps personally - I know for a fact he didn't pay much attention to OLTL before Ron Carlivati took over, because he said so more than once, so his protective cult worship of that regime at both shows can miss me because I was cutting for Ron before anyone else, DC included, and I didn't lose objectivity later because I'd been watching the show longer than 10 minutes. I also don't get too tight with people I shouldn't professionally. His tantrum when RC was about to be deservedly ousted at GH - including a hilariously tone-deaf misreading of an infamous 1991 article about Gloria Monty's impending dismissal, in which he seemed to parallel her doomed second regime to Ron's with ungrateful actors behind it all - was unbelievable.

 

That said: I shared almost as many opinions with him as I violently disagreed with. His defense of Genie Francis vs. Geary weeks after the above rant (if partly motivated by loyalty to Carlivati) could've come from my own mouth. I think he can be very incisive and smart when he wants to be, not just about camp but character and history. In terms of favorites he did not always practice what he preached. I think he showed his ass and made a fool of himself online many a time, but I think he's grown and knows that now. (He's admitted some of his past fascinations were outdated) I thought his show wasn't great or bad. I'm not cheering its demise. He does love the genre, I think his taste has matured a bit and I think he's worked hard. We will never agree on everything, and there's plenty I don't forget. But I wish him well.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Vee

[Khan]

 

The fact that Jamey wanted Muhney to regain his job in the first place is enough not to make me feel bad for beating up on him or his now-cancelled series.  I mean, how much of a sick [!@#$%^&*] do you have to be to feel sympathetic toward someone who had made unwanted advances toward his female colleague?

[Chris B]

I think criticizing him is fine and lord knows I did criticize this show, although most of my criticism was of the cast and not the writing. I just think some of the criticism isn't based on the actual show which can be annoying because I did find the show to be good. Now I do agree he was completely annoying on DC, but I do think his last couple years he had calmed down and become more reasonable. He even acknowledged that himself several times and made a point to be less negative. Despite all of that and despite Ambitions failing, I still would love for him to take over Y&R which I know isn't likely. If anything he'll probably continue working with Will Packer, but the thought excites me knowing what the black actors  have gone through to now have a black person at the helm. It could also help younger black actors break in since they'd have someone at the top who would actually consider them and value their work. Now he could end up being a hot mess like literally everybody since Kay Alden and Jack Smith left, but for me it would be worth it to see diversity at the top of Y&R after all that's happened. 

 

Regardless of if it's on Y&R or another show, I would like to see Michele Val Jean, Susan Dansby and the other Ambitions writers continue to have success. The scripts and attention to detail was strong and they deserve continued success.

[Vee]

I'd welcome him taking a shot with MVJ, Dansby or Sussman as a co-HW. At this point Y&R couldn't do worse, so why not let him prove himself or fail? He loves that show.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Vee

[Khan]

Look, I don't begrudge Jamey an ounce of his success; and if he succeeds either in finding a new home for his show or in landing a gig at another, good for him.  But I find him repulsive -- as a storyteller, and as a human being -- so I'm not exactly feeling sorry for him either, if you catch my drift.

 

Oh, and "hell to the naw" on his joining Y&R as (Co-)HW.  Y&R has suffered enough lately.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Khan

[VanessaReardon]

He couldn't even write 18 episodes of his own show without Ambitions losing half of its audience. It got cancelled for good reason. How could he write 250 episodes of a daytime soap with network execs and owners interfering? Just absolute NO to Giddens ever touching a daytime soap. It’ll never happen. Thank God.