Y&R May 2019 Discussion Thread

[BetterForgotten]

They really need to get rid of Michael Eilbaum as a director. His episodes are so damn static and have no momentum at all. 

 

You can always tell when Owen Renfroe or Sally McDonald direct episodes - the camera actually moves and they direct and stage scenes and angles in very unique/artistic ways. But of course Sally is the last director from the old Y&R guard left, and Owen was JFP's protege and directed a lot of her big episodes at GH before she brought him over to Y&R. 

 

 

[KMan101]

 

PREACH!!!! 

 

Instead of doubling down on Dina they should be "fixing" this massive mistake. Josh is already off to a very disappointing start, IMHO, but I had very little expectations for him. It's nice to see his living up to that for me. I want so many different things for Y&R ... SIGH.

 

Kyle had potential but it's being shot to hell. Mariah has done a 180 into basically wanting to curl up in a fetal position and cry for no reason. He's doubling down on Dina's illness. Lola's a lost cause. Adam, Chelsea and Kevin are all coming back. Traci and Jill are propping Cane. I'm shocked they're not catfighting over who can mother him better. It's kind of insulting. So many things wrong. And now Stafford and her ticks are also coming back. Joy.

 

Sigh again.

 

Not to mention the characters with potential he seems to have no interest in (Ana, Nate, Elena, all people of color ... which is ... interesting but not surprising considering it's CBS, who should recognize the African American audience and how it helped make Y&R #1 and how Bill Bell treated Malcolm, Dru, Neil and Olivia like he would any white person, but I digress a bit ...)

 

That's not to say Mal's Y&R wasn't abysmal but I did appreciate the interest he had in actually developing the YOUNG in the Young and the Restless, but he was damaging to so many characters. 

 

I guess I foolishly expected them to see the problems most of us do and fix them, but they're not (and what a lot of us see as problems, like Villy, returning to Shadam, etc. others just lap up like it's the y&r they know and love ... I guess I can understand newer viewers enjoying certain periods but why do they listen to them? lol)

 

 

100% agreed

[Vizion]

 

 

 

[Vee]

The new Ana is great - so vivacious and full of life, albeit different from Mishael Morgan. I can't understand a show that wouldn't want to capitalize on that presence, but I couldn't understand how they could let go of MM either. I said this about GH recently as well, but it comes back to clinging to what they perceive to be the only core demographic of a dying audience, old white people, and not attempting anything else - not to grow it, not to evolve, just to survive by the skin of their teeth. Which is especially ironic in Y&R's case, because it has had a very loyal black audience, even more than most soaps. They just seem to have forgotten they exist, in their haste to get rid of them and remake their demographics over the last 10+ years.

[Faulkner]

I wonder if Y&R simply feels that the black audience is one they simply don’t have to “work for,” that they’ll show up in spite of lack of representation, while white viewers will tune out if the show isn’t overwhelmingly dominated by white faces. I don’t have any data to back that up, but I was reading a Hollywood Reporter article about the lack of Latinx movie stars and vehicles. The reason given? Latinx moviegoers already overindex, so Hollywood doesn’t feel the need to superserve or cater to them as much. It jibes with some stuff I’ve heard before. Basically, that minority audiences have been trained to not see themselves, while white viewers have been trained to be entitled to see themselves. However... this is a new reality. Viewers have so many choices now. But they may still prioritize the dwindling white 25-54  female audience over black folks.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I definitely think that this is part of the equation, which is why, other than the KSJ tribute, I've stopped watching.  Nothing will change as long as people keep watching and propping up this show.  Look at social media and see who is doing the most tweeting--it becomes obvious where the major loyalties are.  And if black viewers, black women in particular, will support regardless, what is the incentive for this show to make any changes?  If that base of support drops out, then there might possibly be some thoughts about a new direction.

People are using cancellation as a cudgel to get people to watch/support a poorly written, poorly executed show.  Sorry, if it makes me a traitor to the history of a show I grew up watching but I refuse to do this.  It's not worth my time.  

[Vee]

Another key issue re: Latino characters is something Tim Stickney (R.J. Gannon on OLTL) talked about in the OLTL oral history, but something many of us had divined before that - ABC focus groups determined that conservative white viewers have less objections to frontburner story or interracial romance with Latino characters vs. black ones, as they don't always identify them as 'non-white.' Therefore Antonio Vega and his family became dominant at OLTL while the Gannons and other black characters fell by the wayside.

 

I think this kind of focus testing and white perspective definitely plays into the abrupt Latino influx at Y&R. I know the Rosaleses were also a (foolish) pet project of Angelica McDaniel, but I'm sure more than one network can make the calculation that they can show minorities without having to bother with black people. I'm not against Latino/Latinx characters, of course. But not at the expense of a core element of the daytime audience.

[Faulkner]

Yep.

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

Soap mags were totally fine with splashing very white Marcy Walker and very indigenous-looking A Martinez across their covers multiple times in the freakin’ ‘80s. Can you imagine them doing the same for Darnell Williams and Kim Delaney or to keep it Y&R, Phil Morris and Eileen Davidson? They wouldn’t have had the opportunity. Just like the Santoses (AMC/GL) or the Vegas or the Rosaleses, these shows are totally comfortable integrating Latinx characters into their shows in a way they’d never do for black families.

[DeeeDee]

Wait until somebody introduces world of Daytime to the concept of Afrolatinxs.

Please register in order to view this content

[Fevuh]

I feel like I'm already sick of "The Spider"/Adam and he's not even here yet.  I just don't want another redo of Chelsea/Adam and add in whoever else.  

 

And with Devon constantly imagining Hillary, I'm wondering if she has a twin sister - they can't simply say she didn't die in the accident, but she could have a twin just like they did with Mariah/Cassie. 

[Faulkner]

 

[DramatistDreamer]

Afrolatinx just seems beyond what the daytime soaps can even fathom.  These shows can't even fathom a viable Asian/Asian-American family-- they're just too different for them. 

In the waning days of OLTL, there was an attempt at an Indian-American family, which unfortunately didn't carry over to the 2.0 TOLN version.  

These soaps seem very much stuck in a drastically different time period-- one before I was even born. Why they cannot take a look at what primetime is doing that has been ratings drivers (truly diverse casts), I'll never know.

What are these networks/daytime dramas so afraid of?

[BetterForgotten]

I think at one point in the late 90’s it was said Melody Thomas Scott and Shemar Moore had the highest Q ratings for Y&R cast members - meaning the general public loved these actors and and partially tuned into the show because they found them to be a very likeable presence.

 

I wonder if this is why Shemar has historically been the one black actor Y&R would cater to and kill to have back.

[Vee]

 

Antonio Vega's daughter was one, not that it mattered.

 

 

It actually did. Vimal and Rama were on OLTL 2.0., though Vimal's sister(?) Neela was not.

 

 

Losing what they see as their sole remaining major audience share that barely keeps these shows afloat: Older conservative whites. They refuse to attempt to modernize because they barely have any money left as is, and I assume they must believe that losing that audience would lose that. I don't agree with it, but it has to be that mindset or something like it.

 

Whether or not they don't consider the longtime non-white audience profitable, I couldn't say. They have to know it exists. They clearly have made the calculation it will not buy products and sell ads.

[ajsp35801]

 

It might be why Shemar got a show on CBS Primetime.