According to the Y&R Board Opinions - if Y&R was the worst at handling Black Characters/Families, who was the best?

[Fevuh]

On the Y&R threads/board there are opinions of how awful they handle Black/African American Characters.  Y&R sucks at handling African American Characters and families.  Of any soap, who did it best, and if they did, why were they unsuccessful?  Why did black people watch Y&R when they had a choice in Generations?

 

What were the great families of black people on Days, GH, and B&B?  The only remaining shows.  What were the great dynasties of Black people on other soaps, other than Generations?  And why do people judge Y&R for being so against Black people when they had the Winters for so many years?  I think Y&R just gave just as good of a tribute to KSJ as they did for Jeanne Cooper, but it's not good enough. 

 

So what shows have had a dynasty of Black families and characters that last for around 20 years, and why weren't they successful?   

[xtr]

Y&R did a good job with black families in the 90's but they fell off since then. Including now when they are utilizing characters like Ana Hamilton.

 

On AMC, the Hubbard family was written well at different times. (Early on and then later on when Jesse came back from the dead) For the most part I didn't like B&E's tenure on AMC, but I did like how they helped re-establish the Hubbard family on the show and how they were willing to write for them.

 

I think that the Frye family on AMC had good writing in the early 90s. Looking at shows from that time, Livia and Derek had a good and believable brother-sister relationship. Livia also had a good relationship with her son Terrence. Livia and Derek were also given pairings that suited them. Derek and Mimi were appealing as a couple, (thought they ended up having issues). Tom and Livia were also a well-written couple. They were a really good Interracial and mature couple. They were just a good written couple in general. And they were also given a storyline where they adopted a black son named Jamal, which I think was a nice storyline for them.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by xtr

[Vee]

 

Because they've been marginalizing their black cast for over a decade. When we talk about Y&R's handling of things we're talking about now, not the past. Next question?

[Fevuh]

Tell me about GH's and DAYS Black families and how they even tried to put them front and center.  Answer?  And relate how well they're doing today with that? 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by Fevuh

[Vee]

LOL, they suck. That doesn't make what Y&R is currently doing suck less.

 

If you want to defend what Y&R is doing with its black cast in 2019, go to the Y&R thread and defend it. Don't start a new thread to throw a tantrum.

 

[detroitpiston]

Are we not allowed to critique Y&R's horrendous treatment and undervaluing of its black characters and the audience they bring because other shows did their's worse???? I'm not understanding what you're trying to accomplish here.

 

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[DeeeDee]

TeLl Me WhAT bLAcK fAmILiES aRe bEttEr WrItten!

[xtr]

 

They are not really doing anything with the black families these days. GH had the Ward family back in the day, but some years back they pretty much closed the chapter on that family. Including getting rid of the younger members like bringing on Maya and then her eventually leaving. They also killed off Justus, which was a blow to the Ward family and the white Quatermaine family, who's family members they kept killing off.

 

And Days isn't doing much of anything with Eli/Lani. They killed off their baby not too long ago, which IMO was wrong. I saw on another site that someone said that would have been the first great-great-great grandchild of Tom and Alice. If so, that makes him being killed off even worse. And people are also upset that they have Lani fawning over another little (white) baby named David. Val's Eli's mother has been sent away and hasn't been properly utilized in a while. And Abe's Lani's dad isn't given much too. And they got rid of Theo Lani's brother/Abe's son.

 

Bold and the Beautiful had the Avant family, but they got rid of almost all of them. Nicole is gone, Sasha is gone, Mr and Mrs. Avant pop up here and there, Maya is rarely used. (And I think I saw somewhere she is no longer on contract) Zander is used somewhat, but that's mostly because he's romantically tied to Zoe. (Who is being used in the Flo/Hope baby switch storyline which is a not good one.)

 

Justin Barber is only used on B&B these days as a right hand man for Bill and to do his bidding. Marcus is not around, Dayzee is not around. They did give Justin a niece Emma, but got rid of her as well. 

 

Looking at the current shape of the remaining soaps, none of them are really doing much with or for the black families.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by xtr

[sd77]

I think what makes Y and R so bad is that they usually have a decent amount of black characters on the show.  However those characters are isolated from the rest of the cast and given tiny storylines just so the show can say they did it.  It is almost better to have no black characters than to have them and not utilize them.  It makes the issues even more obvious.  This is why I hated that they have all of the black characters living together.  The writing was on the wall with that move.

 

Days is nothing special but at least the black characters can have scenes with the rest of the cast.  They have love interest, exes and family.  

 

GH and B and B have always been dumpster fires.

 

 

[xtr]

 

Yeah, Y&R has enough black characters to write storylines for and utilize well, but they won't do it. They could do much more with Ana, Nate, Jett, Elena, even the twins. They are writing somewhat for Devon, but they could do better. Days doesn't do much with their black cast, and B&B doesn't currently have many black cast members/nor do they really use them much. GH isn't a lot better.

 

 

 

[Fevuh]

I'm a gay.  I don't incessantly *itch that there aren't enough gay stories and gay writers and gay everything on Daytime.  It's become a droning din of people *itching about not enough Black on Daytime.  If I see 1 story that is about a Gay person or 1 Gay character, it's enough for me.  I'm fine with it.  I don't gripe that half the show should be Gay.  Or my Gays have been marginalized.

In most timezones, Generations was up against Y&R.  Why didn't Black people watch Generations?  If you had, it should have succeeded enough to exist longer than it did.  ?  Just curious. 

[BetterForgotten]

Because Generations, much like most of Sally Sussman Morina's writing, was crap, and boring crap at that. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Can we be real for a minute and stop the subterfuge?  

For most of its run, Generations wasn't written that well.  The actors had to rise above the writing for most of the time it was on.  Perhaps if the writing staff had been as diverse as the cast, the scripts might have been better and the storylines.

Black people are not obligated to watch a show that is not up to snuff because it has black characters.  We reserve the right to tune out, which is what has been happening to soaps for the last two decades, at least.

I've made it clear that I reserve the right not to watch what I deem to be schlock.  This is a messageboard and people are free to post their opinions, so yeah, I grew up on Y&R, I'm a dramatic writer and my impulse is to critique and deconstruct.  One of the things that I like about this board is that there are a lot of posters who are very thoughtful in how they look at the history of these shows, with a critical eye.  You can love shows (or the history of a show, what it represents) and still critique them.

 

Also, these shows have openly courted black viewers over the decades and Y&R is chief among them.  It's not coincidence that after they messed up with Mishael Morgan, they quickly moved to bring on a bunch of black characters.  Honestly, why do you think that's so?  It's not for altruistic reasons, it's because they likely know who their audience has been, by and large and is seeking to retain them.  Of course, the best way to retain them would be to write well thought out stories but maybe the talent is just not there to accomplish this.  And so yes, if the audience knows that they are being courted and that they have bolstered these shows in the ratings, yes, people are going to have expectations, what the hell is wrong with that?

[titan1978]

Because Y&R were the gold standard for how to include black characters as a vital part of the canvas.  Drucilla, Neil, Olivia, Nathan, Malcolm and the characters that were their families and friends/affairs were integral to the show, and were as popular as the white characters(especially Drucilla).  It gave them an added audience of loyal viewers.  They were not treated as disposable, they interacted with other cast members and had interesting lives/stories. And outside of Hilary, they have been increasingly and incredibly marginalized ever since.  It’s hard to watch the gold standard fall so far.  Especially when it is eroding them a part of their audience.

 

The complaints are valid.  Almost all these shows had black characters that were at least there like Y&R does now.  You would see them and they would be supporting and rarely the “A” storyline. But now this is how Y&R treats them, and the other shows just got rid of most of them.  That’s a huge problem that should be addressed.

 

 

 

 

[Vee]

 

That's nice. We all ain't you.

 

 

Why are you bringing up Generations to defend issues with Y&R in 2019? That's 30 years ago.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Vee