Soaps By Remote

So You Think You Can Make A Casting Announcement

I haven't returned to watching soaps yet - crazy-busy work and life continue, though in a minor miracle September was the first (and last) month this year in which I did not get on a plane - but I have been keeping an eye on the blogs and the news.

And boy, has there been some news.

Is it just me or did this last week seem a lot like an ever rolling game of one-upmanship in the casting announcement stakes?  With the one man of the one-upmanship being Brian Frons? With a little help from Brad Bell seeming to suddenly be taking things seriously with that Emmy in hand?*

In a general approximation of chronological order we have:

- finally the confirmation that Emmy Winner Gina Tognoni is in fact returning to OLTL as Kelly Cramer, which can only be a good thing.

- the bittersweet news of Greg Vaughan's departure from General Hospital to make room for a returning Jonathan Jackson as Lucky.  On the one hand I feel really bad for Vaughan, who has been Lucky for as long as Jackson and who I think grew a lot in the role, and got generally treated like crap.  Also, he's very pretty.  On the other hand, I don't see how - even in the hands of the current regime - Jackson's return can be anything but a really good idea.  Good for a better focus on the Spencers, good for generally shafted characters like Liz and Nikolas, generally just all around good.

- the announcement of who of the AMC cast is going with the show to LA.  Here there were in fact almost no surprises.  As expected Thorsten Kaye and Alicia Minshew said no - though the attempt of the press release to imply Minshew hadn't made up her mind and would just be on maternity leave was somewhat transparent - and almost everyone else said yes.  I'm guessing the new budget has a much larger travel line item and that the new production model will almost certainly make substantial use of GH's block taping method, but really, was there anything here that was a surprise? Even down to Chrishell Stause moving to LA and continuing on the show but without a contract lined up with what had been rumoured for months.

- much more of a surprise was that Sarah Brown's already announced departure from GH was in favour of a new role on B&B.  Is it just me or does all the jabbing at B&B's horrible acting appear to have been heard? Has the Emmy made Brad Bell etc pay attention to the fact that they should be making the show less incestuous and have more actors who can rise to the level of Susan Flannery and Katherine Kelly Lang, rather than fall to the level of the others?  First they lure Rick Hearst back, and now Sarah Brown?  Please tell me that is not a coincidence and they are going to make use of some of their spectacular chemistry so wasted on GH?

- I think they decided to replace that girl who 'plays' Colby on AMC.

- finally, in what I'm sure everyone would have taken to be an April Fools joke had it appeared earlier in the year, it was announced that James Franco would be joining GH for a short block-taped run for November sweeps.  I could only call that unexpected.  Frankly, I don't yet know what to make of it, and if, as reported, he approached them, I can only hope the writers can deliver something interesting.  And by that I don't mean a mob war (just in case you weren't sure).

I guess the question Mr Frons would like to know is whether this will get me back to watching GH in particular, which I haven't been near in over a year.  Answer: not immediately.  I'll keep an eye on what the story spoilers are to see if it's vaguely interesting, but at the moment it's not enough to be dragging me back to the TV.  But I'll keep watching the news.

And I'm fairly confident that there won't be a week of casting news to top this one perhaps ever.

And congrats to Daytime Confidential for their various scoops.  You guys don't get enough credit.

*The cynic in me can't help but wonder if all this was timed to coincide with Crystal Chappell's stabby return to Days (I may have glanced at You Tube) and the increased Venice publicity.

Soap Mysteries

So, Days, what are they thinking?

I know that we’re talking about an ever-changing set of behind-the-scenes players other than that Corday guy, but I’ve decided that figuring out what Days casting and story strategy is may well be impossible.

Let’s look at what we know irrefutably:  Days got renewed for a relatively short period of time with a much reduced budget.  

As viewers, I think that no matter how much we may like certain characters, we understand that means changes and cuts we may not like, but can ultimately accept.  Those cuts were most noticeable with Days letting, over a period, 7 veteran actors/characters go.  John and Marlena, who I am on record as believing were played out anyway, Steve and Kayla who never really got the return story they (and we) deserved, Tony and Anna who were in a similar boat to Steve and Kayla but got a more respectful exit than the other four put together, and, earlier, Adrienne, who was never really used.

Okay, we don’t like it necessarily, but we get it.

At the other end of the spectrum, they finally, finally, developed their 30-something set, introducing some new and recast characters and moving it to a group as opposed to just a trio. But they then had the previously strong early-20s set decimated thanks, mainly, to the call of prime time.  Sure, Nick was sent off by choice, but Blake Berris was already booking prime time gigs when that happened, and Rachel Melvin and Darin Brooks have followed.

So Days casts a new “Horton”, and then, in stark contrast to their behaviour over the last six-odd months, goes on a veteran casting spree.

First, Crystal Chappell as Carly Manning.  Which I, for the most part, totally get.  She’s one of the best actresses in daytime and currently part of the most buzz-worthy couple in daytime on a soap that’s already cancelled.  Go for it.

Now, Wally Kurth as Justin Kiriakis.  I love Wally.  I wish he was still being used extensively as Ned Ashton on GH for any number of reasons.  But despite the resurgence of the Kiriakis family, isn’t the return of Justin now just the MOST FRUSTRATING THING EVER?

See all those comments above about Adrienne and Steve and Kayla, aka Justin’s family?  Not to mention all of those comments when Adrienne was last around about where the hell Justin and their four boys were given that Kurth was already dumped to recurring status over at GH by then?

When Adrienne last appeared is was established that she and Justin were still married, so now are we just going to have the reverse, with Justin present and Adrienne and the boys absent?  Will he take over management of the Cheatin’ Heart?  Or will they pull Judi Evans back from selling cemetery plots?

Either way, though, what’s the point now when Adrienne’s family, aside from Stephanie, is gone with and without explanation?  And do we really think they can write for Adrienne now when they couldn’t before?  Will Justin be back to do anything other than spar with Phillip and Bo about an inheritance Justin himself gave up 20-odd years ago?

To summarise, I’m pleased Wally Kurth is back, but I have no idea what the powers that be are actually thinking, if anything.

And I do really, really hope they surprise me enough to get me watching again.  Because although they seem to be making the right casting moves in terms of the actors, unless they’re going to deliver me story I’m interested in they’re not going to get me back.

Come on Days, pull a Y&R

 So, Crystal Chappell is returning to Days as Dr Carly Katerina Von Leuschner Manning.

My first response is, of course, a big yay! for Days bringing back one of the best actresses in daytime.  And a character I liked.  And breaking their no one over 40 rule.  

My second response is déjà vu, going back to this post.  Not that you need to be bothered reading that post, because essentially what is was about was a few questions on Y&R bringing back Tricia Cast as Nina.  I was concerned that Nina was no longer – at the time her return was announced – much tied to the canvas due to the rampant retconning that had taken place during her absence, and therefore what was the point of her return unless they were about to undo some or all of those retcons?

The answer, fabulously, was “all”.  Jill is once again not Katherine’s daughter, Cane is not Jill’s son, and Nina and Phillip Chancellor IV are suddenly tied right back to the canvas.  All without the need to bring back Cricket.

With Days bringing back Carly I have some similar questions.  Of all the people she was involved with, the only one really still around is Bo.  Now, sure, that’s the most important one, and Carly was involved with both Peter Reckell’s and Robert Kelker-Kelly’s versions of Bo, so there’s not a complete detachment there.  But what about everyone else?  There’s no best friend Jennifer, there’s no brother Frankie, there’s no Shawn-Douglas, there are no Alamains whatsoever, not even not-quite-sorta Alamain John.  

So, does Days just bring Carly back with some lame/non-existent/a la Adrienne off screen explanation for where Lawrence and Nicholas are and throw her straight into an, admittedly potentially fabulous, triangle with Bo and Hope?  Or do they take a leaf out of Y&R’s book and use her return to do some fabulous things with the people she was involved with back in the day?  Like, we could only hope, Louise Sorel’s Vivian Alamain.  Or bringing on someone as Nicky who can mix it with the younger set who, after all, he’s connected with but not at all related to.

And one assumes that Crystal Chappell’s real life hubby Michael “Lawrence Alamain” Sabatino is coming back to LA with her. Of course, it’s just a pity that Steve isn’t around anymore, given that Lawrence is the one who was actually responsible for faking his death…  But that’s the stuff of about five other posts.

So, Days, great casting coup, but now let’s really see if you can step up to the plate and create something that will make me tune back in.

On a semi-related, small soap world note, I’m also thrilled to see that Lynn “Lucy Coe” Herring has joined the As the World Turns cast.  Obviously, it’s not a show I watch, but anything getting her back on the air, not to mention in some way reunited with Jon “Kevin Collins” Lindstrom, is a great thing.  And related to this post as little Nicky Alamain was of course responsible for off-ing Lynn Herring’s Days character, Lizette Whatsherface, when Herring took a brief early 90s break from GH.  Which she thankfully rapidly went back too.  Otherwise we would never have had Sigmund the Duck, which would have been a huge shame.  Oh dear, now that’s got me remembering the days when GH had several pets as featured characters.  That were far more entertaining than many of the characters they have now. Sigh.

I'm getting dizzy again

So, Soap Digest is reporting the following turns of the casting roundabout:

GH:  Rick Hearst and Megan Ward to recurring

Y&R:  Nia Peeples out, Jess Walton staying

OLTL:  Kathy Brier and Michael Stack going

Add to that the news that Tricia Cast is returning “full time” to Y&R, and all the rumours swirling about the other potential cast drops at GH, not to mention the previous mass exodus of over 40s at Days, and I’m finding it hard to keep up.

Let’s start at Y&R.  It would appear from all the leaks and gossip floating around in the last few days that Jess Walton and the powers that be reached an impasse in negotiations which led to a walk-out and a casting call for the role.  Obviously someone eventually blinked.  I do a lot of these negotiations from the producer’s side of things in my day (and night, and weekend) job, and in my experience there’s usually a little blinking on each side and things wind up in the middle.  Regardless of what happened, I’m very pleased to see Walton continuing on as Jill.

The departure of Nia Peeples is hardly a surprise.  When I returned to watching the show recently I registered exactly the following in relation to her character: “Huh, it’s that girl from Fame”, “Neil got married again?”, “Snore”. 

As for the return of Tricia Cast, that can only be a good thing, but does have me scratching my head a little.  I was watching when Nina first joined the show, and I already knew Tricia Cast as the girl who had accused Ted Capwell of rape on

Santa Barbara. As I recall Nina was one of those fabulously evolving characters who went from trouble-making little bitch to heroine over time.  My concern is where she’ll fit into the canvas now.  Her original peer group no longer exists on the show and there’s been no real replacement of them age-wise, so it’s really just Victoria with whom she has peer group history, and her family ties to Jill and Katherine have been severed by a retcon and a deSORASing.  Which is not to say that she doesn’t still have great emotional ties, and with that whole family being thrown up in the air and tossed around again, there’s no doubt room for story.  But aside from the potential for some great talky scenes, actual story to drive those scenes isn’t immediately suggesting itself to me.  But perhaps I spent too long away from the show.   

Moving on to OLTL, I’m a little torn on this.  I really like Marcie – and Kathy Brier – but I can see they’re not doing a lot with her other than waiting for the baby-switch to play out.  I also gather that this departure may not have been a one-way decision.  And if she goes then obviously there’s no necessity for Michael Stack to stay around as the bland but inoffensive Michael, notwithstanding all the bad news he’s been delivering lately.  Also, the cast at OLTL is huge at the moment, and getting bigger this week, so some further culling is obviously in order.  So this isn’t exactly a massive shock, though I’ll be even more interested to see how the resolution of the baby-switch plays out now.

Then there’s GH.  Which continues to be absolutely incomprehensible to me on virtually every single front.  I certainly can’t watch it at the moment.  To harp on a point I have harped on many times around here; GH for me has been for years the land of missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential.  On the small stuff and on the big stuff.  And the decisions about Rick Hearst and Megan Ward (and any other similar decisions that have been mooted in recent weeks) are perfect examples of GH’s ability pile missed opportunities on unfulfilled potential and then multiply them exponentially. 

Let’s start with Megan Ward.  Obviously this has been coming for some time, since they gutted her character easily a year ago.  Kate started out, like so many things at GH, with so much promise.  And for a period there she delivered.  Sure, she was a movie rip-off, but she was a different kind of character for the show and in the early days she made Sonny interesting, and challenged him, as opposed to every other woman in his life this decade.  She also had great chemistry with Jax and could have had with any number of other people.  But sure enough, she was left in Sonny’s orbit slightly to long and became a Sonny-apologising wet blanket, and boring as hell.  And then Sarah Brown showed up, and it was only a matter of time as to when Kate would cease to have any relevance whatsoever.  The final two nails in her coffin being the complete and utter fouling up of whatever the hell they had ‘planned’ for Dante – the extent of which was obviously just Guza yelling into the writers’ room “hey, Sonny needs another kid!” - and the reuniting of Carly and Jax.  So GH takes an interesting, strong, female (gee, is that just a coincidence?) character played by a really good actress with a solid prime time career behind her, and in less than two years renders her so useless and boring that I couldn’t really care that she’s been moved to recurring.  Except, of course, for all those missed opportunities and all that wasted potential.

Last but definitely not least, we have Rick Hearst (ha, accidently typed his name as “Heart” on the first attempt).  Who, by all reports, just signed a new contract and is now bumped.  This is a multi-Emmy winning (and deservedly so, which can’t be said of everyone) actor, who has managed to roll with every single personality transplant they have given his character over the years and still make it work, and who has absolutely smoking chemistry with one of the powers that be’s designated leading ladies, and they’re bumping him to recurring?  Who can do drama and comedy and be a villain and a romantic lead, often all at once?  Who has links all over the canvas no matter how badly his character his been treated (by the writers)?  Who looks really hot in a sweater?  Recurring?  Really?

Times are tough, budgets are tight?  That's when you ditch the chaff and write for this guy, not when you bump him to recurring.

On the upside, of course, is that Hearst is a big soap name and I think could walk into, or walk back into, any other show and steal it away in a heartbeat.  Which I hope he does. 

Run, Rick.  Don’t walk, run.

Sigh: more firings at Days

Well, there we go.  What many expected was around the corner has come to pass and Stephen Nichols and Mary Beth Evans have been let go from Days, joining Thaao Penghlis, Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall.

It can hardly be regarded as a shocking development given their distinct lack of screen time for a long time and, let's face it, an overall return for Steve and Kayla that was mishandled by multiple regimes to different degrees.

Now if only they can be snapped up - separately or together, but I'd prefer separately - by another show.

If only GH didn't suck to hard I'd be beginning the campaign for the return of Stefan Cassadine from the dead right now.

Quick thoughts.  Maybe more to follow later.

Definitely That Time of Year

I still haven’t had time to catch up on my soap watching – I hate the end of year work rush; as much work as possible combined with as many functions as possible in the smallest space of time – but I have had time to catch up on my soap rage.

On the one hand I certainly don’t understand the powers that be at General Hospital.  On the other hand I’m fairly certain that the powers that be at General Hospital don’t understand soaps.

I mean, come on, daytime soaps have been around for how long?  70 years?  A few things have become fairly obvious over that period of time:

1.    When an actor leaves a soap there is a very significant chance that they will come back sooner or later.  No matter the skill or talent of the actor, there just aren’t that many jobs out there, and a soap is regular work.  Also, the longer they’ve been on the soap and the more established their character the more likely they are to return.  

2.    Partly due to the long-term labyrinthine nature of soap story telling, and partly due to point 1 above, there is a wealth of story to tell in characters returning, whether from the “dead” or from Canada or from wherever the hell.

3.    For reasons 1 and 2, it’s pretty wise not to go killing off characters you like or characters played by actors you like in ways that make it impossible for them to return with any semblance of reality, even allowing for the usual soap suspension of disbelief.  (This rule obviously didn’t apply to the late James “Jack Deveraux Organ Transplant” Reilly, of course.)

Which brings me to the obvious subject of Natalia Livingston’s now confirmed return to General Hospital.

This time last year I, and many others, were in the midst of another rant of the “I don’t get GH, and GH doesn’t get soaps” variety as the show killed off two young female legacy characters, in ways they couldn’t ever be brought back, one after the other in a depressing, ridiculous pre-Christmas strangulation-a-thon.  The killings of both Emily and Georgie seemed pointless at the time, and seem even more so now.  After all, what came out of them?  A stupid ghost-brain tumour story for Nikolas and a couple of scenes with Felicia.  A couple of funerals and some post-funeral sex.  Nothing substantive for either the Quartermaines or the Scorpio-Joneses.

Blah.

Now, a scant 7 or 8 months after Natalia Livingston eventually left the show, she’s back.  

Speaking for myself, I don’t see how anyone – other than the powers that be, apparently – could be surprised by that.  I was never in love with Livingston as an actress, and I have no idea how she wound up with that Emmy, but I never minded her as Emily.  I also never thought that a big post-GH career was in store for her (unlike, hopefully, Lindze Letherman).  To me it seemed, and seems, obvious that a return could be in store.

So why on earth, taking into account points 1-3 above in general and this actress in particular, would you ever, ever kill off a legacy character like Emily Bowen Quartermaine for no story benefit when you’re just going to have to create a whole new character for the actress to play when she comes back sooner rather than later?  

As I said at the top, I don’t understand and I really don’t think they understand.

It’s so frustrating.  You lose a legacy character for no reason, now to have the actress return in another role, on a show where you already have an actress playing a different role to the one which made her famous (for far more understandable reasons, I concede).  And that’s even before you add the Jerry Jacks debacle and the Alan as ghost pointlessness on top.

Ah well, I guess that amidst all these unfathomable decisions, at least GH can be relied upon to make me mad at Christmas.  

Oh, and, the person I really feel for in all this is Becky Herbst.  Because with Jason/Liz – sure to be the subject of a forthcoming post entitled “The Most Thwarted Couple Ever in Daytime?” – side-lined for something that makes no sense, and Natalia returning, I’m guessing she’s going to go back to being on once every three weeks with no story.   I haven’t checked recently, but have they pulled her off the Official GH site masthead yet?  Only a matter of time, I’m sure.

This is so much fun

Ah, Night Shift, you really are giving Guza & Company the finger in the most delightful way, aren’t you?

I have a proper post about recent episodes coming up shortly, but I just wanted to comment on the ongoing casting news in the larger context first.

Sure, NS Season 2 isn’t perfect and I have some issues with it – many of which could be fixed in the blink of an eye with the return of Original Recipe Leo, or at least Original Recipe Leo’s Personality – but really it’s done a good, enjoyable job of being fun soap mixed up with medical and personal drama.

One may recall that before the show started I was cautiously optimistic due to the promised presence of Robin and Patrick front and centre, the Hospital, Jagger, Robert, new writers and producers, and no mob.  Obviously the show has delivered all of that which puts it streets ahead of regular GH without even having to break a sweat.

But on top of that and the diverse cast, and the existence of a sense of humour, and the symbolic putting of the horrid Season 1 in a box by killing off Dr Ford in the opening minutes of the first episode, they’ve gone and pushed it right on over the top by including such generally unheard of things such as (a) proper use of history; (b) actual use of vets; and (c) placing characters in stories they should be in.

Therefore Monica, you know, the doctor, appears at the Hospital.  Who’d have thunk it was possible?

And in an even more stunning development, when Robert is in the hospital battling cancer he does/will in fact get visits from such people as his brother, his ex-wife, his best friend, and, in a gloriously fun development, his close friends Sean and Tiffany who left town 15 odd years ago.  I’m pretty sure Jack Wagner couldn’t make a cameo, but in the absence of that you couldn’t get any closer to getting the whole gang back together. 

And this from the spin-off of the show that couldn’t even manage a single scene between Laura and Robert the last time they were both in town and conscious at the same time.

I really am starting to get a sense of the Night Shift crew gleefully and deliberately flipping off the Day Shift crew and all their notions of training an audience and romance during wartime and the only vets allowed on air are Luke (part-time) and Sonny.  And even if they’re not actually doing that, they’re providing me with plenty of ammunition to do it on their behalf.

I don’t expect all of this to last, and don’t even advocate everyone from the 80s coming back to the main show in the long term in an all-out nostalgia-fest because things do have to evolve and be refreshed – not that swapping 70% of the current characters and 90% of the current stories for the 80s gang wouldn’t be outright refreshing right now – but this is fun.  And, I suspect, will be more than a poignant too. 

What more could one want from a soap?

Frankly, all they need now is for Bobbie to show up – in the Hospital(!) - and have an awkward conversation or two with Tiff about their children and I might actually have to shell out for the Season 2 DVDs.

Oddly Enough, Time Doesn't Stand Still

This post is solely a demonstration that:

(a) I am old;
(b) Things do not freeze in time the way I sometimes think/wish they do/would; and
(c) I didn’t pay that much attention in the first place.

The news that Matt Borlenghi has been cast on Days as Salem’s Mayor had me going “but that’s little Brian from All My Children, he can’t be Mayor of anything!”

I’ve been an irregular viewer of AMC at best, but back in the early 90s when I was at college in LA I watched pretty regularly. (My memories of college in LA are mainly (a) lots of drinking; (b) lots of movies; (c) lots of TV; and (d) creative writing class. You will note that none of those things is studying. You will also note however that all of these things are actually relevant to my grown up life, and three of them to my career even.)

Anyway, this was during the period with Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kendall – being fabulous but not at all convincing as a 20-something or however old she was meant to be – and of the Tad/Ted Orsini stuff. Which means that for part of that period Dixie was married to Matt Borlenghi’s Brian. Little Brian, Hayley’s boyfriend, who wasn’t exactly meant to be old and who I perceived as extremely young, especially to be married to the already multiple-married Dixie.

And therefore he cannot be the Mayor of Salem.

Except of course that:

(a) that was 15-16 years ago;
(b) time does not stand still; and
(c) the actor is now in his forties, making him both old enough to be Mayor and half a decade older than me which I didn’t realise 15-16 years ago. It also makes him older than Cady McClain. Maybe I was just so distracted by the obvious age difference between SMG and her character that I couldn’t pay attention to anyone else’s age differences.

So, there you go.

What? I never said this was going to be a profound post.

How do I love thee? Let me count the wAys.

Valentini & Co at One Life to Live are really trying to turn me into a dizzy fangirl worshipping everything they do like a cult member, aren’t they?

I mean, it’s not enough that they deliver good dialogue, drama, humour and stories across all the generations, now they go and cast A Martinez too.

Santa Barbara remains one of my favourite ever soaps, and some unnecessary story turns towards the end there aside, Cruz was always one of my favourite characters. Principally because Martinez did such a great job and is one of those perfect soap actors who would have chemistry with a rock (if not Eileen Davidson).

Plus, the wounded GH viewer in me can’t help but thinking “ha, now this is a way for another soap to show GH how it’s done”, this time in the “don’t waste great talent in crappo mob-tastic stories” category.

(via We Love Soaps.)

Meh

See, powers that be, you have made GH so rotten that I can't even build up any enthusiasm for the just announced brief return of Genie Francis next month. And I love her.

In fact, the sole excitement I garnered from this news was that it came via an Associated Press report and was deemed important enough to make the Yahoo front page. Because some soaps news is still big enough to make the regular media.

And yet, to the surprise of no one, the idiots in charge can't seem to understand the power they could harness with this and would rather have Laura back for a tiny stint to, I would imagine, play into the aftermath of her daughter having killed someone turned unnecessarily psycho, while she's otherwise immersed in some mock-gothic mob-related "drama".

As I said, meh.