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.

I offer you some Beefcake with this rant

Why yes, my first post in some time, and my first post about Days in an age, is going to be a rant.  

And what’s more a rant about an obscure largely historical point rather than anything actually on the show yet.  So, you’ve been warned.

So Days, which has lost/thrown out/is losing most of its under-25 characters – to go with having thrown out half of its over-45 characters – has cast a new Horton lad for the beginning of summer.  

We all know how that’s going to turn out.  

(By the by, isn’t it kind of amusing that the safest characters on the show seem to be the over-70s and the 30-somethings, the two demographics that for all intents and purposes didn’t even exist on this show two years ago?)

Anyway, we will now welcome Nathan Horton.  A character who, I suspect, we will be expected to enjoy due to his (a) supposed Horton-ness; and (b) abs.  Not necessarily in that order.

Well I am sorry, bringing on Hortons may be a good idea and abs may be good for many things, but neither are going to distract me (for long) from the fact that this is A MADE UP CHARACTER.

For Nathan Horton is apparently supposed to be the child of classic 80s pairing Pete and Melissa.  

I am sorry, but no.  

Nathan could certainly be Pete’s child – although he’d need to be named Charlie and there wouldn’t be any point anyway – or he could be Melissa’s child from after she left town.  In fact bringing on a child of Melissa’s, a grandchild for Mickey and Maggie, would be a sterling idea (memories of their attempt at Jeremy Horton notwithstanding).  

However, the idea of him being Pete and Melissa’s child is just stupid.  It reeks of “let’s flip through the Days history book of couples that got the patented Days supercouple treatment and bring on their child”.  Without ever looking to see if (a) they actually had a child on-screen; or (b) it was in any way likely that they had one off-screen.

Pete and Melissa certainly got the patented Days supercouple treatment.  They were the teen/young couple of the moment when I first started watching – after Hope and Bo, before Jennifer and Frankie - so 12 year-old me had quite an affinity with them.  Good rich Horton girl, boy from the wrong side of the tracks.  Sound familiar?  Runaway teens, drug-related misunderstandings, gangs!, kidnappings, major obstacles in the form of him having to marry the other girl he got pregnant, (adulterous) summer on the run, big wedding.  

Of course, their story did have a couple of unique elements.  Most importantly his secret career as a stripper at Beefcakes, and the fact that they ultimately broke up because she left him for Lars, possibly the wettest catalyst for permanently breaking up a major couple in the history of this show.  

But still, Lars and his leg warmers are important in all of this, because he’s part proof of why Pete and Melissa having a child makes no sense.  Melissa and Pete broke up over Lars and Pete left town to go be with Ivy and their kid.  Melissa stayed in town for, small break for recasting aside, the best part of 6 years afterwards and then made various other appearances for family events over the ensuing years.  She had a series of boring, bad or downright horrid relationships: Lars, in-love-with-Kayla Jack, Emilio, Brian Schofield (he was the in a band with Keanu brother, not the John McBain brother, right?).  She was ultimately responsible for knocking off Emilio and his mullet.

She morphed from a “dancer” into a “singer” and moved to Nashville where she was later reported, I believe, to have married a doctor.  Which was, I assume, an in-joke about the fact that the original and returning Melissa, Lisa Trusel, was/is in real life married to the actor who after leaving Days played Dr Tom Hardy on GH, a part also played of course by Matt “Jack Deveraux” Ashford because soaps are a small world.  But even if that was a to-be-ignored-later in-joke, it doesn’t mean that they can just say she moved to Nashville and married Pete, because if she had she would have said something!  You don’t have a character come back occasionally for funerals and christenings and not throw the audience that kind of bone.

Therefore, I say, this Nathan person should not have been defined as Pete and Melissa’s child.  Nope.  Just wrong.  Melissa’s child, fine.  Pete and Melissa’s child, not fine.

And that’s even before I get on to the fact that no matter the parental permutation, his surname shouldn’t be Horton.  Pete’s surname was Jannings.  Melissa married “Dr Unspoken Surname” but I’m willing to bet that unspoken surname wasn’t Horton.  And Melissa herself may have been Mickey and Maggie’s adopted daughter, but she was always Melissa Anderson, not Melissa Horton.   The slapping on of the Horton surname just seems to be further proof of the plucked out of a barely informed someone’s arse nature of this character.  When Nick was introduced they didn’t feel the need to give him a Horton surname to make him part of the family, so why the need now?  

Ahhhh.  I feel better now. (And perfectly content with dwelling on the past. I am a child of 80s Days, and I am proud. And fond of parentheses.)

And to make you feel better too, relive the most important part of the story, Pete the Beefcake (also featuring Calliope):

Courtesy classicdaysof80s, which you should absolutely check out not only for a lot of Melissa and Pete’s history, but lots of the rest of the show’s classic storylines.

Death by .....?

I'm back from my unintended but lengthening hiatus with a little poll.  The not at all unexpected news that Rick Hearst is leaving General Hospital has now been released and of course ABC has promised that Ric Lansing's write-off will be exciting etc, etc.

We all know what that means though, don't we?

So, yes, it's almost certain that of course he'll die (because no one leaves this show any other way), and chances are it will be heroic Jason offing him for some noble cause during a music-laden montage of violence (because that's just what happens on this show). 

The only question for me, therefore, is the set-up.  What do you think?

poll by twiigs.com

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.

Will this inspire actual creativity?

So, if the the recent news (or "news" as the case may be) in relation to All My Children's cast changes comes to pass, I can't help but thinking it may actually force the writers to do something creative.

We know that Babe is departing in some form or another in the coming weeks.  Now news indicates that Alicia Minshew has been given several (thoroughly well-earned) months off to get married, so pre-taped scenes or no pre-taped scenes that would also have Kendall off canvas for a slab of time.  Then there's the very realistic (and understandable) possibility that Rebecca Budig will not extend her contract beyond a year, so goodbye Greenlee as well.

Therefore the show's three leading female characters under 40 for the last several years - for better or worse - will be gone from the canvas for a lengthy period.

Add to that calculation that the show has systematically over the last couple of years also killed off or sent away several other women in this age range (or sent them bat-shit over Ryan) - Dixie, Simone, Erin, Di, Julia, etc - and suddenly there's a big hole mid-show.

Sure, into that gap will be coming Bianca and Reese (that's the name of Tamara Braun's character, yes?), and recently Taylor has come into the picture as well.  But when Kendall, Greenlee and Babe are replaced by a lesbian couple and someone with a military background, I can't help but think that the writers are actually going to have to start writing something new and interesting for all the characters in this age group, because they won't have the same worn out couples, triangles, quadrangles etc to play with.  And maybe, you know, give Amanda a decent story.

As always, we shall see.

The axe falls again

Several sources are now reporting that Kristen Renton has been let go from Days.

As with most of these things, I’m conflicted.

I liked Morgan and thought she was a good idea because:

(a)  she came on to the canvas organically

(b)  as initially written she broke stereotypes in an interesting way rather than simply for the sake of it

(c)  she was not related to anyone

(d)  she had good chemistry with first Max and then Phillip

I came to like her less and thought she was less of a good idea because:

(a) they took away all her spunk and independence

(b) they wrote her with Phillip in the most boring way possible

Now that she’s going there are other issues and conflicts.

I think the canvas is too crowded at the moment and therefore something has to give somewhere and it’s easiest to cut the character with the least ties to the core families. Therefore, Morgan.

Also when the would-be sextet contains seven people something has to give, and we know it’s not going to be Sami, because she’s Sami, and it’s not going to be Nicole, because Nicole rocks, and it’s not going to be Chloe, because her milkshake brings the boys to the yard.  Therefore, Morgan.

Still, someone unrelated to anyone who could flit back and forth between the late 20s-mid 30s set and the college set is always a big loss on a show as inter-related as Days.

And what now for Phillip?  Back to the never quite realised triangle with Chloe and Lucas, aka his brother?  Part of the general cluster… that also includes Nicole, Sami and EJ?  I could almost get behind them trying him out with Sami actually, although with Alison Sweeney’s pregnancy likely throwing spanners in plotting works, that seems unlikely and she doesn’t need three men fawning over her.  Beyond that we’re left with Stephanie as the only other of-age, unrelated girl in town, and I know some people advocate for that as a great possibility, though I am yet to be convinced.  Maybe he could hook up with Lexie?

Frankly I just hope that this development leads to things actually becoming interesting, because the show’s kind of a slog for me at the moment – not helped, I will readily concede – by the Marlena-heavy recent developments.

So I guess I fall down on the side of Morgan being another wasted opportunity, however much I understand the departure.  And another example of how some behind the scenes continuity might really, really help out about now.

Join in the Chorus

I've been slightly distracted in recent days with birthday celebrations, unpacking half a dozen giant boxes of childhood memories my mother cleared out of her garage and delivered into my living room, and working as we start pre-production on the new season of the series I get to play actual as opposed to imaginary Executive Producer on. Plus watching the Food Channel. A lot.

I do have three quarters of a Night Shift post done, half a OLTL post and the beginnings of a Days post, and I still haven't decided whether I'm going to watch Genie's return. But before I get to those, I have to just add my dumbstruck praise to that of many others at ABC's new promo which includes its soaps with all its other shows.

Everyone else has already noted why this is more likely on ABC as opposed to the other networks - they own the shows - but nevertheless, between this and the rampant if slightly misguided daytime only "celebrity" ad campaign, I really couldn't be more thrilled to see actual, genuine promotion going on.

And if Days can sustain some of its Olympics-related ratings boost...