DC #367: CBS & DAYS Cinderfella

Jamey had in tears regarding directing Roger Howarth and Marie Wilson.

The worst part of The Hardy Boys mystery is how stupid TPTB are making all the characters in the story except for Noah and Matt. Luke, Casey, Jade, Alison... dumb & self-defeating. And I agree with Mike that ATWT is extremely repetitive. There is no enthusiasm in the stories and I despise the breakneck speed of the stories.

Not to mention, it is Black History Month. We got some Jade, 1 day of Derek but it was still a miss with the minorities characters. Or it could be that I am tired of seeing Jade be the whipping post or sexual distraction while Alison's milkshake makes guys fight over her.

I want Luke to throw Jade and Alison down some stairs like he did his Mama. Only, I want the bottom of the stairwell to transform into a black hole that they fall into.

And take Paul and Meg with them, LOL.

Jamey I almost fall off the treadmill laughing so hard when your talking about Meg and Paul and of course the hardy boys and the B&B. Thanks for making my run so much more enjoyable.

I used to hurry home to watch atwt and now I can hardly stand it. I hope they do something soon.

Thanks jamey for giving Guiding Light another chance..it has been GREAT lately. The real test will be if they keep the good writing up or fall back again...

Mike, you're so on the money about B&B - Rick actually said that he'd designed his own army uniform when he enrolled. WTF?! My show is a pile of crap right now

Jamey, Luke and Melodie keep it up  - best soap podcast out there

GossipGirl, come and get your royalties! Dane Cook... er, Jamey, stole your lips joke!

I actually had to register so I could tell you how great and funny this podcast was! Jamey had me in tears with his rants--but they were, of course, on the mark.
Lovin' Y&R, gave up on B&B a long time ago--about the time I realized Ron Moss couldn't act.
ATWT is frustrating because it still could be such a great soap if they would stop trying to cram it into 60-minute story arcs. Good actors and so much history to mine that is going to waste.

Keep up the great work on the podcasts!

Always a great podcast!! Loved the MW/Howarths stuff, Jamie! Thanks Jamie for giving GL credit where it devserved.

I just want to know where I can get a life like Mike's. He watches soaps and goes on frequent vacations to exotic locales. Has Mike earned a "luke spencer" contract from DC?

The reason why I don't think this murder/drug deal mystery isn't working is that we didn't see enough of Luke and Reg's friendship onscreen to understand why he's so upset. The basic idea of the story isn't that bad, the execution just sucks. What they should've done was bringing back Reg sooner than the episode he died. After the sex and Brian's exit, Nuke pretty much disappeared from our screens. It was the perfect time to reintroduce this Luke/Reg friendship. The show could tease a triangle between the three guys, before they killed Reg off. If we had seen that friendship more in combination with what Luke said this week (that it could've been him since he was addicted to alcohol) I think we would understand Luke more in this story. I'm really loving Noah right now. His snarky comments this week were hilarious.

BTW, I was pleasantly surprised by yesterday's show. Peg was on and not my favorites and I still enjoyed it. Highlight of the episode was Carly and Barbara. I was so happy they gave Barbara something else to do than being a supporter of Paul. CZP and Maura were great in that scene. Another highlight was Katie/Vienna. Both actresses were great in that scene. It showed us that Ewa da Cruz can play more than just a sex kitten. I didn't feel like they were cramming 20 shows in 1 hour and they even ended with a cliffhanger (and thumbs up to the one who made the previews for not giving away who it was even though we all know it's Lucy LOL).

We debated this so much last week, that I'm kind of burned out on the whole Thaao interview topic now. But I can't resist saying one last post.

Chloe praying to God to figure out which man she should be reeks of the stuff Reilly would write for Kristen and Marlena in the 90s. Bo's visions reeks of Celeste Perrault, a character Reilly invented.

So if you're talking about Reilly's influence (from Thaao's comment about the James E Reillys of the world ruining daytime), then that influence is definitely still there on DAYS...and ruining it IMO. I don't watch other soaps so I can't generalize about daytime as a whole. Is Reilly to blame for bad copycat writers? No. But the influence is definitely there.

I want to bring up the Thaao/JER comment one more time. I agree with Jamey's comments 100%, but again - these types of things - time travel, possessions, reincarnations, etc. were not sole creations or inventions by JER for daytime television. If Thaao wants to put the blame on someone, then lay the blame at the feet of Dan Curtis, creator and producer of..."Dark Shadows"!! Almost 30 years BEFORE JER started "possession" on DOOL, Curtis was doing all of that, and much more, from 1966 to 1971, and DS was at one time a ratings *phenomenon*. And I write this as a huge fan of DS...

I haven't listened to the show yet, but just wanted to comment. Zurge, I'm glad you brought up Dark Shadows. I don't think it influenced all of daytime, but surely it must have been an influence on JER, especially DS's Phoenix storyline I've been watching the show on DVD and when the Laura Collins/Phoenix story started playing out I thought "Ah, the origins of Stefano!" lol. JER didn't create Stefano, but he certainly played up the Phoenix aspect of his character. And of course there was the supernatural/Goth stuff he did on DAYS, and even giving Eileen Davidson several different roles to play was in the DS tradition. And then of course there's Passions (supernatural stories set in a New England town - yeah, very DS) I wonder if JER ever mentioned DS in interviews?

I want to bring up the Thaao/JER comment one more time. I agree with Jamey's comments 100%, but again - these types of things - time travel, possessions, reincarnations, etc. were not sole creations or inventions by JER for daytime television. If Thaao wants to put the blame on someone, then lay the blame at the feet of Dan Curtis, creator and producer of..."Dark Shadows"!! Almost 30 years BEFORE JER started "possession" on DOOL, Curtis was doing all of that, and much more, from 1966 to 1971, and DS was at one time a ratings *phenomenon*. And I write this as a huge fan of DS...
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I loved DARK SHADOWS too, although I've only seen a couple of the seasons. The thing is that show was set up to be gothic and supernatural from the beginning and didn't pretend to be anything else. So I wouldn't blame Dan Curtis. Reilly took a popular soap and tried to rearrange it to his own vision, sometimes to great success and sometimes to crashing failure. I love gothic/supernatural/horror stories. My issue with Reilly wasn't over the stuff like "Possession" that he did well. It was over all of the boring rehash that he did badly...and the way he would destroy popular characters for his own personal reasons.

I agree with Belinda about the Luke/Ethan storyline. Luke deserves better and should've been involved in the toxin story like he was with the Metro Court hostage. Anthony Geary deserves better.

I only listened to part of this ep, but I've got a question. I don't understand the statement that "We all know NBC has wanted to get out of the soap industry for 25 years." Have they? I mean, I know they don't seem committed to DAYS (though they haven't cancelled it yet, which must mean *something*). But in the last 25 years, NBC created and aired Generations, Sunset Beach, and Passions. Yeah, they were all failures, but I think NBC was trying to stay in the soap game for all these years...

these types of things - time travel, possessions, reincarnations, etc. were not sole creations or inventions by JER for daytime television.

and I think you're missing the point of what was said in the interview. Thaao wasn't complaining from what I could see that writers chose to write sci-fi, but that the writers chose to make it cartoonish. There is quite a difference. From what I've heard of the podcast and other conversations on this topic, that is the what is being ignored. Sure other previous writers wrote camp, but that didn't mean they ignored character development or ruined the drama by writing characters with all the depth of toilet paper.

I only listened to part of this ep, but I've got a question. I don't understand the statement that "We all know NBC

has wanted to get out of the soap industry for 25 years." Have they? I mean, I know they don't seem committed to DAYS (though they haven't cancelled it yet, which must mean *something*). But in the last 25 years, NBC created and aired Generations, Sunset Beach, and Passions. Yeah, they were all failures, but I think NBC was trying to stay in the soap game for all these years...
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But look how long they gave those show? Generations was on what, two years? Sunset Beach never saw its third anniversary and Santa Barbara, while low-rated in the U.S. was a critical success and an international hit, yet they canned it after 8 short seasons. Passions grabbed the tweens which kept it on NBC for a while, and it got greenlit because of Reilly's success at Days.