Nelson that was excellent - so informative, candid, and a wide range of great topics covered. I love Paul right now and so appreciate his dedication to a genre that can't always be easy to work in.
Based on your perception (and off the record conversation) ... Should we hold out any hope for a Victoria Rowell return?! The woman has done herself no favors talking smack about her castmates and what she thinks is wrong with the show. In any other job I wouldn't think sharing your views with the world at large would do bupkiss to help your cause of getting a job. At the same time, Id like to think that MAB and Paul believe that the show is "the star". How do these two worlds meet .... Paul please be the genius that you are and help make it all work!!
Posts: 38 | Location: NY | Registered: June 20, 2009
IT was candid to a point, but where were the tough questions about decisions he's made? About his sexism? racism? About his favoring plot over character? About the mess YR is in right now? About his tenure on SB, and the arrogant way he ended that show? This was the first interview that left me disappointed.
I'll go their with the head writer. Seriously, honestly, Paul does not influence writing at all. He is just a producer. Plus, I wanted him on the record about the industry at large, Irna, and GL. I'll save those q's for Maria very soon.
Originally posted by nbgemini: I'll go their with the head writer. Seriously, honestly, Paul does not influence writing at all. He is just a producer. Plus, I wanted him on the record about the industry at large, Irna, and GL. I'll save those q's for Maria very soon.
I was referring to his tenure on other shows as well. That's why I was not happy about him coming on the show. Most of his work has been extremely sexist. His shows have been mostly white as can be, and what he did at the end of Santa Barbara was unforgivable. I won't even get into his treatment of Louise Sorel on SB because they had a previous relationship. I think it's a cop-out to blame just the writer. Why is he twiddling his thumbs while the writers (not just at YR) are churning out garbage? The fact that he thinks YR is in good shape is scary.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Crystal,
I love Paul Rauch (despite Y&R being absolutely HORRIBLE)
His OLTL was my favorite soap opera ever. OLTL, especially from 1985-86 SHOULD have been nominated for Best Show, and it WOULD have won. The show did win Best Writing. The reemergence of Niki Smith and the return of Andrea Evans in 1985 was some of the best soap opera ever. I enjoyed OLTL all the way through his tenure, Most of 1991 was horrible though until Linda Gottlieb.)
He is wrong about OLTL being at #2 though. OLTL was a solid #3 during most of his tenure. Granted, GH and Y&R would tie often from 88-89, so I guess you could call OLTL #2, but OLTL was generally #3 from 1987-1990. I think it went to #3 during Heaven in 87' and stayed there. And dropped to #4 and #5 sometime in 1990, I think right after Mendorra. 85-86 OLTL was #4 or #5 for the year.
Posts: 149 | Location: Boston, Ma | Registered: February 02, 2008
How does he get credit when the writing is good, but get a free pass when the writing is bad? Nelson, you yourself said that ALL execs need to be called out for the mistakes they made. They need to be held accountable. I did not see that in the interview. If I was able to predict exactly what's happening now it's because I knew what his becoming the EP would do to the show. This is a pattern with him.
Great interview, but I think Y&R, from my limited viewing habits now, isn't as great as many of you on here seem to think it is.
I forgot he was at the helm with the Reva/Josh/Annie storyline, that catupulted GL back to the top five in 98. Too bad the show couldn't have kept Watros and Rauch.
I must be living in the Bizarro universe. If that interview took place a year ago -- when Y&R was a rejuvenated, character-driven masterpiece -- it would have made sense. But to see a dialogue between Nelson and Rauch singing rhapsodic praise about Y&R now when it's a plot-driven, non-sensical mess and where legacy characters are needlessly being killed off one by one makes zero sense. Sorry, no fawning from me.
Not sure exactly what part of the Y&R mess is Paul Rauch's fault, and I'm not familiar with his work on previous soaps, but the Y&R described in this interview is not the Y&R any of us are watching -- or have stopped watching -- today. The show is plot-driven. Characters are being assassinated, figuratively and sometimes literally. Should other soaps copy Y&R? Maybe if they stop before the new year. The majority of Y&R in 2009 has been poor. What show were you two talking about?
"A movie is not good because it arrives at conclusions you share, or bad because it does not. A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it: about the way it considers its subject matter, and about how its real subject may be quite different from the one it seems to provide." - Roger Ebert, from the introduction to "Awake in the Dark" (2006)
Yes, I'm not quite following the Y&R than Nelson and Paul seem to be talking about in this interview, and judging by the reaction from many fans, I don't think many are.
Y&R is not a soap other soaps should model themselves after. It is a plot driven mess with inconsistent characterizations and poorly executed and paced stories.
I guess it's all relative. IMO, Y&R is extremely sexist and racist. Except for Kay, the women are all victims or losers. Moreover the two gay stories were embarrassing & homophobic. There's very little that's watchable right now.
Originally posted by ad-girl: I guess it's all relative. IMO, Y&R is extremely sexist and racist. Except for Kay, the women are all victims or losers. Moreover the two gay stories were embarrassing & homophobic. There's very little that's watchable right now.
Don't forget they claim they weren't telling a "Gay" story. They were telling the story about a sociopath seducing a gay man. They invested no time in developing Rafe. While some claimed his coming out was refreshing for its offhandedness, I knew it was a harbinger of things to come. Rafe's friendship with Colleen was never explored. He was willing to sell out his grandmother for sex with Adam. It was embarrassing to watch. There are no excuses and the "we didn't what the audience to get behind a Rafe and Adam pairing" excuse is pathetic. The Phillip story or lack of story was shocking in its ineptitude. They made it worse by playing the "is Chance gay?" routine. Being gay was reduced to a punch line.
YR is absolute drivel. There are no strong black characters on the show. The show is one big idiot plot. The women are absolute shrews. If this isn't misogyny at its worst, I'd hate to see the depths this writing team can sink to. They kill off a legacy character for no good reason, and I don't buy the "good people die in real life" explanation. When you've spent months writing about a mentally ill woman holding a stuffed cat or a woman shrieking about a dead character and carrying a dead baby in her womb, real world explanations don't apply. This is PASSIONS territory. It's not Eastenders.
I'm bothered by the double standard I see at work in this interview. Nelson has called out and will I'm sure continue to call out exec producers for their garbage output. When he goes after ATWT, Goutman is his man target. When he went after GL, Wheeler was his main target. Why does Rauch get a free pass? Why aren't Bell, Sheffer, and Rauch equally responsible? If Rauch is EP in name only and has no control, he deserves none of the praise for anything that works on YR.
This interview is a prime example of how evasive someone can be in answering tough questions by giving the interviewer answers to questions that basically change the subject. Case in point, he never answered the Emmy mess over at Y&R regarding popularity vs people who actually deserved to be nominated. Never answered whether P&G is killing their soaps. Yes they are! They made that clear when they canceled AW and proceeded to cancel everyone of their soaps but one. He would never admit to that because he won't bite the hand that has fed the majority of his career. I noticed how you gave him ample opportunity to think about that question regarding Victoria Rowell's return and he blew you off with that "I don't know her but heard about her" answer. Let me answer that question for you Nelson in one of your famous TRANSLATIONS: I don't want to know her. If we are at 3.0 or 4.5 in the ratings we will always be #1 because folks don't have the ability to change the channel no matter how crappy this show is! We don't need her.
I personally would have loved for you to ask him about that infamous book ONE LIFE penned by original OLTL cast member Ellen Holly who shows how incredibly racist he is, and was towards his African American cast members.
A few weeks ago Nelson you mention how it would be great if OLTL would use its history and tie the current African American storyline in with that of Sadie Grey, played by the wonderful original cast member Lillian Heyman and her daughter played by Ellen Holly. According to this book one day after filming Ms. Heyman was on her way to the parking garage when she was stopped by one of the stage hands who informed her that Mr. Rauch wanted him to tell her that today was her last day on the show. When she returned that weekend to clean out her dressing room she found the contents of her dressing room in cardboard boxes outside of the room, and noticed that the locks had been change on the door. Is this how you treat a beloved stage and screen actress and original OLTL cast member?!! The book goes on to tell about numerous other examples of his blatant racist behavior. I urge you all to read it to get the real picture Mr. Rauch!
Has anyone noticed how little air time Neil and Devon are getting and how crappy their storylines have been? He fired three African American actors before he was able to settle into his office.
Despite what others on this forum think, this was one of the worst interviews I have ever read.
