WOW! Ppl here tend to dislike all things MAB. Now this! Eric Braeden and Victor are the reasons straight men watch Y&R. Although I like Munhey and his version of Adam, they can't be serious that they want him to take over the moustache?
Remember when Taylor was "killed" by Sheila and Brad bell immediately cast a brunette psychiatrist named Tricia QUICK of all names? Tay fans were furious and strangely Bell admitted in an interview that he cast her to torture the fans. Bringing a new billionaire will smack of instant replacement even if that is (or isn't) their intention.
If MTS can return, then they should work it out with EB. They really should get rid of all the extranerous characters (the Scooby gang, Neil and Lily if Dru doesn't return, Chloe, DEACON!).
Y&R is once again in the headlines. I guess they need to steal the spotlight away from GL's cancellation and OLTL's same gender marriages.
B&B: A woman obsessed with Nick and with baby issues? Can you say Morgan 2.0? Terrible idea! Here's a thought. Make Nick the biological father of Dino, and let him and Bridget battle for custody with Felicia!
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Oh wow... If there's one bit of casting news I thought I would never hear it's this. Rather than risk losing their most iconic character, if they want to save some money they should start by getting rid of the dead weight on the show. I really think that this could bring Y&R's ratings down precipitously...
I applaud Eric Braeden for standing his ground and for once I don't think it's a matter of ego but of principle. It's a given that paycuts across the boards is a necessary evil if the genre is to continue, however, for SONY to alter the terms of a contract midstream is a crock. If they can arbitrarily change the conditions at a moments notice then what's the point of a 2 year contract? So much for standards and practices in regard to actor protection. TBTB at the drop of a hat are always ready to exercise the 13 week cycle clause when it benefits them.
And as for OLTL being next on the chopping block Brain Frons hasn't a clue as to what he's doing. Is he keeping AMC on the air because they have a higher number of hot babes than OLTL? For years, decades, OLTL has been treated as the bastard step-child of ABC daytime and now this. AMC survives at the expense of OLTL. Methinks Sophie gave up the wrong child.
Posts: 1305 | Location: NY.N.Y USA | Registered: September 03, 2002
Boy the MAB hate is out of control. SONY slashed her budget, people. She has no choice. Do you expect her to fix the economy, too! Yikes. This MAB crap is starting to remind me of the Health Care town hall meetings.
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Undoubtedly the absolute SHOCK of the decade, century and for all-time!!! I would have never in a million years thought that Y&R would allow Eric Braeden to leave.
However I have to admit that I did suspect something like this would happen after they almost wrote Jill and Nikki off the show this year. After that I knew that Breaden was not going to stand for any B.S. and that he would have stood firm on his grounds.
However for it to get to this is absolutely ridiculous!!! Do these people really want to get rid off all the soaps?!?! I mean how many more stupid daytime talk shows will we have to endure in the future should they get rid of the soaps!!!
Y&R just hit 5 million in the ratings. I'm not certain but I believe that's a record high for them in years!!!! If the writers can get back to storytelling like they did this past week then I am sure these numbers will only grow!!!
Anyway as much as people often say Y&R would NOT be Y&R without Victor Newman... I actually believe this could work for about a year or two until they bring him back. The writers will just have to work over time to invest their time and creativity into coming up with something brilliant. What they need to do is create a world where Victor Newman does not exist and see how this transforms and impacts on everyone.
Let Jack take-over Newman. Have Nikki move on with her life and past Victor. Show what kind of an effect it will have on his children Victoria, Nicholas, Adam and even Abby. You could even make Ashley and Adam a couple while Victor is away. This would work best if Victor goes to jail for his many crimes and while he is in jail Ashley turns to Adam for comfort and actually gets married to him down the line. LOL
Turned their worlds upside down and inside out while Victor is away and then bring him back.
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If Braeden goes, then so do i. I refuse to watch this train wreck of a show without him. Some actors can be replaced, others are the staple of their show, and Braeden IS Y&R's signature character.
While i agree that in order to save money, actors may be asked to take a pay cut (though i bet this doesn't happen in primetime), but to make an actor take a cut when his current contract is still being served...that's wrong!!!
And why do i have a feeling that at Braeden's "goodbye" speech, Christian LeBlanc and Peter Bergman were over in a corner laughing their asses off and giving each other high-fives???
I said all along that Y&R needs to cut the dead fat from it's prime cast. Since we never got the gay story we were promised, they need to can Rafe, Phillip, Deacon, Amber, Kevin, Ryder, Daniel, Jana, Jeffrey, Gloria amd Mac.
Maria has clearly lost all control of her show. What the hell happened to her in such a short time? Is she drinking out of the same soda can as her brother-in-law Brad???
I say ship Deacon back to B&B and let him try to lure Bridget away from Nick, only for Felicia to try and get him into bed too. Lesli Kay would FINALLY be able to act on her own show without having to travel 3000 miles to act on her old show.
As for the blind items, i think it's Graz and Frantz too. Him being gay is not a shock, i thought that when he first came on Y&R...but him boozing it up is a surprise. But i guess if i had a headwriter like MAB handing me stories about stolen art, i would be hitting the bars after work, too. I say sue MAB and CBS Graz. You may have a case.
And why do i see Graz, LeBlanc, Rikaart and Shackelford all heading to RAGE or MICKEY'S on Santa Monica Blvd after a long day on Y&R??? LOL
There's no need for OLTL castmembers going over to AMC if they get canceled. I am sure the actors would love to have a job, but it would bother me that they went to a bad show in terms of everything when their show is doing everything right. Sad times we are witnessing in the soap world.
And as for Braeden, I wish they would be more ways to get around this, but this isn't the times when soap were making money. He and everyone else needs to take the paycut. Do it for the fans who still give a damn to watch these shows.
Martha Madison needs to come back to Daytime and that role sounds juicy for B&B, but we need a new Bridget (which will lead to a WC thread I am about to come up with.).
As for the blind items very juicy. Poor Hunter Tylo.
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Posts: 5352 | Location: New York/California | Registered: September 30, 2006
So what Sony slashed MAB’s budget? Who told her to create all these useless new characters? We don’t need new siblings for Kevin and so on. Also, could JD as Chance be more boring? Stop hiring these boring actors and make sure you retain your big stars.
As for calling this a “Town Hall” meeting – uh, no. Not so much. This is not Health Care. This is a show that we watch so we can chill out after work. It’s hardly any fun anymore and MAB & Rauch and the Gang are not cutting it – at least not artistically. I am not accusing MAB of being a secret communist Kenyan who wants to take away my freedoms. I am offering my opinion that she has ruined the show. Many other people share this opinion. What’s wrong with that? If MAB ever runs for public office and if she promises to support liberal causes like universal health care and gay marriage, I promise to vote for her! It does not mean I want her writing my favorite soap. Nelson, I do respect you but I think you have a serious issue where you confuse personal likeability or the “right politics” with artistic success. They are not the same thing. Roman Polanski is a pig and John Phillips was a monster. They were still incredible artists and their work will live forever. Queen MAB might be a nice person who is nice to you and is nice because she shares your (and my) politics in supporting gay marriage. That doesn’t mean that she’s a talented artist. One thing has nothing to do with the other.
Surprising news! I said before, and I still say, that firing one actor to meet the demands of another financially isn't the way to run a show. But if Y&R is at the point where they now have to cut salary mid-contract because of budget constraints, I think they'd be better off accepting that they just can't function as a super-large-cast show right and now drop some of these people who: a) have no story or terrible story, b) have little or no fanbase, and/or c) serve little or no purpose.
Did we know that the negotiations were end-of-cycle mid-contract when MTS was going through this? That kind of changes my view on the situation. It's a lot easier to come down hard on the actor when it seems like they just don't get how the industry is changing and pay cuts are the wave of the future, but trying to issue pay cuts mid-contract seems tyrannical to me. I hope that all works out.
I'd love to see Martha Madison back on daytime, but I'd kind of hate to have to watch B&B to see her (though I suppose it would be better than watching one of the hour-long shows I don't want to see).
I would hate to see OLTL cancelled, especially since AMC is easily worse. It occurred to me recently that if soaps really want to capture the audience that's basically the equivalent of what they had before, they should be airing between 5 PM and 7 PM. So many women work nowadays, but for a lot of women I know, that's the time when they can have the TV on watching something in the background while they make dinner or do other things that might have previously occupied a woman's whole day. A dramatic time shift like that could make an interesting alternative to immediate cancellation. It's not like the news shows that air during those times are even necessary, considering how much time the networks spend airing news during the day anyway.
Originally posted by nbgemini: Boy the MAB hate is out of control. SONY slashed her budget, people. She has no choice. Do you expect her to fix the economy, too! Yikes. This MAB crap is starting to remind me of the Health Care town hall meetings.
If that's the case, Maria should learn to budget her show wisely instead of letting all the important people either have to renegotiate their contracts mid-cycle or leave altogether.
Y&R is filled with so many useless characters who could all be cut to save money budget-wise. It may not be entirely enough to keep Braeden, but it would be a start.
MAB and her writers deserve all the backlash they're getting. The show has become a black whole and huge plot driven mess. Add to that they have a huge cast, and half of them are neglected and they refuse to trim it in order to save money for important actors like Eric Braegen, it just reeks of mismanagement.
Also, since MAB refuses to admit to any mistakes in her writing over the past few months, when the show has been a mess, why should people go easy on her? Her massive ego is ruining her own damn show, and fans are sick of it.
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The flood gates are open. I think we'll be looking back at GL's cancellation as the point of no return for soaps. It looks like ATWT and OLTL will be dead next year. In three years time, we'll probably be left with only Y&R, B&B, and GH. I don't think the soap magazines will be able to survive covering only three shows, they'll die, and then in five years they'll all be gone. Brian Frons should worry less about Trevor St. John and Michael Easton and find a way to bring Robin Strasser and Erika Slezak to the other shows, and no offense to Kyle and Fish, but as much as I like them they will hardly draw me to a train wreck like AMC. I think Viki and Dorian would greatly improve GH. Alexis faked DID and got away with murder after researching Viki; wouldn't you like the see that confrontation?
I don't understand the ins and outs of soap contracts, but it sounds like Eric Braeden has a point. To have to renegotiate mid-contract sort of defeats the purpose of a contract. There should be some expectation of security until the contract expires. I think the show has written Victor almost too evil to be redeemed, but losing the character and the actor could be enough to kill the show. Adam Newman is no Victor.
It appears James Romanovich is stuck in the bargaining stage of mourning. I think the odds of seeing any kind of "Guiding Light 2.0" are slim to nil.
"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)
I know a LOT of fans who would be happy to see the overzealous Braeden get the boot. However, the show is not in a good position where they can afford to lose Braeden. I say that from a creative standpoint, because I don't see MAB playing the beats off well, and we still have Heinle and Muhney to deal with.
