Well, as Victor Newman might say: "That's a hell of a thing." Eric Braeden celebrated his 30th anniversary on 'The Young and the Restless.' It's not just three decades that makes it a memorable mark, it's that it has come after a very rough year in which Braeden quit the soap in a contract dispute and was brought back into the fold in part thanks to the influence of the head of the network, Les Moonves.
In honor of Braeden's tenure on the soap, there was a big party to commemorate the anniversary. As this picture reveals, Peter Bergman was in attendance and posed with Eric. True, on screen as Jack Abbott and Victor Newman, the two men would like to rip each other to bits, but off screen they're very civil and appreciative of each other's talents. They have had occasional dust-ups, but generally, they get along well.
After all, their characters' on screen feud has been the stuff of soap legend. Victor and Jack have shared wives, corporations, but mostly, unabashed hatred. They despise each other.
For more than 40 years, Frances was the matriarch of the Horton family, Grandma Alice, one the wisest, wittiest and most charming oldster on daytime. She was 'Days of Our Lives' Rock of Gibralter, her character was the center of her family, the heart that kept it all together even when bizarre circumstances threatened to tear the Hortons apart.
Oprah Winfrey may be leaving syndication for her own cable network, but that doesn't mean her empire won't continue. Hot on the heels of the successful launch of 'The Dr. Oz Show,' another frequent guest of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show', Nate Berkus is getting his own show. 'The Nate Berkus Show' will spotlight interior design advice for guests, as well as general lifestyle tips and personal style.
Berkus has appeared on Winfrey's show many times over the years, and even served as host for her one-season prime time venture, 'Oprah's Big Give.' He's already a bestselling author, radio host, and has his own home line on Home Shopping Network, and at Linens 'n Things.
I guess with Martha Stewart leaving syndication as well, Oprah saw an opening for home decoration and interior design. She'd already taken a bite out of the cooking genre with Rachael Ray. The question is: what's left for Oprah to conquer? Is it time to horn in on the sleazy talk shows like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich? Does she have a judge she can trot out?
I pride myself in being able to see TV show plot twists coming a mile away. Maybe it's from watching TV for so long or maybe it's from watching so much TV and writing about it all day long, but I can usually figure out something that's going on. There will be a hint, a piece of writing, some foreshadowing, or something else that gives a clue to a plot twist that I can figure out.
That's not to say I figured out that the season finale of 'Lost' a couple of seasons ago was a flash forward and not a flashback, but most times I can sense something.
But there have been two major (and I mean MAJOR) plot twists on 'The Young and the Restless' the past few weeks that I didn't see coming at all. Too bad CBS spoiled them for me (and other fans) with their promos.
Is Sonny going to wind up in prison for his crimes on General Hospital? You have to wonder how he's going to avoid it now. It's not like viewers have every thought of Sonny as innocent, but he's skirted having to pay for his sins via the criminal justice system. There have been other ways he's paid, but prison? So far, Mac and the Port Charles P.D. have yet to get him locked away for long. The Feds have also dropped the ball every time they've tried. But Friday might have been the game changer.
Sonny's portrayer, Maurice Benard, thinks it is. He told Michael Logan, "I truly believe Sonny's done this time. He wants his son to be safe and he sees no other way out. ...He doesn't think he can get away with it this time -- at least that's the way I'm playing it."
When you look at the surface, it seemed like Jay Leno was quite revealing during his interview with Oprah Winfrey today. He said that he was "devastated" when NBC came to him in 2004 and told him that they wanted to give Conan O'Brien The Tonight Show. He claimed he was "embarrassed" by what he called "a big mess," and that NBC would have handled it better if "they came in and shot everyone. Then it would have only been a two-day story."
But when Oprah repeatedly tried to get Leno to react to how most of the public is reacting to this story -- that Jay should have stepped aside to give Conan a chance to succeed, and that he is unfairly taking back Conan's dream job -- Leno refused to play along. Not sure if he did so because he's truly not self-aware of what this whole mess looks like or he just doesn't care. But as far as Jay's concerned, this was all just business, and his decision to take back Tonight and Conan's departure are mutually exclusive events.
One of the most famous stars of daytime, All My Children's James Mitchell, died Friday, January 22 in Los Angeles. He was 89 and suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, complicated by pneumonia. He hadn't been on the show much of the past couple of years, but he did make it back for the AMC 40th anniversary episode on January 5, and that turned out to be his last professional appearance.
James Mitchell was a man with two great careers. To soap fans, he was the indomitable Palmer Cortlandt, a brilliant tycoon and businessman, but also a man obsessed with his family and not above manipulation to get his way.
So what does a celebrity do when he wants to look good to the public again? He goes on Oprah of course!
That's what Jay Leno is going to do. Oprah Winfrey is going to interview him for a segment that will air next Thursday. Let's predict how this will go, shall we? He'll come out to a lot of applause, he'll make some jokes about how NBC screwed both him and Conan (which Leno has been doing this past week, trying to look like NBC has wronged him in some way - pretty strange considering Leno got exactly what he wanted), make some political jokes, try to come off as The Nice Guy (TM).
Now...will Oprah give Conan a chance to be on her show at some point? Who will get the first interview with Conan anyway? I pray it's David Letterman, on March 1.
It's been weeks since All My Children dropped head writer Charles Pratt Jr. Today, the ABC soap which has just celebrated its 40th anniversary on the air, made a decision about the future story lines for the show. David Kreizman and Donna Swajeski are the new co-head writers of All My Children. The duo have worked together in the past; in 2007 they were winners of the Writers Guild Award for heading up the Guiding Light writing staff.
ABC Daytime prez Brian Frons, was effusive in praising the writers, saying, "David and Donna are the perfect team to bring new ideas to All My Children while remaining true to its core by telling stories with a focus on the integrity of the show's history, its characters and families on the canvas." It helps that Donna actually began her soap writing career at AMC, working directly with the show's creator, Agnes Nixon.
When you go on The Price is Right and make it all the way to the Showcase, you don't expect to be bidding on a Porsche Boxster. So, when Jeffery, a contestant on yesterday's episode, got a chance to make his bid, he went for it, giving an amazingly knowledgeable-sounding bid of $58,500.
As you can see in the clip below, the results didn't exactly go in his favor. But it's not like he lost the Porsche by wildly over- or under-bidding; he was right about the price. He just wasn't right enough:
Have you seen the new TV commercial for Cheer that features a soap opera-ish plot (a woman wakes from a coma and has to choose between her boyfriend and the hunky doc) and music? That's not just a one shot thing. Procter and Gamble have actually created an online soap called Brighten Bay, and they're holding a contest. The winner gets a walk-on role on CBS' As The World Turns.
Hey, maybe if the contest is a hit they'll reconsider canceling the show. (Note: not likely.)
All of you people searching for "Martha Stewart" and "pole dancing" on Google finally have the video you've been looking for. She took to the pole (a sentence I hope I never have to type again) on her syndicated show. And yes, that's L.A. Law's Sheila Kelley with Martha. She instructs people on how to do this exercise (and she's married to The West Wing's Richard Schiff).
It was a heck of a lot of fun, which is saying a lot because I've never been a huge fan of Pee-wee or his classic CBS Saturday-morning show Pee-wee's Playhouse. But most of the people who were there were die-hard fans, many of whom either caught Pee-wee's original stage show in the mid '80s, grew up watching his movies or Playhouse, or likely spent their Saturday mornings in college working on their first weekend high while watching his show.
For fans, it was pure comfort food. The stage was set up exactly like the set of Playhouse, complete with his complement of talking household items: Chairry, Magic Screen, Clocky, Pterri, Fish, etc. Jambi was also there to grant Pee-wee his wishes.
Today was a big day on The Young and the Restless. It wasn't just that Fridays are always big for story revelations -- and there were some doozies today! -- it was the return to the show of one of the biggest stars in the business. Eric Braeden, as his alter ego Victor Newman, made a dramatic entrance just as his two sons were beating the crap out of each other in Victor's office. In typical Victor fashion, Braeden strode into the office and growled, "What the hell is going on here?"
Ironically, Y&R fans were saying the same thing a few months back when Braeden quit the show after a contract dispute. Instead of remaining quiet, the fans spoke out and according to Braeden, there were two major influences that got him back. One was Les Moonves, the president and CEO of CBS Corporation.
Daytime soaps have always had a sketchy history when it comes to life and death. In short, like science fiction and fantasy, death is not a finality. Soap characters can return from the dead, not really have been dead at all, reappear as missing twins, turn out to have been victim of a coffin switch, and if all else fails, death become a way to bring a character back as a ghost or guardian angel. All that is part of Soaps 101, a college course taught at most universities today, I believe.
That was a long introduction to reveal that fan fave and multiple Emmy winner Cady McClain is returning to All My Children. Cady was more recently on As the World Turns as Rosanna, but left about a month ago when her story line wrapped. That means she was free to sign up with another soap and ABC came a callin' for the actress.
Well, as Victor Newman might say: "That's a hell of a thing." Eric Braeden celebrated his 30th anniversary on 'The Young and the Restless.' It's not just three decades that makes it a memorable mark, it's that it has come after a very rough year in which Braeden quit the soap in a contract dispute and was brought back into the fold in part thanks to the influence of the head of the network, Les Moonves.
If you've been a soap watcher, you've probably seen the work of 
I pride myself in being able to see TV show plot twists coming a mile away. Maybe it's from watching TV for so long or maybe it's from watching so much TV and writing about it all day long, but I can usually figure out something that's going on. There will be a hint, a piece of writing, some foreshadowing, or something else that gives a clue to a plot twist that I can figure out. 
Is Sonny going to wind up in prison for his crimes on 
One of the most famous stars of daytime, 
So what does a celebrity do when he wants to look good to the public again? He goes on Oprah of course!
It's been weeks since 
Saturday night, I decided to get away from the hotel and join a small group of critics on a field trip to Club Nokia in downtown LA to see 
Daytime soaps have always had a sketchy history when it comes to life and death. In short, like science fiction and fantasy, death is not a finality. Soap characters can return from the dead, not really have been dead at all, reappear as missing twins, turn out to have been victim of a coffin switch, and if all else fails, death become a way to bring a character back as a ghost or guardian angel. All that is part of Soaps 101, a college course taught at most universities today, I believe.
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