TVSquad

Soap operas are a funny form of television fiction. They have rules all its own, they can tell all kinds of stories and do them in the most unusual ways. Here's a few things I've noticed lately, things that seem to only be possible, on a soap.

Only on a soap...can a medical clinic be conceived, built and stocked in less than a month.
It's true. It happened in Port Charles. On General Hospital, soon after Emily died -- and Nikolas stopped seeing visions of her thanks to a brain tumor -- he decided to dedicate a health clinic in her memory. Since Nikolas is a royalty, some kind of prince, cost was no object. He never met with an architect or designer, never spoke to contractors, never searched for a location and dealt with permits. He did have a fight with the mayor for a couple of shows about opening the clinic after it was already completed. If only all construction projects could be done so easily. Jeff Lewis on Bravo's Flipping Out doesn't even work that fast!

It was big news in the world of daytime when Joseph Mascolo exited Days of Our Lives a few months ago. After all, Mascolo's Stefano Dimera was hailed as the number one villain of all time in daytime by Soap Opera Digest.

His return to Days was supposed to be long-term, but it didn't work out that way. In a surprising, some would say typical, soap way, the phoenix will rise again. Stefano Dimera, in the form of Joseph Mascolo, is coming back to Days of Our Lives. His reign of terror will commence once more -- in early August. Meanwhile, the other big time evil-doer on the show, Victor Kiriakis, will become more moderate and good by comparison.

Evil on the soaps is, well, a necessary evil. You can't have characters who are happy and blissful all the time. You need the selfish, the greedy, the vengeful, all those evil types to keep the stories interesting.

Did you enjoy the Daytime Emmy Awards last week? Were you happy to see grand soap stars like Anthony Geary and Jeanne Cooper honored? I have no complaints with the winners -- and as I mentioned in previous posts, I had predicted some of them correctly. But I do have qualms about so many actors and actresses who weren't even nominated.

A lot of great performances weren't recognized. Therefore, I've decided to recognize a few actors and actresses who should be on the ballot in 2009! That's right, this is a pre-emptive list of six who should be included in next year's Daytime Emmy nominations.

Death on a daytime soap is kind of like death in science fiction: it may be the real thing, but then again, maybe not. Fans of One Life to Live were recently stunned by the death of Nash Brennan. His was truly a case of sudden death. One minute he was a vital part of the scene, negotiating to keep the land for his vineyard, the next he was taking a swing at Jared, falling through a skylight and fatally injured.

The chances that Nash's death is not the real thing seems remote. He was shown on his deathbed in the hospital, saying goodbye to his wife Jessica, making a heart with his finger to show her that he'll always love her. It was sad and poignant and final. At least, I think it was final. You can't always be sure on soaps, as I said.

The Daytime Emmys are coming. The nominations have been announced and ABC plans to broadcast the award presentation on June 20 at 8 p.m. (EST) with Sherri Shephard and Cameron Mathison sharing the hosting duties. One of the things that invariably drives soap fans nuts is not being able to see the Emmy submissions; that is, the actual shows that the Blue Ribbon Panels are seeing when they choose the Emmy winner from the set of nominees.

Well, in a landmark move -- one more reason to love the web -- the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has teamed with YouTube to create venue to see most of the nominating clips and judge for yourself. That's what I've done and I've decided to handicap the big Daytime Emmys contests. Tell me what you think, if you judge these clips the way I have.

There's something about the name Carly, I guess. The four actresses that have caught my attention are now or have played a "Carly" on daytime TV. They are all terrific actresses. They've all brought something dynamic and exciting to their characters, even when they are no longer named Carly. The four ladies in question are Laura Wright, the current Carly Corinthos Jacks on General Hospital, Maura West, Carly Tenney Snyder on As the World Turns, Tamara Braun, Carly #2 on GH and currently Ava Vitali on Days of Our Lives, and Sarah Brown, Carly #1 on GH and presently Claudia Zacchara on GH. Each woman has made a lasting impression on daytime, and they continue to rattle the rafters still.

The Daytime Emmy nominations were announced this morning on The View. My initial reaction is this: there are so many repeat nominees! This list is filled with actors who have won multiple times. Are the Daytime Emmys in a rut? I'm afraid so. This list seems very stale to me, not that many of these performers aren't worthy, but a lot of other worthy actors were completely overlooked. Again. Emmy could use an overhaul, but we'll discuss that another time.

Here are the main nominees -- and some comments -- and you can check out the complete list and a photo gallery of the Daytime Emmy nominees at AOL Television. On Friday, June 20, ABC will broadcast the awards in primetime (8-11 p.m. EST) from the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

Outstanding Daytime Drama
General Hospital
Guiding Light
One Life to Live
The Young & the Restless

Here we have the usual suspects. Last year, Y&R and GL shared the prize. My choice would be OLTL this time around -- they had a great year and have been on the uprise. However, Y&R has a lot of actor nominations and that could mean another Emmy for the Bell show. I'd be flabbergasted if either GH or GL win. Both shows have received critical blasts this past year.

With the untimely death of actor Stanley Kamel, USA Network and the producers of Monk were compelled to find another actor to play a psychiatrist for the OCD detective. TV Guide has gotten the exclusive word that Hector Elizondo has been cast as Monk's new shrink. The veteran actor -- you'll recognize him from every Garry Marshall movie from Pretty Woman to The Princess Diaries -- was most recently on Cane. As Michael Ausiello points out, if Hector's doing Monk, chances are that CBS has officially canned Cane, even if they haven't announced it yet.

You might be surprised to learn that the results of a new poll by AOL.com found that the number one soap opera among web searchers is Day of Our Lives. According to the Nielsen ratings for the soaps, The Young and the Restless is the top daytime drama -- and has been for over a thousand weeks. But I'm not surprised to read these AOL results, which shows Days, General Hospital and All My Children at the top of the list. Y&R is number eight. Also getting a lot of search engine hits is a Spanish telenovela, Fuego en la Sangre, from Mexico.

Let me start this TV Squad Soap Report by saying that I have a soft spot in my heart for Days of Our Lives. It's the first soap I remember watching as a kid and I've always stuck with it, even when it's gone through some dark times. And if you're a Days fan, you know just what I mean (more on that later).

Right now I'm beginning to see a pattern on Days of Our Lives that's kind of upsetting. The show seems to be stuck in retro mode. They've been bringing back characters by the boat load. This is nothing new. All soaps do it. On All My Children, they just brought Cady McLain back -- and her character Dixie, who's supposedly dead. One Life to Live is resurrecting greatest Tina of all, Andrea Evans. So what's the big deal with what Days doing it? Nothing. It's perfectly legitimate. I support it...to a point. When it reaches a point to where new characters are not taking hold and more and more of the past is becoming the present.

Usually when you talk about death on soap operas, you have to know that like science fiction, death doesn't mean the end of the story. After all, many characters have come back from the dead thanks to mistaken identity, bizarre abductions, switched coffins, et. al. But when I tell you now that the NBC soap opera Passions is dead, I really mean it. Really.

There is no chance that Passions is coming back to NBC. The soap was yanked from the daytime lineup last year, but in a deal with DirecTV, Passions has remained in production. The satellite provider has been showing episodes of the bizarrely-plotted show for months. However, in a recent development, DirecTV has decided to pull the plug. Universal Media Studios, which produces the one-hours, has been trying to find a new place on the dial for Passions without any luck.

For some actors, the soaps are a stepping stone to a career in features. That's how it was for Meg Ryan, who began as Betsy on As the World Turns. For others, like Eva Longoria Parker, the place she made her mark before becoming one of the Desperate Housewives was as Isabella on The Young & the Restless. Allison Janney is another one. She was a lowly -- but brilliant -- maid at the Spaulding mansion on Guiding Light before lighting up the screen as C.J. Cregg on The West Wing and winning four Emmys along the way. Looking at the current crop of actresses at work in daytime today, who are the women, the divas if you will, who are ready for primetime, nay silver screen, success? Here's a list of seven who have caught my eye.

Finally someone shows some love for Lost, which got itself back on track last season. The Directors Guild announced their nominees for this year's awards. Lost nabbed two nominations in the Dramatic Series category, for "The Looking Glass" and "The Brig." The Sopranos picked up two of the three remaining nominations, saving the last one for AMC's excellent freshmen drama, Mad Men.

On the comedy side, 30 Rock nabbed two nominations, with Desperate Housewives and Entourage picking up one each. And the critical love for ABC's incredibly charming Pushing Daisies continues as it snatches the final spot. But one category in which the Directors think very differently than anyone else is in Reality Programs. Not only is the kitschy Who Wants to be a Superhero? nominated, but is joined by Shooting Sizemore and Pros vs. Joes. The full list, including commercials, documentaries and mini-series after the jump.

A few days ago I happened to catch an episode of the NBC soap opera Days of our Lives that my wife was watching. Hey, don't look at me that way! My wife is a fan of the show. Oh, sure, I used to watch it during the Shane/Kimberly/ Patch/Kayla/Frankie/Jennifer heydays of the late 80's, but it doesn't do anything for me now. Really, I'm serious!

Anyway, the scene I walked in on was one between Chelsea Brady and Nick Fallon (I got those names from my wife, I swear!). It seemed that Chelsea was depressed about one thing or another and Nick had the solution to cheer her up. They went to a nearby computer, where Nick began to pull up pictures, on the Wallgreens photo site, of the couple during happier times. When Chelsea asked how he did this (because she is obviously technically non-savvy) Nick responded that he just uploaded the pictures to the Walgreens.com and, I believe, he added some end tagline like 'It's just so simple.'

Holy. Freakin. Crap.

The Digital Video Recorder (known henceforth as DVR) is a heavenly, yet evil, device. On the one hand, it lets you record and store shows for easy retrieval. Some models even permit you to record two shows that are airing at the same time. On the other hand, it lets you record and store shows, some of them airing at the same time, that you may never, ever get to watch.

I thought about this as I went through my own list of DVR recordings. Some shows I have on the unit are from the beginning of the summer. Others are items that my wife saves. Still others are those recorded by my six-year-old daughter, who recently learned how to program the darn thing (kid needs to be in M.I.T.).

So, what I wanted to know from you, the devoted TV Squad reader, is what shows you have on your DVR. I'll tell you mine (after the jump) if you tell me yours.