The Young and the Restless-related stories
Posted Nov 7th 2009 4:04PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Daytime, Reality-Free
Sometimes it's true that all's well that ends well. And sometimes to reach that happy ending, arms are twisted, feelings are hurt, and bad blood is spilled. In the case of
The Young and the Restless and actor
Eric Braeden, there was a good deal of acrimony on both sides. The fact that Braeden is back in the fold now and he will continue as Victor Newman for the foreseeable future, doesn't obscure the fact that it was a nasty situation.
Continue reading How The Young and the Restless got Eric Braeden back
Posted Oct 30th 2009 9:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Reality-Free
It's been a
tumultuous six weeks for Eric Braeden and The Young and the Restless. For a while, it looked like he was on his way out of the soap when contract talks broke down between the star and Sony. Then there was a story in the trades about
other actors being contacted to possibly replace him, including William Devane, Paul Michael Glaser and Peter Strauss. Before you could say Jabot Cosmetics,
Bob posted the news that Eric and Sony had reached an agreement and Victor Newman would continue to be played by Eric Braeden. Crisis averted.
Well, while he was still in exit mode, the show wrote Victor out. In the storyline, Victor is recovering from a heart transplant and has decided to go to a clinic in Belgium to rehabilitate. This week he's been tying up loose ends before leaving.
Continue reading Victor's Greatest Hits on The Young and the Restless
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 6:14PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
When
Eric Braeden walked out of The Young and the Restless, it was my belief that the powers that be would find some way to reach a compromise with him and Victor Newman would remain an integral part of Genoa City. However, the negotiations between
Braeden and the folks at Sony turned cold.
Cold as in heartless. Considering the character Braeden has played for nearly 30 years, Victor Newman, he should have understood the daytime TV business had changed. Instead, he was insulted and -- apparently -- grew stubborn. So instead of a compromise, it looks like Braeden is really leaving.
However, today's news suggests that while he walked from a job that was asking him to take a pay cut from $1.5 million a year to $1 million a year,
other actors are interested in filling Braeden's shoes. The question is this, though: can another actor play Victor Newman?
Continue reading Some interesting names may be angling for Eric Braeden's role
Posted Oct 7th 2009 9:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Watercooler Talk, Reality-Free
If you were to take the collective temperature of the loyal viewers of
The Young and the Restless, the number one daytime drama in the Nielsen ratings for 20 years in a row, you would learn that the fans are hot! They are steamed and fuming and ready to boil over with rage. What's got so many people so incensed? Well, it might be easy to say it's
Y&R's recent baby-switch story line -- where Sharon's baby was taken from her and given to Ashley, with neither woman aware of the crime committed against them -- but it's actually more than that.
Y&R fans are up in arms over happenings on screen and off. The very idea that Eric Braeden is leaving the show, that the character of
Victor Newman is going to be killed off, has been a shock. After the near exit of Melody Thomas Scott and Jess Walton recently, it appears as though the foundation of the show -- the most integral characters and the actors who play them -- are being destroyed. Fans are wondering what the powers that be are doing to "their" show!
Continue reading Has The Young and the Restless pushed the fans too far?
Posted Sep 30th 2009 11:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Casting, Emmys, Reality-Free
Is it even possible to imagine
The Young and the Restless without Eric Braeden as hero/villain Victor Newman? You would think not, but then
Days of Our Lives moved on without
Deidre Hall as Dr. Marlena Evans, didn't it? Still, Braeden and his alter ego Victor is still a front and center presence on the show, an integral part of the storytelling. Therefore, the news that
The Young and the Restless is contemplating killing off Victor if they cannot resolve the contract dispute with Braeden is a shocker.
Braeden is working now under a contract that lasts till 2010, and his reps have said that he would take a pay cut once the term is up. However, producers are asking him to take a pay cut now. That, my friends, is the rub. Braeden wants to help the show stay on the air, but he's not ready to take an economic hit until he has to. That's understandable.
Continue reading Will The Young and the Restless really kill off Victor Newman?
Posted Aug 8th 2009 7:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Daytime, Celebrities, Reality-Free
First,
Paula Abdul walks away from American Idol (or was she shoved out by the producers a bit?), now comes news that
Susan Lucci's not sure about sticking with All My Children when the ABC soap relocates to Los Angeles in December. My thought was there's no way La Lucci was going to pass on the chance to keep on working, but she's saying it's a tough decision. "I don't know ... I love the show and I love playing Erica, but I'm just now going to have a couple of days off. It's a lot to think about."
Could Susan truly be thinking anything but, "Yes, I'm going"? Seriously,
All My Children has been her mainstay for 39 years. That's right, nearly four decades of continuous employment in essentially a starring role.
Continue reading Is Susan Lucci quitting All My Children?
Posted Aug 7th 2009 9:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Daytime, Cancellations, Pickups and Renewals, Ratings, Reality-Free
There's good news and bad news on the CBS soap opera front. The good news is that
The Young & the Restless has been renewed for two years. The bad news is that
As the World Turns could be axed just like Guiding Light.
The Young & the Restless is CBS daytime's top rated soap. It's been number one in the Nielsens for nearly 20 years running. So the renewal wasn't a big surprise. However, the pick-up came with a warning to cut costs, tighten the budget and, basically, don't expect the stars to get big raises anytime soon. In the past year alone, two of the veterans -- Melody Thomas Scott and Jess Walton -- opted to take less money when the show threatened to write them out or recast. Welcome to the brave new world of daytime!
Continue reading Good news, bad news for CBS soaps
Posted May 29th 2009 3:09PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Daytime, Casting, Reality-Free
Late last week,
actor Chris Engen reportedly bolted from
The Young & the Restless, walking out on a front-burner story line on the number one rated daytime drama because he objected to his character sharing a kiss with another man. This week,
Y&R's former Adam Wilson issued a statement online to tell his side of the story.
Engen wasn't unhappy with the gay twist, declared that he is not homophobic and said he didn't quit the show over religious objections. According to the first-time soap actor, "I felt generally unhappy about my contribution to the show, and had greater and greater difficulty making any sense of the challenges they were asking me to face."
Continue reading The Young & the Restless actor claims he didn't quit over gay kiss
Posted Mar 4th 2009 10:55AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Reality-Free
It's been a little over a year since
Guiding Light bolted from the confines of a New York studio to create a reality based production, a sort of cinema-verite style that brought to life a real New Jersey town to "play" Springfield. The results have been middling at best, but recently
GL has lurched forward in a positive way and that can all be explained in two words/one name --
Grant Aleksander. The actor is back as Phillip Spaulding, one of the most important characters in the history of the show.
The last year of
GL hasn't only been about the new production. Coinciding with all that physical change which has set more and more scenes outdoors and in "wild" set, the cast has been undergoing massive change. Top line veterans Ricky Paull Goldin, Nicole Forester and Beth Ehlers have all departed, and recently John Driscoll was tragically killed off.
Continue reading TV Squad Soap Report: Aleksander the Grant
Posted Mar 2nd 2009 2:04PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Daytime, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
Did you know that double Oscar winners Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro acted in soap operas? It's true. Many of today's biggest stars honed their craft by doing New York soaps like
As the World Turns and
Another World. Before she was
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,
Sarah Michelle Gellar was Susan Lucci's daughter on
All My Children.
Hollywood soaps like
Days of Our Lives,
General Hospital, and
The Young and the Restless also produced stars.
Tom Selleck, for instance, was a
Y&R hunk before becoming
Magnum, P.I. There are a lot of current stars right now on hit shows who were daytime characters just a few years ago. After the jump, we count down the top ten primetime stars who started in soaps.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Primetime stars who started in soaps
Posted Nov 21st 2008 3:07PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Daytime, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Just a couple of weeks ago, all was fine and dandy in
Days of Our Lives-world. Or so it seemed. The big fan shindig at Universal in Hollywood seemed to signal that the status quo was holding that the lone NBC soap still in production would be able to use the 18-month renewal granted by NBC to climb in the ratings and return to past glory. Now comes the shocking news that NBC
has fired Days of Our Lives' two biggest stars, Deidre Hall (Marlena) and Drake Hogestyn (John)
. By the way, Deidre and Drake were at the fanfest. You think they knew the pink slips were on the way? Um, no.
This is all about money, folks, and instead of seeking other ways to trim costs, Executive Producer Ken Corday and company have used a hatchet and chopped off the top salaries. Don't be shocked to hear that more is coming. That could be Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso -- Bo and Hope -- the other iconic romantic couple on the show, right after Marlena and John.
Continue reading Days of Our Lives shake-up: It's all about money
Posted Nov 4th 2008 12:26AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E06) This was an odd episode. Sure, it gave us some closure on the Stella storyline and also gave us a lot of insight on why Robin acts like an alpha male even as she rocks the hell out of a cocktail dress. There were some genuinely funny moments. But, oddly enough, all of it was wrapped in a sitcommy device that just didn't seem to justify the flashback-fest we got. Maybe spending half an episode under a restaurant table just doesn't foster the funny. Or maybe it's because I've seen the gag a hundred times before. Either way, it killed whatever comedic and emotional momentum this episode was trying to build towards yet another reset in Ted's love life.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Happily Ever After
Posted Sep 11th 2008 2:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Reality-Free
Executive experience. We've been hearing an awful lot in the media lately about what constitutes executive experience and how important it is when a person gets the chance at an important position. Well, you know what I've learned while watching soap operas? Experience is overrated. Anyone can be a CEO or mayor or run a company, it's easy.
Take Donna on
The Bold and the Beautiful. Until recently, Donna was a model. She used her beautiful body, great features and dazzling smile to show the finest in Forrester Creations. Now, due to her husband's heart attack which resulted in a coma, Donna has taken over the company and appointed herself CEO. It doesn't matter than Donna's never designed a thing or knows how to mass produce, market and distribute a clothing line. Never mind that she couldn't balance her checkbook let alone the bottom line of an international fashion business. Because she had Eric's power of attorney, she took control of the company. Executive leadership was something that she absorbed from Eric, right? Like osmosis or transference. Yeah, right.
Continue reading TV Squad Soap Report: No experience necessary
Posted Aug 13th 2008 3:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Daytime, Casting, Reality-Free
It's not unusual anymore when a primetime star suddenly makes the jump into daytime. Recently,
Michael Gross has signed on to The Young and the Restless. Patrick Duffy is a semi-regular on
The Bold and the Beautiful, Bruce Weitz is a Mafioso kingpin on
General Hospital, and if you tuned in yesterday you got to see John James terrorize half a dozen Oakdale residents on
As the World Turns as a deranged doctor. If you're keeping score, they were previously the stars from
Family Ties, Dallas, Hill Street Blues and
Dynasty, respectively. So, really, a primetimer coming to daytime is SOP (standard operating procedure) these days.
However, when a daytimer goes to primetime and then returns to daytime, that can be interesting. Sarah Brown's return to
GH qualifies and so does this one:
A Martinez is joining One Life to Live. For the last decade, A's been a regular guest or regular on
Viva Laughlin, Raines, CSI, Huff, JAG and
Profiler. All good roles, but nothing to match his daytime experience.
Continue reading A Martinez says yes to One Life to Live
Posted Aug 3rd 2008 9:57AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Daytime, Casting, Reality-Free
The addition of
Hogan Sheffer to the headwriting duties on The Young and the Restless is already making waves. In quick order, David and Sabrina have been killed off to make way for new characters. With new characters comes news of a major former prime time star joining the cast.
TV Guide's Michael Logan reports that Michael Gross will be playing River Baldwin, Michael's father, the one whom he thinks is a low-life, reprobate. A guy who refused to go to Vietnam and left Gloria to raise their son alone.
Best known as Steven Keaton on NBC's Emmy-winning sitcom
Family Ties (1982-89), Michael is sure to bring instant credibility to the role. For one thing, we're going to find out that River is not at all what we've been told he is. In fact, I'm betting that River will be a politically charged character, a man who objected to the war and chose not to fight because he didn't believe it was a just cause.
Watch for Michael Baldwin to discover all kinds of things about himself and the kind of man he is because he shares the genes of a man he's never known.
Michael Gross will begin appearing on August 15.
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