TV and Movies

[stevieb]

As for the TP Network, I haven't checked to see what made it on tape and what didn't but I can guarantee you there'd have to be a lot more going on with this show before I'd even bother to see if I could play catch up with too frequently missed episodes. 

[RainCityWoman]

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@RainCityWoman wrote:

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@Travone wrote:

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@RainCityWoman wrote:

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@Travone wrote:

Here is my 2 cents on the Sonny / Nina pairing.  I agree they have zero chemistry together.  My hope is that they finally sleep together and then Sonny realizes they have no chemistry and dumps Nina.  This will enrage Nina and hopefully bring back the original lying, deceitful, Nina and her main goal will be to bring Sonny down.

Now here is my other observation......do you remember when the soaps where all about who was having an affair etc, etc.  Nowadays, you can't get these characters in bed.  What healthy man is not going to have s*x for years.......Chase, Drew, Finn, Sonny, Valentine.

Scotty is the only one with an active s*x life in Port Charles.

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FYI: Sonny and Nina have already slept together.

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Oh My Goodness @RainCityWoman you are so right.  I competely forgot about that.  I guess it wasn't that memorable for me.  

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It parobably wasn't that memorable for them either. LOL.

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Well let's try this again PROBABLY

[RainCityWoman]

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@cowboy sam wrote:

After seeing that picture of Anna and Duke....i miss him in her life!

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I did not like Duke at all. I was an Anna/Robert girl all the way.

[Zernia Rose]

@stevieb  Agree to some extent. The writers write on a superficial level and resolve issues too easily, e.g Finn's idiosycratic pet Rosy and his addiction. They also overload one or two characters with massive issues, e.g. Sasha: no family exept her new one with Brando and Gladys, scam with Nina, sacrificing Michael, drug addiction, loss of child, and now a mentall breakdown.  The writing staff has changed so often that the historic connections are lost.

A storyboard with characters and major storylines from the beginning of the soap to now should be required reading for all writers.  Perhaps that what rewrite and destroy past characters for storylines today.

[Zernia Rose]

@RainCityWoman If you miss an episode, you can watch it on HULU if you have that service.  It not, then consider reading SoapCentral daily recaps; they are detailed.

[Tique]

All or Nothing Promo

[mysoutherncomfort]

I have a technical question about the law.  In the Trina S/L, doesn't the DA (Robert) agree to bring charges against a person (Trina) and then assign the case to an ADA?  I'm not recalling (since the beginning of this S/L) seeing/hearing of Robert.  Appreciate if someone can enlighten me as to how such as case would get to this point.  

[Tique]

Thought I would revive something, Posts Worth Reading Again (PWRA). There are more than a few of us who feel both the history of a show and the history of a character are important. Neither should be rewritten because of lack of knowledge or laziness. Since @Zernia Rose  mentioned this over the weekend it's the ideal time to re-post a conversation between @stevieb  and I. Her contribution is the more important one.

Originally posted in November 2020. Thanks @stevieb 

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@stevieb wrote:

Ahhhhh, waxing nostalgic about the world of soaps... I remember when the story telling was more straightforward, when there might have been complications but not everything was so complicated... When there might have been the occasional convoluted story line, but it wasn't the norm... And when soap writers wrote about characters the audience grew to care about, one way or the other, living their day to day lives with only the occasional foray into wham-bam, BIG story... I often miss the old Procter and Gamble soaps that relied on solid writing and not so much on contrived plots and contrived characters...

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@Tique wrote:

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@stevieb  I completely agree with the above.

I miss when the writers were true to the characters and the history of the show. It seems like now new writers come on and they don't even bother to read the Cliffs Notes on the show. It does them, the actors, and the viewers a huge disservice and we're stuck "remembering when".

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@stevieb wrote:

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@Tique...  Absolutely true...  Doug Marland, one of the best soap writers from days gone by, had a list of dos and don't for successful soap writing (aka, how not to ruin a soap). Sadly, it appears most of today's newbies ignore it to their show's detriment... It always seems to me that today's soap writers really want to be writing something they view as more significant than soaps and again, it's to the detriment of the genre...

From Marland's Wickipedia page...

The rules are:

• Watch the show.
• Learn the history of the show. You would be surprised at the ideas that you can get from the back story of your characters.
• Read the fan mail. The very characters that are not thrilling to you may be the audience's favorites.
• Be objective. When I came in to (the show), the first thing I said was, what is pleasing the audience? You have to put your own personal likes and dislikes aside and develop the characters that the audience wants to see.
• Talk to everyone; writers and actors especially. There may be something in a character's history that will work beautifully for you, and who would know better than the actor who has been playing the role?
• Don't change a core character. You can certainly give them edges they didn't have before, or give them a logical reason to change their behavior. But when the audience says, "He would never do that," then you have failed.
• Build new characters slowly. Everyone knows that it takes six months to a year for an audience to care about a new character. Tie them in to existing characters. Don't shove them down the viewers' throats.
• If you feel staff changes are in order, look within the organization first. P&G (Procter & Gamble) does a lot of promoting from within. Almost all of our producers worked their way up from staff positions, and that means they know the show.
• Don't fire anyone for six months. I feel very deeply that you should look at the show's canvas before you do anything.
• Good soap opera is good storytelling. It's very simple.

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[mysoutherncomfort]

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@Tique wrote:

Thought I would revive something, Posts Worth Reading Again (PWRA). There are more than a few of us who feel both the history of a show and the history of a character are important. Neither should be rewritten because of lack of knowledge or laziness. Since @Zernia Rose  mentioned this over the weekend it's the ideal time to re-post a conversation between @stevieb  and I. Her contribution is the more important one.

Originally posted in November 2020. Thanks @stevieb 

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@stevieb wrote:

Ahhhhh, waxing nostalgic about the world of soaps... I remember when the story telling was more straightforward, when there might have been complications but not everything was so complicated... When there might have been the occasional convoluted story line, but it wasn't the norm... And when soap writers wrote about characters the audience grew to care about, one way or the other, living their day to day lives with only the occasional foray into wham-bam, BIG story... I often miss the old Procter and Gamble soaps that relied on solid writing and not so much on contrived plots and contrived characters...

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@Tique wrote:

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@stevieb  I completely agree with the above.

I miss when the writers were true to the characters and the history of the show. It seems like now new writers come on and they don't even bother to read the Cliffs Notes on the show. It does them, the actors, and the viewers a huge disservice and we're stuck "remembering when".

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@stevieb wrote:

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@Tique...  Absolutely true...  Doug Marland, one of the best soap writers from days gone by, had a list of dos and don't for successful soap writing (aka, how not to ruin a soap). Sadly, it appears most of today's newbies ignore it to their show's detriment... It always seems to me that today's soap writers really want to be writing something they view as more significant than soaps and again, it's to the detriment of the genre...

From Marland's Wickipedia page...

The rules are:

• Watch the show.
• Learn the history of the show. You would be surprised at the ideas that you can get from the back story of your characters.
• Read the fan mail. The very characters that are not thrilling to you may be the audience's favorites.
• Be objective. When I came in to (the show), the first thing I said was, what is pleasing the audience? You have to put your own personal likes and dislikes aside and develop the characters that the audience wants to see.
• Talk to everyone; writers and actors especially. There may be something in a character's history that will work beautifully for you, and who would know better than the actor who has been playing the role?
• Don't change a core character. You can certainly give them edges they didn't have before, or give them a logical reason to change their behavior. But when the audience says, "He would never do that," then you have failed.
• Build new characters slowly. Everyone knows that it takes six months to a year for an audience to care about a new character. Tie them in to existing characters. Don't shove them down the viewers' throats.
• If you feel staff changes are in order, look within the organization first. P&G (Procter & Gamble) does a lot of promoting from within. Almost all of our producers worked their way up from staff positions, and that means they know the show.
• Don't fire anyone for six months. I feel very deeply that you should look at the show's canvas before you do anything.
• Good soap opera is good storytelling. It's very simple.

EXCELLENT!  Thank you @Tique for re-posting and sending a big shout out to @stevieb for her original post.  Now if only the current soap writers would learn from Doug Marland's excellent advice.

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[Wsmom]

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@mysoutherncomfort wrote:

I have a technical question about the law.  In the Trina S/L, doesn't the DA (Robert) agree to bring charges against a person (Trina) and then assign the case to an ADA?  I'm not recalling (since the beginning of this S/L) seeing/hearing of Robert.  Appreciate if someone can enlighten me as to how such as case would get to this point.  

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@mysoutherncomfort , yes.  First of course a competent investigation would be done by the police, sent to DA for review and case either rejected or file charges and assign the case to an ADA.