What is up with cable nowadays?
As I go through my Ryan’s Hope episodes this week I notice a promo for a mini-marathon of Cougar Town this Saturday on SOAPnet from 5-7 pm.
There’s only one problem with this… Cougar Town is a COMEDY, with no drama of any kind in it. Now this is not being used as a platform to bash that particular show. I’ve seen it a couple times and it really isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I’m also a fan of Courteney Cox so it’s nice seeing her on the screen again, and I wish it didn‘t come on the same time as Glee. But this isn’t about that. This is about the fact that the network that's supposed to be devoted to daytime dramas has put them in the position of second fiddle. The miscellany stuff seems to get much more attention than the actual soaps.
With all the reality garbage this network has been cranking out, along with the Sunday Night Movie, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, and I’m not. And what I love the most is that network and production executives always wonder why people flock to sites like YouTube and Dailymotion. At this point it just seems as though the train of thought is “if the network won’t provide material for the fans, the fans will do it themselves.”
We've also got GSN giving Carnie Wilson a reality show come January. Do the new people running the programming on this network even know its own history? They’ve tried to go in “a different direction” with reality and it didn’t work. Reality shows have failed on GSN. Every single one. A few of them may have done well at first, but then the ratings tank and if they’re not pulled entirely from the network they’re shoved off to 2 or 3 am and then they‘re gone (see Kenny vs. Spenny, The Amazing Race). Even one done based on another actual game show host, Chuck Woolery, in 2003, bombed as well.
And there’s more craziness than that on other channels. I flipped past The Weather Channel tonight and I see they’re airing Misery. Yeah, that's right. The MOVIE, Misery. Who thought this was a good idea? Yeah, who gives a damn about a possible Nor’easter forming when there’s a much more important blockbuster movie we can air instead? Geez, Louise.
Showing posts with label soapnet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soapnet. Show all posts
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Online Pick of the Week: Ryan's Hope (4/24)
This week’s online of the week revolves around a favorite daytime classic show of mine, Ryan’s Hope, the soap opera which revolved around an Irish-Catholic family from Riverside in New York City that ran on ABC from 1975-89.
It’s amazing how well written this show was, at least at this point in the run. Right now SOAPnet is airing shows from January 1979. The writing makes sense, even if I don’t like a particular storyline as much as another, I don’t hate it so much that I skip an entire episode to avoid it like with another certain soap *cough* As The World Turns *cough*. It's so worth setting a tape every day at 5 am to see it.
Something else I’ve noticed, from the point of the show’s beginning, I hated character Delia Reid Ryan Coleridge. I mean, hated. I mean, so whiny, so pathetic, so manipulative. Even co-creator Claire Labine referred to her as a manipulative bitch in 1976. I felt this way all the way through towards the mid-1978 episodes, where Delia finally gets the help she needs and starts to behave like a mature adult. Even with a few relapses here or there, when she found out the hard way that she wasn’t fit to raise her son Little John, I actually said “aww,” a word that I NEVER thought that I would ever say to her on this show. Ever. She was just way too horrible for me to do this in the past. Pushing former husband Frank Ryan down the stairs on the first episode and nearly killing him, and after realizing what she had done, told no one about it at all. Getting pregnant on purpose and faking a miscarriage so she can marry Pat Ryan. Faking blindness. But then, the show took a character I hated and made her evolve into someone that I actually enjoy seeing. I don’t know if it’ll last long, but the point is that the character made a turn around at least briefly and it wasn’t forced. We saw her mature when she was seeing a doctor. She started taking care of herself. Even though she never worked but relied on investments in commodities, It felt really, really natural.
There’s also the good family drama… “family drama” being based on central families on the show. Of course, the Ryans, and then there’s the Coleridges, and the Reids. We have the standard soap storylines of cheating, kidnapping, etc., but it’s handled so brilliantly that it comes off as very original.
The clip featured is of Kate Mulgrew singing the song “Memory Book,” which reflects on her character Mary Ryan’s relationship with Jack Fenelli. While the show had very strong writing, one thing I have noticed is that the recasts did become common ground and could be rather frequent. And I think that the Mary Ryan character is one of the ones that suffered the most with the recast factor. To many people including myself, there is only one true Mary Ryan… and she was played by Kate Mulgrew. The occasional unfavorable recast aside, Ryan’s Hope has really become a favorite of mine relatively quickly, and it’s definitely one show that many heads of current soaps should look at every once in a while to see how well a soap can truly be.
It’s amazing how well written this show was, at least at this point in the run. Right now SOAPnet is airing shows from January 1979. The writing makes sense, even if I don’t like a particular storyline as much as another, I don’t hate it so much that I skip an entire episode to avoid it like with another certain soap *cough* As The World Turns *cough*. It's so worth setting a tape every day at 5 am to see it.
Something else I’ve noticed, from the point of the show’s beginning, I hated character Delia Reid Ryan Coleridge. I mean, hated. I mean, so whiny, so pathetic, so manipulative. Even co-creator Claire Labine referred to her as a manipulative bitch in 1976. I felt this way all the way through towards the mid-1978 episodes, where Delia finally gets the help she needs and starts to behave like a mature adult. Even with a few relapses here or there, when she found out the hard way that she wasn’t fit to raise her son Little John, I actually said “aww,” a word that I NEVER thought that I would ever say to her on this show. Ever. She was just way too horrible for me to do this in the past. Pushing former husband Frank Ryan down the stairs on the first episode and nearly killing him, and after realizing what she had done, told no one about it at all. Getting pregnant on purpose and faking a miscarriage so she can marry Pat Ryan. Faking blindness. But then, the show took a character I hated and made her evolve into someone that I actually enjoy seeing. I don’t know if it’ll last long, but the point is that the character made a turn around at least briefly and it wasn’t forced. We saw her mature when she was seeing a doctor. She started taking care of herself. Even though she never worked but relied on investments in commodities, It felt really, really natural.
There’s also the good family drama… “family drama” being based on central families on the show. Of course, the Ryans, and then there’s the Coleridges, and the Reids. We have the standard soap storylines of cheating, kidnapping, etc., but it’s handled so brilliantly that it comes off as very original.
The clip featured is of Kate Mulgrew singing the song “Memory Book,” which reflects on her character Mary Ryan’s relationship with Jack Fenelli. While the show had very strong writing, one thing I have noticed is that the recasts did become common ground and could be rather frequent. And I think that the Mary Ryan character is one of the ones that suffered the most with the recast factor. To many people including myself, there is only one true Mary Ryan… and she was played by Kate Mulgrew. The occasional unfavorable recast aside, Ryan’s Hope has really become a favorite of mine relatively quickly, and it’s definitely one show that many heads of current soaps should look at every once in a while to see how well a soap can truly be.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Yearly Review: SOAPnet
Sadly, there's really not many positive things for me to say about SOAPnet this year.
There are two things that I was really entertained by though. One being the Emmy marathon back in June. I imagine that they went a bit out of their way getting the episode of Guiding Light and two episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful, and the idea of seeing the actual full episodes that made the cut for Best Drama is a really good one. The second thing was the Days of our Lives marathon back in October that had episodes from Marlena's possession. It's always a good idea to me to dust off the classics from the vaults and holidays and special occasions are really good times to do such marathons. And I wish they would take more advantage of this aspect. It's nice to revisit some of these series when they were written better.
April really ticked me off. By then for a while Dallas was on 4 times a day; no show should air that much daily. Another World would be gone, and Ryan's Hope and Port Charles were only airing twice a week. Luckily after a couple of months Ryan's Hope was back in its old time slot. I've become a big fan of that rather quickly and two episodes a week drove me insane. It took longer for Port Charles to come back to 5-day-a-week showings. I'm not as into Port Charles, but I still feel bad for the fans as I notice in December they got screwed again as the weekday episodes were taken off once more and again only the two weekend episodes remain. I'm sorry, but you don't air a show that has produced over 1,000 episodes twice a week. You just don’t do that. Anyone with common sense would know that. They also did nothing for Port's 10th anniversary. And you can't even begin to imagine my frustration to find out that Another World would not only be gone but replaced with One Tree Hill. And The O.C. does not belong on this network in my eyes either.
My problem with The Fashionista Diaries coming in August is very plain and simple. It is not a soap opera. And while I'm no big fan of either I Wanna Be A Soap Star, Soap Talk, or Soapography, at least they have something to do with the genre. Why is a network called SOAPnet, and using their old slogan, "devoted to soaps and soap fans" airing a show that has absolutely nothing to do with soaps? If fashion was the big deal, they could have called up CBS and tried to pick up same day/week rights to air The Bold and the Beautiful.
Just because it's either simply a drama or a show that has conflict between the people on it, that doesn't mean that it belongs on a network devoted to soap operas. If conflicting people was all that was needed, then they might as well pick up reruns of any courtroom show or Maury since they have "conflict." As a fan of One Tree Hill, I will still watch first-run episodes on The CW and buy the DVDs. If a more appropriately fitting network picks it up and I have the channel, then I'll be glad to watch the reruns. Same with The O.C. Nothing against it at all. I'm sure it's a decent show. I’m just not watching it on SOAPnet out of principle. When you've got these shows, and more primetime dramas on in the other time slots, and a show like The Fashionista Diaries on, and seemingly paying more attention to these shows than focusing attention to the actual soaps themselves, and you're called SOAPnet, that my friends, is pretty sad.
There are two things that I was really entertained by though. One being the Emmy marathon back in June. I imagine that they went a bit out of their way getting the episode of Guiding Light and two episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful, and the idea of seeing the actual full episodes that made the cut for Best Drama is a really good one. The second thing was the Days of our Lives marathon back in October that had episodes from Marlena's possession. It's always a good idea to me to dust off the classics from the vaults and holidays and special occasions are really good times to do such marathons. And I wish they would take more advantage of this aspect. It's nice to revisit some of these series when they were written better.
April really ticked me off. By then for a while Dallas was on 4 times a day; no show should air that much daily. Another World would be gone, and Ryan's Hope and Port Charles were only airing twice a week. Luckily after a couple of months Ryan's Hope was back in its old time slot. I've become a big fan of that rather quickly and two episodes a week drove me insane. It took longer for Port Charles to come back to 5-day-a-week showings. I'm not as into Port Charles, but I still feel bad for the fans as I notice in December they got screwed again as the weekday episodes were taken off once more and again only the two weekend episodes remain. I'm sorry, but you don't air a show that has produced over 1,000 episodes twice a week. You just don’t do that. Anyone with common sense would know that. They also did nothing for Port's 10th anniversary. And you can't even begin to imagine my frustration to find out that Another World would not only be gone but replaced with One Tree Hill. And The O.C. does not belong on this network in my eyes either.
My problem with The Fashionista Diaries coming in August is very plain and simple. It is not a soap opera. And while I'm no big fan of either I Wanna Be A Soap Star, Soap Talk, or Soapography, at least they have something to do with the genre. Why is a network called SOAPnet, and using their old slogan, "devoted to soaps and soap fans" airing a show that has absolutely nothing to do with soaps? If fashion was the big deal, they could have called up CBS and tried to pick up same day/week rights to air The Bold and the Beautiful.
Just because it's either simply a drama or a show that has conflict between the people on it, that doesn't mean that it belongs on a network devoted to soap operas. If conflicting people was all that was needed, then they might as well pick up reruns of any courtroom show or Maury since they have "conflict." As a fan of One Tree Hill, I will still watch first-run episodes on The CW and buy the DVDs. If a more appropriately fitting network picks it up and I have the channel, then I'll be glad to watch the reruns. Same with The O.C. Nothing against it at all. I'm sure it's a decent show. I’m just not watching it on SOAPnet out of principle. When you've got these shows, and more primetime dramas on in the other time slots, and a show like The Fashionista Diaries on, and seemingly paying more attention to these shows than focusing attention to the actual soaps themselves, and you're called SOAPnet, that my friends, is pretty sad.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Days of our Lives: The Devil Made Me Blog It
I was pretty excited when I heard SOAPnet will be airing three special episodes of Days of our Lives in honor of Halloween on the 28th. They are from probably one of the most infamous storylines in the show’s history: the Marlena possession storyline. And not just any possession, my friends. Marlena Evans here was possessed by the devil, ol' Satan himself. Here are the episode descriptions:
9PM: Episode #1995-7528 (OAD 5/12/95) Kristen is on to Marlena who morphs into a panther and also has Shawn attacked by a swarm of bees.
10PM: Episode #1995-7531 (OAD 5/17/95) After her loved ones see Marlena levitate and then interact with her as the devil, it's decided an exorcism is needed.
11PM: Episode #1995-7570 (OAD 7/18/95) With her friends and family thinking Marlena's dead, John fights the devil for her soul and brings her back.
Now after reading these, I immediately realized who the head writer was at the time, none other than James E. Reilly. I mean, considering the bizarre storylines that have come from Passions and his style of writing, there’s really no other person in my eyes in the soap opera writing business that could have come up with any more out-of-this-world type drama. As much as I’m looking forward to seeing these episodes for nostalgic purposes, I have to admit I’m a bit cringe-worthy now that I’ve seen the summaries. I was also surprised to find out that this storyline managed to last one year. And considering the quality of Mr. Reilly’s work, particularly on Passions, I couldn’t believe that he had a second run on Days; coming up with another infamous storyline, Melaswen in 2004 (that’s New Salem spelled backwards), where a bunch of characters who were believed to be murdered were actually wound up stranded on an island. I’ve heard mostly mixed reviews about the Possession era, but I know a lot of fans were turned off by Melaswen, and some haven’t come back since.
There are many soap fans who loathe this man. I myself really can’t say I’m a big fan of his work either. I admit after I managed to get over my anger with NBC for canceling Sunset Beach, I gave his creation Passions a try and did manage to enjoy it for the first 3 years. Then after that, I got sick of it. Basically because the plots were going nowhere fast, the dialogue became very repetitive, and while I'd try to tune back in a couple of times, nothing kept me hooked and made me want to stay. Also there were many instances where we finally thought something major was happening, only to find out the big revelation was a dream. That gets really annoying if it happens repeatedly. And when you stop caring about your favorite characters and/or couples, that is really not a good sign. I wasn’t sad to see it leave NBC. It was nowhere near Another World or even Sunset Beach quality, but I did enjoy it in the start, and he really managed to defecate on his own creation overtime. He also wrote Beach for a while, and after reading some of the plot synopses for that show to refresh my memory, I can take a safe bet and easily guess which ones he was responsible for.
As for the Days marathon, I do have to thank SOAPnet for airing a marathon that is well planned out and has something to do with the genre. This is another network that earlier this year has become known for airing things that don’t fit the purpose of the channel (case in point: The Fashionista Diaries), and for a while dumping traditional soap programming either entirely (which was the case with Another World) or to weekends only (Ryan‘s Hope and Port Charles), and making several other unfavorable schedule changes only to change a lot of them back. So I have to say this was a really nice surprise. It seems they can have a marathon of classic Days and the ABC soaps when they can, examples including: Days’ 40th anniversary, General Hospital’s Luke and Laura special marathon, the classic All My Children marathon that aired back in 2005, and the Ryan’s Hope marathon on St. Patrick’s Day a couple or so years back. I hope we get to see more classic stuff like this in the future. They’ve got a vast library of ABC shows that go back to the early if not mid-late ‘70’s at least, and from what is known, every episode of Days of our Lives exists in full. They also air The Young and the Restless, but considering how CBS won’t allow GSN to air any classic episodes of The Price Is Right, and according to a Soap Opera Digest article earlier this year they also won’t let AOL put older episodes of As The World Turns and Guiding Light on the Procter & Gamble classic soaps page. So I doubt we’ll see SOAPnet air any classic Y&R, at least for a while. I hope I’m wrong and that we see a marathon someday. I’d think they’d be able to make a deal with Sony but I can’t say for sure. I advise for SOAPnet to please use some of the classic episodes available more in the future when special occasions arise. Thanksgiving or Christmas would be an absolute perfect time to have one.
9PM: Episode #1995-7528 (OAD 5/12/95) Kristen is on to Marlena who morphs into a panther and also has Shawn attacked by a swarm of bees.
10PM: Episode #1995-7531 (OAD 5/17/95) After her loved ones see Marlena levitate and then interact with her as the devil, it's decided an exorcism is needed.
11PM: Episode #1995-7570 (OAD 7/18/95) With her friends and family thinking Marlena's dead, John fights the devil for her soul and brings her back.
Now after reading these, I immediately realized who the head writer was at the time, none other than James E. Reilly. I mean, considering the bizarre storylines that have come from Passions and his style of writing, there’s really no other person in my eyes in the soap opera writing business that could have come up with any more out-of-this-world type drama. As much as I’m looking forward to seeing these episodes for nostalgic purposes, I have to admit I’m a bit cringe-worthy now that I’ve seen the summaries. I was also surprised to find out that this storyline managed to last one year. And considering the quality of Mr. Reilly’s work, particularly on Passions, I couldn’t believe that he had a second run on Days; coming up with another infamous storyline, Melaswen in 2004 (that’s New Salem spelled backwards), where a bunch of characters who were believed to be murdered were actually wound up stranded on an island. I’ve heard mostly mixed reviews about the Possession era, but I know a lot of fans were turned off by Melaswen, and some haven’t come back since.
There are many soap fans who loathe this man. I myself really can’t say I’m a big fan of his work either. I admit after I managed to get over my anger with NBC for canceling Sunset Beach, I gave his creation Passions a try and did manage to enjoy it for the first 3 years. Then after that, I got sick of it. Basically because the plots were going nowhere fast, the dialogue became very repetitive, and while I'd try to tune back in a couple of times, nothing kept me hooked and made me want to stay. Also there were many instances where we finally thought something major was happening, only to find out the big revelation was a dream. That gets really annoying if it happens repeatedly. And when you stop caring about your favorite characters and/or couples, that is really not a good sign. I wasn’t sad to see it leave NBC. It was nowhere near Another World or even Sunset Beach quality, but I did enjoy it in the start, and he really managed to defecate on his own creation overtime. He also wrote Beach for a while, and after reading some of the plot synopses for that show to refresh my memory, I can take a safe bet and easily guess which ones he was responsible for.
As for the Days marathon, I do have to thank SOAPnet for airing a marathon that is well planned out and has something to do with the genre. This is another network that earlier this year has become known for airing things that don’t fit the purpose of the channel (case in point: The Fashionista Diaries), and for a while dumping traditional soap programming either entirely (which was the case with Another World) or to weekends only (Ryan‘s Hope and Port Charles), and making several other unfavorable schedule changes only to change a lot of them back. So I have to say this was a really nice surprise. It seems they can have a marathon of classic Days and the ABC soaps when they can, examples including: Days’ 40th anniversary, General Hospital’s Luke and Laura special marathon, the classic All My Children marathon that aired back in 2005, and the Ryan’s Hope marathon on St. Patrick’s Day a couple or so years back. I hope we get to see more classic stuff like this in the future. They’ve got a vast library of ABC shows that go back to the early if not mid-late ‘70’s at least, and from what is known, every episode of Days of our Lives exists in full. They also air The Young and the Restless, but considering how CBS won’t allow GSN to air any classic episodes of The Price Is Right, and according to a Soap Opera Digest article earlier this year they also won’t let AOL put older episodes of As The World Turns and Guiding Light on the Procter & Gamble classic soaps page. So I doubt we’ll see SOAPnet air any classic Y&R, at least for a while. I hope I’m wrong and that we see a marathon someday. I’d think they’d be able to make a deal with Sony but I can’t say for sure. I advise for SOAPnet to please use some of the classic episodes available more in the future when special occasions arise. Thanksgiving or Christmas would be an absolute perfect time to have one.
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