Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone’s having a great Thanksgiving! It’s all about being with family – which gives me an excuse to post these as a reminder.

A clip from Guiding Light, with a sea of familiar faces (including one who came into our homes for almost 50 years, Mary Stuart):

From As The World Turns. That Hubbard squash is gonna get it.

I’ve posted this before, but who doesn’t want to catch another glimpse of Another World’s Mac and Rachel Cory (and crazy Aunt Liz)?

No Thanksgiving remembrance could be complete without a visit to the Quartermaines.

And at the risk of being a nag, I really hope you can send some of the warmth you’re feeling today into the lives of others. To honor GL and ATWT’s creator, I made a contribution to a local food pantry run by the church that inspired GL. I hope you’ll consider making a contribution too (read my earlier post for more details).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Eagerly anticipated

After watching this teaser? I am SO there. So, so there.

Love the song, by the way. Hope it’s on iTunes!

The king of pain – and the queen of talk

It’s been quite a Friday! We learned two pieces of news today that will have a substantial impact on daytime.

One, of course, was the announcement that Oprah Winfrey will be ending her daily syndicated talk show in 2011. The other was the announcement that Chuck Pratt was fired as head writer of All My Children.

AMC: I’ll be interested in watching how Pratt’s dismissal affects the show. It could not possibly come at a more crucial, life-changing time for AMC.

It’s at a dramatic crossroads: an aging show that’s turning 40 in a daytime environment that’s not exactly friendly. It’s literally picking up its roots and moving across country. And it’s losing one of its few supercouples, Zach and Kendall. AMC desperately needs to re-tune, refine, and reinvent itself.

Much of the last decade has not been kind to AMC or its fans. Few new characters (outside of Zach and perhaps Annie and Amanda) have been successful with fans.

A succession of writers who favored plot and spectacle over characters and substance (McTavish, Brown & Esensten and then Pratt) ruined several previously admirable, likable characters like Greenlee, Bianca and Ryan. And AMC, more than any other show, failed miserably in its attempts to reach back and revive history (witness the botched returns of Maria, Julia, and Dixie, to name a few).

I hope Brian Frons recognizes the important crossroads AMC is at, and appoints a writer who can guide the show into the next decade but honor and respect its past. Agnes Nixon created some of the most fabulous, quirky characters that ever lived out their lives on our screens for Pine Valley. Let’s hope that AMC can steal back USA Network’s motto: “Characters Welcome.”

THE MIGHTY O: The Oprah Winfrey Show may not be a soap opera, but her show’s departure will have an enormous impact on networks, local affiliates, and how they manage (and make money from) their daypart programming.

I’ll throw the worst-case scenario out there first: It could have a very negative impact on local stations and on network/affiliate relations.

Why? Minus a big moneymaker like Oprah, networks may decide to go for the Jay Leno model, where cheaply-made news shows or (gasp) infomercials could take that space. That could be a bad thing for the remaining soaps, which will have to cut costs even deeper to make themselves profitable – if the networks don’t cancel them first.

But I also think this could be a phenomenal opportunity. If I were ABC (the network with the biggest number of affiliates that carry Oprah), I’d consider programming that slot with other programming – including, yes, soap operas.

In many markets, Oprah runs immediately after General Hospital in a late-afternoon slot. Programming one or two half-hour soaps, especially ones aimed at younger audiences, could both make that slot a profitable one and provide sustenance for the soap market as a whole.

I also think OWN (Oprah’s network) may be a wonderful opportunity for a new serialized show. Sponsor-driven daytime is often too timid to take a stand on social issues and current events, but in many other countries, soaps are used to share the stories of others and bring greater understanding of issues.

Oprah’s goal, after all, is helping people to live their best lives. I’d love to see a leader with that kind of commitment to quality and to intelligence providing both entertainment and food for thought. It’s a commitment to quality, to entertainment, and to inspire that’s been sorely lacking on daytime.

All that we send into the lives of others

More snide sarcasm coming soon. We interrupt today’s broadcast for this special announcement…..

When Guiding Light ended in September, I shared some of the local Chicago points of interest that were part of Irna Phillips’ life, and of GL’s beginnings.

Around the same time, I was lucky to be one of the people who landed a new job after months of post-layoff unemployment. As I’d promised in September, I sent a donation to the same church that Phillips found comfort in during a rough time – the one that eventually inspired her to create GL.

I’m hoping to inspire GL fans, as well as ATWT fans and fans of other Phillips creations, to donate to 2 Li’l Fishes, the church’s food pantry. And to make it fun, I’m recommending that you do what I did – donate an amount equal to the number of years you’ve been watching.

I’d love to have you post in the comments here the number of years and dollars you donated! It’s a great way to honor something that entertained me for so many years, and to speak to the message that we directly affect the lives of others every day – that our actions speak louder than words and dialogue.

The Web site for 2 Li’l Fishes, which includes their mailing address, can be found here.

Prime numbers

About a year ago, I talked about some of the prime-time serials, and wished that their daytime counterparts would copy from them. My contention was that the prime-time shows were doing a much better job at portraying romance, family and the fine points of relationships.

I may have spoken too soon.

The ballad of Hans Gudegast

No matter what big, splashy storyline you might be watching onscreen these days – Carly returning to Salem? Tea and Todd getting married? Who really killed Stuart Chandler? – that story can only pale when compared to the high drama and the twists and turns provided by the story of Eric Braeden and his job status as Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless.

The story reached its climax on Friday when it was announced Braeden would be returning to the role of Victor. It was a culmination of a series of events worthy of Victor Newman. Braeden gave a slew of “exclusive” interviews and played hardball.

According to Sara Bibel’s Deep Soap, the tide appears to have turned when entertainment news sites like Entertainment Weekly reported that the salary that Braeden claimed was a “lowball” salary was still in the neighborhood of a million dollars. When Sony played those PR cards, Braeden’s camp appeared to be in a more conciliatory mood.

All personal feelings about the character and the actor aside, I think the whole Braeden story is a fascinating study in office politics and the power of public relations.

And it clears up one mystery that both We Love Soaps‘ Roger Newcomb and I had been puzzling about for so long. Namely: why the HELL does Eric Braeden get so many Soap Opera Digest covers?  It’s been no secret that Braeden’s publicist has for years maintained a sweetheart deal for Braeden – if he talks to you about story, Eric is on the cover. Period.

Was it ego? Perhaps. But in light of his now-temporary departure, I see it as solid insurance for a man working in a genre that has pushed many other actors in his age range and pay range down the elevator shaft.  This all hit me when I read Michael Logan’s interview (an “exclusive” one) with Braeden earlier this month. Logan’s interview with Braeden included this very telling comment:

ERIC BRAEDEN: It’s not that I’m not cognizant of these difficult economic times. One has to be stupid not to be aware. I’m also aware of certain decreases in the [Y&R] license fee that took place recently, but now it’s sledgehammer time, you know? [And that’s wrong] when you put your ass on the line for this show for 30 years, and have done as much publicity as I have. I still sell more [daytime] magazines than anyone in this medium, as you know. And I am very proud of that association.

Braeden’s insistence on being a cover boy could be called a lot of things – but stupid isn’t one of them. Those covers came in handy in the public relations battle that followed.

I’ll admit that, from a creative perspective, I’m not a huge Victor Newman fan. And whether it’s the character of Victor, or Braeden’s acting skills, I’ve felt that Victor was a pretty limited character. For years, I thought he was the Ridge Forrester of Y&R, a wooden character who’s more of a figurehead than anything else.

But while Braeden may be no Olivier or Branagh, it occurred to me the other day who he IS – daytime’s Clint Eastwood. Eastwood doesn’t have an A to Z acting range, either. But he plays the hell out of the few letters he does have in his range, and he’s smart and thoughtful about trying to make those characters more than one-dimensional stick figures.

In any event, the band playing the sad ballad of Hans Gudegast (Braeden’s real name) has left the rathskeller, and that ominous violin music is back, heralding his return. The Mustache, Father Time, The Great Victor Newman (TGVN) – whatever you call him, he may have been down, but he’s definitely not out.

You got that?

Dazed and confused

Readers: My apologies for being incommunicado for the last few weeks. Thanks for your loyalty to A Thousand Other Worlds!

You have no idea how much I’d like to write a glowingly positive review of As The World Turns. I’ve been watching the show since 1985 – almost 25 years – and I’ll be writing a lot more about it in the next few weeks.

Speculation about ATWT’s future has been fast and furious since sister show Guiding Light was cancelled. P&G shows, which once numbered in the dozens, are down to one, and rumors persist this is the end of the road for ATWT, now daytime’s lowest rated soap.

I’ve been trying to understand where the show is headed by watching the last few weeks and months. But I’m still not clear what story ATWT is trying to tell.

Zombieland

Halloween isn’t for a few more weeks, but I swear we’ve been living in some parallel soap universe overrun by zombies.

We’ve all become accustomed to very shocking news – with the industry shrinking and budgets disappearing, we’ve experienced our share of  ”oh no they didn’t!” moments in the comings and goings department.

But the last few weeks have been truly astonishing.

Let’s take a look at these bombshells, one by one.

My favorite new soap

In the last few weeks, I’ve become addicted to a fantastic new soap.

It’s a soap with engaging characters that leap off of the screen, as well as a great sense of humor. Even though half the characters are in high school, they’re still so well developed that I actually care about what happens to them. And my new favorite soap has already launched into a few sudsy storylines.

I am, of course, talking about Glee.

Lessons Oakdale needs to learn from Springfield

Oh yes, I AM going there.

It may seem too soon – since Guiding Light only ended about 48 hours ago – but time is of the essence.

Yes, I loved Guiding Light. And I love As The World Turns, too. I was disillusioned with it for much of 2008 and 2009, and I had focused much of my energy in this blog on GL. But now Oakdale has my undivided attention! Lucky for them.

I’ve been watching ATWT since 1986, and I’m very worried – as many of us are – that it might be next to go. I think GL suffered from bad timing – it made necessary changes way too late in the game – so I’m hoping ATWT will learn from some of the lessons that GL had to learn the hard way.

Here’s some things ATWT should learn from its older – and unfortunately dearly departed – sibling.