Re: Y&R: Brad - wow, that lasted long...NOT

In rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs on Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:37:46 -0700 in Msg.#
<1191105466.196778.100340@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Rthrquiet
<rthrquiet@xxxxxxx> wrote:

RH:

and the Bells/Alden/Smith return to the *language* of the old
Y&R, I would have to stop watching. I just cannot listen to people
mangle English that way for more than a scene or two.

Shirl:

? I'm not sure what you're specifically referring to.

Michael:

This comment has taken me a bit by surprise as well. As an ex-teacher
and a current copyeditor, I tend to notice bad syntax and
ungrammatical speech, and that's not what I remember about dialogue in
the Bell years. I'm not saying it wasn't there, and certainly the
dialogue did bother me, but grammar was never the reason. Can you
think of any examples, RH?

Well, I've already stopped watching.

But, one of the primary faults I had of the traditional show was dialogue.
They delivered their lines so slowly. And, many of the lines were written in
very tortured ways & not at all the way that anyone speaks!

Shirl again:
If you mean over-use
of catch phrases -- like Jack mentioning the "fiber of my being" in
every other episode, or Neil telling everyone he knows that he wants to
make sure they're "on the same page", or everyone in GC answering their
phone with "Hi, Yourself!" -- then I totally agree.

Michael:
Yes, that was the phenomenon that bothered me about the dialogue.
Everyone in GC tended to use the same phrases--unlikely even within
Smalltown, USA. The two that I remember most were starting a sentence
with "My God, X," with X being the name of the person being spoken to,
and "You had to know that . . .," which stuck out for me particularly
because even the first time I heard it, it didn't sound like natural
speech to me anyway (I would have said, "You must have known
that . . . "), but once I'd heard four or five different characters
use it, I started to go out of my mind.

Yes, they did use repetitive phrases and phrasing to the point of
distraction.

I'll let RH speak for himself. In the past he's had some wonderful examples.

--
DonnaB shallotpeel

"A man hasn't got a corner on virtue just because his shoes are shined." -
Anne Petry
.

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