Re: Y&R-Monday's show was awesome!

MarkH:
Well, I think Y&R will still be around till at least 2010. I think
that Passions goes first, then DOOL, then ATWT/GL, and then AMC (even
though the smart money would say OLTL will die before AMC...but OLTL
today is actually creatively stronger than AMC).

I know what you mean about "destroyed". I get that. "Out of the
Ashes", for example, IS a stunt...and it reeks of desperation. (I
happen to like the "week off" from the usual, but that's just me).

But here's the thing: I actually think the stunts are a worthy
attempt. I think if the shows stayed mired in their classical styles,
they would lose viewers EVEN FASTER.

I disagree with that.

I think that the drive to
innovate and become relevant/cool again is admirable.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with shows with classical styles
looking to make innovative changes to keep them fresh, up-to-date, and
engaging. But that has to be done with SOME degree of care, concern, and
vision into the future with regard to long-term effects of such changes.
What's wrong with LML/Bloom's "innovations" is that they fail to look
ahead and/or to observe the Golden Rule of good business: Every customer
is important.

They remind me of the cartoon character that's perched on a tree limb
happily sawing away and not even realizing that the limb he's cutting is
the one he's sitting on.

That may sound WAY too simple and basic, but bottom line is that unless
you can assure and guarantee that some new methodology is going to bring
in new customers *in droves*, no successful business that depends on
*repeat customer* patronage can afford to thumb their nose at customers
who have supported their product for one, two or three decades. It
simply can't be done without some long-term consequences...and soaps DO
depend on repeat business.

The thing is--and here is where I am NOT an optimist--I don't think
there is ANYTHING that ANY TPTB can do to fix this. NOTHING. I think
the problem is that soaps stopped being viewed as "cool" when the
Luke&Laura generation grew up past high school/college age. I think
non-cool genres don't survive in the mainstream (Big Band music,
anyone? Hey...what about classic rock?). I think that soaps share
features with most game shows, dinnertime network news...heck, even
primetime itself....they are products of a past era, and they are not
relevant to the emerging cohorts of viewers.

I'm okay with that. One of my life credos is the old biblical
passage: "To everything there is a season/a time for every purpose
under the sun/A time to be born and a time to die..."

I'm okay with that, too. The soap genre is declining and has been for
some time. But you don't start experimenting with things a perfectly
healthy and fit 65-yr-old may have done all his life to keep himself
healthy just because he's going to die eventually anyway! Sure, he may
start taking vitamins or eating more fruit or exercising differently --
some tweaks/improvements here and there -- but he doesn't make DRASTIC
changes to a lifestyle that has kept him healthy for 65 years just
because he's in his senior/declining years. To do so would be stupid for
all the same reasons as this ridiculously drastic change in "lifestyle"
LML&Friends have given to Y&R.

I'm the last generation of viewers (in a short history--really just
from the post-war era) that got hooked on soaps in a multi-
generational context (grandma, mom). The breeding context that
spawned viewers like us is over...mom doesn't stay at home anymore.
Stories about relationships don't really sell anymore...they're not
cool.

Again, I disagree. Desperate Housewives is about relationships, and it's
a huge hit. The Sopranos is about relationships, and it was a huge hit.
I know there are others.

Look at the dominance of primetime reality shows and
procedurals. Those shows are NOT about relationships.

And there's more than a little buzz about people being fed up with
reality shows already ... JMO, but I think that will prove to be a very
short-lived genre, comparatively.

So, I love watching what TPTB do with my Y&R. I'll stick around as
long as I can, because the "place" gave me many happy memories and
sort of forms the "backdrop" of my life. I admire any soul that has
the courage to try to perpetuate the daytime serial form in the
current market. They CANNOT succeed, in the long run. The financials
and demographics are working against them.

That may be true, but if you hold Y&R in that special place because it
gave you many happy memories and was the backdrop of your life -- a
description many of us share -- why would you be so willing to give
anyone the green light to GASLIGHT it? It's smoldering anyway, so go
ahead and pour some gasoline on it and see what happens! I just don't
see a single bit of wisdom in that.

Just last night, I saw the pilot episode of Northern Exposure...the
first time I've seen that show since the early 90s. Oh, how I love
it. It made me feel good to see and relive Cicely a little. I'll
never lose that show...it fulfilled its' function in my life, and I'm
okay that it has "moved on". That's where I see my relationship with
Y&R headed.

I'd be okay with a genre that eventually dies and the loss of a show
that I describe as you did -- one that gave me many happy memories and
was a backdrop to my own real life events. What I'm NOT okay with is the
idea that it's dying anyway, so what've we got to lose by EXPERIMENTING
with it?

But hey, shouldn't come as any surprise ... that's the attitude society
today has about its own elderly, too.

Shirl
.

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