SOAP OPERA UNCENSORED
Volume 02, Issue 21 (No. 31)
BY NELSON BRANCO
Copyright 2012 Nelson Branco
INSIDE — She’s Baaack: Exclusive Interview with B&B’s Sex Bombshell Crystal Chappell! The Emmy Winner Sounds Off On Her New Gay Character; Being Typecast; Joanna Johnson’s Coming Out; President Obama’s Support For Same-Sex Marriage; Why Jessica Leccia Is Fuming Mad; And Whether or Not She’s Sticking Around B&B For Good! Exclusive Interview: Stacy Haiduk On What Went Wrong at DAYS and Y&R! Plus: Is She Returning to Genoa City? The Truth Behind Molly Burnett Leaving DAYS! Three Soap Actors Expecting Babies! Exclusive: Find Out Which Soapers Made the Coveted Q-Rating List! Shocker: Which GH Actor Beat John Travolta?! Bad News For GH? GOOD AFTERNOON AMERICA Debut Date, Co-Hosts Announced! Christie Clark Back on DAYS? Former Real-Life Y&R Lesbian Engaged… to a Man! Last Week's Reviews, Unbelievable Blind Items, and Next Week's Cheat Sheet!
UNCENSORED MASTHEAD:
FOUNDER/EDITOR: Nelson Branco
EDITOR AT LARGE: Denette Wilford
Follow Soap Opera Uncensored at: @nelliebranco or @SoapUncensored
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UNCENSORED QUOTES OF THE WEEK:
“I had kind of a blackout moment in the dried food aisle.”
—Emmy winner Jennifer Landon in DIGEST regarding learning the news she was cast as Y&R’s Heather
Translation: Working on the Y&R set is just as nutty.
“Maria’s trying to make Heather more salt of the earth.”
—Landon adds
Translation: I’ll be fired in six months.
“[Exec producer] Frank Valentini is as good as it gets. He has that old-fashioned Gloria Monty commitment to the job and is the first one in the building in the morning and the last one out at night. And he works all weekend! This is not to say that the people before him didn't care, but he's committed to this show in a very unique way. There's no substitute for loving the medium. You know that saying ‘A new broom sweeps clean’? Well, that's Frank. As good as [former exec producer] Jill Phelps was and as much as I loved working with her, a new broom sweeps clean. Frank comes to this show with fresh eyes, with no disappointments, no frustrations over lost battles. He comes with everything he has to give.”
—Jane Elliot in TV Guide on GH’s new showrunner
Translation: JFP made me sweep the floors with her broom before taking flight with it.
“I think I'm the only 65-year-old actress in Los Angeles who hasn't had plastic surgery, so somebody's gotta play the old-lady parts!”
—Elliot in the same interview
Translation: Poor Jackie Zeman.
“I did act with Elvis for Christ’s sake!”
—Elliot adds
Translation: And now I work with even bigger train wrecks!
“All I can do is think back to when Bill Bell, Sr. was alive. He might have been criticized over a storyline, but only he knew where that road was leading. So once we got there, we all thought, ‘Oooh! That’s why that happened!’ This is why Bill didn’t care if people were criticizing him. He saw the bigger picture. I’m just assuming that’s the same with Maria [Bell; current head writer and executive producer]. She knows where she’s going on this very unusual road — we don’t.”
—Melody Thomas Scott averts questions by TV WATERCOOLER on the universally despised Shictor pairing during a recent Toronto appearance
Translation: We’re all fucked.
“Maybe [Y&R’s] testing the waters [with Shictor]. I know Bill never did that. Bill didn’t care what the viewers thought. He had his vision and his story that he was going to tell and he was just going to tell it. He would not have paid any attention to it at all. He never read fan mail. He appreciated comments and feedback, but it never altered his story and what he was going to tell. Never. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but that’s how he worked.”
—MTS rambles on
Translation: He also wouldn’t have put up with actors refusing to take pay cuts.
“I was fired. I was not on the show anymore.”
—Melody Thomas Scott still maintains she was fired after reportedly refusing to take a pay cut
Translation: Because of my own doing.
FALL OF THE MOUSE HOUSE
GOOD AFTERNOON, SOAPERS
Here we go again: Replacing ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s failed “recast,” THE REVOLUTION, GOOD AFTERNOON AMERICA will debut on Monday, July 9, announced ABC Monday.
GOOD MORNING AMERICA’s Josh Elliott and Lara Spencer will anchor the program, with Sam Champion, Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos joining in with special appearances. Soapers need not apply.
A release claims, “The energetic, fast-paced program will feature the most-talked about celebrities, performances by the biggest names in the music industry, the latest pop culture news plus offer original entertainment, lifestyle, health, workplace and consumer reporting from an all-star list of contributors and other members of the ABC family.”
Elliott says, “It’s tremendous that GMA has this opportunity to extend its reach, and bring something new to the afternoons. It is gratifying to play a role in it and genuinely hope our audience will come along for the ride.”
New? There’s nothing new about GAA.
Co-anchor Lara Spencer added, “I am beyond excited and honoured to be part of this new chapter for the GOOD MORNING AMERICA family. GOOD AFTERNOON AMERICA gives us the opportunity to reach a different audience, and better yet, spend a little more time with our morning viewers who want to be a part of the conversation and fun we plan on bringing to afternoon TV.”
Tell that to the cast of THE REVOLUTION. Sorry, but nothing will replace ONE LIFE TO LIVE.
This press release and its aforementioned quotes adds more credence to the rumours that the soap-killing network is secretly hoping GAA outperforms GH so it can cancel the last ABC soap standing when KATIE takes over Port Chuck’s 3 p.m. ET time slot.
But soap fans aren’t going to let that happen.
If ABC’s intentions toward GH are indeed sincere, one could argue it’s wise on their part to further mine GMA’s recent ratings growth in the day for a short period of time before GH moves into THE REVOLUTION’s timeslot, but one could also argue that ABC is much more cunning than that.
Moreover, Spencer’s comments in the press release makes it sound like GAA is a long-term ABC project and here to stay for more than nine weeks.
GAA will be taped at GMA’s studio at the crossroads of the world, the heart of Times Square. Additionally, Goodmorningamerica.com has expanded its lead and in April, had 17 million more unique users than Today.com.
Hence, more proof that GH viewers should be worried: The nine-week series has a freakin’ website already!
Ethan Nelson is the executive producer of GOOD AFTERNOON AMERICA.
More like, GOOD LUCK, ETHAN NELSON.
SOAP RALLY 2012
BEING UPFRONT WITH ADVERTISERS
Last year’s soap rally, which I helped organize, garnered major mainstream headlines and news coverage from radio to TV to print. It prompted Prospect Park to license AMC and ONE LIFE due to the universal outcry over ABC’s misguided decision to cancel its two iconic soaps in one day.
Last week, Soap Fans United staged a similar rally at the ABC Upfronts in New York (as well as this week’s L.A.’s Upfronts).
So what happened? Well, this is encouraging: An ABC aff
iliate general manager contacted one of the rally organizers to say that their handout/literature was full of useful and correct information. They were so impressed with the literature and facts in the pamphlet that they wanted extra copies.
What did the pamphlet contain: Advertising and ratings information on both AMC, ONE LIFE compared to THE CHEW and THE REVOLUTION.
More soon.
COVER STORY
THE C WORD
Crystal Chappell comes roaring back to daytime in yet another groundbreaking role — and on the world’s most popular soap opera, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL!
“What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains.”