Soap Opera: Uncensored — Issue 4

by Nelson Branco

than enough room for Chappell and Alfonso on DAYS. Yes, I unfairly targeted Alfonso on Twitter — not in my former column — but after AMC and One Life were both cancelled, and DAYS fired two of the most beloved and talented actors in its show’s history (there’s a reason why Chappell and Nadia Bjorlin boast almost a 100K Twitter followers combined, which ironically are the viewers that checked into DAYS and then checked out after the reboot), my feelings got the best of me because it’s frustrated standing idly by watching egos reportedly play fast and loose with this iconic genre when it needs all the help it can get.

  It’s sad because the Bo/Carly/Hope triangle could have set the show back on fire, à la the polarizing Jax/Brenda/Sonny triangle on GH. Heck, it would have been much cheaper than this expensive reboot. Write it — and they will come. One can’t deny how many viewers Chappell brought back to DAYS during her initially awesome comeback — and a significant portion of the orphaned Guiding Light fan base — so it’s disappointing that NBC basically ignored that huge influx of viewers by letting one of daytime’s biggest superstars go (even GL would never had considered that!).

  While DAYS increased 90K viewers during its initial reboot, it lost more than that amount this past week. When Chappell rejoined DAYS, the serial shot up to number two in total viewers and was credited for the show being up almost half a million viewers during her initial return.

  Instead, Hope and Carly were marooned suspiciously on two separate storyline islands instead of battling each other onscreen. Apparently, things were fine in the beginning but after a love scene involving Chappell and Reckell aired, things got tense afterwards, report my moles.

  And no, Chappell was not my source. Anyone who knows Chappell knows that she’s infuriatingly diplomatic — and has only spoken highly of Alfonso to me. Chappell and I are two different people — with our own unique opinions, experiences and roles in the business.

  And these allegations aren’t that hard to believe. After all, Alfonso and Peter Reckell have been candid about their iconic 1980s feud. Also, Alfonso and her former co-star Robert Kelker Kelly reportedly didn’t get along, either. So if she did indeed refuse to work opposite Chappell, it doesn’t require a huge stretch of the imagination. But, yes, it’s unfair to assume Alfonso led to Chappell’s firing so I apologize for that statement.

  Regardless, I’m thrilled to have Bo and Hope back as the two smart cops they were in the 1980s. Also, it’s rumoured that Bo and Hope will be renewing their vows. Perfect. Does anyone remember how many times Bo and Hope have tied the knot?

  • But who needs Crystal Chappell now that Lisa Rinna is reportedly returning to the show that made her a breakout star! According to the Huffington Post’s Rob Shuter, Rinna is back James Franco-style. And I’d believe him since he made a cameo as a Salem blogger/reporter during the Horton Square celebrations late last month. Here’s what Rob wrote:

  “DAYS has a great new team behind it, and they are determined to make sure the show not only survives but thrives,” an insider tells me. “Part of the strategy is bringing out the big guns, which includes bringing back Lisa Rinna and Billie Reed.”

  Soaps have gone through a tough time recently, with ratings declining and the cancellation of AMC and One Life. And although the future of daytime soaps is still anything but certain, the team behind DAYS has made it clear it's going to fight.

  “Lisa is doing a James Franco,” the source says, referencing Franco's recent guest role on GH. “There is something full circle about bringing her back to the role that made her famous and now harnessing her celebrity to secure the future of the show.”

  Love Lisa Rinna but comparing the actress to an Oscar-nominated actor who headlines major box office fare is a bit of stretch, non?

  NBC confirmed the news today via Soap Opera Digest. She’ll first appear in December. Welcome back, Lisa!

  • Well, that didn’t take long! Just three weeks after its highly publicized reboot, co-executive producer Greg Meng confirmed exclusively to Soap Opera Digest that Lisa De Cazotte will be joining him as Co-Executive Producer on DAYS, replacing Noel Maxam, effective immediately. Most recently, De Cazotte — formerly Passions’s executive producer — was a producer at AMC. She has previously worked on Santa Barbara and GH: Night Shift. This move reunites DeCazotte with new head writers Marlene McPherson and  Darrell Ray Thomas.

  I like DeCazotte… so I wish her well in her new endeavour. After all, like Frank Valentini, she got her start on One Life in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Let’s see if she can help spike those depressing DAYS ratings. As for Maxam, there are some rumblings he could be headed back to Y&R where he served as a longtime director.

  But this is funny: which daytime insider emailed me upon learning the news of DeCazotte to quip that the former AMC producer/ABC employee “caught the last helicopter out of Vietnam?!” Ha!

  • How awesome has Kate Mansi been as Abby? What. A. Find. Mansi is acting her sexy little heart out as a daughter caught in the middle of her parents’ failed marriage. Also, Matthew Ashford should be a lock for an Outstanding Supporting Actor nomination come Emmy time next year. Ashford has always been one of my favourite — and underrated — DAYS actors. And he looks better than ever these days! Welcome back, Matt. Of all of DAYS’s comebacks this fall, I have to say Ashford’s is the most successful. I just hope DAYS lays off the Afghanistan beat of Jack’s back story and throws him into the John and Marlena embezzlement storyline as the investigative blogger he was meant to be. DAYS could really tell a timely story about today’s media due to social networking strides and new technology.

  • I’m really digging DAYS’s reboot but I have to admit the show is a tad on the boring side. More humour and energy are needed to be infused… also, 90 per cent of the storylines are exposed in soap magazines in a lot of detail, so watching is sort of pointless. As Kim Zimmer would shrug, “Just sayin.’”

  • In story 411, EJ and Nicole make love… and Hope learns Stefano is involved in Alice’s new secret! Hmmm…

  • Talented newcomer Freddie Smith Jr. recently shot down rumours that a Will and Sonny pairing is happening but a love interest may be in the works nonetheless!

  Last week’s Creative Rating: B

  Dirty Soap, E! — The Biggest Winners!

  • Dirty Promotion: According to sources, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos only joined Dirty Soap after the pilot was bought by E! An insider tells Uncensored: “It’s not like they are producing the show… they’re more like Ryan Seacrest and the Kardashians…. they signed on more to promote the show. Most of us have yet to meet Kelly and Mark.”

  • You won’t be seeing Alison Sweeney on Dirty Soap. Why? The actress wouldn’t sign a release form. There are a couple of theories: One is that Sweeney is shooting her own reality pilot; the other is that she doesn’t want to give her image away for free and not be paid. “Whenever she’s invited to a party, she doesn’t come if E! cameras are there.”

  • Don’t expect Dirty Soap cameras to promote Venice, Nadia Bjorlin’s web soap. “It didn’t work out,” sighs Bjorlin. “Maybe next season.”

  General Hospital, ABC — Diseased… and Fully Loaded! Plus: Wang the Bitch!

  • How many head writers does it take to further drive a show into the ground? Apparently, GH needs two! Soap vet Shelly Altman (of Another World fame) is lending her talents to writing-challenged head writer Garin Wolf in an effort to seemingly save this show… and not dismantle it. Yeah, riiight.

  • Soap Police: Uncensored is issuing an arrest warrant for head writer Garin Wolf and executive producer Jill Farren Phelps for Monday’s offensive and disgusting episode. Hall of Shame, much? If you’ve been in a coma, GH used their heroine as a weapon of destruction. Yikes! Soap fans were stunned when GH had psycho Lisa wielding Robin’s HIV-positive blood in a syringe Kill Bill-style — and threatening to inject the object of her obsession, Patrick, with it! Yes, you read that right.

  Sadly, it took just one depraved episode to cast shame on one of daytime’s
most groundbreaking and revered storylines in TV history — much like AMC did by unaborting Erica’s legal abortion back in the ‘70s.

  What happened to love in the afternoon? No wonder fans are tuning out in droves. And that’s probably what ABC Daytime chief Brian Frons is counting on. “Let me the best show win,” announced ABC Entertainment President Anne Sweeney. It would appear, yet again, that the maligned net is doing everything seemingly possible to ensure that GH loses the ratings battle against The Revolution and The Chew.

  And it should come as no surprise to fans of cancelled shows that show-killer David Kreizman penned this show-killing episode. Coincidence? I think not.

  While I do not believe in creative censorship, using Robin’s HIV-positive blood as a weapon is wrong on so many levels — especially by a doctor. Perhaps if someone of head writer Ron Carlivati’s calibre were to tackle a plot like this, perhaps it would be worthy of tuning into, but this is sensationalistic GH were talking about. So many strides have been made with HIV both socially and medically, and it’s no longer a death sentence, but the implication here is that someone with HIV can be deadly, which is not necessarily always the case anymore. Heck, living in Port Charles is more dangerous than having HIV!

  Gay advocate, journalist, and soap fan Shaun Proulx of GayGuideToronto.com is justifiably appalled. He sounds off to Uncensored, saying: “It’s a mystery to me why the Robin Scorpio HIV tale was given such a tasteless twist. What isn’t a mystery is that a leading edge story that informed and enlightened millions about a disease so fraught with misinformation, stigma and shame was turned into utter dreck, reversing years of important progress in one episode. Someone’s HIV used as a lethal weapon? The negative messaging within this poor storytelling is incomprehensible and irresponsible, not to mention — as one of my GayGuideToronto.com readers did — that medical advances actually have made HIV/AIDS a chronic manageable illness, not one where people in North America need equate with a death sentence any longer. General Hospital needs to see a doctor — stat.”

  As The New York Times recently opined, “The medium is no longer the message,” as iconic media observer and scholar Marshall McLuhan once famously observed, “but now the messages are the medium!”

  Now the question becomes: How long before the increasingly outspoken Kimberly McCullough quits?

  In the meantime, what did you think of the controversial episode? Vote here at GayGuideToronto.com:

  https://gayguidetoronto.com/featured/interaction-the-general-hospital-hiv-debacle/#pd_a_5613665

  • Because she was such a big hit the first time around…. Recently axed Erin Chambers announced on Facebook and Twitter that she’s headed back to Port HIV. No word if she’ll be playing a ghost of her recently deceased character, or a new character.

 

  • Nancy Lee Grahn is on a roll, ‘yo! The Emmy winner lambasted and outed iconic designer Vera Wang for refusing to sell — yes, sell, not give or loan — a wedding dress to GH’s costume designer. Grahn tweeted that a Wang rep at her L.A. store reportedly said: “We don’t do television & definitely not DAYTIME television.... That was after GH Wardrobe Head inquired about entering store & buying wedding dress. Vera F me Wang wouldn’t let her into store. Take note. Vera Wang can kiss my 26 yr 3 million average a day ASS! Suck it Vera! If you buy Vera Wang you are not a friend of