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REFLECTIONS BY JILL….
Gary Tomlin has done a new magazine interview in which he expresses his shock and disdain over the Emmy nominations. Isn’t it a bit ridiculous that he doesn’t know the real reason his cast got no nominations? Does he really need to think too hard about this? Am I missing something that Gary Tomlin, in his infinite wisdom (not) is trying to do to make OLTL better? The storylines that should be properly developed are being left dead on the road somewhere and the ones that are being focused on are tedious and boring. How ridiculous is it that he rants about the great injustice being done to his show by the lack of Emmy nominations? I usually give him credit where it is due, but sometimes I think he’s beyond help because he refuses to listen to what the masses are saying and what they want…and he continues to give us more of what we don’t want. Where does he get the right to complain when he has some of the best actors on daytime television just sitting on the sidelines watching his young actors ruin their show? Don’t get me wrong…given the right material, some of the younger people on the show could be downright watchable, but even the young actors who are the most talented are challenged by bad writing.
If you haven’t guessed yet…this week’s commentary is a rant!
Is the day going to come when Mr. Tomlin realizes that possibly only one hundredth of one percent of his viewers care whether Jen winds up with Al, Cristian, or the janitor at the university? I am already past the point where I even care who the good young actors are and who needs to go. The whole mess has to go! They are dominating the hour and one character is more annoying than the other. None of the characters is true to who they really are. Al Buchanan started out as a nice young man…a good friend…a sweet person…and what the heck happened to him. He is unrecognizable. I was shocked the other day when I found myself liking his scenes with Gabrielle, where she tried to convince him that the deceitful way of getting the mate you want just doesn’t work. When the day comes that I think Gabby makes sense, something is really off…and that day has come. What are TPTB thinking?
I almost fell off my chair when Jen agreed to marry Al. What is wrong with that girl? And what is wrong with the writers throwing that into the storyline when a week ago she was kissing Cristian at her front door. Geez! What is going on with our show?
As far as Cris and Jen go…we never even actually saw these two fall in love. The chemistry was never there after the first couple of days when she was a spunky, mysterious girl. And Cris has been through way too much romantic drama in his young life to even care to be involved in all this Jen/Al malarkey. Cristian and Jessica have so totally outgrown the young drama that they’re involved in now. TPTB should scrap the whole mess and have Jessica and Cris find their way back to each other and move towards a mature relationship. I would love to see that.
Why is Natalie being wasted scheming with Al when there is so much more in her life that would be wonderful to watch? We all know that eventually Natalie’s scheming will blow up in her face and we won’t even care….so why not derail the train from that track right now. She belongs where she shines best…getting to know her mother….trying to fit into her new family and forming relationships with them. That could cause enough problems…we don’t need her making trouble for the rest of Llanview. Does it make sense that the wonderful scenes she was in with her family…getting to know her mother…fitting into her life at Llanfair….being a sister to Jessie…were over as quickly as they started? Is there a Natalie focus group somewhere that likes her monotonous scenes will Al every week, all week?
Don’t even get me started on that insipid character of Shawna. She’s not really Shawna…her name, for me, is ‘wasted airtime.’ She is an ugly person…and I don’t mean physically. She serves no purpose. We have any number of other women on the show whose lives revolve around hurting others. Who needs another one?
And speaking of women whose lives revolve around hurting others…GT couldn’t even lock up Lindsay to my satisfaction. I was so thrilled when she was arrested, but come on, what’s with the insane act? It’s not even well done. It wasn’t believable from the first minute she started acting like a child in her cell and it got progressively worse. Did anyone doubt that she was faking the whole thing? I thought the writers had a lot of nerve having her fake insanity after Barbara Garrick and Mark Derwin did it so well as Allison and Dave. Catherine Hickland is a wonderful Lindsay, but Lindsay is not the “nervous breakdown type” and even Catherine couldn’t pull it off…sorry. I wanted her to be the true, obnoxious, indignant Lindsay…screaming for her rights from behind bars and doing her usual sick-minded scheming to get herself out of there, which would of course implicate RJ. This could still happen. RJ is scared enough that it will…but who knows? Lindsay won’t be able to play the child forever…after all, the budget is tight and how much Play-Doh can TPTB really afford? Do they sell generic Play-Doh at Toys ‘R Us?
Let’s talk about Todd for a minute. I know that so many people are up in arms that he’s leaving the show…yet again…but I really do need a break from him. The baby storyline has turned him into a total idiot. And as far as him being a father…geez…I am a big fan of little Starr, but I am finding her just too obnoxious lately and her parents are a couple of incompetents for letting her get away with it. At least Blair tries to correct her when she’s being rude, for all the good it does. I wish I had a dollar for every time Blair scolded, “STARR MANNING.” Too bad it has no effect since dear old daddy thinks her bad behavior is adorable and justified. I thought it was horrible the way Starr talked to Renee at the Palace Bar and neither of her parents did anything about it. It’s one thing for her to be a little wiseass and dwell on her credit cards and her cell phone. It’s another thing for her to be so rude and disrespectful. Could social services be going down the road to taking those Manning kids and placing them with a decent family…say…The Davidsons?
OK…this is my biggest gripe and will remain my biggest gripe until GT yanks this storyline off the air. There is no way that I am accepting the need for the return of Niki Smith in Viki’s life. I have talked to a lot of fans of the show and of Erika’s and a lot of people feel that as long as the storyline keeps Viki on-screen, it’s a good thing. I vehemently disagree. Is it that hard to find new and interesting storylines for the best actress in daytime? I could swear that GT just waits for a happy moment in Viki’s life and then he decides…OK, time for Niki to resurface…sweeps are on the way. Gary Tomlin is like a man in a rowboat with one oar. He keeps going in circles and covering the same area over and over and over again.
I will say one thing for GT. (You know I try to say at least one good thing every week so I don’t sound like a complete shrew.) I was very happy to see that when he dug through the old prop warehouse to find a place to store Troy’s big old wheel, he finally stumbled upon Viki’s bedroom and decided to drag it out and use it last week. I almost forgot what it looks like. Thanks Gary, I was beginning to think that Viki and Ben stay awake 24 hours a day and never have any fun. They sure can’t have any when they are continually interrupted in the library…LOL.
It’s not that I don’t think Niki is entertaining. She’s a hoot and she makes me laugh. I am even thinking of sewing some fringes onto my business suits….LOL…not! The problem is that there is no way that anyone can make me believe that after all that Viki has been through in recent years, surviving without Niki or any of her other alters, that she suddenly needs Niki now that Natalie has come into her life. Viki was so right the other day when she told Rae that after what she faced when she uncovered the truth about her father and then killed him, there is nothing Niki can know that is worse than that. My sentiments exactly.
Let’s just do a short recap of what Viki has been through in the last three years:
Ben being shot at Crossroads and hiding him in her attic
Being kidnapped by Hugo Monroe
Jessica’s near death and the loss of Megan Victoria
Dorian being revealed as the driver of the car that hit Jessica
Ben’s trouble with Asa, the loss of his medical license and Grace’s death
Breast cancer, surgery and chemotherapy…mostly during a horrible separation from Ben
And yet another kidnapping – this time by Gina Russo
See what I mean? And I might have even forgotten one or two things. Bringing Niki back to help Viki face whatever the secret is she’s keeping is ludicrous, but more than being ludicrous, it’s the fact that Viki is lying to Ben that makes this even harder for me to watch. Viki and Ben have been through so much and they both know that keeping secrets has nearly destroyed them in the past. At least Ben knows that something is wrong, or at least it appears that way. But I can’t see him not being hurt by her not coming forward right away with what’s going on. Viki and Ben don’t lie to each other, for any reason. I’m sorry, but if GT is trying to ruin the only solid relationship he has on OLTL, he really should think twice. I wouldn’t think anyone could divide Ben and Viki, but with GT, I never feel that sure.
I will say this…if GT is determined to bring back one of Viki’s alters, he should just uncork old Jean. She’d clean up the whole mess in a minute. Wouldn’t you love to see Jean back Allison into a corner? Jean wouldn’t need to do any finger pointing to scare the living daylights out of Allison…that’s for sure. But I digress…I don’t want any alters…we’ve had enough.
Actually, we’ve had enough of a lot of things on our show and not enough of others. Let’s concentrate on Keri and Antonio…on Viki and Ben…on Lindsay and her cellmates…on Sam being Sam again and Nora being Nora again…and on Troy getting out of their lives, whether Ty Treadway stays with the show or not. Let’s see Jessica finally finish college and be with a nice young man and have a career. And someone should really try to get GT to see the real reason we have no acting nominations again this year. Politics aside, he has some serious work to do!
See ya next week......
Jill
FAN FEEDBACK AND
QUESTIONS
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Gingersnap34 writes: “I totally agree with your column about the Daytime Emmys. Instead of GT whining about none of his actors being nominated he should be questioning how he got a writers nomination. If the show were judged by the writing he wouldn't have a viewer left. Instead he should be thanking his actors, they are the only reason left to tune in OL (with a few exceptions: Al, Jen, Seth, Max, Gabby). He needs to start paying attention to his real viewers and start giving us what we want (not the endless teen story) and get the rest of the show moving, it is stagnating. Some days it seems like GT and his staff were hired to kill OL.”
Dear Gingersnap34: I totally agree about GT
and the whining. And yes, it sometimes does seem like he’s trying to sink the
ship instead of keeping it afloat. I think his idea of a successful ship varies
greatly from ours. Some time soon he really needs to see the light. Maybe we
can tie him down and shine one right on him.
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Jamie writes: “I completely agree with everything you said about the Emmy nominations. Timothy Stickney, Erin Torpey, Melissa Archer, Kristen Alderson, Hilary B. Smith, and most of all Kassie DePaiva and Catherine Hickland deserved Emmy nominations! I couldn't believe it when I found out that they weren't nominated. I agree with you that none of OLTL's younger actors deserved nominations! Just so you know and maybe this will make you a little bit happier, Erika Slezak withdrew her name from consideration of a nomination after she won her 5th Emmy Award back 6 or 7 years ago. So she wasn't even eligible, but still the rest of the cast was just screwed over.”
Dear Jamie: It would appease me a little bit to know that Erika withdrew her name from consideration after the 5th Emmy and that she wasn’t just ignored ever since then, however it isn’t true. Last year at her 30th Anniversary Luncheon here in New York, she was asked about withdrawing her name and she herself said that she has never done that and that she has no idea how that rumor ever got started. She said that she doesn’t think it would be right to do that because the winner would know that they didn’t win out over the best in that category. Whoever did start that rumor sure has been perpetuating it for a long time and it does seem believable, but sorry, it’s not true.
© Copyright by Katherine Thurston, 2002
