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« WGA Post-Strike Watch: News About Returning Shows
Soap Scribes Ponder Return to Work
A gaggle of soap opera scribes — allegedly at the top-rated The Young and the Restless in particular — have decided to give up their membership in the Writers Guild to return to work. Which is too bad, really, because whatever scabs would have come up with could have been chalked up to the handiwork of shape-shifting Nurse Sheila, anyway. — Ben Katner
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Nov 13, 2007 9:56 AM
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LOL. My first thought when reading this was that GH writers would probably come back too and I was really looking forward to scab writers straightening this train wreck out. Oh well.....any chance we can call Dirty Sexy Money a soap and get Wright to keep writing?
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Nov 13, 2007 10:21 AM
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Any hope that the writers for Days will stay on strike? Perhaps indefinitely? All of us Days fans over on the IMDB message board have been really hoping to get some scab writers, and were a little dissapointed hearing that they supposedly have stories through January set up.
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Nov 13, 2007 10:50 AM
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Some of the soaps like AMC might get better with scabs writing instead of the current writers. AMC has gotten so bad that I no long DVR or even watch live. It plays in the background while do other things.
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Nov 13, 2007 10:56 AM
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Honestly, how can they give up their membership in the WGA?? Isn't it through the WGA that they receive all of their benefits (health insurance, etc ...)??
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Nov 13, 2007 11:03 AM
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You know, I am having a hard time knowing how to feel about all of this. My daddy was union and they've been so beat up in this country. But I can't help thinking, not just about the writers, but all the people that are now out of work. If the soaps don't go to scab writers the entire genre could disappear from daytime for good then they may get a few cents for a download but lose their jobs permanently.
But I agree with the writer's concerns. They should be paid for their work. And what else can they do if the PTB won't listen?
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Nov 13, 2007 11:22 AM
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I'm going on vacation next week. I'm taking AMC off the VCR after decades of watching, but keeping OLTL, which has returned to its roots and apparently listens to its viewers - something that can't be said by other soaps.
Some genres shouldn't be messed with in the name of "progress". I don't want my soap looking like a Prime Time Misery Fest. That's not why I watch and the dramatic drop in viewers for most soaps should be sending that message. It's not that we're sick of soaps you idiots, it's that we're sick of incredibly poor writing and unbelievably bad story lines and never ending misery with no humor and nothing to uplift my spirits (AMC being a prime offender). The problem can be solved, but it's going to mean LISTENING TO YOUR VIEWERS to fix it. WE DON'T LIKE YOUR IDEAS OF WHAT WE SHOULD LIKE AND WE WISH YOU'D STOP SCREWING UP SOMETHING WE USED TO ENJOY!
There are several really good fan message boards out there and if these Executives really want to be successful, I suggest TIIC (The Idiots In Charge) read them - regularly. I suggest they go to SoapCentral and read their forums, as they are pretty mainstream with a wide range demographic of viewers/fans. Executives can't say they don't represent regular viewers. On the contrary, they are EXACTLY the viewers they should be listening to, not their hand-picked "focus groups" which have been steering them very wrong for the last several years.
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Nov 13, 2007 11:22 AM
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Vickersfan, I couldn't have said any of that better myself
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Nov 13, 2007 11:48 AM
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Indeed VickersFan!!! Well said! AMC is not even worth watching anymore. Erica Kane is a shadow of what she used to be. Poor Tad Martin is relegated to "recurring" status (MEK is on contract but we rarely ever see him). I haven't seen a full ep of AMC is gawd knows how long. I'm tired of the "pretty people" they keep bringing who can't act their way out of a paper bag. I'm tired of Kendall, Greenlee, Annie, NuBabe, JR, Amanduh and everyone else under the age of 30. AMC was the show I started watching 17 years ago. I no longer watch. Maybe a few non-WGA writers might take it out of the perennial crapper.
Now, One Life is rocking it!!! Keep the Buchanans front & center. Followed by the Cramers, Mannings, etc, etc. Keep it up One Life.
Also, no one does sweeps like GH. That's about when GH is good -- 3-4 times a year. Otherwise it falls into the pitfalls of boring, repetitive scripts/storylines and endless pontification by the mob guys "with a heart of gold" (whatever the hell that means).
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Nov 13, 2007 12:13 PM
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Honestly, I doubt the genre, or at least most within it, will see past 2010. It's really fallen apart as of late.
However, I'm extremely disappointed because the writers are fighting for a good cause, and I think that they are more important than the shows because without them, there would be no shows.
So, even if I did watch, I would choose not to now.
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Nov 13, 2007 12:19 PM
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Any hope that the writers for Days will stay on strike? Perhaps indefinitely? All of us Days fans over on the IMDB message board have been really hoping to get some scab writers,
Same here. As a Days and AMC watcher, I've been hoping for scabs and laughing at blogging soap writers fearing the "inferior quality" of scab scripts. Honestly, I don't think that it's possible for any script to be inferior to what they have now (Then again, I realize that I'm tempting fate and sure that there will be some professional soap writer who proves me wrong by writing something even more stupid than what is currently on the air.)
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Nov 13, 2007 12:33 PM
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Any hope that the writers for Days will stay on strike? Perhaps indefinitely? All of us Days fans over on the IMDB message board have been really hoping to get some scab writers,
Same here. As a Days and AMC watcher, I've been hoping for scabs and laughing at blogging soap writers fearing the "inferior quality" of scab scripts. Honestly, I don't think that it's possible for any script to be inferior to what they have now (Then again, I realize that I'm tempting fate and sure that there will be some professional soap writer who proves me wrong by writing something even more stupid than what is currently on the air.)
I'm hoping that if Days does hire substitute (sorry ... I can't call them scabs ... for some reason when it just makes me cringe when I hear or see (or write it, which I am doing right now) it ... don't ask me why) writers that maybe they'll bring back John (Drake Hogestyn).
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Nov 13, 2007 12:45 PM
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You call them "Scabs" but maybe some have to work for their families , for medical reasons or for the need to eat. Just because some don't agree with the others don't make them bad. This is America you know? At some time we all cross the line on issues in life ,so why not a writer? Have at it, if it what one needs to do.
That doesn't mean that I don't agree that the writers should be paid for what they do in every area.
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Nov 13, 2007 12:46 PM
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I don't know if the soap fans will be too happy if the writers decide to stay, either, as you can see, there were a lot of people out there hoping for someone to replace the hacks already at work.
But with all of this going on already, I wonder if any of these studios, or the writers, for that matter, will realize that they may just be hurting themselves in the end? When the last writers strike ended, the networks lost many viewers and many of them never came back to tv. And for soap fans, need I remind anyone that it was because of the networks insistence of unlimited hours of coverage of the OJ trial in the '90's that drove away millions of fans, and soaps have not been the same ever since?
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Nov 13, 2007 1:21 PM
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As much as I love Guiding Light, As the World Turns, General Hospital, OLTL on occasion, and AMC depending on storyline, I it is my sincere wish that ABC, NBC, and CBS would go ahead and cancel all of the remaining nine soap operas so that the world at large can be finally spared the incessant bitching and moaning by so-called soap "fans" who NEVER cease taking the opportunity to browbeat and berate the genre, its series, the so-called "stupid" writers, the "idiot TPTB" and any other form of negativity they can hurl in "support" of their shows.
If ever there was an apt metaphor to describe how much these "fans" love soaps, it was the sight on GH yesterday of crazed Anthony Zacarra kicking Luke Spencer in the back while Luke was writhing on the floor in the middle of a heart attack.
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Nov 13, 2007 1:29 PM
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