By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman
I’m on school vacation and have plenty of time on my hands. So I’ve been watching a lot of The Young and the Restless. It’s pretty good soap, if time and patience are your strengths as a soap viewer.
Y&R, as is its custom, is much slower than other soaps. A storyline — take Jack and Phyllis’ romance, for example — can take twenty years to resolve. Right now, it’s about to be exposed whether Phyllis’ daughter Summer is Jack’s or Nick’s biologically. A single new romance like as Nick and Avery’s can take an entire year to develop. They’re finally formally engaged as of this week! Any one storyline can go through dozens of ups and downs.
Tracey E. Bregman and Christian LeBlanc
The current best example is Lauren and Michael’s long marriage and the rough seas it has been going through since Lauren had a hot affair with Carmine. It took forever for Michael to find out about the affair and now he seems to be moving in and out of his and Lauren’s home with regularity. Actually this storyline is a good showcase for daytime’s best current couple, Tracey E. Bregman and Chrtistian LeBlanc, durable and always engaging actors both. We watched both performers grow up on soaps and we’re still tuned in. Will Lauren and Michael stay together? I bet this storyline has years to go, and that Bregman and LeBlanc will continue to carry it forward.
Others that have gone on seemingly forever aren’t so palatable. I’m tired of Kevin and Chloe debating Kevin’s criminal tendencies. Chelsea’s sole reason for being seems to be getting pregnant. As you know, she’s currently carrying ex-husband Adam’s baby and passing it off as Dylan’s.
As you also know, the star du jour of the show is General Hospital émigré Steve Burton who plays Dylan, or as I call him Dumb Dylan. He seems like a pretty intelligent guy, yet he persists in believing Chelsea’s big lie. It doesn’t make much sense since he’s otherwise insightful and perceptive. Writer alert: this isn’t Burton’s fault.
Despite its perpetual status as the top rated show, Y&R is certainly facing big challenges right now. On top of Jeanne Cooper’s recent death, Michelle Stafford is about to leave the show. Can any one soap afford to lose two of its longtime superstars in such a short period of time? Ratings will tell.
So how goes your early summer, Thinking Fans? Do you have the patience to watch Y&R?
Daytime Emmy Chump Change
On June 16th, this year’s Daytime Emmys will be broadcast on HLN. Released this week were the names of the hosts — Sam Champion, Good Morning America’s co-host, and HLN hosts A. J. Hammer and Robin Meade. But … if an awards show’s prestige is measured in part by the star power of its celebrity hosts, couldn’t we have bigger names than these? We know there are only four daytime soaps left (and two on-line) but certainly the year’s big awards ceremony deserves be headlined by hosts with more juice. What do you think?
all before she came to Y&R. She appeared in such movies as The Girl From Wyoming with Maureen O’ Hara (who initially tried to push younger actress Cooper into the background) and Let No Man Be My Epitaph (where she became friends with Shelley Winters.) For more than two decades she was a most prolific guest star on primetime shows (from Wagon Train and Perry Mason to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Bracken’s World) getting to really know such stars as Barbara Stanwyck, Raymond Burr and her dear longtime friend, Barbara Hale.
By Marlena De Lacroix