DanJKroll

Hi Dan! Love your board! Love you! You do a great job keeping soap fans coming together in what I consider to be the friendliest, easiest, best soap website on the internet! Kudos to YOU!!! :-)

I just wanted to make a few comments about gay storylines on soap operas and if it affects ratings.

Bianca's relationships on AMC has never hurt ratings. Bianca, too, is the daughter of Erica, and the writers did a great job presenting her "coming out", how Erica "finally accepted her sexuality", her "relationships" and because of the writer's great job in telling "Bianca's stories" fans were not turned off, they were intrigued. I will never believe for a second fans revolted and quit watching in droves when Kevin Scheffield and Mike Delaney (both gay characters on AMC in the 90s) hurt AMC ratings. The storyline was "groundbreaking". If ratings went down it had to do with the "writing" of other stories AMC was telling at the time that turned viewers off. Case in point: ATWT. Luke and Noah have NOT hurt ATWT's ratings at all over the past few years. What has hurt ATWT's ratings over the past few years are some very bad actors they hired, IMO, and VERY VERY POOR STORYTELLING. The show has been a MESS and its been as if the writers just didn'tt know (and STILL don't know) what to do with any character on the show. They should have kept Jack and Carly together, left Janet and her child off the canvas if you ask me. Jack and Carly were a SUPERCOUPLE. Keeping them apart for so long turns viewers away because fans root for them to be together. The show utilizes their vets well, for the most part, and even give them an occasional storyline all their own, which is nice. But the focus on the younger and middle-aged characters went downhill really fast in the matter of 2 years. I enjoyed the show 2-4 years ago. But not now. I've enjoyed Damian on the show as I've never cared for Holden with Lily. Holden is like Marissa on AMC. Boring. Soaps need to hire the RIGHT ACTORS who have PERSONALITY to go along with their acting. If you look at the cast of Ugly Betty....thats what I'm talking about. Fascinating actors with personalities who fit the roles written for them perfectly! Its all about the right casting choice, the writing and the acting, and of course the stories being told. ATWT is being cancelled for not hiring the right actors for roles, HORRIBLY written storylines with no direction at all for the characters on the canvas. Total MESS. Nuke has NOTHING to do with ATWTs cancellation. BAD CHOICES on the parts of TPTB is why this show will no longer be around later this year.

OLTL's ratings being down has NOTHING to do with gay characters on the show. I'll never believe it. OLTL has handled KISH with grace and dignity and respect. The acting has been superb. The writing has been superb. The direction of the characters has been superb. IMO ABC does not promote OLTL as they do GH or AMC. OLTL has a huge cast (and a LOT of actors on recurring) which is fine BUT sometimes one goes what do I do with this huge cast? It should be trimmed down some. Some mysteries go on for way too long....Rex's father for instance....fans get tired of waiting. They say "forget it" I'm moving on to some other show that will give me what I want. If you don't give your fans what they want most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time they will keep coming back. OLTL is diverse and thats great, and that, too, is no reason for ratings being bad. The show just has its problems. David Vickers coming and going makes your head spin BUT to make him Bo's son so out-of-the-blue was weird and it doesn't feel right. I honestly wish they would make David not such a goofball but more like his character on Desperate Housewives BUT still with the flair for comedy. I love OLTL and they just need to trim down their cast a BIT. I love the actress playing Destiny BUT I'd recast the role with a more attractive actress (sorry!) whom Matthew could REALLY be into. I'd rather root for Matt and Destiny than what is so predictable and boring...Matt and Dani. See? Find out Destiny is her "supposed brothers" daughter (the doctor) and have Shaun belt...meaning leave dodge cuz he never wanted Destiny to know that since Shaun practically raised Destiny as his own even though she was his sister. Recast Nora's daughter. Bring back Evangeline and lets get the party started! OLTL needs a lot of tweaking but it could improve and do better in the ratings. Vicki's "daughters" IMO are so boring and bland. Having Jessica think shes 17. OMG I can't watch it. The actress playing Layla wants to go on recurring so she can see what else is out there for her because she feels she's never going to have a big storyline all her own....why not bring back Evangeline, her sister? Give THEM a storyline! Do SOMETHING before you lose this great talent, OLTL! Get rid of deadweight, just as AMC needs to. Just do SOMETHING because OLTL is not doing something right. Its hard to pinpoint exactly what it is they're doing wrong. The show definitely needs a lot of tweaking. I'd get rid of Gigi, recast Kim and bring back Stacy, they're getting rid of Schuyler even though we are to learn he is Roxy's son (now thats just too weird) so whats up with that? Keep Blair, Todd, Tea, Dorian, Vicki as they are. I love Elijah. Love him! Give him a story! Writers, just re-shift storylines and focus on certain families an put a ton of creative thinking on how to make the right changes to bring in the viewers. Keep the diversity going. Keep intersecting families. Keep the family drama going. Thats always key!

Guiiding Light became a turn-off when they relocated way outside NYC and did what they did with the cameras and using real outdoor/indoor sets. Soap fans like most indoor sets. Its what they are comfortable with. By GL doing that it made matters worse, turned away viewers and it had NOTHING to do with the lesbian relationship on the show.

If a show wants to succeed.....hire the RIGHT ACTORS (and if they are not right, recast! Can we say Scott and Marissa?) and hire the RIGHT WRITERS who respect the soap's history and its characters and tell fascinating stories that will keep us glued to our seats. Keep it mostly about "famiies"....NOT these "Build Your Own Families" that Julie Carruthers thinks is the way to go (as she has admitted in the past) and her way of thinking has been one of AMCs downfalls. Next to focusing on a few characters all the time which wears fans out. That needs to never happen again if AMC wants to get back on top and stay there. ITS ABOUT GREAT WRITING, GREAT ACTORS, GREAT DIRECTION, GREAT STORIES. Period. And it doesn't matter if the stories are about gay characters or not.

Just my two cents! :-)

~Dallas

[QUOTE=abbazwoman;bt5573]It seems that gay storylines are now the "in" thing to do, even if not embraced by the soap viewers. Personally, I can accept people's sexuality but I do not put myself in situations where I have to watch PDAs beyond hand-holding by non-hetero couples. Homosexuality is not a viable choice for me or my children. I don't condone it, I do not think it is psychologically normal, and I don't want to be around the practice of it. Nevertheless, I accept individual choice as long the lifestyle is not shoved down my throat. To me, it is the same as any other deviant sexual behavior, and I don't want to see S&M, incest, pedophilia, or bestiality storylines either. I wish soaps went back to stories that didn't focus so much on sex, but on the common human experiences and emotions we can all relate to, no matter our gender, race, faith, or sexual orientation.[/QUOTE]

I agree. I feel like the gay lifestyle is being pushed on me. People have a choice in living their lives the way they want and I respect that. However, I do not want it in my home and I feel that that should be respected as well. I am looking forward to the conclusion of the Kish storyline. I have always taught my family to respect differences. If there was a soap opera that was a gay soapopera, it would be my choice to watch or not. I have been watching One Life to Live for many years and I can do without the gay storylines.

To Drelly and abbazwoman

I respect everyone's views and personal opinions but it irritates me when ppl like you assume that introducing gay storylines is in some way trying to shove our lifestyles' down your throats. No different than interracial relationships, promiscuity, teenage sex/pregnancy, drugs, murder, adultery, rape, gang-activity and the list goes on, all controversial storylines that frequent soaps all the time, why should homosexuality be any different?? Do you complain that these activities are constantly shoved down your throat???

And to compare homosexuality to pedophilia, incest and bestiality clearly shows your ignorance and bigotry, given the fact that having sex with relatives and animals has NOTHING to do with same-sex relationships and pedophiles are HETEROSEXUAL just as they are homosexual! I use the word ignorant b/c you are really going to put hurting innocent children and animals in the same category as 2 consenting adults who happen to be the same sex loving each other?

If you truly respect that ppl should have the right to live their lives as they see fit, then why is it a problem for that to be shown on television? Gays and Lesbians want to see positive characters represented for us as well, especially b/c we want the world to see that we aren't SEXUAL DEVIANTS, we do have real monogamous, loving relationships and live our lives normal, just like everybody else; if it's not broadcasted, we will never move past this bigotry and discrimination; why should our lifestyle be hidden just b/c you don't agree with it? Homosexuality doesn't have to be in your home, you can turn the channel or if you have TIVO, fast-forward through those scenes that you don't want to see, but it's unfair to not want positive gay images shown on television when we are bombarded with REAL "deviant" heterosexual behavior on the soaps all the time.

I originally came on your profile to tell you I love the new layout then I stumbled on this blog and have to say I love it I'm bisexual myself and I would love to have more characters that are gay especially on GH (the soap that I watch).Also is OTTL really going to get canceled?