Both Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly have run multiple stories on Byrne’s impending departure. Byrne was always a cheerleader for both the show and the industry, yet apparently was treated shabbily . Carolyn Hinsey of Soap Opera Digest summed up the situation in the April 15th issue: "Not to beat a dead Snyder, but I still can't believe AS THE WORLD TURNS let Martha Byrne (Lily) go. The talk at her good-bye party was about what a turning point this is for the entire industry and I fear that's right. If a 23-year vet can be ousted--who played a core character, always supporter her show, and, most importantly, is a terrific actress--then anyone can. That message could really hurt daytime at a time when some shows need givebacks to stay on the air. If P&G can recast Byrne, no actor is safe...Worse, recasting the role of Lily only adds to the downward spiral of the show. Production values are down, many popular actors have left, the stories are spotty at best, and now they let their longest-running heroine go? I worry about where this is going. When soaps show such disrespect for their most popular characters and actors, they are also sending a disturbing message to fans: You don't matter."
Well said, indeed, and almost prescient. One would think that Executive Producer Christopher Goutman would be duly concerned about all of the cast departures and would want to encourage fans of ATWT. Think again. Goutman's interview with Jennifer Lenhart ran in the May 27th issue of Soap Opera Digest reads like the musings of someone who forgot that his comments were going to be printed in a national magazine. Excerpts are below:
Soap Opera Digest (SOD): What effect does a fan campaign or letters have on how you tell story?
Goutman: I think the number of fans who write letters and who are online are a very, very, very, very--may I repeat very--small percentage of the actual fan base. What I go on more than anything else is instinct and what I see on the air. I would hope that my instincts match our constituency. And I think, by and large, it has.
Okaaaaaaay, if the number of fans online is such a small part of the fan base, why does ATWT have same-day videos available on its website? Why have a website at all, for that matter? Why is there an internet-based reality show called InTurn? Even if Goutman is right that only a small percentage of ATWT fans are online, that does not mean that they should be ignored. That online fanbase could be very much representative of the fanbase as a whole. And anyone watching (or even half watching) ATWT now can see that his instincts, by and large, are not working.
SOD: Do you get a mail report about what people are saying?
Goutman: Vaguely, but I don't really look at it.
SOD: So would you recommend that people not bother sending things?
Goutman: Yes, I do.
No comment necessary.
On the killing of Dusty Donovan, a long-term character who made an explosive comeback, only to be saddled with mostly weak stories for several years, Goutman offered these off-base comments: "The character of Dusty had been on for five years and was not really connected, in terms of family, on the show...If you look at our AS THE WORLD TURNS book, you will see lists upon lists of characters who are no longer with us." Um, dude, if you look at your ATWT history you'll see that Dusty has been around for a lot more than five years. He is the real heir to the Stenbeck fortune and the first love of Lily (Walsh) Snyder. Dusty also had a history with Holden, Paul, Craig, Lucinda, and other characters. If Dusty wasn't connected to any families on the show in the last few years, it was due to the inexcusably poor planning on the part of Goutman's writing and production teams.
It is pretty clear that Dusty was brought back with much fanfare, only to have the writers not really know what to do with him. He was re-introduced as a conman and low-level mobster. How the intelligent, good-guy viewers remembered became a criminal was never really explained. The recent incarnation of Dusty was sometimes allowed to be a legitimate businessman. He bounced from woman to woman until finally finding true love with Jennifer Munson, only to have her killed off. After some more bouncing around with other women with Jennifer barely cold in the grave, Dusty and Lily rekindled their old teenage romance. That story actually had promise, although it was very unlikely that Lily and Dusty would end up together. Their fling was a nice nod to their history. Too bad Dusty ended up being "in love" with Emily rather than Lily (which made no sense) and then ended up dead. Mr. Goutman, if you as Executive Producer and your team of writers could take a promising character with a solid history played by a hotter-than-hot actor and find almost nothing worthwhile for him to do, then you need to take responsibility for that.
Goutman then goes on to assume that fans are not aware of the limitations he has to work under.
SOD: One of the complaints that we hear most from fans is that they want storylines to intersect more.
Goutman: I think what they don't understand, nor should they, is that a lot of that is financially driven...We are many times hamstrun, in terms of criss-crossing stories, simply because we don't have the financial resources.
We get it. You don't have as many actors on contract. You can't afford to have them work as often as they might need to to have complex, interwoven stories. But maybe you can have characters acknowledge their connections with a line or two to explain why they aren't seeing each other.
On a related note, I was able to catch a few moments of ATWT over very late lunches a couple of weeks ago. In the moments I saw it was easy to pick up what was going on. Katie is actually tolerable now that she is married to Brad, another miracle for Austin Peck to lay claim to--the first being that he could actually play an interesting character. I must admit to having had some seriously loooooowww expectations when Peck took over the role of Jack’s older (?) brother, only to be pleasantly surprised that he has been able to hold his own on ATWT and actually create a charming, human, and light-hearted presence on a show that seriously needs that, occasional appearances by Henry notwithstanding. In time for summer, Brad and Katie have been saddled with a teen rebel, who is apparently Brad's daughter from a years ago fling. Even from the few scenes I saw it is obvious that rebel Liberty and smart-aleck Parker are headed for teen coupledom. Jack is still sniffing around Katie and being a jerk to Carly. Hey, ATWT writers, would you quit with the Jack and Katie stuff? Never saw any sparks between those two. One of the best things Katie ever did was dump Jack. Please, have him stay dumped!
I also saw a few moments of the Holden/Carly friends-could-become-lovers stuff. Holden, acting nothing like the judgmental, sexist jerk he's been for at least the last few years was actually helpful to Carly when her car wouldn't start. Jon Hensley played Holden as all warmth and smiles. I wondered for moment if I'd turned on some alternate-universe version of ATWT. Last I'd known, Holden was no friend of Carly's and was constantly berating and trying to contol his wife Lily about anything and everything. Faux examples from the last few years: "Your grief for your murdered sister ends when I say so--which is right now!" "You'll see the kids when I say so--which is never!" "You'll have the friends and outside activities that I approve of--which mean absolutely none!" Okay, that last one wasn't as snappy, but you get the point. Since I've been watching ATWT only sporadically for the last six months or so, I have no idea what changed Holden from a sexist pig to a nearly likeable person. Nor is it apparent why the latest object of his affection is his ex-cousin-in-law Carly. Holden and Carly have never been close, so their friendship seems to be coming from some sort of desperation on the part of the powers that be to mix up couples to create "drama." I don't know, maybe Holden and Carly had some deep and extreme bonding incident--he saved her life or she saved his--that I missed. Or maybe this story is the product of behind-the-scenes turmoil. As stated above, several cast members and characters have been let go since late 2007, and there aren't many people left for either Holden or Carly to gravitate toward.
Not long after that, judgmental Holden returned. Seems that Carly and Lily "schemed" to get Holden and Lily alone for a romantic evening. Holden and Jack figured out what the gals were up to and then the berating began. I don't know about you, but what husband who loves his wife would be upset about her finding a reason to get the kids out of the house so that he could have a night of passion with said wife? Is that what passes for drama on ATWT these days?
Although ATWT's ratings have been relatively strong--hovering around 2.0--that is not saying much when ratings for all daytime dramas are positively anemic. Even the once mighty The Young and the Restless is down in the 3's now. Stories with little drama, an executive producer who basically told the fans to f*&k off in a national magazine, and the loss of several popular actors do not bode well for ATWT. I do hope that the World will continue to turn for years to come, but my hope is fading fast.
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