Red Room Where the Writers Are

The past few weeks I've been having hard time writing. With Guiding Light's end looming large, there's a long term project I've been struggling to get my arms around. Then there's the oppressive heat that finally arrived after weeks of relentless rain. And now that Nina Tassler's (CBS President of Entertainment) comments to the Television Critics Association meeting have begun the official death watch for As the World Turns, it's like déjà vu all over again. I can't say I'm looking forward to more posts like this on MediaDomain,

     I'm all for joining a campaign to stop cancellation. Does anyone have organizing skills. Maybe we need to take to the streets. Boycott P&G products if they continue with this plan. LOL there isn't a lot that would make me stand up and protest- but losing my favorite soap- and watching this genre slowly die, will!!!

     My good friend, Patrick Erwin (so glad to have him back on-line), argues that the campaigns to save GL may have been "too little too late," and suggests that perhaps there may be time enough time to mobilize for ATWT's survival. He then poses several questions:

Is it worth it? Would these cries fall on deaf ears at CBS? Does Telenext want to stay in the soap business? And is the story that Irna Phillips created worth saving in its present form? I'm not sure I have the answer. But I know NOW is the time fans should consider those questions.

     I'm feeling a little bit like Cher in Moonstruck here. Everyone needs to "snap out of it." Because the short answer to Patrick's second question, "And is the story that Irna Phillips created worth saving in its present form" is "no." I wish I could agree with Patrick that the show seems to be getting better. But it's not, at least not for me.

As for why, well... The idea for this blog began about two-and-a-years ago when I was a thesis advisor for a media studies graduate student, Sam Ford, at MIT. At the time, I remember saying to Sam that while I hoped I'd be analyzing, diagnosing and prescribing for the future health of soaps, there was a better-than-even chance I would be preparing for soaps' post-mortem. How prescient of me. But who knew it would happen so quickly? But it would be unseemly, not to mention unethical, to conduct ATWT's autopsy while the show's still breathing - even if it's on life support. So that will have to wait. Nor is it quite time for the elegies to begin.

     Between now and then, whenever then is, I'm hoping that, like GL, TMFIC will throw viewers a bone and turn to long-ignored characters to celebrate ATWT's long history, and maybe even recognize the irony that if they had done it earlier... Well, if wishes were horses...

I'm talking about moments like those between Phillip and Alan, where we finally get to see that with well-written material, Ron Raines is indeed an actor of subtle depth, make it easier to swallow the silliness of the quickie wedding of the week (reportedly there will be at least one more wedding for the show ends) who's really dead or dying, who killed whom (or not), and the devolution of Otalia.

© 2009 Lynn Liccardo

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