Monday, May 14, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP: MAD MEN Takes Dig At DARK SHADOWS & Soap Operas; NBC Committed To Will's Story On DAYS OF OUR LIVES

Soap Opera MAD MEN and the term "soap opera"
From Matt Zoller Seitz at Vulture: "Dark Shadows" was a great title, self-reflexive in a good way. It tied in with the overall darkness of this season, with its free-floating unease and threats of random violence, at the same time that it name-checked the beloved, campy vampire soap that provided grist for the Julie-Megan scene. "I've seen a soap opera," Megan told her actress pal Julie, who was auditioning for a then-new show titled DARK SHADOWS. "I haven't seen one this bad." Then she allowed that she'd love to win a part in "crap" like DARK SHADOWS, speaking for every actor who has ever drawn breath. Throughout, the episode examined and mocked the phrase "soap opera" even as it embraced its basic pleasure: the thrill of watching people say and do dramatic things as stridently and inelegantly as possible.

NBC committed to Will's storyline on DAYS OF OUR LIVES
Bruce Evans, the NBC executive who is in charge of the show, assured a fan from Portland, Oregon that the storyline would continue, saying, “We wouldn’t have gone there if we didn’t think it had real value, and boy, has Chandler [Massey] just batted it out of the park. Certainly, we care about fan reaction and things that are written. But we also have to stay the course. Fans have various favorites, and they want you to pull to them. If we tried to satisfy everyone, we wouldn’t have a show.”

Sarah Hyland Reveals She Had a Kidney Transplant
Former child soap opera star Hyland, 21, has had a lifelong battle with kidney dysplasia and underwent a kidney transplant on April 13, 2012, she reveals in the new issue of Seventeen, on newsstands May 22.

DVD release dates set for REVENGE and ONCE UPON A TIME
The first season of REVENGE will be released on DVD on August 21 followed a week later by ONCE UPON A TIME on August 28.

As Talent Flees to Cable, Networks Fight Back
In growing sections of the television drama business, a condition known as “cable envy” has been setting in — and spreading. Cable, the land of small budgets and even smaller audiences, has become the place creators of drama go if they want to take big creative risks — and win golden trophies.

But increasingly, networks are trying to lure talent that otherwise might succumb to the allure of cable. It helps that some of the top network programmers cut their teeth in cable: Kevin Reilly of Fox once was the top programmer at FX, Bob Greenblatt at NBC earned his post because of his success leading Showtime, and Paul Lee, the top programmer at ABC, previously had that job at the ABC Family Channel.

Ricky Schroder And Sean Kanan To Host An Evening With No Limits
“An Evening With NO LIMITS” will take place on Saturday June 2nd at 8 p.m. in the elegant Hollywood home of Jerry and Adi Greenberg.

GCB Canceled But Online Petition Underway to Bring Show Back
A petition to save ABC's scrapped show "GCB" has been set up by fans who were gutted to find out that the show will not continue next season. A website call savegcb.com has been created by Randy Bragdon, which has a petition to "Save GBC: Tell ABC Not to Cancel GCB". The site already received over 14,450 signatures. When it reaches 15,000, the petition will be sent to ABC Entertainment in a bid to save the show.

Mark DeCarlo's soap opera debut on GENERAL HOSPITAL on Monday

1 comment:

  1. Personally, I thought the dig at "soap operas" was a bit disingenuous, since this particular episode of MM was stuffed with soapy staples: bitchy carping between characters, characters manipulating others with spilled secrets, etc.

    ReplyDelete