News Round-up: Clifton, Hearst, Newman, Cronkite

Ex-EASTENDER blasts soap's portrayal of Asian characters
Former EASTENDERS star Deepak Verma blasted the soap for failing to portray modern Asian families realistically. Verma, who played Sanjay Kapoor for five years, slammed the new Masood characters as a "two-dimensional, ill-conceived Asian family" with "stupid clothes and stupid accents".

He added: "My character and Shobu's character were the first real characters on the show that were proper (Asian) people. We didn't have accents. I just acted like a Hackney boy, like a barrow boy." We did that 15 years ago. We need to move forward. It's going backwards."

INTERVIEW: OLTL's Scott Clifton (http://soapoperadigest.com/opinions/any-hour-now/)
"When I was on GENERAL HOSPITAL, I had these mentors, because people were playing my parents when I was with the Quartermaines, and they had all this history. Schuyler doesn't really have a family or anything like that. All the people that I'm working with are my age, and have been doing soaps as long as I have."

Deep Soap: Whipped Into Shape
Sara Bibel writes: "[Rick] Hearst’s debut episode Friday resulted in some of the show’s most intentionally funny scenes in quite a while."

Lauralee Bell’s FAMILY DINNER Oozes Dysfunction
"The concept is solid. Everybody thinks their family is 'a little off', so we can all get on board with the idea of a weekly showcase of family wackiness."

INTERVIEW: GL's Robert Newman (Josh)
"I like that we explore all kinds of different issues. You know, I'm not sure that I'd want anyone to pattern their marriage after Josh's nine failed marriages [laughs]. That probably isn't a good idea. But yeah, I think that when we're at our best, people are seeing things familiar to their own lives, and they watch and see how Josh and Reva deal with a particular problem, and hopefully it brings them to a better place."

CBS Decides to Keep Cronkite’s Voice on EVENING NEWS
Mr. Cronkite’s voice will continue to be played “as long as it feels right,” Sean McManus, the president of CBS News, said Monday morning. Television voice-overs do not necessarily end when the announcer dies. The voice of Macdonald Carey still introduces the NBC soap opera DAYS OF OUR LIVES, even though Mr. Carey died in 1994.