Thanks for posting this.

David8... brought up some good points about flaws in Y&R's writing. In particular, David noted that a large number of cast members are sidelined and the story of Jill being broke makes no sense. Jill could lose her cash but what about all of her Jabot stock? Why would she sell that? Wouldn't she have a 401k, pension, jewelery, etc.? Why would she take all of her assets, other than her share of the Chancellor mansion, and put them in a bank account outside the U.S.? The tax and legal implications would be enormous.

If any D.C. staff has a chance to ask any Y&R folks about Jill's financial crisis, I'd be interested in hearing a reply.

Thanks again for all of the hard work you folks at D.C. put into this site.

Great clip!!! Just the fact that the LANE fans will be going crazy over this brings me joy...I know it's wrong but oh well LOL!

Josstheguy...i have partially read through everyone's comments over the weekend about the state of Y&R. What people need to remember is that this is a soap opera. The stock ownership of Jabot has been a mess for awhile. Those who keep pointing out that Jill has the 20% are forgetting that when Katherine bought 51% of Jabot it brought all of the stockholders shares in half. Did David forget about that when that happened? Yes Jill losing all her money is a stretch but it's a soap opera. Not real life. There are numerous things that are a stretch on soaps. It's entertainment people. Some people have been dragging Y&R thru the mud with the comments about how bad it is but I have to respectfully disagree. Did any of you watch this show under LML? How long have you all been watching this show? Some even went as far as comparing it to Passions. Give me a flipping break. Listen I think Y&R is 90-95% on fire. There are some things that could be changed. Listen I want the African American storyline to improve to but that doesn't mean I am going to say the show is not as good as passions since they aren't really showing the african american characters. Listen good soap opera storytelling brings actors/actresses in and out of storylines. Sometimes you are frontburner then you go on backburner. For those who really thing Y&R is that bad then I say you must really hate daytime lol. Because Y&R is on fire! Remember people this is a soap opera and it's fiction.

Smitty,

I agree with you.

GOD I LOVE THIS SHOW!

And Smitty ~ yep, gotta agree w/you too..... It's a Soap, so flaws are bound to occur, but Y&R is simply the best one out there and (with the exception of Tyra - gag!) I hardly ever complain.

And for those that do, I implore you to watch the wretched "All my Children" wiht Ryan's bulging eyballs, or the Mess that has turned into "GH" for ONE WEEK... You'll reclaim your love for Genoa City in a heartbeat!!!!

Smitty, I agree with everything you said. We need to keep in mind that this is fiction. It is hard to write good story 365 days a year. Prime time writers have difficulty with keeping story lines fresh on their shows and most of the really good ones only last 6 to 7 years. Y&R has been on over 30 years! Please keep this in mind folks.

And another thing to add to what Smitty said re: Josstheguy's comment -- there's an easy explanation for why Jill isn't considering her intangible assets right now as sources of income, and they touched on this with Jeffrey and Gloria. Like the Bardwells, Jill doesn't want anyone to know about her financial situation. Billy knows thanks to Jack, but Jill doesn't want it to go any further. If she sells her Jabot stock or cashes in on/takes a loan against her 401K/pension, there's going to be a paper trail buried somewhere in Jabot/Chancellor about it, and that would make people question why. Jill doesn't want to chance someone, especially Katherine, getting wind of it. Things like jewelry are probably a bit easier to sell on the downlow, but maybe Jill, like Gloria with her diamonds, doesn't want to cash that out too quickly. Sure it would be nice if the show clarified that, but with so many other stories to tell, I can see why they left it up to the viewers to figure out.

Smitty, agree with what you said, especially the way this comes with the territory for the genre. You're also right that the whole Jabot stock thing has been a mess under almost every head writing regime, and Newman's not too much better. They could probably devote whole episodes to straightening it out, but it would put us to sleep in the process.

Yes, you have to suspend your disbelief sometimes, but poor plotting is poor plotting. An idiot plot is still an idiot plot. Just because it's YR does not make it any less true. I see little difference between LML's reign and MAB's. Both writers can't write stories for the Amber/Jana gang. Both writers miss storyline beats (Jill's financial situation is something LML would have fudged as well) and both writers rely too much on the idiot plot. The main difference is that the women are now more pathetic under MAB and Bell has refused to give MTS much to do (even before she left) since she took over. I don't hate daytime, but I do hate overrated writing that only looks good because the other soaps are in such disarray.

The last comment hit it on the head about poor plotting and I don't know where the show is going and we use to know where the next phase of the s/l is, but the quad is still in the mist of again in the same thing again and I can't watch it. This Adam thing is a mess and I get he wants to get revenge on Jack and Victor, but not Ashley. It doesn't make any sense and the fans see it. The Scooby Doo mystery is very bad and it is not getting any better and the show should squash it, ASAP. There is no one to root for and their use to be a character or two to root for, not anymore. I am only liking Phyllis, Mary Jane and Chloe. That's the only characters I like. And the AA characters, Neil and Devon are not even being giving a good s/l and Neil is a president of CI and we don't see him being the boss or being a power player in GC. And then they say they can't write for AA, but why don't they hired an AA writer to write for the AA characters. Thats the problem I have with Y&R and I not the only one feeling like where the show is going and the ratings is falling faster than you know what. The thing to do is bring back Ed Scott as exec producer, Susan SM and Kay alden to write the show and get back to character driven s/ls that Y&R is known for. MAB can still be boss of the show.

I should have known that the debbie downers would come in with their responses lol. Since you all want to go there here we go I will go there because I will go to bat for MAB and Co.

Now listen I have never said that everything was all fine and rosy at Y&R. There are some plots that I don't like (The art mess with Daniel) but the reason why it doesn't get to me is because it's only a small portion of the show. It's not on five days a week with it continually shoved down my throat.

You people seem to be so up in arms with Jill losing her money. Oh it's not realistic is what I keep hearing well how about tell that to the people who lost all their money in the Madoff scheme. I bet they wouldn't have thought that would realistically have happened to them 10 years ago. I bet they all would have said hell no but now a lot of them are flat broke!

And then with the Adam story. It's not plot driven. This whole thing makes perfect sense. He is a son who grew up not knowing who is real father was, while his rick spoiled sibilings grew up with silver spoons in their mouths. His father took him under his wing and then turned on him quickly and then he was used and set up by his father's archnemis to get back at his father. Adam is a character that is scorned. He is out for revenage and is willing to do whatever he can to pay people back for this.

I know a lot of you aren't used to good soap opera but the Adam character is being set up as a great villian. If you aren't sure what some great villians are look up Roger Thorpe from Guiding Light. Now he did some very nasty things but he was a viable and interesting character because he was written so well. I believe Jamey said it on one of the podcasts that Adam reminds him of a poor man's Roger Thorpe. You talking about a good villian. He was great. Adam has the potential to be wrecking havoc on Genoa City for years to come. And if one more person says they are writing him in a corner I want you to go pull out your history books and look up Phyliss Summers Romalotti Abbott Newman. Hell she mowed Paul and Christine down with her car, she "killed" her best friend Sasha Green, kidnapped Michael. Once again I say this is a soap opera. The characters are multifacted.

I know a lot of you may not be used to good soap opera telling but MAB and Co. are doing overrall a fantastic job. I would give them an A minus if I was grading them.

Y&R under LML was unrecognizable. She took a show and changed it completely. I'm not going to list the many things wrong she did because I have done that a couple of times on here before. Will Y&R be like the Y&R we grew to love under Bill Bell...probably not but it is damn sure close under MAB and Co. And if you go back over the years there have been many loose wholes in story. Yeah even the great Bill Bell had some loose holes in stories. I knowing shocking but it's true.

Now once again am I happy with the African American storyline on Y&R....absolutely not, but I will say I would rather them not have a storyline then seeing Neil and Tyra together or a Devon/Tyra/Neil triangle. Just my opinion but it is what it is.

Sorry for the scatter brain but so much is going through my mind. I hate when people try to compare MAB and LML. It's ridiculous and insane.

Wonder Lily! Did anyone notice that Lily was wearing a knock off of Wonder Woman's costume? Lily's skirt was blue, her belt was yellow, and her top was red.

Comic geek.

Smitty, it's possible to disagree without being condescending and insulting. I'll just assume that was not your intention.

Every plot MAB is telling right now requires a character or more than one character to act like an idiot. That's not good storytelling. I find a storyline much more satisfying when the characters are intelligent and behave as such. A dumbed down Victor is uninteresting to me. I understand MAB wants to undo Cane/Phillip, but the whole reason Nina wants the blood test (Phillip possibly having Huntington's) is absurd. No military officer would allow anyone to continue in the military if there's the possibility of Huntington's. He would have been tested immediately or he would have been discharged. It's the small details that differentiate a mediocre writer from a good/great writer. MAB could have come up with a much more plausible way for Nina to get the information. Phillip needing a kidney or blood or bone marrow would have worked just as well. Unless they only have Tricia Cast for a limited amount of time, what's the rush?

You then have the Sharon/Phyllis/Jack/Nicholas triangle which bores me. Nick changes his mind week to week and sleeps with whichever woman he chooses. Sharon has become a kleptomaniac whose baby has three possible fathers. Jack professes his love for Sharon and proceeds to have sex with Phyllis and Mary Jane. Why should I care what happens to these people? Where is the rooting value? A great love is not one where the participants cheat on each other over and over.

It would have taken one or two lines of dialogue to clear up Jill's situation. Like I said, it's the small details that make a difference.

I may be accused of being a Debbie Downer, but I want YR and every show to be the best show they can possibly be. I see so much potential on YR that is untapped. It's infuriating.

I am so sick of the quad that I don't care about anyone of the four except Phyllis. Shick is ruined for a plot point to put them together without even dealing with the issues of why they wasn't together in the first place and Sharon really hurt Jack and Nick couldn't make up his mind and didn't care who got hurt as long as him got what he wanted without making him look like the bad guy. There is no rooting value for that couple and I just don't about them anymore.

Cmledi it isn't my intention to be condescending but it's hard not to come off that when you all are continually trying to insult some of our intelligence in regards to Y&R.

1. Victor being dumbed down? What are you talking about. Are you referring to the fact that he hasn't realized that Adam is gaslighting Ashley? Well if that is the case then why would he miracluously know Adam is doing it.

2. Nina researching who "Philip" the 3rd is makes perfect sense. He is her husband and father of her child. If anyone would have been suspicious of Cane it makes perfect sense for Nina to be. I mean he literally landed in the right place at the right time. How does someone from Austria make there way to Genoa City, Wisconsin looking for there mother without any prior knowledge of who there parents are? (Ask LML about that one since we are concerned about plot points!) Did it ever cross your mind that Nina could be lying about her son having Huntington's disease? Nina is trying to find out the truth about her husband and child father and I could see her using whatever excuse necessary to figure it out.

3. Nick/Sharon/Jack/Phyliss well I know many are tired of this merry go round but it's funny how many are throwing stones at Sharon when Phyliss was in this same predicament when she was pregnant with Summer. Yeah she only had two potential baby daddy's but it is what it is. I like the quad. They are all good actors and I am a die hard Shick fan. I have been a fan of Jack/Phyliss since there first marriage. That's why I am entertained by that quad.

In regards to the storytelling as a viewer you have to use some of your own intelligence. We can't have the writers breaking down every single thing for the viewers. I'm sorry but I don't want my soap dumbed down. As an intelligent viewer you have to be able to know certain things like we all know Nikki is a recovering alcoholic but we don't have the writers mentioning this everytime there is a toast on the show. We just see that Nikki doesn't have a glass of alcohol because we as the viewer know that she wouldn't be drinking alcohol. You see you have to be smart enough to see these things. They can't write out everything for you.

I think the one thing we both have in common is that we want the best for Y&R. Besides that...well need I say more lol

You don't suspend belief when you are supposed to mine the history of the show. One the biggest mistakes a soap makes is when it doesn't mine its history. This Jill broke story is a plot point. It doesn't work and is bad writing.

Y&R deserves the Passions comparison. Dead babies in people's body is Passion story telling. It is not Y&R, not even classic Y&R.

Y&R is set itself up as being the most realistic soap out there daytime. For that reason alone it cannot go into these area's. Its' fans watch because they don't have to see that mess played out on air.

I been looking around the messages boards for Y&R shows 93% disapproval rating for the show at this point.

Hell, Heffer, and Slammer need to be fired. They have taken what use to be a damn god show and turned into something unwatchable.

The more and more I talk to people the more they say they either have stopped watching or only watch a day or two out of the week. This is not must see daytime anymore.

People need to realize and I've been following daytime for years and know the way the great head writers of daytime knew how to tell a story. Agnes, Bill, Douglas, and Irma would have never produced this type of mess.

I suggest people watch the interviews with Bill and Agnes via Youtube and they will tell you what good writing is.

It should always stay true to character and mine its history.

Y&R reached a 3.4 in the ratings. That ought to tell you something and it hasn't had this many fans in an uproar since LML was there.

As for African Americans Passions gets all the credit for allowing its African American characters to drive storyline for the course of its run. Brook Kerr, Tracey Ross, Rodney Van Johnson, Amelia Marshall, Marla Gibbs, Phillip Jeanmarie, Daphnee Duplaix Samuel, Charles Divins, and Cathy Jeneen Doe.

Passions made sure its African American characters were front and center and important to show. Without them you were missing a large chunk of the plot.

Tracey Ross drove storyline for her entire run as Eve. Amelia Marshall (Liz) drove storyline as a villain for her entire run on the show. Brook Kerr (Whitney) and Charles Divins (Chad) drove storyline. Cahty Jeneen Doe(Simone)drove storyline. Phillip Jeanmarie (Vincent) become the first black true psychopathic villain daytime. Rodney Van Johnson (TC) drove storyline.

If anything Passions proved that African Africans could drive storylines that were usually only regulated to the white characters on soaps. And they did it to rave reviews.

What Y&R is doing all around is a mess. Pure hell. It's not just a little off. It's a soap that has long since gone off it its meds and needs to be 51/50'd back to the way it use to be.

Come on now!!! Come on!!!

I remember when Jamey was like GH ain't that bad...and then one day he saw what everyone else saw.

Y&R is no longer the "best soap". It is just "a soap."

Guiding Light is kicking its ass in storyline telling and staying true to form. Too bad this show has to end. GL has everything and is doing everything Y&R use to do. So kudos to GL. I give Y&R A D-.

Looks like another great week in GC. Can't wait!

A lot of people are mentioning Jill's Jabot stock. Y&R this year has made it a point to show us that the economy is slowing down. Kevins concerns about the coffee shop and his need for money because he is sick of just getting by after paying bills. Jana telling Daniel his art isn't selling because of the economy we are in. It is true the art industry is definitely feeling the pinch right now. Many small galleries are closing their door. If Jill's stock is anything like the stock I own it is worth about nothing right now in this economy. I've seen some of my stock go from over $100 a share to less then $20. That is a drastic drop. Jill has too much pride to sell the one big asset she has...her half of the estate to Kay. Like the rest of us when the economy picks back up we will be seeing our stocks go back up as well. In the meantime Jill is in the same position as a lot of people in this country are in right now. I find her s/l plausible. Jill doesn't want anyone to know she is broke so she is going to appear to be living the lifestyle while in the meantime taking a job to keep her afloat.

Jill was always type of character who would marry a man for money. I mean she blackmailed Jack so that she could keep the lifestyle she was use too.

Take a look and remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhOoisLbDoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbpNlxSJk_4

This what Jill would do when the chips were down.

Yes I do remember Jill going after rich men...hello Phillip II and John Abbott. Who is to say MAB doesn't plan to have her go get another rich man down the road? Maybe the governor won't be just a one time appearance on the show. Just maybe Larry Warton will re-emerge to keep a bored politicians housewife company. Do you have MAB and Co. scripts for the next few months to see where she is headed? Who is to say Jill and Jack won't team up down the road and end up back in bed together? Maybe Billy could actually walk in on them...imagine that. I am loving that I don't know what is going to happen next. It has been a long time since I've been excited to see what is going to happen. Bringing Thom Bierdz back (Phillip III) was brilliant. I applaud MAB and team for keeping it so under wraps that spoiler lovers like myself were even surprised. You want to talk about history...I am thrilled MAB and team gave Jabot back to the Abbott family. Why in gods name LML ever killed off John Abbott is beyond me. Oh that's right she killed him off because she didn't think a man should be running a cosmetic company. Explains why women always had control of the company under her watch. After Jill going around calling people trailer trash thinking she is better then everyone I am glad she had a reality check. I think we are about to see a new and improved Jill and I can't wait to see what is in store for her character. Jill is going back to her roots....that is how she started on the show...poor. Maybe just maybe this time around she won't depend on a man to climb the ladder again. Wouldn't it be something if she gets her money and power again and finds herself with a younger man using her for her money. Talk about Karma. MAB didn't look past Jill's history...she embraced it and is showing us who Jill was back then and making Jill reflect things in her life as they are taking away from her. Like everything in life we are given a second chance and I for one can't wait to see what Jill does with hers.

David,
why do you persist in saying that Ashley is caring a dead baby. She miscarried. All of the blood on floor? The fetus was presumably there and cleaned up by Adam. Doctor Taylor explained that Ashley is experiencing a psychosomatic pregnancy.

As for mining history, the whole P3 story is all about history. Tricia Cast is back! Hurray!!!

As for all of the dead soap creators, at some point we have to let go. Some of us weren't alive during the Irna days. She doesn't mean anything to us.

And Passions? It's dead and buried. It was a horrible show. The writing was moronic. Most of the acting was crap. Watching the actors repeat the same lines day after to give recaps was awful.

Yes, Passions did a good job of providing good stories for its African-American cast. But some of those stories were terrible. The Vincent mess represented the worst stereotypes of the tragic mulatto on contemporary television. You name the stereotype, Vincent provided: devious, twisted, lonely, murderous, hypersexual, etc. He represented all of the literary bigoted depictions of male and female mulattoes over the last 150 years!

Moreover, the complaints that you level about lack of representation of African-Americans is more than applicable to other soaps. GH? GL? Days? OLTL (but that should be changing as they are now building up more black cast members)? ATWT? B&B? None of these shows does a good job representing a diverse society.

Are there any shows with an Asian or Native American cast member? None!

The show has issues but it's definitely better than the rest.

David46208 once again I will say. It's hard to take you serious when you compare Y&R to Passions. I'm sorry but there is no comparison. If I just wanted to see black people on screen without good story telling behind it I would watch House of Payne. I am sitting here laughing typing this because anyone that watched Passions and Y&R will tell you they are FAR APART FROM EACH OTHER.

As an african american I understand your frustration with the Winters family, but I'm sorry I don't want to see the Winters on everyday doing nothing. I want a good storyline. I want good writing for them. I hated Dru and Neil's last storyline when they had Dru going crazy over Neil. It was stupid and out of character for her. (LML's great writing!) I love VR and KSJ but that doesn't mean I will take seeing them in anything. I'm sorry I didn't like that storyline and it was stupid. I want a good story for them and I am not willing to settle for some stupid Passions like storyline for them. Y&R is better than that.

As far as ratings I am just happy that Y&R is holding pretty much steady compared to last year each week. WE all know that all of Daytime's ratings are declining. It's been happening for years so your ratings argument isn't even a point. Try again.

People, embrace Y&R for what it is. It's good soap!! There are a few missteps, but we are all obviously entertained by what MAB is bringing to the stage. Opinions be damned, this is daytime drama at its best. Remember only weeks ago most of you were singing the praises of this current regime? I'm enjoying Y&R more now than I was back during the Katherine storyline a few months back. Mary Jane and Adam are viable antagonists that th soap hasn't had in years, while the Cane/Nina/"Langley" story is knocking it out of the park every day. Did you hear the backgound music during Friday's cliffhanger? Yes, Neil and his brood are on the backburner, but they had their time to shine when Karen found out about Neil and Tyra's affair. Those were good scenes!! Notice that the Nick/Phyllis/Jack/Sharon quadrangle has been out of sight lately and no one complains. Everyone needs to get their heads out of their ass and enjoy Y&R right now because in ten years, it might not even be on the air anymore.

Great points Smitty.

Also about the ratings while people might not be tuning in to watch the show live they are using VCR's, Tivo's, DVR's which do not count in the ratings. Back when Bill Bell was writing for the show we didn't have those technologies. Many people were home during the day raising their family (because you could make it on one income for your family). Things have changed most households have both people working and we have too many different ways to watch the show. I DVR the show everyday but half the time end up watching it on cbs website or fancast instead. Y&R is the 7th most watched show on-line (even beating out shows like Survivor). With that taking into account how can we say the ratings are really down...when they have over 11 million people viewing on-line? You are trying to compare apples to apples and really it is more like apples to oranges.

While the past is great you also have to move forward and make the show relate to what is going on today. Ashley miscarried her baby...so there is no baby. She is having a hysterical pregnancy (which isn't common but it does happen). The mind is a very interesting thing in what it can make you think vs. what is actually happening. These women that do have hysterical pregnancy make their body think they are having a baby so they feel the "baby" kick and even go through child birth only to give birth to a blood clot and such. There is reality in the situation because it does happen to people. Passions on the other hand is very unrealistic and I would be very afraid if some of things actually happened in the real world.

2 birds with with one stone..

Here's the deal when you are African American and no soap is giving you time of day..bad writing and all you are happy to see yourself on air. That fact that any soap recognizes it's African American fan base is good. If Passions was bad, the whole show was bad. It wasn't the black storylines. And for anyone who watched it saying Passions played into any stereotypes with Vincent is a joke. Because the white characters were just as bad if not far worse than he was. So that ain't gonna work. And anyone who watched Passions know that. Not for this show. Not for Passions.

And what have we become "soap snobs". When you are African American you don't have the luxury of being so picky. We don't have 8 shows to choose from that represent us well or at all.

I don't watch soaps that don't represent me on air. I just tune them out.

AMC might have bad writing but the Hubbard's are enough to keep me supporting them. At least the have storylines. GL has upgraded 2 of its African American cast members (Remy and Christiana) to frontburner and connected them to so many plots. For that reason I can deal with bad acting of Karla the hair model.

Even OLTL has got my eye on it. I'm waiting to see what they are going to do with the Gannon's.

I've talked at lengths about Days...I and watch when Abe and Lexie are on the screen. Shit I have the Best Days of Days in my book right here:

http://bit.ly/WJvNc
http://bit.ly/8KLe9

And I even take you back to GL's good old days:

http://bit.ly/LDY9o

But you better care about the soap greats or else we wouldn't have soaps on today.

Smitty,

House of Payne! Perfect! I swear, Tyler Perry delivers Amos & Andy 2.0 for the 21st Century.

_______

I'm sorry but Jill's plight isn't realistic. I've worked in business too long to know that an executive, a CEO of a major corporation, would not have some kind of pension, etc. No one at that level would put all of her money in an off shore bank.

I give Y&R a lot of slack but this point is just ridiculous.

BTW, when did Kevin quit Chancellor?

Yes, Neil and his brood are on the backburner, but they had their time to shine when Karen found out about Neil and Tyra's affair.
-----

You mean two episodes a month is a "time to shine?" That has been the whole complaint is that the AA's have been regulated two times a month when they use to play them 5 days a week. Even Nia Peeples talked about the lack of being able to drive storyline.

As for the quad. No one complains because they been on air almost every day of the week for 9 months. We could use a little break. That argument ain't gonna work.

I guess Hell, Heffer, and Slammer said to the black actors:

"You better get on out there and act...here is your two episodes a month...make the best of it!"

Y'all grasping at straws. You'll see. "Denial" is not a river in Egypt.

David, we've been doing this dance for a while now and apparently you are passionate about how you feel just as I am. But Y&R's AA characters, expect for Dru, have never been dynamic. The Winters have always been filler and that's the fault of the writers. If I was in the driver's seat at Y&R, this family would be on fire. I'd bring in Lynn Whitfield and James Avery as Neil's parents, have them intergrated well into the canvas when it's revealed that James Avery's character owns a stake in NE due to a long ago deal with Victor and get back to the basics: corporate intrigue. I agreee that MAB is dragging her feet where AA characters are concerned, but she's doing a way better job than LML. This soap is clicking on most cylinders and your continued negative attitude is unwarranted. Embrace the good instead of criticizing ad nauseaum. Also, comparing Passions to the crown jewel of daytime is ridiculous. Passions sucked and that's why it's off the air!

I would assume Kevin stopped working at Chancellor when his mom took over Jabot with the Abbotts. But Gloria didn't last there very long so Kevin was out of a job and back to CL.

Not all of Jill's money was in an offshore bank account. Enough that she can't live the lifestyle she was accustomed to. Overseas bank accounts don't seem out of the norm with those with a lot of money. The IRS in real life go after the little guy and jail them for not paying taxes but the big guys get a slap on the wrist. Maybe Jill will end up being blackmailed herself and she can see how Bradley felt when she ratted him out so she wouldn't be in trouble. I'm sure there is a lot more to this s/l then meets the eye.

While the past is great you also have to move forward and make the show relate to what is going on today. Ashley miscarried her baby...so there is no baby. She is having a hysterical pregnancy (which isn't common but it does happen). The mind is a very interesting thing in what it can make you think vs. what is actually happening. These women that do have hysterical pregnancy make their body think they are having a baby so they feel the "baby" kick and even go through child birth only to give birth to a blood clot and such. There is reality in the situation because it does happen to people. Passions on the other hand is very unrealistic and I would be very afraid if some of things actually happened in the real world.

----------
My oldest sister is an MD. She watches Y&R and she also watched Passions. The moment the whole "dead baby in your body" came about. She called me to tell me that is as about as realistic as people coming back from the dead. She hasn't watched Y&R since. My mother and father stopped watching. My other sister has turned it off. Granny found things to do during that hour now. Aunts who watch Y&R are now looking at other programming on cable. Friends who watch Y&R are only looking at the clips of Chloe and Mary Jane or Lily on the web. That way they don't have to suffer through the rest of it.

I'm in the process of trying to sell them on GL.

GL has nothing on Y&R. Are you insane? Pudgy ass Reva is hammy as ever and this show has 2 AA actors who bore viewers to tears.

David46208,

Soap snobs? Time out! You're saying that you are not going to watch Y&R because the writing isn't up to your liking. Why is it hard to believe that others couldn't stand Passions because the writing sucked and the acting was terrible?

Also, I don't have a problem with a black character being dysfunctional. From the episodes that I watched, Liz was a good villain. Psycho but she wasn't stereotypical.

I do, however, have a problem with a show that is pushing a walking stereotype like Vincent. The guy/girl was every damn stereotype about mulattoes rolled into one. You want to cite Bill Bell and others, why can't I cite the long bigoted history of depicting mulattoes as freaks, rapists, sluts, desperately confused,etc.?

But Y&R's AA characters, expect for Dru, have never been dynamic. The Winters have always been filler and that's the fault of the writers.
---------------
The Winters fillers? You don't know the history then.

Here they wouldn't have all this history if they had just been fillers:

Neil:
http://www.soapcentral.com/yr/whoswho/neil.php

Drucilla:
http://www.soapcentral.com/yr/whoswho/drucilla.php

Olivia:
http://www.soapcentral.com/yr/whoswho/olivia.php

Malcolm:
http://www.soapcentral.com/yr/whoswho/malcolm.php

Nathan Sr:
http://www.soapcentral.com/yr/whoswho/nathan.php

These are just the core AA characters. They have a long history of being frontbutner.

And these video's prove that they were on fire:
Malcolm
http://bit.ly/qAFKG
Neil
http://bit.ly/18Uz1