The White Shadow on The White and The Whiter.

This seems like another case of stunt casting, but since I am unfamiliar with his body of work, I will reserve judgment until I see if he can actually ACT.

I'd say it's a better class of stunt casting. He's a two-time Emmy winner (most recently for his supporting turn in the HBO "Grey Gardens") as well as being a Tony Award winner.

Just change this show's name to The Stunt Casting and the Rest of Us. Because that is what it has been most of her tenure at the helm of this once beloved show.

Maria has officially become the Margret Thacher of daytime.

He's actually a brilliant actor. I remember him from a shortlived sitcom with Blythe Danner based on the Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn movie, "Adam's Rib" (one of the first one-camera/no laugh-track sitcoms, as I recall). He was great as the star of The White Shadow and also great as Jordan's dad on Crossing Jordan. I haven't seen him since he left Jordan, but I completely vouch for him.

...not enough to climb aboard the Y&R trainwreck, mind you...

Maria's next stunt casting will be Menudo! "After these messages we'll be righhhhht back!"

Wasn't he Dominique's lover on Dynasty and The Colbys?

It's rather odd that that hasn't been mentioned.

He is a decent actor, but jeez No she didn't tap The White Shadow stars now. More 80's stunt casting BS? Sheesh!

Who's next, The main character from 3-2-1 Contact's The Bloodhound Gang? Or how about William Katt from the Greatest American Hero?

Oh Maria Bell...

This literally made me laugh out loud! Too funny! Then I became sad knowing MAB might actually do such a thing. :-/

And that's another example why soaps are doomed to fail. Only four remain on American television, yet all anyone can do is tear everything down. Enjoy the next four reality talk shows.

Margaret Thatcher is actually a popular figure. Bad analogy. LOL

I'm taking it they didn't think this storyline out to far? It seems like they are making more changes at the last minute. Its time to let this storyline go.

I think to dismiss this as "stunt casting" does a huge disservice to a highly respected actor. What does that term even mean? Is it "stunt casting" when a well-known actor appears on "Grey's Anatomy" or "Private Practice"? Why is it automatically "stunt casting" when an actor with actual credits on his or her CV is cast on a daytime soap?

I get the uproar over Catherine Bach, because it's not like she's been turning in exceptional work since "The Dukes of Hazzard" -- or even ON "The Dukes of Hazzard." But Ken Howard is no Catherine Bach. Although he is still best known for his role on TV's "The White Shadow," he has a formidable filmography, which includes a role opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the Clint Eastwood-directed film "J. Edgar." For the uninformed, check this out: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm555-5555/

I'm not sure where all of the venom against "stunt casting" around here comes from. Sometimes it almost feels like "Please please, give us something else to complain about!" I can understand the complaints about Y&R bringing over AMC star after AMC star for contract roles rather than giving its underused vets more to do, but this role is likely to be short-term, and since we've heard so much about the character, it makes sense that he'd make an appearance. Would it be better if they cast the part with an unknown who cannot act? Howard, like fellow prime time/film-to-daytime stars Michael Learned and Brian Kerwin (who just appeared in "The Help"), is a major character actor, and rather than automatically crying foul -- more "stunt casting"! -- we should consider the good that it can do.

More prime time and film stars doing daytime might actually take some of the stigma away from being a daytime actor and help earn the stars who devote their careers to our soaps more respect. I, for one, look forward to seeing Howard in the role. I think he'll be a good match for Michelle Stafford.

www.jeremyhelligar.blogspot.com

I personally think Ken Howard is a great pick to play Phyllis' father. It is high time we delved into what makes Phyllis tick. Ken does a fantastic job playing the part of powerful yet devious men, and I have a feeling that is just how they would play this character.

Now as far as stunt casting. Bringing in Catherine Bach, and Cindi from the Brady Bunch and so on for one or two day roles is definitely what I call stunt casting. They could hire anyone off the street to play some of these roles so I am not sure why they hire all these has beens, like they think we are all going to be sitting in front of or televisions to watch Daisy Duke.... Well not me, I didn't watch her when she was supposed to be popular.

I think the gripe is, or at least it is for me, is not because of who they hire so much as it is that I am sure they are having to pay some of these people more than just an average joe blow actor, and they they want to cut the pay of the actors who are the heart and sole of the show.

In truth my biggest pet peeve is the bloated casting and having so many story lines going on at one time it takes forever for them to be concluded. By the time they are, no one cares how they turn out.

It is what it is, I personally like him. I'd LOVE HIM if is on screen wife was the most beloved heroin in Llanview History....

What's a girl gotta do to get Erica Slezak to become Phyllis Newman's Mama?

Jezza,

I TOTALLY agree with everything you said! Thank you.

Go Jezza. Go Jezza.

I'm glad they are bringing in Phyl's daddy. Too bad it's not Dave Canary.

@Jezza & adamdrake: All the primetime stars that have been on daytime in the past decade has not done a thing to change the stigma against soaps. I'm not sorry but all this false optimism & support of bad script writing, casting until the cows come home, bad acting and bad storylines is not going to save the genre just because people want to try to pretend like their is a sliver lining in a pot caked with years of muck.

As long as you got the same bad cooks in the kitchen: The roast will be dry, the vegetables will be wilted, and the buns will still be burnt. And no matter how much salt, pepper and sauce you try to put on it the meal still will be bad.

So when this genre comes to an end. We can point to the:

-The reshuffling of the decks with the same bad writers.
-Continuing to cast and play an EP/HW's faves over vets.
-Filling soaps with vapid bad acting teens and 20 something's in a failed attempt to reach an audience with-whom (if they watch at all) it's not to see themselves but to see the mature characters.
-Totally ignoring its majority black female audience. Or when they do throw them a bone the black characters are more often then not demoralized and castrated before they even have a chance to grow.

And I'm gonna get personal here. And this goes to whomever it may apply. So if it ain't you don't get mad:

I'm sick and tired as an African American, when some others of my racial/ethic background are still willing to enter and exit through the backdoor and pee in a Dixie-cup to defend the demoralizing portrayals of African Americans Y&R and some other soaps have produced over the years.

And let me point To Y&R in this case.

#1: Nia Peebles admitted in an interview that Maria had wanted to provide her with a back-story of her as a black woman onscreen (Nia is not black at all) whose mother had worked as a maid. I don't even need to go any further for you to see two glaring issues there.

#2: Maria stunt casts an America's Next Top Model, D list winner in attempts to try and recreate the Drucilla magic. And then thinks that by naming her after the iconic Tyra Banks (which she swears has no relation to the name of the character. Bitch please!). And when her attempt at telling an urban tale falls flat, she tries to end it by having the very character she created as a relative of Devon now sleeping with the boy she thought was her nephew.

#3: She has the nerve to recast an iconoclastic sex-on-a-stick to females character and 800,000 taking in the ratings when he left the first time Malcolm (Shemar Moore) with a brotha 10 years too young and not even 1/10th of what made the character popular in the first place. No other actor or actress on Y&R gave the show a major nosedive in the ratings when they left but Shemar. But there is a lack of attention paid to making sure this recast was done right. Any Negro will do.

#4: And then one more time she tries to recreate the Dru magic through the bad casting of Julia Pace Mitchell. And between her and Gruff McGruff on screen together it ends up looking like a bad pilot for Good Times that had to be re-shot or it would have never made it to air.

#5: One thought Maria was going to finally going to give Kristoff's, Neil his just do by making him a CEO of Kay's company only for her to castrate him within months in favor of Patch!

#6: And then the black actor's. At least the one's on the show who care try and speak out and they get punished.

#7: And to top it off with the current mess of casting Emmy winning Debbie Morgan as less than what she deserves. Watch out Darnell! Is just a travesty.

And yet there are some negro's who will defend each and every one of these demoralizing moves that suggest that you are not even to fit to walk the earth, that that is how "you people's are" as kosher. That the dignity and respect of the audience who brought this show to number #1 is worth nothing more than what she saw in the black themed episodes of CSI, Law and Order or her jaunt to BET.

And so Maria may very well love black people. But what comes across onscreen is the direct opposite.

So I want to know, at what point do your types of black people have enough? At what point with a sampling of what I have listed above do you take issue? Or are you so eager to keep soaps on air that you are willing to watch black people cast as slaves on the plantation if she so wished to do so, just to keep it on air.

Because I come from strong stock. And I was not raised to sit at the back of the bus and to take what was given to me if it was not equal. So I'm just tired...

And then to bring it home mainstream. It is the biggest offense to all soap fans to try and keep passing off these stunt castings as if they are have done Y&R or daytime one iota of good. The ratings for Y&R has dropped dramatically in the last two years and Maria has cast every primetime star she could. And it is because she can't write! She is not a writer. So it is not about casting some film and primetime actors. It's about understanding how not to wreck a soap.

OLTL got its ratings up because their writers knew the craft. And they were not stutin' like my daddy! So you keep pushing false positives if you want to. And i'll jut sit back and watch some people scramble like they did when I first predicted Y&R's downfall and made a hella enemies by speaking the truth! So it is time to step into the light Caroline...Step into the light!

"We didn't land on Maria Bell. Maria Bell landed on us!" -- Soap Viewer X

^^ @ david46208: I applaud all you have to say about the state of African-Anericans on Y&R and on soaps in general. I dont have the history with Y&R but I have ceased the few times I would allow the show to play in the background. The 'Miss Phyllis'-thing just put it over the top.

I also agree with your assessment of the demise of Y&R.

@soapbaby: Thanks. Because it's not about the actor or actors being cast in a role. Many will take whatever job they can get at this point. But you got a full cast of veteran actors withwhom some don't even get more than a few episodes a month. Maria has destroyed Sharon, under-valued MTS (acting aside), opted to use plots from old films, and brought in a crack-team (literally) of co-head writers (in-which Hogan Sheffer arrogantly said in an interview that only 20 fans disliked the writing). Blah!

And to think that somehow daytime will get respect when you have cast Ken Howard on the same show that has or has had Diana Degarmo, Yvonne Zima and Eva Marcille. Come on now come on.

When Y&R was at the top of its game, it was comparable to primetime. And when CBS hosted the Emmy's Y&R was always the show to get air an extra primetime episode before the awards. It truly embodied what the "stories" were all about.

So if we are going to try and save the remaining soaps then people have to at least be honest with the state of daytime. Because all the positivity in the world can't put a good script in an actor's hand, an engaging storyline for the audience to want to tune in to everyday or a casting that knocks the socks off of the fans.

MAB, JUST DOESN'T KNOW WHEN TO QUIT HIRING ALL OF THESE REJECTS.

David, no word of post No. Seventeen is a lie! Tell it my man.

Actually Dyllan, I'm not so sure that Thatcher is an entirely popular figure, just ask anyone who survived the Brixton riots in the 80s! Thatcher is certainly complex and controversial, to say the least!

As for Ken Howard, imo, he is a talent but I am dubious as to the writing talent concerning this present incarnation of the show. I no longer watch but what I've read and the clips that I've seen, convince me that this show remains poorly written. No amount of acting ability can cover for terrible writing and ill conceived storytelling.

David, wow, thanks for taking the time to crystallize some of what is wrong with this genre that many of us have grown up with...with so much fondness.
Some of these storylines might have been acceptable (barely) 30/40 years ago but in this day and age, it shows a lack of progression, a lack of maturity, a lack of awareness and an overall lack in technique in dramatic writing.

I'm still waiting for someone to convince me that Sony is not purposefully trying to let this show degrade so that they can exit the soap biz a la PGP.

As an aside, Does Anyone Else have trouble with the Quote button?? It always seems to leave out 1/2 of the quotation that I want to highlight.

David, I agree with many of your points regarding African Americans. Well said. I do disagree with a number of others who said having Ken Howard on Y&R is stunt casting. He is a good actor and should not be compared to Catherine Bach or Diana Degarmo.

Maria Arena Bell is out to KILL this show - more un-necessry characters on an over-bloated show!! Her characters are not good - they don't add ANYTHING to the "Y & R" canvas or to its' history!!

XLNT POST. COULD NOT HAVE BEEN SAID ANY BETTER.

David46208 -- I think you are right when it comes to African-American characters. It does also seem strange that Lily has NEVER once been interested in a person of color as a boyfriend/husband.

On to my peeve -- There is scarcely a Latino presence on the show, just Ricky Williams, who is on once a month.

I think we were all spoiled a bit a decade ago when Bill Bell hit it right adding Diego and Raul to the show, then Isabella. Bell cast Francesco Quinn as Diego, great actor. Adding Raul was a big plus, too. Isabella's character showed Bill Bell's commitment to our growing presence as viewers.

Lynne Marie got rid of everyone in the mid-2000s, replacing and gutting any minorities with the Baldwin family.

Hoping against hope that things would be made better with Maria Arena Bell in charge has been fool's gold. Raul was brought back in 2009 for one week as Mac's fiance'. Obviously Clem Ford as Mac couldn't pull that one off, and Raul was sent packing.

So there is no representation for a group of people who are loyal to watching dramas and telenovellas. Oh well, MAB, it's your family's show if it gets cancelled.

And don't even get me started on how Italian-Americans are presented on Y&R. Vinnie, Angie, Angelo, Carmine, Dino -- and everyone is in the mob?
It's a MAB MAB MAB world.

@Hey mon: You got that right. If they are not lily-white suburbanites Maria can't write for them. And even then the stories are still bad.

But you know what. Ken Corday who got rid of Deidre and Drake (Marlena and John) from Days back in 2009 (and he allegedly didn't care for actors either), bit the bullet and brought them back. He also fired his own friend Dina Higely. He was willing to set-aside whatever personal issues and friendships he may have had in order to keep his business running for as long as he can. And as he said he was going to throw everything and the kitchen sink to keep Days alive. And with a good head writing team, the returns that have already happened and that are due to come, he is showing that he really cares about the show and is listening to the fans. And ain't no stunt casting going on.

And Ken has piss off the fans of Days from time to time over the last decade with casting choices and bad writers. But we have to commend this man for buckling down and taking ownership of his ship and steering it back in the right direction.

So if Maria had 1/10th of Ken's business-sense then she would fire her two co-writers hire people who know and care about Y&R and bite the bullet and get VR on contract stat.

Because you have to do WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO! And he didn't Joe be polite!

Excuse me, but were we watching the same show during the LML era? LML was an awful writer, but she was by far the best Y&R writer to promote diversity and create a truly progressive soap. It seems like when soap fans say they want "diversity", that's code for AAs. Umm....what about Asians, Latinos, GLBTs, Jews, etc.

LML created the first Jewish family, Ji-Min, Colleen was played by a part Hispanic actress, Professor Korbel was played by a Jew, Karen was multiethnic, Carmen was a minority, Emily O'Brien is of Persian ancestry. The Winters were front and center (granted their storylines sucked, but still). Women were shown working and not stereotyped as weak and needy. She raised important women's issues.

LML did suck overall as a writer, but she wasn't bad on diversity.

I do think MAB is slowly improving in the diversity field. She added YoHarmony and now regularly shows Devon. She is slowly getting better, but has a long way to go.

Nothing about YoHarmony is a step in the right direction! I love Debbie Morgan, but she is being bamboozled to "coon" for Y&R. Did y'all hear her ass on Monday's episode say, "Devon, you a fool and you workin my last nerve." {insert neck roll}

Whatever MAB has against minorities, she needs to be exposed. The Winters, save Lily, are just a mixture of "Good Times" and "The Color Purple" plots. At least Lynn Marie allowed them out of there sphere to interact with the rest of the characters. And LML gave the Winters family some juicy plots, Dyllan. I look back at the Carmen Mesta story as VR's last hurrah as the HBIC of daytime drama. At least Neil wasn't in his apartment holding Moses thinking to himself, "What I's gon do bout Sofia?"

Why is it seemingly so that every new cast member is relegated to the stunt casting bin by most of the posters here?

Phyllis has long needed a family to shed some light on her bizarre character and Ken Howard is as good (if not better) than most to fill part of that bill.

Why is this stunt casting???