Rewriting of back-stories (some spoilers included)
Dan Willis
to make a story for the present.
The most recent case has been the return of Asa's 5th wife, Pamela.
The way the story went back in the day (80's I'm pretty sure) was that
Asa had visiting the South Pacific island of Malakeva for years as a
way of escaping the day-to-day pressures of being a captain (nay an
admiral!) of industry. He always visited in cognito as naval officer
Jeb Stuart (his middle names). While there he fell in love with the
daughter of the local mayor (governor? whatever he was), Pamela. He
married her as Jeb Stuart and she remained on the island unaware that
her husband was actually Asa Buchanan, gazillionaire. This marriage
took place while Asa's first wife, Olympia (Clint & Bo's Ma) was still
alive (but which was known only to Asa) and locked away in an insane
asylum in France.
4 marriages later for Asa, other Llanview characters discovered
Malakeva adn the secret (albiet not legal) wife hiding there. When
Pamela learned her "husband" was a fraud, she tricked him by faking a
fatal disease and begged him to marry her for real as Asa Buchanan. He
did it, she "miraculously" recovered and moved to Llanview with Asa.
It was mentioned at that time she was an only child. (her father
lamented loosing his opnly child during the deathbed charade). Also
that her mother had died when she was young (so no possible half-sibs
on mom's side either).
Asa & Pam's marriage went the way of all of his marriages when she
fell in love with lawyer, Pete O'Neil (Pete's neice was married to Bo
until she was killed by Jamie Saunders).
Now we are seeing Pamela return as "Pamela Stuart", a name she has not
carried in over 20 years and claiming to be the sister of Jared's dead
mother. Pam had no sister and if anything she should be Pamela O'Neil
as she and Pete married just before leaving the show. If she wanted to
return to her precvious husband's name (ala Dorian) why Stuart and not
Buchanan?
This one is simply irritating and insulting to us who have watched the
show for more than 30 years.
But it not nearly so bad as the re-write needed to create Cole. In
real time, Marty only met Patrick after Blair was already pregnant
with Starr and did not marry him for a couple fo years. When they left
the show (and Llanview) Marty was not pregnant yet (that she mentioned
at any rate.) At best, Cold shoule be two years younger that Starr,
not a year older.
I suspect they will fuck this up again when they bring back Mitch. HIs
first death was pretty apparent (and he had been autopsied at the
time) but that did not stop them from bringing him back, and with
another person who had been autopsied (twice!), Victor Lord.
I keep waiting for Viki's long-dead sister, Meredith, to return
despite the painful and 4-hanky death scene she had back in the 70's.
Thanks for the opportunity to rant and vent!
Dan in Denver
Hilda J.
know who will show up again even if they are dead. :-)
D.W. McKim
established, it bothers me. Not only does it lessen the impact of
following the stories but it's also a way of the creative staff
devalueing its audience. Not that this is the sole reason soaps are
endangered, mind you, but implausible retcons are one of the big things
that i would say are making soaps less relevant at a time when they're
struggling to survive.
Sure, soap storylines are fraught with fantastic coincidences and like
all entertainment rooted in fiction, some suspension of disbelief on the
part of the audience is required. But this doesn't give soap writers
carte blanche to do just anything and expect the audience to follow.
You set up a set of rules your universe goes by but when you break those
rules, it shows laziness in the writing and a disregard for the viewers
you're trying to please.
Besides being offensive to the audience, it actually HURTS when its done
by someone like Ron Carlivati who professes to be as big a fan of OLTL
as everyone on the other side of the screen and loves the history. He's
tried to erase, dismiss, or fix some of the show's past inconsistency
mistakes so when he makes such a huge one himself, it almost makes it
seem like an even more personal insult.
I'm going to discuss spoilers now
so
anyone
wanting
to
avoid
them
can
bow
out
now
I'm extraordinarily peeved and the whole deal with Tea's secret child -
she's going to end up being one of MATTHEW'S classmates in London. A
part of me is hoping spoilers aren't what they seem and somehow it will
all work out like she's some kind of young genius prodigy or something
but unfortunately it looks like the show's going to make Tea's child
TWICE(!) as old as Jack when she should be YOUNGER! I'm really hating
this because unlike a lot of history-rewrites where the show basically
glosses over them and hopes the audience doesn't remember or care if
what they're changing was a long time ago, the show has CONSTANTLY been
reminding us of the whole island storyline with Ross/Todd/Tea including
mentioning flat out that this happened SIX years ago.
I want to support my show - i really do. For the most part i love OLTL,
i don't want to see it cancelled and i believe it should be one of the
last soaps standing in the end, but things like this make standing by it
so hard. Especially when i've been drumming up support encouraging
others to watch and trying to get other fans to do the same, when the
show pulls a stunt like this, i'm at a loss. It's embarrassing when i'm
trying to spread the word about its quality and its sharp writing and
then anyone who takes my word for it tunes in and finds something like
this. It's not just a slap in the face of fans, it's more like a rape
or murder that's done to us and not the characters onscreen.
--------------------------------------
d.w. mckim
http://community.webtv.net/larynx1/UltravioletMUSEings/index.html
http://muppetfreak.blogstream.com - 75/85% Muppet/Henson fandom
commentary plus other areas of interest and cool stuff
---------------------------------------
Support the dying daytime drama genre. Watch One Life to Live - one of
television's best shows in daytime or primetime. Airing on ABC and
Soapnet.
Suzanne D.
"D.W. McKim" <dw...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:7131-4ADBCC79-163@storefull-
> Sure, soap storylines are fraught with fantastic coincidences and like
> all entertainment rooted in fiction, some suspension of disbelief on the
> part of the audience is required. But this doesn't give soap writers
> carte blanche to do just anything and expect the audience to follow.
I wonder why I am so able to accept silly diseases, miracle cures, long-lost
twins, marriage-go-rounds, and freaky coincidences, yet when they mess
around with history I get just as mad as you do. What I really LOVE is when
they tie in history to present stories and end up with a seamless transition
that delights the long-time viewers. (Example, much was made, when Sloan
was writing the book about Victor, about Victor being blood type O-, and
then in a totally separate story later on, Todd needed a blood transfusing
and it was casually mentioned that he was O-. When it came time to meld
these two stories together, the audience had two pieces of history to fit
together perfectly, and the result, no matter how fantasy-like, still seemed
grounded in reality.) This show has been on the air for so long that there
surely is a wealth of old stories to pull from that do not involve bringing
people back from the dead or SORAS-ing children to beyond the ages of their
older childhood counterparts. Instead of reviving a dead villain, bring
back someone who went to jail or disappeared (take a cue from the Powell
story a while back). Instead of making older Cole be younger Starr's
newly-older boyfriend, make it that Marty and Patrick adopted a young boy
after moving to Ireland (and then bring back the child they DID have who was
two or three years younger than Starr). There are many ways of successfully
pulling from history that don't involve completely ignoring it.
--S.
D.W. McKim
with Tina.
I totally co-sign on your post - i have no problem accepting the number
of odd coincidences, time travel, underground cities, or any number of
out there plots or happenings because they're a part of that world. I
just ask that the "rules" concerning that world stay consistent even if
they're silly - like the whole transplanting a fetus operation from the
Liz/Keri storyline; impossible to do in real life but a medical
procedure that was established as possible on the show in an earlier
storyline.
Take today's episode when Layla and Christian were going on about making
flan that Layla tells him she heard from Carlotta that he's the flan
expert and even has a secret ingrediant. It's a small throwaway moment
but it actually connected with an earlier episode from last year when we
actually say Carlotta mention this to Layla and Sarah onscreen. Those
little Easter Eggs for people who remember little minute details yet
they have no problem totally mucking up the larger picture.