SOAP OPERA UNCENSORED
Volume 02, Issue 22 (No. 32)
BY NELSON BRANCO
Copyright 2012 Nelson Branco
INSIDE Super-Sized UNCENSORED — Exclusive Interview: Can Lauralee Bell Save Y&R? Bill Bell’s Daughter Sounds Off On Maria Arena Bell; Genoa City’s Ratings Spiral; Shictor; B&B’s Ascent; Her Father’s Last Moments; And More! Plus: The Y&R Episodes You Can’t Miss This Week! Part Two: B&B’s Crystal Chappell On DAYS; THE DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS; Her New Agenda; and Big News About THE GROVE! Confirmed: Molly Burnett Out At DAYS! Interview: Katie Couric on AFTERNOON DELIGHT! Who Shot DAYS’s Stefano (And Does Anyone Care)? Emmy Reel Information! Is GH’s Nathin Butler Out? Melissa Archer GH-bound? Stacy Haiduk’s New TV Role! Inside HLN’s Decision To Air The Emmys! Plus: Is Bob Guza Attending The Emmys? Last Week's Reviews, Unbelievable Blind Items, and Next Week's Cheat Sheet!
UNCENSORED MASTHEAD:
FOUNDER/EDITOR: Nelson Branco
EDITOR AT LARGE: Denette Wilford
Follow Soap Opera Uncensored at: @nelliebranco or @SoapUncensored
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UNCENSORED QUOTES OF THE WEEK:
“I am cool with it, but they dropped my story recently and put me on the back burner. I am not working right now. I am popping in for one show every couple of weeks. I hate when that happens. I like it for a couple of weeks, 'cause I get the break. But then after a couple of weeks, it’s like, ‘C’mon. I want to work.’ I have a feeling they won’t really have a nice story for me till the fall. You also know how soaps are. We have such an enormous cast. I think that Y&R has a knockout gangbusters cast. There is only so much air time and everybody needs to have their turn at bat. We have to pass it around.”
—Genie Francis sounds off on her lack of storyline in a recent Michael Fairman ON AIR, ON SOAPS interview
Translation: These darn Y&R vets are cutting into my scene-chewing time!
“What I noticed with me is; they do not play me heavily in spring and summer, but they play me really heavily in the fall and winter, which is fine. That is when the adults are home. Right now, the show just brought on a whole lot of young people for the summer, who are really good. So they are turning up the juice on the younger storylines, which is the way to do it, and it’s smart. I am a little involved in that, but not too much. But, Genevieve will be back.”
—Francis in the same interview
Translation: I think they’ve been on this show longer than I have!
“I think Elizabeth Hendrickson is a really wonderful actress. I know Nancy Lee Grahn, she is also a wonderful actress. But… Becky Herbst, I would love to see her win, to be honest. She has done some wonderful work! I will tell you the year I did win; she was nominated alongside me as well. I have to say she came to me with a full heart and said, ‘I am so happy for you, Genie. It has been so many years and you deserve it.’ She came to me and put her arms around me and I hugged her and said, ‘Your time will come. Your chance is going to come.’ You are young and you still have loads of time.’ For an actress who has just lost the Emmy to have that much of a giving heart, is rare. So the truth is, I would really like to see Becky win this year.”
—Francis on her Emmy competition
Translation: I don’t stand a chance in hell of winning.
“No, I cannot go to the Emmys this year. I promised my son for years that I would take him to Alaska on a fishing trip, just him and me. I have to think of whom to appoint to get it for me, if I should win. I don’t know who is going, but if Daniel Goddard is there, my on-screen son, I would ask Daniel to get it for me.”
—Francis continues
Translation: That’ll be the closest Daniel Goddard gets to winning an Emmy.
“They ring you out at GH, they do!”
--Francis on the talent on GH
Translation: No wonder we all had drug problems!
“It’s just fun to be nominated because you get to go to the gifting suites and get stuff.”
—Daytime Emmy nominee Christel Khalil in DIGEST
Translation: I can’t wait to sell my Emmy on eBay.
“What the heck — I’ll play with the big girls.”
—Emmy nominee Heather Tom on submitting herself in Lead Actress in DIGEST
Translation: If Laura Wright can, so can I!
“We rock! I’m so proud and so happy. It was some really, really nice material that GH put forward.”
--Laura Wright in DIGEST on the show’s 23 Emmy nominations
Translation: Garin Wolf and Bob Guza almost got us cancelled; it’s Cartini putting us forward.
“She sent cupcakes.”
—Nancy Lee Grahn notes that Jill Farren Phelps sent treats to the set when GH was nominated for a slew of Emmys
Translation: They were called Poison Envy.
“I got to do some scenes right off the bat with Kristian [Alfonso, Hope], who I love. It was pretty easy to slip to back into the crazy rhythm of things at DAYS. It felt a little like déjà vu.”
--DAYS’s Blake Berris in SOAP OPERA DIGEST on returning to Salem
Translation: Best part? She didn’t get me fired yet.
“I wanted to call my new [daytime] talk show AFTERNOON DELIGHT!”
--Katie Couric on Toronto’s BREAKFAST TV
Translation: Take that, Carolyn Hinsey!
“The O Word? Oh, that’s only a compliment. I hope to follow in her footsteps.”
--Couric in the same interview
Translation: Those darn soap fans will never let that happen!
GAME OF THRONES
THE SHOW WILL GO ON!
It was one of daytime’s most suspenseful, nail-biting cliffhangers: With THE 39th DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS just around the corner, it was uncertain whether or not the kudofest would air or even stream online when the golden hardware is handed out on June 23 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Luckily, at the eleventh hour, HLN swept in as the industry’s knight in shining armor.
According to VARIETY, the 39th edition of the event, which had spent the past two years on CBS, will air live at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, with encore broadcasts to follow on HLN, which reaches approximately 95 million homes domestically. It will be the Daytime Emmys' first appearance on cable.
Let’s pray this means the script will be more provocative and funnier than decades’ past.
Someone named Marc Lucas will direct the kudocast. A host has not been finalized but is expected to be announced in one week. Hopefully, HLN will lobby for a famous soap name like Susan Lucci. Or a naked Josh Kelly.
The past two years, the DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS were produced by controversial production company Associated Television International, which parted ways with the NATAS in February.
National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences chairman Malachy Wienges told VARIETY that the daytime community was "unhappy" with the previous two shows. An insider tells UNCENSORED, “We want a fresher take and more emphasis on the industry — not commercials.”
"After the last show, the daytime community approached NATAS and said that if we have to do the show in 2012 the exact same as in 2010 and 2011, we would rather have an untelevised event and just have a sit-down dinner and honor ourselves in Beverly Hills." Wienges continued.
The good news is that HLN promises two respectful tributes to fallen soaps, ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE.
Too bad GUIDING LIGHT and AS THE WORLD TURNS weren’t afforded that luxury by its pe
ers after 5-plus decades on air. The two axed CBS sudsers were remembered quite shabbily infuriating the industry, fans and critics.
"This has to be as much a tribute to daytime television as an awards show," Gornell promised.
That being said, Gornell asserted that the awards themselves — which spread across a number of genres that include animation, game shows, talk, culinary and children's programming — wouldn't be marginalized.
"While we pay tribute to television, it's the awards that are going to get us there," he said. "This show is probably going to have more awards than previous years and is probably going to have fewer song-and-dance numbers than previous years."
More from the VARIETY article:
"HLN focuses on news stories and information and things that our audience wants to talk about," Safon said. "That includes the celebrations like the Emmy awards. If there's a fanbase there, which for daytime television is an enormous fanbase, and the show was really going to delight that