SOAP OPERA UNCENSORED
Volume 03, Issue 1 (No. 58)
BY NELSON BRANCO
Copyright 2013 Nelson Branco
INSIDE UNCENSORED’S YEAR-END DOUBLE SPECIAL ISSUE! — THE 21 MOST FASCINATING PEOPLE OF 2012! STARRING MY HONEY BOO BOOS: GH’s SEAN KANAN IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW! PLUS: ANGELICA MCDANIEL, STEVE KENT, JOANNA JOHNSON, JEN LILLEY AND KIRSTEN STORMS, SHARON CASE, KELLY MONACO, GREG RIKAART, TREVOR ST. JOHN, JEANNE COOPER AND MORE! PLUS: UNCENSORED’S MOST FASCINATING PERSON OF LAST YEAR! — Hot Rumour: Steve Burton Y&R-Bound? If so, Who Will Be His Love Interest? — MORE PROSPECT PARK LEAKS/RESEARCH REVEALED! — Exclusive Sneak Peek: Crystal Chappell’s Book Is Out! Bombshell: Her Feud With Kristian Alfonso Exposed; Her Real-Life Childhood Molestations Revealed; And When DAYS Asked The Superstar Back To Salem Recently! — SEARCH PARTY OVER: BRIDGET DOBSON RESURFACES! — Multiple Sources: Jack Wagner Back Taping At GH In 2013! — IS GH’s A.J. QUARTERMAINE MARRIED? —DAYS Ken Corday: What Will Happen With Will and Sonny in 2013? —MORE STEPHEN NICHOLS EXIT INFORMATION — New Soap: Inside TAINTED DREAMS! Plus: Carolyn Hinsey’s New Blog! —UNCENSORED Quotes Of The Week!
UNCENSORED MASTHEAD:
FOUNDER/EDITOR: Nelson Branco
EDITOR AT LARGE: Denette Wilford
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Say What?
UNCENSORED QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“[Jill Farren Phelps] is a woman who has a great allegiance to people and I don’t know anybody who has worked with Jill who doesn’t have a great allegiance to her, as well.”
—New Y&R hire and soap vet Mark Pinter in DIGEST
Translation: Except for all those vets she fired on ANOTHER WORLD, ONE LIFE TO LIVE and GENERAL HOSPITAL.
“It’s not like I put up my middle finger and said, ‘I’m outta here.’”
—Exiting Y&R hunk Michael Graz in DIGEST on if he’d ever consider returning to the serial
Translation 1: Like Billy Miller has wanted to do on several occasions!
Translation 2: I just didn’t shower for the past two years.
Translation 3: I’m praying Brad Bell calls me instead!
“Reports of AMC and ONE LIFE Return So Far Seem Greatly Exaggerated.”
—Soap blogger Sara Bibel’s recent headline in a story about Prospect Park
Translation: I have no sources even though I used to be a soap writer!
“[Head Writers] Gary [Tomlin] and Chris [Whitesell] have a vision for the show for 213 that they’re very excited about.”
—Ken Corday in DIGEST promoting DAYS’s 2013 storyline bible
Translation: Which will make their future firing even all the more delicious.
“Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, and Twitter today announced an exclusive multi-year agreement to create the ‘Nielsen Twitter TV Rating’ for the US market. Under this agreement, Nielsen and Twitter will deliver a syndicated-standard metric around the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter, slated for commercial availability at the start of the fall 2013 TV season.”
—A recent press release from Nielsen and Twitter
Translation: Liason fans will rule the ratings! Or @ScooterBeanBag!
“I never knew there was this fantastic thing called recurring, where they call you when they need you.”
—Y&R's Lauralee Bell in a new DIGEST feature interview on her new status with Y&R now that showrunners Josh Griffith and Jill Farren Phelps in charge
Translation 1: I didn’t want to work with my hack sister-in-law Maria Arena Bell when she was in charge — unless I had a big storyline I could approve ahead of time.
Translation 2: I’m blonde, OK? Hello: I was in love with Thom Bierdz!
“He will be a busy bee in 2013.”
—Head writer Ron Carlivati in SOAP OPERA DIGEST previewing John McBain’s 2013 storyline on GH
Translation: But not on GH!
“No major bumps are visible on their romantic road.”
—Carlivati continues in the same interview but this time about Steve and Olivia’s romance
Translation: Well, except for that whole we-fired-Scott-Reeves thing.
Soap Syllabus
BRIDGET DOBSON SPEAKS!
One Half Of SANTA BARBARA’s Dream Team On Soaps Resurfaces!
Call off the Missing Person’s Search: The SANTA BARBARA Blog is currently running a must-read and very rare interview with longtime soap opera writer Bridget Dobson, who wrote for GENERAL HOSPITAL, GUIDING LIGHT and AS THE WORLD TURNS before creating SANTA BARBARA (with her husband, Jerome). The interview can be found here:
https://pierin26santabarbara.blogspot.it/2012/12/my-exclusive-interview-with-bridget.html
When asked whether or not writing by committee works, Dobson astutely answered:
“There are so many scenes over a career that involved writing (and in many cases producing) more than 6000 scripts, that it seems excessive to go into detail about any one scene or dramatic sequence. In general, as I have already written, the writer's passion must prevail in an on-going drama. I don't want to comment on specific GL storylines. However, I can say that whatever the storyline, it was not conceived or written for the audience. We wrote to please ourselves. We were very selfish. We wrote what interested us. There is too much work to be accomplished. Time can't be spent gauging the audience's reaction. Also, I think hoping to please an audience distracts from the passion of the writer. ‘Group-think’ does not work. Writing by committee does not work. The intensity of the writer's creative fervor can't be diluted. (The networks and the sponsors might disagree, but that doesn't change the ferocity with which I hold this conviction.)”
Bridget Dobson is the daughter of GENERAL HOSPITAL creators Frank and Doris Hursley.
Cover Story
21 MOST FASCINATING PEOPLE OF 2012!
Who made this past year buzzworthy? Find out! Featuring The Happiest Man in Soaps, GH’s Sean Kanan!
Who says that reformed bad boys finish last? Not Sean Kanan, who clearly learned never to say never in 2012. The popular and handsome vet was eagerly welcomed back to his first soap, GH —a show he thought he’d never work on again thanks to past off-screen issues after he broke out as A.J. Quartermaine in 1993 until his run 1997.
After sobering up and getting his life back on track (and a brief stint on SUNSET BEACH), soap royalty Bradley Bell re-blessed the once troubled actor by casting the soon-to-be untouchable actor in an edgy new antagonist role named Deacon Sharpe on B&B in 2000 — a part the Cleveland, Ohio native played for five years continuously with recurring gigs afterwards and a couple of guest-star stints on B&B’s sister soap, Y&R, as the same character.
At the beginning of 2012, Kanan was a bankable and popular soap star without a home. Jumping between Y&R and B&B as Deacon was as frustrating for him as it was for the audience but that changed when new GH showrunners, Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati, decided to “replace” its exiting super hunk Steve Burton with Jason’s wounded brother as played by Kanan! Not bad considering A.J. died a few years back when another actor, Billy Warlock, played him back in the day. It’s also a pretty damn amazing full-circle moment for a star who was labeled “box office poison” for a long time by the same show. Fifteen years later, Kanan is one of soap oper
a’s MVPs! And there’s a beautiful lesson in that, kids.
UNCENSORED caught up with one of our favourite soap peeps to discuss how life happens when you’re making other plans, who will capture A.J.’s heart, if he’s ready to finally chase Emmy, and what he shares in common with Jane Elliott.
Happy Holidays! What would you tell yourself a year ago this time regarding all your triumphs in 2012?
Probably tell myself I was playing A.J. Quartermaine on GH, for sure! I really thought that was a chapter of my life that was closed for good. Though I will admit to you, when I heard Frank Valentini was hired as GH’s EP, a little voice inside my head said, “You should probably reach out to him because he’s young, edgy and innovative.” I wondered if there was a conversation to be had with Frank but then I got busy and couldn’t follow up on it. And then, my agent called me about joining GH! I was like, “Are you kidding?” He told me not to think about it because nothing may happen for at least eight