National Damage Control Week: Ron Vs. Gary

Reading the soap mags this weekend, there was a lot of half-assed damage control going on this week in Soapland.  A who's who of daytime came out this week to defend themselves, or do mea culpas.  The big shocker?  Ken Corday wasn't among them!  (But, I'm sure we'll being hearing about "The Plan to Save Days--no, seriously, this time, we mean it, fer sure!" any minute.)

In that spirit, I officially decree this as "National Damage Control Week," and will spend the next few days examining everyone's efforts.  Today, let's start with Ron vs. Gary.

When OLTL Head Writer and current daytime messiah Ron Carlivati departed the show as part of the writers' strike, he was replaced by Gary Tomlin.  Tomlin, who had last graced OLTL with his presence as Executive Producer in 2001-02, was serving as a writer on Carlivati's staff.

OLTL arguably had the biggest sea change of any soap during the writers' strike, and the changes were not particularly well-received, by the viewers, or by Carlivati.  Here are some excerpts from an interview he did in the latest Soap Opera Weekly, discussing his plans for May sweeps, as well as what ent on during the strike.

When asked about the Bo/Nora/Clint/Lindsay dynamic:

Something I didn't see as much when I wasn't there is that we're driving more with Bo and Lindsay.  There was a little change-partners-and-dance going on with Clint and Lindsay and Bo and Nora, which is a great dynamic, but I don't want to lose sight of Clint and Nora as a good couple.  Lindsay has been quietly falling for Bo.

Quietly?  Quiet is not the word I'd use to define Lindsay's hard-on for Bo.

Frankly, I think Tomlin had a better handle on this group than Carlivati did.  I mean, under Carlivati, we have Bo, defender of truth, justice, and the American way, falling for Lindsay, who has committed every crime in the book--some twice--and gotten away with it.  Bo, whose been known to be suspicious of people, especially people with criminal pasts, never even stops to think--"Hey, I wonder if she's faking this insanity thing?  And even if she's not, isn't two murders at least one too many? I mean, do I want to sleep with one eye open for the rest of my life?"  Not to mention that Bo was personally duped and humiliated by Lindsay--he can get over that, but not Nora's one-night stand?

Like so much of Carlivatis OLTL, I believe that the story came from good motivations.  Four talented, older actors, in need of a story--Let's throw them together!  If the story were focused on a triangle between the Buchanan boys over Nora, it would probably work, but forcing Lindsay into the mix just stretches things too much.  It stretches crediblity that Bo would be interested in her.  It also brings back the Nora/Lindsay rivalry, which, if I may be so bold, sucks and always has.  It is a rancid leftover from the JFP/Tomlin eras, a poor man's Viki/Dorian.  Lindsay in general has never been a very good character, and has survived mainly due to fans of Catherine Hickland. 

Under Tomlin, the emphasis has been on Bo and Nora and their issues.  As a side plot, we've seen Clint struggling with the ethics of what it takes to be the head of Buchanan Enterprises.  Of course, we've also seen that Lindsay still has all the paperwork of her first husband whom she divorced (and later killed).  My I.Q. dropped a few million points on that one.  Still, I think Tomlin's approach was a step up.

Next, Carlivati discusses Ramsey:

I never envisioned Ramsey as anything more than the guy who was hunting down Marcie.  But the fact that we got Hunt Block, who is such a great actor, I thought let's flesh him out.  [Since the strike], he has his finger in every pie in Llanview, which could get a little Spencer-ish.  There's good and bad to that. 

There's nothing good to being a Spencer clone.  Unfortunately, Carlivati left the door wide open for this, by leaving the Ramsey character on the canvas.  For whatever reason, it is very clear that Gary Tomlin was determined to up the conflict level on the show.  Tomlin and his crew felt there needed to be stuff happening everywhere, regardless of how ludicrous it was.  Giving someone with that mindset access to a vaugely defined bad guy is like giving Storm Logan access to a loaded gun--it's just not going to end well.

On Tomlin's insta-triangle:

We're going to see Antonio confront John and Talia in a big way.  I was kind of over that story.

I do feel bad for Carlivati on this one.  He had created an appealing couple in Antonio and Talia, and had actually made Antonio a likable, believable character.  Tomlin turned him into a wuss under the flimsiest of circumstances.  "Yes, I know Ramsey is a scumbag, but I lost all my money, and I need this job, so let's throw Bo under the bus.")  Can we not have a happy balance between machismo and cobarde?

On Rex/Adriana/Gigi:

We're thrilled with the way this Rex/Gigi thing has taken off.  I sort of love the bitchy Adriana, but it came out of nowhere for me.  I had to latch on to what would make the character work for me.  It's a real fear of losing someone you love.

Hasn't that been the stated motivation all along?  As for bitchy Adriana, well Gary Tomlin is the same guy that loved bitchy Jen Rappaport.  Apparently, Tomlin loves turning wallpaper ingenues into wallpaper bitches.  Personally, I would like to know more about how this Rex/Gigi thing has taken off.  Like where, and in what way?

On Blair:

I was worried about Blair the past couple of months.  She seemed like a bit of a doormat, and that's not Blair.

Hey, Ron--once you re-marry the man who sold your baby, and told you it was dead, you're a doormat.  And that's the kindest thing I can say about you.  As I've been saying for years, the Mannings are just plain unworkable as a family unit.  They are too damn icky.

More troubling is the way that everybody's become a doormat under Tomlin's run.  Why is Dorian tolerating Todd's psychotic treatment of her family, particularly her newly adopted daughter, Langston?  There is no reason why she would have his menace in her house, other than budget cutbacks mean less sets, and Todd's gotta live somewhere.  Nobody would put up with this nutcase, but they do, and that's a problem that predates Tomlin or Carlivati.

Likewise, Ramsey is a psycho who kidnaps and shoots at children.  And the reason Gigi doesn't come forward on this is--she'll go to jail for aiding and abetting Marcie?  Hell, Marcie's not going to jail for aiding and abetting Marcie!  Oh, Ramsey knows she's lying about Rex not being the father of what's-his-face?  There's a good reason to keep a psycho on the loose!  This is classic "let's dumb everybody down to keep the villain around" and it didn't start with Tomlin.

On the developing Jessica/Nash/Sarah/Cris quadrangle:

I found some of that strange....[Nash] is happily married; he has a baby he loves.  Sarah is pretty happy with Cris.  This little tease is not going anywhere.

But, is Nash?  Earlier in the same issue, SOW reports that favorite punching bag of the Snarkcast, Forbes March, is on his way out.  Could this have been the set-up to get ol' Nash off the show?  Personally, I think the flirtation with Sarah was less extreme than the way Tomlin had Nash just sort of stroll into Alison's hospital room and try to smother her.  I tend to think casual acts of attempted murder are worse than adultery, but I'm old-fashioned that way.  Of course, Nash is the guy who wanted his wife to stay mentally ill, because he preferred her split personality.  That always ranked Nash pretty high on the creep scale.  But some thought it was a modern love story.

Now, things get really interesting.  Carlivati is asked if there is anything coming up for Miles.  Yeah, Miles doesn't set my pulse pounding, either, but read this anyway:

I had big plans for Miles in February at the ball that was connected to Allison's secret.  The ball was written by us right before the strike, and then that whole week was basically rewritten after we left.  Allison was not supposed to go into a coma.  Allison's DVD was not going to break.  It was going to play, and it was going to effect seven or eight other people.  Unfortunately, other decisions were made.

You have to ask at this point--why was ABC so willing to tear down what Carlivati built up?  Why would they go so far as rewriting scripts that were already penned and paid for?  I mean Guza went on strike too, but GH didn't become a new show in his absence (dang it!)  This does not sound good for Carlivati.  It will be interesting to see what becomes of Gary Tomlin.  Carlivati basically panned Tomlin's work, and he can't be happy with this guy for wrecking so much of his stuff.  How does Tomlin stay on the staff in a situation like this...unless ABC wants him there?

I think a lot will ride on the next few months.  Carlivati's work beings airing again on Monday.  It clearly sounds like he's not going to be doing the slow build approach this time.  Stuff will be happening, and the ABC star machine is in full effect.  Tuc Watkins!  Thom Cristopher!  Susan Haskell!  Andrea freakin Evans!  If OLTL can't get out of the low end of the ratings pool this time, I think Carlivati's Life will come to an end.

NEXT: Guza vs. Reality!