News Brief

Deep Soap: Clichés And Homages
Sara A. Bibel blogs: "It’s Stock Soap Scene #4574. After a fall or car accident, the doctors perform a battery of tests on the patient. All seems well until the patient reveals that he – gasp – can’t feel his legs. He’s paralyzed. Soap paralysis is currently affecting both ALL MY CHILDREN’s Taylor and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL’s Rick. The audience knows that, unlike real paralyzed people, Taylor and Rick will be able to run marathons within six months. Rick has already regained the ability to stand. Taylor will surely learn to walk again with Jake’s help, with her injury serving as a way to bring the characters together and keep her from returning to military service in Iraq. Soap paralysis is the functional equivalent of real life mono: something that knocks a person out of commission for a little while but rarely does any permanent damage. Because these stories are so predictable, it’s difficult to muster up much sympathy for the afflicted characters."

Plain White T's to guest on ONE LIFE TO LIVE
SoapOperaDigest.com is reporting: After Puddle of Mudd performs at Ultra Violet on New Year's Eve, Gigi's favorite band, Plain White T's, appears on January 21. Their 2006 single "Hey There Delilah" hit No. 1 on Billboard and iTunes, and the band is now promoting their latest effort, "Big Bad World," which was released in Septmeber.

Fans of ABC Family's GREEK have seen a lot of the T's and now they're moving on to regular ABC.

How Y&R's Eric Braeden (Barely) Met CBS' MOTHER
"The producers [of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER] and the director are fans of what I do on Y&R, so it initially came from them. But I have had a longstanding antipathy toward guest-starring on nighttime television because I'd done that an enormous amount in the '60s and '70s. I was infuriated by the singular decision by a former head of Universal Studios to lower guest-star salaries by 75 percent - from $7,500 per show to $2,500. At that time, Universal was the only game in town. So I swore I would not do that again — though I had probably done that more than any actor. Hence my decision to do daytime.

He's a hilarious character. Just watch the opening scene, where his wife is giving birth to what he had hoped would be a son. He's standing there with a cigar, going, 'Push! Push! Push!' And out comes a girl. He says, "Oh." And the outfit I wear to take Robin hunting when she was 8 years old — I laughed so hard when I saw it in the mirror. I didn't want to do [HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER], to be quite frank with you. I was talked into it by family and agents saying it was one of the highest-ranked shows and this and that. And I enjoyed it enormously."

TOM CASIELLO: Election Battles, on-screen and off
"AS THE WORLD TURNS is doing something really interesting with politics... and it's definitely caught my eye.

Moving a study of characters into a gubernatorial world usually leads to viewers' eyes glazing over, but Luke Snyder's run for president at his college instantly makes it young, fresh, and interesting.

Some fans really want it to be revealed that Kevin is secretly gay now, but frankly, to me, that's a cop out. I know this is probably a personal preference, but having numerous straight male friends, I'm always constantly fascinated by the psychological dynamic between gay and straight men."

Meeting between VERBOTENE LIEBE and AS THE WORLD TURNS?
"The latest edition of VL's fan newsletter adds that Procter & Gamble flew one of VL's authors to New York to exchange experiences. Seems a little inflated- but it's great news nonetheless: Tom Chroust was going to New York anyway and indeed he's met with the creative team of AS THE WORLD TURNS."

Bobby Steggert show on Nov. 17
Bobby Steggert, who played Sam Grey on ALL MY CHILDREN, will host the Nov. 17 "Monday Nights, New Voices" concert at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre.

The evening will celebrate the work of composer-lyricist Ryan Scott Oliver. Among those currently scheduled to perform are Traci Bair, Nicole Beerman, Kristen Michelle Bussiere, Kathleen Gail Hennessey and Lia Menaker. The "New Voices" will offer selections from Oliver's songbook and will be accompanied by Will Van Dyke. Show time is 7 PM.

Broadcast Schedule Could Look Wholly Different by Midseason
After a ho-hum autumn filled with fewer fall launches than usual, networks are gearing up for a blizzard of midseason programming changes. And unlike past seasons, the schedule shuffles aren’t just about filling holes caused by fall failures.

“There will be a lot more shows on [in midseason] because of the strike,” said one network programmer, referring to the after-effects of the writers’ work stoppage that are still working their way through the broadcast bloodstream.

Young viewers flock to CBS to watch "comfort food" in tough times
CBS, the network known for its older audience, has been beating ABC, NBC and Fox this season in the key 18-49 demographic. What's going on? "Comfort food," says Les Moonves, pointing to new shows like GARY, UNMARRIED and THE MENTALIST. As the NY Times points out, "Apparently, what is good for CBS is a bad economy. CBS's lineup of police procedurals, where the criminals always get caught, and sitcoms that are reliably funny in unchallenging ways, seems to be becoming a safe haven for viewers worried about jobs and mortgages."

Can BROTHERS & SISTERS be saved from bad writing?
Entertainment Weekly's Michael Slezak writes: "Last night's episode (the sixth of season 3) was quite possibly the least funny and least emotionally engaging of the entire series run, and no single moment rang less true than the scene ABC has been teasing for several weeks: Nora leaping out of her car, running to the edge of the road, and screaming at her late husband into a bucolic valley -- 'I hate you William Walker! All you care about is yourself and your stupid penis!'"

Former GH actress Lisa Vultaggio (Hannah) for McCain
It took months but I finally found a daytime soap actor (former soap actor acutally) who is supporting John McCain. Turns out she's not yet a U.S. citizen though. That's about 1,000 daytimers for Obama, 1 for McCain. Are there other closet McCain supporters in the daytime community?

Vultaggio writes: "As the election for President of the United States draws nearer it is my hope and desire that more people will educate themselves as I have by looking beyond media bias, pop culture and familiar rhetoric and research what the difference is between these candidates—both their philosophies and records.

As a former Democrat it is my opinion that John McCain better represents the true vision of what made America the greatest nation in history and what will keep America great; less government not more, a strong military to protect our freedom and democracy and personal responsibility."