'The Bay' Spins Off Young Adult Series 'yA'

Twins Bianca D'Ambrosio and Chiara D'Ambrosio (Nickelodeon's Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn) are set to star in a new young adult spinoff of Emmy and Indie Series Award winning The Bay titled yA.

Currently in pre-production, yA is co-written by original series creator and showrunner Gregori J. Martin and former General Hospital executive producer Wendy Riche. The show will be be co-directed by Martin and The Bay star Kristos Andrews, with principal photography set to begin next month.

Andrews' character, Pete Garrett, from The Bay will crossover to the series along with Lane Davies as Capt. Mackenzie Johnson, Dante Aleksander as Xander Castro, and Michael Copon as Colton Kurosaki.

Mike C. Manning (Teen Wolf) is also attached to the series with additional attachments to be announced.

Soap Stars React to Indie Series Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 9th Annual Indie Series Awards were revealed on January 31st, and a number of familiar faces from the soap world were recognized.

The Bold and the Beautiful's Patrika Darbo (Shirley Spectra) is nominated three times for her work on in three different web series. She will be competing against herself in the best guest actress in a drama category for her work in both Ladies of the Lake and The Bay. She is also a nominee on the comedy side for her hilarious performance on Indoor Boys, which stars Alex Wyse (B&B's Saul).

gonna be a great evening. We're already winners. Grateful to be included in this group.

— Patrika Darbo (@patrikadarbo) February 4, 2018

Other nominees that made their mark in daytime include Arianne Zucker, Kyle Lowder, Wendy Riche, Karen Harris, Jennifer Bassey, Victoria Rowell, Jillian Clare, Ian Buchanan, Eric Nelsen, Anne Schoettle, Julie Poll and Maeve Quinlan, along with many more recognized as part of a nominated ensemble.

Check out more reactions from current and former soap stars below.

Emmy Winning Writer Michele Val Jean Joins 'The Bay,' Reuniting with Former 'General Hospital' Producer Wendy Riche

Emmy Award and Indie Series Award winning The Bay continues to add talent for its upcoming season with the addition of The Bold and the Beautiful writer Michele Val Jean.

The news was revealed on the show's Facebook page on Monday: "We are thrilled to welcome 7x Emmy Award winning writer Michele Val Jean (B&B, GH) to our writing team for Season 3 of #TheBay, currently in production. #Bayhem #BingeTheBay on #AmazonPrime"

Former General Hospital executive producer quickly shared her excitement about her reunion with Val Jean.

"Beyond THRILLED to be working with my dear friend Michele again! creating #BayHem #BingeTheBay on Amazon Prime," she wrote on Facebook.

As for Val Jean, who will continue to write for CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, she is "excited to be part of the team!"

The new season of The Bay will air on Amazon Prime.

Wendy Riche Joins 'The Bay' as Executive Consultant

Wendy Riche (center) with The Bay producers Kristos Andrews and
Gregori J. Martin.  Andrews also stars in the series.

April has been a very good month for digital drama The Bay. Series star Lilly Melgar, who plays the troubled Janice Ramos, was named Best Lead Actress at the 7th Annual Indie Series Awards. Guest star Kym Whitley also took home a crystal award that night, as the show celebrated its 11 nominations. On Friday night, The Bay was named Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series at the 43rd Annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony, receiving that honor for the second year in a row. Four of the show's actors were nominated for their performances as well, with Mary Beth Evans (Sara Garrett) and Kristos Andrews (Peter Garrett) taking home the gold. Earlier in the week, producers hosted a star-studded celebration of the show's recent successes, and that now includes the addition of five-time Emmy-winning producer Wendy Riche to the team.

Riche helmed ABC daytime drama General Hospital from 1992 to 2001, and led the show to unprecedented Emmy success. General Hospital was named Outstanding Drama Series 5 times in 6 years from 1995 to 2001, with unforgettable stories still talked about to this day. In our "Today in Soap Opera History" daily column, you'll regularly see highlights from memorable stories such as the death of B.J. Jones, leading to Maxie getting B.J.'s heart; Robin's coming of age romance with Stone, becoming infected with HIV, and eventually watching Stone die due to complications from the AIDS virus; Monica's breast cancer battle, and eventual adoption of Emily; the beginning of the Nurses Ball; and much more. The show had heart, and humor, creating some of the greatest moments in GH history along the way.

Riche has been made an executive consultant on the upcoming season of The Bay, which begins shooting in May.

Emmy Winning Web Series 'The Bay' Is Looking For A New Executive Producer

The team from The Bay celebrates the show's Emmy win.

The Bay won a Daytime Emmy earlier this year in the web series drama category. The show's production company, LANY Entertainment, is now looking for a new executive producer to oversee the show's next season.

"There are lots of wonderful irons in the fire right now, not only for the series, but for LANY Entertainment as a whole, and we are looking to partner up with a strong Powerhouse Producer on an Executive level who would be the perfect addition to our family and have the same passion as all of us," creator Gregori J. Martin wrote in a post on Facebook. "We feel this will not only be a great opportunity to continue to expand our Emmy Award winning series, but to help keep both my focus, and my partner Kristos Andrews, leading actor on the show's focus more so on the creative elements of the series. We have, not only a wonderful cast and crew, but a great producing team and would like to add that perfect EP leader/team player candidate to our roster!"

With Martin busy working on other projects, how about former General Hospital EP Wendy Riche helm The Bay? We've seen her receive "special thanks" in the show's credits in the past. Web series superstars Sebastian La Cause (Hustling) or Michael Caruso (Winterthorne) would be other excellent choices.

Who do you think should be the new executive producer of The Bay?

WLS World AIDS Day With Former Soap Producer Wendy Riche

Earlier this year, Emmy winning producer Wendy Riche, who is remembered fondly by soap fans for her nine year stint at GENERAL HOSPITAL, spoke with Damon L. Jacobs about her career in a five-part interview.  One of the topics was the AIDS storyline on GH.  Here's what Riche had to say.

I wanted to do a story about AIDS when I first got to GH.  AIDS was on the rise, a non-discriminating disease that didn't care who it attacked.  I felt it was an issue of great importance and wanted to find a way to interface many of the characters of Port Charles with the hospital.  At first, I thought it could be a story for A.J. Quartermaine.  I thought, what would happen if A.J. had another drunken night in college, one of many, and explore what would happen when a friend, a male friend, from college shows up at the Quartermaine mansion wanting A.J.'s help since his family threw him out because he had AIDS.  And A.J. doesn’t remember who had sex with who, and what he did during so many drunken orgies.

Wendy Riche: The We Love Soaps Interview Part Five

In Parts One, Two, Three, and Four of our interview with Wendy Riche, the legendary Emmy winning former executive producer of GENERAL HOSPITAL discussed her early years on GH, her ability to cast talented unknowns (such as Antonio Sabato, Jr., Vanessa Marcil and many others), her successful collaboration with Claire Labine, her firing from GH, and the "rumors" about joining ALL MY CHILDREN. In the final part below, Riche discusses mistakes, regrets, and the future of web soaps.

Wendy Riche: I remember the first week after we announced the Robin and Stone love story, before it aired, thinking we'd made a big mistake by announcing it.  We did a big press conference/announcement, and approximately 100,000 viewers tuned out almost immediately.  I remember calling Pat telling her I thought it was a mistake and that we should have peeled the layers off the story and let the audience just discover it.  But we thought the subject matter deserved a big press conference. We thought it was a good thing to make a big announcement about such an important subject. I think we got too caught up in the good we were doing.

Wendy Riche: The We Love Soaps Interview Part Four

In Parts One, Two, and Three of our exclusive interview with Wendy Riche, the Emmy winning former executive producer of GENERAL HOSPITAL discussed starting on the show, collaborating with Claire Labine, casting fan favorites such as Maurice Benard and Sarah Brown, and the rise and fall of PORT CHARLES.  In the next revealing part below, Riche discusses what led to her leaving GH, and directly addresses the rumors about ALL MY CHILDREN.

We Love Soaps: What led to your leaving GENERAL HOSPITAL?
Wendy Riche: I was fired.  But it was time for me to leave.  I knew it, and ABC knew it.  I knew personally it was time to move on.  But I would have stayed there forever, I loved it so much. I guess I needed a push in another direction. 

We Love Soaps: Do you think things changed once Disney bought ABC in 1995?
Wendy Riche: No, I don’t think so.  Maybe there were more budgetary issues that we would deal with.  But the team at GENERAL HOSPITAL could address anything.  If I said we had to cut the budget, then everyone would roll up their sleeves, and you wouldn’t know it by watching the show.  They had to cut some costs but they did not interfere in any creative way.  We had Pat Fili Krushel and Angela Shapiro and they were very supportive creatively. 

Wendy Riche: The We Love Soaps Interview, Part Two

In Part One of our interview with Wendy Riche, the Emmy-winning producer of GENERAL HOSPITAL (1992-2001) discussed how her move to soaps came about, how she managed off-screen turbulence her first year on GH, and how she was able to successfully cast unknowns such as Antonio Sabato Jr., Vanessa Marcil, and Steve Burton.  In Part Two below, Riche discusses her successful collaboration with Claire Labine, and revisits many of the stories and moments that are beloved by viewers today.

We Love Soaps: How did the collaboration with Claire Labine come about?
Wendy Riche: ABC knew Claire well of her work from RYAN’S HOPE.  I didn’t have enough time to study all the writing on all the soaps over the past 20 years.  They knew we needed a writer that would fit with me, and whom I would fit.  Because it is a fit, it is like a marriage, you work with a writer and you have to have a similar vision, concern, care, ideology.  Not that we were exactly alike, we had great debates and we both loved that part of the relationship.  We knew how to challenge each other in a healthy way.

We Love Soaps: Can you recall any debates?
Wendy Riche: I remember one debate we had ongoing.  Claire would ask if I believed that everyone is capable of killing another person, whether murder or otherwise  Something like that.  We had many debates about this, about the nature of man/womankind.  I loved it and I loved Claire asking such challenging questions.  It was a very open relationship.  Claire was very open.  She was very clear about what she wanted, but she was open to listen and to hear a good suggestion.  She was open to elements of story and she would run with them.  BJ’s heart transplant was a combination of elements.  It was Claire’s inspriation and story and it included a combination of elements coming out of meetings between Claire, Shelley, and me.  It’s Claire’s story, she wrote it beautifully.  But she was very open to suggestions, turning points or scenes, that sort of thing.  She wasn't afraid to use something from another person if it worked.  Her ego always sat in the right place.  It was all about the characters and the storytelling. She is a great writer and a great collaborator.