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Matt Ashford's Diva of DOOL Interview
Topic Started: Jul 19 2012, 09:17 AM (8,911 Views)
starwatcher2


lysie
Jul 19 2012, 09:21 PM
DesignatedShelley
Jul 19 2012, 03:52 PM
One thing the interview suggested to me -- going off of what esp13 posted -- is that fan feedback has to become a lot more precise otherwise it's going to be poorly interpreted by TPTB. Matt said that there simply was never a plan B for J/J/D, it was either going to be That Story or nothing at all, and that's not ideal and it doesn't speak well of the writers that that was a reality, but what is a fan to actually do about it? Perhaps, since supposedly NBC/Sony/whatever other TPTB are listening now more than they have been before, there needs to be more dialog about what to do when a story tanks. It's not really good soap writing to have no plan B, but I can't think of a way to compel the writers to remember that.

I don't blame Matt for being a realist about it all though. It's got to be tough taking the principled stance for decades and getting nothing in return for it but a shaky financial future. It's easier for fans to take on that fight than actors, so I have no problem doing it if I could think of a way to do it effectively.
I haven't listened to it yet, but this just sounds like a cop out to me. They've gotten more negative feedback for other, more prominent stories than what they got for the J/J/D triangle. Those stories didn't just up and disappear. Besides, they also got a lot of positive feedback on those characters and that positive feedback actually got some mainstream attention. They used that as an excuse. I truly doubt Jack was a part of MarDar's plan.
My thoughts exactly! I love Matt, and I agree with a lot of what he said, but I'm not buying bad feedback as the reasoning for ending the triangle. If that was the case the 30 something crowd recycled garbage would have ended years ago.

Quote:
 
I don't think J, J & D triangle was ended based on fans negative feedback. I think it's because of the age of the characters involved in the triangle. I've seen a lot of negative feedback for safe & Ejami, and neither pairings was dropped because of it. If the writers wanted to write for Jack and Jennifer with or without a triangle, they would have. NBC/Days wanting to go younger and thinking Jack/Jen wouldn't appeal to that younger audience that they are trying so hard to reach is the reason the triangle was dropped imo.
Sounds about right.
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reagon


If they want to go younger why are Missy Reeves and Kristian Alphonzo sticking around for new pairings while Matt and Peter are not and are apparently being shown the door.
Edited by reagon, Jul 20 2012, 03:30 PM.
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esp13
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I don't think you can compare the negative feedback for the J/J/D stuff and the endless loop of EJamicusafe. There has certainly been negative reactions to various parts of EJamicusafe and it certainly has led to changes. We've commented numerous times on this board about how the writing seems to change directions for those characters in mid stream. How many different merry-go-rounds have we been on with those characters? We saw Taylor recast and dumped because of negative reactions.

The difference is that they always think they have a new story/combination for those characters. So, instead of dumping the entire thing (as they should), they just "reboot" and try again. TPTB see those characters (and some more than others) as indispensible and have clearly decided the problems are not with the characters themselves. With J/J/D, they had no incentive or desire to fix the problem, so they just ended it. But it doesn't mean it wasn't done in reaction to audience negativity.
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Dany_E
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Maybe the writers shouldn't be listening to us at all. I remember lots of times during J&J's first run where I was frustrated and angry about the show's use of them. I disliked Isabella intensely at first because she was a threat to J&J. Back then, you could write letters or phone in to complain but, being a lazy sort, I never did. I had to take the bad (for me) with the good. But that had its own rewards because the good was so much better cause I had to watch the bad. The happy result felt earned for me as a viewer and for the characters. And I ended up loving Isabella in the end.

We just seem to have so much power as an audience now and I wonder if that's really such a good thing sometimes.

It's great that the show wants to be responsive to the perception of what the audience wants. But I think that perception is almost always flawed, especially now - with immediate, and occasionally not fully thought out criticism, and posters with hidden (or not so hidden) agendas spamming message boards. And, if you devise an online poll to ask people what they think, some fanbase will always find a way to mess with the results. We, as the audience, can often be our own worst enemies when we're in the middle of a tough period for our favourites. And I don't know about anyone else, but over the years I've become incredibly impatient waiting for the "payoff". I just picture myself sometimes like the Emperor in "Amadeus" telling Mozart there are "too many notes, just cut a few and it'll be perfect."

Ultimately, I think the writers have to follow through on their own vision. It's their job. I didn't like some of what MarDar did but I did like a lot of it. I loved the stuff with Marlena and Will and Marlena and Jack. I thought the crazy Abby stuff was interesting. I was even interested in Sami for the first time because she was dealing with Will's vitriol against her. I hoped there would be some good payoff for some of the stuff - like whatever they planned for J/J/D - but I don't know and probably never will now. I think MarDar would have figured some stuff out eventually and made it all work better.
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Evan
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If NBC hadn't interfered and Mardar had been allowed to fully put their stories to air, I think that we DAYs viewers would be in a better place right now, why I'm really not enthused about the post-Olympics reboot, because I fear it'll be a return to Rafe & Daniel on every day, Jennifer again mourning the supposedly dead Jack etc.
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Harcourt
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Quote:
 
I haven't listened to it yet, but this just sounds like a cop out to me. They've gotten more negative feedback for other, more prominent stories than what they got for the J/J/D triangle. Those stories didn't just up and disappear. Besides, they also got a lot of positive feedback on those characters and that positive feedback actually got some mainstream attention. They used that as an excuse. I truly doubt Jack was a part of MarDar's plan.



Bingo!!!

That is what a lot of fans don't understand. Jack hasn't been apart of the plan for over 20 years now. It's not the fans, and it's not anything that the fans were saying, except for the fact that most were pro-Jack, and, basically, anti-Dannifer. This storyline/latest return of Jack was hurting Jennifer and Daniel more that it was hurting Jack, and therefore, it had to end. All storyline potential was on Jack's side, and in Jack's favor. TPTB didn't want that, and weren't going to allow that. They have their agenda, and it doesn't include Jack or Matthew Ashford. Period.

What irks me is that, as a fan, I was lied to, conned, scammed, and tricked into thinking that a real storyline awaited Jack's return to the show this time around. They even showed scenes of first-run Jack and Jennifer in their ads for the "reboot". They knew what fans were expecting and hoping for once those scenes were shown. They had an agenda, but it was all about lying to the fans just to generate some buzz for this dying, crapfest of a show. I've long been over the fact that Jack and Jennifer's best days on this show will forever remain in the past. As a fan, I had moved on. There are better ways to entertain yourself these days than to sit through an hour of this mindnumbing trash. But, once I heard about Matt's return, and saw scenes of first run JnJ in the ads for the reboot, I started to hope again. Bad idea. I was a fool to trust these hacks again. They are just not that into us. They just aren't.

What I find most unforgiveable is that they brought Matt back with no real plans to use him, except for what little he got out of the PTSD story. Otherwise, they abused him, his time, his craft, and his fans. That's a black mark on the reputations of a bunch of creeps with nothing but black marks for a reputation. They wasted his time, and ours. And why? All to prop up Dannifer -- Saver of the Universe. What a sad joke that was, and it was played on any and all of us who gave a d$#%.
Edited by Harcourt, Jul 21 2012, 12:57 PM.
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The Room Stops
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Dreamer
Jul 19 2012, 09:45 PM
Good luck to TomSell if they keep their old hags (MR & KA) and write them for with new men, I can certainly see KA getting a earful from BOPE fans, just as MR did from JnJ fans.
Hope and Jennifer are both so fully attached to B&H and J&J that it's impossible to see them away from it. They don't take the opportunity to finally write Jennifer as just Jennifer away from Jack, and I'm betting they won't do that with Hope without Bo either. Neither character has had a successful pairing outside of Jack/Bo (minus the teen romance with Frankie for Jennifer), and I think it's time to look back to how the show handled it with Marlena after Roman's death in 1984. Marlena has had three successful pairings on this show. Seriously. Two of them on the most popular/beloved soap couples of all time list, and Don & Marlena were certainly one of the most popular couples in their day. Because Marlena wasn't just Marlena of... Don & Marlena, Roman & Marlena, John & Marlena... She had something else... Jennifer used to be her own character before, during and after falling in love with Jack. Hope the same. Until the late 90s hit and then nada.

I don't think any couple fans would mind seeing half of their couple handle the grieving process if it was done so with respect to the couple's history. Looking back, I find so many beautiful moments in Marlena's scenes after John's death in 2007. It was beautiful, because they were respectful and they let DH show the layers in Marlena. If they would do that with Jennifer and with Hope, they might not end up with fans who wanna bombard their studio.

Matt's a class act, can't wait to listen to this all the way through.
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The Room Stops
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happy
Jul 19 2012, 10:46 PM
I'm sick of being bashed for not liking MR or Bitchifer.
And I'm sick of the fans being blamed for the lack of J&J airtime.
If the show, writers or actors serve up shit - fans have every right to complain and walk away. They are NOT obligated to eat that shit and say "thank you."

Absolute BS.

Fans and "super couples" are NOT the problem.
NO ONE was asking for an insta J&J reunion.
I heard lots of fans bemoaning OOC writing, superficial angst, and missed story line opportunities.
Lots of fans were open to J&J parting ways. They just wanted good, compelling DRAMA that made some logical sense. I don't think we were asking for too much.
It's like they panicked and just threw them together because they didn't want to be accused of being out of character... which, in itself, made it out of character. Jack and Jennifer are seriously complex. They are not happy-skippy-dippy. Jack's too gray, his past is too complicated and so is Jennifer's. They needed to take the time.

I'd rather have my favorite couples apart but in character than together and not. Honestly. John & Marlena, as frustrated as I was, needed to be apart after their affair in 1993. It made sense. John was lost after losing her, he threw himself into Brady and whatever came his way, and Marlena tried to make up for her terrible guilt by being an amazing wife to Roman. They needed to be apart so they could find their way back. Yes, it took a hell of a long time, and the reunion certainly did not qualify as good enough, but you always knew they belonged together.

With J&J, for the first time, even through all this crap of the last decade... I didn't know they did. I didn't know if I wanted them to be together. And that's a problem.
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Kriss4


If they would actually let some time pass and allow a character to grieve for the end of a meaningful relationship...if they would allow a character to respect and appreciate the time they had even if they can no longer be together, then maybe people would be more accepting of new pairings when it's necessary for characters like Jennifer, Hope, and Kayla or Jack (if they would pair him with someone new). I think the anger comes in when the story doesn't seem to respect the previous relationship as much as they should.
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Romancer66


The Room Stops
Jul 21 2012, 12:21 PM
happy
Jul 19 2012, 10:46 PM
I'm sick of being bashed for not liking MR or Bitchifer.
And I'm sick of the fans being blamed for the lack of J&J airtime.
If the show, writers or actors serve up shit - fans have every right to complain and walk away. They are NOT obligated to eat that shit and say "thank you."

Absolute BS.

Fans and "super couples" are NOT the problem.
NO ONE was asking for an insta J&J reunion.
I heard lots of fans bemoaning OOC writing, superficial angst, and missed story line opportunities.
Lots of fans were open to J&J parting ways. They just wanted good, compelling DRAMA that made some logical sense. I don't think we were asking for too much.
It's like they panicked and just threw them together because they didn't want to be accused of being out of character... which, in itself, made it out of character. Jack and Jennifer are seriously complex. They are not happy-skippy-dippy. Jack's too gray, his past is too complicated and so is Jennifer's. They needed to take the time.

I'd rather have my favorite couples apart but in character than together and not. Honestly. John & Marlena, as frustrated as I was, needed to be apart after their affair in 1993. It made sense. John was lost after losing her, he threw himself into Brady and whatever came his way, and Marlena tried to make up for her terrible guilt by being an amazing wife to Roman. They needed to be apart so they could find their way back. Yes, it took a hell of a long time, and the reunion certainly did not qualify as good enough, but you always knew they belonged together.

With J&J, for the first time, even through all this crap of the last decade... I didn't know they did. I didn't know if I wanted them to be together. And that's a problem.
That's kind of where I ended up, this time around, with J&J. For the most part, I didn't have issues with third-run Jack. It wasn't easy to see him so damaged, abject, and broken--and I badly wanted to see him reclaim his balls and his backbone instead of taking Bitchifer's crap lying down--but I understood completely why he was acting that way. MA usually manages to pull together a consistent characterization, even when the writing is all over the map. In the triangle from hell, Jack was the only one whose motivations were clear-cut and understandable, and who managed to remain a sympathetic figure throughout.

MR/Jennifer . . . not so much, unfortunately. With every run, it seems that Jennifer loses more and more of what made her special and unique the first time around. She's become like a photograph of a photograph of a photograph: each generation is less clear, less well-defined, and less attractive. She swung between extremes--kind and compassionate vs. cold and callous. And from about November to February, it was mostly the latter as far as Jack was concerned. For me, her hateful "I want a happy man" tirade started the disenchantment process, and the final seal on that was the veterans' group episode, where Jack finally received the support and compassion he should have gotten from his family from a roomful of strangers instead. That was the moment I realized I didn't want this Jack with this Jen.

And in spite of the insta-reunion, I'm still not sure I want third-run J&J paired, not without evidence that Jennifer has evolved and grown the way Jack has. Even if she's not being as judgmental and mean as she was last winter, she's still way too self-absorbed and oblivious for my taste.

Not that it matters anymore, given the way things have worked out. J&J's whole third run has left a bad taste in my mouth in general, so I may just pretend that it never happened. I certainly won't be watching Jackless Jen, Round Whatever.
Edited by Romancer66, Jul 21 2012, 02:17 PM.
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Evan
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I respect that MR needs to keep working until her contract is up, but I sure as hell won't be sticking around to watch a Dannifer redux or Jennifer with another hunk.
My only remaining interest in DAYS after the Olympics centers on what they do with the Nick character, because I'm a huge fan of Blake Berris.
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Becki


I did not have time to listen to this,but does anyone know how Jack is going to leave Salem? Is he going to be killed off or are the writers going to have him leave Salem alive? Thanks if anyone can answer this for me.
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AHM


Hi Becki,

Signs point to Jack being killed off again. I know, can you believe it? Speculation is that he might die saving Abby.
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bomber
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Listening to the interview I think MA has unintentionally hit on another sore point. He seemed to say that we should all have welcomed the Dannifer pairing for no other reason than Daniel is good looking (cant agree but that's just MHO). This is one of the most frustrating elements of Days in the last couple of years. There's no testing for chemistry or building a compelling story to bring a couple together. Just put 2 pretty faces in the same screenshot and then be perplexed as to why the public isn't immediately enamoured. Were they really expecting people who had rooted for JnJ for more than 20 years to hope that Jennifer would choose Dr Creep over Jack based on looks alone?
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ChampagneRiver
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MA also said he totally bought Jennifer's relationship with Daniel because she seemed really happy with him. :eyeroll: Really? He sounds like all those Facebook posters who say things like, "I love [insta-couple]! They look so cute together and [the guy] makes [the girl] so happy. Plus, [the guy] is really HOT!!!"

Sorry, I need a hell of a lot more than that. Somewhere along the way, soaps have forgotten that they need to SHOW us why two people are in love, not just throw them in bed and then tell us it's true love.
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Guinevere
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Bring back Jack!

^Obviously I dont agree with him either but to be fair he hadnt seen their no build up 3 dates sex and I love you over a month period relationship. He wad probably going on how the current scenes were being written and played. Since Jennifer was acting like some lovestruck teenager maybe he bought they were really in love.
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Becki


AHM
Jul 22 2012, 10:46 PM
Hi Becki,

Signs point to Jack being killed off again. I know, can you believe it? Speculation is that he might die saving Abby.
Oh great! I can't believe they are going to kill him off! Why do they want to kill him off instead of writing him off? That pisses me off!
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AHM


^Kill him off or write him off, sucks either way. I hate that we didn't get to see this story. I was sooo excited during the first few days of the reboot, because of Jack. Then TIIC played everything wrong and then they just dropped it all.
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Evan
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Is it heartless of me to wish that Jennifer was getting killed off instead?
Not that I want MR to be unemployed, but it's always Jack who gets the raw end of the pineapple in these SLs.
Jack being a widower and having to raise both Abby and Jack Jnr would have been an interesting diversion from the predictable "Jennifer in mourning, Jennifer then comforted by new hunk or Daniel" that we'll no doubt get in coming months.
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Romancer66


Evan
Jul 23 2012, 07:02 PM
Is it heartless of me to wish that Jennifer was getting killed off instead?
Not that I want MR to be unemployed, but it's always Jack who gets the raw end of the pineapple in these SLs.
Jack being a widower and having to raise both Abby and Jack Jnr would have been an interesting diversion from the predictable "Jennifer in mourning, Jennifer then comforted by new hunk or Daniel" that we'll no doubt get in coming months.
Nope, not heartless. I'd have been glad to see the shoe on the other foot for a change. Jack in mourning, Jack as a single dad, Jack trying to move on and maybe find love again. Instead we get the same damn Jackless Jen storyline we always get, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

Meanwhile MA apparently said something along the lines of the show wanting to take Hope in a new direction, hence they let PR walk. So Hope sans Bo gets a new direction, while Jennifer sans Jack gets the same old, same old direction. Because it worked out so well the last five or six times they tried it. :eyeroll:

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