I respectfully dedicate this week's Two Scoops to the voices that need to be heard, the voices of the disenfranchised and the ignored. There are hundreds of different folks I have heard from over the years that, if given the chance, would give Brad and his Merry Band of Amateurs the 'what for' when it comes to the nonsense we have had to endure. I thought it would be high time to bring the voices of the viewers right to his virtual doorstep through my humble little bully pulpit. I will showcase as many of last weeks emails as I can and will forward the column in its entirety to his email address. Now, whether or not someone actually READS the email, who knows? But I figured it was worth a shot considering I have been calling him out for years (and offering to fly out there to fix this mess!). Grab a cup of coffee, have a seat, and revel in the views of frustrated readers like yourselves. The next step is marching to Brad's office with our torches lit!
P. Jones says: '...instead of Brooke acting like a teenager without a brain, maybe the writers could make her more interesting by aging her character.'
Sharon B. says: 'What's wrong with B&B is that is the assumption by the writers that we are all a bunch of Alzheimer's patients who not only have difficulty with our memories but are also lost in a delusional land where nothing makes sense.'
1Bev says: 'How do we fix this show? Oh that's so easy and simple. Fire Ronn Moss...he can't act...I'm sick of the rape being swept under the rug and his sexual harassment plus he adds nothing to the show. Put the fun back in Nick and Brooke, send Donna to Neverland with Phoebe, let Dante and Flea do their thing and let her have a hundred babies to make Dante happy...bring back Dr. Dimples as was a good match for Bridget and he has not been with Brooke...Now we hire two new writers, Megs and Kristine (you know them, I'm sure).'
Mary S. had this to say: 'I'm so tired of the Nick/Brooke/Ridge/Bridget story. I'd love to see Brooke and Nick stay happy and married. Nick with Bridget-get a life, it doesn't work for me. Ridge with Brooke never worked for me and the new and improved (NOT!) Ridge is just sickening. Ridge just needs to lick his wounds and leave the show. I love Thorne with Taylor...they click but this accident storyline is so off base and then Hector turning wacko is not worth watching. I have watched this soap since day one but if the writing continues like this I will not even bother.'
Jo weighed in with: 'Lately I don't recognize any of the characters anymore...the whole show has become a farce. All they do is rewrite history and recycle storylines. I want Bricky to be happy...they can have turmoil...they can have trouble, but they can have that without always returning to the triangles. No more Nicket and no more Bridge. I think it's necessary that Ridge get punished for the rape and that Bell at least acknowledge that it was not a misunderstanding. It's time he get over his obsession with Ridge...the viewers are literally sick of this.'
Jackie said: 'I am so sick of the Brooke/Ridge thing! Just because KKL cries so easily doesn't mean she should get so much screen time. I'm sure she is a very nice person but come on already! I have seen so many good actors come and go before I could barely remember their names. My solution - make it any hour long so someone else can get some airtime!!'
Patty said: They should relocate Ridge to the Paris office and we should never have to see him again. Let's get back to the Bricky love story and the chemistry they share. Let Thorne and Taylor fall madly in love for real. Stop those triangles. Let Brooke tell the rapist off and fire him. Let's see more of Sally, Clarke and the rest of the cast. Stop the redeem Ridge show...it just ain't gonna happen, not in this lifetime.'
DRP said: 'This show has too small of a gene pool. They have passed around each other's mates since day one. Brooke is the poster child for procreation. I don't watch anymore...I just read your Two Scoops and laugh!'
Carolyn says: 'EGADS!! Will someone please tell Mr. Bell to stop the madness that is B&B! How many times can Brooke NOT make up her idiot mind? Can this woman get with one man and act like an adult for a change? Taylor and Bridget who were once highly intelligent, had high standards, morals, and kind hearts have become two of the neediest, whiney, fickle, unlikable characters on daytime.'
Nan wrote: 'B&B seems to be playing the same theme over and over again. The show can't continue with Brooke's sex drive being it's one and only theme. Ho Hum already!'
Leanne says: 'I think the show is bad because they just don't have good writers and they don't have enough characters to keep it interesting. Every time they bring new people in, they get rid of them right away. It's gotten so bad that I stopped DVR-ing the show...I just read the updates and your Scoops for now.'
Tanika writes: 'The problem with this show is that they continue to hook the same characters up time after time. I say let Brooke and Ridge be together and be done with it. Nick should be with Taylor and Bridget's foolish self should have been with Dante. This show along with many others are taking things to the extreme. What happened to the days when you knew the characters and they had problems like we have. Oh, i forgot this is make believe...'
Christine writes: What's wrong with B&B and how to fix it? What's wrong is they keep recycling stories about Ridge and Brooke and I'm so SICK of the two of them. Get us some other main sexy characters we care about. Secondly - get rid of or FIX actors that are such duds and just eye candy. Ridge and Hector continually inspire me to say aloud to the screen (in my best dumb Sylvester Stallone voice) "OH MY GOD YOU'RE SUCH A GOOD ACTOR" (NOT!) These two define the words "wooden acting". Taylor annoys me sometimes (or maybe it's just the giant lips). Force them to take acting classes or something! Next, don't let anyone come back from the dead unless it's Macy. Next, bring back some of the good characters - the blonde rock star chick (why can't I remember her name?) Finally, OMG, USE Sally Spectra and Stephanie Forrester and Eric Forrester because they are fabulous actors and you're wasting them. Be writers and write them some good stuff!!
Chantel says:' I am DONE with this stupid show! I took it off my DVR two months ago and can see by keeping up with the spoilers, I haven't missed a thing. I am so sick of this Ridge-Brooke crap! Just a few months ago wasn't Brooke whining and crying about how Nick was her "destiny"? What happened to that? And now we're supposed to believe that Bridget would want back a man that would dump her for her MOTHER? We can see where this is going... Ridge and Brooke will get back together AGAIN and get married for the 4th(?) time. Then Ridge will screw up AGAIN and Brooke will go crying back to Nick and steal him away from Bridget, AGAIN. What is the matter with Brad Bell? Why can't he come up with a more creative storyline? He's had tons of great actors he just let fade into oblivion (Massimo, Darla, Christian, Rick, DEACON, Amber, etc.) because he couldn't find a way to tie them to Brooke. Now he has Leslie Kay and Antonio Sabato Jr. sitting on the backburners with their own ridiculous ! story. What a waste! Bell needs to fire himself and find someone who can write a decent storyline before he loses ALL his viewers!!'
I will say this after reading all the emails from my Scoops faithful after posing the question 'What is wrong with B&B?'...the level of frustration is about to boil over. It's getting hard for me to watch everyday but I do in much the same way you drive down the road not WANTING to look at the wreck but you can't take your eyes off it. Does that make sense? It's sad that a show with such a national and international following is taking such a beating due to the sophomoric nature of the writing lately. This show needs some new blood and I don't mean for five minutes (which is the average life expectancy of a new character lately). Give Brooke a healthy relationship for once that last longer than the average trip to the bathroom. Get rid of Ridge...he has few if any supporters left. Stop the hatchet job on Taylor and Bridget...it's demeaning to women everywhere to watch their collective train wreck lives unfold onscreen. Stop rewriting history and stay true to how this show set-up to begin with. Let's get away from the family pass-around sexual encounters in favor of some real romance we all want to see. Bring back some characters we started to actually care about and get rid of some that have outlasted their usefulness. Give us some intrigue, some spice, something that makes us NOT want to miss the show at all. Build on the core families and SORAS some of them if you must...it may give just inject the right amount of life back into this flat-lining show. Brad, I receive hundreds of emails in any given month from viewers all over the globe and I have to be honest here...I truly cannot remember the last email I received from a viewer that was absolutely satisfied with the show from top to bottom. None. Zero. Nada. If you want to put out a quality product in this day and age, you have to put some real effort into it and make it something everyone wants (or in this case, what everyone wants to watch). Have you listened at all to the emails YOU receive? I do. I know when readers are not happy with the column or something I say. I get corrected when I miss some fact or detail. I have to listen or what is the point of writing this every week if I lose readers along the way because I don't care what they have to say. I want to give my opinion and hopefully make some one laugh along the way each week...that's my obligation. Isn't yours to give the viewing public something GOOD to watch...to keep us all coming back everyday?
Brad, I am just a fan, a viewer since the beginning when this show replaced the ill-fated "Capitol" a thousand years ago. I don't have any insider contacts and I don't know anyone that works in the industry. I'm just a fan barely hanging on and my duty this week was to pass along through this column the thoughts of my readers. Many of these readers have been with me for nearly 4 years now. They deserve to be heard as do I. These emails I have spotlighted are merely the tip of the iceberg. You have the power to stop the hemorrhaging of fans from B&B with the simple act of pulling the plug on the Xerox machine that keeps turning out the same old tired storylines. It's as simple as that, really. Come on Brad, give us a crumb, will ya?
Kristine
