Brittany Underwood

More Random Thoughts About Five Soaps

My absence from Daytime Confidential lately has not been due to the usual business of family and work taking up a lot of my time, but rather a certain lack energy to post about practically any of the daytime serials that clog up my DVR from day to day. This is neither a positive nor a negative thing because there are frequent periods throughout the year when shows kind of coast along and do their their thing, usually between sweeps.

At these times, there is little for the viewer — if that viewer is me — to get all worked up about this plot twist, that character's action, some couple or another or even a whole show's direction. Normally, this state of affairs hits one or two shows at a time. Every once in a while like the last couple of weeks, the stars align and all the serials get caught in the same momentum of drift. All that is required of us is to watch and see where it all goes.

In that spirit, my brain plays a little game of soap opera hopscotch, taking in odds and ends big and small. There is no great elaboration on anything here, just a quick rundown of things I like and not like so much. Your mileage may vary... READ MORE

Caption This: Snap, Crackle, Pop Cramer Krispies


Take your best Caption This shot at this picture from yesterday's One Life to Live.

Who is your favorite teen?

2009 Young Artist Awards Nominations



The 2009 Young Artist Awards have been announced and several young soap actors have been nominated.

Eddie Alderson (Matthew, One Life to Live), Mick Hazen (Parker, As the World Turns), Terrell Ransom Jr. (Theo, Days of Our Lives) and Austin Williams (Shane, One Life to Live) have been nominated in the category  "Best Performance in a TV Series, Recurring Young Actor".

Kristen Alderson (Starr, One Life to Live), Erin Sanders (Eden, The Young and the Restless) and Brittany Underwood (Langston, One Life to Live) have been nominated in the same category for actresses.

One Life to Live (Eddie Alderson, Kristen Alderson, Camila Banus, Carmen Lo Porto, Austin Williams) is also nominated in the category "Outstanding Young Performers in a TV Series". READ MORE

Rating The Young Uns: Why Soaps Could Use More Actors Like Blake Berris And Less Hair Models



Okay you knew it was coming. Now that the Idiots In Charge of The-Soap-Opera-Formerly-Known-as-Days-of-Our-Lives have let the phenomenal Blake Berris go, I decided to start out doing a Wishful Casting about where Berris should end up, but it turned into more of an analysis of which soaps are managing to set things up for their next generation the right way, and which ones are getting it wrong, dead wrong.

Much of the daytime industry is experiencing a serious drought in terms of talented, young stars who can actually, you know, act. Save for The Young and the Restless, One Life to Live and General Hospital, the under 30 set at most soaps is pretty much comprised of rejects from the Pamela Anderson School of Acting and Pantomime.  I'll start with the soaps in most need of help and work my way up. READ MORE

The Innocence of Youth, Lost


The other day I was thinking, quite a shock I know, about the fact that very few of today's soaps have true "teen" (pre college) storylines anymore.

Gone are the days of teen storylines such as General Hospital's Lucky, Elizabeth, Nikolas and Emily, Days of Our Lives' Belle, Shawn, Chloe and Brady and The Young and the Restless' Glo by Jabot Kids. The classic "four teen" formula that dominated much of soaps through the late 90's, and made stars out of Jonathan Jackson, Rebecca Herbst, Tyler Christopher, Kirsten Storms, Jason Cook, Nadia Bjorlin, Kyle Lowder, Farah Fath and countless others before them, seems to have been replaced by the "duo."

As the World Turns has Parker and Liberty. General Hospital doesn't have any true teens. The Young and the Restless has Noah and Eden. The Bold and the Beautiful has Stephanie and Marcus (not true teens).  All My Children's last attempt at recreating the forumla bombed and the show is now rebuilding with Colby and Petey. Guiding Light has Daisy and Rafe. Days of Our Lives,  which practically defined the formula with Sami, Austin, Carrie and Lucas, has no true teen characters except maybe Melanie. A character not even Blake Berris' Nick Fallon (a post college character) can save.

At the moment only One Life to Live seems to be following the "four teen" formula with Starr (Kristen Alderson), Cole (Brandon Buddy), Langston (Brittany Underwood) and Markko Rivera (Jason Tam). Now granted, at least one of these four actors isn't actually a teen, but the characters are all still in highschool. In honor of these four characters I thought I'd see which couple fans enjoy most.

Which couple is your favorite?

Welcome to the Cramer Family

You know, we knew that Clint had a surprise in store for Dorian and Langston (Brittany Underwood) and even though A Martinez's run may only be a short stint I thought I'd see what everyone thinks of Langston becoming a "Cramer Woman?"

Personally, I love that this storyline brings out the softer side in Dorian (Robin Strasser). Too often we just see her as the larger than life, uber bitch, diva she is and we forget that she does have a softer side (anyone who watched the 40th Anniversary episode scenes between Dorian and Mel knows that).

What do you think of this storyline? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

OLTL: A Martinez out!

Actor A Martinez will be leaving his short lived stint at One Life to Live. The buzz around the internet is that Martinez has already taped his last scenes. No word on if the actor will reprise the role of Ray Montez, the long lost uncle of Dorian Cramer's (Robin Strasser) adoptive daughter Langston (Brittany Underwood).

Fans of Langston Wilde Cramer should not fret on her departing family members, she has a cousin that will head to Llanview. Lola Montez, Ray's daughter will be played by Camila Banus and will make her first screen appearance Oct. 3.

A Martinez on his return to One Life to Live


A Martinez
is returning to daytime as One Life to Live's Ray, the uncle of Dorian's ward Langston (Brittany Underwood). In a great interview with Michael Fairman, Martinez reveals that his return to daytime is for a short, five week run. He also hints that there are going to be some great scenes between his character and Robin Strasser's Dorian Lord. Check out the interview HERE.

Would you like to see A Martinez's return last longer than 5 weeks?

A "Likely Story" For Strasser, Tam and Underwood

 

If you are a One Life to Live fan and live in the greater New York City area and were looking for something to do today (Thursday June 26th) you may want to make plans to drop by the Time Warner Center branch of Borders at 6pm for a special book reading and signing of "Likely Story", a young adult novel by Chris Van Etten. I've posted the description of the book below but the reason One Life to Live fans will be interested is because Robin Strasser, Jason Tam, and Brittany Underwood will be the voices of the book's three main characters.

"Likely Story" is the first part of a trilogy of books about Mallory Hayden, the daughter of a famous and famously difficult soap star. A conflict with her mother leads Mallory to believe she can out-do anything that Daytime currently has to offer, and through a series of (wacky) events, she's given the chance to write her own network soap opera. What ought to be a cause for celebration quickly becomes a greater-than-normal personal challenge, as Mallory's loyalties to her boyfriend, as well as her best friend, are tested.

A Q&A and signing will follow the reading. 

Williamson, Bonner, and Underwood @ Broadway Cares

One Life to Live's Bree Williamson, BethAnn Bonner, and Britney Underwood at "ABC Daytime Salutes Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS." Photo Credit: Broadway.com


Who Looks the Best?

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