Ricky Paull Goldin

Despite gloom and doom about the state of daytime in almost all of its aspects, fans have been treated to some good soap opera lately. The Young and the Restless is the Must See Soap right now. One Life to Live has regained it's glory and Guiding Light is steadily improving. Some of daytime's best actors are giving some of the performances of their lives. With that in mind, there are three performers new to their respective shows deserving of special mention who I think are doing a bang up job.

JR MARTINEZ (Brot Monroe, All My Children)

Introduced amid a publicity blitz, JR Martinez came aboard AMC with a fascinating, real life backstory: an Iraq War veteran seriously injured and disfigured by explosives, eventually becoming a noted inspirational speaker for and on behalf of veterans coping with their life altering injuries. His addition to AMC's canvas was purposeful and deliberate. The show wanted a real life injured vet to play Brot, former love of newcomer Taylor (Beth Ehlers).

AMC has received much justly deserved praise for casting Martinez, but make no mistake, this was as much a bit of stunt casting as it was groundbreaking decision. Continue Reading...

JR Chandler

Jake Martin

David Hayward

At the risk of indulging an age-old cliché or perhaps inventing a new one, real life is the soap opera that interrupts our daytime dramas.

I've been away for the last couple of weeks caring for my partner who was seriously ill for a little while (all is better now); dealing with the challenges of running a business and maintaining my livelihood in a faltering economy; consoling friends over unexpected loss in their lives and reveling in the result of a Presidential election which has left me elated and joyous in an event that I, as a Black man, never thought I would see in my lifetime. This time has been filled with hospital vigils and prayers (all answered in the affirmative), nail biting suspense, and a dash of personal intrigue. In short, the last two weeks have been a period of belief and disbelief. Continue Reading...

On today's ABC episode of Daytime Confidential Luke, Tina and Jamey discuss Jason Cook without a beard and David Lago joining General Hospital.

Bianca and Reese and why Bianca's motives don't ring true to the character. Beth Ehlers and Ricky Paull Goldin can't escape filming in stairwells and Michael E. Knight rumors.

Blowing up safes for dummies, mustache twirling Tess and the Marty/Todd rapemance on One Life to Live. All this and much, much more including the disconnect between online and offline soap viewers.

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In disaster cinema there comes a point in the story where, as Heidi Klum would say, one is either in or out. One knows going into the theater or popping a DVD into the player what one is in for the same way one knows more or less what to expect from a slasher pic or a romantic comedy. No matter how the genre's formula is tweaked, it is up to the writers and filmmakers to provide the hooks that will draw you into their specific event or world. What hooks me varies all the time; just as often those same elements may turn me off completely.

The make-or-break moment for me in 1972's The Poseidon Adventure is the sequence when the survivors must climb the Christmas tree to escape the ballroom. In 1964's Fail Safe, the make-or-break moment is encapsulated in the tense conversation between the President of the United States and the Soviet Premier, which must be precisely interpreted. In Deep Impact, the scene is Tea Leoni's first conversation with President Morgan Freeman. There has to be something to make me care or I won't wait for the credits. After learning who lives and dies, the story is over in a movie. Continue Reading...

A lack of direction, sinking ratings, storyline monopolization by a few select characters, fan uproar over the undoing of iconic storylines and viewer apathy plague All My Children. As Daytime Confidential's own Regan pointed out on a recent podcast "nothing should scare a show more than viewer indifference." Now Charles Pratt has the thankless job of trying to save a ship with cannonball sized holes in its bow. It isn't going to be the easiest of jobs.

Contract negotiations between ABC and Alicia Minshew haven't gone well. Rumors that Rebecca Budig is taking the out in her contract have picked up steam. Lightening hasn't struck twice between Ricky Paull Goldin and Beth Ehlers' characters, though separately both characters have potential. The "Fusion Girls" concept, once fresh with possibilities, is worn, tired and a glaring blight on the show, cannibalizing all unfortunate enough to fall in its path. The teen scene is schizophrenic at best. At least a half dozen pointless characters litter the show, while misdirected couplings abound.

So what can a new head writer do to save a sinking ship? Continue Reading...

Jake & Amanda - They are smoking hot!

Jake & Taylor - Lightening may not strike twice but I have hope.

Taylor & Frankie -They have obvious, unexplored potential.

It seems Lifetime's monster hit soap Army Wives served as a bit of inspiration for All My Children's upcoming front burner storyline featuring Guiding Light defectors Ricky Paull Goldin and Beth Ehlers.

AMC's new head scribe Charles Pratt Jr. informed TV Guide's Michael Logan that the planned romance between Paull Goldin's Dr. Jake Martin and Ehler's- Lt. Taylor McBride-which he says will be "born of conflict"-was inspired in part by the Kim Delaney hit.

Left-leaning Jake, who was in Iraq with Doctors Without Borders, will clash with conservative GI Jane-Taylor over political views regarding the War in Iraq. This could prove very interesting and topical for AMC,  a soap that cut it's teeth by doing controversial, political storylines. Jake's own mother Ruth famously protested the Vietnam War back in the 70's. Kudos to AMC for embarking on a storyline that is so timely and relevant.

The New York Daily News has an interesting piece on former Guiding Light star and current All My Children star Ricky Paull Goldin on what it was like to host the SOAPNET Emmy red carpet pre show.

In the interview Goldin mentions that ""There were a lot of my old producers there, so I did have to deal with certain energy fields...It's like when you break up and then you run into your old girlfriend. But it was fine."

Meanwhile back in Pine Valley Goldin's character Jake Martin has decided to move in with his ex girlfriend Greenlee Smythe, which should create a very interesting environment once Beth Ehlers' Taylor McBride arrives in town.

In the mean time, what do you think of Greenlee and Jake's chemistry? Would you like to see the former lovers reunite or should The Powers That Be wait to see if they can catch lightening in a bottle with Beth Elhers and Ricky Paull Goldin before they try anything else?