Daytime drama: Will film star Franco prove a shot in the arm for ?General Hospital'?

The Golden Globe winner and film actor ("Milk," "Pineapple Express") begins a two-month stint on ABC's "General Hospital" Friday at 3 p.m. on WCVB (Ch. 5).

He plays Franco, "an artist whose canvas is murder," according to ABC promos.

"I like it here in Port Charles. People here are so friendly," Franco says in one clip.

ABC didn't make an episode available for review, but judging from the scene, he appears as lifelike as a desk. In a medium that celebrates excess, that's a bad sign.

His presence bucks the conventional wisdom that film stars start in soaps, they don't end up in them. See Julianne Moore, Meg Ryan and Brandon Routh, among others. (Elizabeth Taylor doesn't count because she only showed up for Luke and Laura's wedding on "General Hospital" years before it became a tedious "Sopranos" ripoff.)

Jomashop coupon code
Skinit coupon code
Dermstore coupon code
Zagg coupon code
Mymms coupon code
Supermediastore coupon code


Franco reportedly approached the soap through his agent. He either wanted the challenge of memorizing 65 pages of dialogue a day or wanted the experience for an upcoming avant-garde film project titled "Erased James Franco." (Yeah, I'm guessing the latter.)

Will his presence help daytime? After the cancellation of CBS' "Guiding Light" earlier this fall after 72 years of broadcast, the seven remaining serials could use some good news.

CBS executives have made it clear that "As the World Turns" could be the next to get the ax. Budget cuts have affected all the soaps and have impacted in turn what viewers are seeing onscreen. Most of the veteran performers on the soaps, including "All My Children's" Susan Lucci, have had to swallow pay cuts, while other soaps, like "Days of Our Lives," have jettisoned veterans in favor of unproven youngsters.

"Young and the Restless" stars Eric Braeden and Melody Thomas Scott were both involved in acrimonious contract negotiations that resulted in them both being written out for a time.

Why are the soaps in such dire trouble? Blame it on the economy and the collapse of longstanding viewership patterns. Women work out of the home. Younger viewers, while DVR savvy, are less likely to pick up and maintain the habit of watching an ongoing serial every day. With production costs booming, one can imagine, say, that NBC would cancel its only soap "Days" for the fifth hour of "Today."

In tough times, the soaps are becoming creative at economizing. "One Life to Live's" Roxy (Ilene Kristen) recently passed out Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to her friends, extolling their chocolatey virtues in a bit of laughably blatant product placement.

ABC is giving "All My Children" a reprieve by moving it from New York to California, where production costs allegedly are lower. Will it be enough? Probably not. This viewer expects to be posting "Children's" obit in a year.

After one of his outrageous plot twists garnered media attention, the late, sometimes great soap writer James Reilly ("Days of Our Lives," "Passions") was fond of saying, "A rising tide lifts all boats."

Right now the tide is low, the soaps are resting on mud -- and sinking fast.

Powered by Blogger