Kish Get KO’d

The news broke on Twitter last night: http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/soaps/one-life-to-live-kos-kish-4337.html - Kish are being written off the show and will be gone by mid-April.

Honestly, I’m floored at this. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this – the Kish storyline has gotten OLTL a whole load of buzz and media recognition, they would appear to be one of the most popular pairings on the show and are played by two of the best young actors in daytime. And with the ever-looming rumours of cancellation, it makes absolutely zero sense to me to write them out now.

The quote from Valentini that really galls is, “We are concluding the story that we set out to tell with Kyle and Fish. We are very proud to have broken new ground with a same-sex couple on daytime.”

Ooohkay then, you’re proud. That’s great. But just because you’ve gotten these two characters together and that phase of the story is over, doesn’t mean there’s not new story to tell. There is a LOT of story that can be told with Kish – i.e. the baby storyline, the adjustments that’s going to cause in their relationship, how are they going to react/cope? How will the rest of Llanview react? Or how about the fact that Kyle has a dark side and has done some pretty shady stuff in the past? Have that come back to haunt him and see how Oliver (who, lets face it, comes across as a bit of a Dudley-Do-Right) reacts.

There’s plenty of stuff there that they can mine – I’m not for one second advocating that Kish are front and centre all the time (focusing on a couple of characters and stories to the detriment of others just does not work – yes GH, I’m looking at you and your Sonny-Jason-Mob fetish) but there is a place for them on the canvas, there has to be balance. Backburner them by all means, but letting them go just comes across as FV cutting off his nose to spite his face.

Now, getting to the worst part of the whole sorry saga; Scott Evans (Fish) wrote on his Twitter, “Anyone who thought my tweets were foreshadowing, that is not the case. Tweets were for something completely different. This is news to me.” (Bolding mine)

So basically, FV didn’t even have the common decency to tell the actors first, never mind face to face. They had to find out via a website. Stay classy, ABC Daytime. Stay classy.

 

 

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This was just linked on my Twitter feed - it's an opinion piece from Soap Opera Digest Online re. Kish's firing. I've quoted Mala before (when Greg Vaughan got canned - anyone sensing a theme here?) and I'm doing it now because she says everything I wanted to say in my last post, but is way more eloquent.

The Virtual Soapbox
— By Mala Bhattacharjee

March 11, 2010
I know daytime is in a tough position. Believe me. I see every day that we're amidst a sea of sinking ships. But OLTL dumping three of its best young actors is not going to help keep it afloat. Scott Clifton (Schuyler), Scott Evans (Oliver) and Brett Claywell (Kyle) aren't dead weight. They're ballast, keeping the enterprise equalized and steady with talent.

I was still reeling from news of Daphnee Duplaix (Rachel) and Amanda Setton (Kim) leaving and this...? This floors me. The Kish part especially, because there has been so much critical acclaim for them and the show was lauded for writing such a beautiful story. And, yes, I will continue to laud them for that...but I'm not going to clap for getting rid of actors who make your show better. Every soap needs its B- and C-story crew to fill in the places where big plots don't spill over. And that's where Kyle and Fish come in. One's a med student and one's a cop...they're parts of the canvas that can be utilized at any time. Not only are they gay, but they're integral parts of the Llanview community. And they weren't taking up that much space. They're not on that much! Why must Kish bear the responsibility for low ratings? Dorian's over-the-top mayoral campaign was a huge part of Fish's coming-out story, wasn't it? And there are dozens of other things that were happening in the episodes they were in that could account for a ratings drop. I was going to point out that Schuyler and Gigi made love the same day Kish did, but then I realized that, oh, wait, the show axed Sky, too, didn't they? So much for making a case there. Oops.

It's just short-sighted. I'm thrilled Kish gets a happy ending and that Schuyler is going out in an exciting storyline, but I'm really saddened that in an effort to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, OLTL jettisoned a few of its life preservers.