The '00s may be the new Golden Age of primetime drama, but for fans of daytime serials they have truly been the Dark Ages, right up until the very end. With only 14 days left until the turn of the decade, and just three months after the last episode of Guiding Light...CBS and Procter & Gamble Productions recently confirmed what had been a chilling rumor circulating for months on the internet: The cancellation of As the World Turns...

2009

Dec

GUEST BLOG #66: ED MARTIN BESTOWS MERCY UPON NBC'S "MERCY" By Ed Martin

Speaking as a television critic, it's always interesting to find yourself on the opposite side of the fence from the majority of your peers. What do you see or not see that they perceive in so different a light? I'm not just standing on the other side of the fence -- I'm way over on the other side of the field...

2009

Sep

GUEST BLOG #49: ED MARTIN CHECKS INTO CW'S NEW "MELROSE PLACE" By Ed Martin

There hasn't been a column written about The CW's continuation of the '90s pop-culture fave Melrose Place that did not include a mention of Heather Locklear. Everyone seems to think that if Locklear would agree to reprise her role of ferocious businesswoman Amanda Woodward on the new show, its future would look brighter...

2009

Jul

GUEST BLOG #33: ED MARTIN LOVES A SHOW NAMED 'MARIA' By Ed Martin

This has been an extraordinarily satisfying year for fans of reality TV. Powered by more dazzling Top 10 talent than in any previous season and one of the most exciting finales in its history, American Idol demonstrated once again why it deserves to be the most popular program on television...

2009

Jun

GUEST BLOG #27: ED MARTIN ON A WHOLESOME SHOW THAT'S FULL OF SEX By Ed Martin

There is no other series with so split a personality as ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a genuinely entertaining family drama that is more wholesome and heartwarming than just about anything else on television -- and yet so sexually supercharged that it borders on the surreal...

2009

Apr

GUEST BLOG #11: ED MARTIN CHECKS INTO "GENERAL HOSPITAL" By Ed Martin

ABC's once-mighty General Hospital has been on a downward slide for far too long. Too many years of too many violent and repetitive (and ultimately silly) stories about mobsters and their women, coupled with the senseless deaths in recent years of a number of popular core characters, have left it in ruins...

2009

Apr

GUEST BLOG #8: ED MARTIN VOTES NO ON "AMERICAN IDOL" FORMAT CHANGES By Ed Martin

Are the inmates running the asylum over at American Idol -- a show that is far too important to millions of viewers, not to mention the business of television, to mess around with? It seems that with each passing week this show gives its loyal viewers something new to complain about...

2009

Apr

GUEST BLOG #5: ED MARTIN ON CBS DIMMING ITS "GUIDING LIGHT" By Ed Martin

CBS made history today in a bad way. It cancelled Procter & Gamble Productions' classic soap opera Guiding Light, the longest running scripted franchise in the history of modern media! I have during the last ten years written many times about Guiding Light for Jack Myers Reports and other publications, and whenever possible I used those platforms to remind executives at CBS and P&G that it isn't simply another soap opera -- it's an American institution, and a national treasure at that...

2009

Mar

GUEST BLOG #4: ED MARTIN ON FX'S "DAMAGES" SEASON FINALE By Ed Martin

One of the things I enjoy most about the experience of watching episodic television on its own terms is the feeling of breathless anticipation generated by the run up to a sizzling season finale. This can happen with a reality series...

2009

Mar

GUEST BLOG #2: WELCOME ANOTHER NEW CONTRIBUTOR, WITH A SPOILER-FREE 'BATTLESTAR' PREVIEW -- ED MARTIN By Ed Martin

As critics and reporters settled in Monday afternoon for a preview screening in New York City of tonight's [Friday's] super-sized Battlestar Galactica finale (a full two hours and eleven minutes starting at 9 p.m. ET), executive producer Ronald D. Moore asked everyone in the room to raise their right hands and repeat after him, "I swear not to reveal any of the spoilers I see here tonight"...

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