NO MORE LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON

Well, he did it. It took many long and arduous years but he did it.

Last week, all of us who have been touched so monumentally by daytime, either being a disrespected fan, or a disrespected participant, are angry, sad, and in disbelief. To think that we will no longer be able to see characters that we have come to consider our own is a very odd feeling. It feels like a death in the family. It is why soaps have had the following they’ve had for nearly half a century! Your characters in your stories have made you feel the gamut of emotions from A to Z. Every day!

Soap actors and audiences dance a dance. We laugh together, cry together, survive together and love together. That’s what makes a family. Whenever I would hear you-know-who make a speech and call us the “ABC family,’ it made my skin literally crawl. You don’t treat your family like they don’t matter.

Someone is counting on the fact that today you are all whipped into a frenzy, and that tomorrow and next week you will have forgotten and forgiven. Say it loud. WE WILL NEVER FORGIVE OR FORGET.

Now you may be saying, ‘but CAT, you are usually so Zen! “And to that I say, “yes, yes I am, but being Zen does not mean not feeling our feelings. I’m pissed off. Being angry is necessary! Can’t move forward without moving through. Can’t get Zen without acknowledging feelings and disturbances first. People who read my tweets can see that I am really fired up (no pun intended) over this whole thing. Dammmmn right! Do I think this know-nothing owes anyone a job? No I do not. Do I think the man owed people who gave ALL for all of those years a little respect? YES. Yes I do. Am I surprised? Not one bit. After all, I found out I had my last day of work by reading it on a magazine cover that was on the stands the day after I shot my last show, which meant that the magazine people knew for a week before I did! For crying out loud.. man up! Tell people WTF is going on. I loathe cowards.

“The ratings kept declining” he will spin. And I say

“Yes, well that was the plan, wasn’t it?” Isn’t that what you have been doing with all of your character assassinating and lame story telling? Isn’t that what you’ve been doing micromanaging your producers, writers, and staff to insanity? Business 101 teaches that you hire super competent people and let them do their job. Control freaks find this nearly impossible, which is why they ultimately fail. Its pure arrogance to think that you know what the audience will accept on shows that they knew far, far better than you. They didn’t accept mediocrity, and for that, the viewers were punished? What’s wrong with this picture?

Actually, How he stays employed is a mystery… however life is funny, and karma is not just a theory. It may not be today and it may not be tomorrow , but he has some karma coming, that’s for sure. SO many people hurt under his tenure.

A lot of destruction for someone unimaginative! As a hypnotist, I am in the business of imagination, so I feel extrememly well qualitfied to make that statement. Plus, my friends who work there have told me that you- know-who often asked his staff to give him their “best 50 ideas” as if it were a challenge. That used to amaze me. Just piss-poor chess playing if you ask me. In my world, YOU come up with the ideas that you intend to take credit for. If someone asked me for my best 50 ideas, unless it was a contest to win something (like credit for my idea) I’d tell them to get their own eff-ing ideas.

It was always hilarious listening to you-know-who’s “people” sound like that Twilight Zone episode, “Children of the Corn” where everyone was so afraid to lose their life to a little tyrant that dared people to disagree, so no matter how horrible he behaved, they were running around saying “that’s a real good thing you done. A real good thing!” while being scared to death of the kid. Sometime life imitates art in the saddest ways.

From the get go it was very clear to those of us who had been through many regimes that you-know-who did not like soaps. It always felt as if he was in contempt of them. We actors said it all the time, it was very hard to understand. That’s a hard pill to swallow when you love the genre. It’s hard to know what will make something work, and then watch it being absolutely decimated by someone you have not one iota of respect for.

Good and important people to the shows were fired, moved to another state, and then salaries were cut. Not necessarily for the best intentions. After all, they had to find those funds to pay big money for the girl of you-know- who’s fantasies De Jour. This in turn created animosity in the casts. It starts at the top, they say. Indeed. Poison trickles down and infects companies like a cancer, damaging morale that is nearly unfixable. In my 27 years of acting, In the five regimes I worked under at that network alone, I have never seen anything like it. In 30 years as an entertainer, I can not recall a more reviled executive.

I spent the majority of my career on ABC Daytime, 17 years to be exact, between LOVING, THE CITY and ONE LIFE TO LIVE, I played as many emotions and wonderful roles an actress would want to play. I am not looking to act on soaps again, it is not about that. It is about respecting the hard work all of us did to try and keep these shows alive in spite of a person who clearly had his own agenda. It is for the fans, my friends who I am eternally connected to and grateful for.

I have kept my feelings inside for a long, long time and it feels like a million dollars to get them out. Now I get to be Zen Cat again.

In closing, I want to say how proud I was to see everyone feeling their feelings on twitter and facebook. I love how social media connects us all and gives a voice to the truth, not the spin. You have a right to be sad and angry. Being disturbed makes us get things done. I can tell you that this network most likely won’t budge on their stance, because that would make the grim reaper wrong and we can’t have that, but you never know what you might accomplish by making noise. You just never know. ABC daytime was once an incredible arm of the company to work for. They can be again, but not like this.

I am so proud of your stamina. I am proud to stand with you. In the meantime, I will keep hypnotizing folks, making the world laugh, shoot my pilot, finish my book, and look forward to looking forward.

In the immortal words of Robert DeNiro..

It’s just a game, Focker.

Love For Sure,

Cat