The Young And The Restless Vs. The Immature And The Mindless

Wimbledumb tennis continues on NBC. It preempts the Days Of Our Lives broadcasts today and tomorrow, and so once again, there was no DOOL feed this morning. I really just can't get into tennis, but I did run across one idea I think would make the game much more interesting...

With no feed, however, I find myself with time to ponder things. Before I tell you what's on my mind though, you need to know two things:

1) I don't watch any soap operas other than DOOL.

2) I'm upgrading the equipment I use for Prevuze.

"What," you may ask, "does all that have to do with the price of a cheesy product placement ad?"

I'm glad you asked. Let me elaborate. I finally decided it's time to upgrade the equipment I use to work on Prevuze to something more appropriate for the 20th century, even though we are well into the 21st. I mean, the Edison Pictograph I've been using to create the videos has served me well, but it's time to (say it with me) move on.

I made the big upgrade only to find the video systems available for the new and improved equipment don't have some of the features I like in the old video equipment. So I'm experimenting with different systems and ways of recording the show.

I get the DOOL feed off of a Canadian satellite, and at the frequency I'm using, that satellite only feeds one other show – The Young And The Restless. In an effort to have a lot of video to chop up and play with on the systems I'm testing, I have now recorded two episodes of Y&R. Having those, I can go back and tinker with the Y&R episodes to see if I can do with those videos what I would like to do with the DOOL videos (other than burning them, that is).

As I tinker I naturally see parts of the show. So in the first Y&R feed, the only scenes I really looked at had a suave and debonair looking guy involved in a high-stakes poker game with some sophisticated looking woman. Nope. I don't know the characters names or the actors names and even though I had Google at my fingertips, I was too lazy to look them up. Here they are, however, for the record:

As I sat there fiddling with the video I kept comparing what was on screen to DOOL. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was so different, but then it hit me... The adults in the show were acting like... well... adults. I mean, the story actually had a woman who wasn't obsessing over which guy she would go with to the junior prom.

So I watched a few more scenes. It really seemed I was on to something, and after about 1/3 of one episode, I came to the completely scientific conclusion that Y&R must have more mature characters who act more like real people. In other words, when comparing it to DOOL, it was, "The Young And The Restless vs. The Immature And The Mindless."

Well, then, I saw part of yesterday's Y&R feed. That's where I encountered this couple:

The upshot I got of this relationship (in the 40 seconds I could stand to watch) was that she, for whatever reason, wants to move into his apartment and bring her irritating kid along with her. She insinuates it will be a "friends with benefits" kind of living arrangement when she tells him with a wink and a smile, "With me there, you'll never be lonely." But he turns her down wanting instead to watch baseball with the guys. This, of course has all the reality of a 1970's video game.

In addition to them, we got a dose of some guy with shorted out neurons who thinks "the satellites" are after him:

This dude is so wackadoodle he doesn't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his butt.

In other words, the second time I watched part of the show, I got a completely different take on it. It seemed more... DOOL-like.

So where does this leave me and my theory that Y&R is more mature and intelligent? Out on a limb, I guess. For a whole day or so I thought I had things all figured out. I thought DOOL stood alone as some oddball show who's mission was to make a cartoon of itself. I thought other soaps must surely be produced by more sane and level-headed people. I imagined those of us who watch DOOL are some minority of the viewing public that enjoys a weird video form of self-flagellation. In short, I had hope for humanity.

But now that's gone. Maybe some of you who watch Y&R can enlighten us or tell me what I saw on that second feed was out-of-context, and my first impression was right.

Somehow, though, I suspect my first impression was wrong and the whole genre is an experiment in Artificial Stupidity. It's enough to make you want to do something self destructive.

Like watch tennis.

NOTE – you can now follow Prevuze on twitter at: http://twitter.com/prevuzea Prevuze II has a video of the daily show previews, which should be available by noon (EST) on any given day. To see Prevuze II: CLICK HERE