They have feuds. They have babies (at least one of them). They have daily debates. But the ladies of The View have no sway with the Daytime Emmys. Well, that's not entirely correct. The ladies themselves, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Barbara Walters, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, received an Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Talk Show host(s), but their show was snubbed.

Whether it's deemed a Talk Show/Entertainment or Talk Show/Information, it's not deemed worthy. But The View's missing nomination is merely one of the many oddities of the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy nominations. Something is really bizarre in the batch of noms.

You may think the soap world has thrown in the the towel because 72-year-old Guiding Light has been canceled, but think again. Daytime TV is buzzing along as usual, and that includes The Bold & the Beautiful snagging three-time Emmy winner Rick Hearst from General Hospital.

Hearst, who was facing the prospect of a demotion to recurring status (as opposed to a contract player), will return to B&B as Whip Jones, a character he introduced and played for a brief stint in 2002.

There are many things the soaps do well. You know, things like lavish weddings, fancy dress balls, murder trials, even corporate boardroom shenanigans. On the other hand, there are more action-oriented story lines that just bring out the worst in soaps.

In the last few weeks, for instance, All My Children staged the worst looking motorcycle/car crash I've ever seen on TV. It was riotously funny, and that was not the desired effect. When a wedding gown-wearing Greenlee (sans helmet) careened off the road into a frozen river, the sight of her veil flying in the wind as the tires screeched, with the headlights blinking and the actors pretending to be tossed around, was a hoot. All I was thinking while watching the accident was: "Could this be executed any worse?" (Also, what a waste of Rebecca Budig's return.)

In the DNA of all soaps is the idea that every story reflects the morality of the times. There are lessons to be learned from both the good characters as well as the villains. This is Soap Opera 101. Lately, though, I've noticed a nasty streak of overt righteousness and insufferable superiority creeping into some of the most complex, morally challenged characters ever on The Bold & the Beautiful – Brooke and Ridge. It's gotten so bad that I've had to wonder, what's going on with Bradley Bell and his staff of scribes? Is this the residual effects of the Writer's Strike because a few of the core elements of B&B are out of whack and need to be addressed?

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