Article on Ex-"AMC"/"ANOTHER WORLD"/"GL" Scribe Donna Swajeski

[~bl~]

The biggest problem with the ITL episodes was they were done weekly. They ran out of ideas and it felt like every 6-8 weeks they had a fantasy show of some sort. Also at times it felt like they did them to push story out of the way and rush/ram it. Some weeks Wednesdays was the only day anything happened and it was another way to do things on the cheap. With Ross's "funeral", they tried to do too much in too little time like the montage of speeches (Holly, Rick and Vanessa each had three lines and I've wondered since then if it wasn't sliced in editing as it made no sense.) The one thing that was really awful though in that period was that DK admitted he didn't watch the show, so he had no idea what made it from the script to air. I have no idea if Donna Swajeski at least was watching.

That said I had no issues with Donna at AW.

[Angela]

I don't recall a David or a Greenlee one for that matter.

[AllMyDaysatGH]

It was more like an Angie/Greenlee standalone episode that aired on 8/3/10. It included quite a few of those time traveling transitions that accelerated the story. I remember liking this episode a lot, especially the Greenlee/Angie scenes at the park.

[JONNYSBRO]

Swajeski and kriezman were absolutely the most boring Amc head writers. The show was doing gangbusters when Lorraine broderick was temp head writer and frons refused to make her a head writer and employed these two. Show was super boring and ratings tanked under them. In fact numbers under Pratt were higher.

[JackPeyton]

One of my favorite episodes of a soap.

[juniorz1]

Hey! I'm all FOR the "LaSwaj" nickname! IMO, she's always been a MAJOR strength on any show that she's helmed and most of the good story can be attributed directly to her.

I don't care what anyone says, Donna Swajeski brought AW back from the dead and her years on the show were CAN'T MISS TV. She wrote for the entire ensemble, backburnered nobody, and everyone got their turn at bat. And boy, did they come out swinging.

I saw an IMMEDIATE difference when Peggy Sloane took over, though most that came after (save the Richard Culltion and Leah Laiman- I :wub:d AW again for those last couple years, from Ellen Wheeler on. Lisa Peluso, you are a GODDESS!) weren't even as good as her average, run-of-the-mill soap. Plus, characters like Felicia and Cass suffered under the regimes in between, not to mention they KILLED Frankie Frame. I think Michael Malone could have been solid, had they given him more of a chance, but I realllly enjoyed what Culltion wrote and wished they had kept her on until the end.

[Soaplovers]

I agree that Swajeski was good for AW, and I do think some of her earlier stuff was Harding Lemay.. but she was there for 4 years and I know eventually she came up with her stuff.. that was just as good, though in a different way.

I think Peggy Sloane had some good stuff during her 2 years as head-writer. I was looking up her stint (1992 to 1994).. and she had Grant/Vicki/Ryan, Donna/Matt starting to date, Carl/Rachel's early courtship, Lorna's rape, and also Felicia's alcoholism as well. Plus, did she write Iris having a relationship with the working class fellow or was that started under Swajeski?

Though Sloane did have some clunkers too... the key storyline for starters LOL

[juniorz1]

I'm SO sick of reading this- there is NO way that she followed Harding Lemay's outlines for her entire first year on the show. She started as a scab writer during the Writers' Strike, so she couldn't have used his outlines even if she wanted to. NOBODY, not Lemay, not Swajeski, and not Michael Laibson have EVER substantiated this rumor and I don't believe it for one hot second. She may have used some of his stuff, but not ALL of it.

Besides, the first year wasn't even her best stuff. The show REALLY got hot from 89-92, her last 3 years on the show. It was the first time AW was CAN'T MISS TV, which was GREAT, since DAYS sucked for me during those years and SB's quality went WAY downhill when Rauch/Long took over in mid-92. The "Who Shot Jake?" storyline, the "Snowflake Ball," the Marley/Jake/Vicky/Jamie/Baby Steven storyline, the Kathleen/Cass/Frankie triangle, and the first year of the Carl Hutchins return are probably my favorite storylines (and episodes- "Snowflake Ball") that AW EVER produced. Oooooh, and I forgot to include Cecile's 1988 all-too-brief return and the standalone Valentine's episode they did with Cass as Cassanova featuring Frankie, Cecile, and Kathleen. Swajeski's AW is probably one of the most underrated (as far as the soap press and Emmys were concerned) periods in the show's history. She earned the show a Best Writing nomination in 1989 and then when they were nominated again, the submission tape got mixed up with Linda Dano's reel and they were disqualified, which I thought was SO unfortunate. They had a real shot that year IMO.

[cct]

Maybe this should go in the UO thread, but I actually liked the character of Greenlee, although Budig phoned it in during some of her stint(s). THIS era of Greenlee was probably the best she was apres-Leo. David brought out the spark, and the actress seemed to enjoy the storyline. Bringing Greenlee on that February was when AMC started to show some spark as well.