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AW: MALONE ALONE by Marlena DeLacroix

As I was finishing the first draft of this column about Michael Malone's rocky head writing tenure at Another World, word came that Malone is out. Now, I'm not clairvoyant. Any AW viewer could see that Malone (a Daytime Emmy winner at ABC's nicely budgeted One Life to Live) brought some magnificently insightful and dynamic ideas to AW when he arrived last spring. But I speculate that one reason Malone's work came off as so tragically half-baked is because the NBC show is so cheaply and unimaginatively produced.

Take last summer's trial of Nick for raping Toni. Here was a bold stroke meant to diversify the show's bland canvas of characters and designed to deepen AW's flat dramatic tone both intellectually and spiritually. And what kind of courtroom set does the notoriously low-budget AW build for this showpiece of a trial? One that's about as deep and as wide as a tuna fish can! Compare this to the vast Palladian trompe l'oiel of a courtroom set Guiding Light executive producer Paul Rauch had constructed for the Reva/Annie murder-of-the-fetus trial early last summer. I rest my case.

It's unfortunate, but maybe AW just couldn't supply the resources needed to meet Malone's dramatic vision. His current front-burner story, what he has called in interviews :The Fall of the House of Cory," is grand and sweeping in its' dramatic intent. By allying Carl's ancient enemy Alexander with Rachel's bitter children Amanda (a.k.a. Hadley) and Matt in a plot to break up Carl and Rachel's marriage, Malone has primed his characters for a classic Greek family tragedy. But who does AW cast to play opposite the classically-trained Vicky Wyndham and Charles Keating (Rachel and Carl), two of the most powerful thespians on daytime television? A girl fresh out of drama school (Laura Moss, who plays Amanda) and a callow young actor who starred in the film Return to the Blue Lagoon (Brian Krause, Matt). Duh!

What's most telling is that what worked best for Malone were stories in which the only resources needed were sets and good, proven actors. Malone gave Lisa Peluso the role of a lifetime in Lila. She has been so good, in fact, that we've barely noticed that she has been given neither a plot to play nor a love interest. In the tragic diet pill story, Malone wrote beautifully for Judi Evans Luciano and Joseph Barbara, the actors who play those rare, middle-class soap characters Paulina and Joe. And, of course, Malone produced the biggest daytime miracle of all-getting me to not only love but fully appreciate the diversified talents of an actor I had long thought of as a soap world cartoon: Tom Eplin. Remember the scenes last summer at the playground in Lassiter, in which Vicky reduced Jake to tears by proposing to him? I never knew that the oft-buffoonish Jake could be so tender, or that the oft-overblown Eplin could absolutely tear my heart out of my chest. Emmy! Emmy!

Malone later said in an interview that he knew if he could finally make Vicky see why she loves Jake, the audience would fall in love with him, too. The ability to analyze, the intellectual curiosity to ask why: That, darlings, is the mark-and the miracle-of a really good head writer.

Conversely, there are many things about the rest of Malone's Aw that I flat-out didn't understand. I turned on my TV last week, and there was the otherwise delicious Kim Rhodes (Cindy) dressed in a Spiderwoman costume grinning at the fertility statue, whose electric eyes were blinking. Huh? And what the hell is that statue anyway? A prop left over from the never-aired, New Orleans-based 13 Bourbon Street? The disembodied spirit of notorious NBC stuntster James E. Reilly (Days of Our Lives former head writer)?

Mark Pinter is so wonderful he can play anything, but why in the world has his Grant morphed into comic relief as Mayor Grant Harrison? In his previous incarnation, when Grant was a haunted Shakespearan villain, Pinter's performance was the most brilliant thing on daytime television! No one was happy to lose longtime cast members David Forsyth (ex-John Hudson) or Kale Browne (Michael). Ironically, Browne put in the best work of his soap career on the way from contract to recurring, as Michael counseled son Nick during his rape trial. I can't make heads or tails of the new comic characters of Cass and Donna (Stephen Schnetzer and Anna Stuart), both of whom seem lost at sea. And what's the deal with RKK (Robert Kelker-Kelly, who plays Shane)? Talk about lost! The actor (who may or may not still be in the cast when you read this) is drowning! I just don't get it.

It's easy for amateur soap analysts to speculate that Days-happy NBC was forcing Malone to do this, and P&G was forcing him to do that. But who realy knows what happened behind the scenes out at AW's studio in Brooklyn? Maybe Malone was in over his head from the start.

All I can see is that Malone's vision never fully made it to the screen. That's a waste, because he is a gem of a head writer. Literate and humanistic, he's a natural heir to the intelligent writing tradition of Agnes Nixon and Claire Labine. In an era of shallow, dum-dum (think Sunset Beach, The Bold and the Beautiful!) soap writing, he is sorely needed. Let's hope that by the time you read this, another show will have hired Malone-one with an imaginative producer. I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd miss (Malone's OLTL executive producer-and Marlena's old punching bag) the ever-grandstanding Linda Gottlieb.

(Soap Opera Weekly, November 18, 1997)

I know that ATWT and EON were the last shows broadcast live in 75.

By then,all the shows were live to tape-shot in sequence, like the live shows(even pausing for the commercial breaks).However,if something did go seriously wrong,taping could stop and the scene retaped.(This was frowned upon due to budget restraints)

My question is : Which show pioneered live to tape?Was it Days in 65?If not,then who?

In what order,did other shows follow?I think SFT and GL went to tape in 68,when they expanded to 30 mins.

Was Gloria Monty's GH in 78 the first show to start taping out of sequence and editing it all together later?

Any info would be much appreciated.

The failed family thread showed how soaps often introduced relatives around characters to keep the canvas tied together.

The flipside of this are those characters who were on for quite some time,yet never got a relative.Or,if they did it was quite brief and said sibling/parentnever returned.

Who are some characters you can name that never got to be part of a family?

Two from Y&R

Ryan McNeil.I recall some early mention of a father with a drinking problem,but after that Ryan's family was never mentioned.At his marriages,no parents or siblings ever showed up.

Phyllis.Her parents appeared briefly,but are never mentioned.I think there is a lot of potential there,if say,her widowed mother turned up.

AMC
Greg Nelson.His mother was recurring and a sister was mentioned,but never materialized.

An interview with the GL headwriter,Jeff Ryder.After his GL stint ,did he work elsewhere in daytime?

The whole interview seems to be a defense of the mistakes made at GL during their tenure.

The justification for not dealing with Bert's death for instance.And,the destruction of the Bauers.To say there were only 4 and not include Rick and Mike.Also,not writing for Nola,the saying they want her back.I'm sure by that time Lisa was ready to work on ATWT. same for Mike and Hope.Imagine if Mike had become involved with Alex.It would have been a new angle to the Bauer/Spaulding clash.

Jeff Ryder,GL's headwriter,takes you inside springfield.
They create them and they can destroy them. Head writers have that power and they use it. GL viewers found that out most recently when Jeff Ryder and Pamela Long Hammer,then that show's headwriters,decided that Lujack had to die.

'The actor's contract was up and at that time he made it known that there was absolutely no way he wanted to return',says Jeff Ryder,who is currently doing a solo act while Pam is on maternity leave(she may not return). The decision,which has been very unpopular with viewers,was made,Ryder explains,because he and Pam felt that "in terms of the character's future...there were a number of characters who were intimately involved in Lujack's life who were still on the show and dramatically,Lujack's death-rather than sending him off on a plane or on a world wide tour for the video-could catapult us into the next chapter for a number of these people".Despite the resulting outcry,Ryder has no regrets.


Formerly VP of Daytime Programming at NBC,Ryder's current position began with "a very loose association of sorts" with Pam,who was then GL's head writer. After he left the network,Pam,who had known Jeff from the the time she scripted the now defunct Texas,contacted him and they started bantering a number of ideas for long-term stories. When a pilot he had been working on for NBC fell through,Jeff and Pam talked and she said.'I really think that you and I can work together',and I decided,why not?"


Though Jeff remains cognizant of the network's viewpoint on stories,GL has had no profound impact on his perspective. It's no accident that soap opera audiences find themselves tuning into one story line running concurrently on several different shows. As a network VP,one of the things Jeff did was to monitor trends and analyze upward and downward movement on the shows,the theory being that what worked for one show could work for another. Now,jeff says,"I don't believe you can copy anymore. I don't believe what works on GH will necessarily work at the same time period on GL. The audiences are different,the shows are different. As a result,i am much more protective of Gl. If somebody says to me,'ATWT is doing this,you should be doing this,'I can't embrace that."


One thing GL's head writers mistakenly believed was in Springfield's best interest was keeping the character of Bert Bauer alive even though Charita Bauer,the actress who had played Bert for over 30 years,had died. "Pam and I felt strongly that Charita was the life of Guiding Light and that as long as the show was on the air we wanted to keep the Charita's presence alive. But as a result of the "overwhelming response" from the audience who needed a final resolution for that character,Jeff and Pam finally laid Bert Bauer's memory to rest by having the character pass away offscreen and then airing a funeral memorial service acknowledging her death.


Since Pam and Jeff took over head writing duties at GL,there have been a number of changes. The emphasis on the Bauer and Spaulding families has decreased and the very popular Nola reardon Chamberlain was written off after Lisa Brown,the actress who played her chose to leave. While Jeff admits that lack of storyline was partially responsible for Lisa's departure,he adds, "there were a number of different reasons. We asked her to come back",he notes. "Pam spoke to her and said that we would like her to come back and that we would write major stories for her.Her choice was not to come back."


As for the Bauers and the Spauldings,Jeff observes that while both families made a lasting impression on GL,they were actually few in number. "I appreciate that the Bauer family was atentpole on GL,but there were actually only 4 Bauers. There is Bert,Ed,Mo and Hope and that's it,"Ryder comments,temporarily forgetting Mike. "We are not going to continue the Bauers as THE family on the show,but we are seriously thinking of trying to bring back the character of Mike and there is a possibility of Hope returning." When Chris Bernau,the actor who played alan,left GL. "Alexandra came in to keep that dynasty alive",Jeff says. "Alexandra was created and brought in very much in the mold of Alan."

According to Jeff,one of the most popular plots of late was the 'dreaming death' story and one of the least the'video' storyline. "It got too convoluted",Jeff believes, "and our ratings suffered because of it".


After tampering with the past(and creating a furor in the process)by bringing back the character of Brandon Spaulding,who many viewers had watched die years ago,Jeff is looking forward to creating new dynasties. He and Pam successfully introduced the Lewises and Shaynes and Jeff says there is another Shayne,possibly two,in the offing. "Sarah Shayne is so clear in my head-who she is and always was. I mean Rusty,we know who the brother Rusty is". Well,if he's anything loke his volatile father and two sisters,GL viewers are in for a ride.




In the same issue,it was reported that Ryder had since departed as GL head writer.

Nelson is reporting that Micheal Muhney(Adam)is leaving.

Please let this be true.