MichaelGL

1 hour ago, Mitch said:

Its is forgivable as it makes more sense that the Spaulding were always there so I consider just like other families who are friends with the Bauers, Lewises and Spauldings that you never hear about but have to"exist" in their fictional world. I think they could have just said "I remember when Five Points and Selby Flats were towns on their own  that the Reverend would take care of along with this town, until Springfield annexed them." (despite Selby Flats being in California..right?)

Lol that's more believable than a few other ways

During much of my adolescence I wrote (pen and paper) a soap titled "Charles Harbor".  Set in a New England city named Charlestowne, it centered around twin sisters; one considered a bad sister, and the other good. This aspect was largely influenced by watching Another World and the stories involving Marley/Vicky. The cast also included a wealthy business mogul and his socialite wife; similar to Victor and Nikki Newman. The wealthy business mogul also had a dark past being a former spy; shades of some of the international intrigue DAYs also offered at the time.

Eventually my soap writing began to mature and so did my taste. Charles Harbor morphed into a more grounded soap with influences from ATWT/GL. I would start to pen stories centering around the close knit family named the Hastings; modeled after the Bauer and Hughes families. Similar to the Bauer/Hughes, the Hastings were anchored by a doctor and a lawyer; and in addition you had the patriarch and matriarch of the family similar to Chris and Nancy Hughes. It was also around this time that my writing began to focus more on social issues just like Agnes Nixon's AMC and OLTL.

At the tail end of my teens, I began to admire the structure and history of past soaps; The Doctors, Love of Life, and Search for Tomorrow. Learning how writers like Doug Marland and Agnes Nixon soap hopped, each bringing a piece of their unique style to those soaps and yet staying true to its history, I began to merge some of my earlier writing into a fanfic of The Doctors. The fan fiction was basically a return to Madison 18 years later (this was around 2001). It still focused on the Powers, Davis, and Aldrich families, but there were also some new characters and families included.

So having started off writing Sci-Fi/Adventure, then changing over to more grounded writing thanks to ATWT/GL/AMC, I settled on penning a medical soap(The Doctors), or in this case reviving one. During the age of blogging and websoaps, decided to take on a big challenge and write what would have transpired between 1983-2001 as a interesting way to fill in the blanks and explain how things came to be after I had picked up writing it. The bible is still under work, understandably () with loads of ground to cover, but I have much of the 80s complete and an idea of how I would like the tone of TD to shift from the glamour of the 80s, to the tackling of social issues (HIV/AIDs, abortion, homophobia, Cancer diagnosis, etc) during the 90s.

While writing The Doctors fan fiction, also wrote a continuation of Millee Taggart and her stories on GL, where it picks up from 2003 focusing on the Reva stalker story, Spaulding battle, and other stories/characters on the canvas around that time. Lastly also took a try at DAYS wanting to write a continuation of some of the stories from the Hogan Sheffer era (before it went off the rails); bringing it back down to earth with a focus on social issues, focusing on what Cwikly/Brash left unfinished, and bringing back past characters such as Bill and Laura.
 

What does it say about the show right now that I found more entertainment in Mal Young's disastrous tenure over what's happening now on our screens? Yikes.

Can't believe I'm relieved that Gabi is staying, but after years of trying to play her as a heroine or Mary-Sue, they're finally writing to her strengths; a vixen.

Loved the Xander/Sarah and Allie/Nicole scenes today. 

Basically this was Hope while Ciara accused Claire of bombing the church. Smh. Ron could’ve at least had given her some lines that illustrated that Hope might be torn. 

The direction of the aftermath was so unlike DAYS of the past few years. I really liked it. 
 

Allies crush or affection for Xander is cute. Obviously nothing will come out of it but I hope it’s another friendship for Xander. 
 

Hopefully the aftermath of this will have long lasting affects outside of Ben/Ciara.

Search for Tomorrow sounds fascinating in 1976 under Peggy O’Shea. SFT should have asked her back towards the end of the shows run.

Watched an episode from May 1997 and it seriously puzzles me how well produced GL was under Rauch for his first year and a half and then by 2000 it was a brightly lit mess. Writing aside, I love the direction in this episode. 
 

13 hours ago, BillBauer said:

 

I was kind of perplexed when Taggert said that about the Bauers. If she felt that way why didn't she at least bring back Mike and Hope? Maybe she tried. I wonder how many head writers get the blame for things that were producers' decision like the clone story. Maybe it was the producers who wanted to downplay the Bauers. We'll probably never know. It sounds like being the head writer of a soap can be a very frustrating job. 

I think in time Taggart would’ve brought more Bauer’s back. Didn’t she and Lloyd Gold bring back Ed Bauer? It’s no secret that Alan Michael was supposed to come back for the war over Spaulding, and who knows with his return maybe that would’ve opened the door for Hope. I’m just speculating but Taggart in my opinion seemed to get the ball rolling. 

What’s the overall opinion of Jeanne Glyn and Caroline Franz tenure on Search with Ellen Barrett at the helm? Recent uploads of the Cagney/Suzi/Warren/Wendy quad with Justine mixed in has me glued to my screen. 

On this day Guiding Light premiered on television in 1952

I wonder how much Allen Potter has in making the Dobsons work at GL, because their other stints at other soaps are like night and day. 

Really enjoyed the Xander and Jack scenes today. Hope they eventually develop a friendship. 
 

Ciara is SO MUCH BETTER when they write for her and she’s away from Ben. Her blackmailing Brady was good stuff and reminds me of the way she was before they sorased her. 
 

From the Claire scenes to the Allie scenes, good family oriented drama. This is why out of the remaining soaps DAYS still holds a soft spot in my heart :) 

I feel as if the only reason the show feels normal now is because whatever interference the show was having with the writing or final editing is no longer there. JMO. 

2 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

Morgan strikes me as one of those guys who has no idea how cute he is.

It's so puzzling as to why the show thought Brian Gaskell could pass as a substantive Dylan recast.

I felt that over time Shawn/Belle/Philip started to mirror Grandpa Shawn/Caroline/Victor, but perhaps I was just reading too much into the triangle at the time.

It's a nice surprise to see Emily O'Brien on the show as Claire's friend. This story has potential, as does O'Brien's character, so ultimately I expect Ron to disappoint me eventually.

20 hours ago, GLATWT88 said:

Can anyone share public perception or personal perception of the Santos family. I also was viewing the profile of Carmen Santos and it was a story that wrapped shortly before I started watching. The whole mob element with the Santos feels a little like GL was trying to ride the wave of its timeslot competitor GH but I may be wrong. 

Your assumption is correct. While there was a good amount of fans who loved the Santos element, it was only down to the coupling of Danny and Michelle (IMO a coupling that only worked with Joy Lenz in the part), everything mob related was seen as out of place on GL.

Further back in this thread a few posters have pitched ideas as to what other ways the Santos family could have been incorporated in Springfield which would have been 100 times better than what we got. IMO I didn't have a problem with the actors, just the perpetual mob stories were a major issue.

Just a random thought, but I feel as if the only reason Shawn/Belle/Philip/Chloe didn't take over the reigns of the show is because very little focus was given to them as individuals and giving their characters a drive of sorts. Compare that to John/Marlena/Bo/Hope, where you've had numerous storylines dealing with John's connections to the ISA, the show has written stories surrounding Marlena's career as a shrink, Bo and Hope both had stories while working for the Salem PD. Shawn/Belle/Philip/Chloe pale in comparison. Belle seemingly became a lawyer offscreen. Philip had potential to butt heads with the Kiriakis family over the company, but it's been very inconsistent or damn near nonexistent. I'm almost positive that Chloe and Shawn have been treated worse compared to the other two. It's a shame because I think the four all had great potential as far back as JKJ's departure as Philip in 2011.

With Lucas, Allie, Shawn, Belle, and etc. it feels like a completely different show compared to a few weeks or month ago.

That's not necessarily a bad thing

Re OLTL: Don't forget in addition to the other diverse type of characters Ron and Frank started off with, there was also BethAnn Bonner's character Talia Sayid, who finally made Antonio interesting.

It's interesting seeing the Dobson's start off on GL, knowing they would eventually kill off maybe one (or two) of GL's popular characters that they're currently writing for. It always make me wonder what GL's canvas would've been like without those departures.

Did Cenedella have any really successful writing stints? On these summaries he's getting passed around from soap to soap, but I found his time on The Doctors to be boring and uninspired. He attempted to tackle social issues but it made it a boring PSA in my opinion. Wasn't he the writer who wrote AW before Lemay took over in the 70s?

I wish Washam and/or Broderick took over the reigns of GL once Curlee/Demorest left. I think all four were great writers, and their work mostly character driven.

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

 

 

Speaking of hooked, Brooke seems to have given up her obsession of Ridge. The character seems more sympathetic when she doesn't have him.

I think that Ridge and Brooke will always have some magic between them. But [Brooke's pursuit of Ridge] was a story that people were tired of watching and one that I was, in a way, tired of writing. Something had to give. The Brooke/Ridge/Taylor triangle, in terms of being a solid front-burner, three-to-four-day-a-week, carry-the-show-story went on for as long as any I could ever think of. It was the heart and soul of the show for a long time. It was limiting as a writer. I was ready to throw away the security blanket and strut my stuff in other ways. I've found the show more manageable by going in different directions and by bringing in new characters. It's much easier to write and more fun, too.

 

 

21 years later what changed Bradley!

I find it interesting that Capitol had the luck hiring writers such as O'Shea and Slesar, even the Corringtons. It's kind of sad that one single writing regime (it's last) kind of undid the work of all those previous regimes and led to it being cancelled.