will81

55 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble, @will81. I'm trying to think of who you might contact who might be able to point you in a more helpful direction.

Have you tried any of the actors associated with the shows you're interested in? Some may have some suggestions. Some actors are accessible via social media, a few even have YouTube channels where they have posted clips, episodes and reels.

Have you heard of a blog called We Love Soaps? Last time I checked, it hadn't been updated in quite some time but one of the blog's founders, Roger Newcomb is active on social media and he seems like an affable guy, who is fairly knowledgeable and frank. He may be a good person to contact. If you have read any books lately on your topic, check some of the writers, see if you can contact them and explain what you're working on, they may have some pointers based on their reference materials.

If I can think of anything else, I will let you know. Good luck and keep the faith!

Over the summer I read a book called When Women Invented Television by Jennifer Keishin, she had extensive passages on Irna Phillips and has done quite a bit of research on soap operas. She's on Twitter, last time I checked. She could be a good person to contact @will81. Just a suggestion.

Thanks for that, this all happened over a year ago. I have graduated now and just had to move on with what I was doing, but appreciate the help.

What I wish (besides some miracle that would allow all these shows to somehow have survived) is that at the very least we could get access to daily episode guides. I have tried to contact P&G and Sony, the library archives that hold scripts to many shows, the networks they air on etc... to see if they have something like a reference guide with synopsis and cast/crew details. It would be a small consolation at least to have some record from the 1950's onwards. Definitely not as good as watching but better than nothing. So far no one has been able to or wants to help me. I even told them I was doing my thesis on soaps for a Bachelor degree and they still didn't give a toss. 

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

The daytime soaps currently still on air will definitely have better preserved archives. Bill Bell Sr. didn't mess around. His episodes were archived from day one. I'm sure from his experience working on other soaps previous to Y&R, he must've learned what not to do fairly quickly. All of these shows should've known from at least the early 70s to preserve their episodes, I mean, how foolishly short-sighted. 

I still wonder about shows like Texas and Capitol, that had relatively brief runs, comparatively. There are streaming platforms for everything these days. Streaming a show like Capitol wouldn't take much, unless the archive has deteriorated.

P&G never cared about the shows they produced (and still don't) they only cared about selling product/ad revenue. Unfortunately they made the majority of shows on the air. Many of which were broadcast live until the late 70's. Once the shows stopped serving their purpose they dismantled them and threw them away. I think for P&G, soaps were an advertising tool and nothing more. 

Sony seems to have saved both Days and Y&R from the beginning of each

Obviously Colgate-Palmolive saved The Doctors which I was suprised by.

Agnes' production company Creative Horizons saved B&W kinescope copies of OLTL and AMC but those were almost all lost in a fire and ABC didn't start saving eps until I think 1976ish and only because Agnes demanded it. Not sure about ABC saving GH. I doubt it as they were struggling to survive until the late 70's and hardly had the money and resources to archive shows prior to their boom years that started around 1976/77 (in terms of prime time anyway).

The others I am not sure.

1 hour ago, SoapDope said:

Bell first did the Chris & Snapper furniture story in 1974 ?  Why did he think that was worth repeating ?  It reminds me how Bewitched recycled stories they had done with Darrin # 1 in the 60's and repeated with Darrin # 2 in the early 70's......LOL

 

No idea. When Chris and Snapper first married Chris bought new furniture paid for by Stuart. Snapper found out and made her take it back. The return story in 81 was similar (though slightly different) but amounted to the same thing. Seemed an odd choice to basically re-introduce them. Pretty much saying the couple hadn't really moved forward in the last 7 years. 

Then Stu and Liz have a falling out due to Stu feeling Greg was better suited to Chris than Snapper and of course Sally coming back. Really Bell went on a loop with them. Involving Chris in Jabot and having Jack take an interest in her was the only new thing he gave them, but that came too late in the game. 

Chris and Snapper did have a sort of separation and it might have been good to have them apart for a bit and exploring new things.

11 minutes ago, Broderick said:

Sometimes they panned-out, I guess.  But only rarely.  

Weren't Nikki Reed & Patty Minter our Troubled Teens of 1978?  Patty Minter took the predicted Labor Day nosedive into obscurity, but Nikki Reed hung around for a few more years, lol. 

I guess April Stevens was sort of our Troubled Teen for 1980 (though I believe she was introduced in a small capacity in late 1979 or early 1980), and she stuck around for a pretty good while, until she took Wes Kenney's fateful spur-of-the-moment plane trip into obscurity.  (But she did have to share the summer of 1980 with our cultist friends Nikki, Paul, Rebekkah, and Matthew.) 

Seems like Danny Romalotti was our 1981 Summer Project, pining away for Patty Williams, waiting tables at Jonas's, crooning Eric Carmen songs, and pretending that he was from a happy family instead of sired by a jailbird daddy.  He lasted a few more years.

And then I guess Traci Abbott and Angela Laurence were our Tortured Teens of 1982, one wolfing down brownies and the other whining about her comatose mommy.  

Seems like 1983 was Traci Abbott Part Two, and by 1984 we had the wicked vixen Lauren who loved to throw a pool party and parade around in a bikini to remind the fat girls what truly matters in life -- a perky booty and jostling hooters. 

1985 gave us the 22-year-old virgin Alana Anthony who didn't notice her beau was whitewashed with talcum powder, and I guess for 1986 we got Pregnant Nina and Wise Cricket.      

Yeah April came on just before Christmas of 1979 played by Patricia Albrecht. She lasted about a month before the role was recast with Janet Wood. However most likely due to David and Lynn being absent a lot, the story was a stop starter. Just as April was being moved into the Williams sphere around spring 1980, April was recast again with Cindy Eilbacher and it seems Bell kinda started all over again, Lynn returned from maternity leave in time to help introduce the Stevens before Chris was MIA and April was kinda on her own with Paul.

The big summer 1980 story was the New World Order cult. I think April got a bit lost in the shuffle of that as Paul was in the cult. I guess the NWO cult had plenty of youngish characters. I'd sort of call it a teen summer story. Might have been interesting to have had April get sucked into the cult too. She seemed the type of character to have been brought in quite easily. 

6 minutes ago, Broderick said:

I always got the impression that he LIKED Lynne Topping and would've written for her, had the opportunity been there to write for her and Snapper as a couple.  In the summer of 1979 (I think it was, anyway), Lynne got the "big story", which was that business with Rose DeVille, Vince Holliday, Sharon the Runaway, Second Hand Rose's Antiques and Pretty Things, and the "South American slavery ring".  That (silly) storyline was an everyday deal for most of that summer.  

From what little I have seen of her, I liked her. Trish had the southern charm going on and a very light energy. Lynn had a bit of a darker edge (not in a bad way) though I felt Bell could have had Lynn's Chris be more willing to tell Snapper to shove it, lol. 

3 hours ago, SoapDope said:

Sounds like good ideas. I wonder if Bell just lost interest in Chris with Trish Stewart's departure ?  Stewart has no acting credits after 1981 except the 1984 Y&R appearance. Bell and Co. should have lured her back. 

What if Bell did divorce Snapper & Chris or kill Snapper off and have Chris marry Jack Abbott ? Stu & John would have had good some scenes over that. I bet Robert Colbert was livid that a show he was the main part of for 10 years, pretty much replaced him.

I also wonder why Bell never tried Peggy with Brock or even Lucas. Peggy Prentiss is a soap name if I ever heard one......LOL

 

 

The show seems completely about Chris and Snapper in 1973 and they have story through 1974. In 1975 they went through a lull and mostly played supporting, then in 1976 came the Beckers which gave Chris story until Trish left in 1978. Apparently The Beckers were intended to be around for many years until Trish quit.

After that Bell gave Chris little stories that went for a few months but hardly amounted to anything, though it makes sense, he always puts a recast on the backburner. Then Lynn got pregnant with twins in 1979 and I believe had gestational diabetes and was unable to work as heavily. Chris and Snapper had story, but it was pretty light and I guess Bell didn't want to get too much into anything until Lynn had her babies. Once Lynn got back from maternity leave David was pretty much gone and she quit when they wouldn't renew her contract and wanted her to basically be a guest star. The return in 1981 wasn't all that exciting, Bell repeated the whole furniture story from 1974 and then he gave them their last big story with Sally coming back to town. So effectively another revisit of a story from 73-74.

So maybe Bell lost interest, but I think Lynn being a recast in late 1978 meant Bell was going to rest Chris for a solid six or twelve months as he often does, but then Lynn became pregnant in late 1979 and David took off in 1980. So it is hard to say if he lost interest or just never had much chance with Lynn. 

6 hours ago, SoapDope said:

I remember reading that if Bell saw something he did not like and would call Conboy in the control booth and blast him. I think I also read that when Hasselhoff auditioned, Bell could see the audition and asked him turn around, walk etc....he must have had a live feed at some point.

I think Hasselhoff was miscast......LOL

Same, though I have seen very little of either, I think Espy was moody and dark and volatile and the Hoff was stern and not much else. 

Yeah Bell and Conboy certainly had a show that was in many ways conservative and at the same time full of T&A. I get the feeling they both appreciated what men and women had to offer and often made that part of their decision making (sometimes). I mean Espy was a nice looking guy, but I can see why many moved on when David was cast. No offense to him, David seems like he got Snapper on a surface level and his acting seems good. 

5 hours ago, j swift said:

I agree with your timeline which makes me question the veracity of his backstage run-ins with exhausted actors.  I'm not saying it didn't happen, but his stories might be a pastiche of the experiences of a variety of executives and actors, simply because he wasn't available all of the time.

I also wonder if some of those things happened via phone or something. I know at some point he had a live feed from LA to Chicago of the show as it taped. So maybe he had discussions via a early form of video phone or something. 

But yeah he probably meshed a few stories and incidents together. 

2 hours ago, j swift said:

Practically, (in these days when we are all more empathic to remote workplaces), I wonder how much of that had to do with the Bell family relocating to Los Angeles from Chicago?  I get that 30 minutes makes a tighter story, but I also would hazard to guess that it is easier to manage a 30 minute production remotely. Does anyone recall when they all moved and Lee finished her morning show in the windy city?

I was pretty sure it was 1986 when B&B was being put together. Though apparently he was back forth to LA since at least 1973 when Y&R started. He might have spent more time in Los Angeles in 1980 while Y&R transitioned. Not sure to be honest. 

2 hours ago, Broderick said:

Maybe Bell thought Snapper's hard-headedness was admirable.  I dunno.  Snapper historically spent a great deal of time toiling at the "free clinic", and Bill Bell seemed to believe that we don't get paid when work at a free clinic.  But Snapper was also an employee of the hospital, which supposedly DID pay him, lol.  I was never sure why Snapper and Chris would live in the same apartment building as April Stevens, a teenage girl on welfare, who had a child and no job.   April supposedly didn't have a nickel to her name (until her zillionaire twin sister whisked her away to Manhattan, along with their pauper parents, on a spur of the moment cross-country flight with all of their dowdy possessions), but April was somehow on equal social footing with a young physician and his heiress wife.   Again, these were just the strange facts of Y&R's bizarre transition period. 

I believe Bill Bell was intuitive enough to see that most shows did indeed falter when they went to the hour format.  For the 1974-1975 television season, Y&R was in NINTH PLACE with an 8.4 rating, behind As the World Turns, Another World, Days, Search for Tomorrow, All My Children, Doctors, Guiding Light & General Hospital.  A year later, Y&R had skyrocketed from ninth place to THIRD place, with no real ratings gain at all, simply moving up from an 8.4 to an 8.6.  All of Y&R's competitors (except As the World Turns and Another World) had simply collapsed in a heap and fallen flat on their faces.  The press was gushing about the "wildfire ratings success of Y&R", but really it was just that everything else was faltering badly.  And by 1980, when Y&R was pressed by the network to expand to the hour format, As the World Turns and Another World were ALSO suffering from dismal ratings.  Bell knew from what he'd seen happen to World Turns, Guiding Light, Days, Another World, and the ABC shows that expansion was usually followed by a period of adjustment and sinking ratings -- which of course turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophesy for Y&R.          

I can understand Chris having no money as Snapper had that draconian "i'm the man, I work, no inheritance for you" BS. Though by the time they met April he should have been making bank working at the hospital. I believe he was reinstated by that point and would have finished his intern/residency period. Sometimes I think Bell kept that couple frozen in time.

In terms of the hour, I think Bell in general hated soaps going to an hour and felt the 30min soap was perfect. I am in two minds about it. I do love the hour soaps, but the half hour is pretty spot on for a soap. 

Yes many changes and upheavals

When the show lost Brenda, they barely got six months into a new recast with Bond Gideon before she was dropped and Deborah came on. Adding Jack and John to Jill's story would have worked if Brenda was still around, but having esentially three new people in their own orbit must have been difficult for audiences. On top of that Brett Halsey was apparently a dud on the chemistry front and the Jack/Jill/John triangle fizzled and he was sent packing after six months with the story barely getting any play. Jill definitely lost prominence at this point. 

Another misfire was the cult story, which was Y&R's big summer story for 1980 and a hopeful bid for a ratings climb, but it actually saw the show sink to 12th place in the overall daytime ratings for August 1980 and 7th amongst soaps.

Lorie was moved to Michael and then Victor - The issues was, due to JLB's pregnancy nothing but a few smooches ever happened. Lorie and Michael really amounted to nothing and Lorie eventually turned Victor away due to his being married. After JLB returned from maternity leave Lorie spent her time trying to seduce Lucas as a way to get custody of Brooks. Honestly, Lorie seems scant in the story for the remainder of the year. In 1981 she was battling Leslie for Brooks and then Lance again. It isn't until Vanessa plots against Lorie that her story takes off more. 

In terms of John McCoook - before he left, he was initially planning to go on hiatus to film a movie. However by the time he departed in Feb, he had given his notice. It does seem Bell was blind sided by his decision to leave the show. I think the reason he returned in May 1980 was more as a favour to help wrap up some things, since Bell had to write him out so quickly. Y&R asked him to return in late 1980 but when he turned the offer down they eventually hired Dennis Cole. Apparently Troy Donahue was also in the running. 

In terms of the Foster family, Greg was the only one truly active and with story in 1980. Snapper was mostly off and Bell was trying to get Jill going amid cast changes.

In terms of the Brooks - things were a bit of a mess. Peggy had story but in spurts. Lorie I explained above and Chris was gone. Much of Leslie's story relied on Lorie, so it was a slow crawl and seemingly a lot of hand wringing while they all waited for JLB to be ready to return in a more active capacity. The Jonas/Leslie/Lucas/Casey quad was not really exciting from what I could tell. Casey gave up Lucas pretty quick and Lorie had to push Jonas to go after Leslie (and he gave her up quickly too). Then you have the issue of - Leslie and Lucas were never really in love. He always loved Lorie and she always loved Lance. So how was this ever really a quad??? Bell tried it though, it didn't work.

7 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

This is interesting to me as the only cast members who left were Brenda Dickson (Jill) and John McCook (Lance).

Everyone else stayed on.

David Hasselhoff went recurring? Was Lynne Topping put on recurring because of this?

Pam Peters (Peggy) was brought back.

So it was hardly a cast decimation. More like business as usual.

Kay Alden has spoken about the expansion time and said it was very stressful.

I think some of the turmoil was brought about by Bill's reluctance and resistance to the 1 hour format.

It's not as though Y&R was the first show to expand- other shows had moved to 60 min quite smoothly.

Yeah David was recurring, but from what I can tell he would show up once every couple months for a few eps and then vanish again

Lynn refused this deal and walked and did not return until Mar 81 with David and they both left again the following year. I think she last appeared around June 1980, but had been absent due to her pregnancy/maternity leave prior to this. So Chris was not really around much that year.

Brenda left, John left. I'd say Beau had given his notice early on in 1980, since he was gone by Sep. JLB wanted to leave in 1980 but agreed to stay, I think Bell knew he wasn't going to have her for much longer. JLB was also pregnant in 1980 and being wheeled onto the set and eventually was ordered to go on bed rest and that probably put a hold on her story for that year, then she was off screen for a few months. Wesley Ann Pfenning came in as JLB went on maternity leave early. JLB left around July and returned around late Sep or early Oct. This pushed back the Leslie amnesia story as well since Lorie was sent to New York with Brooks on a book tour.

It sounds like Bell is condensing the 80 - 82 period together. Not just talking about 1980 and the exact period when the show went to an hour. If you read the synopsis for that period, it is a bit of a mess. I am obsessed with that period of the show to be honest. Nothing really seems to work and you can feel the struggle. I'd say the cast turn around during that two year period was never matched again, at least not during Bell's time on the show. 

3 hours ago, kalbir said:

Mary Williams was messy in the sense that she attempted to control Paul's love life. Nobody was good enough for her #1 son.

Which is a shame as I don't feel Mary was like that at first. She had a different moral code to her son and clashed with him on it. It seems early on it was warranted and she was more pulling him into line for his bad behaviour and the way he treated women. Then she became one note and just annoying and acted as if only she should know who was best for Paul and how he should live his life. 

48 minutes ago, SoapDope said:

I remember years ago seeing a photo of Jeanne Cooper (Kay) standing/posing behind a seated Trish Stewart (Chris) in what looked like the Chancellor living room. I haven't seen it since. Did Chris and Kay have scenes when the Fosters moved into the mansion ?

I know Bell had his writing quirks, but I think Kay and Jennifer should have interacted in some capacity. Kay was isolated from the Brooks family. 

Peggy for some reason has always facinated me. She never had much storyline it seems, but Pamela Peters is so charming in the work I have seen of hers. I saw her in an old episode of Emergency recently and she was cute as an angry daughter of one of the feuding neighbors.  She shared scenes with Randolph Mantooth who would become a soap vet in the 80's. The episode aired in October 1973, so she was alread doing Y&R then.

Speaking of Mantooth, I watched his Archive Of American Television interview and he said he loved doing the soap Loving, but HATED General Hospital. He didn't name names, but said the cast was cliquish towards him. He also mentioned the female producer, but not by name ( was it Monty when he was on ?) and said he was wanting off the show and she said " We have a wonderful up coming storyline for you your going to love " and he gave her the " That's nice, but I have another obligation and it's nothing personal, just business". He severely pissed her off and he said if her eyes had been lasers, he would be cut to bits.....LOL I think he had secretly negotiated to get back on Loving to get off GH.

Not sure Chris ever had an actual scene with Kay. Maybe she was in the same space with her, but she always seemed to be in the background of the Foster family drama. Though having not watched I can only go on synopsis, which doesn't always give you everything.

It seems the Brooks and Fosters only interacted during Chris and Snapper's wedding and Liz and Bill's re-marriage. When Stu and Jen stopped by to give them a wedding gift. Yeah it seems Bell went to great lengths to keep the Brooks women away from Kay. I would not be surprised if Lorie had no scenes with Kay until 1982 (which are in the vault) I don't even think they interacted in 1979 when Kay was plotting against Jill. Lorie only seems to have shared scenes with Brock. 

Pam got some story in 76/77 but then left. I am pretty sure Anthony Herrera (Jack) said her departure was the reason he was axed from the show. So it seems Bell had more story for Peggy coming up. I always got the feeling Pam wasn't too happy at Y&R. Though she did return in 1980 and Bell gave her a big storyline again with the New World Order Cult. Plus a love interest in Steve Williams, but again Pam decided to leave.

Honestly reading through the 1980/81 period. Many stories seemed to get lost in the shuffle. Everything was in a state of flux and rather messy in a way.

8 hours ago, yrfan1983 said:

Weren't there some recent '75 recaps covering Lorie and Phillip spending time together... so maybe Lorie visited the mansion?

My guess would be Phillip was avoiding Kay and was at Lorie's apartment. At one point he picks up bills he promised to pay for her as he leaves her place. 

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

Thanks for clearing that up.

Jeanne clutching Beau...we know what that was about!

 The Chancellor living room.

Which characters in that photo never actually set foot on that set?

Stuart and Jennifer? Brad? Lorie?

Anyone know for sure?

Leslie didn't, as Janice said when she left that she was trying to convince TPTB to give her scene/story with Jeanne. Gwen Sherman (Jennifer Leak sitting next to Steve Carlson) never did. Nor did Mark Henderson. 

In fact pretty sure the only ones who did were Snapper, Greg, Jill, Liz, Chris, Phillip and Brock.  

2 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Never seen this photo before...is it photoshopped?

That has definitely been around for a while. Don't think it is photoshopped. I have seen it in 70's mags, just much smaller and B&W 

Also there is a different shot of Jeanne, Brenda and Donnelly from this same shoot. All in same clothes but just the three of them and grouped differently. Here it is from a 70's mag but can't remember which one. 

Now I look, the B&W one is slightly different. Bill Espy has crossed arms and Brenda is looking more straight on to the camera. 

Oh the one with Brenda, Jeanne and Donnelly is definitely a composite from the above cast shot. Just realised that, haha

1 hour ago, fivethej said:

Has often has Victor used profanity over the years? Came across a scene between Matt Clark and Victor from 1995 when Victor dropped F word.

WHAT?????? He said F*ck or the other one? Are you sure you didn't mishear or something. I can't believe he swore. I mean the characters wouldn't even say Hell, they'd say Devil instead. 

26 minutes ago, Dion said:

No Murphy came along later when Kay and Marge had a car accident and Marge died and then Katherine thought she was Marge for a while.

You're thinking of Arthur Hendricks who was supposedly Jill's dad (but was Tucker's dad instead). In the end Kin Shriner turned up as his stepson and accused Arthur of murdering his mother. It was never confirmed one way or the other but Kay didn't trust him so he left Genoa City.

Ah thanks for that, past the 90's my memory gets very fuzzy about details. 

1 hour ago, Darn said:

Jill was in her 50s! And calling this woman she hated her entire adult life "mother" was patently absurd.

So was Murphy a character and was he believed to be Jill's father? I have this vague memory from about 2003ish of Kay, Jill and Murphy (I think) in the court yard of the Chancellor home and Jill is being such a grumpus and Kay and Murphy are like characters from Touched by an Angel lol, telling her she needs to cheer up and let's be a family and just accept it and let's all be happy and I seriously wanted to throw my tv in the bin, haha. 

On 11/17/2021 at 6:20 AM, Dion said:

Al Rabin.

He's the one who kept the throughline that you mention. After PFS left the second time I guess Days had more of a producer era than a writer era - same goes for General Hospital with Gloria Monty once PFS (again!) left that show.

To sidetrack slightly on this. I read that after PFS left GH that Gloria Monty simply hired a bunch of new writers but there was no official HW for that show until Ann Howard Bailey in summer 1982. I get the feeling after Gloria took over during the 1981 strike and when PFS left pretty much a month after the strike was over, Gloria decided the show didn't need a HW and she could basically do it with the assistance of a writing staff. Which ultimately led to a massive drop in ratings. 

In terms of Days you also had an overlap of writers throughout the 80's. Maggie DePriest and Sheri Anderson and then pretty much Sheri with Leah Laiman and Thom Racina then the two of them then Leah solo. Pretty sure they all worked on GH during the PFS era at some point or possibly together. There was no totally new regime between 81 - 89, they all kinda overlapped. Pretty sure I read PFS brought most of her GH writers with her to Days. 

I do think if PFS had stayed the show would have been less fantastical, but they certainly got the GH formula down. 

45 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

The dynamic changed quite a bit when they both teamed up against Nina when Jess was there.  But I still enjoyed them, and Jess is a more versatile actress.  They vacillated between being on the same side and then fighting with each other.  Often with Rex trying to cool things off.

The scene where they are both at Phillip’s grave, I think it was Memorial Day, and they have a civil but then ultimately angry discussion was one where I felt Brenda shined as Jill, showing those layers in their relationship.

 

 

 

I feel they went from mortal enemies to frenemies over time. 

9 hours ago, titan1978 said:

This is my favorite version of Katherine too- so full of contempt for Jill and willing to hurt even the dearest friend if it means she is hurting Jill.

Same. She would even dismiss her own son when he would tell her that her vandetta was self destructive. She was so full of bitterness and contempt. She was utlimately willing to destroy herself just to bring Jill down with her. This is why when Jill raged at her in 1998 over Phillip and everyone in town was like "Leave poor Katherine alone" I was like fuming, steam was coming out of my ears, haha. Of all people Jack at least had her back for a little bit. 

Always loved this. I know Bond, Deb and Jess were stronger actors, but no one played Jill like Brenda. 

1 hour ago, YRfan23 said:

Yeah that's what I was trying to say, Bill was doing the daily grind with both Y&R and B&B, yet I always get the impression that Agnes was more behind the scenes, and just guided the writers of AMC so they could try to maintain her vision etc... It seemed like Bill was in that studio everyday with his writers trying to make the best show possible. 

Yeah agree, he was definitely much more hands on. You can tell during the Bell era that others may have suggested stories and stuff, but no one made a move without his okay and no one made decisions about characters in any way. I like Alden's era, but it is obvious Bell was very much in charge during his tenure and not just a figure head.