BetterForgotten

Carly debuted about a month after Guza’s first HW-big stint (roughly April ‘96) from what I recall, but he was gone by that September. Richard Culliton was the HW for like 9 months after that when Carly’s story really started going into high gear. So much of Culliton’s GH is dismissed because of Tony Geary publicly bashing him, and yes, much of it wasn’t great, but I do think much of Carly’s foundations were under him. But what’s also weird is Claire Labine taking credit for the character. Seems Guza just took the aspects he liked from what Labine left behind that hadn’t yet made it on the screen. https://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/11/soaps-hope-claire-labine-interview-part_4945.html?m=1 We Love Soaps: Carly Roberts came on right before you left the show. Was she your creation or a different writer’s? Claire Labine: She was ours. We left them really well set up. We really tried to leave the show with takeoff points. The next writer could choose the direction, but they had good springboards. And Carly was part of that, and so was Jax. I thought he was going to be a lot of fun. We left after his first few episodes. There was a lot set up for Mary Mae Ward’s family as well, but they chose not to take that path. That story with Mary Mae was one of my favorites. Rosalind Cash was one of my favorite performers. We had so much fun with that.

Carly’s creation is a muddled mess. The Labine’s claimed they started the idea for the character, Guza brought her on, but then he left a few months later to fulfill his contractual obligations at SuBe, so Richard Culliton oversaw much of her initial development as well. All the while Mulcahey and Korte were reportedly the two staff writers fascinated by both the character and Sarah Joy Brown’s performance.

Even Griffith’s brief descriptions put me to sleep… Why is this fool still employed and given more power after all these years and after repeatedly failing at this show during multiple stints? Are Sony/CBS really that blind or do they just not care anymore?

That’s devastating, and I know how close Erika is with her kids. My condolences to her and her family.

Most of those characters you’ve listed could all go too for all I care (particularly Nina and Sonny). This show is in dire need of a more focused canvas. Talent is great, but if the character has been at a long standstill and is easily extendible, then they can go. If Ava went away tomorrow, can we honestly say it would have a detrimental impact to the overall show and canvas? I personally cannot.

Marcy was lucky to have lightened strike twice in two popular, yet very different roles - one being a teen b!tch and then playing the signature heroine. That’s a rarity - she was so popular as the mean girl on AMC, and then to move into the opposite role on SB and have it be your definitive role is no easy feat. Beverlee McKinsey is another one - after being so popular as Iris, she went on to win a new generation of fans as Alexandra. That never happens. Unlike these two examples though, I’m not sure Maura or the Ava character has ever felt like more than just a short term role that’s been allowed to last for years to me. She just doesn’t have the same impact on the overall canvas for me to really care beyond Maura’s obvious talents.

Honestly, Ava is another character I’m not sure why they’re holding onto beyond everyone seemingly loving Maura West.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== PM’s pretty much the only person who could probably get Nancy especially to ever return to this dying medium, even as just a story consultant or breakdown/scriptwriter. It will be interesting to see how this writing team shakes out with so many of PM’s contemporaries that he once worked being either retired or dead. But how great would it be to wake up in an alternate reality to news that Sony/CBS has hired Curlee/Demorest to take over Y&R and given them complete creative control to do as they’d like?

This industry failed with nurturing talent for future generations, and now we’re only left with people 60+ who can run the day to day operations to keep things afloat. Hence why people like Frank and Josh Griffith just linger on - there are very few people of an active age left to replace them.

Michael Easton is especially awful in these courtroom scenes today. Also, can Michael E. Knight and that awful Cajun accent go already?

I honestly wouldn’t mind Mulcahey and Koorte opening with a big plane crash that kills half the cast of existing characters. Didn’t Agnes Nixon do something similar when she took over AW?

I’ve always thought Valentini was a crap producer when it counts. He may be good at stretching a thin budget - but his tastes in actors, light design, and translating material onscreen has always felt cheap, lazy, and very hokey. For all her many faults, JFP was very good at producing the hell out of her material (when she had a budget to work with, or decent writers to work with). Wendy Richie may not have had a distinctive aesthetic style, but she was a master of translating material onscreen that felt like it had weight attached to it.

On to bigger and better things.

Ah, yes, Williams Watt was an excellent Script Editor during those years at GL. She would be intimately familiar with his work. From my earlier post - she and PM were actually Co-HWs at GL for a very short time after Curlee departed.

Is that writer the equally fabulous Courtney Simon? She’s the only one I know still active and answering fan questions on social media.

Michele Val Jean wrote a lot of the rape revisitation storyline and monologues during that time.

All JJ did was cry, yell, and make his face red in that stint.

So, looking through some credits. The GL credits from 1994 are so damn messy with all the behind the scenes turmoil that year and revolving door of writers. Anyway, there was a period in March 1994 when Mulcahey was the sole HW (after Nancy Curlee left and Stephen Demorest was on a sabbatical for a few months before being fired entirely at the end of that year). Looks like this could be Curlee/Demorest’s last credited episode (Mulcahey is by this point part of their HW-big team): By this episode, Mulcahey is listed as the sole HW, though later that month, Nancy Williams Watt is listed as his Co-HW: Glad the person who uploaded these episodes kept the end credits in…

He was on yesterday and anytime he’s on, I want to throw my remote at the TV. Totally unnecessary character (and bad actor IMO) on an already bloated show.

When he was on Twitter, Mulcahey talked about how disheartened he was at this time. I think GL was the soap he considered “home” and loved the most writing for. He said that after Curlee left, it became unbearable working there. In the final few months of her tenure, Curlee did make him a Co-HW before she officially resigned. He then stayed on with another revolving HW-ing team for a few months after that. I think he mentioned being shot down constantly and never being able to get anything he wanted on the air during this time. Apparently, he really wanted to make Bridget and David more than best friends, and when he couldn’t because P&G/CBS wouldn’t allow it, he quit. Ha! We just said the same thing!

It’s a rare trait - even without looking at the credits, I can almost always identify a GL or GH episode that was written by Mulcahey when I watch something form the Curlee GL era or late 90’s GH. And that’s saying something as both shows had other great scriptwriters during these eras.

I think it depends on how much leeway ABC and Frank give him and Korte. I mean, he still needs to contend with Frank giving waste of space “actors” like Michael Easton and Cameron Mathison unjustified roles on this show for example.

A Long-Time Y&R Writer Announces A Major Change

Michael Easton’s continued existence and suckage on this show is an another reason Frank needs to go as well.

You know, I am looking forward to see how PM writes for Tracy. He always mentions how off-putting the Marland/Potter conflict over Jane Elliott was at GL, and he never really had much of a chance to write for Tracy on GH in the 90’s. To me, much like Bev’s Alexandra, he should have a ball writing for a character like Tracy who can be both witty and hysterical at the same time. She is the closest thing Port Charles has to a grande dame at this point.