VelekaCarruthers

Frank periodically elevates his boy staff i.e. Donny Sheldon but do they last? Of the 4 daytime shows, GH sure has a lot of "new" unheard of writers since the writers' strike ended...Nigel, Micah, Cathy L (started just before the strike), they tried out someone named Peter I think... Oh and guess what. Steve is cute in his linked in pic...Frank, Frank, Frank https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenarosenberg/

Just watched Nolly. Mostly great. But her story was cheated by having it play out in 3 episodes. What a tragedy. They could have done multi-seasons or at least 8-12 episodes. I wonder how much the SFT writers (and Mary Stuart) were influenced (or visa versa) by Crossroads and Noele. There are so many similarities between the actresses and their respective characters.

Doug Marland made his mark on each show he head wrote but he only had a lengthy tenure on ATWT during his second run until his death. IMO his best work was on The Doctors but he dumped the show for GH; then had a falling out with Monty and left less than two years into that historic run. Same on GL. And he lasted on Loving 2 years and was scrubbed from created by credits. I guess Nixon was boss! Marland needed a lot of control over his material and wouldn't bend to the will of whichever EP he was reporting to. I think Calhoun and Caso let him have tons of control, but his latter ATWT years were messy and unwieldy with too many characters and scenes with groups.

Here are the changes Y&R has made since Steve Kent came in as 'exec in charge' Hired: Dave Ryan as script writer; hired Marla Kanelos who wrote about 12 scripts then moved to outline writer; moved Marin Gazzaniga from script writer to script editor; moved James Brown (who was a fi core strike writer no doubt) from script editor to script writer; hired Lisa Connor as script writer; re-hired Ed Scott as senior producer; fired Beall as producer and demoted her from co head to script writer (we'll see if she remains as a script writer). And that's after they did the following (after last December) once the writer's strike was over: fire Lynn Martin; "retired" Janice Esser; hired JG's assistant Maddie Phillips as script writer (probably wrote episodes during the strike). The only thing they haven't done is get rid of the central problem: JG

For any old time AW viewers: L. Virginia Brown replaced Tom King and Robert Soderberg in Fall 1980 and she lasted 11 months although there was a 3 month writers' strike in spring 81. Corrine Jacker lasted 11 months as well before being replaced by Soderberg and Dorthea Purser. I've rewatched some of King/Soderberg and the issue was Rauch and the whole Texas debacle. I thought the show was recovering nicely in August/Sept 1980 and Judith as Miranda was a great potential bitch Irish replacement. Which of the two writers (Brown or Jacker) was better or worse in your opinion?

SSH praised the material so either Ron behaved in the writer's room for a few weeks or Jeanne Ford, Fran Myers and others who've been there decades kept it honest. I might actually subscribe to peacock to watch through the holidays then peek in and out until Ron's final weeks in March/early /April. Last week the show filmed Sept 1 2025 episode so they are way ahead with PC/JF material.

script writer. We'll see if she's just filling out a contract or if she took on this new (original) position.

Amanda Beall out as co-head writer!

I used to love the soap Xmas closing credits. Does anyone know how long Elman/Lipton were head writers? 1976 Here's 1977 Xmas credits, show written by Robert Shaw with DiZenzo's as script writers.

I love how all the actors kissed Ron's butt for 7 years including Deidre until he's fired. Ken knew Ron's "creative" talents from day 1. Ken hired Ron on the double look a like plot (Bonnie and Hattie) in the first year of his reign of error. Ron's expensive. I would guess Paula and Jean are not quite commanding the same salary. Perhaps, someone pointed out to Ken that Body and Soul was another OLTL regurgitated plot. But it's not Ron's worst. There are so many plots to choose from, and Ken approved all of them.

Who wrote the script? I saw that Sally directed. Just watched 11/14 episode on YouTube and there was no script writer listed after Marin's name. Owen directed. Marin is script editor so perhaps she wrote the 11/14 script.

I just watched 11/14 Friday episode posted on Youtube tonight and wondered if Ed Scott was going to have sway over getting rid of Jill Farren Phelps hired actors including Melissa who, bless her heart, has never been good on the show as Abby. Over the years, I've been amazed on several shows how poor the casting has been for the grown children of legacy characters such as Abby on Y&R. Michael (Chad D) on GH and others. Now, get rid of the horrible non-actor playing Chance.

She's on staff at Beyond the Gates with Ron and Chris, so either she only wrote some spec scripts or she was canned when Paula/Jean took over from Ron.

Lynn Martin wrote 11/11 Days script.

This isn't rocket science on who wrote the show. Jean Ford and Fran Myers are FICORE and didn't go anywhere during the strike Sheri Anderson went FICORE during the 2023 strike and I will bet she will appear as a writer under Jean and Paula Paula went fICOR in 2008 and got credit on Y&R for that period as a writer. And lo and behold after the 2023 strike she's been hired as co-head. So it's a fairly easy guess that the strike writers included: Jean Ford, Paula Cwikly, Sheri Anderson, Fran Myers and we'll need to see other writers who show up under Jean and Paula. With Ron out, it's likely Dan O'Connor and Katie Schock are out. We know Dave Ryan lost his job to Dan O'Connor and Kent hired him as script writer at Y&R. Chris Dunn is out because he's now a break down writer at Beyond the Gates...

I watched lived starting summer of 76 through the end but my older sibling watched and loved it from the time Henry took over in 68.

They keep making all these changes around the margins instead of firing Josh Griffith. But...I'm feeling cautiously optimistic that he's finished at the end of the year which would mean his soiled toilet paper material would air into March. Of course, it's pure speculation but since Kent joined there have been a lot of changes and none of them have worked. Kent should go too

ABC and P&G pushed Slesar to change up things when Monty saved GH and the other shows ramped up action and youth stories. Also, the 1981 writers' strike left the show in (capable but inexperienced) hands of Laurie Durbrow and Lois Kibbee for over 3 months just when the Sky/Jeff and Raven story was taking off. The strike also coincided with Terry Davis getting pregnant and Tony Craig wanting out after 4 years. Henry was also given a bigger budget for larger cast (some of which should have been spent overhauling the sets). Henry brought in too many recurring characters to try to up the ante and speed up the action in each episode. The other big factor was Larkin's car accident that put him out for months. And yes, Henry's 1982 was largely a clunker after Jeff's death. The Smiley stuff didn't work. The summer Eden plot for Jody was arguable Henry's worst plot. Casting didn't help. The actor who played Chad was terrible. I also heard that Henry wanted to bring in Timmy Faraday for the puppet plot with his rich background as son of Serena/Josie, but the network wanted the character as a Jody love interest and they were related I guess. Not sure how. So Timmy was changed to Kelly (again with a terrible first actor who was replaced fairly quickly). Henry also mentioned in an interview that he had a different original Jody story that involved her mother being cast in a contract role but ABC and/or P&G didn't want another older woman on the canvas. Henry wrote all the outlines and three scripts a week. It was too much as he got older; he needed to give up writing most scripts IMO. But Nicholson (producer) miserably failed in updating the look of the show starting in 1981 when he had some budget. Then, they fired Henry (mostly because he was too expensive and they could pay Lee Sheldon close to scale, and recall that the show was losing licensing fees as it was dropped from stations, so budget was dramatically shrinking). Lee Sheldon had some positive qualities especially towards the end but he was left unfettered. Someone mentioned his writing for Miles after Nicole dies and that was truly awful but the producers should have stepped in to modify his plans. Of course, EON had bigger audience at cancellation than Days did for years before it was moved to Peacock.

Slesar's detailed outlines and scripts with Lois Kibbee ended Friday, April 22nd. The next four weeks before Lee Sheldon was credited were written by Sheldon (uncredited) and Lois Kibbee off of Slesar's weekly story thrusts. The writing credits changed on the Monday following 4/22 episode for the next four weeks from Story by: HS / Teleplays by HS LK to Written by HS LK. Sheldon was officially credited on 5/23. I recently rewatched the 4/22/83 episode where Mike and Nancy go away to celebrate their anniversary. It felt very meta to me (in hindsight). I can't recall the specific dialog as I write this but while watching the episode it felt to me that Henry knew it was his last full episode.

Just got through 10/30 episode and wow, Van cannot act. Operating room death scenes are hard but that Scooby Doo crew of "actors" in those scenes was laughable. And the outline and particularly the dialog was god-awful. I can understand they are saving money by hiring inexperienced (and possibly scab) writers but yesterday's script was laughable. On top of the fact that almost everyone Frank hires (males in particular) cannot act. I may not be able to get through today's episode since it's written by the same two "writers" NC and CL.

Sheffer was a script doctor in Hollywood before Goutman and Dwyer Dobin recruited him to ATWT. He was not a creative visionary with tales to tell like Marland, Nixon, Lemay. Or even Long who creatively ripped off all the movies she ever saw and books she ever read. Sheffer needed to contribute to stories not oversee them. He had some great ideas but he ran out of them fast.

I can fault Long and Kobe for a fair amount of(although I thought GL was very entertaining between 83-85 compared to GH and SB), but Nola and Quint were played out, domesticated IMO. Lisa/Nola was quirky and fun but couldn't quite pull it off as a married heroine.

Ed Scott is 80 years old. Great that he's still working but my guess is he's not being brought in to replace JG as EP in the next months. Perhaps, he's being brought in to support a non Bell employee who will be appointed EP to replace JG (my Christmas wish). Steve Kent must be in his late 60s or 70s as well? Clearly, Sony and CBS are not invested in shoring up this show to support and strengthen Beyond The Gates. They are making changes around the edges but the show still sucks. Sharon's plot is just a redux of Ash's DID which is kind of a redux of Chelsea's breakdown. They do these medical arcs and these biz arcs and the show is still unwatchable under JG.

This was Hogan's best period, the early year or two and his most solid group of writers. I recall a NYer article where he revealed that the network and/or P&G insisted that Corley and Demorest be replaced to add more women to the outline writing team. Hogan also preferred 7 or 8 script writers which I always thought was a mistake. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Courtney was definitely the script editor. I assume Beldner was outline writer along with Demorest and Corley.

I'm kind of over her whining. She had a job for longer than most in the acting biz, particularly on a show that's been tanking for decades. She's a capable performer; in my view she was always Brenda-lite and her scenes through the years bored me. Go out and get another role without trashing the show unless you have an employment claim; then hire an attorney. GH survived countless departures by more critical players (Genie Francis, Tony Geary and many others over the years as has every soap. This is a tempest in a teapot. She should learn from other performers who laced their departures with these dramatics. Many never got another daytime soap job.