VelekaCarruthers

Stephen Schenkel was, I think, AW's worst executive producer. He had some sort of connection to Spencer I think because he brought her to AMC for his disaster run there as EP where Spencer was story consultant. Spencer seemed dedicated to soaps and was a good script writer on Days, but not HW material by any stretch. And to pair her with tired Sam Hall was also a disaster.

I recall reading a Slesar interview after he joined as HW wherein he wryly mentioned that the writing structure was different for him in that he had two break down writers and 2 script writers (with a third freelance writer coming in here and there..including Lois Kibbee who wrote about 4 episodes before Bettina Bradbury was put on contract). The show had no deep roots or complicated plots from which Henry could draw on. His 15 months was admirable and logical but somewhat boring. The Baxter casting was terrible and that was a pivotal role in Henry's main plot. I think Henry should not have been fired. The ratings were dropping and didn't improve under Lipton who was terrible. I think Conboy probably would have stuck with Peggy O'Shea but she went back to OLTL where she finished her career and I'm sure paid handsomely by ABC. The California actors also were not suitable for Henry's style of writing. But I do think Henry lasted the longest of the five sets of HWs.

oh dear....

https://sites.disney.com/ctdi/2025/03/18/2024-25-scripted-director-sarah-smith/

No wonder the show tried to keep Phelps' return a secret as long as possible. Her friends are coming to Genoa City. So much for having no power. How many more days or months before it's announced that she's EP or Co-EP?

I thought he was with SB under Rauch. Even so, it's odd to bring in someone above Jill and bypass the other twenty (kidding) producers who could have been elevated to Supervising Producer i.e. Vivian Gundaker....Hamburger has zero recent soap experience and 99.9% of his experience is outside of soaps and episodic tv. As someone who's watched soaps for fifty years and has followed behind the scenes changes, this hire seems odd.

Does he use the same shade of Just for Men (50?) hair and beard dye as Don Diamont?

Edge was my all-time favorite when it aired live and I even sat through the last 18 months of hell under Lee Sheldon. I never cried so hard as when the final credits rolled. The show was so satisfying to watch for so many years (consistently) despite low budget and some misfires by Henry Slesar over his final three years. Some of his best stories revolved around the Raven/Logan relationship which Henry nurtured for a few years, culminating in this episode's story. I won't say much more for those who are watching it and don't want to be spoiled. But for others reading this: in my view this episode is a masterclass specimen of the best of Henry's Edge including the flashback from a year earlier which isn't shown in its entirety (from Sept 14 79) but is also one of the best scenes Henry ever wrote for Sharon Gabet. Speaking of Sharon, she's spectacular in this episode and should have been nominated. And I absolutely love Eric Conger as her attorney; he could have been a great Draper replacement or a new character. There isn't a false note in this episode. Henry had such command and vision and wove so many threads for months and years. Miss this show and glad some of these episodes are still around. Of course, Erwin Nicholson, the directors, etc. all contributed to a great show in those years.

It's always a huge mistake to retcon identical twins. No matter what. JM played Franny and Sabrina and was in a class by herself, obviously, almost irreplaceable, but they could have worked harder to find a special actress. To replace her with an actress who had none of the vulnerability or fragility plus add another actress to play the twin ....made no sense to me. And we were asked to digest HR who also was missing MB's vulnerability. Of course, I was losing interest in Marland's ATWT in 1990 because of the huge, unwieldy cast, endless group exposition scenes in the hospital cafeteria etc. The Susan/Kim/Bob triangle was a master class storyline, though, primarily because of the actors and their history.

Those three recasts HR, CB and MES were all terrible. It was the damper on what could have been a banner year for the show.

Yes but everyone's freaking about Phelps when I think Hamburger's addition may be the bigger long term story. I don't watch the show so the first time I saw his name was on the script photo but I did see on IMDB that he's been credited started May 6 episode. His linked in shows she started in March. It's just odd. They brought in Mal Young this way. Six or more months as a consultant or other title..

Ed Scott retired. The key question is why did they add a non soap veteran as supervising producer, Kevin Hamburger, as of the September script photo posted in another thread. Waiting for the reporting on that. Hamburger has tons of execution production experience. He gets separate billing on the script page above Phelps and the other producers. His linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinhamburger/

Thank you. Yes, anything less than Shemar is going to be a let down. He's the only one I believe who would garner media attention AND bring in Y&R (mostly lapsed) viewers. He's hot as hell, can act and has respected daytime. Also, with Devon making the cross over, it makes a lot of sense since their Y&R characters are connected if they were to cast him as Malcom.

Shemar Moore

Elvera's acting was always questionable to me. Watching late 79 Dobson episodes where she flubbed lines regularly. They should have brought her back with a strong actress like Sharon Gabet

Ron destroyed days for 7 years and it's probably beyond repair. However, Paula and Jean's stories have only played out for 3 months. I'd give them a break until the new season kicks in at end of September and see what the show feels like by Xmas...But I don't have a lot of hope for the show ever being consistently entertaining or compelling. And it is concerning that Leo, Kristin/Susan and a few others are still on the canvas . When I've watched the show it feels like there's a lack of a true vision at the top. Every EP has to answer to Ken Corday and they've all been weak with Drucker being the lamest. I'm hopeful for Noel Maxam's tenure to begin. Say what you will about Valentini on GH, but he's got a vision and clearly executes it and he somehow makes the show very visually appealing. Days is drab and tacky. It amazes me that Paramount doesn't provide some funding to upgrade the show as it is an anchor and carries so much history from NBC. They also need to modernize the stories and dialog beyond having a snitty Leo pushing the envelope. And the background music is awful. Days used to have great music tags etc.

Here's what's interesting to me about the Y&R script cover: Steve Kent not listed Kevin Hamburger as SP. Looks like he was added in May 2025. He has a very interesting exec background. This makes me wonder if Phelps was brought in to help train Hamburger on daytime EP role...He's not some mid or low level or former soap producer. He's added just when it leaks that JLP is back at the studio...Interesting. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0357467/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm Belder Kanelos listed twice. That's really odd.

In my view the issue wasn't Russell's departure it was Rauch's arrival particularly when he installed S. Michael Schnessel as head writer. I think Hall and O'Shea were a good team and O'Shea with Schnessel still kept the core of OLTL. Paul wanted to carve out a GH like feel for Landview. I hated Eterna and all the other over the top and fantasy crap he did during his years.

Agree and I always thought it was weird to have three white males two of whom have been in soaps since the early 80s as part of the head writing/breakdown team. Perhaps, MVJ and others realized that it might be important to have people of color driving the execution the story. It was not a good look to have 1 person of color (Gregori Martin?) on the head writing team then have all Black script writing staff. To me this perpetuated years and years of industry glass ceiling for people of color in the writers' room. Hogan Sheffer was one of the only head writers who made an effort to bring in multiple people of color when he had Gibson as breakdown writer, Lynn Martin, Judy Tate and Susan Dansby on staff. The current state of affairs on the other soaps is abysmal for people of color. B&B has Lawrence St. Victor writing less than half the scripts of white script writers Y&R fired Lynn Martin and Simone Hawthorne and cut Susan Banks once a week scripts to split them with white Griffith assistant, Madelaine Phillips. GH has one Black breakdown writer, Nigel Campbell Days has Jamey whose breakdowns run through the end of the year and they just hired Simone Hawthorne as script writer So, it'll be interesting to see the final BTG Season 2 writers' list So far it's MVJ and TT Teresa Zimmerman/Sara Bibel/Jamey Giddens Susan Dansby Cheryl Davis/Danielle Page/Skyy Sandifer/Judy Tate/Jazmen Brown

Skyy Sandifer snow a full-time BTG script writer for Season 2 per her linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/in/skyysandifer/

Louise Rozett, who has written 4 GH scripts starting June 20, has updated her linkedin to reflect that she's under contract/full time as a GH script writer since April. https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiserozett/

The best plot for Rusty would have been one where he comes out of the closet and everyone kicks themselves for not realizing he was gay with those tight Levis and no undies all those years in Tulsa. Now that would have been a great plot for the Shaynes.

I watched live back in the original broadcast days. I was obsessed with this show. Henry struggled with the stories between the time Sharon Gabot leaves as Raven in Sept 79 until the conclusion of the Margo/April/Draper story in August 1980. Things get better when Raven's story starts to pick up upon her return in February 80 but the Margo/Draper twists were not great to watch from March through about June. I think Henry was thrown off his game when Sharon quit and he extended Kim Hunter's contract beyond 3mo. He also misfired with Brian/Paige partly because both actors were green and Edge audience wasn't used to controversial real life stories such as the hint of incest with Brian/Paige. But even when Henry struggled the show was better than most on the air at the time. And my understanding is that once GH started to take off under Monty, ABC and P&G tinkered more with Henry's story ideas and casting. Henry certainly regains his footing from late summer 1980 through February 1982 before he struggles again in the final year before he's fired. The show needed a dramatic makeover of sets and costumes to keep up with the lavishness of the other daytime soaps but Henry/Erwin spent more on increasing the cast size and getting some famous actors for guest roles. Henry also needed another dialog writer. He was doing all the outlines and three scripts a week. Lehrman then Kibbee got two a week. But overall, Henry was brilliant and there's never been another daytime writer like him.

No I don't believe it is. Based on the magazine snapshot above that list Kubek as writer in May 76 I believe the homepage inadvertently switched. I distinctly remember seeing Kubek's name when the show was so awful after the wonderfully progressive Ellen/Dale and senior citizen stories. The show as so enjoyable at that time then Kubek came in and it was awful. I recall my granny being relieved when the credits showed the change to Russell with Salisbury doing scripts in the final six months. It was Russell who brought in the Buas I believe.

This summary finally helps me understand. I watched GL at the time and didn't pick up the thing about Brandon/Sarina events in Annabelle's cottage. This story sounds like the worst of Long/Ryder collaboration. My understanding from interviews is that Ryder was a plot guy and Long had the sweeping themes (mostly ripped off from Hollywood movies).