VelekaCarruthers

Here's what I know about Patrick Smith. He was hired by Pat Falken Smith and Norma Monty when they were GH head writers in 85-87. His name started appearing as a breakdown writer in Jan 86 and there's at least one YouTube GH episode from July 86 where he's listed under James E. Reilly so they worked together. Interesting, Monty had hired (in 1984 I believe) William Dale Smith (who wrote several novels as David Anthony one of which became a film starring Burt Lancaster). WD Smith died on March 31 1986 (suddenly probably) because his name was in the breakdown credits through April 85 when Smith/Monty took over from Bailey. Could Patrick have been related to either Patricia or William? Maybe.

At least under Ron, Ryan wrote breakdowns as well.

So much for Billy Flynn's plot lifting Y&R. Now they're throwing the kitchen sink of unemployed soap vets with Tamara, Roger etc.. but it's not going to work as long as Kent/Griffith are in charge. BTG is in trouble. It had such a messy, weak plot line in the beginning months (and still problematic) with very poor casting choices for some major roles; they lost the chance to keep those initial viewers coming back in the early weeks. And running repeats in the first year is just another nail in the coffin. I give it Season 2 possibly Season 3 but with BB and YR so weak, plus MVJ is not a great HW, the show is going to continue to struggle.

Whatever happened to the scoop posted here that a veteran soap writer was fired for asking for a raise? The only vet writer who's departed a series that fits the bill is Chris Dunn, although I know most on here only considered Jeff Beldner..but he's still with Y&R months later. It does feel strange that they hired Chris from Days only to fire him after one season. It would be ashame given his family lost their house in the LA fires. We know Ron left 'for another project' which I think could be ABC launching a new soap to go before GH and perhaps that's why many major markets are moving GH back to 3pm?

I haven't watched YR in a long time other than some clips here and there (the ridiculous Cane plot this summer), but as long as Steve Kent is in charge true lasting change that most long term viewers want to see will never happen. Many of us joke about 'friends of Jill" but Kent hires friends of Kent. He needs to go. McDonald is a Bell veteran but as long as her filter is Kent and his friend Griffith the show will remain a boring shell of itself. She may bring back more of what Ed Scott was trying to do to refresh the lushness of the sets and music (which he did tepidly this last year). But she won't be able to mask burned out Griffith who was never a charismatic head writer on any show.

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/