VelekaCarruthers

Surprised to see Louise Shaffer listed after Larry Haines/Stu and before Sherry Mathis in the credits. I think this is changed later? when she's put in chronological order of when she joined.

Bless her heart but Marj never remembered her lines. She wasn't the Alex that Long/McKinsey created but Marj had a few years of strong writing and Zazlow and others made it work.

Pp 19-25

Interesting about Peggy Sloane. I believe she left capital months before cancellation, possibly July 86, and by December 86 she was under contract at AMC as an outline writer. Slesar was head writer from Nov 84 to Jan 86. Lipton head writer Jan 86 to cancellation, March 87 so longer than a year and Sloane left 6 or 7 months into Lipton's tenure.

You're welcome! I had really lost interest in Marland's 1991 ATWT and didn't follow it much. I know when I did I found the Carolyn plot convoluted and uninspiring, partly because I didn't like replacement Franny. I'm curious how the actual story (and others mentioned in the document) actually played out and/or were changed on air. I love the way Marland addresses the execs to tell them why a character or plot will work.

Dan wasn't listed as outline writer in today's episode, only alpha listed in script writer list.

Tuesday episode: A- One of their best episodes yet with a few exceptions. The Joey/crime plot seems like it has Guza written all over it. The Dani plot still seems a mess. Everything related to her, Haley and Bill in this episode seemed like it was completely divorced and disconnected from the plot turns in the prior two episodes. Either I have DID, or Dani does or the writers do. Weird. The country club family scenes were very well written, directed and acted with the exception of Tomas' scenes. He still can't act.

pages 13-18

Hello ATWT Lovers! I have in my possession Marland's long term story note document (38) pages that covers summer and fall 1991. He divided up the plots/characters topics as follows: Posting the first 12 pages of the first story line and will try to post daily Frannie/Darryl/Larry/Carolyn with Dana/Arthur/Tom/Margo/Barbara (11.5 pages) Kim/Bob/Larry with Cal/Jeff/Frannie/Darryl/Lyla (6 pages) Tess/Paul/Linc/Hutch with Claire/Hal/Barb/Gavin/Cal/Mal/Emma/Angel/Caleb/Hannah (6.5 pages) Caleb/Angel/Court/Holden/Lily/Ellie/Kirk/Lucinda/Connor/Evan with Julie/Lisa/Barclay/Stephen/Jay (5 pages) Court/Andy/Evan with Bianca (1.5 pages) Julie/Julie's baby/Iva/John/Caleb/Angel (1.5 pages) Lyla/Cal/Lucinda with Margo/Tom/Larry (1.5 pages) Lisa/Ralph (short paragraph) Jessica/Duncan with Lamar/Lisa/Joel/Frannie/Nancy/Ellen/Tom/Beatrice (2.5 pages) Ellen/David/Nancy/Mac with Court (1/2 page)

I watched it live and was turned off but I had been spoiled because I loved, loved, loved the Curlee/Demorest era and even some of Long's material. I knew McTavish would be a disaster. No one cared about Brent/Marian especially killing off Nadine. There were brief, and I mean brief moments where some episodes had a Marland or Long flavor but it never lasted. She was a complete disaster on GL.

Another reason Megan dissed Conforti in her book: he was on GL staff when she was HW there and he and Miller replaced her as co heads for five months while they waited for Brown/Esensten to finish up The City. Megan never discusses in her book that fact. I wonder how she and Conforti got along in the GL writers' room. He probably saw the handwriting on the wall with her stories. Zach, Brent/Marion were not GL. But she couldn't come up with a plot for Amanda or Nola out of the gate, only her James E Reilly crap National Enquirer stories.

I watched all of Henry's run as head writer (as I was a die hard EON/Henry fan from when the show switched to ABC) and it was boring at times but made sense and had some good elements. It was a bit old fashioned; but agree with others the issue was desperate Conboy who knew Bill Bell was in the wings. Conboy's first mistake was collaborating with the Karpfs who knew nothing about daytime soaps, then hiring the Corringtons who failed at everything daytime except the first year on SFT. O'Shea had the most promise and I wonder why OLTL was able to snag her back. Conboy's other (repeated) mistake was hiring the men he deemed hot. Most couldn't act. Remember Dane Witherspoon...one of the worst. Lipton was their worst head writer though. Awful.

I'm not planning to buy or read the book. I'm curious what was written about Rader/Flescher as they were brought in (suspiciously) three months after the end 1981 writers' strike (probably when Pursuer/Radcliffe's contract was up). Never heard of them. Rader stayed as a breakdown/scriptwriter until cancellation. I think Pam was only head writer (officially) for about 8 weeks at the end.

Celena Cipriaso's last GH breakdown was 20 episodes ago, Feb 19. I think she's been canned.

A March 1985 episode on Youtube although the announcer says 1984... The episode shows that Conboy couldn't cast high quality performers consistently across the canvass. He hired many pretty (especially) male hair models making the show less than. He was no Paul Rauch in the casting dept.

Monday/Episode 16 had the most cringy moments of any episode so far. Terrible dialogue by Davis. Hard to assess Dunn's outline because the story turns were uninspired but his scene breakdowns didn't work either. Mostly terrible acting by all except Daphne/Nicole and Sean/Andre. What the hell was Cady doing with her mannered voice. So obvious and put on...Marquita's Haley needs more actor coaching; her performance was rough. But worst of all: Everything Dani and the Smitty family living room scenes. Both show the rookie head writer mistakes in full view. In this episode Dani is really slap stick and stupid on top of the dumb premise that the security guard would let her in. Unless they're planning to write a DID story, the character is all over the place and her actions just don't make sense or further a compelling story. I couldn't with the Smitty family scenes. Even masterful director Phideau couldn't make it work; in fact, his staging made it worse. I felt like I was watching a bad episode of Dr. Phil who had the family sitting around in group therapy. And why are we sitting through a Nicole/Andre heart to heart. Isn't she busy. Isn't Martin her son? Have they had one scene together, just the two of them? All in all C-

Gary Tomlin was doing a very admirable job during his first stint on SFT. His last episode is March 16, 1984 and Jeanne Glynn shares co head duties with Madeline David for three months before Caroline Franz comes in to replace Madeline (then Franz and Glynn are fired with Franz leaving mid February and Glynn writing five more weeks before Mayer/Braxton are brought in with Nicholson as producer at end of March). And they constantly rotated script writers. P&G did the opposite with Edge in 83 when they should have fired Sheldon and/or Nicholson but kept Sheldon for 18 months. I now think Gary was moved by P&G and/or NBC to assist Culliton on AW. Gary was near his one year (May) anniversary when he was moved. What a mistake. Richard and Gary didn't last on AW even though they had some high points. I also appreciate Ellen Barrett who came in after Joanna Lee's disastrous six month run (I think Joanna got fired for the live episode stunt?). Ellen was working well with Gary for five months although I don't like her next several months with Glynn/Franz but it wasn't totally awful. I don't understand how they let Sue Scannell go; they should have made her a long lost McCleary instead of bringing in Adair and Justine (who I couldn't stand; such bad casting). We always blame writers for the upheavals etc, but the networks and owners effed with these shows constantly as we read with McTavish's book on another thread.

Yes, the Conforti dirt is so surprising; he never had any media presence but made a great career as outline/associate head writer after Pam Long (Pam launched many soap careers) hired him as script writer on GL. He just got canned or retired after 34 years of steady soap writing employment. I knew Jill brought him to OLTL but it was so brief then he turned up as Passanante's AMC co-head writer for a few weeks before settling at GH for years followed by his long stints at Y&R. But it all makes sense. Jill got. him the AMC gig but he wasn't cutting it as a co head and then Jill brought him over to GH I think.

Fascinating read. She really skewers Geary and Richard Culliton and all that she writes seems totally in line with how things played out for each. Culliton was never a successful head writer but desperately wanted to be one (fired from AMC after a year or so, fired twice from AW, fired after some months on ATWT and Carolyn moved around the dial as well, not to mention their terrible Port Charles stories i.e. Audrey needing brain surgery with a drill). I find it interesting that (if Megan is to be believed) they contacted her about being interim story teller after Pratt which she turned down. They got Broderick instead to come out of soap writing retirement to pen three months before Swajeski/Kreizman came aboard then Broderick stayed on till the end. Megan must have watched the end of AMC (which she never really goes into) with bitterness and self satisfaction because the end was terrible with all the dead people coming back to life. One of the worst soap endings ever (other than Love of Life with a bunch of bad actors featured in the last episode and Lee Sheldon's final EON cliff hanger with the Alice in Wonderland b.s.). She's particularly bitter and mean about Hal Corley but he had a long and successful career as an outline writer and story contributor on AMC and ATWT.

Ashley is MVJ's Elizabeth Webber.

On McTavish: we have Pamela K. Long to thank for unleashing her on soap writing rooms. Pam hired her on GL where she wrote both breakdowns and outlines from Dec 84-Dec 86 (fired or quit during Sheri Anderson's stint). Then, Wisner Washam/Lorraine Broderick hired her in early 87 as outline writer on AMC. The rest is history.

I just found in my collection six consecutive breakdowns as shown in the photos. This was the first week or two of Walsh/Ryder as head writers. Youtube has the 1/3192 closing credits and Fran Sears is still EP but the writing team is Addie Walsh/Jeff Ryder Matt Labine/Laurie McCarthy/Paul Balido and Kirk Aanes/Lewis Arlt/Kathleen Tolan. Not sure if Grainger was EP during these episodes or if Sears was in her final week or so. Well written outlines, especially Matt's.

I think Megan's head writing tenures are as follows (I don't believe she returned briefly in 2002) Three years/May 92-April 95 18 months from Dec 97 to June 99 And her painful four year stint that really ruined the show July 2003 to April 2007 with April to July supervised by Jeff Beldner/probably off of some of her longterm story projections. Is the above not correct?

Agree. The most compelling narrative on the show right now is about how Nicole's world is about to be blown up by a "have not" in society. Although MVJ is bordering on campy with Dana/Leslie's cheesy revenge it's fun to watch and resonates a little deeper than camp because Dana has lost out, not had great luck etc. etc. and we want to see how far her bitterness will go or will she ever reform. Not to mention the excellent Ms. Mann's excellent acting chops. And you can have a stuck up, wealthy prick like Martin shooting for the presidency which can also be compelling (as long as you have a performer who can act). Balance, tension, diversity all make for a more compelling show.

Agree with others that Episode 14 has been the best written and directed of all, thus far. Phideau's directing was great. Tate's dialogue was also great as was the pacing of Dunn's outline. Bill and Ted should have been brothers; think of the years of story (back story too). Nice twist at the end re Eva... The flashbacks and fantasy sequences reminded me of Jim Reilly and Bill Bell style. Other episodes feel like The City or Ron's OLTL. I like the former although not too many flashbacks please.