RavenWhitney

No. They fired all breakdown writers with the exception of Jeff Beldner. Presumably, he returned after the strike. All break downs are written by hacks Griffith and Beal as well as Jeff. Brent edits scripts written by Esser, Gazzaniga (moved from breakdown to scripts when firings happened), Martin, Banks, McCarty. Assuming they all returned after strike ended.

Jamey mentioned during strike that Sony tried to force the elimination of Days break down writers (like Y&R) but Ron fought it.Perhaps, they agreed that they'd eliminate most of the dialog writers and have the current breakdown writers do their own scripts, a structure Monty instituted on GH during her short and disastrous return in 90s (unlike YR where Griffith/Beall/Beldner are writing all the breakdowns and handing them over to the five script writers). The other possibility is that they sped up the writing process in anticipation of the strike by having some scripts written by the outline writers. Jason47 has only mentioned Dunn's script but not Cohen's departure or these other writers appearing as script writers this week. Maybe he has the full scoop. Have the credits been updated to show that Noel Maxam is Consulting Producer to match his current linked in profile?

Love her but Griffith/Beall will take a great actress and waste her as they did with Robert Newman.

Here's a profile of Pete T. Rich who mostly wrote scripts in collaboration with N. Gail Lawrence (GL, Passions, Days, AMC and a few others) https://berkshirestyle.com/features/Pete_Rich.html

But Jill Phelps had to be the top head writer after Nancy C left. Jill couldn't take a strong, seasoned real HW in the writers' room.

Too bad Morgan couldn't act. Never understood why they didn't replace him right away.

Based on Jason's prod schedule, they've taped 39 episodes starting with the 12/27 show. Not 32 as I had indicated earlier.

Not enough! Here's an excerpt from Jason47 website of Days production schedule. Ron previously confirmed he wrote through Xmas; therefore, the show will have shot about 32 episodes since 12/26 episode was filmed (as they shoot 8 per week). But I believe Sheri Anderson (who we assume is at least co-head writing) may have finished additional several weeks' worth of scripts. By 9/22/22 (last year) they had 12 no tape weeks. This year to this point they have 16 weeks no tape. Clearly, the strike and Alaar debacle caused the additional 4 week studio closure. http://www.jason47.com/days/productionschedule.html Week of 5/1/23-5/5/23 DARK WEEK # 6 Week of 5/8/23-5/12/23 # 14712-14719 (airing 10/25/23-11/3/23) Week of 5/15/23-5/19/23 # 14720-14726 (airing 11/6/23-11/14/23) Week of 5/22/23-5/26/23 # 14727-14734 (airing 11/15/23-11/24/23) Week of 5/29/23-6/2/23 DARK WEEK # 7 Week of 6/5/23-6/9/23 # 14735-14741 (airing 11/27/23-12/5/23) Week of 6/12/23-6/16/23 # 14742-14749 (airing 12/6/23-12/15/23) Week of 6/19/23-6/23/23 DARK WEEK # 8 Week of 6/26/23-6/30/23 DARK WEEK # 9 Week of 7/3/23-7/7/23 DARK WEEK # 10 Week of 7/10/23-7/14/23 # 14750-14756 (airing 12/18/23-12/26/23) Week of 7/17/23-7/21/23 DARK WEEK # 11 Week of 7/24/23-7/28/23 DARK WEEK # 12 Week of 7/31/23-8/4/23 DARK WEEK # 13 Week of 8/7/23-8/11/23 # 14757-14765 (airing 12/27/23-1/8/24) Week of 8/14/23-8/18/23 DARK WEEK # 14 Week of 8/21/23-8/25/23 # 14766-14775 (airing 1/9/24-1/22/24) Week of 8/28/23-9/1/23 # 14767-14785 (airing 1/23/24-2/5/24) Week of 9/4/23-9/8/23 DARK WEEK # 15 Week of 9/11/23-9/15/23 DARK WEEK # 16 Week of 9/18/23-9/22/23 # 14786-14795 (airing 2/6/24-2/19/24)

Dear God, Brock (runs crystal cocktail glass with clanging ice cubes across forehead): I can't take it. The end of the strike may mean that Ron Carlivati may return to Days as HW and disgrace Betty Corday's memory with his Scooby Doo scripts.

I believe it was CBS exec, Wendy Fischman, who created the clone story.

Teenage mentality Carlivati at his usual worst. The best thing about the WGA strike is that Ron is unable to further damage Days (at least temporarily).

Wow. What a scoop!🤫 Mr. Maxam has directed Days episodes through July as tracked in a post elsewhere on this board by Jason47

Noel Maxam is now "Consulting Producer" at Corday Productions (as of April 2023) according to his linkedin profile. Badumbummmmmm https://www.linkedin.com/in/noel-maxam-406a828/

Here's the WG East list of ficore writers. No new names but they deleted at some point deceased writers including Hogan Sheffer and Barbara Esensten. Meg Kelly went ficore in 2007 but she's not on either list. Not sure if she's around. I'm sure if other writers went fi core WG East will eventually update the list. Technically, I don't think it's fair to call ficore writer scabs. The scabs are the ones who don't take fi core status, but cross the picket lines (virtually of course) to write the soaps. It's well know that, in the past, soaps have hired non union writers (novelists) and production folks. It's been widely reported over the years, for instance, that AW 1988 strike writing staff consisted of Donna Swajeski (NBC exec), Janet Iacubuzio (AW prod. assistant), Mimi Leahey (soap magazine writer), Michael Zazlow (yes Roger Thorpe from GL) and his wife Susan Hufford and Nerissa Radell (I believe she was the wife of a tv or network lawyer exec at the time). I also directly learned years after the 81 strike from the Edge of Night actor (Ernie) who played Cliff Nelson that Lois Kibbee (actress and novelist) and Laurie Durbrow (P&G exec producer) wrote Edge during that strike. Of course, Kibbee was hired a few months after the strike ended, when Slesar didn't renew Steve Lehrman's script contract, validating that strike writers get hired because sometimes they are better than the striking staff writers. We know that Dena and Mark, Victor Gialanella went ficore and wrote Days in 07/08 but names weren't mentioned in the credits ever. Most of these non union writers get hired for a time after the strike ends. AW fired half of it's pre 88 strike writers and replaced them with all of the writers mentioned above. Watching soaps after strikes end, you can almost predict who was writing the show pre strike when unknown names appear. After the 81 strike, when Pat Falken Smith quit GH (after Monty had ruined her plots during the strike) then we saw Thom Racina and Leah Laiman join the staff (never having written soaps before the strike). We also learned that ABC purchased the rights to Racina's novel about freezing the world which served as the central GH plot during the length of the strike.....badumbum... https://www.wgaeast.org/enforcement/wgae-financial-core-list/

I could also see Sonia Blangiardo in the running given she'd be cheaper, is with the show and has produced some streaming content. Ken may have to try to save face and appoint a woman. Janet seems like the safest option.