RavenWhitney

GL: Maureen/Lujack EON: Margo SFT: Suzie Days: The entire cast

Amanda Beall wrote the breakdown on Monday's US episode with Brent Boyd as script writer. It's been years since she's (been credited for) written an outline. Susan Danby should start being listed soon as story consultant; she started on 1 Sept.

Sheldon was a disaster. Casting of Beth and Chris were huge misses. Totally wasted opportunity with Shelly and Alicia who should have been related and connected to a big Sky/Raven story. The final episode was an insult to the show's long history with that mad hatter B.S. Finally, whomever decided and green lighted the revised opening and closing credits and music changes should have been fired immediately.

amazing woman, great scoops from her tenures on the different shows.

Henry and Erwin never played Monticello like a nameless midwest city; while the opening credits for years was a Cincinnati skyline, the show was so New York feeling. That darker noir, street wise, set of characters with stark humor and NYC accents. Loved it. Great atmosphere for so many years that the basic sets never mattered. Until Lee Sheldon train wreck came in and they changed the opening and closing credits (and hired a series of bad actors for precious few contract roles i.e. Sany Faison and Jennifer Taylor).

Wrong. Those towns were deliberately named because it was a nod to sister P&G shows. EON and ATWT started on CBS back to back in April way back. Draper and April''s house was supposed to be outside of Monticello. And Jody was to have come from Springfield in the same state. I thought it was cool that they named those towns in a nod to sister soaps. Especially since EON was on ABC at that point and the other two on CBS but all three owned by P&G.

King left AW a few months before the show went off the air. When I was in college in NYC I met Joe LeSeur who lived in the East Village. He was at that time an embittered gay man who drank a lot but he gave me several hot off the presses scripts he wrote. He wrote the same day each week. I had several scripts at the time that hadn't yet aired. I'd record them on my VCR! and follow the dialog. The scripts were seriously altered. Joe's dialog was not played as written. A few years later I took a soap writing course taught by Barbara Seiger who had been a script writer during the Tom King / Soderberg years along with Joe. She taught the first class around an excerpt of a breakdown Tom King had written which was the day Rachel was convicted while on trial. Barbara trashed Tom and said the breakdowns were full of errors and un researched ideas. In the breakdown she handed out, there's a hand written note for her to look up what kind of crime Rachel should be convicted of and how many years she would get. I still have the breakdown in the attic I think (along with Joe's scripts). Barbara said that NBC and P&G regularly dictated story turns to Tom and Robert. I don't believe they did the same with Harding. Tom was well liked by the execs because he was more compliant even if not a brilliant writer. When I look back on Tom's 1980 he maintained a lot of Harding stories but improved on some things. To me the last truly watchable period that also had lasting impact was the brief Soderberg/Purser years 82-83. Their creations and stories resonated till the end. The casting was first rate, the show looked gorgeous. But NBC had to install nobodies Culliton and Tomlin from Texas because why? Because they had also installed Long at GL. I think all of these writers probably got their start during the 81 writers' strike and the execs always swung between new/untested blood and veterans and tried and true hacks.

Who was the first actor to play Sharkey before Chris Goutman?

If there had been Twitter in 1988 I think all of this would have been public very quickly. You just have to look at the credits in the few months following the conclusion of each strike to see all the former soap actors, production assistants and unfamiliar names who were hired onto the writing teams. Everyone in the biz (I'm sure) knew that Swajeski had been writing the show during the strike. I think Zazlow and Hufford along with Radell were added once Swajeski started or shortly before. Lemay's breakdown writing team was his son, Chris Whitesell and Barbara Hagstrom. For instance: Lois Kibbee: I met Ernie Townsend once in NYC; he played Cliff. I asked him who wrote Edge during the 1981 strike and he told me that Lois and Laurie Durbrow were the writers. He said Henry was so impressed he fired Steve Lehrman and hired Lois as his script writer.

Many have reported that AW strike team of writers included: Donna Swajeski, Michael Zazlow (Roger from GL), his wife Susan Hufford, Nerissa Radell, Janet Iacubuzio, Mimi Leahey and Janet Stampfl. I imagine that Swajeski and the Zazlows worked off some of Lemay's story ideas but that EP/Michael Laibson supervised the storylines. Lemay was not a good fit for any show as a head writer by the late 1980s. His ten weeks after the strike ended were boring and uninspired. I thought the strike period other than the ghost story was pretty watchable. When Lemay's scripts starting airing I could barely get through an episode.

Apparently, Meng was removed from broadcast credits on Days but his name was still listed online credits for Tuesday's episode.

This news will not save GH from oblivion. No one cares about an actress who played an 1980s character on a cancelled soap. When GH stops revolving around murderous thugs it might gain a few more viewers. Writer Courtney Simon summed it up best why she never felt comfortable writing under Guza and left after a short stint. The show was built around criminals. Check out Alan Locher's interview with her and Peter Simon. It was brief and refreshing to hear the truth from a writer.

Looks like Michael Eilbaum is no longer directing Y&R; makes sense since he's based in NYC and was flying out to CA. UPDATE: he's back

I agree with you. I loved him.

Sandra could never act her way out of a paper bag. RKK was okay as long as he was half naked and mouth shut. Charles Flohe was inconsistent. Had some good scenes on Edge where he played tender emotions nicely but he never cut it on AW and the character had potential being Janice's son. I've always been amazed over the years that TPTB on many shows seem to have difficulty finding outstanding performers to fill the role of the adult/aged children of the show's vets. Some get it right. Grant Alexander and Mike O'Leary were fantastic for years as Phil and Rick. Y&R has failed with Josh and Amelia as Victor and Nikki's kids. They can't get the right actor for Ashley's daughter or Nick's kids, Noah and Summer. All these actors are terrible. On AW, they couldn't keep actors in the Jamie role for very long. Bekins was the best fit. After him, none of the others worked. Look what they did with Lorna. Alicia was awesome then we got Sky Chandler. Terrible

Exactly, remember they were competing with Gloria Monty's GH at the time. The interesting thing is that Luke/AG was never hot and aged a lot. Gloria and AG made it work. The Dobson's had played Ed/Mike/Rita/Holly for years. It needed a bit of a rest anyway. I never liked PS as Ed even though I like the actor. He was a sourpuss as my Granny used to say. I think he always resented playing Ed and it came through.

Nooo. Jill ruined the Y&R look; she turned it into Santa Barbara. Awful. And Mel turned up the lighting even more. I thought Morina would bring some darker, Wisconsin Frank Lloyd Wright design back to the show (from the 1980s) but the lightening is worse than under Jill or Mal. The sets are awful. I never thought I'd say this but with the exception of Hope Brady's recently showcased psychedelic half den on Days, Salem often looks better than Genoa City.

The 1981 writer's strike happened in summer 81. Bunim hired actor Don Chastain to write the show and she fired Upton after the strike ended. Chastain briefly held the head writer role and ruined things with some crappy boxing story. I think he was still appearing as Max. Upton's real life son was named Garth. He died in 2004 of lung cancer at age 60. Gabrielle was still alive, having been born in 1922. Never found an obituary so she still may be alive! Amazing that she wrote the show solo. IMDB doesn't list that she was also head writer for Love of Life, an unwatchable period where she focused on a former prostitute. But I really liked this episode. Classy, Directing, music, pacing was all so classic soap. Dignified. Sheri was sensational. Rod never knew his lines. he was no Tony Geary! You have to give P&G credit for giving Bunim an EP title when she was so young (she had been an associate producer). She must have been really talented and wowed the execs. I loved most of her EP stint on ATWT too. Sad when you think of the crap on tv today.

Susan Dansby confirmed on her Facebook page that she begins as a Story Consultant on YR on Sept 1.

Why was P&G determined to keep Gillian Spencer as a co-headwriter? She was paired with Sam Radcliffe, then David Cherrill, then finally Sam Hall all within a few months. Not sure if it was hack Shenkel who hired her; he had no business as a soap EP. He went over to AMC as EP for a short run (I think he developed cancer and had to quit) and he hired Spencer as a story consultant on that show. Sharon Gabet mentioned that Spencer created the Brittney character. What a mess. But Whitesell and DePriest did even more damage. Whitesell was a good director period. Spencer was a good actress and good script writer period. End of story, P&G often overlooked the veterans on the production staff for EP roles. When I watch episodes from 82- to early 85 I'm struck by how good the show was; it had stabilized especially under Potter/Soderberg/Purser and they gave the show legs again. It felt more like a more up to date Lemay version without all Lemay's boring scenes and awful dialog. Casting was stellar. Sets, costumes. It all worked. I suspect NBC kept interfering as Days became more popular and cultish and outlandish.

Rick Draughon gone from Wednesday's Days credits and script writer Kathryn Schock was moved into his place. Wow. He's been with the show a long time.

I didn't hear Dansby say she's temporary. She's back as a storyline writer/editor I believe (taking over for Amanda Beall who's now co-headwriter).

Jean was a network employee before she became a soap writer. She was with ABC's writer's development program. Like McTavish and Higley, Jean was constantly hired because she was the associate head writer to whomever was exec producer of each show she worked on. At NBC, she and Laiman were hired to replace Culliton because he wouldn't bow to network pressure. Goutman had her wrapped around his uncreative middle finger. I think ABC had hopes that she'd be a good Nixon trainee but she didn't have the chops which is why she ended up being a P&G hack. Y&R hired her for the same reason. Phelps was the head writer, along with Kent and McDaniel, no doubt. Tom C was Hoagie's assistant. Hogan promoted to breakdown writer whomever (as an assistant) helped him turn in outlines (there was another Tom and Meg Kelly). Read Tom's eulogy after Hogan's death to find out how their relationship developed.

Today's episode (Monday US): when did it originally air?

The actor who played Seth was so lackluster. Marland and producers had trouble casting some important male characters over the years. Caleb is another. Love righteous Kim. What a treasure (character and actress).