RavenWhitney

Y&R has dumped another "storyline writer" inexperienced, recent college grad and paralegal by trade, Mellinda Hensley.  

Dang. He can have a long term role in my personal soap opera.

It's interesting to watch the shows after they fired the actors playing Paige and Brian. I think P&G forced Slesar to dump the characters because of the implied incest angle. It's unfortunate. The show needed that age group.  And they fired Margaret Colin! Dummies.

On 12/14/2019 at 7:22 PM, Broderick said:

Check out the very brief scene from 15:10 to about 17:10, from January 1980, where Henry Slesar takes the huge risk of effectively "spoiling" the entire storyline that he's crafted to last through the entire summer of 1980.    Over an innocuous game of Monopoly while Logan Swift is recovering from the flu, Draper and April discuss April's recent dreams --- she's in the hospital with a new baby named "Julia" (whose name she's unable to explain the origins of), a plaintive train whistle blows, a man appears with silver bracelets, and Draper disappears to some strange and faraway place where April is unable to locate him.  In this brief two minute scene, we are given a preview of Draper's arrest for Margo's murder (though Margo is still alive and well when this scene aired), the train derailment at Grant's Falls, Draper's "abduction" by Dr. Gault and Emily Michaels, and April's subsequent relationship with Logan while Draper is presumed dead.   This is definitely "high stakes spoiling" on Henry Slear's part, but he wraps-up the entire scene in such a vague and mysterious manner that it only leaves you WONDERING instead of truly "spoiling" anything at all.        

 

 

This post prompted me to go onto youtube and rewatch December 1979. Wow. So good. So fleshed out.  Great dialog for the most part.  Everyone was interconnected. It's easy to forget with the hacks that have been writing soaps since the early 2000s how many creative writers were employed on the soaps. Henry was tops. He had some down moments too but they never lasted long.  I remember hating the main story once Draper was an amnesiac and we had all those long scenes with Emily. But in rewatching the lead up in December I'm blown away by how detailed and pointed every plot turn or line of dialog was. Not even the exchange of Xmas presents was gratuitous. Henry had a story bible and worked through it.  I loved the pace of the episodes around Deborah's kidnapping, the police station scenes.  Nancy's First Amendment storyline. P&G were idiots for firing Henry.  The show needed new sets, maybe some fresh directing and a new script writer or two; but they didn't need hack Lee Sheldon.  Thanks for posting. I'm up to 12/26/79 episode. The acting was so stellar.

In Billy news:  https://ew.com/tv/2019/12/06/aladdin-spinoff-billy-magnussen-disney-plus/?utm_medium=social&utm_term=07DFC48E-188A-11EA-B353-70914744363C&utm_content=link&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_ew

10 hours ago, AdamNewmanFan said:

JG isnt on the list because hes an EP too.

No. If he's part of the writer's guild, he'd be on the list.  If he went ficore during the 2008 writer's strike he is not in the guild and isn't eligible for a writer's guild award.

Writers not listed who went FICOR in 2008 and are ineligible for the award:  

Days: Fran Myers, Jean Ford

YR: Josh Griffith. Also note that Lynn Martin is not on the nomination list but was part of the staff. Did she go ficor in 2008?

Days of Our Lives, Writers: Lorraine Broderick, Ron Carlivati, Joanna Cohen, Carolyn Culliton, Richard Culliton, Rick Draughon, Dave Kreizman, Rebecca McCarty, Ryan Quan, Dave Ryan, Betsy Snyder, Katie Schock; NBC Universal

General Hospital, Head Writers: Shelly Altman, Christopher Van Etten Associate Head Writers: Anna T. Cascio, Dan O’Connor Writers: Barbara Bloom, Suzanne Flynn, Charlotte Gibson, Lucky Gold, Kate Hall, Elizabeth Korte, Donny Sheldon, Scott Sickles; ABC

The Young and the Restless, Writers: Amanda L. Beall, Jeff Beldner, Sara Bibel, Matt Clifford, Annie Compton, Christopher Dunn, Sara Endsley, Janice Ferri Esser, Mellinda Hensley, Anne Schoettle, Natalie Minardi Slater, Teresa Zimmerman; CBS

The most fascinating thing about train wreck time jump is listening to KA and SN deliver every third line in some sort of accent. KA accent comes and goes within a line of dialog. SN goes from Patch American to Scottish to Irish to English. Haven't yet heard italian, but he seems to deliver a whole line in one accent. I wonder which accent the actor will settle on?

12 hours ago, watson71 said:

 

Lemay's last episode was in mid-November, however I don't think Swajeski's episodes started airing until late-November or early-December.   Maybe the writers worked from an outline that had already been written by Lemay.  It has always been stated, but never proven, that Swajeski borrowed heavily from a long term bible that Lemay had written for the show.  If  this is the case, it would be interesting to read it to see how much Swajeski borrowed from it.  The Red Swan mystery was clearly a Swajeski storyline since no one could have predicted the sudden passing of Douglass Watson.

The Youtube November 1988 credits show that for about three weeks the writers listed were (Barbara Hagstrom, Chris Whitesell, Michael Zazlow and Susan Hufford (breakdowns) and Carolyn Culliton, Peggy Schibi, Roger, Newman, Fran Newman, David Cherrill (script writers). I think Swajeski's shows started in early December just before snowflake ball.  Speaking of Donna, here's a link to an article about where Donna is now:  http://www.delawaretoday.com/Delaware-Today/February-2018/Meet-the-Grand-Dame-of-Delaware-Avenue/

Was the Thanksgiving 1988 episode a Swajeski or Lemay episode?

20 hours ago, Wendy said:

Joe Mascolo is dead. Ergo? Stefano should be DEAD, too. It's disrespectful. But Ron is a hack, so I expect nothing less from him.

Isn't Steffie, Steve Johnson? Remember Stephen-O this is Steffie who's probably Steve Johnson. I don't think they'd bring Patch back to do nothing.

The time jump stories mostly suck. Ron doesn't know how to write character developments that prompt story. He could have at least balanced all the plot turns with a few character turns that promote the plot. The Will plot is monumentally stupid including killing off Bonnie..errr I mean Adrienne who had breast cancer. Now that would have been a good character story. Will and Ben in the same cell. DUMB.  Lani and Kristen as nuns. Why? this is high school camp.  

The original, great head writers also had a producer's eye and some were producers.  That doesn't mean great producers are great writers i.e Paul Rauch. But when a head writer can think like a producer they are a strong creative but realistic presence. Nixon, Maryland, Pat Faulken Smith. They told stories that visually and structurally made sense for their show and audience.  Mulcahey is a great script writer. He's not a head writer. He may be a great story contributor too.  

This is Days future when NBC cancels them next year.  I think that's why Corday was suing Sony. He wants full control over the characters, history, licensing, as he launches the digital app/web series.

Maybe Brad Bell will take over Y&R as senior exec producer. Keep Morina in place. Drop Griffith as co exec producer and HW. Bring in a new head writer and give Mulcahey story consultant and scripts. Why would the Bells let Mulcahey go; he's the best script writer out there and can contribute to story.  I see Patrick going to Y&R in some capacity for a change of pace after 10 years on BB  He worked with Esser when she went to B&B briefly when Latham was firing all Bell proteges. 

James Harmon Brown promoted to associate head writer on Y&R. And he wrote today's script.  I wonder if they're grooming Beall as Head Writer and Brown as co head when they dump Griffith.

Jason47 posted about this on his facebook page. The show has done this before for 4 months. This is to be expected. Whether or not NBC renews, they will begin taping in March 2020 for August airing episodes maybe to film the final stories until cancellation date. So they'll still be approx 4 months ahead. 

Ron Carlivati started following Mulcahey a few months ago on Twitter...HMMMMM

Mulcahey and Beth Maitland started following each other on Twitter too. 

What if Ron and Patrick took over Y&R when they fire Josh and Days is cancelled in early 2020?

The actor is 41. Tyler Christopher is 46.  Nick Stabile is 49. A decent de-aging. Cute actor.

At least they didn't go the route Y&R went with NuAdam:  Mark Grossman is 32 and Justin is 42.

Which botox/filler, face doesn't move, actor/actress will it be?

What was Tom Petitjean's soap pyseudonym ?

Interesting: just saw a credit crawl for the show in 81 when Lawrence Konner and his wife were head writers. They had five script writers who never wrote for daytime again. One (Mark Rosenthal) went on to great writer success in hollywood alongside Konner..

They've already spoken about 500,000 viewers into tuning out since the last party.  Good job Valentini.

On 10/2/2019 at 2:04 PM, Khan said:

 

I don't think either were fired, @glatwt.

 

Calhoun quit/retired, and Long quit, because she had encountered overwhelming resistance from P&G or CBS on several proposed storylines.

CBS insisted on bringing in a co-head writer. Long didn't want to work with James Reilly. 

Will anyone be surprised if GH gets axed soon. They needed to replace Valentini when they replaced Carlivati.