When Sweeney left, didn't they try to shift the focus to that actress from OLTL and it failed and I think there was another ABC actress they brought on for a while too. They are cursed. They have better luck when they break out a new star like Marci.  The story was poo poo from the start to have Eric, Rex and Brady AND murderous Zander involved with Sarah.  Eric M. should be the star of the show of the male leads. He's such a trooper and makes all the material they've given him over the years work. 

The only thing remotely tolerable about Eric/Sarah was his rump up in the air under that blanket at the end of the episode. Great work on the glutes, Greg Vaughn!  

The actress (and Sarah character) have to be the worst Carlivati re-creation since he joined and largely because they gave her the A story after Chabby departure. Ugh. Fire her ass but keep Greg's front and center!

Here's a link to a summary of the Xmas Eve 1982 SFT episode archived at Paley. Interesting list of cast and crew.  

https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=jay&p=87&item=T:45227

And Ralph Ellis left a bunch of scripts from his HW tenure in 1970s; here's the link. He and wife, Eugenie Hunt wrote for the show for at least three years up through 1974 and return for time in early 80s.

https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/e/ellis_search_for_tom.htm

And here's a link to WGA list of writers by season:

https://directories.wga.org/project/196412/search-for-tomorrow/

On 7/16/2019 at 8:23 PM, victoria foxton said:

 A bunch of Texas episodes from 1981. 

Wondering if Paul Rader was a pen name for someone behind the scenes who wanted to be anonymous?

There's one reason 1999 to 2010 sucked (basically) and his name is Chris Goutman, Executive Producer, who P&G loved and refused to hold accountable for the slide in ratings and quality. From Spring 2000 to Spring 2005, Hogan Sheffer controlled the writer's room until his nervous breakdown.  Hogan had some bright spots but didn't know what he was doing either. Before and after Hogan, Goutman recycled the same P&G writers that had failed on other (Passanante/Laiman/Culliton). At least with Hogan, they went outside the box and tried to cultivate new talent.  Goutman should have left Broderick in place in 1999 and worked on long term stories and good casting.  Instead, he installed Laiman and Passanante whose final stories on AW were pretty horrid. 

17 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

P&G did not even keep the first episodes of ATWT, SFT, TGL or TEON. It's incredible how short-sighted TBTB have always been.

Here's several scenes with opening credits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIyN0ANUDsQ

1 hour ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

I know you meant Dale and not David. I was only joshing with you. We all have "senior moments" when we write one thing while thinking another.

 

I found this on page 8 of the Somerset thread, by Toml1962:

 

"You can more or less track the changes in direction from the changes in head writers. Contrary to what some on here believe, Cenedella handed down to Slesar after the first year - this fact is well-documented. Slesar came up with the Jasper murder storyline which took upnine months of 1971, and he also came up with the Robert and India divorce,as well as the Davis divorce and Marsha marrying the nefarious Ike Harding, only to see him killed less than a year later:

 

Robert Cenedella (3/1970-12/1970) 1 year

Henry Slesar (1/1971-3/1972) 1 year alone

Henry Slesar & Jane Lyon (4/1972-6/1973) 1 year

Roy Winsor (6/1973-6/1974) 1 year

Robert J. Shaw & Winifred Wolfe (6/1974 – 1/1975) 6 months

Don Appell (1-6/1975) 6 months

A.J. Russell (6-12/1975) 6 months

Russell Kubeck (1-12/1976) 1 year"

 

I watched the show live as well, and could have sworn that Kubeck really was Somerset's final head writer (I kept a scrapbook of the show, with articles, synopses and credits), but because I am not 100% sure, I'll take your word about the switch back to Russell. Data available through internet searches only indicates that both writers worked on the show in 1976.

 

Here's another summary at this link:  http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/spinoffs.html

March 30, 1970 - December 31, 1976

Creators: Irna Phillips and Robert Cenedella

Executive Producer: Lyle B Hill.

Producer: Sid Sirulnik

Headwriters: Robert Cenedella, March 1970 - December 1970.
Henry Slesar, January 1971 - March 1972.
Henry Slesar and Jane Lyon, April 1972 - May 1973.
Roy Winsor and Robert J. Shaw, May 1973 - April 1974.
Robert J. Shaw and Winifred Wolfe, April 1974 - March 1975.
Don Appell, Doris Frankel, and Frank Salisbury, March 1975 - December 1975.
A.J. Russell and Frank Salisbury, January 1976 - May 1976.
Russell Kubeck, June 1976 - December 1976.

Associate Writers: Elspeth Eric and Robert Newman (1970-1972).

21 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

Ellen became involved with Dale romantically, not David...who was her son. EEEK! Even soaps during the 1970s had their limitations! LOL!

 

 

I am so glad you gave us this l;ink. I had had the site bookmarked way back then, but then it was closed down and I thought all the data was lost. Thank you!

 

I am almost 100% positive that Russell Kubeck was indeed Somerset's final head writer.

Sorry, I meant Dale. I loved that plot. I was a kid and watched it live. Kubek was the one who ruined the show by focusing only on the mob plot.  He was fired and the final head writer was AJ Russell again, I believe, who brought in Toni and Gene Bua.

Here's a great summary of Somerset's history although it doesn't accurately reflect all the head writer tenures. I believe Doris Frankel was briefly HW after Shaw and I think AJ Russell was brought back after Kubek.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130814031622/http://awinsomerset.com/

Heather Tom directed Y&R today

This is a case of complete lack of self awareness cultivated while living in the narcissistic bubble of LALA land.  Michael has absolutely no singing or dancing talent, period.  It's just a fact, as plain as the juviderm fillers in all the faces of the soap actors/actresses whose asses he kisses daily.

Admittedly, I don't have any singing/dancing talent either, despite years of practicing in front of the mirror my best David Cassidy's I Think I Love You and Cher's Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.

This situation reminds me of another no talent who was inexplicably hired by Oprah to regurgitate years of watching classic soaps (while working at McDonalds) into a sad mashup called Ambitions. Bwwwwaaaahhhh.

In other words: don't bother tuning in. Ron's downfall on every show is that he writes for the audience and to fix the previous HW problems for about six months to a year, then he writes to entertain himself and repeats and repeats and repeats the same dumb story line. It's like watching a poor imitation of a Joan Crawford/Bette Davis D movie.  He wants an endless campy drag show.  

The show is actually watchable right now, mostly. But the Adam recast was a mistake. No one can follow Justin Hartley.  And Mark G. is a decent actor but doesn't have any of Justin's charm, sexiness or three dimensional acting.  They would have been better off recasting Chance first and focusing on cleaning up Mal and Sally's messes, building up the Chancellors.  They should have worked hard to get Eileen back on a regular basis. 

Who's the new dude with the wild sexual chemistry with Kyle?  They can't be serious that these two were womanizers.  They totally want each other.  Now wouldn't it be interesting if the network had the stones to reveal Kyle is bi and his friend and he.......

And ditto to the comment about A Martinez as Papa Rosales. NOOOOO.  But Eva rocks.  Love the deeper voice and the cosmetic work she may have had over the years is more subtle than some actresses in her age group.  ehem....Cynthia Watros....

On 6/28/2019 at 7:40 AM, GymnastGuy said:

I went to Paley two weeks ago and watched all the Somerset shows they had; 9.  The years were 1975 and 1976 that they had.  The quality is excellent.  The shows were very interesting.  I was amazed at how nice the sets were.  I guess with all the space they had in Brooklyn that helped.  The cast was beautiful and I thought the acting was top notch.  Very underrated .  It is sad that more episodes do not remain....

It was nice to see so much of Georgeann Johnson's character Ellen with both Dale and Luke McAllister.  I think most of the characters from Spring 1975 until July 1976 were featured.

That period was very progressive from my childhood memory. Ellen having an affair with David.  Didn't they start the murder plot where Dale was accused but it turned out to be the son of the old man in the cottage? I think Doris Frankel was head writer and she introduced the senior plot with the veteran actors?

1 hour ago, glfaninnyc said:

A new director was listed for General Hospital yesterday- Robert Markham.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-markham-918860128/

I think they've had to cut back on senior directors and pay the minimum to the lower level production staff.

Carlivati is not being replaced. He reconfirmed on Twitter the other day that he's staying.  All these decisions were made 8 months ago about firing Chloe, Claire, Trip, Ted, I think Rex is going too. Let's hope Sarah Horton is 86'd.  Horrible character and actress.  All these firings are to make way for Chabby return.  More of the same.

Tomlin is too old and hasn't directed since late 2018.  I think he's gone.  

2 hours ago, Marlenaphan said:

Uh oh, Days fell below 2 million. 

 

I have been loyally watching every episode since New Years Eve. You should be too.

Days has been mostly unwatchable since the kick off of Marlena's wedding in mid August 2018 (the beginning of Ron's second year).  He's imitating the worst of JER and Higley without the benefit of bigger budgets and shorter shooting time to fix messes.  All the back from the dead stories are so weak.  The Kristin/Nicole angle is only adding to the decline.  Losing Marci was probably the nail.  But ultimately it's Corday's fault for letting the writers turn in this crap.  After all the horrible twists by Higley and Griffith that ruined legacy characters like Hope (killing Stefano) and destroying legacy offspring like Joey and Theo (who became felons) not to mention having Ciara raped by Chase. Now we have Claire going Fatal Attraction and being written out. It's time for cancellation. Put the show out of its misery before someone else comes back from the dead.

If the show is a success it'll be due to the experience of Michele Val Jean and Susan Dansby who are part of the writing team. Jamey.LOL

Retire.LOL Contract up and not renewed.  Varni and Valentini need new patsies to push around and edit and control while pretending not to be head writers.

Amanda Beall first listed as associate head writer on YR on June 3.

They keep regurgitating the same writers, producers and directors.  

Meng/Allar need to go. But Corday is the issue ultimately along with no budget. Wendy Riche can go toe to toe with Corday's interference and whip Carlivati into shape. Tell him to be more like Labine and less like Reilly.  I think he could do it. Promote Broderick as co-head to keep him in balance.

Valentini is long passed his peak.  Get Jenn Pepperman as EP and Korte as HW. Dump all the mobsters.

Morina was a safe choice but Griffith is already showing that boredom is his strength.  Promote Ferri Esser as HW.

Hair model and Mal Young hire gone from YR head writing credits. Annie Bergtrom Comptom gone.

7 hours ago, LeClerc said:

Based on a script that Eva LaRue posted it looks like Annie Compton is out at Y&R and Amanda Beall has been bumped up to co-HW/storyliner 

Where is the pic posted?  She may have taken it down already.