RavenWhitney
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Posts posted by RavenWhitney
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Lois Kibbee wrote six trial scripts of Capitol during Henry Slesar's time as HW but she was not offered a contract. Henry had three script writers on the show (that he inherited) from Peggy O'Shea: Nancy Franklin, L. Virginia Brown and Bettina Bradbury. I think Conboy controlled the writing staff decisions. Henry was interviewed at the time and mentioned that he had two breakdown writers, Carlson and Sloane, unlike on Edge where he wrote all five break downs each week and three scripts. On Capitol, I believe he wrote 2 or 3 breakdowns a week and 1 script a month or so. It's a shame because Henry never found groove on Capitol which should have been a great fit for him. I suspect Conboy interfered.
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I watched the Depriest reruns and felt the same way; she was their best HW from that point until cancellation. Her material was far better than Marland's. She shouldn't have been replaced. It was the terrible producer at the time.
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Lorraine Broderick last listed as break down writer on Days' Jan 3 episode. The end of an era. Assume she retired. Makes sense that Chris Dunn was added as her replacement recently.
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Dorell Anthony joined Days script writing staff for three months (per an interview he did recently). His first script aired 12/26. He mentioned in his interview that he wrote scripts that will air over a three month period through February.
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No one can save this show because the execs at CBS and Sony are the ones in charge and they don't know soaps and don't care to save this show long term. While I haven't been able to watch since Mal Young left (and my viewing was spotty during his tenure but he tried some interesting things and the show looked good), Josh's replacement could be worse. Look at Ron Carlivati replacing Dena Higley. Ron has utterly destroyed Days. Josh's prozac version of Y&R is a snooze fest but it hasn't completely degenerated into a Scooby Doo cartoon. Maybe the show will die with some dignity as ATWT did.
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Vincent Irizarry's son, Elias, in MAGA legal trouble. NO comment.
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Jazmen Darnell Brown joined the Days script writing staff for six months from Nov 22 to May 22. His first script aired on Dec 1. He's already listed his end date at Days on his linkedin profile.
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For the 300 viewers who watch days on peacock.
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Lisa Seidman hasn't written a GH script since 10/17 and they haven't added a new script writer. Seidman joined the show in Jan 2020 I believe.
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Chris Dunn's name finally in credits on Days on 11/22. He first announced on FB that he rejoined the writing team in Dec 2021 which means the outlines are being written nearly a year ahead of air date.
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This will do nothing to save a dead show as long as Ron and Ken are in charge.
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5 hours ago, victoria foxton said:
Season two of Young Royals wasn't as stellar as the first. Still a decent watch. AHS NYC is a hot mess not worth anyone's time.
Love Young Royals both seasons. Season 2 needed Doug Marland or Agnes Nixon or Henry Slesar in the writing room to help map the big season climax where all the plot points came together (in the middle of the episode!). It was clunky at best but overall Season 2 was fantastic. I was hoping Rousseau was taken off contract (hahahah) but with the one reveal about it I guess the horsey will be back next season!
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My recollection was that Mike went blind sometime the next year and didn't he get Joanie's corneas? Also, after reading that excellent plot summary, it was merciful that Henry pulled the plug on it early. It does seem that he repurposed some of the structure for the Paige Madison gun running plot. Similarities.....
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9 minutes ago, Broderick said:
I think the "flashback episodes" were a literary necessity. Without them, a good bit of suspense in earlier episodes would've been lost.
Ever since Gavin Wylie arrived in Monticello, we'd been wondering why he didn't dance, and why his relationship with Martine Duval was so strained and awkward. Revealing via flashback that Gavin's leg had been broken in NYC by guys dressed in Halloween costumes solved that mystery, which had been running throughout the entire Gavin/Jody/Kelly storyline.
As for the "Nancy Flashbacks", I don't believe the information contained in those flashbacks had been relayed to us until the flashback sequences aired in March of 1981. All we knew is that Nancy had vanished in San Francisco (presumably), but was now somehow languishing in the Rexford Clinic near Monticello. I don't believe any of that information had been fed to us sequentially. We didn't understand the chain of events until the flashbacks of Ira Gideon and the month-versus-10-day-building-of-the-electric-fence aired in March. (And I never DID know it, because I missed the flashbacks in 1981 when I watched!) If we'd known earlier on (sequentially) how Nancy ended up in the Rexford Clinic, there wouldn't have been any suspense when Mike Karr and Calvin Stoner were visiting those morgues in San Francisco and when the San Francisco Bay was being dredged for a dead body.
I do agree that the show went off the rails during the writers strike of 1981 and never fully recovered. I believe Henry Slesar lost a LOT of his motivation when Draper and April left the show. He'd pretty carefully cultivated them as the Young Mike and the Young Nancy, with their own unique personalities. It was through Draper and April that most of the other characters on the show were connected. Once those two left, Slesar was really left with a rather disjointed canvas, and his central hero and heroine were gone. He was required to quickly re-tool the show into a format that I don't believe he honestly cared for as much.
I've always thought the "mistake" in the Schuyler and Raven storyline was its continuation with the Real Schuyler. Henry Slesar admitted that he'd always planned for that character to be dead. In his original projection, it would be revealed during the Switzerland sequences that Jefferson Brown had murdered Schuyler Whitney years ago, then stole his wallet and hauled ass to the Rexford Clinic. The popularity of Larkin Malloy necessitated deleting the murder of Schuyler Whitney, so that Larkin could reappear later as the Real Schuyler. I've always felt Slesar was wise in his original plan to have the character gone after Jefferson Brown's death, despite the actor's popularity.
Right now in the storyline, THREE big pieces of Henry Slesar's heart are missing --- Deborah, Logan, and Nicole. Calvin Stoner doesn't have a Steve Guthrie to play opposite, and he doesn't have a Deborah Saxon. Slesar works his way through this time period excellently, but when Draper and April vamoose, you can tell he's pretty heartbroken with what's left. (Hence, the overreliance on Raven Swift and Schuyler Whitney, which is a storyline he clearly wanted to tell, but not necessarily in the context in which it occurred on-screen).
Also, we're about to enter that bizarre period where everyone has an alias. Nora Fulton is also Roxanne Walker. Collier Welles is also Carlo Crowne. Jim Dedrickson is really Jim Dedrickson, but Valerie Bryson thinks he's Jefferson Brown, because Jefferson Brown masqueraded as Jim Dedrickson in the Rexford Clinic. It gets to be WAY too many aliases all at one time.
Sorry for long post.
I watched daily during this period too and agree with all you said above. Henry had lost steam in the end but in hindsight his worst days can't touch the crap that ensued on the other shows up to this day. I think he tried to over populate the show with 12-14 characters a day to fit in with GH and the other hour long shows. Seems to me the EON budget got some cash for a while to expand the recurring list of actors. They should have toned that down and invested in sets. While Slesar may have wanted Brown dead, I have to believe he was motivated to find a way to keep Larkin who towered over all the other male leads and was so refreshing after dreary Tony Scott (who I liked as Draper but Tony was not a dynamic actor IMO). Terry Davis loss was awful for the show; they never recovered that. The Frank Gorshin plot was not great. I did love Buffy Revere. Henry should have made her Geraldine's long lost sister. But the guy who played Jim was terrible. Valerie Bryson never caught on although I thought Henry may have thought she'd fill the void left by Terry's departure.
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15 hours ago, Broderick said:
I've gotten a big kick out of these "lost episodes" from 1981. Back in 1981, I watched several episodes per week after school, but somehow I'd never seen the episodes in which Nancy Karr inadvertently barges in on Dr. Bryson's consultation with Ira Gideon (which leads to Nancy's incarceration at Rexford Clinic) or the scenes in which Beth Bryson masquerades as Nancy Karr in San Francisco.
I'd also never seen the breaking of Gavin Wylie's leg by Gunther & Company in the Halloween costumes.
Also, I didn't remember Raven Swift immediately running to Gavin and telling him that Schuyler Whitney was responsible for the leg-breaking.
And I damn sure never saw April Scott and Bobbie Gerard in the "Roller Disco".
On Sharon Rose Gabet Facebook page (where our dear Raven posts these episodes) she often comments and reveals great tidbits. For the March 11-13 episodes she wondered why Henry built the shows around so many flashbacks. I know that the 81 writers' strike was looming (started April and ended July). I'm sure Henry was getting ready for his absence as head writer, a period in which the show was written by Lois Kibbee (who Henry hired months after the strike) and Laurie Durbrow (P&G supervising producer at the time). I also believe Henry/Nick were aware of actors' pending sabbaticals/departures. In my opinion, the show got off track during the strike, then the decision to kill Jeff Brown (even though location scenes were dramatic) was a huge letdown and left Sharon with nothing interesting to do for months, then Larkin's accident in July 1982 coupled with hands down Henry's worst plot of the ABC era (next to Elliot's cult), the Eden plot.
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Henry was fired before his March 1983 annual contract was renewed and his EON episodes aired until mid-May. He may have been hired at OLTL shortly thereafter, but I don't believe his name appeared in OLTL credits until Dec 83 and he was gone by June 84 I believe. There have been several mentions over the years that P&G wanted him gone over ABC objections. But given that the show's budget continued to be slashed during the final two years (advertising was dropping, stations were dropping), I'm guessing that cutting Henry and his huge veteran salary bought P&G some breathing room for the final 18 mo. budget. Lee Sheldon was entry level and very likely paid barely above union minimum. P&G had a similar approach to SFT in the last year. There as speculation at the time of EON cancellation that Nick Nicholson was appointed SFT EP to complete his P&G contract after which they named a no-name, David Lawrence as EP, and Addie Walsh as head writer, who had never been a head writer before. It all comes down to money especially when a show is in free fall and likely about to be cancelled.
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Pam may not have "written" the post partum story. She may the meant that the story was foisted on her by the network or P&G. It may not have been the story she wanted to tell. She may have executed someone else's pitch. Could have even been Curlee's pitch.
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This just posted episode is a superior example of Henry's brilliance combined with the best actors in daytime and spartan production values burnished by fantastic directing. And the most effective use of flashbacks to build the stories, refresh audience and increase the suspense. And Sharon Gabot. What a treasure. Not to mention Henry's spot on characterization of stoic (straight while male) Mike processing fear and grief. Sky's exchange with Gunther...stunning. Wow. What an episode.
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5 hours ago, SAPOUNOPERA said:
Thank you for your answers. Boring and dull... wow. EON was a very unique show and I guess the circumstances weren't the same on the other soaps he worked. Late 70s OLTL -prior to the Buchanan invasion- (or even GH after Marland?) might have been more his style and worked out better.
Edge of Night mastered many storytelling structures. Henry was doing short, medium and long arcs interspersed with one another way before ABC did it with Port Chuck. Henry started on the show in 1968 and the show remained 30 min. Cast turnover was huge all the time but Henry masterfully built tentpole characters while killing off or writing out others as part of his amazing plot lines. He had more limitations with Capitol's DC locale and two family structure.
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1 hour ago, SAPOUNOPERA said:
Can you name some similarities between Slesar's work on EON and other soaps like OLTL and Capitol?
I watched Slesar's entire Capitol run (about 16 months). It was dull as dishwater and not particularly better than Peggy O'Shea's tenure which was decent. He should have been a natural fit but Conboy ran the show; it was produced in Hollywood with some hair model actors and Henry was forced to have a larger writing staff which he noted in an interview. He was required to have 2 break down writers and 2 full-time script writers. He wrote two or three break downs and an occasional script. The show had very little of his personality or brilliance. I didn't watch OLTL but he lasted six months I believe and he was Sam Hall's co-head. The show was lively at the time but there's no way to know what stories/characters he contributed. Sam and Henry should have been a natural fit and OLTL could have been a good home but it didn't last. Henry revealed years later that P&G hired him to consult on AW but his name never appeared in credits. It had to be in 1987 or after. The magic of his EON was unique. (Note: he also head wrote Somerset for a year which was its best year, and SFT for six months which was forgettable).
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Everyone on that EON soundstage knew to execute what Henry had written on the page; every detail mattered and when it wasn't on the page, if it was suggested by a director, producer, or actor you can be sure Henry received a phone call. I'm sure Sharkey's gum chewing was either in the script or Henry-approved. It was about the story and plot. Sheldon's drivel inspired no one in front or behind the camera. Sad. But these episodes are classic.
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1 hour ago, Broderick said:
What I learned from this episode:
Today's soaps have no imaginations. They claim their budget cuts prevent them from having multiple sets, so everyone now congregates in empty restaurants.
At the 8:30 mark, we see an apartment for Mady Kaplan's (recurring) character. The "set" is created with a table, a lamp, a telephone, a chair, and a backdrop of a window. Total cost -- about $2.
At 8:40, we see Chris Goutman's (recurring) character calling from a supply room at the Rexford Clinic. That set consists of a bulletin board and a white medical coat hanging from a metal locker. Total cost -- about $2.
I find it difficult to believe today's shows can't slap together a workable set like this for a quick interaction or a phone call.
"The Edge of Night" had probably the lowest budget in daytime, but they created sets that worked, using minimal materials.
And the writing was so strong from day to day that viewers hardly paid attention to the sets; however, once hack Lee Sheldon took over, the show as flat and ugly. It was painful to get through an episode. It's all in the writing and directing, acting, costumes etc. But....P&G and ABC could have freed up a few dollars in 1981 to support EON getting updated sets (especially when GH was at its peak viewership/Nov 81).
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ARTICLE: Netflix Cancels Half-Hour Comedy ‘Uncoupled’ After Just One Season
in SoapsLine
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The only episodes that felt like close to final drafts were 7 and 8. The first six should have been thrown in the trash. Name recognition and past accomplishment doesn't warrant free reign to create crap.