Khan

I think most know about my all-time favorite writer. But, in case you don't... Douglas Marland: For my money, the best scribe to work in the industry after Irna, Agnes and Bill. True, as a HW, he had his faults. There were certain character types that he couldn't write for as well as others; and while his ability to develop sprawling "umbrella stories" was never less than breathtaking, there were times when his storytelling might have been too much head and/or not enough heart. Nevertheless, as someone once said on Marlena Delacroix's website, Marland excelled at so many different kinds of stories: romance, mystery, social issue, action/adventure, family drama, corporate intrigue -- you name it. No other writer, IMO, worked as diligently as he did to create balanced canvases on all his shows, with characters from all walks of life, who in turn possessed all-too-human quirks and foibles. Like his mentor, Harding Lemay, before him, Marland placed the highest premium on a given character's every action being believable for the audience; and these days, when it seems like most characters on soaps say and do things that, IRL, no one would ever say or do, that is a quality I miss most. And here are several other scribes I've looked to for inspiration... Henry Slesar: Next to Doug Marland, he was perhaps the best storyteller in the business. He also had a way, it seemed, with bizarre and indelible characters. It says a lot, then, that Slesar's style, like Bill Bell's, is one that would be difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to replicate. Wisner Washam: Not to minimize the contributions made by show creator and guiding force Agnes Nixon, but I feel Washam has never been given his full and rightful due for solidifying the mixture of social issues with broad humor that defined AMC in the '80's. As HW, he was chiefly responsible for many of the characters, romances and storylines that we still talk about. I've long believed that that AMC was gone by the time Janet dumped Natalie down the well, and I think that's because Washam was no longer there to keep it going. Sam Hall, Peggy O'Shea and Gordon Russell: Although these three did not head-write OLTL at the same time, I tend to group them together, because they seemed to be the three HW's who understood this one-of-a-kind show best. Like Henry Slesar (who, coincidentally enough, also toiled for a time w/ Hall in that HW'ing chair), Hall/O'Shea/Russell had this knack for creating characters who not only were unconventional by other soaps' standards, but also were imbued with enough humanity to make you, as the viewer, actually give a damn about them. Only on OLTL, for example, could you have a story about a doctor's wife (Karen Wolek) who turned tricks in the afternoon, with a pimp (Marco Dane) who blackmailed her into staying in "the life," and have both characters come out as viewer favorites and mainstays for several years. Bridget and Jerome Dobson: Separately and together, I look at them as the Billy Wilder of daytime drama. Like the legendary director of such classics as "Double Indemnity," "Sunset Boulevard" and "Some Like It Hot" (among many others), Bridget and Jerry's work on SaBa in particular was marked by unpalatable subjects made less so with irreverent, black humor. Now, the argument could be made that it was that same irreverence that ultimately did in their creation. However, I think the takeaway from their work -- not just on their own series, but also on other shows (GH, GL, ATWT) where they played it more straight -- is that soap scribes' number one obligation to viewers is to remain entertainingly fresh. As Wilder himself would say, don't bore the audience; and while you could say a great many things about the Dobsons' work overall, you'd be hard-pressed to say they were boring. Pamela K. Long: If Marland, as a HW, was often "all head and no heart," then Long could be the opposite. Like her arguably greatest creation, Reva Shayne, Long never gave less than 110-percent to GL (even if those who witnessed the marginalization or outright elimination of many longtime characters under her first of two HW'ing stints might beg to differ). Could she be sloppy or excessive in her writing? You bet. After all, the downside to being an earthy and homespun kind of writer is the tendency to over-indulge in things like sentimentality. However, when her style is done right -- which it often was on her GL -- it can also make for pure, back-to-basics entertainment, the Four Musketeers story w/ Philip, Rick, Mindy and Beth being but one example. Nancy Curlee: Perhaps the last great HW who will ever work in daytime, Curlee was a seeming combination of Doug Marland and Pam Long's best qualities. Like Marland, she possessed that rare, peerless ability to craft umbrella stories that played well on GL's long history and affected multiple clans and generations. At the same time, storylines such as the run-up to, and aftermath of, Maureen Bauer's untimely death -- a run of episodes often cited both as some of the genre's finest hours and as the beginning of the end for the seemingly invincible GL -- shared with her predecessor's better work a raw emotionality that could break viewers' hearts while keeping them firmly glued to the edge of their seats. Years from now, after the last soap has vanished from the airwaves, we might look upon the day she left her duties at the show as "the day daytime died."

Well, I've gotta stay true to my soap vets, so Paul Michael Glaser, Randolph Mantooth and Jameson Parker all win their respective "matches." As for the others: Larry Wilcox. John Schneider. Martin Milner. (BOTH times.) Don Johnson. (By default. PMT is triflin'.) Ben Murphy. And I don't watch "Supernatural," so.... Yeah! William Conrad or Joe Penny (Jake and the Fatman).

Lau was good as Jamie, but I just can't get over how bloated he looked compared to when he was on AMC.

This is like what happens when you have a HW like Doug Marland die or quit the show, leaving behind all these loose story threads that may or may not connect in some way, and will take at least the next several HW'ing regimes to figure out... ...ish.

Really? Because, although I see your point where Koppel and Gibson were concerned, I always had the impression that Peter Jennings was literally charming the pants off women (in a non-skeevy way, of course) BTS.

In a way, Stormy's character and life story is straight outta Sidney Sheldon: the ruthless adult film star who claws her way to the top of her tawdry profession...and the equally ruthless "business mogul" and world leader who stands to lose it all, thanks to the dark secret they share, and her take-no-prisoners determination to beat him at his own game. If this were 1985, Cheryl Ladd and George Peppard would be locks for the miniseries. I still won't commit totally to the hypothesis that Stormygate will be his undoing, just because I've learned to expect the unexpected, ESPECIALLY where he is concerned. But I'll always note the irony in this -- a very simple story, about a very simple-minded man, who cheated on his wife, paid to keep it quiet, and now has to pay the consequences -- always threatening to steal away the spotlight from a Sonni/Solita-like mess of a tale involving foreign governments, cyber-espionage, mass public hysteria ("BUT HER EMAILS!!") and general corruption and law-breaking at all the highest levels. Thanks, Julia, for the article!

I never got that kind of vibe from Brokaw either. Or from Peter Jennings.

It's disgraceful, but it's not surprising. As long as R. Kelly's brand was making everyone money, of COURSE they were willing to look the other way. I don't know whether he's still a moneymaker, but with the new generation of R&B singers coming up, I'm pretty sure he isn't as big of a draw as he once was.

Exactly.

There are times when I wish someone like Laurence Caso had been brought back to help finish off ATWT, because Chris Goutman was so obviously disengaged from the whole thing that he might as well have been working on another show.

Standing by your man is one thing. She could have said she acknowledges that her husband had problems but believes everyone, even a serial sexual predator, deserves rehabilitation and forgiveness. We might have respected Camille for sticking by Bill under those circumstances, even if we couldn't necessarily understand or agree with her. But, when you brand his accusers as liars and say the prosecutors and jury have engaged in "mob justice," you've pretty much lost the battle. At a time when she needed to show restraint, she chose instead to lash out, thereby doing herself no favors with those who've long accused her of being complicit in his sexual perversions.

As usual, I'm waiting for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"'s spin on things.

Too bad the teacher strike here, in Oklahoma, didn't yield the results many were hoping. But, OTOH, an Internet friend of mine made a good point: the strike would have been more effective had it occurred BEFORE the State legislature had voted in the pay raises. Once they did that, they really believed they had done all that was needed.

Bingo.

Pairing Carly with Jack (and vice-versa) was not a bad idea. But having them marry (and marry, and marry again) was where the show went wrong. Even if the show had had them marry and divorce once, Jack and Carly should have remained soulmates who would always WANT to be together -- and who would always have each other's backs whenever one or the other was in trouble -- but who knew that a marriage or re-marriage between them would never work.

"I am NOT going down for this alone. If *I* go, I'm taking all you bitches with me!" "Lights, Camera, Sex Cult: The Allison Mack Story." Her scandal, her truth, her LIFETIME.

Michael Park looks pretty good.

In a way, I feel like the numb-nuts on FNC and FBC aren't entitled to be critical of this administration after being all "Rah Rah Trump Boom Bah!" throughout the last election season. They aided and abetted the criminal, so now, they either need to keep the love-fest going (and no doubt, some of 'em still are) or just say nothing.

I doubt it.

I told y'all Stormygate was gonna come back to bite him.

Neither. Can. I.

It's kind of like what Olivia Benson said in a recent episode of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit": "If you can't prove the crime, prove the cover-up."

And, ironically enough, unable to afford the housing that one of their own jacked up the rent on.

I'm bracing myself for when the hammer falls on Dan Rather. Because you just know it will.

Why would they need the man's medical records in the first place? Didn't Dr. Ronny Howard Jackson release his own report on Trump, saying he was a magnificent pagan beast (or something like that)? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING, MR. PRESIDENT?