Paul Raven

With all the changes and talk of budget cuts surely the time will come when there will be a cast cull. Seriously, who do you think could/should go at this point. personally I'd be happy to see the back of Victor and Phyllis but I know that ain't happening. In terms of relevancy to the current stories I think Sharon Case could be dropped. Sharon has no story, her last marriage was a flop and she's trapped in the coffeehouse doling out useless and ignored advice. The whole therapist/counsellor thing has never worked, she doesn't have a home set and her children are out of town or seldom seen. So Sharon could decide to leave town for whatever reason and it wouldn't be too noticeable. Mariah and Noah could mention her and go to visit. If there's a wedding or illness,she could come down with one of those soap excuses that keep her away. Jason Thompson as Billy. I don't think he's ever worked as that character and the finding his true spirit crap has gone on too long. Not interested in Billy/Phyllis or Billy/Victoria round 456 or a reunion with Lily. And he doesn't seem close to the Abbotts. Again he could leave town 'temporarily' for a fresh start and promise to see his kids regularly-if they could be bothered it could be mentioned that those tykes are away with their dad. Who do you think and why?

The thing with the early Pam Long /Gail Kobe era was that the new characters and stories were fresh, interesting and well written. Introduced in 83 Mindy Annabelle Warren Lillian Billy Claire Bradley Beth Reva Jim But in the following years only a few survived and there were more new characters, so as stated the show was unrecognizable, with too many disparate characters from different regimes.

Comings and goings have always been apart of soaps and some of those actors eg Lenore Kasdorf chose to leave. But TPTB need to step back and look at the overall canvas and be very careful to maintain that continuity. I'm sure alot of headwriters want to introduce their own characters but everyone needs to be mindful of maintaining a through line. Now maybe Pam Long wasn't that excited by Hope but should have been cognisent of her importance to the canvas. Perhaps use some of her creativity to re-imagine Hope and write that for her.Maybe Elvera would have risen to the challenge and Hope continue on the show. Or say in the case of Rita or Elizabeth, bring them back at some point to interact with the new characters and give them a new energy. some of those actors may have been happy to come back. Doug Marland was much more gradual in in introducing new characters.

Yes, the problem with GL was that in addition to dropping those vets they pretty much dropped most of the cast by 85. Hope, Justin, Elizabeth, Holly, Rita, Jackie, Nola, Tony, Kelly,Morgan, Trish etc

Broderick, you've sold me (despite the repeated wad references!!) I would imagine in creating the weeks thrust you would picture the characters, where they are, who they interact with and what they're saying -that would be an intrinsic part of the process. I remember reading on Jason 47's Days site of correspondence from Bill Bell to Betty Corday about his frustration that scripts he had written had lost his intention due to a director or actor choice. And that was w/o all those levels of interference we see today.

I agree Vetsoapfan, but I can see CBS/P&G point of view in that case. Potter/Marland should have fought harder to keep them at least recurring but yes they were ruthless about cutting people. Around this time AW- Pat SFT Bob, Ellie,John EON Bill GL the above mentioned ATWT Nancy Judge Lowell I guess these actors were drawing big salaries and the investment wasn't worth it to TPTB Wasn't Helen Wagner offered reduced appearances and less money so she left? That may have been the case with others who felt that was not for them. Pat at AW is really hard to take as she was much younger than the others and had lots of story to tell.

Marland was'forced' to drop the characters of Adam, Sara, Barbara and Steve-all actors who had been there for over a decade and were probably on good money. It was a shame but I can see the reasoning. All 4 had no real connection to the current cast. Adam's son Roger was dead, Barbara's children Holly, Ken and Andy were gone, Sara's son Tim had been written off and Steve's daughter Leslie killed years ago. So their purpose was limited. The best option would have been recurring if TPTB were committed to using them regularly.

Thanks for posting that. From reading it , it seems to me the headwriter could/should provide that .

Not so, which is why I'm trying to get aclearer picture of how the process works and why all those levels are necessary. I think streamlining seems a good idea in theory but Griffith has shown he is incapable of writing interesting, well plotted stories so the whole thing will continue to be a disaster. My other thought concerns the network execs. Over and over they are accused of micro managing but I would love to know some actual objections. I would imagine the limited airtime given to the lesbian story is one and in the Sally story the fact that termination isn't even presented as an option. As for Josh's other stories one can only imagine what might be rejected if they approve of what airs. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that they interfere. Also, it would be great if an actor spoke out about the shoddy way the show is written and produced.

Yes, yes and yes. The thing with trends is that they are just that they come and go. Soaps pursued them but then got locked into that formula as nightime moved on. Dallas/Dynasty- those shows were cancelled and there was a move away from the exploits of the super rich Supercouples- they were limiting. By building up such fan loyalty there was an outcry any attempts were made to split them up and attempts to do so went against their whole reason for being. Action/adventure- they were usually imposed plots that could have been given to any characters. And the budgets required for the inevitable location shoots became unsustainable.

I would love to know how the whole writing process actually works as this would give us some proper insight into the process. I would imagine as a headwriter that in addition to long term story, you would map out the week day by day/ scene by scene with details on what the scene was about and key points to be made through dialogue. Then the dialogue writers would fill that in and as headwriter you would go over that and make any revisions. So that would pretty much eliminate the need for breakdown writers. So I can see why they might not be necessary in that scenario. But they have been there for years , so I am unclear how the process works.

I said looks interesting. The same with the 50th returns. It could be interesting but most likely not. BTW Barbara Crampton looks great. I would rather have had her back over Diane, if only to avoid the horrible rewrite. Leanna has many more possibilities as a character. But Barbara probably wouldn't commit.

I think Josh's EP title is pretty much a vanity one. He makes extra $$$ and gets some say but I'm sure the other producers are handling the day to day stuff. I think the COVID measures must have made a huge impact on budget. I wonder how Mal Young was on handling the budget? He got rid of Chelsea,Chloe and Kevin and put Neil and Paul on recurring. I don't recall the show looking any worse onscreen .

It's too much of a chore to watch every day. Just follow the summaries and dip in and out if something looks interesting eg Heather's return.

Search for Tomorrow Dr Kelson ??? suspended Dr Gary Walton after learning he administered drugs to Laine Adamson w/o following procedures. Nov 78

Week ending August 1 1982 For the first time in 3 years,GH did not top the weekly ratings. 1. AMC 10.2/33 2. GH 9.6/33 3. OLTL 8.5/30 4. Love Boat 5. TPIR 6. Y&R 7.7/29 7. ATWT 7.2/24 8. TPIR 2 9.GL 7.0/24 10. Family Feud 11.Alice 12.DOOL 13. RH 14. CAP 15. Wheel of Fortune 16. AW 17. ? 18.? 19.? 17/18/19 Not reported but Diffrent Strokes, One Day At A Time and Tattletales were airing at that time and would have been in those positions. 20. EON 21. SFT 22. TX 23.TD Chips reruns were airing on NBC 3-4pm at this time but I have never seen it mentioned in ratings reports at that time for some reason.

DeWitt was about 20 years older than Val.

Harsh!

The time has come for them to bite the bullet on dumping some of those vets. Billy/Chelsea could leave tomorrow. Nick/Chelsea/Phyllis/Adam etc Trouble is they have all been saddled with young children so having them leave town is a little more difficult If only EB would retire or agree to go recurring.

So much truth in that. And Ron is not alone in this. Evil twins, fake deaths,mind control etc all used to break up characters and create obstacles. So much easier than creating consistent characters whose personal flaws could be used to propel plots. That's what old school writers had to do. It didn't always work of course but was far more believable and worth investing in. The closest they got in those days were those ridiculous misunderstandings where one character assumed something and went off and got a divorce or had an affair when one simple conversation could have cleared things up.

Never knew about DeWitt/Val. Thanks for sharing. I wonder how many other gay relationships were unknown/unreported. I remember Val stating in a 70's interview that he had an early marriage/divorce. I wonder if that was true or just a story a la Raymond Burr.

My post in the Y&R Feb thread about Josh using Chat GPT might be closer to the truth than we think. Maybe the plan is to sack all those writers to get the budget under control and the add some new (cheap) breakdown writers in a few months. Seriously I do wonder how Josh earns his six figure headwriting salary when 5 other writers plan out the day to day structure and others write the individual scenes. So Josh gets paid the big bucks to decide Sally gets pregnant, Jeremy comes to town etc. His plots are poorly constructed so I wonder how much time he puts into them.

Laura Wright/Paul Anthony Stewart - Ally/Casey LOV Cassie/Danny GL

Y&R Jack and Gloria ended up sleeping together.Another of Sally Sussman's bone headed and pointless plot points.

Look those breakdowns under Josh are not going to be too difficult to write. Some office scenes with mumbo jumbo about digital platforms and podcasts. Instant takeover of companies and appointments of a new CEO and COO. A few half hearted confrontations in the same empty public places. Done!