LeClerc

I wonder if Y&R is now at scripts that were completed by the scriptwriters before the strike but had not yet been edited by Boyd. Or maybe JG took over script editing duties in addition to EP, HW and breakdowns...

I was worried Sara Endsley was gone and kept hoping her name would show up again in the credits. She was Y&R's best scriptwriter. In fact, I would argue she was its only good scriptwriter (I respect her long run, but I find Janice Ferri Esser's scripts mediocre at best). Meanwhile, Sally McDonald has not directed an episode in weeks. This has happened before so I'm hoping she'll be back, but at this point I wouldn't be surprised if JG had fired her.

I fear this is just going to be a plot device to have Nick and Sharon sleep together. Sharon and Nick will probably be led to believe that Cameron killed Faith and they have grief sex (the "bunker sex" Amanda Beall referred to in that article back in March). Then they learn Faith's alive, Cameron is killed/goes to jail/pulls a Stitch and vanishes, and then the story will be about what this means for Nick/Sally/Adam -- and Sharon will go back to pouring coffee and giving advice.

Same thing in the Canadian Monday/US Tuesday episode. I'm a big Jeff Beldner fan, but did JG fire all the female breakdown writers and keep the one male?

Fireworks? The Phyllis reveal will play out in the most drama-free way possible, just like everything Griffith has done for the last 4 years.

The breakdown team was still in place when these episodes were written.

I think Sharon and Nick are the two characters who have the "bunker sex" Griffith and Beall were discussing in that LA Times article a while back. The threat from Sharon's past (be it a cancer return scare, Cameron Kirsten, or something else), brings Sharon and Nick together, they end up sleeping together, and then the story will be about Nick's guilt, Adam possibly discovering what happened and telling Sally, etc. I was excited about Sharon getting an actual story, but now I suspect the Sharon aspect will be over pretty quick and this is just a plot device for Nick/Sally/Adam.

I remember years ago the late Bettina Bradbury shared some stories on FB about how vicious McTavish could be with the writers, including exploding at a scriptwriter when said writer's baby started crying during a teleconference, and screaming about her decision to adopt a baby. Once the meeting was over, all the other writers stayed on the call to make sure the writer was okay. She also fired Bradbury -- a veteran AMC scriptwriter -- because she complained that one of the breakdown writer's (Chip Hayes) breakdowns were lacking in detail/half-assed. McTavish accused her of thinking she was better than everyone else, proceeded to only assign her Chip Hayes breakdowns, and then fired her at the end of her next cycle.

Thanks for all that. "The show was being trashed and it was unbearable". Indeed.

^^ Where did you find that? AMC's last great writing team. Within months I think everyone in that picture was gone and McTavish was back for her god-awful second stint. And thus began AMC's long decline.

I believe it was Jill Larson who said the original finale was Six Feet Under-ish and provided a glimpse into the characters' futures. I wonder if the montage at the beginning of the episode where you see the births of various characters, and then those characters having kids of their own etc, was actually at the end of the original finale, and after showing the past and the present it would have moved into the future.

Esta was let go because either Angela Shapiro or Felicia Behr didn't like her. Not sure which -- the reporting at the time was just that an ABC Daytime exec didn't like her. And TPTB were hoping that killing Gillian would help convince Cameron, who was complaining a lot at the time about his lack of airtime and making noise about leaving, to re-sign. He only extended for six months.

Yup. Assuming she sticks around...which sounds like she is, per VR.

Victoria Rowell mentions her on Twitter, saying she's a friend a hers and KSJ, and the second black writer in the show's history (she's actually the third).

Doesn't sound like Mark is really involved much beyond letting them attach his name to it. And I'm glad about that.

He mentions they had his resume on hand and put it back in their desk afterwards, so my guess is the "she" was casting director Judy Blye Wilson and the "he" was assistant casting director Bob Lambert. Not "execs" per se, but that's probably how they seemed to him at the time.

I've wondered that as well. She had no obvious connection to any of the key players. I believe she and Francesca James were friends so maybe Francesca suggested her (and was thanked with a role). Although apparently McPherson was initially supposed to write the OLTL reboot.

It's a shame Ginger Smith was never promoted to EP (on ABC). She was AMC's Frank Valentini (in terms of working their way up the production ranks). Listening to Lorraine Broderick talk about how the writers' room used to work at AMC, where there was not really any hierarchy and everyone was free to pitch ideas and they would stop to watch that day's episode so they could see what was/wasn't working and maybe see something percolating between actors they hadn't expected...if only the network had just left a writing team of Broderick and people like Hal Corley and Fred Johnson alone, with Smith as EP....

I thought she said Marj Dusay but I wasn't sure lol. Aside from a few errors, I was amazed how detailed her memory was of the story. She said she kept watching AMC after she left in '97. I can't imagine having to watch the dreck McTavish churned out in 1998 and know you were let go in favour of that. This was probably our one chance to get specific details on the original ending on ABC, but I realize that wasn't the purpose...

He didn't feel the story was a realistic or rewarding way to bring Jesse back (I assume referring to the Rob Gardner/Papel/diamond in a stuffed elephant nonsense) and that, while the viewers seemed to like having Angie and Jesse back, given how significant Jesse's death was for the show, "we really shouldn't have gone there" and resurrected him.

During the Guiding Light writers reunion, James Harmon Brown expressed some regret at having brought Jesse back from the dead on AMC, which surprised me as the Hubbard stuff was probably the one bright spot of E&B's tenure.

Regarding Lorraine Broderick in 2010: When AMC was wrapping up, SOD did an interview with Broderick. In the next issue, in the "Things We Know But Shouldn't Tell You" section, it said that Broderick had in fact wanted the HW position in 2010 but that the network (i.e. Frons) didn't want her. Given that SOD had just spoken with Broderick, I think it's safe to assume that the source of that tidbit was Broderick herself.

They won't rehire Dansby when they have Lynn Martin (unless they fire her). Can only have one black writer.

I may be wrong, but I get the feeling that TC did in fact write the script, perhaps on a trial basis and then they didn't pick him up after his trial script(s). Thus him saying that Y&R didn't "hire" him, but I haven't seen him flat out say he didn't write it. It just seems like he tried to get a job there, they said "No thanks", and now he's trying to save face, going on about how how happy he is with his current gig. Or not.

Gundaker also worked on the AMC/OLTL reboots (as did most of the ATWT production team). Putting aside Chris Goutman, ATWT had a great team of producers (Gundaker, Carole Shure, Sonia Blangiardo, etc).