Here is an article in today's CHICAGO SUN-TIMES featuring headwriter Kay Alden.

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Local writer crafts No. 1 daytime series

December 17, 1998

BY PHIL ROSENTHAL TELEVISION CRITIC

With her head in the fictional Midwestern burg of Genoa City and the rest of her firmly planted in the reality of Chicago, Kay Alden occasionally kicks back in the Streeterville high-rise where she lives and works to gaze out at Lake Michigan and reflect on it all.

"We're not a gimmicky show,'' said Alden, head writer for CBS' "The Young and the Restless.'' "We're not a trendy show. We're much more of a down-to-earth, relationship-oriented, character-driven show as opposed to plot-driven. And that does give one an increased chance to survive.''

Survive and thrive. Let the Los Angeles- and New York-based staffs of rival soaps fool with space aliens and other ridiculous twists. "The Young and the Restless'' has a Chicago mentality, a real-world mentality and, ultimately, a winner's mentality.

When the daytime Nielsen ratings report comes out today, Alden's "The Young and the Restless'' will be the No. 1-rated soap for the 520th consecutive week, an incredible streak in a business where survival is measured in 13-week lifespans.

"It is amazing,'' Alden said. "You get very blase about it because you're doing it every day. But suddenly someone says, `Man, you've been No. 1 every week for 10 years,' and you find yourself taken aback. It is remarkable.''

Alden heads a writing staff of 10 scattered across the country from California to Hawaii, Arizona to North Carolina and Texas to New York, a long way from Studio 43 at Television City in Los Angeles, where the show is taped. They have three conference calls each week but also trade ideas by fax and e-mail.

Their show's success can be traced to its stability, its reality and its Midwestern sensibility, which was established by husband-and-wife series creators William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, the former local talk-show host.

The Bells originally ran the show from their Lake Shore Drive home from 1973 until moving West for the 1987 launch of its CBS companion series, "The Bold and the Beautiful.'' (Daughter Lauralee Bell stars on "Y&R,'' while son Bradley is head writer and supervising producer of "Bold", and Bill Jr. is director of business affairs on the series.)

Alden took over as head writer from executive producer Bill Sr. in June. She has her own strong Midwest ties, living in Kansas, Missouri and Wisconsin before moving to Chicago to work on "Y&R" in 1974.

"My entire extended family is here in this area, so I'm very much a family person and very much a Midwestern person — and I will confess that I am not that comfortable in California,'' said Alden, who flies to Los Angeles for meetings about once every two months. "It's not that I hate California. Actually, I really rather like it. I like going out there, but I'm a lot more comfortable being a visitor than trying to bring my children up there. ... I find a whole level of unreality there.''

But her own life here has had its own soap-opera qualities. Her husband, businessman Vernon Nelson, was her high school steady back in Hutchinson, Kan. But they went their separate ways, had their own bad first marriages and then, 15 years later, he ran into her parents at O'Hare. Alden's mother encouraged them to hook up. They've been together ever since and have two sons and a daughter, ages 10, 15 and 17.

She is still learning to juggle the new demands of her new title — administering to things such as budget issues and actors' guarantees — while continuing to write and edit. Everything is mapped out a few weeks ahead of the show, with broad outlines advancing the overall story by several months.

Alden got into the business almost by accident. A former schoolteacher, she was working on a doctoral thesis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on daytime serials as a medium for social change, found Bill Sr.'s number listed and sought out an interview for her paper. He wound up hiring her.

"What I wanted to say 25 years ago was that I didn't want to hear people say how these shows are just schlock, because they're not — they really are impacting people,'' Alden said. "They're not avant-garde. But if you watch them, you realize there are messages there and people are listening.''

Because she has resisted the urge to move to a coast, she is never that far from her show's core values — or its core audience.

"The soap audience is more of a smaller town, more Midwestern thing," Alden said. "There is more of a reality base here."

That's why it — and she — are at home in Chicago.

Thanks for posting this.

"We're not a gimmicky show,'' said Alden, head writer for CBS' "The Young and the Restless.'' "We're not a trendy show. We're much more of a down-to-earth, relationship-oriented, character-driven show as opposed to plot-driven. And that does give one an increased chance to survive.''

And that's why Brian Frons and Alden can't see eye-to-eye.

This reminds me of Dena Higley's opening statements to the press. She said she'd bring back romance, reality based stories, vets, etc. Alden is basically doing the same thing, but in the end she wrote some of the most ridiculous stories in the history of the show.

"We're not a gimmicky show,''

And right there she reminds me of LML with her gimmicky plots.