ATWT: Writing team rumours

[David V]

Something I came across on Wikipedia, so they're not guaranteed to be credible in any case, but a look at the bio stub for Richard Culliton has suggested that Culliton is rumoured to be in line for the HW job if Passanante gets the axe. At the bottom of Lorraine Broderick's stub seems to imply that Broderick may return to ATWT in some capacity, probably as co-HW.

But more interesting still is the suggestion that Juliet Packer and Richard Backus, who co-wrote the show from 1993 to 1995, could also return to ATWT in some capacity.

Now I'm wondering, has anyone heard anything about these and is there any truth in these rumours? Is there a possibility of a major behind-the-scenes shake-up at ATWT?

If Broderick or Culliton were to return for a second stint as HW, it'd be very interesting to see how either of them would go. Both got mixed responses from fans during their respective tenures on ATWT, but in restrospect it's fair to say that both Culliton and Broderick did well in the circumstances- Culliton when the show was in more or less a transitional state, and he did write the John/Lisa storyline which was well received at the time (in addition to garnering a Daytime Emmy nomination for writing). Broderick on the other hand had the task of cleaning up the big mess left by the disastrous Black/Stern and Klein tenures, but she sought a return to more traditional soap and stabilised things.

[Ms. Walsh]

If Lorraine Broderick returned, that'd be amazing. I loved the show when she was HW. Some of my all-time favorite storylines occurred then.

It's really odd that Wikipedia mentioned her returning. I hope it's true...but who knows?? Can't anyone edit a Wikipedia page?

I do think that ATWT needs a new EP. As for HW, I wouldn't complain if there were a new one.

[Soapsuds]

I hated Lorrain Broderick's work as Head Writer of ATWT. I hope she doesnt return.

[Soapsuds]

I hated Lorrain Broderick's work as Head Writer of ATWT. I hope she doesnt return.

[jfung79]

Those mentions in several different wikipedia entries suggest it's probably someone trying to *create* a rumor to me, rather than anything real.

I liked the couple of months I saw of Broderick after I switched over from AW to ATWT when AW was cancelled. The baby Hope story was compelling, Eddie and Georgia were a great young couple, and Chris's aimlessness was quite relatable. The only problem is that stories seemed to move very slowly.

Richard Culliton is my favorite soap writer, but I didn't see any of his headwriting stint on ATWT, nor Packer and Backus's (though I've heard great things about them).

I think Passanante is doing okay, but there's too much baby paternity stuff and also not quite enough cast integration. The recent return to the frontburner of Tom and Margo is welcome, and I hope it happens for more vets as well.

[David V]

Same here. But to Wikipedia's credit, there are people who work to clean up articles and check for factual accuracy and neutrality.

Packer and Backus had worked for a number of years under Douglas Marland and assumed HW duties after his death. Basically they might have tweaked a few things here and there but more or less kept with Marland's outline and finished off his storylines. So you could say for those two years, the show sort of ran on Auto-Pilot but more or less holding its own.

When Richard Culliton was head writer, he wrote the John/Lisa medical malpractice storyline which was well received at the time, and many fans consider that to be the best post-Marland story. It's hard to imagine ATWT getting a Daytime Emmy nomination for anything in 1996 (the Black/Stern year), but they did indeed receive a nomination Best Writing- and that was purely for Culliton's work in 1995, and more likely that storyline. This was a transitional period for the show, when they had to decide which direction they wanted to take- and by replacing Culliton with Black/Stern, they took the wrong direction.

Lorraine Broderick faced more difficult circumstances when she became HW in early 1998. There was about two years of mess, such damage done to the show under Black/Stern and Klein that had to be cleaned up- however the interim HW team (including veteran writer Stephen Demorest, who had also worked on GL) in the last few months of 1997 is considered by fans to have made a noticeable difference. Broderick looked to go back to traditional soap and give the show some direction, which stabilised things a lot.

When you look back at it, both ATWT and GL had quite significant years in 1998- after some years of declining ratings and quality, both shows seemed to stablise that year at least ratings-wise whilst ABCD took a fall.

[juppiter]

I fixed it.... some trouble maker went ahead and did this on a whole bunch of soap articles. I only cleaned up that ATWT ones.

[ClassicsSoapFan]

Broderick was one of my favorite ATWT writers. For the life of me I can't understand why they would have replaced her with "Lethal"Leah Laiman. I don't understand why they brought her back!

[Soapsuds]

Broderick's stories were so boring and took too long to tell. I hated the whole Denise/Andy storyline. It was one big boring snoozefest of a storyline. I can't even remember her other awful work. I must have blocked it out of my mind because it was so bad.

And dont get me started on TPTB replacing Allison Rice with Susan Batten as Connor Walsh!

[JONNYSBRO]

Those are pure rumors right now. Broderick is not returning to ATWT and she is not in daytime presently. I rather see Broderick return to All My Children. Richard Culliton is at ATWT and on the writing team. Goutman/CBS/P&G are very happy with Jean Passanante. Her ratings have been pretty good and most of her stuff well received. She has been ATWT now for over five years and worked with Sheffer. She was co-head writer for 4 years and sole head writer for year and half. I really doubt they replace Jean right now because they are happy with her.

[RogerNewcomb]

IMO the writing at ATWT is atrocious. Women are written as weak and pathetic creatures, there is no balance, the dialogue is off, and there seems to be no long-term plan or vision. I don't know if this can all be blamed on Jean Passanante but someone needs to take the blame. ATWT is only acceptable in the ratings because so many other shows have tanked even worse. But being the best of a bad lot doesn't mean the writing is good.

[applcin]

Just veering off slightly here but I was wondering if anyone knows where I might find recent pics of writers Richard Backus and Trent Jones. Been watching them again on RH and was just curious what they looked like today. The search engines only yielded their RH pics.

[Chris B]

Yay! Another Ryan's Hope fan! I would also like to see updated pictures of Trent Jones and Richard Backus.

I agree, ATWT now is only good in short patches when they do these stunts. I especially agree with you about the weak women and there are no characters to root for. One second someone is bad, then we're supposed to love them, good people like Katie and Dusty are asshats.

I'd welcome any changes at this point.

[Ms. Walsh]

The writing is pretty lousy on ATWT. There's little consistency, and little character interaction. A lot of obvious stuff gets neglected, or is supposed to be not shown b/c it's just "expected" that it happened off-camera. The character balance is awful too.

But when compared to other soaps, it's one of the best. So really there aren't any high standards anymore.

I thought LB was good b/c she actually gave storylines to characters we cared about, as opposed to B&S who brought in a slew of newbies. Her storylines were long, but I found them a lot more interesting. It was so obvious when Laiman started writing b/c the quality of the storylines sank.