2007: The Directors and Writers Thread

[Toups]

OLTL:

- Jeanne Marie Ford first listed as Script Writer on November 26

[R Sinclair]

Why?

[R Sinclair]

Hi.

[Khan]

Why was Ford listed, R Sinclair? My guess? Veronica Sandbridge didn't work out.

[P.J.]

Was it my imagination, or is Culliton out at ATWT?

Nevermind...it was obviously my imagination.

[IMissAremid]

Dammit I'm PISSED. I haven't been by SON for a while, so I guess this is kinda old news but dammit this sucks. Did he get fired because he knows too much DOOL history?! Ugh. Of all the scriptwriters for DOOL to fire. Toups, do you know why this happened or who replaced him/will replace him?

[ChangedBYSon]

It happened because Steve Wyman and Beth Milsteine are the ones who brought him on the

show, not Hogan Sheffer.

Once they fired Beth, they sent him behind her.

Charlotte Gibson, their new writer, is "indirectly" a part of Hogan's friends circle.

[brimike]

Charlotte Gibson is a breakdown writer. Mike Cohen is a script writer. So Charlotte didn't replace him. No word yet on who Mike's replacement is.

My sources have told me it was an Ed issue, not a Hogan issue. Shame. I loved Cohen's scripts. Then again, who knows how much work had to be done to them before they made it to air.

[R Sinclair]

That's true. There are some script writers who are only as good as their editors.

All My Children has been suffering after Mimi Leahy left. She at least made Rebecca Taylor tolerable. Once Jeff Beldner took the job, I can't believe how much crap has made it to air! I could only dare imagine what a Courtney Bugler script might look like before it's edited.

Even though she's either loved or hated, GH's Elizabeth Korte does a good job. Out of the three ABCD soaps, GH's dialog is the most realistic. It's very clean, precise and to the point, which serves the show immensely because it moves so fast. You can't have a writer like Rebecca Taylor on that staff because having three pages of dialog saying the same thing in six different ways just wouldn't work on Guza's GH.

And Carolyn Culliton's been doing a good job with editing OLTL. She's done wonders with Elizabeth Page's scripts -- who sucked ass at ATWT. But that's because Carolyn is a wonderful script writer, so she knows what needs to be done.

[ChangedBYSon]

Mike Cohen is an impeccable scriptwriter. Better than most of the ones at "DAYS".

And your sources are wrong---Mike was let go because Beth was let go.

I didn't say that Charlotte Gibson was brought in to replace him, I said that Hogan prefers working

with his own clique, and Mike was not part of that.

As it stands now, every writer on the show is from Procter & Gamble/CBS, which are the people

Hogan has worked with for the past decade.

Steve Wyman brought Mike Cohen to "Days" at the suggestion of Beth Milsteine.

[R Sinclair]

I thought as much, but I've only seen Cohen's work on PC, so I didn't know. Anyway, I had hoped that he would come to AMC... but with the ratings such as they've been, I don't know if B&E will be given that much pull (if you know what I mean) to be hiring any more of their previous teammates/friends.

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

If Ron Carlivati could get Gary Tomlin back, you dont think he could get Lorraine back?

[R Sinclair]

Um... no! Because Lorraine is needed at HOME over on All My Children.

Sheesh, y'all OLTL people are starting to get greedy.

[Soapsuds]

Haha..I agree...but Jay has always been greedy when it concerns OLTL.

[brimike]

With all due respect, ChangedbySon, you' aren't the only one who has sources within the industry. So to say I am "wrong" is... well... just plain wrong. I'm not saying that wasn't the information you were given, but the facts are these: Mike Cohen's first script aired December 22nd of 2006. Which means he was probably hired around end of September/beginning of October. Hogan was in complete control of the show back then. This was the time period when he began firing the old dialogue team and replacing them with people he wanted.

Beth was let go from the team months ago. Mike Cohen's scripts have been airing long past the usual 13-week cycle, so clearly he wasn't fired when his next cycle after Beth was fired was up. Yes, it's true... Beth was let go the same week Steve Wyman and Roy Goldberg were. Cohen was just released recently, and his scripts will continue to air into January. If Cohen were part of this Wyman/Milstein clique, he would have been let go either the same time as them, or when his next cycle was up. But clearly, that is not the case.

You can believe what you're told if you believe your sources to be more accurate than mine. I just wanted to clear it up for anyone else reading this thread. It was a production decision, not the head writer's.