2007: The Directors and Writers Thread

[Y&RWorldTurner]

LOL! Sylphy, I'm pretty sure she's FiCore, which would give her no chance in hell over ever being a permanent HW. That would exclude Y&R from ever being nominated for WGA awards, and you know how much awards means to that damn show...

[Sylph]

I know that, of course, my dear A. I was just joking and I left out the smileys intentionally.

[Chris B]

I notice some of the slow pans are back, particularly at the beginning of the episode during Sharon and Jack's scene. And the scenes did feel longer and more character driven than usual. I think they have been forced by the fact that according to CBS SID they won't be introducing any new storylines during the strike.

Sylph, I have to ask...why do you think Maria Arena is the future HW? Wouldn't she have a problem considering she's writing during the strike. I understand to be credited they went FiCore, but still not sure. With all the bad soap news of '07, I wouldn't be surprised if LML returns post-strike. I'm just going to enjoy what we get now and hope for the best! Who knows? Maybe 2008 will be a good year for soaps!

[DaytimeFan]

I have to wonder if she's still in the Writers Guild...she hasn't done any television work since 1993. She's been a Malibu mom and freelance magazine writer ever since...and you know, I think at this point Sony and the Bells are probably thinking 'screw the awards' because although they love them, prizing them probably more than any other soap, the survival of the show and increasing the numbers are their biggest concern. If that means they don't get nominated at the WGA I think they'd probably get over it.

[Sylph]

[Y&RWorldTurner]

^Also, did you notice how much more bearable Amber was today? Usually I can't stand her, but I was kind of sympathetic to the character today. I know Maria Arena Bell worked for Bell-Phillip Television after leaving soap writing, maybe she knew a lot more about Amber's character than most people on Y&R's pre-strike writing team.

There is something distinctively different about the show and it's for the better IMO. It also helps that they've added a lot of classic Y&R elements, even if they're not as apparent.

[Kubla Khan]

Ugh.

That's exactly why Maria is writing now.

I wouldn't say that Sony has "seen the light," they (probably with Bell Dramatic Serial Co.) pulled someone who was close to the show that wouldn't have anything to lose as a dirty little SCAB.

She'll be gone when the strike is over.

[juppiter]

WOW! So Y&R is already in strike territory? I'll have to watch it tonight on SoapNet to see if I notice a difference. What about DAYS and B&B?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think Days will be in "strike-territory" the first or second week of January. As for B&B, it could be a lot longer, since it's only a 30 minute show.

Please comment here if you see any change on Y&R when watching it tonight on SoapNet, so most of us in here don't look too crazy.

[juppiter]

OK so I watched Y&R on SoapNet. There was definitely a change in flavor.... but it seemed to me more like strike flavor than classic Y&R flavor (in any case, it's certainly closer to the real thing than LML was.) Some of the scenes just didn't really go anywhere and seemed to be there just to fill time. Since this stuff was written at the beginning of the strike, it's likely that there was concern the writers would be back soon. I imagine Y&R will have a strike-ish, tread lightly flavor for a week or two before we notice anything really different.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

OK, Snark pretty much summed up my thoughts on Y&R's first "scab" written episode.

http://snarkweighsin.blog-city.com/first_scab_yr.htm

[RavenWhitney]

Curious if there wre any other writers listed besides Griffith and Arena-Bell today?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

No, just those two I believe. I'll double check when the show re-airs on SoapNet...

[juppiter]

Surely other writers are involved, but perhaps these two are the only ones who agreed to be credited.

[MarkH]

You think?

When Arena wrote for B&B, it was common to have only 2-3 writers (including Brad) credited per episode. I realize that was only a half-hour show, though.

But nowadays, Y&R has SUCH a bloated writing staff. Is it totally out of the question, at least for just the first few days, assuming LML left behind a general story projection, that Griffith could map out the scenes and Arena could write the dialog?

I wouldn't expect it just to be the two of them forever, but the Strike situation was dynamic. As the weeks go on, I'd expect them to add scabs.

But here is another question...I realize this is just speculation.

I can't be the only one who thinks Maria Arena...in addition to her SPECIFIC past as a writer...might be a front. Don't you think that family members like Bradley, and maybe even friends of the family (like Jack Smith, Kay Alden, Jerry Birn, Michael Minnis, Elizabeth Snyder, Rex M. Best...all of whom are working across the hall, by the way) might "help out" without much credit?

I mean, I guess I'm thinking that the Bell crew was just seeing this as a total opportunity to show Sony/CBS what they could do (don't forget, within a few weeks of the WGA strike starting, folks like Michael Logan were starting to say LML was fired). Don't you think they put their full team to it to show that they could still do it better...and perhaps they did? And the results of this backdoor, ghostwriting, classic crew did convince Sony/CBS...and that's how LML came to lose her job?

If force majeur is going to be used to get rid of LML, don't you think they'll have to fire her whole stable...including a few of the legacy writers (like Natalie Minardi) who are still on staff? To not do so would create the impression of unequal treatment.

In the passage of time, when a Bell-driven writing team leads the show again, they might rehire some of the old faithful...but after enough of a passage of time that it doesn't seem so unfair.

I realize this is all wishful thinking...but I can't get over how comforting it is to me to pretend that the Bells are back in control.