AMC McTavish's Swansong - April 30

[R Sinclair]

That's why I viciously attacked you -- because I knew you'd get it.

But as far as Beall's concerned, I would enjoy her material more if she'd simply take it down a few notches. She was good when she first came on. But then, she started smellin' herself, and became a little too much to take. Even though I don't have a problem expressing an unpopular opinion, I can say that from a lot of the criticism I've been hearing about AMC's dialog, I'm not the only one who feels this way. A lot of the things people have expressed displeasure in are her trademarks. True, writing dialog is like writing music. There are rhythms and beats and timing involved in making the conversation in scenes flow. And just like music, either you "get it" or you don't.

I just think she tries too hard to be pithy and cogent, without just letting the scene and characters speak for themselves. Like the 9/11 and especially the Valentine's Day episodes. OMG! That Valentine's Day episode epitomized what I dislike. The little quotes at the beginning of each act made me . Right then and there, I said, "okay, this woman is TRYING! She's going to make the scene revolve around this one line of dialog which she believes is just absolutely perfect to be singled out, no matter what!" Nevermind how clumsy or unnatural or, dare I say, CONTRIVED it came across. "Always, only you." "I'm going to fix your heart and never let it break again." Double :rolleyes: That isn't to say the episode didn't have heart -- but I just wish it wasn't Beall'd to death.

[Adam]

I will agree with the comments about those title cards at the beginning of each segment. They were not needed.

Well your wish apparently came true for Amanda not be part of the HW staff... obviously they went with experience.

I really hope Courtney Bugler is dropped.... if we can get rid of her and now with Rebecca Taylor supposedly gone, the dialog staff will be much stronger. But the posts have now been removed so was Poloma another Jackie?

[Kylie]

Well I for one, don't care...MMT is gone. Beall, Cohen, doesn't matter. MMT is out.

[Adam]

True that. I do though really hope Poloma's info is correct. I think Walsh/Demorest/Alden will make an awesome team.

[Dan]

If this is true, then damn it. I wanted Demorest and his wife Curlee for GL.

Damn it. DAYS had Hogan (regardless of how he is doing, the show is still heads and tails better), OLTL has a new co-HW, AMC has those three.

When is it GL's turn? Damn it!

[jenna14]

Add me to being thrilled at the new HW news if it is in fact true. I think it is good at least at the start to have Kay Alden working with people who know the history of the show exceot I think MMT also knew the history of the show and we all know how much that helped during her tenure.

I also am not a fan of Amanda L Beall. I feel her writing is not open enough for me to make my own interpertation. Her writing is forced to make her big point like "Babe is Love". RSinclair wrote much better than me about the problems with Amanda L Beall's writing. She's not the worst but she's certainly not the best. I do also think by the time I started paying atention to the script writers I had already heard so many good things about her and maybe my expectations were too high?

Did anybody else notice the name Karen Lewis multiple times this week? Script tweaking or re-writing of scripts?

[R Sinclair]

According to Toups' report, Karen Lewis wrote Tuesday, Wednesday and co-wrote Friday. That's a lot for ANY All My Children scriptwriter. I recall seeing Amanda Beall back to back during the Florida Babyswitch reveal. But I don't recall seeing one person write 3/5 of that week's scripts.

The only gripe I have with Karen Lewis is that she tends to write Ryan absolutely insufferable. The words that happen to come out of his mouth when she pens the script make me want to smack the sh!t out of him.

[Steve]

WORD!!!!

Amanda Beall's writing is from the heart and if you rewatch the 9/11 episode, it is clear that she has no "Agenda" regarding Babe or Ryan. Her dialogue is not usually snarky, catchphrase-laden, or full of pop culture references any more than the other writers.

ICAM about Joanna Cohen. She's at best average and at worst just awful. I don't understand why one "poor, misguided soul" who claims to have no connection to Cohen feels the need to constantly praise her and put down both Beall and those of us who appreciate good writing.

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

Yo...... Paloma, Wats good with this??

[R Sinclair]

I think Amanda Beall sucks ass. And not just regular ass, but psycho slutty Osama super creep on the freaked out tip whore b!tch skank hairier than Sanjaya's mohawk ass. And since you obviously want me to say I'm connected to Joanna Cohen no matter how many times I tell you I'm not, fine! I'm not just connected to Cohen, she's my secret lover! We have red hot monkey sex in exchange for me singing her praises on a soap message board. She gives me the Cohen Special Bonus Monkey Sex whenever I'm able to piss off both you and Poloma in the same thread. Yeeeee! What fun!

Even if Joanna wasn't giving me some super lovin' on the side, I would still think that Amanda Beall sucks. I used to like her. She wrote a Babe speech back in 2005, I believe, that I enjoyed, but other than that... she's annoying.

[EricMontreal22]

Addie Walsh wrote some of the VERYbest years of Loving... damn I used to know the exact years but haven't nursed my Loving infatuation ina while-_i think it was the early 90s when the show creatively started to go back on track (she came in after the few ok years Millee T and Guza co wrote and was replaced at the request of AMC later on by Agnes Nixon in their last ditch effort ot up the ratings). Under Addie Loving reminded me VERY much of the quality and feel of AMC in the early to mid 70s when itwas much more of a domestic, lightly funny, small town soap. I wouldn't mind seeing *some* of that element return. Anyway she, IMHo definetly ahs the Agnes Nixon style and humoru which is good as my main fear about havign Y&R writers come in (and Alden cowrote some of the best years of Y&R from the mid 70s on--even if she had some bad work later) is that Y&R while a quality soap is completely missing int he style of humour AMC once was famous for--in the book All Her Children Agnes Nixon even mentions that her friend Bill Bell writes Y&R and is a great writer but his show is very humour free unlike hers.

E

[EricMontreal22]

Umm Eden was gonna leave earlier otriginally--that's why she never announced how long her return was for--I bet if she doesn't get a pilot picked up she'll return in the Fall but we'll see. To be fair Eden's storyline was really the only fairly well handled one of the past few months.

As for the controversy over A Beals--I think her dialogue and episode writing is *perfect* but from what i've read her actual long term storylines and sturcture isn't--I'm more please with A Walsh who, at least to me has proven herself as a HW

E

[EricMontreal22]

I wouldn';t be surprised at all if this is some sort of transitionary writing team till they decide who should be lead--but who knows

[EricMontreal22]

*double post*

[Sylph]

I expect Nancy to come as a BDW or in some other capacity.