ALL: Kay Alden visits MIT

[Sylph]

I hope they'll post the transcript or the video...

http://cms.mit.edu/events/eventInfo.php?eventID=055

[Jonathan]

Had I known about this earlier, I would've asked my friend who goes to school there to attend and ask if she's headwriting "All My Children."

[Sylph]

I'm not sure she would have said yes. Her contract probably forbids giving away any insider info.

[heatherwebber]

Why is ABC being evasive and delaying any actual announcement about who WILL be the new headwriter?

[sheilaforever]

ITA - she would not have answered that question.

I'd also really like to see a transcript or excerpt from her MIT visit...

... since I consider her the soap headwriter which is still alive.

I never liked Y&R more like when she was writing the GC happenings - in first 3 years she was better than William J. Bell (at least in his last few years as headwriter).

[Sylph]

Kay has spoken:

http://cms.mit.edu/news/2007/05/love_may_n...the_afterno.php

1 hr 31 min / 41.8MB

[Faulkner]

Thanks for this!

[sheilaforever]

Double-Thanks!!!

[Manny]

Does anyone have a transcript or a summery of what she said? I liked stories on YR, so I am interested in seeing what she said...

[Faulkner]

I recommend everyone listen to it...she said she would like to write AMC (she's been studying it intensely for six months and knows the characters very well) and speaks candidly about the Josh fetus/Dr. Madden storyline. She said she couldn't believe it got approved, that Brian Frons got it wrong that time. She said that Frons is actually very open to writers' visions, so clearly McTavish fought hard for it. And she took a potshot at Dena Higley for that storyline in which John McBain was burned and thought dead and no one knew the bandaged body in the hospital was his. (She said: Why didn't anyone do DNA? How can they get away with that kind of story in this day and age, especially since everyone knows about DNA?)

She also talks about Y&R and why she was let go, how there should be a mentoring process on soaps similar to what she did with Bill Bell, etc.

Lots of more good stuff...a must-listen.

[sheilaforever]

Manny, download it.

It's an MP3 file... I just downloaded it and will listen to it on my MP3 player...

Kay Alden has beautiful voice which is easy to listen to.

[Manny]

Okay, okay... I'll download it!

Thanks for the short recap, though!

[R Sinclair]

OMG! I'm not even done listening to this, but she's my new best friend! She laid it all out there about the current mess AMC's in in so many words in regard to figuring out where to go with a six month story projection and where a show (she's speaking mostly in general terms, but if you pay attention, you know it's AMC) should ideally be by November sweeps:

"This particular show that I'm working on now has had everything that you could possibly imagine in terms of an event has happened, recently. There's been baby swaps. There's been a serial killer. There's been baby kidnappings. There's been... all manners of violence and mayhem have been going on... This isnt working, the ratings are terrible, what should I do..? Work with these characters and relationships to get us to new story points to break by the beginning of November... Right now the viewers need a rest. They've got to be exhausted. I know I'm exhausted watching this show. All this stuff is happening!"

I encourage those who can do so, to listen to it. It's good stuff. I feel comfortable about the fact that she isn't event-obssessed (like McTavish and her explosions and comas and crashes and storms).

[Sylph]

She talked about everything — from how she got her job on Y&R, about Bill Bell, Lee Phillip, Bradley and his show, Lynn and her destruction, Night Shift, how she started watching ATWT, even David Mamet... An hour and a half of great Q&A!

And I'm not sure but although she kept saying she was only consulting for AMC, at one point she may have said she is taking over over there.

But, now I'm really interesetd in knowing who her protege on Y&R, a female writer who is still with the show. She said she doesn't have any doubts that that person would have been taking over if she were still with the show.

[Faulkner]

Natalie Minardi Slater?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Minardi_Slater