Snark Weighs In

There is, as far as I'm concerned, NO meaningful difference between Esensten and Brown AND McTavish. This is a disaster for AMC.

(Update): Previous Esensten/Brown coverage:

September 5, 2000

September 18, 2000

October 6, 2003

Hysterically, I just realized something: When Esensten and Brown were named Head Writers for Port Charles, the press release completely screwed up their career timeline, getting the dates wrong on when they took over Loving and Guiding Light. Today's press release names them as former Head Writers for Days. Well, Hogan Sheffer will be real pleased to hear that! It's nice to see that, six years later, ABC's press release team is as crackerjack as ever.

So basically Brian Frons had a writer with decades of experience working on the country's no. 1 soap opera, who was eager to write AMC, was studying its history, and seemed to be in sync with the fans in many ways--and he turned that down in favor of a Head Writing team who have seen four of the five soaps they've been charged with get canceled out from under them. All four of those soaps (I'm counting Dynasty) being on ABC.

I was going to say 'Thanks Brian Frons on conceding the timeslot to your competition", but with DAYS running around like a chciken with its head cut off, Y&R edging into JFP status in terms of constant stunting, and B&B's A.D.D.-style of storytelling as bad as ever, let's face it: in this race to the bottom, it's anybody's game.

In that colloquium linked to earlier this month, Kay Alden said she would LOVE to write for AMC and its characters ... unless that changed, AMC must have passed on her.

Boobs.

The thing about Esensten/Brown are they are hit and miss. They were head writers for GL for three years from about 1997-2000 and PC from 2000-2003. Then they briefly consulted at OLTL in 2005 when Higley was there but quickly left after six months. They went to DAYS shortly but now bolted. They did good things the first year at GL with the Annie trial and stuff. Then the last year or so it was mob and San Cristocrap. I remember Babsy/Jim's interview in 1999 which made Babsy sound like a total drunk in SOW. PC they were hit and miss as well. They are creative but sometimes it flops flatter then a pancake. Some arcs on PC I loved were Time in a Bottle and Fate but hated all the vampire stuff. They worked with Julie before.

Sigh!

Another opportunity missed. The one great storyline they did was the Annie storyline and then perhaps the very beginning of the leukemia storyline. They turned Holly into a psychopathic kidnapper and reduced Nola by having her keep an amnesiac Buzz captured.

They weren't responsible for GL's clone storyline... it was dictated by the network.

Actually...not really. It was proposed by one of the network executives, apparently as a joke, and that idiot Paul Rauch (along with B&E) ran with it.

The clone was totally unbelieveable, but they way they wrote it was fantastic. It was dramatic and told with heart, humor... I loved it. I loved virtually everything they wrote on "Guiding Light" during their time as headwriters.

Unfortunately, I haven't loved much from them since.

They get a free pass from me for The Loving Murders, which hands down was the best mystery presented on daytime since Edge went off the air. And I loved pretty much everything they did on GL.

Ya, you either love or hate these writers, but considering who just got canned I think B&E is a step up from McCrappish.

Well. Even though Kay is not head writer i will give them a chance. They are good writers and they deserve a chance because its a whole different show. Maybe the audience might like the stories they write. You never know

I hope they are GREAT writers!

But it doesn't say that Kay's not consulting and writing for AMC

right now Kay gets the write and do what she wants without all the drama and hand holding and Frons BS and hoop jumping that goes on for a HW

Get ready for a cloned Erica, The Mob, and Opal kidnapping the kids of Pine Valley

No, seriously I love them! They got me hooked on GL and I am happy to hear they will now be on AMC.

Someone said B&E wrote Lizzie's Lukemia story on GL, and it was a great story.

So I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt

Edited May 21, 200718 yr by AMC Zendall Fan

Someone said B&E wrote Lizzie's Lukemia story on GL, and it was a great story.

They wrote the first quarter or so of the story, especially with Phillip and Beth's affair in the mountains. Claire Labine wrote the climax of the story.

Speaking of this story, go check out Youtube. They have the "Where There is Hope" montage on there

I am disappointed that Alden won't be taking over AMC. I have never watched any of their work so I don't have a lot of confidence in their ability to improve AMC. Any idea when they will start writing or when their work will first air??? Or have they already started?

I think they are competent writers and I don't think we should judge them on their past mistakes. I only watched their work on the final year of Loving and that was some of the best soap opera I've ever seen. I am still wondering if Kay Alden won't still be involved.... she did mention in her interview November sweeps is when she wanted the show to be in a place to jump into new story lines. I think this is great news and I am just glad they've finally made the announcement. As script editors I really don't think they can take the blame for DAYS decline... Hogan is still deciding which characters are featured. I think that's unfair to outright blame them.

Plus there was that big old mess that JER caused that had to be cleaned up as well, so yeah can't blame them fully.

Like PC or not, supernatural stuff disregarded, the show was very good with relationships(friendships whatnot). Characters STAYED IN CHARACTER. I never had to say WTF? what his/her motivation for doing that.

People also blaming them for cancelling the soaps they worked for. All the programs they were on had low ratings when they came in and just coincidentally happend to be writing at the time of their cancellation. And most of the shows they wrote for I think for the most part during their stints were critically acclaimed. I am very pleased by this development. It definitely could be a lot worse.