AMC: SOD Online Interview with new headwriters

[AMCGio83]

I love ALL of those ideas (Long-time fan also). And some of them seem so easy. They can EASILY bring on Petey, fix Josh, get rid of Jon and recast Liza/ I don't see Julia Barr or Cady McClain returning but the other ideas would help the show a lot.

[dragonflies]

I didn't see much difference between B&E's interview and Carlatti's.

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

Digest: Let’s talk about your storytelling goals for AMC.

Brown: Our main goal is to make the stories a tree with many branches — the so-called umbrella stories. That’s always the goal when we come to a show, but the positive thing about this show is that there are so many great characters, rich history and family entanglements that it’s really not that difficult to make those branches grow.

Esensten: The stories that we have planned, as we sit down and talk about what’s going to be happening, it’s like, “Oh, my God, well, that’s really going to affect him because that’s his brother-in-law!” We play off that and the characters are so intertwined to begin with, it makes storytelling much easier — our type of storytelling. We just got off the phone with our scriptwriters and another thing we’ve been talking about is that you have to write the way that people talk today and make it conversational. You want the audience to believe that this really could be happening, and once you start doing so many stories that are so unrelatable, you get a little tune-out. So even if some of our stories appear to be larger than life, the goal is for the audience to think, “Wow, I’ve been there! I wonder what she’s going to do.” It may not be as operatic as the story we’re telling, but they’ve experienced the same kind of situation. I guess what we’re saying is that we’re trying to make our stories more real and our characters more relatable.

Digest: What endears you to daytime TV?

Carlivati: What I love about soaps is classic soap opera storytelling. I’ve watched soaps for a long time, so I think you have to respect the history of the show and the audience wants to see that, and because I’m a fan, I’d like to think that I think like a fan and what the fans will want to see. You do have to keep it fresh and modern and innovative and all that, but what I like is that a soap can be not just a drama, not just a comedy, not just a fantasy, it’s all of those things together. What I love is having the opportunity to tell all different kinds of stories.

Digest: And you certainly get to do that on OLTL.

Carlivati: ONE LIFE TO LIVE is famous for being able to balance these over-the-top fantasy stories with real, serious issues and the audience loves — I think they often comment on — things like Viki goes to Heaven and the Old West story, and while part of the show is grounded in reality, we do have that over-the-top element and I’d like to hopefully get a little bit of that into the show. And humor is very important to me. I love a show like UGLY BETTY that’s a soap opera that’s also funny, but it can make you cry. I love the characters on our show that bring out humor, like Roxy, David and Rex. In general, I just think it has to be a balance. I love the whole cast and I just want to be able to tell a balanced story.

[dragonflies]

Meh still not much difference. Kinda the same stuff B&E talked about. They mentioned wanting to bring back diversity to AMC and alot of other stuff

[R Sinclair]

That should've been done with Greenlee, too.

[dragonflies]

LOL!

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

I like Sabine.

[NYC123]

I love all your ideas. I hope they can do at least like 2 of them on your list.

[jackericafan]

These things the last few weeks is what is giving me hope that we may be getting on the right track again. I hope BE/JB continue on with this formula and build from there.

I love all of your ideas especially bringing back Reggie, Dani, and Dixie and finding out the Fetus is not the Fetus after all. I nominate YOU to be the new EP of AMC

[DevotedToAMC]

I have another idea for the new head writers...kill off Ryan!

[knowjack]

Sigh...if only!

[dragonflies]

and Greensnot and Babe(aka hobag)

[EricMontreal22]

AMC actually always had a reputation for larger than life--though mor ein terms of their almost campy broad characters (billy TUggle, Nick, Phoebe at times, etc) If you read Chris Shemering's wonderful Soap Encyclopedia from the early 80s this is one fo the main things AMC is repeatedbly praised for by him and others (of course back when AMC premiered humour on soaps was particularly rare)

E