Lynn Marie Latham's "Pedigree"

[DaytimeFan]

Much has been made of Lynn Marie Latham's "successful pedigree". The attributed success to Latham is absolute nonsense. Aside from KNOTS LANDING and THE DISTRICT Latham hasn't held down a job for more than 2 seasons.

LML has held down so many jobs I get dizzy reading her credits list...a list filled with flops.

Let's start from the beginning:

BERRENGER'S- 1985 prime time soap that lasted less than a season due to terrible ratings.

KNOTS LANDING-1985-1991 LML's only major successful venture...funny enough something she did not create. However, on set relations with many popular actors (Donna Mills and Joan Van Ark being the most notable) were very poor. Van Ark noted that LML made the character of Val 'the village idiot'.

HOMEFRONT-1991-1992 critically lauded prime time soap featuring Tammy Lauren (who now plays Det. Maggie Sullivan on Y&R surprise surprise) that lasted 2 season and then flopped from terrible ratings.

SECOND CHANCES-1993-1994 prime time soap that lasted only a season and was canceled for terrible ratings.

HOTEL MALIBU-1994 prime time soap that lasted less than a season, canceled for terrible ratings and a bloated budget.

SAVANNAH-1996-1997 Aaron Spelling produced prime time soap canceled for poor ratings.

PACIFIC PALISADES-1997 Aaron Spelling produced prime time soap starring Michelle Stafford, Finola Hughes and Joan Collins which lasted 13 episodes and was canceled for mediocre ratings. Relations between Collins/Hughes and LML were said to be very poor with Collins insisting to Aaron Spelling that she not take part in on set meetings.

PORT CHARLES-1997-1999 ABC daytime soap starring beloved GH actors Lynn Herring and John Lindstrom which Latham co wrote for its first 2 years...PC never caught on with viewers, consistently becoming the worst rated soap on daytime. Canceled in 2003.

THE DISTRICT-2000-2004 CBS primetime police drama starring Craig T Nelson which was a mildly popular Saturday night staple until an abrupt cancellation.

THAT'S LIFE-2000-2002 CBS primetime dramedy starring Heather Paige Kent which flopped hard with both critics and audiences.

WILD CARD-2003-2005 Lifetime Television primetime dramedy starring Joely Fisher which never caught on, canceled due to poor ratings.

THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS-2005-present CBS daytime soap consistently ranked number 1 since the late 1980s.

LML's work has flopped so many times it boggles my mind as to why a network as powerful as CBS (alongside their corporate partners at SONY) would hire such an untalented, dimwitted hack. Her on set relations appear poor and her desire to overhaul an already successful series highlights her massive ego. It appears that CBS and SONY firmly believe that the Bells are not a desired presence at Y&R and that they, the executives, know how to best run a soap opera. Pathetic.

[Kubla Khan]

Of course she isn't successful. She was a joke in primetime TV, but she came to daytime, and everyone heralds her as some great talent because of the fact that she worked in primetime.

[jonesy]

Say what you will about LML, but HOMEFRONT was an AMAZING show and only "flopped" in the ratings because of ABC's poor treatment of it. It seemed like every episode was on a different night of the week! It was never given a chance to grow, and any ratings gains it made (and I'm pretty sure it was in the top 40 shows at one point) were quashed by the network's inconsistency.

[P.J.]

Okay...I loved That's Life with Heather Paige Kent, Paul Sorvino, and Debi Mazar.

[heatherwebber]

There are a lot of factors for some of those shows.

I don't remember how long she was with The District but she wasn't on for the whole run. First year or 2 only probably.

As for Wild Card it's running now on Lifetime Real Women. It looks like Lynn & Bernard did the first season then left. They don't seem to be involved in the 2nd season episodes. From what I'm seeing it's a pretty good show and has excellent scripts. Marla Kanelos is a consultant. Lifetime during the period that show ran was also a bizarre ride. No doubt that show had problems from the weird people at Lifetime back then.

I remember Berrenger's. I liked it. It had troubles not involving the show itself- mainly with the network.

Knots: I watched the whole show through a few years ago. I wish it would come out further on dvd or that SoapNet would pick it up again. Unlike Dallas which had some really ragged seasons, I found Knots fascinating and well put together from start to finish. Even the "awful" season that had to be reset from that LA Law producer seemed to be pretty good as far as I am concerned. Anyway Lynn did excellent work on this. Also on Homefront. Homefront was a masterpiece. It didn't get the high ratings it ought to have but was a class act from start to finish. It was extremely well written and perfectly cast. In short it was an amazing show.

The District was a quality show at the start. I know it wore down a bit later on. A lot of the principal cast the first year left.

I don't remember that string of short-lived soaps at all. I remember Savannah being on but I really didn't watch any of them.

That's Life was a troubled show from the start. Lynn was brought in to help try to save it. They'd hired an inexperienced writer to run the show and she didn't quite get the rhythm or something. Lynn was too little too late. The show had various other problems with time scheduling from what I remember. Like Berrengers, the network wasn't entirely behind the show.

But as for Y&R, I still don't get the hate. Y&R and all the shows on CBS are pretty good as far as I can see. Other than some erratic stuff on B&B which should be over with Kay Alden there, CBS is a quality operation with pretty good writing on all their shows.

ABC is a hideous mess across the board. NBC is also wildly erratic.

At the moment impressed with all of CBS's shows. None of them are entirely perfect. None of them are what they used to be. Things change. But they are all pretty good at the moment. They're NOT being written badly (as GH is, as indeed all of ABC is, and as some of Passions is, as the new fake Stephanie & the party crowd is on Days.) They're not dark & nasty like GH & Passions. They're entertaining and quite good.

[Taraija]

That woman was apart of That's Life? I use to love that show, now I feel so dirty. However, it did try to change (and for the worse) the last season, so I suppose I can blame that on her . However, I credit my affection for that show to the wonderful charm of Heather Paige Kent and Ellen Burstyn.

[Layla]

Wasn't she also involved in a show on MTV, which I believe was called Live Through This, about a Fleetwood Mac like band that was reuniting and going on tour with their teenage/early 20's aged children. I think two of the children were named Tallulah and Darby and the leader singer's name was Annie. Anyone else remember this show (which I believe barely ran 13 episodes) and whether or not LML was actually involved with it?

[AMCGio83]

LOVED the first season of that show!!!! Then it sucked.

[All My Shadows]

HF had bad ratings because ABC treated it like [!@#$%^&*], schedule-wise. It was an amazing show. The characters were all real, as were the storylines. There weren't any cookie-cutter characters, either. There was no definite bitch, no definite heroine, no definite matriarch/patriarch, etc. The fanbase for the show is still pretty huge, evident by this site: http://sweb.uky.edu/~memarq0/homefront.html

I'm curious. Have you even seen the show?

[R Sinclair]

Exactly.

[R Sinclair]

Wasn't that, "You've got to accent-uate the positive. E-lim-inate the negative. Hold on to the affirtmative...?"

I remember being in junior high listening to my TV-Radio (ABC was the only station that tuned in in my room) and always hearing that song.

[All My Shadows]

Yep, that's it.

[MoTheGreat]

But after reading all about her flopps I'm wonder why they hire this hack in the first place.

[dragonflies]

LML is a hack, nuff said

Uh PC was a very popular show, it's not that it didn't catch on with fans, it's that the affiliates made it so it was impossible to watch it at a decent hour in alot of places.

[Paul Raven]

To be fair to LML,even primetime's most respected producers have had their share of flops.

David E Kelly and Wedding Bells on Fox.

Aaron Sorkin and Studio 60

So many factors come into play with primetime shows...

Still think LML has MAJOR problems re Y&R