All: Who was the best and worst writer on your soap?

[Adam]

You aren't alone Gio when it comes to Culliton. He was such a breath of fresh air after those dark days of Jean Passanate. I was actually quite disappointed when Frons fired him in favour of that god awful juvenile Gordon Rayfield.

[Toups]

Since 1993......

DAYS

Best:

1. Reilly

2. Brash and Cwikly

Worst:

1. Higley

2. Langan

3. SSM

If Sheffer/Kelly were fired today they would be #3 on the worst list. Since they're still Head Writers, they have time to improve and maybe jump into the Best list.

[LoyaltoAMC]

All My Children

Best: Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam, and Lorraine Broderick

Worst: Jean Passanante, Megan McTavish (I even think her 92-95 stint was totally overrated and coasted on the great Nixon/Washam/Broderick material from 90-92), Gordon Rayfield

One Life to Live

Best: Gordon Russell, Sam Hall, Peggy O'Shea

Worst: Pam Long, Claire Labine, Megan McTavish, the Corringtons

Guiding Light

Best: Pam Long, Doug Marland, the Dobsons, Nancy Curlee/Steven Demorest/James Reilly/Lorraine Broderick era

Worst: Mary Ryan Munisteri, Claire Labine, Douglas Anderson, Megan McTavish

Ryan's Hope

Best: Claire Labine, Paul Avila Mayer

Worst: Pat Falken Smith

[NYC123]

The only time I like Megan McTavish was the year 2004 witht he Babyline switch. That kept me glued!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Y&R

Best: William J. Bell, Kay Alden, Jack Smith, Trent Jones (yes, he was co-head writer for a while)

Worst: Lynn Marie Latham

B&B

Best: William J. Bell, Bradley Bell

Worst: Bradley Bell

GL

Best: Irna Philips, Agnes Nixon, The Dobsons, Douglas Marland, Pamela K Long, Nancy Curlee/Steven Demorest/James Reilly/Lorraine Broderick

Worst: Ellen Weston, Claire Labine, B&E, Megan McTavish, Pat Falken Smith

ATWT

Best: Irna Philips, The Dobsons, Douglas Marland, Lorraine Broderick

Worst: Jean Passanante, Stern and Black, Jessica Klein

AMC

Best: Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam, and Lorraine Broderick

Worst: Megan McTavish, Jean Passanante, Gordon Rayfield

OLTL

Best: Peggy O'Shea, Gordon Russell, Sam Hall

Worst: Pamela K Long, Claire Labine, Megan McTavish, Dena Higley, Michael Malone stint #2 (hell, I never got what so was good about his original stint anyway, it was way too inconsistent)

GH

Best: Claire Labine, Douglas Marland, Pat Falken Smith, Karen Harris and Richard Culliton

Worst: Megan McTavish, Gene Palumbo, Ann Marcus, Janet Iacobuzio & Christopher Whitesell, Norma Monty, Maralyn Thomas, Bill Levinson

Days

Best: William J. Bell, Pat Falken Smith, Brash & Cwickly

Worst: James E. Reilly, Tom Lagan, Dena Higley

[AMCGio83]

I'm glad i'm not alone there. I remember Culliton gettng a lot of really bad press around late 2002. Rayfield: Damn that was awful soap opera. I was actually relieved when McTavish was named headwriter.

[R Sinclair]

ALL MY CHILDREN

Best: Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam, Lorraine Broderick

Worst: Jean Passanante, Megan McTavish

Promising Start/Lousy Finish: Richard Cullitoon, Megan McTavish (1997-99 tenure)

[P.J.]

ATWT...

Best...Doug Marland, Lorraine Broderick and undoubtably Irna Phillips (though that was really before my time)

Worst...whoever wrote in the early 80's and tried to make it into General Hospital with Mr. Big, and Barb's drugged dream state that had her reliving some past life where she and Gunnar where lovers. Stern and Black, Leah Laiman's brief six months, JPiss, and the last two years of Hogan's repetitive crap.

GL

Best...Doug Marland, Pam Long, whoever wrote from 90-94, Millee Taggert

Worst...Ellen Weston. Honest to God, the Maryanne Carruthers Mystery should be the basis to have her disbarred, or whatever they do to lowly scum hack writers. OH....and the horrific year of Megan McTavish, that reduced Nola Reardon Chamberlain to tossing Buzz in the basement.

[Paul Raven]

Another World

Best Agnes Nixon Harding Lemay

Worst Corinne Jacker James Lipton

[dm.]

Y&R

Best: William Bell / Kay Alden

Worst: Lynn Marie Latham

AMC

Best: Agnes Nixon

Worst: Megan McTavish

I know most people already wrote this, but I posted my opinion too... I'm glad most of my "worst" writers are done with, but Lynn is still there.

[psychofan]

DAYS

Best: James E. Reilly

Worst: Hogan Sheffer

[FrenchFan]

AMC:

Best: Agnes Nixon

Worst: Megan McTavish

ATWT:

Best: Douglas Marland

Worst: Jessica Klein

BB:

Best: William J. Bell

Worst: Bradley Bell

DAYS:

Best: Leah Laiman

Worst: James E. Reilly

GH:

Best: Gene Palumbo

Worst: Robert Guza Jr

GL:

Best: Pamela K. Long

Worst: Ellen Weston

OLTL:

Best: S. Michael Schnessel

Worst: Josh Griffith

PASS:

Worst: James E. Reilly (he always sucks)

YR:

Best: William J. Bell

Worst: Lynn Marie Latham

[juppiter]

ATWT -

Best: Lorraine Broderick

Worst: Hogan Sheffer

DAYS -

Best: JER 1992-1997, Sally Sussman-Morina

Worst: Tom Langan

GL-

Best: Esensten & Brown, Taggert

Worst: Ellen Weston

[MichaelGL]

Guiding Light

Best: Douglas Marland-Marland and the oldest soap opera were a PERFECT fit. He honored history, made GL one heck of a drama on CBS.

Pamela K. Long & Richard Culliton-I think things truly went downhill after Culliton left. Long established some monumental characters like Reva Shayne and Alexandra Spaulding.

Nancy Curlee, Stephen Demorest, James E. Reilly, and Lorraine Broderick-Curlee wrote with such grace and admiration for the show. She understood the characters and not once did she make the show into a cartoon like it is now. Her excellent team were only a small part of her success IMO.

Millee Taggart and Carolyn Culliton-The two tried to restore GL back to the show it once was from 2002-2003. They made the show into a intreguing, character driven drama.

Between: Lloyd Gold-I liked and disliked some of his stories. The rejuvenation of Spaulding Enterprises vs. Lewis was great stuff. He did good stuff for the ratings in 2001. I just hated how he messed up with that awful storyline involving Reva and time travel. He also reunited Josh and Reva for me.

Worst:

Any writer who wrote for the show between Long's two tenures in the 80s. This goes for Sheri Anderson, Jeff Ryder, Mary Ryan Munisteri, and a few more. Just a bad fit for the show.

Pat Falken Smith-She really didn't understand the show.

Douglas Anderson

Megan McTavish-She made a complete mess of the show.

Claire Labine-I didn't really like how the mob was taking over the show under her. Creating Tony Santos, big mistake IMO.

Ellen Weston-Destoryed the show for me.

David Kreizman-When Lorraine Broderick left the writing team and when they started writing their stories before they did the casting (cough:Ed Bauer:cough), things went downhill. Broderick should have stayed on and should have been given more power. She would have been a great teacher for him.

[DevotedToAMC]

You are not alone I liked Richard Culliton. The successors were Anna Theresa Cascio and Gordon Rayfield. Their work got good from April-June of 2003 but I feel if it wasn't for Cascio, it would have tanked. Rayfield was a bad head writer and him working solo would have been a disaster