Jump to content

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


Recommended Posts

  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 46
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Administrator

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • So far the only interest I've seen from Evan to Amanda has been listening to Iris's orders to go and seduce her.  So far he hasn't been successful... but who knows. Amanda is unbearable at times. Entitled, spoiled... idiotic. Iris... so blatantly manipulating her and Amanda takes the bait. But I guess... when she gets in trouble... she'll have a chance to learn. That's what makes these shows so interesting.    Oh, no, don't worry. You haven't ruined a thing. Evan has not been on my radar that much... he was not one of the characters I was caring particularly... so nothing much has been changed for me. I don't think he has the stuff to ruin Rachel's life. He's just a pretty guy that can follow orders. Iris on the other hand... is dangerous. 

      Please register in order to view this content

       
    • The show has gone back to 10/10 entertainment! I'm glad that I was right in feeling that what were experiencing were growing pains. I'm sure they are not over yet, but I'll know that we always comeback to quality drama. I think it's going to be a hell of ride (in a good way) from this moment on. BTG has that magic that not a lot of shows have. I'll update more... when I'm done catching up.
    • So very glad to hear this. Yesterday I suddenly thought; OMG, what about spoilers, have I just  ruined things for Maxim in getting carried away with interest in Evan, who was so well-written & well-acted. BTW, your fan review of this episode was a sight for eyes that had not seen one of these for a little bit too long, LOL!!!  Mitch is also fascinating to me but in his case it's because he was all in with Janice & her nefarious plan & then he did this turnabout we've mentioned & he basically got off scot-free.
    • It does seem cheap and lazy for this show to have just one family. Passions was heavily criticized but it was nicely structured with a total of four families.      
    • I think it was definitely a surprising reveal in the storyline. I had a hard time appreciating Evan because I couldn't get behind his interest in Amanda. But that's because I never thought Sandra Ferguson made her a compelling character (although to give her credit she occasionally had decent emotional scenes with Mac or Rachel).
    • I'll even go further... I'll make her re-think BeLief and create a new patent. Brooke needs stuff to do. Anything other than beg or be in her panties. We need her to be creative. But sadly Bradley has a very low opinion of these characters. To him Brooke is nothing more than sex and scandal... or a pathetic doormat. Ridge is nothing more than a chauvinist pig that needs to pit women against each other to feel like A MAN and Steffy is nothing more than her father's guard-dog. I don't even want to open my mouth about Hope. She is such a fiasco in my opinion... I will not suffer if they kill her off. Bradley pooped on her character and now it's too late to fix it. Annika is great and I would hate to see her go, but slutty Hope was not her thing. The vibe was missing.     
    • I've seen Jason interact with Mitch and annoy him. That's as far as I recall. I didn't even have a slight idea that Evan had a vendetta against Rachel... That came as a surprise to me. I thought Evan was Iris's dog and that's it. Now he's definitely more interesting.
    • Thanks for these. I can't recall -- did Evan's vendetta have any position on Mitch, or was it all about Rachel? @Maxim have you seen any Frames intreracting with Mitch in any way?
    • Thank you for the tag! It's always a pleasure to see these little pearls of memories. 
    • Uh-oh. Today just might’ve been the first Paula/Jeanne stinker. I have a feeling whose fault that might be though. So, Doug III is getting a job at the Pub?  It’s good to see him interact with other characters. I enjoyed his scenes with Roman, even though the talk of Frankie and Max seemed a little random. And it also could be really interesting now that Tate knows. Days really need to start pushing their rivalry again. We need some follow up from the punch. Tying it all to Holly, to Sophia’s pregnancy, to the guys that Doug III owes money to could be good.  But yeah, wayyy too much Leo again in today’s episode. Seriously, has anything changed with this nothing character? I thought it was all Ron’s fault, but maybe Greg Rikaart is (partially) responsible for Leo being so insufferable.  And yeah seriously, Rafe needs to throw all of these people out of his house. Including Gabi

      Please register in order to view this content

      But I do wonder who’s the mysterious voice that Gabi overheard with EJ on the night he was shot. Based on yesterday’s episode, I have a suspicion. 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy