7/9/2007 Email this article • Print this article

One life to live and many stories to give

By Terri T. Johnson

Staff writer

[email protected]

McMURRAY - Deer and wild turkey roaming through the back yard of Victor Gialanella's Peters Township home are easily visible from the hot tub on the large screened porch adjacent to a two-car garage and basketball hoop.

Gialanella, 57, leads a quiet, unassuming life with his wife, Cindy, their daughters, Alicia, 11, and Rebecca 8, and an assortment of cats.

But the work Gialanella does is anything but quiet and unassuming. He's a breakdown writer for an ABC daytime drama, writing characters through multiple marriages, infidelities, divorces and other adventures that make his life look rather mundane.

Basically, Gialanella has an active imagination that earns him a good living. For his efforts, he won a Daytime Emmy for his work on "Guiding Light" and a Writer's Guild of America award for "Days of Our Lives."

He's been actively writing soap operas since 1983. His typical suburban life in Peters Township is a long way from his early days working in his father's butcher shop in Newark, N.J., even though his vowel pronunciations carry a hint of the New Jersey accent.

He had a quick answer for the question: daytime drama or soap opera?

"Officially, it's daytime drama, but we write soap opera. It's a long, involved personal opera. Soaps are generational. My mom watched 'Days of Our Lives.'"

And for 12 years, Gialanella was a writer for the program.

Currently, he's a breakdown writer for "One Life to Live," working from home and setting his own hours, sometimes getting up and working in the middle of the night. The only commute is to the computer.

"Thank God for the Internet," Gialanella said as he sat on his back porch, wearing casual shorts with one leg swung over the arm of a comfortable chair.

"I guess if someone dies, I'll have to buy a suit," he said of his less-than-formal wardrobe.

"The networks think we're hacks," Gialanella said. "We're the bastard children. It's done on the fly and from the hip. Prime time has a week to shoot an hour. Soaps shoot an hour a day and we crank it out every day, 52 weeks a year."

On daytime dramas, there are three types of writers: head, breakdown and script.

The head writer creates the long-term story in broad strokes. Once the story line is approved, it's given to the breakdown writers, who determine how much of the story will be told during a week and then a day.

That's where Gialanella comes in, writing a 42-minute, daily plot, keeping it balanced and to the correct length of about eight pages. He does not write dialogue. That's up to the script writers, who eventually create 85- to 100-page scripts.

In late June, Gialanella was writing material that will not be on the air until at least October.

While he watches "One Life to Live," he does not watch other daytime dramas.

"I've written for so many, I don't need to watch," Gialanella said.

He does, however, watch the actors on the soap operas for which he writes.

"To write what they do well," he explained. "I want to learn about the actor and to write to their good points."

One of his longtime friends, Dena Higley, said in a telephone conversation from California that Gialanella is not the typical Hollywood writer.

"That is what stands out most in show business, where honesty and integrity are not necessarily a thing that most networks are most looking for in a person, he stands out with integrity, loyalty and intelligence, possibly at the expense of job security," Higley said of the man she's worked with on writing teams.

Growing up, Gialanella said he always wanted to be a writer.

"I started as a playwright, but it's a crap shoot," he said. In fact, in the early 1980s he wrote an adaptation of the novel "Frankenstein" that was a million-dollar production with a well-known cast in New York City. The play opened and closed the same night after "the critics savaged it."

His priorities are different now. When the Daytime Emmy Awards were broadcast June 15, Gialanella was not in front of the television. It was the night of his daughter's gymnastic recital, so he taped the program.

He said he's "frustrated" by reality television, calling it "voyeuristic."

His favorite program is "Boston Legal."

"I'd like to grow up to be David Kelly. He has very appealing characters and he doesn't talk down to the audience," Gialanella said of that show's creator.

He also likes Larry David, Steven Bochco and Bill Maher, whom he said makes you be smart. "'The "Sopranos,'" he said, was "brilliant, but not real TV."

As for his daughters, he restricts them to age-appropriate films.

In high school, Gialanella wrote and produced plays in his neighborhood. He majored in theater at Catholic University, but left after his sophomore year to join an actors' equity company, doing regional theater and once touring in Pittsburgh. He was broke, soon to be divorced and frustrated when "Frankenstein" ended. Then, he learned about a job on "Guiding Light."

That's how he got his start.

While buying toys for his nieces and nephews in a New Jersey mall in the early 1990s, he met his future wife.

"She was a nanny and getting toys for the kids. We started talking and had coffee," he said with a wide grin.

They married and returned to her native Bethel Park in 1994. The couple moved to Peters Township 11 years ago.

Retirement is sooner than later, after which he may write that book he's been taking notes about for the past several decades.

He's happy with his career choice of writing characters who are intertwined in so many viewers' lives. And, he's satisfied with a career in show business that enables him to live in relative obscurity in Peters Township.

"I never wanted to be Brad Pitt," he said.

Hear Victor Gialanella talk about the state of the soap opera: www.observer-reporter.com

http://www.o-ronline.net/sound/victor.mp3

If a moderator could please correct my spelling errors in the title, please?

Thanks for posting Jay. It was an interesting read. I feel like I've learned so much about daytime writing this past week.

If a moderator could please correct my spelling errors in the title, please?

I'll fix it for you Jay.

Thanks Scotty. I threw up in my mouth when I read Higley's comments. I was just laughing though because she was making them, as the former Head writer of OLTL.

I always love reading/hearing soap writers talking about soaps.

I was disappointed that the podcast was only 2.5 minutes long.

Thanks Scotty. I threw up in my mouth when I read Higley's comments. I was just laughing though because she was making them, as the former Head writer of OLTL.

You're welcome Jay. And it made me just shake my head. I didn't realize she had any friends.

On a side note, for what it's worth, I ran across this at IMDb.com:

With each of this listings they have either the episode number and/or the airdate wrong, because as we know the 10,000th episode will air on August 17th. But anyway, here is what is listed at IMDb.com:

Episode 9996, August 21, 2007*

Director: Frank Valentini

Writer: Victor Gialanella

Episode 9999, August 20, 2007*

No Director or Writer listed

Episode 10002, August 21, 2007*

Writer: Victor Gialanella

No director listed

*As you can tell, they have the airdates all screwed up. Episode 9996 will air on August 13th, episode 9999 on August 16th, and Episode 10002 on August 21st.

Also on another side note, look for another dayplayer role on August 27th.

Should we be nervous that a good friend of Higley's is still writing for OLTL? He says he watches the show, did he see how bad it has been? Also, why is Dena's husband still scripting as well. Shows just how small the writing community of daytime is, as in too small and too full of good buddies. OLTL needs fresh blood, IMO.

Thank you for posting.

Edited August 2, 200718 yr by SlezaksOLTL

Should we be nervous that a good friend of Higley's is still writing for OLTL?

I don't see why we should be. Just because he's friends with Dena doesn't mean he's a bad writer.

Also, why is Dena's husband still scripting as well.

Probably because (1) he's not at the end of his cycle or (2) they don't have a replacement for him yet or (3) Ron likes him! But my best bet would be on 1.

I don't see why we should be. Just because he's friends with Dena doesn't mean he's a bad writer.

But it doesn't mean he's a good writer either.

BTW, when did he start writing for OLTL? I ask because I don't recall hearing his name until just a few days ago.

I think OLTL is slowly on the road to recovery.

I have confidence in Ron Carlivati.

On a side note, another dayplayer role coming up on August 27th.

BTW, when did he start writing for OLTL? I ask because I don't recall hearing his name until just a few days ago.

One Life To Live

- Associate Head Writer (July 20, 2006 - Present)

One Life To Live

- Associate Head Writer (July 20, 2006 - Present)

Thanks Toups!

I can't believe he's been there for over a year and I haven't heard of him.

Man where have I been?

I guess you don't pay attention the credits because he's listed everyday. lol