From: http://totaltvonline.com/index2.php?option...df=1&id=686

The Llanview Chronicles 7/1 Contributed by Chenel Monday, 18 June 2007

I guess it's time to finally say goodbye to my Dena Higtler (yes I know her name is Dena Higley and no, Higtler is not atypo) voodoo doll. You all know how unabashedly excited I am that she is finally gone. By the end of her tenure, my poorlittle voodoo looked like the first cousin to the pinhead on Hell raiser. Having said all of that, the one thing on my mindright now is the handyman special currently known as One Life To Live. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. Ourshow is in need of a complete overhaul ranging from the characters, extending to the storylines, wardrobe and setdesigns. Judging from what I've seen out there on the message boards, the burning question of the day is will RonCarlivati actually have the skills to restore and renovate the show. Since that is the question of the hour, I thought the best place to start was by talking about our new Head-writer. Just whois Ron Carlivati? According to the "official" statement released by ABCD, the very little that we do know seemspositive. Ron has worked at One Life To Live for almost 11 years. He attended George Washington University law schoolin Washington, D.C. So what does this mean for us fans? I am taking the time to show the evolution of Ron's journey at OLTL for a fewreasons. First of all there is a big difference between what it could mean potentially and then there's the grim dose ofwhat we will actually see. Potentially, Ron could turn out to become a very good head writer. Rising from the labyrinths of writing show in the waythat Ron Carlivati has was the way that they developed good head writers back during the glory days of soaps in the 80'sand 90's. Head writing gurus such as Agnes Nixon, William Bell Sr., The Albinos, and Marland followed that same path. And there are a wide variety of rumors floating around about which storylines Ron Carlivati has been responsible for. Idid a background search of Ron's credits as associate writer and he had a hand in many of the episodes that fansseemed to find some ray of sunshine in. Most recently, he penned the David and Viki versus Dorian and Clint scenes. Hewrote the Cristian and Blair conversation. He also wrote the Jess and Tonio post surgery scenes and the Jessica andCristian scenes. He wrote the ski lodge scenes. He wrote the Kevin and Kelly Cramer rectory confrontation scenes. Hewrote the execution scenes and though I feel that those scenes portrayed a gross mischaracterization of the character ofTodd Manning, I do understand that those scenes had good material for the supporting characters and even the actor. Additionally, he wrote on the team that penned the Walker is Todd storyline, the Colin is Troy storyline, the MitchLaurence storyline, the Viki has cancer storyline and many other storylines that showed that as a writer he has someconnection to the characters and the actors on the show. So it might seem that he has the historical perspective to fuel his future as a visionary scribe for the show. Among hispeers he has developed a reputation for writing hip, character driven material. All of that bodes well for his current tenureas a headwriter at OLTL.

The job of the head writer however is an interesting one. They function as the leading writer for the soap opera teamcurrently known as the breakdown writers or associate headwriters. Usually the head writers are the ones who conceiveof the storyline arches which is essentially a story outline that lasts from 8 to 16 weeks. The outline is then broken downinto a brief summary for each week. The head writer meets with the breakdown writers and the producers at least two orthree times per week where the plots and storylines are all summarized. It is during these meetings where the writing team will then divide the storyline arches into five episodes and break itdown into acts, scenes with a summary of the action. This is where the term break down writer actually comes from. It'snot unusual for the head writer to also write a breakdown or two most especially what used to be known as the Friday cliffhanger. The break down is turned into an episode which consists of anywhere from 14 pages to 20 pages outlining 21 scenes ofthe actors, sets, props and stunts. Sometimes the breakdown team will include a line or two or maybe a key phrase to setthe tone of a scene. Most often the break down will not have any dialogue. The next phase is where the script writers take the breakdowns and write the dialogue for each scene. This is where thedocument becomes a script. There is usually one permanent script writer for each soap and on OLTL, that person is LeslieNipkow. Her job is to proof-read the completed script and check for continuity errors with history of the show and thecharacters. Sometimes the script editor can also write breakdowns and that is exactly what happened when OLTL had topull the plug on the high school shooting storyline that they had planned after the Virginia Tech Massacres. LeslieNipkow was responsible for re-writing the breakdowns into the product which actually did air. It's also possible for thescript editor to write dialogue on some of the scripts. More on Page 2 After the script editor, the script is not considered complete until the head writer gives his or her final nod of approval.And then the Executive Producer is responsible for providing his/her final approval before the script is all set. After walking through that process what I was hoping to convey was that Ron Carlivati has been through this chain atOLTL. He worked his way up from the script writing team up to the associate head writer team where he was assignedthe task of writing for certain key characters.

This could be a good sign because it could indicate that he has the ability write strong dialogue for the characters which in turn means that his storyline conceptualizations may contain thepotential to set up dramatic discussions. For those of you who may not be aware, oftentimes scriptwriters are assigned towrite for certain characters. If a particular writer displays a propensity for writing for their assigned characters, it's notunheard of that they will then get promoted to serve on the breakdown rotation. Patrick Mulcahey was able to accomplishthis on General Hospital with his writing for Carly. I've heard that OLTL has a decent crop of breakdown writers. Currentlywriting for the breakdown team: Shelly Altman, Janet Iacobuzio, Victor Gialanella, Chris Van Etten. All The Right Stuff So far, everything that I have outlined should prove to be advantageous to Ron. He will have inside knowledge of much ofthe show's 10 year history and more because he was responsible for writing it. He already knows the characters and theevents that took place and will be more likely to have an intimate knowledge and connection with certain characters thatsimply can't be manufactured. The other factor that can work to RC's advantage is that he is familiar with the actors on the show. Dena Higtler, had metfewer than 5 actors on the show or at least so I've heard. This is severely debilitating because the head writer needs to atleast be able to visualize the people that they are writing for and I'm sorry but glossy 8x10 photos is no replacement forthat face to face contact. Bill Bell used to walk through the halls of Y&R and only refer to the actors by the names of theircharacters. He said that it helped him to keep the characters fresh in his mind so that he could continue to create forthem. So far RC has also received endorsement from many of the actors who have been willing to discuss this. Erika Sleazakin her newsletter of fire...gave him a ringing endorsement by calling his promotion to co-head writer "a very good thing." Robin Strasser in her hotline reaction to Dena Higtler's firing said that Ron knows the show very well and knows thehistory and was even a fan of the show before he came to write for it. And Kamar De Los Reyes also said that RonCarlivati is very good at character driven material and familial dynamics. Jerry Ver Dorn has weighed in saying that a"head writer is in charge who is committed to the history of the show and that means only good things to come." And thenseeing Ron with some of the actors on the red carpet before the Emmy's was also a good sign. I like actually seeing thewriter interact with the actors that he has write for. So far it sounds like we are on the right foot. It appears that RC has all of the tools necessary to work on the behemoth ofsuck that is OLTL. Make no mistake about it; the state of the show is certainly akin to a handyman special. I am willing togamble and say that RC may actually have the skills to repair the show. But it will not be an easy task. State of The Show We have four current storylines. Todd's missing son. The OPP. Jessica and Nash's Post DID Affair. The Teens. Todd's Missing son in my opinion is a total bust. This is the part of the show that should be the foundational storyline thatumbrellas or branches off into many different storylines. But it's just gone on for far too long. Really, Todd's missing sonis an extension of the Mad Mags rapes Todd Manning storyline.

As if that storyline wasn't bad enough it's riddled with glaring problems. Todd Manning gets raped? Sorry but that was the beginning of the end of any viability for this character as a the show'sforce to be reckoned with. It was a bad decision because now instead of a relatable villainous character, we've now beenreduced to a character who is a constant wimpy victim. I can't take very much more of it either. At this point, the story hasgone on for so long they'd be better off, just leaving Tommy with Michael and Marcie and having Todd forget all about hismissing son. Because half of the audience has probably already forgotten. This foundational storyline needs to be rippedup and thrown out. Just replace it with something new and start over. More on Page 3 Down With OPP! I am not even going to spend much time on this one. The storyline didn't have a chance. It's clear that they never knewwhere they were going with this from the very start. It started in December and should have ended in May. Themotivations of the hate group never made sense. Originally it started off with the OPP using paint thinners to set fires.Then they put blueprints on Cristian Vega's computer. And ever since then, they've set random fires to the homes ofbusinesses and people who were told they were targeting due to their race, gender or religious affiliation. I admit that the most recent developments with Tate and his father showed promise. Imagine how bad things must bewhen a black woman such as myself is finally clapping my hands at the sight of Tate displaying some disgust at having toshake the hand of a black reporter. This movement however came too little late. I am just not interested. I do regret thatthey wasted the character of Tate and his father. The problem was definitely not the actors. The only good thing to come out of the OPP storyline is Talia Saheed. Beth Ann Bonner has done such a good job withher character and she is a pleasant addition on the show. But other than that, please just make it go away. This is another storyline that should be ripped up and thrown out andreplaced with another one. Could The DID Storyline Really Be Over? Jessica and Nash finally went home to the cottage. Tonio and Talia were in the hospital together.

Please oh please, let this be the end of the DID gang! I've had more than my fill with this storyline and I am so ready to see the next phase.Right now this storyline is more than ripe to branch off into wherever they are taking Jessica and Nash and whereverthey are taking Tonio and Talia. In fact, I wouldn't mind a nice summer storyline of Jessica and Nash getting to knoweach other at the cottage with Tonio and Talia working cases together. It's a miracle that this storyline which was sohorribly mishandled was even able to land in a position to launch new storylines. But it has. Here's hoping that Ronactually has the balls to really end this for good and I hoping he replaces all elements of the DID/kiddie porn/affair withsomething new and interesting. To Be Continued?? Whoever decided to force Mc Hammer meets Spirit fingers on teens needs to be fired. That should be RC's first item ofbusiness. Seriously. Who thought that forcing the audience into watching the teens scream for 4 days would beentertaining. In my last column I said that there couldn't be anything worse than watching stupid characters on the show.I was wrong. There's nothing worse than watching stupid young characters that are caterwauling. And that's what it was. I sat there feeling as though someone was subjecting me to cruel and unusual punishment. Isn't that against the law orsomething? If it isn't, it should be. For starters, there is no way that I believe that Starr Manning is this wussy innocentingénue who wants to mope around because she can't be with Cole. Just no. A thousand times no! Running around inthe rain? No. Falling in the mud and crying! No. Star Manning, the Prom Queen? Hell to the naw! No way, no how. The only way that I believe that Star Manning wouldturn into the Prom Queen is if she was the one who stuffed the ballot box. And what's with Creepy Marcie who wants Langston and Markko (yeah Mark with two K's) to just be together? Whatteacher ever acts that way? Adding to my confusion is why on earth the kids who are all freshman in high school by the way are even going to theProm. Please! I beg of the soap gods, spare us from anymore of this dreck. Do not ever bring this storyline back to the screen. Since we sat through this thing, I'd say that we've earned the right to have a moratorium on singing for the rest of theyear. I'm serious folks. The next time someone even opens their mouth to sing on OLTL, I want a bird to fly by and makea deposit right in their mouth. The only way that I could have believed that this storyline would have worked is if I'd seen Star Manning turn into Carrie,the revengeful character from Steven King. That's what would have made it believable to me. What I saw, was horriblyexecuted and the OLTL execs may not realize this but they became the laughing stock of the internet for it.

Granted I understand everything that they were trying to accomplish. I even applaud them for the effort. But singing onsoaps is a taboo sin for me. End of discussion. More on Page 4 Thank you for reading my column. Join me next week as we talk about the women of Llanview. From My Inbox: It's great hearing from so many of you. If you want to send me an email about this week's column you can do by clickingHERE!! M.O. writes I saw you post a comment here and figured there wouldn't be two "Tashlovers" out there and I wanted to let you know Ireally enjoyed your recent article at Totaltvonline. I've seen your posts around the various boards and always thoughtyou were wonderfully articulate and very funny and that your article was spot on about the state of the show.I hope you don't mind me contacting you this way, I couldn't figure out how to send you a message at the tvonline site.Just wanted to let you know I thought it was great! M.O. it seems that the last column struck a nerve with so many soap opera fans at OLTL.

One thing we can probably allsay is that we are united forever by our mutual hatred of Dena Higley's writing. M.S writes Tash,

I so agree with you on this writer and this show. I have only been watching for 2 1/2 years and even I can see she wasthe worst ever! I know they have made some changes recently but the show seems to have fallen apart! There are greatactors on this show if only given the material to work with. M.S., I think OLTL has an excellent cast. I believe the new writer, Ron Carlivati will take advantage of the rich history anddiverse cast. Here's hoping. L.M. writes So why is Tate the leader of the OPP going after a latina babe? What happened to the stories where Bad was evil? I hopeTodd does not does not get Tommy. Jessica's liver cancer and her whole thing with Nash is so boring already.great column L.M., I have no idea why Tate is going after a latina woman. I can only surmise that Adrianna serves as some kind ofcover for him. I too miss the days when a bad character was purely evil. I don't mind having some gray charactersbut there's nothing more bland than watching a bunch of characters who have strayed much too far from their foundationalcharacterization. I too am rooting for Todd not to end up with Tommy. With the way that they write for this character, thepoor kid would be bored to death. As for Jessica's liver cancer, well I am beyond tired of that storyline but do find myselflooking forward to seeing what happens with Nash and Jess this summer. D.D. writes I just read the Llanview Chronicles and wanted to contact the person who writes it. It was excellent and i agreed with heron almost all of her points. D.D Thanks for writing in. Allow me to apologize that you had to go through so much trouble to email me. I am notaccustomed to having anyone agree with the majority of my points since I tend to be contrarian by nature. However, Imaintain that the show was lucky that they fired Higtler when they did. I was beginning to foster the idea of storming thestudios with pitchforks and burning crosses.R.H writes Hey Tashl! Loved your column. I am having a bunch of my friends print it out and send it on to tptb. I think it's fabulous. Very well done. Thanks for stating so eloquently what so many people think. R.H, may the reign of Dena Higtler long live in infamy. It seems that the only thing that she ever did correctly was writestories that all of us hated. Thanks for sending a copy to tptb. Hopefully, things will change. I am rather optimistic. S.T.H writes Great column Tash. I don't know how much more of this crap I can bear. We can only hope that the show at least doesn'tget any worse between now and September. Hey, next column call on Frankie to sprout a nad and actually outline somevision for the show before the new writer signs on. S.T.H. I thank you kindly to leave Frankie's nad out of my column! But I love the premise behind the thought. It would benice if I could develop a sense of optimism with Frankie but given his latest statement in the soap magazines where heasked whether or not his cast could win an award for best looking, I don't think that I can. I sincerely hope that Ron'swriting can overcome the horrors of the network hierarchy.

I read that, and loved it. No longer is Leslie Nipkow Script Editor, though.

I read that, and loved it. No longer is Leslie Nipkow Script Editor, though.

Yeah I heard about that. When was she fired, and who is taking her place? Was anyone else on the writing staff canned too?

According to Toups, Carolyn Culliton is the new Script Editor. I heard a rumor about her wanting to be Co- Head Writer, but Script Editor is close enough. Leslie was fired 2 Friday's ago. We know that ATWT Writer Elisabeth Page joined OLTL, but we dont know if she is a breakdown writer or a script writer because her work hasn't touched the screen yet. I would only think that Ron is going to bring in different writers for his team. I can think of a whole lot of them that are available.

OLTL needs writers. Ginger Redmon, Lisa Seidman, Leslie Nipkow,Loprieno, Bradbury, and others are yet to be replaced!! Cascio, and Casiello(sp?) all have left. OLTL only has a few script writers, and some new breakdown writers wouldnt hurt.

Edited August 7, 200718 yr by Jay

That said I'm all for Carolyn being promoted

Carolyn is a great writer. Let's hope OLTL gets more good writers. Things are finally going to a better place.

Calling her Higtler is so wrong.

Like I said before, I keep hearing a nagging rumor about Carolyn trying to get up their to Co- Head Writer and Script Editor is the first step.