Sheffer whipped the stale and aging ATWT into shape when he began in Summer 2000 and that continued until mid-July 2004. From mid-July 2004 to May 2005, the show lost a lot of momentum and its spark. I think it had to do with Sheffer's weight problem. He underwent surgery in late 2004/early 2005, and during that time, he relied heavily on Passanante.

I've yet to watch a Sheffer penned movie/series. What kind of script writer is Sheffer? I feel that he's a good, not great, storyteller who should always have a strong team of writers to support him. ATWT had a rockin' writing team from Aug 2000-July 2004. How I loved 2001 & 2002 scripts! Absolutely delicious.

Great: 2001 & 2002

Very Good: 2000 (Aug-Dec) & 2003

Okay: 2004

Bad: 2005

It seems like a lot of revisionist history here. Hogan had a great first year. His break-up of Hal and Barbara's marriage created an umbrella story that churned out story after story. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. When reliving Hogan's "glory days", please remember classics like "Bonnie In Scotland", "Pilar Kills Katie's Rabbit", "The Dahlia Mystery", "Teens On The Run" "The Return Of Nikki Munson" "Aaron's Boxing Adventure"' and , of course, "Celia In An Orange Crate". Please. I'll take JP over Hogan any day of the week.

ITA. While JP has her faults, she's serious about the show. HS treated it like a joke.

He's a dialogue writer, that's clear.

That explains a lot.

I loved his work on ATWT. I will admit, close to the end it was getting bad. But I loved the show under his writing. I loved the storylines he wrote: Bryant's death, Barbara's psychosis, Julia's psychosis, early Craig/Carly, Carly/Jack/Julia, etc. He also had scenes that I'll never forget, like when Julia shot up David's casket, Julia hitting Jack with a hammer, Barbara's entrance into the courtroom covered all in black, Rose falling down in her wedding dress after being poisoned, Will turns out to be the killer. Carly, Julia, Barbara, Craig, Bonnie, Isaac, Rose, Emily, Paul were all memorable characters under Hogan's pen. He sure loved the character of Carly. He actually made me like Carly, who was a character I hated for years.

I personally loved the Hogan Sheffer years on ATWT.There seemed to be more fast-paced storylines and more mystery and adventure back then.It seems miles above anything we get from JP now and her storylines drag out way too long.At least with Sheffer if the story was a clunker at least it ended quickly,but with JP she doesn't know when to end the madness and draw it to a close.Even reading the ATWT synopses from 2002-2003 on soapcentral.com seemed more interesting than what the show is spewing out now.What is everyone's take on this topic?

Yes. I wish he stayed at ATWT because JP has managed to destroy everything I loved under Hogan's pen. You know what's funny? The stories I thought were disasters were lightyears MORE interesting than JP's best episode. It's hard for me to watch ATWT. In fact, I took if off my programmer and I'm actually not missing it at all. If this was during Hogan's reign, I would have been furious for missing even 5 minutes. I don't care what anyone says, Hogan is the reason why I got addicted to ATWT while JP is the reason why I ditched it.

Sheffer whipped the stale and aging ATWT into shape when he began in Summer 2000 and that continued until mid-July 2004. From mid-July 2004 to May 2005, the show lost a lot of momentum and its spark. I think it had to do with Sheffer's weight problem. He underwent surgery in late 2004/early 2005, and during that time, he relied heavily on Passanante.

I've yet to watch a Sheffer penned movie/series. What kind of script writer is Sheffer? I feel that he's a good, not great, storyteller who should always have a strong team of writers to support him. ATWT had a rockin' writing team from Aug 2000-July 2004. How I loved 2001 & 2002 scripts! Absolutely delicious.

Great: 2001 & 2002

Very Good: 2000 (Aug-Dec) & 2003

Okay: 2004

Bad: 2005

I heard the last year of his reign was actually not his writing. I also remember some of his stories got scrapped that year and his was mighty pissed (Holden/Molly story). It makes me wonder if that was the reason why Lesli Kay left in the first place. Wasn't she and Jon Hensley interested in this storyline? Anyway, ITA with your post.

Thinking back to his last year on the show I don't think it was that bad.

ITA. While JP has her faults, she's serious about the show. HS treated it like a joke.

Oh I gotta disagree there. JP has not proven to me once that she's serious about ATWT. HS is debatable, but JP no way IMO.

I liked parts of his era. From when he took over in the summer of 2000 up until early 2002 was great, but it fell apart with utter crap stories like Bonnie in Scotland(thank god Billy was left in that dungeon!), Aaron&Lucy, and the Simon imposter. But then in oh I would say May 2003 when Paul's plane crashed, the show really started to get good and remained so in my opinion until Jack was presumed dead in the summer of 2004 and we also got an overdose of Stenbeck plus heinous characters like Doc Reese, Julia Larrabee, and Pilar. And the awfulness continued throughout the rest of Sheffer's tenure.

JP in my opinion did decently her first six months as HW, since then it's been really bad.

it had its ups and downs, it was good, not amazing or awful when HS had it...

but i feel the same way about it now.

ITA. While JP has her faults, she's serious about the show. HS treated it like a joke.

I can't comment on ATWT as I havent watched steadily enough to judge but on AMC that certainlyw asn't true--she wrote the show like it was some wacky cartoon.

E

soapfan, thanks for reminding me of the horrendous Margo/Jessica/Doc Reese story. Combine Doc Reese with Pilar, Dahlia, Scottish Bonnie, Billy Ross, and the "unforgettable" Rafael and Celia, and JP is lightyears better than Sheffer, who did turn ATWT into a joke.

JP in my opinion did decently her first six months as HW, since then it's been really bad.

Well she had a good writing team under her the first six months, just like Sheffer had in 2000 and 2001. Trent Jones and Josh Griffith were apart of the team. As soon as they left so did the good stories.

Maybe it's bc I still remember how horrible she was on AMC, but I just can't find anything positive about Jean Passanante's reign on ATWT.

Hm what about Cleo Babbit,,,JPiss's greatest creation

I think the baby-switch storyline was great. It was classic umbrella-storyline. Everyone was involved, with great playout and fallout. The Luke/Noah storyline is getting raves as well, another JP creation. Maura and Jennifer won their Emmys under JP, who I think is doing a very nice job, compared to hack Hogan.

Well she had a good writing team under her the first six months, just like Sheffer had in 2000 and 2001. Trent Jones and Josh Griffith were apart of the team. As soon as they left so did the good stories.....what about Cleo Babbit,,,JPiss's greatest creation

For about her first three months as HW, Passanante was working off of the stories Sheffer created. The groundwork had been laid. She was first credited as HW in late May 2005.

Babbit is a perfect example of the over-ratedness of Jennifer Landon. There was NOTHING good about Cleo. Not one thing. Landon should be embarrased by that role. Enough said.