Repeat Performance

[Paul Raven]

With writers going from show to show,have they used past stories/characters/themes in a new setting?

I'm thinking Bill Bell repeating elements of the Chris/Snapper/Greg story with Ridge/Caroline /Thorne.

In both cases,the virginal heroine turns against her true love,is raped and turns towards his brother.

Bell also used elements of the Leslie Brooks breakdown of the 70's with Ashley in the 80's.

Agnes Nixon had Rachel/Ada, Erica/Mona and Kate/Ava on Loving.

Doug Marland had the Reardons on Guiding Light and the Snyders on World Turns -large broods with a no nonsense mom.

Can anyone think of other examples from writers like Pam Long,Claire Labine,The Dobsons,Megan McTavsh etc

[R Sinclair]

Megan McTavish is way too easy of an example. Explosions, long lost sibling, rapes and other forms of terrorizing women, destruction of friendships, character propping, the list goes on with her. And this not only happens when she goes to another show, it's happened when she returned the last two times to write AMC. She not only repeats herself, she rewrites her own history SO she can repeat herself.

And since the only other show I watch is General Hospital (which has only been helmed by Guza, McTavish and Guza during the time I've been watching these last seven years), I really can't compare the others.

[MichaelGL]

Pamela Long's two tenures on GL:

Phillip/Beth/Rick/Mindy and Alan-Michael/Dinah/Harley/Cameron

Hogan Sheffer DAYS and ATWT (too many to name)

Craig/Carly/Jack and EJ/Sami/Lucas

Andre DiMera and James Stenback masquerading in numerous costumes

Abigail/Chris/Molly and Chelsea/Nick/Billie

Claire Labine GH and GL

Mob and the continuing story of the mob

[AMCer]

McTavish seemed really fond of having her young heroines raped. Her first stint was when Julia was raped, then at GL Lucy was raped and then when she returned to AMC Bianca was raped. Does anybody know was she HW when Gloria and Hayley were raped too?? Beacuse if so this lady is really twisted.

[Pine Charles]

Gloria was raped in 1992, so it would have been McTavish.

[brimike]

I agree with the other HS similarities, but Abi/Molly/Chris was written under Leah Laiman (Lesli Kay went into her coma/maternity leave for February Sweeps). Sheffer didn't join As the World Turns until later that summer.

[EricMontreal22]

I think Repetition with soap scribes is pretty normal--when you write SO much every day, etc...

Wasn't a LOT of B&B's first few years seen as just a loose rewrite of the early Y&R?

I think when McT returned and wrote the Who killed Michael Cambias murder she was hoping ofr a repeat of one of her shining moments at AMC (and one of the best murder mysteries at AMC seeing as AMC has often been criticized for its murder mysteries) the Who Killed Will one. A whole community against one person, the rapist angle--there were lots of smaller similarities people pointed out at the time but I've forgotten them (It took me a whiel to even remember that Bianca was Michael's killer...)

I swear someone pointed out some Malone similarities between his two eras at OLTL but I'm blanking...

While I think mcT had just started as HW at AMC when the Merricks and Wildwind were introduced AGnes Nixonw as still heavily involve din the show--and all of that had a lot of similarities to the 1980 COurtland Manor introduction, stories (secret wife, gothic Rebecca housekeeper, etc)

Maggie DePriest wrote the Salem Slayer and the Salem Slasher serial killer storylines at DAYS and then at AW did the (I think) Sin Slayer story.

When Agnes Nixon HW Loving in 93/94 to try to get it up int eh ratings I remember thinking a number of her (great) stories seemed like older AMC stories, but now I can't remember them clearly... Still you could always argue that a lot of her yougn love stories from Phil/Chuck/Tara to Jenny and Greg were quite similar

IO also remember someone mentioning Lorraine Broderick reusing, I think, the baby switch story she did at AMC in 96 with Maria and Erica either at her tenure at ATWT or when she co-HW OLTL

[Toups]

There was an article in SOD about this topic...I posted the links in the Directors/Writers thread.

http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/index.p...st&p=503624

[Cheap21]

Michael Malone's recent stint on OLTL seemed to always reveal around some type of murder mystery. It was overkill. Who killed Keri, the Music Box Murders, Who killed Mitch, The Killing Club, Who killed Tico....etc. This was all within like a 2 year span and they came right after each other

As for GH, well how many time has Guza tried to recreate the Sonny/Brenda/Jax triangle? Just insert random female into the Brenda slot

[EricMontreal22]

You mean his second stint right? to be fair Malone's rep is built on him being a mystery writer but ya--it was way too much

[Cheap21]

yes his recent one. There were too many murder mysteries. Maybe if they were spaced out more, but not right after each other. They lost their impact bc it was overkill

[EricMontreal22]

Great article although as is usual for SOD I wish it was twice as long... I forgot how obviously similar McT's two Kane kids back from the dead stories were...

I'm sure even Irna Phillips huge radio and tv runs had many similar (to say the least) stories.