In The Zone Radio: Season 2

[ljacks13]

I disagree I thought the interview was really good the way it was. I think that people just asking question after question is boring, and sometimes when you let just someone talk through their experiences surprising things come out of it. I love free flow and little interruption. Great interview.

[Soapsuds]

I agree. I thought it was a great interview. And she will be back. So Ryan can pick up where he left off. There is so much to cover with a soap writer. You could talk to one almost all day about their work in the business.

[Sylph]

I didn't say the interview was bad, quite the opposite. I only thought it covered little because she spent half of it saying how she got into the business. Which isn't wrong - it just took precious time away from other important issues.

[Sylph]

I didn't say the interview was bad, quite the opposite. I only thought it covered little because she spent half of it saying how she got into the business. Which isn't wrong - it just took precious time away from other important issues.

[Sylph]

I didn't say the interview was bad, quite the opposite. I only thought it covered little because she spent half of it saying how she got into the business. Which isn't wrong - it just took precious time away from other important issues.

[brimike]

Sylph, I went into great detail in the Writers Thread. Looking forward to you ripping it to shreds.

POP! POP! POP! :lol:

[brimike]

Sorry. Not trying to be annoying. Just copying and pasting my response here from the writers' thread. I kept editing it as I was listening to it, but it really does belong here. SORRY!!!!

FROM WRITERS' THREAD:

Just started listening to it, but I have to say, I think the biggest issue is we tend to group writers into two categories: those "get it" (Marland, Bell, Nixon) and those who "don't get it" (McTavish, Guza, Higley). When in reality, there's no acconting for taste, whether it's good taste or bad taste. Sara Bibel regrets Cassie's death, although I stand by that as a great decision Y&R made. Casiello liked writing Steve in the asylum, a story universally panned by the fans. If Patrick liked the Unabortion (which I haven't gotten to that part yet, so I haven't actually heard what she says), then she liked it. And we shouldn't move her from one category to the other because of a personal opinion. But that's just my two cents before I've gotten into the meat of the interview. I could change my mind. smile.gif

ETA: I'm just going to keep editing this post, as things hit me. That okay, Sylph? tongue.gif I'm loving that she's talking about the pressure everyone's under. That whole "too bad she died, have you finished your script?" mentality is definitely right on the money. People in NYC still had scripts due on Friday, September 14, 2001. That's cray talk. Also, the situation she described where the script writer writes their own breakdown only exists on AMC (and a little on B&. There's still a version of breakdowns being written on GL, ATWT and DOOL - it's just that the head writers write all five breakdowns.

I'm so bored hearing the same story about why soaps are dying. This isn't to say MP's answer wasn't right. It's just a story we've heard so many times, I don't think there's anything new to offer in this answer. But I'm SO nitpicking. Sorry.

Regarding Megan? Victor Miller has a lot of good things to say about her as well. Here's my (new-ish) take on Megan McTavish. If she likes you? Chances are you have a great experience working with her. If she doesn't like you? She's Carolyn Hinsey. smile.gif

I'm amazed how upbeat she is considering the tragedy in some of these stories.

Did she just call Laura Wright "The Valkyrie"?!?! ROFLMAO!!! I'm not even sure I know what that means, but for some reason, I find it hysterical!

I also love that her LEAST favorite episode to write was the Noah/Julia Cinderella wedding. That was NOT what I expected her to say, but it kinda makes sense. It was SO sugary. And I love that she adored writing the Sonny/Ric confrontation at the house. I remember that episode vividly, and I loved every moment in it.

I'm at the McTavish "movement" part, and the Guza "dark dangerous men" part, and reading between the lines, I don't think she's defending either of them. Ryan asked what she learned from these writers, and she's reciting what she learned from them. I don't think it was a defense at all. Just an observation. Megan wanted movement, Guza made men dark and dangerous - they're just observations about what she took away. Doesn't mean she loves everything they've ever done.

Clearly, something happened between Pratt and Guza, but it probably happened around the same time Patrick got moved to AMC, so the two stories got lumped together. I love her line "Clearly there are people who will 'never' work together again, who end up 'working together again'".

Her explanation of the JOnathan Lavery situation was dead-on right, and I can totally understand what she was trying to say. She also pointed out they probably went too far in hindsight, but her explanation in the moment makes perfect sense to me.

I also understood what she was trying to say about the Unabortion. What I wished was brought up was this small fact: GH is a very different show from AMC. She's correct in one regard - GH could have probably gotten away with it, after the Stavros thing. But AMC never had a man try and freeze the world. And even though many fans are ABCD fans and watch the whole line-up, they also look for one thing in GH and look for another thing in AMC.

The other thing is, as far as the Quartermaine/budget response - that makes sense to me as well HOWEVER the follow-up question should have been: But why is it necessary to KILL them off. Can't you just write them off the canvas? Why did Alan, Justus and AJ all need to be killed off? (Especially Alan, since he's still on the show) Why couldn't they all have been written off the canvas in any number of ways?

That damn switchboard. Man, BlogTalk kills me sometimes. smile.gif

Overall, great interview RC and Soapie. Loved it. And I wasn't nearly as disappointed in Michelle's responses as I thought I'd be based on some of the comments here. She gave pretty well-rounded answers, looking at both the pros and cons of each individual situation.

That detailed enough for you, Sylph? biggrin.gif

[Sylph]

Well, I've typed an equally long reply, but then the IPS error resurfaced! Not again!

As for Sara/Tom thing: I agree with Sara because I didn't like that storyline (it involved a death and a death of a child), no matter how well executed it was I just have a bunch of problems with it. As for Tom - LMAO! I don't hate the guy, I really don't. As a matter of fact, in these last few weeks I haven't been talking about him I got to like him. Sort of. But he is way to juvenile in a lot of the things he says and does and he basically scr*wed himself in various matters. Which is saddening. And I'm being honest here. I'd much rather have Tom Casiello writing than Courtney Bugler, for example. And Courtney would like it that way, too.

B&B and the outlines: as it's been said in various thread around here, people have a huge misconception about it. First it was "B&B has no outlines", then there was "Brad writes them", blah, blah... In reality, Elizabeth Snyder is writing them, now possibly they're heavily edited by Kay Alden, but who knows. So B&B has a BDW.

Megan McTavish: no matter whether she adores you or loathes with immense intensity - she is just a bad writer who has a terrible track record. No one is discussing whether she's a difficult person or a kind lady ready to help. Sure, I don't believe her ex co-workers, except maybe Karen Lewis, would say she's downright awful, but hey... One can hope. I just don't see how someone can say Megan is a misunderstood writer who knows how to write great stuff. That's puzzling on so many levels and really pushing it.

Pratt & Guza: you will find out soon. I hope.

Un-abortion and The Freezing of the World: the GH and "freeze the world" was a lame argument. You have to admit it. It just makes no sense that such an esteemed writer would defend a story that killed one of the best things AMC was known for. No matter how hard people try, I just think they accept it but will never like it and all of them would never ever allow for it to happen if someone had asked them.

Forgot: what's terrifying is that she actually mentioned Megan and Guza only. No wonder her sense of story has been a little shaky if she only worked with those two (for the majority of her career, at least).

The whole interview is still mind-boggling to me.

[brimike]

And I totally get that, Sylph. I listened to the whole thing having already heard your comments, so I could totally see exactly where and why it bothered you. I was just playing Devil's Advocate and trying to see it from another angle. But I don't disagree with any of your arguments. Just not sure she was saying everything that was going through her head at the time the question was asked. The thing about EVERY one of these writer interviews is that you can always hear the pause where they're writing in their heads what they hope is the correct response, in terms of working again. (Except for Racina, all the other writer interviews on ITZ were with writers who are currently unemployed on a soap and hope to find work again)

[Sylph]

But can you explain to me how come none of these people thinks in a way that is acceptable to the fans? To me, they all seem so divorced from reality, as if they were from Pluto or some planet in Kuiper belt. I know that no one is going to trash something they worked on, but come on... At least you shouldn't defend Megan.

They all want to say the right thing, but it all comes out so wrong.

[brimike]

True enough. But you and I have both been guilty of the exact same thing in our posts on this board numerous times. And one could accuse both of us of being "divorced from reality" (or at least their perception of reality) based on some things we've said on here. Doesn't mean we're right or wrong, it's just how we see things. I never heard MP say anything gracious or wonderful about Megan. IN fact, MP even said that Megan gets trashed a lot because of the kind of person she is. And I don't disagree with that. MP just lived that time at AMC from a different perspective than we, the fans, did. But I don't think it's a case of being divorced from reality. I think it's just seeing it through different eyes.

Mind you, I *LOATHED* every second of the Unabortion story. To me, it was an unforgivable history rewrite that was drummed up just to create Trey: The Sequel, and just like Trey, a Kane-related man (yes, I know technically Trey wasn't a Kane, but you know what I mean) went the way of the exit door, making the whole thing in exercise in stupidity AND futility... and frustration on the parts of the fans. So I completely disagree with Michelle about the story. However, I can't discount her opinion or say it's divorced from reality. It is what it is.

[baller]

my internet at work isn't good for playing blogtalk for some reason--can someone recap what she said about the Jonathan storyline and character on AMC?

[Sylph]

I see what you mean and I agree. Yes, she never said anything gracious or wonderful, but somehow that line about Megan being the writer who likes to experiment and introduce new stuff... That was what frustrated me. And then justifying the un-abortion with ratings?! That was the last drop. People tuned in just to see how much she will destroy AMC, not to see how well she will write the whole thing.

[brimike]

Just that the actor was so good during the psychotic stuff, that the network wanted to find a way to keep him on. So they came up with some kind of escape hatch from the murdering stuff, and MP understood why and was happy to keep the actor on because she was so impressed by him. She then casually said that they might have taken it too far in the other direction with the story they came up with, but she did understand why they felt he had to be "reborn from the womb" after everything he had done.

What I took away from it was that they liked the actor, they had to rewrite the story, they did what they did, and at the time, it made sense. So I got it. I don't really agree with it (especially since he murdered EDMUND), but I do get it.

[brimike]

EXACTLY!!!! I totally agree, and I wish that had been thrown back at her (the same way I wish the whole "AMC is NOT GH and Erica's abortion is NOT Stavors" argument should have been), but at the end of the day, it was supposed to be an interview, not a debate. So the more I think about it, the more I'm glad Ryan and Jen didn't go there. She gave her opinion. We know it now. And we don't agree. I still think she's one hell of a script writer.

I think there's a lot more Kool Aid being IV'ed into peoples' arms then we know, and it takes awhile for them to come out of the fog. The more she talked about the way you immerse yourself in it week after week after week, the more I thought it must take a long time to get yourself free from that stranglehold of thinking "This is good, it has to be good, please let it be good" 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, for episodes that won't air for another three months, when it's too late to change anything.