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2008: The Directors and Writers Thread


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Be sick all you want to but, first of all, that's why I asked TOUPS for the information. I wanted to know if there was, indeed, anything to give substance to this belief that Agnes is writing. Secondly, the reality is that no one "in the know" has said she's been writing the show, her name isn't in the credits in any capacity and she hasn't been given public recognition for writing the show, so that's why I believe she isn't.

The "B&E can't write and the stuff we're watching is good so Agnes MUST be writing it" theory doesn't hold water for me. Sorry.

Some of y'all wanted me to get back into AMC regularly... be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. ;)

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I am excited. I love all your comments on all things AMC.

All we know is Agnes was possibly consulting. I mean giving their track record at AMC, B&E all of the sudden growing a creative mind is kind of hard to swallow, but they could very well have, because the show has been light years ahead since the strike ended, then it was August-December last year.

Agnes involved? Maybe. B&E actually writing "average" also a maybe.

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I'm so glad you said something, R Sinclair. I just went off on this very uncharacteristic rant in the HS-to-Y&R thread about the same thing. If you don't like a writer, that's fine... but at least admit when they do something right, even if it's few and far between. B&E and their team wrote a good wedding. They also wrote a good few weeks last year when Crash started.

Do I think they should keep their jobs? No. Overall, it's been a failure. But that doesn't mean there weren't good moments. And this wedding was a good moment. So bravo.

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Pratt's not starting 'til mid-June. No buzz re a co-HW.

AMC's current writing team is the most overworked, underpaid, demoralized in the industry. Why? Because Julie Carruthers is insisting on eliminating the breakdown writer position. What this means is that the scriptwriters are now being required to sit through interminable "layout meetings" trying as best they can to decipher sketchy "direction" that they're then required to turn into an "outline" (of sorts-- God help you if you call it a breakdown) before then sitting down to write their script. Most scriptwriters aren't trained to write breakdowns (it's not their job to structure an episode). Thanks to Julie, they're now required to do TWO jobs while getting paid to do one.

Why should anyone care? Because this is an insanely stupid way to work that's going to be one of the final nails in AMC's coffin. The headwriter/breakdown writer/scriptwriter model has been the industry standard for decades. It's a tried-and-true formula-- a well-oiled machine-- kind of like a relay race where each writer passes the baton to the next. At the end of a work week, a soap opera writing team delivers five (sometimes six) hours of network television-- miraculous when you consider that the average primetime season of a show like "ER" or "Brothers & Sisters" consists of approximately 26 episodes. (Primetime writers get three to four WEEKS to write their episodes!) Eliminating the breakdown position is going to be catastrophic for AMC. Unfortunately, my friends, things are only going to get worse...

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Just further backing up what Casiello said about all writers burning out.

This is just a bad, bad state of affairs, and a horrible by-product of the strike. And you're right, Rain. It's not going anywhere. AMC, ATWT, GL and DAYS will eventually suffer creatively for removing this part of the assembly line.

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From what I've heard, Frank is VERY happy with the OLTL team the way it stands now, and doesn't want anything to change.

Of course, who knows what'll happen in six months, or what ABC might do to them. But from everything I'm hearing, OLTL is safe and secure.

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The difference is that Jean Passanante and Leah Laiman share breakdown writing duties on ATWT, so while the position has technically been eliminated, the breakdowns are still being written. ATWT scriptwriters are not required to sit through day-long layout meetings. They're not required to structure their own episodes (i.e., do two jobs for the price of one). They continue to receive fully-fleshed, detailed breakdowns to assist them in writing their scripts. They're lucky.

God bless Frank.

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Yeah, at least GL made their breakdown writers the new script team, since they understood structuring. (Not that it's helping them much these days, but I understand the thought process)

This AMC issue is a REAL problem. And definitely reeks of unfair labor practices.

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Wasn't Agnes not called a "storyline consultant" in one of the recent AMC articles? It was in SOD, and either about Dixie or Jake...and I thought it was Frons saying it (sorry, don't have the SOD's in front of me)

and yet, Carruthers still has a job.

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