I have to give Phelps props for once. I have three weeks of OLTL from 1998 and the show is amazingly produced at this time. The sets, lighting, music, etc. are all fantastic. The stories (Claire Labine at the time) are painfully dull which is odd considering Claire's GH and RH were never dull. Could someone who watched the show during this time, what were Claire's best and worst stories? I have seen Todd's parrot btw. He doesn't bother me because he hasn't spoke yet. He's just there as a pet in the episodes I've seen so far.

For GL fans, what was the best and worst for her there? From articles I've read, I don't blame her for that failure. Apparently there were very public disagreements over the format of the show. I read one article that said she was fired for two weeks, then rehired. Has that ever been done?

Rain, if you have any details on these stints, I'd love to know what went wrong!

Claire's OLTL stint ended in April 1998, so I assume if you're watching 1998 episodes, you won't have to put up with her material much longer. Her entire tenure at OLTL was reletively dull, which is a shame.

I guess Claire's exploration of Dorian's backstory could be counted as a initial hit, but the end of the story was a disaster. That story was in 1997 though, and it was quite gothic.

Here's another funny thing about Claire's OLTL, when she wrote Maggie Carpenter (Crystal Chappell) out, she sent the character to clown school.

Jill's OLTL tenure would morph into one huge mess by late 1998, story-wise. When Pam Long (who replaced Labine) was fire, Jill became HW of the show for a while, and then McTavish was hired. Jill and Megan were one toxic team to say the least.

I didn't watch GL back then, but I know that a lot of fans were very angry with her for killing off Maureen Bauer.

I think Chris was referring to Claire's GL stint, which sucked.

It was Jill's decision to kill Maureen though, but Nancy Curlee wrote the hell out of that story and it worked initially. Jill calls that decision the biggest mistake of her career though.

Edited June 10, 200817 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

I think the main problem with Claire Labine's GL stint was that she, Paul Rauch, and Mary-Alice Dwyer-Dobbin all HATED each other. I remember that CL was fired and then re-hired within the span of like two weeks once. Probably the same thing happened when she was HW of OLTL. JFP is the kind of EP that wants things done HER way or no way (I am pro-JFP btw.)

Edited June 11, 200817 yr by juppiter

Thom Racina is returning to Y&R to write scripts. Thom will also be a guest on In The Zone in the coming future

Another World

* Breakdown Writer (1988)

* Script Writer (1987)

Dangerous Woman

* Head Writer (1991)

Days of Our Lives

* Co-Head Writer (1984 - 1986)

Family Passions

* Head Writer (1993 - 1994)

General Hospital

* Co-Head Writer (1981- 1984)

Santa Barbara

* Breakdown Writer (1992 - January 15, 1993)

Search For Tomorrow

* Script Writer (1980)

From what I've heard Thom Racina is a bad writer, so another strike against Maria Arena Bell in my book. IIRC, he's a sci fi novelist who got his start during the 1980 strike, writing GH with Leah Laiman (another legendary hack). Why won't MAB simply bring back some of the former Bell writers? Where are all these random people coming from? Y&R was supposed to be the best of the best. Now it seems like anyone and their dog walker can be hired on the #1 soap. It's sad.

From what I've heard Thom Racina is a bad writer, so another strike against Maria Arena Bell in my book. IIRC, he's a sci fi novelist who got his start during the 1980 strike, writing GH with Leah Laiman (another legendary hack). Why won't MAB simply bring back some of the former Bell writers? Where are all these random people coming from? Y&R was supposed to be the best of the best. Now it seems like anyone and their dog walker can be hired on the #1 soap. It's sad.

Sigh. I am REALLY trying not to pre-judge.

But, yes, your comment on the track record of this writer seems spot-on.

On Y&R????????? What is going on???????

But the same kinds of "huh??" are going on this week at AMC, GL....so this is really an industry wide pandemic.

There is little doubt that Y&R needs driving, energetic plots that involve the intergenerational canvas. So, I'm going to be charitable and say that maybe folks like Racina and Sheffer can do this for Y&R...while Maria and others (like Weintraub) keep the show rooted in character and history. That ying-and-yang is what the show does need. Hiring Bell legacy writers is unlikely to be successful, since there has ALWAYS been a complaint about their plodding plotting. In the modern era, more energy IS needed. Legacy Y&R writers currently on B&B have apparently rendered that show at one of its' weakest points in all of its history! (B&B is AWFUL...Heather Tom notwithstanding). So I really don't think re-hiring Bell writers is the answer, much as I wish this simple fix would work.

Still...you're dead-on regarding track records...scary times.

He hasn't worked on daytime since 1994. That's 14 years. Wow. But he wrote a few novels from 1977-2005. I really don't know if he's good or not.

here is what he has to say about soaps-

(via his website)

MY LIFE IN SOAP OPERAS

As you can see on my bio page, I spent 18 years doing a lot of shows–I myself wrote over 4,000 broadcast hours of television, got five Emmy nominations (Susan Lucci told me I was the Susan Lucci of writers), it was lots of work, lots of pain, lots of fun, and some memorable moments.

Here's a brief rundown of my career in daytime television, but if you have any specific questions, just email me and ask away. I always loved talking to the fans, I'm the only writer I know who regularly read the fan mail, and as I said on Donahue and Maury and other shows I appeared on as a head writer, "It's the fans who really give us our jobs."

In 1980, I think, Gloria Monty, the legendary producer of GENERAL HOSPITAL, was scared. A writer's strike was imminent and her head writer had started something called the "Ice Princess" story with a formula in it, but not much more than that. If the writers stuck, the story would go to the picket lines with them. Up to that time, I'd done a few episodes of FAMILY, the prime time Sada Thompson show that I thought was a class act, and some scripts for SEARCH FOR TOMORROW. But I was a novelist, and Jackie Smith at ABC put me together with Gloria to see if I could help generate story for the coming year or so. At dinner, I showed Gloria my novel, THE GREAT LOS ANGELES BLIZZARD, which Erwin Allen had optioned but dropped, and for the hell of it said why don't we do this? She lit up, and it became the Ice Princess story that aired, where Mikos Cassadine tried to freeze Port Charles in the summer, the first sci-fi for daytime with the highest ratings to match. I wrote a long story, sold it to them just before the strike, they miraculously did it as we marched around the studio, but when it was over I was suddenly writing the show. I did it for three years, and it was a heady time–we were on the covers of Newsweek, People, college classes were scheduled around us, and we changed the face of daytime forever.

Luke & Laura's wedding was the culmination, and we would have put it off for another year (first rule in daytime: make them wait!) but for Elizabeth Taylor, who forced us into hitching them because she wanted them to get married (she knows a thing or two about that). So we made a deal with Liz: we'll marry them if you come. I created the villainous Helena Cassadine for her, and we had a ball doing it. Tidbits: Tony and Genie loathed each other for a long while there, we had to give Tristan lines like, "If Luke were here, he'd say he loves you, Laura," because she refused to tape with him. But they patched it up. Demi Moore, whom the writers fought for because we loved her voice, drank a lot of beer very early in the morning. Rick Springfield was a cool dude, even though he'd show up after a concert in Europe smelling like European trains. It was my last-minute idea to have Scotty catch the bouquet at the wedding.

DAYS OF OUR LIVES was a wonderful experience after being fired from GH (Gloria liked to do that), I brought my former partner Leah Laiman there and we worked with Sheri Anderson and had a great time. We married Bo & Hope (I give good wedding) and created Patch, who was supposed to be on only a day, but the actor's talent knocked us out, introduced John Black when Roman left, and loved working with Gloria Loring (and being diabetic myself, applaud her great work for the JDF), and it was a trip to have "Friends & Lovers" become the number one song in the nation from our little show. Ken Corday, the producer, is a great guy, and I enjoyed every minute I worked for him, on DAYS and other projects as well.

ANOTHER WORLD was less happy. Brooklyn, for one, a dumpy, cold studio, for seconds, and the threat of cancellation hovering overhead the whole time, and less than desirable people on the writing staff. I guess I did it for money. There were too many cooks in the kitchen, and the intrusion of the P&G people and network people made it impossible to create anything of value. However, the producer's secretary, Michelle DeVito became a friend, and helped get me through it. We married Donna and Michael, gave the talented Anne Heche her start, and very few people know this, but my buddy Brad Pitt got rejected after doing one day's shooting, which destroyed him at the time, but changed his life forever. [sEE MY BRAD PITT PAGES FOR DETAILS]

GENERATIONS introduced me to Sally Sussman, who has been my friend ever since, and someone I admire, respect and love. I thanked her mother, Judy, in SNOW ANGEL, for being one of my biggest supporters, and I miss her very much since she passed away. I loved the show, it was different, fresh, ground breaking–but NBC stuck it on the air in some markets at 3AM, so we never had a chance. But what fun we had, Elizabeth Harrower and Michele Val Jean and Sally and me, we'd be doing story and see this van go by the window and Sally would yell, "Spoon Truck!" (cause it was covered with soup spoons) and we would all just lose it. Well, you had to be there. I'm sure glad I was. It was my favorite gig ever.

I was there for the demise of SANTA BARBARA as well, but it wasn't my fault, honest. The show had never really done well, despite all the hype and awards, and it was on its last legs when I came to it a year before it was canceled. I enjoyed my time there, because I wasn't head writing and thus didn't have to take the heat. I had wanted a break, and just helped with story and did outlines. I thought the Dobsons were a looney, but Pam Long was great, and getting to know Gordon Thompson was nice too. And the three of us would work together in Toronto...

On FAMILY PASSIONS, which should be boxed and sold as 'HOW NOT TO DO A SOAP OPERA." It was Jorn Winthur's passion, and our prison. The Canadians were not ready to tackle a full hour each day, the half-German cast could barely pronounce the words, the other "head writer" was a complete incompetent moron, and the show was laughable. Pam was fired in the early days, before we even got to the studio in Canada, so Kin Shriner and Terri Smith (the great gal who did the music) came from the States to join Gordon and me to do it. We all nearly lost our minds. The show stunk, the winter was the coldest in Canada's history, and the producer, as they tend to do, took out all his aggressions on the writers. Ugh. Never again, life's too short to be treated like that. It's why I left daytime and started writing books again. But it wasn't all bad up there. I loved Toronto's vitality, and it gave me great, cherished friends, like Lucinda Sill and Diane Stead and Thomas Rickerts, which counts for more than any damned TV show in the world. Fern Field was the only sane and talented producer on the show, and she's remained one of my best buds (she's a marvelous writer as well, check out her website.)

I loved being head writer, for you get to play God and get paid for it to boot! It was a great time, and sometimes, I'll admit, when I'm feeling lonely in my newly-chosen solitary profession as a novelist, I do miss it. But I can't do both, and having a book or two on library shelves when I'm gone means a great deal. Writing books is nourishing for the soul.

AND he had an intersting relationship with brad Pitt- http://www.thomracina.com/bradpitt.html

he wrote snow angel, i love that book.

Edited June 11, 200817 yr by JackPeyton

Whatever happens, I hope he'll somehow help Y&R to become more interesting than it is currently.

THOM RACINA? Wow. Never thought I'd see him return to soaps.

I know his reputation among soaps fans is less than sterling, but I enjoyed the work he did with Sheri Anderson and Leah Laiman at DAYS, as well as the B.J. Walker (Sydney Penny) childhood abuse story that he co-wrote with Pam Long at SANTA BARBARA.

Plus, he's no friend of Lynn Marie Latham's who has worked solely in primetime, lol.

Thanks, Ryan, for the fantastic news! Can't wait to see his name in the credits!

THOM RACINA? Wow. Never thought I'd see him return to soaps.

Thanks, Ryan, for the fantastic news! Can't wait to see his name in the credits!

He said he swore he'd never return but did. I'm quite excited to see him return. I've read some of his books. As far as soaps go, I'm not 100% familiar with his work, but given his experience, he may be a good fit for the show.

NOTE: Though he may have come up with the Ice Princess story, the scab writers took it in an ENTIRELY different direction (as noted when we had Marlena Delacroix on our show).

Y&R could benefit from someone with experience doing their scripts. It's obvious the FOLML's aren't doing a great job.

I really can't wait to see what Y&R will turn into during or after the summer. I hope that Sheffer (with Arena covering the old Y&R style) in the combination with new writers will be able to bring something refreshing and interesting. The viewers deserve that. We've been suffering enough this year so far. (Not everything was boring, but most of it was--I still watched every episode).

IIRC, Ryan, the writers, including then-HW Pat Falken Smith, were on-strike already when Gloria Monty first approached Racina. When PFS left, she supposedly took the rest of the Ice Princess story with her; so, Monty simply grafted Racina's novel onto it, and the rest is gloriously campy soap history. (I'm ashamed to admit, I liked what I saw of it years ago on SoapNet.)

Edited June 11, 200817 yr by Khan

IIRC, Ryan, the writers, including then-HW Pat Falken Smith, were on-strike already when Gloria Monty first approached Racina. When PFS left, she supposedly took the rest of the Ice Princess story with her; so, Monty simply grafted Racina's novel onto it, and the rest is gloriously campy soap history. (I'm ashamed to admit, I liked what I saw of it years ago on SoapNet.)

I do too. it was a hot campy mess (in a good way, lol).

I do too. it was a hot campy mess (in a good way, lol).

I didn't like it because of the writing, mind you! I just loved how the acting and direction totally emphasized the life-and-death stakes of it (without shooting children in the head, or having estranged couples boink in limos). Tony Geary's performance, in particular, sold it to me.

Ironically, OLTL's Eterna was the same concept, basically; and yet, I was never so confused or annoyed in my life, lol.