2008: The Directors and Writers Thread

[R Sinclair]

He also had a problem with Megan writing Sonny having a bomb strapped to his chest when he confronted Sorel in the penthouse, because, according to "insiders" Maurice felt that Sonny wouldn't EVER use a bomb after watching Lily blow up in a car bomb.

Also, the rumored stoyline about ex-doorman Johnny raping Alexis (McTavish's favorite plot device) caused Maurice and Nancy Lee Grahn to go "upstairs" and refuse to play that story as well becaused they cared about Scott Egan (Johnny) and didn't want his character to be maligned in that way. Allegedly, Johnny's exit (to bring in Max) was rewritten having Johnny betray Sonny off camera which caused him to be "replaced."

NLG also was rumored to have difficulty with the scene where Alexis sells Ned out to Sonny by telling Sonny where AJ took Courtney when they got married in the Caribbean. It was Maurice who talked her through it, an action she felt was uncharacteristic of Alexis, and she said something along the lines of how he's one of the best scene partners she's ever had.

Rumored or real, I remember reading a lot of alleged cast complaints about the storytelling going on under McTavish. Tony Geary even said on Soap Net's "One Day With..." that the Endgame story he sold to ABC/GH was "dreadfully misinterpreted" by McTavish.

I think GH actors have a love affair with Guza because he knows how to coddle the actors. He seems to give them what they want. In my opinion, even though Guza couldn't stand her, I thought he was at his best when he was working with former-EP Wendy Riche.

[brimike]

Yeah, and here's where I have an issue, and it really irks me to no end.

Because AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER? Maurice and Nancy, et al. are right when they bring up these past events as contradictory to present-day ones. HOWEVER, it's the WAY they go about things over there that makes me want to rip someone's jugular out. The way they storm into offices, make grand entrances, belittle others, and dictate story is beyond ridiculous.

No matter how hard they try, writers will never be the enemy, same as actors will never be the enemy. Just sit down with the writer in question, and say "I like this story, but here are my concerns in the moment..." And COLLABORATE TO FIGURE IT OUT. They know their character - you know storytelling - I'm sure there's a middle ground where everyone thinks they win. Yes, it may not give US great behind-the-scenes gossip... but it would do wonders for that show.

[Khan]

Exactly, brimike. I, too, would like to believe more could be accomplished if the actors and writers (and actors and producers, and producers and writers) were more diplomatic with each other, and more respectful of each other's value to the overall production.

It's shameful to hear/read how much McTavish's writing was disliked by the GH cast...but you know, if she had bothered to learn the show before tackling it, the issues, I think, would've been far less contentious.

[Toups]

WAs it ever revealed what Geary's original Endgame consisted of?

Wendy. You could totally see why these two didn't get along. Wendy wanted an ensemble show and Guza wanted his mob.

[MarkH]

Yeah, but Mike, are all writers so accessible to their actors?

I mean, the extreme was Bill Bell, and later Kay Alden, doing their HW stint from Chicago. And Jack Smith did much of his writing (albeit not as HW) from Hawaii.

Even at the scriptwriter level, Tom Casiello wrote DOOL from New York; same with Trent Jones and Y&R.

Plus, some writers have a policy of not interacting with actors, right?

One thing I loved about LML, when she came to Y&R, was that almost every cast member talked about the dinner or lunch they had with her. She also said in one interview that actors were her chief collaborator...she would even call them on weekends. (She called herself a 'stalker'). The actors really seemed to treasure this too. Lynn said that the actors were the custodians of their characters' histories, and she would draw upon them.

We all know how that worked out... So, from that one example, one is tempted to say that close collaboration between actor and writer actually didn't do much good.

What is the general current status of writer accessibility to actors...and are there any examples of where "collaboration" is really occurring?

[Khan]

And yet, we have those examples of characters, such as Victoria and Nick, sharing childhood memories that never really happened. (So much for collaboration, eh, lol?)

Seriously, the more I think about this, the more I realize there needs to be distance between the HW and the actors. If the actor has a problem with the script, then he (or she) needs to confer with the director (and possibly, the script editor). On "the floor," at least, the director, and not the HW, is the one in charge.

[DaytimeFan]

I'd really like to see the articles that feature the actors discussing their lunches and dinners with LML because I flat out don't buy it. What I DO buy is that LML sat down with a few actors and 'collaborated' with them: Don Diamont's circle jerk of a storyline that goes by the name of Reliquary...Eric Braeden's botched 'epilepsy' storyline...Eileen Davidson's 'collaboration' about how she was going to be out of a job because she didn't want to play Ashley as a total loser...Jess Walton's contract discussion with LML that featured a guarantee of a front burner storyline, little did she know the only thing burning would be Walton's nerves as her storyline became all about Adrienne Frantz...oh yeah, LML was all about collaborating and by that it is clear she meant telling actors what they were going to play and how she wanted them to play it.

And yes, the actors ARE the custodians of the characters histories...LML just decided that instead of 'drawing' from history she'd rewrite it to suit her agenda. The fake Victoria and Nick childhood memories, the Cane mess, George Kaplan/Brad Carlton...

A ruthless, maniacal, agenda pushing bitch, THAT is LML to a T. Collaboration my a$$!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Wendy

I love that woman, and her and Guza's behind the scenes fights are infamous. You can clearly see how different Guza's GH work was when Wendy Riche was EP, compared to his stint with JFP and Frons.

Wendy loved the family dynamics on the show, she wanted to tell stories that involved a multi-generation outlook. She wanted to incorporate social issues and romance, but also managed to make the mob bearable.

Since Wendy left, GH's heart left with her.

I hope she surprises us and makes a daytime comeback soon.

[brimike]

You know, I would have totally agreed with you - except one of TC's favorite stories (that he inevitably tells on EVERY interview) is how he and KA collaborated from different coasts on Hope's eulogy at John's funeral, because TC missed most of the John/Hope/Gina years, and didn't understand the story. KA wanted something less generic, TC wanted to brainstorm with her, and they co-wrote a new eulogy, for better or worse.

I think if both sides genuinely care about the finished product, and not their egos, that it's aboslutely possible, even if distance separates them.

[MarkH]

That's an interesting example. And of course, John's funeral (that whole storyline of his death) is lauded as one of the high points of the Sheffer era.

I suspect that one problem with LML's collaborative model is that it was between the HW and the actors. Then, she abstracted from that...whatever she abstracted...but her communication of the resulting stories to her team of writers was piss poor.

It's all fine and good if you have a long lunch with Eric Braeden and formulate what his character and story thrust should be, and what his history is...but if you fail to communicate that to your team, the lunch is irrelevant. It becomes a private thing between you and the actor, but it does not influence the day-to-day writing of those who actually put it on the page. I sort of intuit that from what TC wrote about how much communication-from-the-top he got on Y&R.

There is another problem of collaborating directly with the actors. They are not always invested in history and consistency and integrity. Sometimes they are just dying for big moments or something DIFFERENT. That may serve their personal acting needs, but it doesn't serve the longer arc of their character. I believe some of what we saw on Y&R may have been writing to gratify the actors' needs, rather than the story's.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

That and I suspect she didn't really get to know any of the 100 writers on her writing team, so those poor writers who were writing certain episodes didn't know what direction to take things in. There must have been so much miscommunication in a team as big as LML's was.

[YRBB]

All these dinners with LML sound like a way for The Devil to befriend certain actors so she could more easily influence them and pull the [!@#$%^&*] that she wanted to.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Do producers have contract cycles? If so, when does Josh Griffith's end?

Sylph and I have talked about this in the past, we've noticed that basically all of the recent additions to the Y&R writing team have been writers who share the same agent as Griffith. I think Griffith is pushing one heavy agenda behind the scenes at Y&R, and it's not a totally good or ethical one.

I hope he's really fired soon.

[Khan]

IMO, there is a tremendous difference between collaboration, and ego-stroking. All those lunches and trips to the spa (or whatever) that LML was taking with certain actors? Might've been exercises in the latter.

[Chris B]

I've concluded that LML probably spoke only with her friends on the show like Michelle Stafford (a long time friend), Christian LeBlanc (by Queen Stafford association), Don Diamont, Judith Chapman, those types. Go to KnotsLanding.net and you'll see in various interviews that the cast and crew say that LML and Bernie never spoke with the actors. At Y&R it seemed only her favorites got what they wanted.