2008: The Directors and Writers Thread

[dm.]

In the good old days, two writers were enough for a soap (maybe sometimes they'd had one or two script writers). Why is it that today soaps need to have more than 6 writers. I know it's different now.

[aMLCproduction]

I know I couldn't write no 550 pages. I am good If i can do 5 a day. Too many cooks spoil the broth. I dont understand how or why is the need for some shows to have 14 writers.

[Sylph]

Who said that?

[Khan]

It does seem as if a lot of LML's annoying loose ends and wrong-turns are being cleaned up, doesn't it?

[NYC123]

Y&R made a turn for the better.

[Michael]

There have to be more people writing than those few currently being credited as writers. The number of pages being churned out is just too great. Like during the '88 strike, I'm sure assistants have joined in, writers are still writing while on strike, etc. The internet especially makes it much easier.

[juppiter]

I think that Griffith/Bell are writing the stories and working on breakdowns together, and scabs are writing the scripts.

[juppiter]

I would think that HW salaries probably aren't what they used to be. In the 70s and early-mid 80s, HW was *the* position of importance. Now EP is more important. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that HW salaries have declined sharply with inflation and therefore they are not expected to do as much as they used to.

[JAS0N47]

Today's 1/24/08 episode was the last "Days" episode using WGA storyline breakdowns. Not one writer (Hogan, Meg, breakdowns & dialogue writers) is listed, as per the Canadian credits, for Friday 1/25/08.

[Toups]

What?? Wow....that wasn't suppose to happen. Hogan's last episode was suppose to be Friday February 1st. Now I think this means, the Fi-Core writers re-wrote Hogan's last week. I suspected that they re-wrote *some* stuff when I heard

, but I thought they would just add them to Hogan's breakdowns.

Well, here way we go.....it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

[JAS0N47]

"Days of Our Lives" goes writer-less beginning with the Friday, January 25, 2008 episode. Not one staff writer (including Hogan Sheffer and Meg Kelly) is listed in the credits, according to the Canadian day-ahead credits aired today. The final dialogue scripts aired last week. The Thursday, January 24, 2008 episode was the final episode to use storyline-breakdowns written by the "Days" staff. Replacement writers are now ghost writing the show anonymously as the entire "Days" writing staff has not gone "financial core" and remains on strike. Citing financial hardship, any writer is able to go "fi-core" and begin writing again. Some writers of other daytime dramas have already gone that rout, but for the moment, every "Days" writer is honoring the strike and not crossing the picket lines.

In other news, tomorrow's 1/25/08 episode is dedicated to the memory of Bobby Bateman. Mr. Bateman was a longtime member of the "Days" staff and worked in the prop department. He passed away on January 3 and was 52 years old.

http://members.aol.com/jason47b

[Toups]

Since DAYS is done airing WGA covered episodes now, I guess I can say a little bit more. There is one writer from Hogan's team that went Fi-Core but there's things that happened/circumstances which made me wonder if this certain writer was going to be credited or not. I was also wondering if the other two Fi-Core writers (they're not from Hogan's team) were going to be credited right away, so I guess this means they came shortly after the strike began. Once/if we see these writers' names, it will be obvious who's really writing the show (if it's not obvious already).

[stenbeck212]

Don't forget, soaps have been around for more than a half century. Now there's a ton of history and character development to reference. The shows aren't 15 minutes long now either. With expansion of characters and time slots over several decades, it probably got easier to have a head writer steering the ship while breakdown writers organized plots into scenes, and the script writers took it from there. It's also not just about sitting in the kitchen having boring conversations for an entire show, so a team is probably better for spreading the wealth so someone can step in when another's work is lacking.

[Sylph]

And the ratings are still nearing the bottom:

[Y&RWorldTurner]

In the early 80's when he wrote fot GL, there were only 4 people on Douglas Marland's writing team (including Douglas himself), GL was already an hour show by then btw.