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2008: The Directors and Writers Thread


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QUOTE (Donna B @ Aug 15 2008, 02:18 PM)
Carolyn Culliton should have been co-HW at ATWT years ago & remained so for years, until/when she was ready to become HW, assuming that an opening & her readiness to do so could come together at the same time. Cryin' shame that she hasn't been better used by P&G.

Oh, I would like to know more about why you think so!!!

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Since I didn't get an answer on a different topic, I figured this is a better place to ask this question---even though the writer in question isn't active since 1999...

Margaret DePriest was a HW for 8 different soaps. Is that a record or something? I don't remember reading about any other writer with that many head-writing credits.

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She came up through the ranks, which many more times at P&G soaps has been a postive than not, loves soaps, is engaged by their histories, has been at AW and at ATWT. When there was a choice between Carolyn & Passanante & Jean P was chosen, I screamed. Then, when Leah Laiman was hired back at ATWT I began to weep. Oh, and, I think Carolyn is a good writer, too, and has always been capable of more leadership. Frankly I prefer Richard for dialogue & CC for higher up!

Why, what are you thinking?

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QUOTE (Donna B @ Aug 15 2008, 03:43 PM)
She came up through the ranks, which many more times at P&G soaps has been a postive than not, loves soaps, is engaged by their histories, has been at AW and at ATWT. When there was a choice between Carolyn & Passanante & Jean P was chosen, I screamed. Then, when Leah Laiman was hired back at ATWT I began to weep. Oh, and, I think Carolyn is a good writer, too, and has always been capable of more leadership. Frankly I prefer Richard for dialogue & CC for higher up!

Why, what are you thinking?

Butting in...I asked this the other day in some thread (source memory failure). Why is she called LETHAL Laiman?

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QUOTE (Donna B @ Aug 15 2008, 04:43 PM)
She came up through the ranks, which many more times at P&G soaps has been a postive than not, loves soaps, is engaged by their histories, has been at AW and at ATWT. When there was a choice between Carolyn & Passanante & Jean P was chosen, I screamed. Then, when Leah Laiman was hired back at ATWT I began to weep. Oh, and, I think Carolyn is a good writer, too, and has always been capable of more leadership. Frankly I prefer Richard for dialogue & CC for higher up!

Why, what are you thinking?

Oh, I'd take her any minute instead of Jean Show-killer/Libidizone Passanante and Lethal Leah.

Have you heard those claims that Hogan's first successful stories were largely dependent on Carolyn's help? After she was replaced as counselor by Jean it all went downhill.

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From what I've heard, that's a LITTLE true, and a little NOT true. Sheffer came in with HUNDREDS of pages of long story, most of which ended up getting used in those first two years at ATWT. CC, however, made them soap-format-appropriate, which Sheffer happily let her do, as he didn't really understand the whole five-day-a-week, Friday-cliffhanger, six-act-and-a-teaser business model. When JP came on, she didn't take as active a role in what HS was plotting.

I really think, based on seeing HS/CC's version of ATWT, HS/JP's version of ATWT, HS/Meg Kelly's version of Days, and now HS/MAB's version of Y&R, that Hogan works best with a writer who has an innate sense of soap storytelling. Without that, he flounders. I don't think that's a bad thing. And he doesn't strike me as that McTavish/Guza "my way or the highway" mentality. So if he wants to churn out lots of plot, and have a co-head who "gets soap" re-format it to the soap genre, it's fine by me. Just my opinion though.

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I don't know if I would ever want to see Carolyn Culliton as a solo headwriter. She is wonderful in the co-headwriter position and can improve almost anyone's writing if she is given the power to do so (meaning, not what she was forced to do under Ellen Weston at GL).

We have that great two-year span at ATWT, improving Hogan's ideas. But remember, Millee Taggart really got many of the characters on GL during her reign at GL, but the plots only improved greatly when CC was brought on in September 2002.

I think CC can be a wonderful wingman, but I'm not sure how she would fare going solo. Most HWs of this type tend to flounder when left to their own devices.

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Actually, MarkH, I don't lay ATWT's problems at Laiman's feet exclusively. I think she is at least one-third responsible for the show being as miserable (to me) as it is right now. However, in the past, Laiman and Passanante have stated on-record how much they enjoy working together and feeding off each other's creativity; ergo, I tend to think Laiman works closely w/ Passanante on building long-term stories.

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