2008: The Directors and Writers Thread

[Y&RWorldTurner]

You'll just have to listen to find out.

Eh, as long as their replacements are good, I don't care. If they choose not to replace them, even better.

[R Sinclair]

Nope. I haven't met her, no do I expect to. IF she isn't living here in the Northeast, she's probably back down south.

Anyway, yeah, she's 41 I believe, which means she's old enough to be a mother to most of these "young" characters she's writing such "hip" slang for -- and even the actors portraying these "young" characters are close to 30 or above themselves. So it's just really annoying that she thinks she's so "with it" that she writes such outdated and overused slang for these younger characters (on AMC and apparently Y&R as well). I mean, seriously... who says "are you going to narc me out?" these days? That is sooooo 21 Jumpstreet. The 69 million dollar baby Johnny Depp would probably choke if she gave him a script with that line. I'm sorry to go on a tirade, but that's been my main issue with her. She tries way too hard. She doesn't tend to write honest dialogue, she writes dialog that punches you in the face to show how witty or funny she can be. And that's great, if she's writing her own material, such as her predictable 'The Girls' Room' screenplay. But when you have shows like AMC and Y&R, which have been around 30 plus years before you were even on staff, I really don't think that that's your time to go against the tide and start trying to inject your own voice into the scripts. That's just me. Megan McTavish, who hired her back in 2003 or Maria Arena Bell who took her on probably like her smart ass, pop culture laden, one liner heavy dialog.

But, here's what I say...

If you're not the head writer, or if this isn't your own show, JUST TELL THE DAMN STORY, BEALL. STOP TRYING TO SHOW HOW 'IN THE KNOW' AND 'CLEVER' YOU'RE MISGUIDEDLY THINKING YOU ARE!

I'm an unapologetic fan of Michelle Patrick (even though some, including myself, didn't enjoy her trying to rationalize Megan's Unabortion story on ITZ). The episodes she was credited for writing scripts for, on both AMC and GH, the dialog was conversational. It was two or plus more people having conversations like real people. It didn't try too hard, nor was it melodramatic. It was just... realistic. You could hear real people saying the things she wrote. Same with Michele Val Jean, who any soap would be absolutely LUCKY -- I repeat -- LUCKY to have writing dialogue for them. I will admit that I love Mary Sue Price, and had hopes that Beall would become AMC's version of MSP. MSP has a tendency to basically write dialogue that cuts characters off at the knees... but only when the moment calls for it. Beall has a tendency to be unnecessarily harsh just to prove that she can. Like I said, if anybody ever had the time to compare AMC scripts, you would see that her scripts, above all other script writers, would be filled to the brim with insults, sarcasm, "bitches" and "psychos" and it just gets to be a little bit much.

I'll never forget the line she was credited for writing Greenlee during the gas leak. "That was the mood. Going to the door. Making a break for it! Ooops! It's gone."

Can't you just say, "the mood is gone?" or do you HAVE to be over the top and sassy to say the same thing?

Anyway, my dinner's here, so I'm going to eat... be back later.

[MarkH]

Okay, for R.Sinclair: Beall dialogue from 10/7/08 (just the slang). I have highlighted things/phrasings that I don't think I have heard on Y&R before. Now, for the most part it worked...indeed it was fresh...because the dialogue was put in the mouths of younger (and often newer) characters. But for Jack and Sharon.....it did not fit.

********

(Amber has fallen and skinned her knee)

Jana: My god! Amber, what happened to you?

Amber: Oh, you--you know, just high heels, puddles--splat.

********

Chloe: You know what? Why don't you take your petty issues and step outside? Because I could really get some beauty sleep.

Billy: Or we could just hang out... (clicks lighter) like we used to.

Chloe: Yeah, well, we used to hang out horizontal, and that was a long time ago.

********

Chloe: I'm a hardworking woman who gets what she wants. What's your point?

Billy: Maybe you wanted a little Billy.

Chloe: (Scoffs) you have serious memory loss because I shot you down when you made that last booty call. Why? Because I met a great new guy who happened to get me pregnant.

Billy: So you said a couple of weeks back when you accepted one of my booty calls and we hooked up. Makes a guy wonder.

Chloe: Hey, you want me to get all graphic on my cycle? I can do that.

********

Nick: No power, but summer's tearing up the place. She's convinced she can teach reed how to talk, so she doesn't care about the storm.

Phyllis: (Laughs) I love her. She's a pistol.

Nick: Yeah, a lot of fire in that one.

********

Jack: Well, that's where the fireworks and the yachts and the last-minute trips come in. I know things haven't been good between us. I want to fix that.

Sharon: Look at you, all revved up like it's a corporate takeover.

********

Billy: We didn't meet. Uh, hi. I'm Billy Abbott. At no time, did the phrase "mother of my children" escape my lips. But we had a great time. You can admit that.

Chloe: Yeah, we did. It was, uh, romantic comedy cliché with sunrise sex and general Tsao's chicken in bed. And I'd be halfway out the door, and you would just pull me right back in.

Billy: Mm-hmm. And you would text me on the way to the subway. You'd call me before I got up in the morning. You'd call me again after I went to sleep.

Chloe: Yeah, well, those times just happened to be convenient for me.

Billy: Was it convenient for you to, uh, break into my I.P. Password and read all my private messages and then go berserk on me in the lobby?

Chloe: Hmm. Well, you know, the, uh, concierge never seemed to care.

Billy: Chloe, we've seen each other naked. We can talk about this. You went over the top, and the term "stalker" comes to mind. And now I come home and I find out that you're the daughter of my mom's maid and that you just recently married my brother. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Chloe: Yeah. I would say that it's a really small world.

Billy: I'd say that you were trying to bag a Chancellor the entire time.

********

Jana: Ah, yeah, I see. Okay. So the quest for spiritual guidance is the past, but the present is now tormenting old, poor, little innocent women, is that right?

Kevin: And you know what, Jana? I support all of your "whoo-whoo-whoo crazy crap," okay? Didn't I just buy you those new tarot cards?

********

Chloe: Or maybe I just liked you, jackhole. You know, I-I'm just very impressed that you know not to wear white after labor day.

Billy: (Chuckles) well, you're not the only fashionista in town.

Chloe: (Giggles) wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait.

Billy: What?

Chloe: It's where we first met.

Billy: Ah, yes, it is, complete with the fresh scent of sidewalk dog pee.

Chloe: (Laughs)

Billy: You're kind of a nut, but I like it. Come here. Mm.

Billy: I'm just curious. Did you--did you tell cane about all this--any of this-- before the whole not-so-immaculate conception?

Chloe: You think that I wanted him to be the father of the child? I mean, I was practically lily's mentor. And I almost made her a star, until her boyfriend got all "handsy" on me, and now here we are. You're with amber, and I am with cane. You are not the father of this baby, okay? So I don't know if you-- if--if you think that I was trying to go after you or him, whatever. But this baby is going to have two parents who actually give a damn, and it's not you. It's cane. And if you don't believe me, well, then you can just call my doctor.

********

Nick: Look, you are-- you are a lot of woman, all right?

Phyllis: (Sighs)

Nick: You're on fire. You burn hot all the time. That is great for me. I love that about you. But some other people, they may not be, uh, you know, not so much for them.

Phyllis: Well, you know, some other people have a problem with a lot of things, especially your wife-- some other people. And, um, I think because of that, they go whining on your shoulder.

Nick: Sharon and I have a lot of history. I can't deny that. But you're it for me, all right? You're my wife. You're my woman.

Phyllis: I'm your woman?

********

Sharon: Oh. Oh, are you asking me to dance?

Jack: Well, I'd hate to think all those cotillions were for nothing.

Sharon: Oh, you took ballroom. Well, I-I learned the "tush push."

Jack: Well, maybe we can do the tush push next. Right now, I'll lead, you follow.

********

Cane: What, you can't take your bum...

Lily: (Laughs)

Cane: Up 12 flights of stairs? You are such a slacker.

Lily: Excuse me. But I bust my bum every day at the athletic club.

Billy: Elevator on the fritz?

Man: Yeah, the C.E.O.'S stuck in there. Gotta get him out, just like yesterday.

Cane: Well, you can put, uh, "busted bum" on your, uh, dating profile.

********

[Ryan]

thank you mark h....just further cements my beall dislike....

I'm so talking abotu this tonight

[MarkH]

LOL

The thing is...it was NOT inappropriate. Chloe has always used slang; Nick has always been a "dude"/"bro" kind of guy, so the "you are my woman" "she is on fire" stuff fit.

The only part that DIDN'T work is Jack talking about "cotillions" (he never went) and Sharon talking about "tush-push" (nahhhhh).

I didn't give fair credit to TV Megasite for the transcript!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Sharon jokingly said that when Jack wanted to dance, she didn't say it in a serious tone.

[MarkH]

True...but it just didn't sound like the kind of words Sharon would say. But again, I found it amusing and had no problem with it.

The thing is that the dialogue was discernibly different, and I have tried to show. This is quite different from Bill Bell's Y&R. But my bigger concern...and I know I keep harping on this...is that I totally subscribe to Kay Alden's view that a show should "sound like [a] show". In other words, having a consistent style that makes day-to-day variations in writers transparent.

When you have such a distinctive voice, it potentially harms the show sounding like the show.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

But you liked what LML did with the dialogue? How can you subscribe to Alden's point of view, and support LML's dialogue team?

[MarkH]

Well, here's the thing. I _did_ like the modernization of the dialogue under LML. And, at least initially, I noticed that it was "souped up", but I did not notice that it was variable from show to show.

In fact, I don't think it WAS variable. That is because, IMO, Jack Smith and Kay Alden and other legacy writers were there to smooth things out. So the dialog style was "new", but also consistent across episodes. At least that is how it seemed to me.

As time went on, the dialogue was less and less of an issue for me one way or another...because I was more focused on crazy things like Nikki SUDDENLY turning against Victor and running for senate, or having her daughter-in-law imprisoned on her wedding day... It no longer mattered how they were saying things, because I no longer knew these characters.

Like I said in this thread, I do NOT have a serious problem with the kind of dialogue Beall wrote in that episode. But, if she is the ONLY one who scripts like that...that will harm day to day character integrity.

Does this make sense? I don't feel inconsistent, but I seem to be coming across that way....

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Ryan confirmed Lisa Seidman is out.

Lisa Seidman sucks ass, her dialogue was generic, mundane, and she made everyone sound the same.

[MarkH]

Well, your reaction made it easy to guess :-). Congratulations.

[Toups]

Note to every script writer who's out work - get your agent to call Y&R! It's a free for all over there. But be careful, you could be gone by the end of your first cycle. LOL

Maria seems to have having trouble finding SWs who she's satisfied with.

Thanks for the news, Ryan!

Alvin, Salmons wasn't a Rauch hiring.

[DaytimeFan]

Oh MarkH, I just HATED LML's dialog. I am absolutely committed to the theatrical, OTT, Queen's English grammar that Bill Bell and Kay Alden carried throughout their respective reigns.

Frankly, the attempts to 'update' the dialog just come off as lame. I prefer the 'dated' dialog that some really dislike to the silly attempts at sounding 'hip'...so sue me.

Beall's script demonstrates that she strives to be 'cute' in her writing. Pity.

Seidman out, yipee, she was dreadful. Again, pity about Racina, I thought his work was sharp and just OTT enough for my liking.

[Toups]

Well, now there's more "old school" (Eric Friewald & Linda Schreiber, Sandra Weintraub Janice Ferri Esser) script writers than newbies (Amanda L. Beall, Melissa Salmons).

I do hope that Maria finally finds "her staff" because there's been way too many changes over the past 2 years. There needs to be stability once again on the writing staff.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Bradley should give back some of those scriptwriters he has to Y&R. They're clearly doing nothing over at B&B...

Jack Smith should come back to Y&R, and Rex M. Best should've come back too.