2008: The Directors and Writers Thread

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Hopefully, the new scriptwriter at OLTL is good.

I assume Seidman and Racina are already out of the Y&R credits. They haven't been credited in weeks.

[Toups]

ATWT:

- Leslie Nipkow back listed as Script Writer on November 13

Hmm....interesting that she's back. I was hoping she'd go back to OLTL.

For Y&R, Janice Ferri Esser was listed below Beth Milstein in Friday's US episode.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I wonder if they're slowly weaning Beth Milstein out of the script editor's role, and Janice will take over permanently soon.

I'm surprised Beth hasn't jumped back to DAYS yet, as she also wrote for SuBe and knows Tomlin and Whitesell, like Lisa Seidman.

Y&R listed its entire Paris production staff in Thursday's credits. Some French people of course, but lots of Anglo-American names that have never been credited on Y&R before.

I wonder if they're going to hire replacement scriptwriters for Racina and Seidman...

[y&r_fan]

Why hasn't Kay Alden been credited as co-HW for B&B yet? The news of her promotion broke months ago, but she's still listed under Minnis.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

B&B tapes in advance faster than all of the soaps. And just because it was announced, it doesn't mean she started as Co-HW at the same time as the announcement was made. Kay was recently in LA and in the photos for Jeanne Cooper's 80th birthday party at Y&R. She wrote Y&R and B&B from Chicago, so I assume her trip to LA had to do with her Co-HW duties and planning for actual storylines at B&B.

[MikeGoldy]

Didn't Hogan fire Beth when they were both at DAYS? I wonder if it's awkward for Beth to work for him now at Y&R

[Toups]

I kinda hope Janice doesn't take over as script editor. I like having her write 4-6 scripts a month and if she takes over as SE, she probably won't have time to write many scripts.

Say that Beth would go back to DAYS, who would she replace? If she joins as a BDW, the only candidate is Renee Godelia because Tomlin doesn't know her well, but Higley does. If she joins as a SW, Tomlin doesn't know Cydney Kelley well, but again, Higley knows her well. Jodie Scholz is ex-SuBe writer. John Newman is Fran Myer's son. The most likely candidate would be Linda P-Brown.

I don't think there's going to be any replacements. They have a good rotation right now. It's actually making sense, remember LML's rotation of like 50 writers.

[SOAPSFOREVER]

From what I understand from someone with the show, the order of names on the credits won't change. Minnis will continue to be placed after Bell on the daily crawl, and Alden will be listed aftere Minnis. They weren't exactly sure why this is, but assume it had to do with some behind the scenes politics, or stipulations in contracts. They did say that's the order the names are placed in on the current production scripts [bELL, MINNIS, ALDEN, SNYDER, SCRIPTWRITER], so it looks like that's how it will be.

[MarkH]

Okay, so I'm a bit confused. From Toups' resource archive:

November 6- SW: Janice Ferri Esser & Melissa Salmons

November 7- SW: Janice Ferri Esser & Sandra Weintraub;

November 10- SW: Janice Ferri Esser & Amanda L. Beall

What IS this?

It's not like Esser is a part of some Freiwald/Schreiber writing team.

Don't you find it dubious she is writing the script? Do you credit her this way (how she appears in the credit), but she is really the editor? Or do you think she is writing the Victor/Kay/Nick stories?

I realize it is speculation on all our parts, but how is this working???

If she is the editor, who ARE all those people credited each day before the BDW? Like Minardi Slater? I'm still confused about all these roles.

[SOAPSFOREVER]

I just checked the official B&B website. Alden is listed as Co-Head there, with Minnis listed as Associate Head. The scriptwriting team has been updated also to include Shannon Bradley and Adam Dusevoir. Rex M. Best's name is back, too, though his scripts haven't made it to air yet. I would guess that would happen within the next several weeks.

[SOAPSFOREVER]

According to someone on the show, Ferri wrote, or helped write, all the Paris remote material, so any day that material shows on the air, even though she didn't write the entire episode, she's credited. Also from this same person, Ferri's been helping some with the editing, mostly material that's "history heavy." She knows a lot more about the long term history of the show than Beth M., of course. Personally, I still don't get what Natalie Slatter does. I assume she must write outlines, but she's never mentioned as helping with short or long term story. Anyone else know?

[brimike]

Natalie writes breakdowns.

As for Sheffer/Milstein, there's no bad blood there that I know of. She was let go the same week as Wyman, and I think it was more politics than a clash in personalities. I'm pretty sure they get along just fine.

[MarkH]

But isn't Natalie credited EVERY episode? If yes, then that seems like more than your average BDW, no?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

She's an Associate Head Writer, basically a breakdown writer with more say in the storylines. AHW's tend to be more distinguished breakdown writers with a long tenure at a particular soap.

[Dan]

According to SOD, GL has a new Music Director: Gabriele Solarino.

Unfortunately, I do not know if she replaced Robyn Cutler as Supervisor or Gary Deinstadt. Or both perhaps.

Here's an excerpt of the interview as posted on the GLDiscuss Yahoo group:

What would you tell fans who dislike lyrics being played over the dialogue?

Gabriele Solarino: Times are changing. For the newer generation of viewers

it's easier to accept, but I think it works. If you go to movies and watch

prime-time TV, that's what they're doing.

(Of course, lyrics wouldn't matter if the songs were all that good. Even The OC sometimes had halfway decent music.