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2008: The Directors and Writers Thread


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So Beth Milstein was hired by the hack? Must be because of her Port Charles days. This is really ridiculous that she is still haunting the show with all her hires after being fired. Plus they seem to be bringing back so many of her old writers. WTF?! I hope they're only being used until their contracts run out. Toups, do writers have cycles like the 13-week actor fire cycle?

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Given the WGA action against shows that fired writers (DOOL, AMC, right?), don't you think rehiring these folks was required to avoid action?

(1) If Maria Arena Bell is yielding a strong hand, she will carefully control the breakdowns, and edit the dialogue/etc, to ensure that writers with discrepant styles still produce a "show that sounds like the show"

(2) I think it is actually fair to give these writers a chance, to see if they gel with the new HW team. If the new HW has a firm vision, and executes firm quality control (i.e., READS AND EDITS the scripts before releasing them), I think things will be okay.

(3) As you alluded to, perhaps contracts must expire to avoid legal action.

(4) Many viewers commented on the fact that--even as LML's STORIES broke down--her dialogue writers were producing a much livelier, more entertaining, quippy, natural-sounding, funny show. The stories might suck, but the scripts were often okay. If that is true, it may make sense to retain the part of the writing team that actually IMPROVED the show.

As long as MAB scripts good stories, and exercises careful editing control over the breakdowns and scripts, I think this hybrid could work. And...for the writers who fail...I'm sure we'll be seeing departures.

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I don't think Beth ever worked with LML at PC. She did work with Bloom though. I heard Beth is on a trial basis (usually about 6-8 writing assignments) so if MAB likes her, she'll put her on contract.

Kanelos is on contract.

Yeah, writers do have cycles (13, 26, 52 weeks, I think....not %100 sure on the numbers though).

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I do agree that this is smart for the budget and to avoid legal action, but it's still so many writers. MAB is screwed if she wanted to bring anybody on herself because so much money is already being spent on writers. There are some GREAT Y&R writers who were fired and would make great assets to the current team.

So far the show doesn't have the LML "5 different shows depending on who wrote the episode" feel. They've been acknowledging history as well which is nice. The biggest problem is a lack of major storylines, but the scripts, pacing and character development is on point.

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Y&RWorldTurner, I did, I did. I just don't want Shelley Meals and whatever the name... Nor Brett Staneart, nor Michael Montgomery... This "team" just makes no sense, it's all over the place. But I have faith in Maria and I believe she will clean it up.

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Word, all one has to do is look at JER and Passions. N. Gail Lawrence, Peggy Schibi,

Pete T. Rich, and Nancy Williams Watt all wrote for GL in the early 90's, a time when the show was considered to have the best dialogue on daytime. Compare that to Passions and you'd think that none of these writers had any talent at one point in their lives, since Passions isn't exactly known for its stellar dialogue.

If Y&R doesn't trim the fat in its writing team by mid summer, then Maria is as clueless as her predecessor. It will be interesting to see how she fares with a team this big, we saw how the show was with Latham...

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No beef, Toups.

The only problem right now I have with Maria is that I haven't seen any signs of hiring a well-known, possibly long-time ex Y&R writer. And as Chris pointed out - no big story.

So, Y&R, you believe that the dialogue on Passions was actually J. E. Reilly's? At least 50% of it?

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