2008: The Directors and Writers Thread

[Sylph]

I screamed so loudly, my windows are broken now. Are you happy now?

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

Hell yeah!

[DaytimeFan]

Get yourself a throat lozenge, you have some more screaming.

As far as I can tell...Kay Alden is as good as it's going to get for Y&R. I loved *all* of her stuff...INCLUDING the Sperm Storyline.

MAB is not impressing me at all. The strike was such an improvement...what the hell happened?!

[Ryan]

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think anyone from the old team could possibly do a good job with the show, not just Kay. To be honest, I don't think Kay wants to return and I don't know if I want her back. IMO, she's a very hit and miss writer. Sometimes there would be stories I absolutely loved with her, and other stories that were just bad. Y&R's known for juggling a lot of different stories at one time, so that really didn't help her much with me. I thought her first year as sole HW was good, but things deteriorated quickly, which is why I think they promoted the lesser praised (I guess for all the right reasons) Jack F. Smith.

Where's Trent Jones and Jim Houghton? No where to be seen, yet Y&R isn't even trying to get them back. Shaughnessy just directs for B&B, surely they could send him back to Y&R it they tried hard enough.

I think TPTB feel that since the show's been #1 for so, they no longer have to make an effort to improve the creative side of the show, which sucks.

[dragonflies]

Kay Alden IMO did a good job at AMC. Frons was an IDIOT for letting her go

[Ryan]

Love you

[AddictedToSoaps]

Kay Alden is amazing!!! She is an incredibly talented writer!!!

[dragonflies]

Seriously though AMC was actually WATCHABLE when she was writing for it.

[AddictedToSoaps]

OK now in all seriousness, I do like Kay Alden. She's not an amazing and legendary writer. Her stories on Y&R were so-so, some were good and some were bad. But when you compare them to LML and Maria (so far), they were pretty darn good. She at least understood Y&R and knew how to write for it.

Looking at her other work now for ABC and B&B...she did a great job with AMC when the show was in its last few months of McTrash's era. It's a shame that she couldn't continue on there, since I would take her over B&E or McTrash any day. I also liked her work at B&B, it was nothing amazing, but still watchable nonetheless.

Now as for Maria on the other hand...I'm starting to lose my patience with her. She did a great job with Josh Griffith during the strike and they were both able to pull Y&R out of the ashes. I was one of the people here that was thrilled when she was made HW, I put all my faith in her. Now that she's on her own with LML's hacks, Y&R is losing all that progress that it made earlier in the year. Her stories are boring and dull and only focus on Victor, Sabrina, Adam, and all the other losers. There really is nothing interesting there at all. I'm still giving her a chance since it's still early, but so far I'm not impressed.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

ATS is love.

I swear, Maria is like a more traditional version of JER when it comes to plotting and repetition. At least from what we've seen so far.

[DeeeDee]

As boring as things are Maria would need a magic wand to fix all the damage Latham did to Y&R.

She needs AT LEAST a year to fix Latham's crap BEFORE she can really do anything worthwhile.

Also?

Alden's Y&R always smoked Jack Smith's & will always be LIGHT YEARS better than Latham's.

[DaytimeFan]

I think you're right, TPTB believe that Y&R is untouchable. I don't think that's the Bell view, that opinion has Sony written all over it.

I don't disagree with you when you say that anyone from the old team could do a good job. I think you're absolutely right. The reason I like Kay Alden so much, while I'll always believe she's the 'go to' HW, is that I feel that I know exactly what I'm going to get. Hits or Misses I know where they're going.

[YRBB]

MAB doesn't have anything to work on, unfortunately. LML left her with a major storyline about.... hmmmmmmm? Gloria and Jeff? Gloria vs Jack? The show essentially has to start from scratch, and it would be impossible to just drop all the stories people don't like, because then she would have even less to work with. Besides, I think it's more power to her that she actually gives all that crapfest a resolution. Don't get me wrong; I still hate Y&R as much as anyone else. I've seen positive steps: Jill's bigger role, Brad becoming sneaky and manipulative, Jill/Brad/Nikki/Paul interaction. Adam I am still not loving or hating him. Then again, she brought Sabrina and Victor and stuff... so she needs time, lots and lots and lots of time. Hopefully, she will be able to bring the show back to greatfullness.

Alden coming back would be my dream coming true. She doesn't even need to be sole HW. But she needs to come back. She knows Y&R, she knows how to pace, plot, make it interesting, romantic, shocking, suspenseful, everything. The Takeover, Kay Vs Jill over the house, Sarah/Veronica, the sweet Megan/Tony romance, Tricia going slowly, but surely, cuckoo, Victoria's stalker, Kay discovering Mac, Mac and Billy, Ashley and Brad, Olivia's Illness, Matt's Revenge, Neil/Victoria, Victoria loosing Eve, Nikki's affair with Brad, the whole fun Victor/Chett (or at least that's what I think was his name)/Ramona thing, just great, great stuff. Even the less interesting stuff like Malcolm/Callie, Raul's Illness, Brittany were held together by good writing (which I guess can't be attributed to Alden solely) but even those were great to watch. And the Sperm Storyline was HELLISHLY fun to watch. It is NEVER getting better than that, unless she comes back, with some fresh ideas and typical Y&R plotting and style.

[dm.]

The thing that I hoped for after Latham's firing was that boring characters that she created would be axed from the show, but since that magical day at the end of December, we still didn't get any firing. Everyone is still here. David is as boring as hell, Karen isn't even remotely interesting, Korbel is painful to watch, NotColleen is leaving for six months but will still return, I would even like to see Cane gone.

Even though Jill and Brad finally got more airtime, other things have started to go down. Jack had only two appearances this month (out of 7), they even decided to forget about Alistair for a while (who was actually more interesting than anything Latham created). Neil is boring, Nikki is blind, I could sleep for days while watching any scene with Sabrina, J.T., Lily or Cane. And what the heck is up with Heather, Devon and Paul? The quality is only seen around Adam and Jill.

So why is Maria not doing anything? And why isn't she getting rid of Latham leftovers? If she checks the date on the calender she'll see that strike episodes are long gone and that the transition period has been going on for a loooong time.

However, for some reason, I keep watching the show every day. No matter how boring it is, I still manage to find something good in it. I can't get though the day without watching Y&R.