Days: Does Hogan Sheffer Want To Return?

[daysfan]

Dena wrote for six months in 2003.

Peter Brash and Paula Cwikily wrote the story of how Rex and Cassie crashed on the Earth, and made them Tony and Marlena's children, but Higley suddenly made them Kate and Roman's children...and it was revealed while Cassie was getting ready to have sex with half-brother Lucas.

Higley also wrote the story of Maya and the "mysterious green goop" with Bo and Hope investigating it and going to the Indian Reservation.

She also brought Philip back, he was the mystery man when Belle, Cassie, and Mimi were on a reality show called "Love is Blind".

As well as Jack and Jennifer's talk show "In the House".

She also wrote Tony as a mobster, but she wrote the Lucas/Sami pairing well. IMO the one good and best thing she wrote was when Tony/Andre threw Sami out the glass doors of the DiMera Mansion.

[dragonflies]

Personally I thought Hogan was a better fit at ATWT than Days.....

Right now with all these firings there isn't much incentive for him to want to come back

[DaytimeFan]

I didn't really mind Sally Sussman Morina's time at DAYS. But I'm biased since she's been a longtime writer at Y&R and was part of some great stuff.

Higley is just...Higley. Her solo run was just *awful*....I didn't mind Jack and Jennifer before her run but as 'In the House' became a regular occurrence I really wanted Melissa Reeves and Matt Ashford to quit, I grew to despise them. That's what Higley can do, she can take once lovable characters and make them just ghastly.

When someone like Slezak calls her out you'd think that would be the nail in the coffin that is her career. But no, it's up to Corday...so it's a mess!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

What are you hearing?

Guza's outlasted every writer Frons initially hired when he became head of ABC Daytime. McTavish is gone, Malone and Griffith as well as Higley are all gone, but Guza remains and Frons has a longer friendship with Guza back to Guza's days on Santa Barbara.

GH is in serious need of a regime change. Both JFP and Guza are long overdo for a firing. I can't believe JFP's been there this long. What's it been? Seven years? This is the longest she's gone without being fired or leaving on her own accord.

[daysfan]

Oh, I totally agree. You can tell both of them are majorly burnt out and have been for awhile. I have never been a big fan of Guza, but starting 2007 was when GH began to majorly crumble, IMO. The MetroCourt hostage crisis was the last sweeps event that interested me.

Everything has become way too repetitive. PC is almost always about to blow up, and there's the new grand mob guy introduced every several months, and an actual juicy character dies. On GH, no one can even leave PC anymore except the rare cases like Dillion and Ned. Everyone always dies and have for the past several years.

[DevotedToAMC]

I agree. What I think should happen is Frons fire JFP and move AMC's EP, Julie Hanan Carruthers, over as EP of GH. Julie knows the history of that show since she was EP at Port Charles and served as a supervising producer in the mid 90s at GH

I just hope that would not mean JFP goes to AMC as EP...I would prefer AMC rehire Francesca James as EP if this is what happens. For GH's writer, they should just promote from within and let Michele Val Jean be the head writer and finally kick Guza to the curb

[juppiter]

I think the problem with JFP and Guza workiing together is that they both want GH to be more like a primetime show. Normally, I like JFP, but combined with Guza you have two people who'd rather make a primetime show than a daytime show and it is just disastrous.

That said, I don't think either is going anywhere. They are clearly having a menage à trois with Frons.

[Ryan]

From what I've heard, things have been better at GH since Jill has taken over. I don't think the problem at GH is her...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

When I look at GH, I can clearly see Jill's "dark and misogynistic" vision shine through because I've seen it at other shows she's executive produced. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's overdone at GH. I don't think she's squarely the problem because everyone knows both Guza and Frons share the same vision for the show and probably to a more aggressive extreme. GH is love overdo for both a new EP and HW though, it's time to start over because GH has been too stale and stagnant for a while now. It might be consistent when compared to other shows, but that really isn't a good place to be either.

I also don't think Jill gets GH the way say her predecessor Wendy Riche got GH. Even before Frons came to ABC, you could clearly see Jill had her favorites at GH, you know those who were always going to get meaty material and storylines, while those she didn't care for much weren't going to get much of anything. As opposed to Riche, who ran GH as an ensemble show.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

You didn't like his first two stints in the 90's? I mean it certainly didn't a hold a candle to the quality Claire Labine produced from 93-96, but Guza's first two stints with Wendy Riche as EP were stellar. GH was much more of an ensemble show back then and it had HEART, something it no longer has. But now, you can clearly see Wendy Riche was the genius behind that, she knew how to balance out Guza's stupidity, but Jill and Frons have no idea how to do that, since they share much of the same vision with him.

[JackPeyton]

IMHO, this is GH's biggest problem. It goes around and around and around and nothing ever changes. nothing moves forward, no one grows, there is no change. GH today is the exact same GH as in 2003.

big issue in feb, fallout thru summer, new storylines for summer, all come together for next big sweeps, fallout from that until feb again.

when the show needs some heart and drama it kills of a legacy char. when they want soemthing new and fresh they bring on mob man to fight sonny #9823769+.

i mean, i like gh today, i do. but i dont love it. and i could love it again, no problem.

and i really dont think Jill is the big issue at GH. getting a new EP wouldnt change anythin, IMHO because Brain frons does the ep job. whats GH needs is what abc daytime needs - brian frons gone. but i dont see that happening. sure gh could prob get better if they had a new ep or hw, but not by much. however if they were to get a new ep/hw combo and didnt take BF [!@#$%^&*] and knew the history of gh MAYBE... but then again BF would still be there.

[daysfan]

Oh, I totally forgot his nineties stints! Yeah I certainly loved those, although I'll give half the credit to Wendy Riche. I should probably put what I said into the terms of how I never was a big fan of 2002-Present Guza. When he wrote in the nineties it was wonderful(however, as you said, it can't compare to Claire Labine's time as HW).

I don't know if JFP is the problem or not, but she is no Wendy Riche by far, but everyone knows that. I think that if she isn't as bad as Guza is right now, maybe she just needs a Co-EP by her side or something(but of course, Frons is there so that probably wouldn't do a damn thing). Not sure, but something needs to be done, because someone has the wrong ideas for GH.

[WorldTurner]

ATWT was a mess when Hogan took over so it wasn't hard to make fans happier. Also I think the first year and a half was when Carolyn Culliton was working with him and things went rapidly downhill when at that time JP was named co-headwriter. Who he works with seems to have a gigantic effect on his writing. While I want JP gone from ATWT, I don't think bringing Hogan back would be the answer or good for the show.

[brimike]

I wish I could have your optimism, PR. But those comments Casello made were back in the fall, when the strike was first starting - long before cast cuts were being made right and left and brand new stories were starting. Plus, there were a lot of "FOH"'s at Days at the time. (Is that term SOOOOO 1999 or what? ) I want to have the same hope as you, but this sure sounds like a business trying to "make the most of a bad situation" and doing everything they wanted to do but couldn't do under a previous regime. Much like what's happening on Y&R right now. Except Y&R was really broken before-hand, and Days was getting back on track. And after all the much-publicized rules thrown at SHeffer during his stint: "Play these people... now we're firing these people... only play the big four once a month... play the big four EVERY DAY... etc., and then the sudden firing of your co-head for a new co-head you've never worked with before? I'd be pretty fed up if I were in his shoes.