Y&R: Who Should Be The Next Head Writer?

[DaytimeFan]

There ain't no way in hell that McTavish is coming to Y&R. Not Happening. She's damaged goods and an egotistical cow, everyone in the industry knows it. And no she never worked with Griffith. I mean she tanked AMC, Sony & the Bells aren't stupid, they want the show to improve. They've already dealt with an ego driven bitch, they don't need that merry go round again.

Sally Sussman Morina is someone whose performance I would rate as "Fair"...I liked some of her work on DAYS a lot and didn't like other parts of it. She's pretty mixed. I think she would have been head and shoulders above LML simply because she's worked at Y&R, on and off, since the 1980s so she has a Bill Bell pedigree and only left Y&R to create 'Generations' (which I didn't like).

I'm really pulling for a generation of Bill Bell pedigreed writers: NMS, JFE, TJ, JH with Kay Alden as a consultant. That to me would be ideal because it would be a marriage of the classic and the contemporary.

[Khan]

Cut to three weeks from now, when Toups drops the bomb on us makes the announcement that Megan McTavish has been named the new HW of Y&R.

[AddictedToSoaps]

Kay Alden. She's the only person I can really trust when it comes to writing a soap.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Damn, and here I was hoping someone would give Craig Heller a call telling him someone wants him to finally head write a show....

[Khan]

Well, she's certainly passionate about the genre, I'll give her that.

More than that, though, I'd prefer KA, b/c next to Bill Bell, she knows Y&R better than anyone else. I know her Fi-Core status would create some problems for most shows...but Bell doesn't produce most shows, either.

My ideal Y&R writing staff:

Kay Alden, Head Writer.

Trent Jones, Co-Head Writer.

Patrick Mulcahey, Associate Head Writer.

Natalie Minardi Slater, Associate Head Writer.

Meg Bennett, Writer.

Eric Freiwald, Writer.

Jim Houghton, Writer.

Frederick Johnson, Writer.

Linda Schreiber, Writer.

[DaytimeFan]

Oh don't even go there. Please. I could not stomach it. McTavish...on Y&R...when other Bill Bell writers are available...I couldn't take it. Dear God In Heaven No!

[YRBB]

My very ideal would be to see Kay Alden back on those credits, even if it is as a Co-Head-Writer. And I absolutely agree with everyone who says that Y&R writers from the past, like NMS, JFE, JH, JS, etc., should return to the show.... The show has already got majorly better under Griffith and Bell and that's without all those people who know, get and love Y&R on board. So, if we can get them back, then I think Y&R has a great chance to go back to the golden show that it once was.

McTavish? Sheffer? Hell on earth!

And, may I just say something: THANK GOD TO THE HEAVENS THE HACK BITCH LML WAS FIRED AND HER TEAM OF BANDITS ALONG WITH THEIR [!@#$%^&*]!!!!!

[JackPeyton]

Sally Sussman-Morina & Kay Alden as co-HW's

[boldfan01]

Her Fi-Core status aside, Kay doesn't think the ABC soaps are a good fit for her. That's why she bailed after her 6 month consulting contract with ABC ended and went knocking on Brad Bell's door for a job on B&B. She said once Brad hired her that the way they told stories at ABC wasn't the way she was taught, so she decided not to seek renewal of the consulting deal when it ended and instead went someplace more familiar to her.

[Adam]

As Noel said a few posts back, someone who clearly get it, it being the Bell vision that made this show so successful for so many years. The only thing Latham's stint had going for it was remarkably, the ratings didn't go that south.... which is beyond me. I think that is the only reason she had such a long leash.

Megan McTavish and Lynn Marie Latham are practically sisters if you take only their writing style into consideration. They are two peas in a pod..... Latham destoryed Y&R, McTavish pushed AMC to the brink, since B&E have been finishing the job......

I honestly don't have one name I can throw out there. Alden as consultant for sure, but I have changed my stance and I really would like to see her in a non HW role.

I hope they take their time deciding because Griffith and Maria Bell have been doing a great job during the strike. They need to do this slowly.....

Hogan would be a huge NO. I am still weary of a Hogan AMC hypothetically, but I think he'd do better there then Y&R.

[DaytimeFan]

I don't want anyone writing Y&R who didn't write for the show previously. Hogan, McTavish....hell even good writers like Nancy Curlee or Lorraine Broderick...I don't want any of 'em picking up a pen at Y&R. The next HW needs a Bell pedigree, plain and simple. And Kay Alden needs a consulting role. I'm with Adam, I think she'd be better suited (and probably enjoy) a consulting producer role. I can only hope, beg and plead with Sony that they have learned their lesson and will hire or promote someone within the Bell family of talent, that's the Y&R way and that's how it HAS to be.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Whatever they do, I hope they don't have another Head Writer/Executive Producer fusion. That sh!t didn't work with Jack F. Smith and it certainly didn't work with Latham. How can you be objective if you're both a show's Head Writer and Executive Producer? There needs to be a balance of powers, especially at Y&R. I will seriously lose it if the new Head Writer is also the Executive Producer, despite how much better Y&R has been with Griffith in both roles during the strike.

My post of TVGC's Suds Report got deleted in the spoiler section due to fighting. LOL!

Anyway, here's the Y&R part with an interesting comment from Victoria Rowell. Looks like she left mainly because of Latham and I can only imagine how low the morale was on set when she was controlling everything.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I've been wondering something, you know ever since Maria Arena Bell's name popped up in the Y&R credits during the strike, it made me realize that the Bell's might be trying to exercise their power more and more at Y&R. If Sony had given Josh Griffith all this power, surely William J. Bell's daughter-in-law WOULD NOT have been hired. That said, with all the former Y&R writers that have gone to B&B recently, maybe they went there in refuge in hopes they'd be back at Y&R soon? Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if the Bell's are very invovled in picking Y&R's new writing team, and I wouldn't be surprised if some, even as little as two writers, that crossed from Y&R to B&B make their way back to Y&R soon.

Again, let's just hope they DO NOT make the new Head Writer the Executive Producer as well.

[DaytimeFan]

Yeah having the dual EP and HW is a BAD thing. It just doesn't work because the person becomes too ego driven and overstretched. it happened with Jack Smith and it certainly happened with LML. It's about balance.

I really hope the Bells are in the driver's seat when it comes to Y&R. That, I think, is the big difference between Y&R and DAYS. Sony has an interest in both and yet DAYS is a mess (with Corday) and Y&R is hopefully on the upswing (with the Bells)...

I think your thoughts on the Y&R refugees at B&B might hold some weight Y&RWorldTurner...at least I hope it does.

[Faulkner]

AMEN! As people have said in this thread before, we need someone who "gets it," and now more than ever.