Lynn Marie Latham

FIELD OF DREAMS

Although Lynn Marie Latham was recently named EP of Y&R, a title she juggles smoothly with her duties as HW, she insists that she's simply a member of a vast team that includes her fellow producers and scribes as well as the cast and crew."When I say 'I' or 'me', I feel very selfish. Everything I talk about is a group effort," says the writer, whose credits include 'Knots Landing', 'Homefront', 'Wild Card', 'The District' and 'Port Charles'. SID sat down with Latham at the trendy Vermont Restaurant in Los Angeles to discuss her latest venture into daytime - and where she may be taking Y&R in the future.

SID: Did you grow up watching soaps?

LML: I've watched soaps all my life. I think the first soap that caught my imagination was 'Love is a Many Splendored Thing' with Leslie Charleson and Donna Mills. And I was very caught up in the storyline of OLTL when Judith Light (ex-Karen) was married but a prostitute. It was the first time sexual addiction had been looked at on television. I was also addicted to GL when Kevin Bacon (ex-TJ) played a teenage alcoholic. We cast Robin Strasser on KL because I had loved her [as Dorian] on OLTL.

SID: You never watched Y&R before?

LML: Much as I adore daytime, like most fans, I don't have time in my schedule to watch every series. But a television writer's job is to learn the program he or she is writing for. Fortunately, because I was contacted about joining Y&R a year before i signed on, I had that time to watch past episodes and study the history of the characters. I became so addicted that, even had I not joined Y&R, I couldn't have given it up. It was tremendous fun to follow Bill Bell's remarkable stories through the years, and, if I had the opportunity to travel back in time, I would have forsaken one of my other daytime serials for Y&R - although i won't say which one!

SID: So what attracted you to Y&R?

LML: The actors! I know how time-consuming writing for daytime is. I had done it before and I wondered if I really wanted to leap back in. But then I watched Y&R and went from 'Do I really want to do this?' to 'These actors are magnificent; please, please, let me write for them!" I marvel at the actors' performances every day when I watch the show and I feel very, very fortunate to be here. I believe dayitme serials are as addictive as coffee. And I believe that core characters are crucial to a show, because if I'm away form one of my soaps for a long period of time, I think, 'I'm not addicted anymore, I don't have to watch this one," but if I tune in and a core character is on, then I'll watch.

SID: It's interesting you say that, because a lot of longtime fans are concerned that core characters will be discarded when a new HW or EP joins a show.

LML: People have asked me about that, and I'm always surprised by the question. Dayimt serials would not exist without strong, core characters. Thsoe are the people the audience is invested in and those are the characters I'm curious about. In daytime, we have the ability to examine someone's life as it unfolds over decades. We don't have that opportunity in any other form of drama. I am much more interested in what happens to Victor Newman when he is struck by seizures than I would be if it happened to someone I was unfamiliar with. So my heart and soul will always be invested in designing stories for the characters on canvas because of their incredibly rich history.

SID: Do you talk to the actors about their characters and their history?

LML: Constantly! I think they think I'm a pest - I call them at home on Sundays! In daytime, when you have actors play characters for years, I think it's extremely important to keep the lines of communication open. They need to understand why I'm approaching a story a certain way, and I need to understand their characters' motivations. If I take a lef turn, and all of a sudden a character is supposed to do something he or she has never done before, then we need to discuss it, see if it fits the character's history and understand the motivation, so we can take this left turn together.

SID: For example...?

LML: I had many conversations with Peter Bergman about Jack and his motivation. I - and when I say I, I mean all the writers - don't ever approach storytelling by saying 'This is the plot, and I want to squeeze you into it.' I always want to understand how a character will react in a given situation. That's really what writing drama is all about. Character should be revealed by reaction to the incident. With Jack Abbott...well, why has he been a womanizer? He didn't trust women. Why didn't he trust women? He didn't trust women because his mother deserted him. Then, this man finally came to the point in his life where he trusted a woman - he trusted Phyllis - then he discovered she was sleeping with another man. That's huge. That's gigantic. So Jack starts sleeping with Carmen in two seconds; he sleeps with Sharon in two seconds. It is completely understandable behavior because the man's self-worth has been shattered. If Phyllis is saying, "I don't want you, I want your stepson," what does that do to the psyche? So that's how I actually try to approach digesting stories and how I discuss them with the actors. We talk about motivation.

SID: Not to beat this subject to death, but fans don't have to worry about you mixing up the canvas by getting rid of core families?

LML: There is an old saying that the proof is in the pudding. If you tune in, you'll see the core characters at the forefront. If I'm lucky enough in my career to have actors to write for who are the caliber of Peter Bergman, Eric Braeden, Christian LeBlanc, Tracey Bregman, Michelle Stafford and Sharon Case, Jeanne Cooper - I could go thorugh the whole list, and if I leave somebody off, they'll say, "Why did you leave me off?" - but I actually mean the entire cast. If I am that privileged to have this cast to work with, why would I want to try to change the landscape of Genoa City? Now I will occasionally bring in new characters to interact with the core characters, but the purpose of bringing them in is to generate story for the series regulars.

SID: Everybody is talking about the "death" of soap operas. How viable are soaps today?

LML: It goes back to the movie 'Field of Dreams' with Kevin Costner. If you build it, they will come. If you have riveting stories, viewers will come. That's what's happening with Grey's Anatomy and LOST. People have always been drawn to great drama.

SID: One of the changes that has occured under your leadership is Y&R's pace, which has picked up a lot.

LML: It is an evolution. If drama remained fixed in time, if theater reamined fixed in time, actors would be still holding masks in front of their faces for comedy and drama. Television is an evolving medium, and we wanted to pick up the pace in storytelling and in staging, but we're not changing the core of the show. If we came in and changed everything, it wouldn't be Y&R anymore. Newman Enterprises has been made to look more like a real office building - people in the hallways, people in the elevators, people in the break room. The break room is one set I really wanted to build because I have more conversations with staffers in front of the microwave than anywhere else. I love that set because to me, that's real life.

SID: A lot has been written about the Victor epilepsy storyline, not all of it positive. What's your reaction?

LML: I thought Eric Braeden was brilliant in that storyline. He brought me to tears. He took a character who was strong and powerful and seemed almost invincible, and he showed his fraility. And he brought me to tears. Many actors would have been afraid to do that. Eric was absolutely fearless in his portrayal of what Victor Newman went through with his condition. I was in awe of him. I believe the viewers who didn't respond favorably wanted to cling to the idea that Victor could never change. But that's what drew me to this storyline in the first place. What happens when a man of Victor's stature faces a condition that shakes the core of his being. I didn't know that epilepsy had never been a story before on TV. I received hundreds of e-mails and letters from people who had epilepsy. I also found myself crying when a mother wrote me about her daughter's struggle just to be diagnosed with the condition.

SID: Another new development is the friendships between women, like Dru and Sharon. Did you deliberately set out to create those friendships?

LML: It's real life. We've heard all our lives that people have a fight or flight response when under stress, but researchers were studying men. Women under stress have a different response that is categorized as "tend or befriend" - they tend to their children or they reach out and call all their friends. My friendships are the most important thing to me in the world, and I wanted to know on Y&R who [everyone was] friends with. I felt because Michael is such good friends with Phyllis that Phyllis would be brought into the fold and Phyllis and Lauren would become strong friends. Dru cannot stand Phyllis. Who is her natural friend? Sharon is her natural friend because Phyllis stole Sharon's husband. These friendships are so important, and I think they play wonderfully.

SID: Can you tease what fans can expect coming up? Any new characters? Returning characters?

LML: I really got hooked on B&B when I got hooked on Y&R. That's when I fell in love with the character of Amber. So we've cast Adrienne Frantz who will be playing Amber, the character she played on B&B. That's huge because she [was] a huge character on B&B. But at this point, we're so happy with the characters already on Y&R that we're not stepping through hoops to really bring anybody back.

SID: Any last words to fans?

LML: My goal - and I may not always achieve this - is to write entertaining stories that when I come home from my job, I can put my feet up and be entertained. We live in an incredibly stressful world, and we need a little time to ourselves to de-stress and have fun. Hopefully, Y&R gives that to people, puts joy in your life. And if it does, tell your friends!