I believe Slesar also head-wrote both Search for Tomorrow and Somerset for a period of time during his head writing tenure at Edge of Night. P&G must've really loved him. His record was beaten by William J. Bell at Y&R btw, who spent 25 years as Y&R's head writer.

Edited March 23, 200817 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

Anyway on topic, the ones that come to mind are Irna Philips, William J. Bell, Agnes Nixon, Douglas Marland, Claire Labine, Paual Avila Mayer, Harding Lemay, Nancy Curlee, Lorraine Broderick, Henry Slesar, and Wisner Washam.

I think Thom Racina could be included.

I mean the man wrote GH when it was an international sensation: The Ice Princess, Elizabeth Taylor and Luke & Laura's wedding.

Little tidbit: A friend of mine went to a book signing of Racina's in...2003 I think.....anyways he told her Frons had talked to him about writing for AMC (I guess this was after he fired Richard Culliton).

Edited March 23, 200817 yr by LeClerc

Didn't Pat Falken Smith write Luke & Laura's wedding?

Didn't Pat Falken Smith write Luke & Laura's wedding?

I thought so too but apprently not. Racina actually did a podcast recently with Daytime Confidential and the wedding was his baby, right down to Elizabeth Taylor's appearance and Scotty catching the bouquet.

I don't know if he was officially credited as headwriter after the strike though. He mentioned Gloria Monty was concerned he would get in trouble because his Ice Princess bible was used during the strike so they avoided giving him the official title.

This is what wrote on this website ( www.thomracina.com):

So it became the next best thing, the basis for the Ice Princess story on General Hospital, which culminated with the wedding of Luke & Laura, the highest rated show in daytime history (I'm proud to say, because I wrote it!).

ETA: Many sites clearly state that Pat wrote the wedding so I don't know anymore.

Edited March 24, 200817 yr by LeClerc

It doesn't matter who wrote "Luke and Laura's wedding," the publicity alone would have drawn in the crowd to see them tie the knot. But, I too would be happy to have been part of daytime's highest rated episode.

Personally, I believe that soap opera would have died a long, long time ago if not for three people: Ms. Irna Phillips, Mrs. Agnes Eckhart Nixon, and Mr. William J. Bell. Holy trinity of soap opera history, right there. And then you have the intelligence of people like Douglas Marland, Claire Labine, Harding Lemay, Bridget and Jerome Dobson, and others. I'd also include the very, very underrated Ann Marcus, who wrote on GH, LIAMST, and SFT before headwriting "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and "Forever Fernwood." Despite them being soap/sitcom hybrids, they were produced just like traditional soaps and Ann's work on them was really, really great stuff.

In no particular order...

Irna Phillips

Agnes Nixon

William Bell

Douglas Marland

Gordon Russell

Harding Lemay

Henry Slesar

Pat Falken Smith

Claire Labine

Pam Long

Bridget and Jerome Dobson

Wisner Washam

Peggy O'Shea

Ann Marcus

Gabrielle Upton

Joyce and John William Corrington

Jane and Ira Avery

Kay Alden

Lorraine Broderick...

and if I ever got the chance hopefully myself...LOL

No one has said anything about Sheri Anderson ?

No one has said anything about Sheri Anderson ?

Not to take anything away from Miss Anderson or anyone else, but I know at least in my own criteria for the best HW's one important requirement is either for that writer to have achieved long-term sustained creative success on at least one program and/or having made a truly lasting and significant contribution to the genre.

I think Anderson could be included in a HW Hall of Fame as it can be argued that she was a leading force in creating and crafting the supercouple formulas of the 1980's, enjoying her most success with DAYS. However, her talents didn't translate well to the subsequent shows she helmed.

Here's My list, in no particular order

Bill Bell Sr.

Jerome & Bridget Dobson

Doug Marland

Harding Lemay

Agnes Nixon

Donna M. Swajeski

Anne Howard Bailey

Edited March 24, 200817 yr by juniorz1

Here's My list, in no particular order

Bill Bell Sr.

Jerome & Bridget Dobson

Doug Marland

Harding Lemay

Agnes Nixon

Donna M. Swajeski

Anne Howard Bailey

Jerome and Bridget were great at ATWT but horrible on Santa Barbara.

Jerome and Bridget were great at ATWT but horrible on Santa Barbara.

Figures that you'd chime in with a crap statement like that.