Your Y&R writing dream team

[Sylph]

OK, starting with a HW. If your team exceeds 12 writers, throw the list in the rubbish bin.

Now, a question: Is it better to have a clueless team of fabulous dialoguers or Y&R's (usually) awful (some say "theatrical, stilted") dialogue with people who know its history?

Y&RWorldTurner mentioned how Charles Pratt Jr.'s and Hogan Sheffer's teams usually have good dialogue writers and many expect that Hogan will hire some new writers he worked with before for Y&R.

Probably, we will see Frederick Johnson returning (although, have in mind that we expected Trent Jones, or any other Bill Bell-era writer for that matter, to pop up after Maria started writing, but that didn't happen because of reasons listed in The Directors and Writers Thread).

So, I'd like to see your list!

[MTSRocks]

I used to think Y&R and GH had the best dialogue writers on daytime. Nowadays, not so much.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think GH's trademark is its stellar script writing team. No other soap on daytime has dialogue as crisp and rich as GH's.

[Sylph]

YES! If someone removes a single writer from it, I will cry so hard! I don't even want Elizabeth Korte to go! Demoted she should be, but not gone!

[aMLCproduction]

where's ur list sylph?

for me though

LML, <<(the differnce she'll be co hw with KA not EP)Kay Alden, Jack Smith, Trent Jones, Sally Sussman Morina, Fedrick Johnson Scott Hamner and Myself

[Sylph]

I'm afraid to write it down... OK, a partial list, I don't even know what I'm writing...

Head Writer

Nancy Curlee

Breakdown Writers

Frederick Johnson

Trent Jones

Michael Minnis

Rex M. Best

Story/Creative Consultant

Jerry Birn (he's 85, I think, I don't know if this could work)

As for the scriptwriters, I don't know... I'll have to think about it.

I have no idea what I just wrote.

[brimike]

I do. You wrote a perfect team. I know I'd watch.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I'd pair Nancy and Trent as Co-HW's. Trent has history with Y&R, while he and Nancy know one another quite well from their days at GL.

However, you have a lot of very old men on your team. I'd try to add some relatively younger faces with Y&R experience, such as Natalie Minardi Slater and Josh McCaffrey.

I also realize that my dear Nancy has no Y&R experience. However, she told some corporate stories on GL in the early 90's, as well as social stories and stories about community. I'd love her back at any soap. Patrick Mulchaey was right when he said, "One of the things wrong with daytime right now is the the fact that she's [Nancy Curlee] not in it."

[rain1]

Unfortunately, Hogan's been hired to be Maria's Co-Headwriter (welcome to topsy-turvy world). With Hogan in the #2 position, it's doubtful he'll be allowed to hire his own team because it isn't really "his" team... it's Maria's. He can probably make suggestions, but that's it. If you're not "in" with the Bells, you're not "in" at Y&R.

[Sylph]

I know! Then again, look at this: Michael is 45, Trent is, what, upper forties, middle fifties? Rex is 52 I think, Fred is 53. Not so old, eh?

But what reassured me about the choice is you saying she watched all CBS soaps. And Patrick Mulcahey can go to Y&R as scriptwriter.

[brimike]

Exactly, Rain. In fact, I'm sure the only Hogan influence seen on-camera will be a little more plot, and more "incidents", which I think Y&R needs right now. I'm all for a character-driven show, don't get me wrong. But SOMETHING has to HAPPEN amidst all of this character-development.

Otherwise, I don't see anything really changing with Hoag in the #2 slot. He'll be working with Maria and the breakdown writers and that's about it. I don't really see any large influx of "FOH's" like with what happened at Days. (ANd honestly, I don't think it was a mistake getting rid of a lot of those Days writers. Most of them had gotten pretty lazy by the time HS took over. I miss Sofia, but other than that, there weren't any huge losses)

[Sylph]

But, rain1, what some of us here think is that he will somehow be involved with those hirings/firings. Maria hasn't hired anyone, as far as we here now. Yes, Marla Kanelos popped up after the strike, so did Beth Milstein. But were these two hired before the strike by Lynn Latham?

And how much say does Josh Griffith have in all this?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

But none of those writers were brought there by Maria herself. They're all Latham left-overs. Maria hasn't even started to build her own team. I think Hogan will have enough weight to get some people there and some people out. Will it be significant? Who knows...

Maria has no experience running a writing team, but Hogan does. I'd like to think he can put some of his experience to use in trimming Y&R's already bloated writing team.

Y&R doesn't just need a better writing team, it needs a better EP. Josh Grifith is lousy!

Bring back David Shaughnessy or Bloom should call her old friend Wendy Riche from her ABC days to get on board...

[rain1]

Both Marla and Beth had deals in place before the strike. Marla is a friend of Lynn's. Beth had worked at B&B. Josh Griffith has a lot to say about all of it. He's very particular about his likes/dislikes when it comes to the writing pool. Meanwhile, Janice Ferri Esser, ousted by Lynn, is positively itching to get back to Y&R and has a deal whereby she can write for both B&B and Y&R. (If the on-camera drama were as interesting as the behind-the-scenes drama, Daytime wouldn't be in so much trouble!)

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Sylph is very anti-Janice Ferri Esser.