Members SOAPSFOREVER Posted May 23, 2008 Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 And me. She's one of the most overrated scriptwriters on daytime television. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted May 23, 2008 Author Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 But, dmarex, Megan McTavish wrote for AMC for, like, 12 years. Something like that. And what did she do? Destroy it beyond belief. Single-handedly. Why do you like Janice? You or anyone else. If it's a well-argumented post, I might consider it. These people deserve all the praise they can get for turning Guza's sh!t into watchable stuff every single day. If it weren't for them, I would've abandoned GH a looooong time ago! Yes, it is a mixture of both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dm. Posted May 23, 2008 Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 Well, I definitely couldn't write a well-argumented post to defend Janice. I was only wondering why exactly you don't like her. Whatever happened on Y&R since the beginning to 2006 was mostly okay, and I never exactly thought or watched which writer wrote what... I didn't notice anything bad about Janice. That's why I wondered what part of her job you don't like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Toups Posted May 23, 2008 Administrator Share Posted May 23, 2008 For Y&R, I prefer "soap opera dialogue" as in I don't really want "real people dialogue." Whenever I watch old school Y&R, I love hearing the "theatrical dialogue." -------------------------------------------- Victor: "My point it is......That a gold digger like Brad Carleton is not going to walk away from a pot of gold....which he would've had if I fired him. Unless if there was an incentive, in the form of a beautiful lady, who he covets for many reasons....Now that lady couldn't have been you by any chance, could it?" Nikki: "You know, you're building this case against me ---" Victor: "DON'T YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOOL! I AM NOT A FOOL! AND DON'T YOU EVER TAKE ME FOR ONE! At least you could've had the decency to tell me that it was Brad Carleton that you went away with. Now you must know, I'm going to find out one way or the other." Nikki: "Alright......Yes, I was traveling with Brad. I couldn't stand another night of feeling so alone, so if you want to blame someone, blame yourself!" Victor: "You want me to blame myself for this kind of betrayal?" Nikki: "I was sick and tired of being lonely, Victor, and I couldn't reach you." Victor: "So you went to this Brad Carleton fellow as a substitute, isn't it?" Nikki: "Well, I couldn't say that, he has been wonderful to me." Victor: "Don't you simply understand that he is trying to find another way to screw me?" Nikki: "Oh God! Of course this has nothing to do with me, it's all about you." Victor: "What have you done to us?.........You had an affair with an obnoxious traitor. And don't you tell me that wasn't part of the arrangment FROM THE VERY BEGINNING! DON'T INSULT MY INTELLIGENCE ANY LONGER!" Nikki (crying): "You don't understand any of this! God! He offered me a future, Victor. He offered me a life filled with love and romance and all those things that I didn't think were possible with you anymore." Victor: "Let me tell you something.......There are no expectations for our future anymore and there never will be......you got that? Never. Because what you have done is unforgivable." Victor throws something and then exits the house. Nikki (still crying): "Oh God.........Victor......." She runs after him. Nikki: "Victor!......VICTOR!!!!!!" She drops to her knees crying. Nikki: "DON'T GO!!!!!!!! DON'T GOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! ----------------------------------- THAT is soapy goodness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MarkH Posted May 23, 2008 Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 Sylph, surely you cannot deny the SHEER entertainment value of this level of melodrama? Despite these grand moments, I never once found them as schlocky as B&B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted May 23, 2008 Author Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 I saw this post only now! How could I have missed it?! But it sure made my day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rain1 Posted May 23, 2008 Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 Irna Phillips taught Bill Bell to write dialogue for the RADIO audience (which is where she got her start). The drama had to be exagerrated for the listeners at home who were filling in the action with their imaginations (how's that for a lost art?). It used to be a scriptwriting rule at Y&R that within the first couple of lines of dialogue in every scene, the characters had to call each other by their given names. This isn't natural, of course, since almost no one does this in real life (..."you're looking lovely today, Nikki... why thank you, Victor....") but it helped the home viewer who was busy ironing or scrubbing floors or whatever to keep an "ear" on the action without having to sit down and watch frame by frame. Since Kay is editing scripts at B&B, it's possible you may be hearing some of that old-time melodrama returning... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted May 23, 2008 Author Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 I cannot laugh at these things, Mark, anymore. Instead I get a mini-breakdown every time I hear or read something like this. It might make you and Toups laugh, but that doesn't make it any less cr*ppy. And as for Janice, I remember a few of her B&B scripts. They were... Terrible. I just don't want to remember any of those lines and characters speaking outside character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Toups Posted May 23, 2008 Administrator Share Posted May 23, 2008 Then give me the crappy dialogue since it's old school Y&R dialogue. I love the mentioning of names all the time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MarkH Posted May 23, 2008 Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 rain1, you have now gone from feeling unwelcomed a few days ago to being dearly loved...by me anyway. Okay, so because you're clearly astute about AMC and Y&R (especially), what do YOU think about Y&R's dialog? Do you think the LML-era modernization was a good thing? Do you think the trademark Bell sound is a good thing? Me...when the dialog changed in the LML era I was OVERJOYED. It sounded great. I laughed. My show was modern! But then, as other problems set in, I came to realize that the good dialog was disguising much deeper structural problems. When Maria returned, and the pacing slowed, and phrases like "Just know...", or "You've got to know..." or "You're a woman who..." or "Let me look at my beautiful wife..." or "How's my favorite cousin..." started showing up again...it felt like...HOME. Comfort food. The sounds of familiarity. What do YOU think? Which is better? Is there a happy medium? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MTSRocks Posted May 23, 2008 Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 Ummm...old school Y&R dialogue kicked ass. Sure it was theatrical, and at times melodramatic, but it sure as hell packed a WALLOP. Hell, at times it was almost Shakespearean. That's what made Y&R stand above the rest in the past, was its superior writing. No one can deny the sheer brilliance of the 1998 Jill crashes Katherine's party, to proclaim this mansion as hers, which of course was delivered exquisitely by Ms. Jess Walton. Even though GH dialogue seems more fresh and lifelike, I still think both soaps are (or in Y&R's case "was" but its slowly getting there again) masterful in that aspect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaytimeFan Posted May 23, 2008 Members Share Posted May 23, 2008 A gift from me to you... Jill: Why I'm so sorry... oh look at you all, you're acting like I'm mistreating some helpless old woman. Well that's because you don't know the facts, the fact is that this house that we are standing in is mine! Phillip died married to me! He died loving me! Alright, he loved her once, he did, but by the time I came into their lives she was a monster, he couldn't stand to be in the same room with her! She was a fallen down drunk and she wreaked of booze and her tongue would rip your head off. I gave him something that that man hadn't had in years, I gave him love, I gave him somebody to talk to and a little attention and yes, sex. Good, healthy sex with a sober, sweet smelling woman and it drove you so mad with jealousy that you killed him! Did you know that? Did you know that she killed Phillip by driving him off a cliff while she was drunk? Go on Katherine, tell us some more about your glorious times in this house with Phillip! Katherine: This has really got to stop Jill! Jill: It will stop! As soon as this house and these ground are mine as Phillip wanted them to be! Katherine: Oh you are dreaming, oh God you are... Jill: No I'm not! I have the evidence in black and white that Phillip wanted me to have this house! Look I'm sorry about this party, I couldn't think of any other way to do this... Christine: You handled this exactly the way you wanted to. Jill: Yes, because I have lived for over twenty years feeling dead inside because the only man who ever really loved me was taken away from me! Yes I wanted to hurt Katherine! She killed my Phillip! Woman! You took what was mine and I am taking it back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MarkH Posted May 24, 2008 Members Share Posted May 24, 2008 I have this transcript I wrote from years ago (no dialogue, but you can infer it)...I'm talking late 80s/early 90s...where Kay reveals that Jill is simultaneously romancing Rex and John at a party....just amazing stuff. And it was ALL dialogue and acting, with brilliant staging and music. A set piece...intimate...maybe just four characters...in Kay's living room for 1/3 or 1/2 the episode. It was really all in the words.... I tried to capture some of the dialogue. (I was almost 20 years younger then...so forgive some of the hyperbole in my summary, too). This story was, as I recall, AGES in the making. Buildup, buildup, buildup. But then, finally, it all came to explosion in these two episodes...so the buildup was worth it. Note that the story was all "secrets and lies". THAT is what melodrama is about! I post the transcript here...it's long so you can skip it. Friday October 12, 1990 and Monday October 15, 1990. I wonder who wrote the episodes? It continued on Monday. Again long, so skip it. But I'm trapped in a memory reverie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MTSRocks Posted May 25, 2008 Members Share Posted May 25, 2008 ^^^Indeed. Just brilliance from the above. Things took a long time to progress, but when all was said and done, the result was absolutely marvellous. That dialogue, writing, staging, music, is what made Y&R so orgasmic in its heyday. The captivating acting was just the icing on the cake. These days, Y&R's dialogue is boardering on generic to downright humiliating at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sylph Posted May 27, 2008 Author Members Share Posted May 27, 2008 I'm considering going all brimike on all of you – Toups, Mark, MTSRocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.