James Harmon Brown & Barbara Esensten: The Verdict

[Sylph]

I know this duo has quite a reputation, but was there ever a story you liked? Or maybe they did have a forte which you admired? Some tiny, tiny thing they always did very well?

Or are they simply bad writers? 

What was their most successful tenure in your opinion? 

Honestly, I can say I loved their vision for The City and Loving murders storyline. I also think they weren't bad at all when they started writing GL. They wrote the Annie Dutton story, cleaned the mess Megan left behind, began Lizzie's leukemia, turned Holly into a psychopath... But then Wendy Fishman (CBS executive, later a BDW on GL) had a fabulous idea about cloning... Of course, it wasn't long before San Cristobal and the mob stories came along... You know how that ended.

Then there was the destruction of PC with vampires and all sorts of other cr*ppy supernatural stories.

Your verdict?

[detroitpiston]

I loved PC and The City, thats about it.

[DrewH]

In all honesty, I enjoyed their short time on AMC. They're the ones that got me invested in this show. I felt the show became so much better under them compared to where it was under McTavish. When McTavish was writing, I couldn't become invested because the storylines just sucked. B&E made Pine Valley exciting and relatable to me. It felt like a real town to me. Sure, they wrote primariliy for Kendall, Zach, Greenlee and Ryan, but they may have been forced to write for those four characters because it seems like every head writer writes for them.

I'm sad to see them go.

[detroitpiston]

I'll give them one thing, they were better than McTrash but thats not saying much LOL.

[dragonflies]

The first two weeks of Crash was their best work overall. I can't think of anything else they did that was good. Debbi & Darnell carried the Jangie reunion, so I can't even credit the Bears for that.

I think they're hacks who can't do anything but plot device after plot device

[NYC123]

Well the last 2 weeks have been GREAT! And like Angie said The 2 Weeks of CRASH was GREAT!

Anything else was BLAH!!

[dragonflies]

Kyle I honestly can't believe they wrote the last two weeks, some of the stuff I can believe(the continued whitewashing of Greenlee, Annie being thrown under the Rylee bus), but not all

[pamela1965]

i love PC i miss it

[SouthOfSoap]

They sucked on Dynasty too - although I cant verify if it is actually true but in the TV movie about the Shapiros, it was implied that they wrote the Moldavia nonsense.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

They suck overall, but the best work they've ever done IMO was their first year on GL. No, it might not have been the real GL, and it might have been campy as hell. However, compunded by great acting, that whole Crazy Annie drama and the Annie/Josh/Reva triangle made the show that year. I think Cynthia Watros is still the only performer to ever win an Emmy from their craptastic head-writing and more power to her!

[sheilaforever]

The only time I ever watched GL - which is just not my style of soap, dunno why - on a regular basis was during their tenure. It had heart (some custody battle with Phillip and Beth (?)) and kicked some ass on the camp level with Clone Reva which surprisngly had enormous depth at times.

Wasn't too fond of them on Dynasty though - which doesn't say much because the writing there was always atrocious until the very last season. Never followed their other endeavours which are generally considered their best - except Port Vampire Charles.

[Chris B]

I don't know how long they were at Dynasty, but the final season was the best since the second and I know they were around for that. In addition, I loved their work on PC and honestly don't see how they could ruin the show. For years it was written by Lynn Latham, then Scott Hamner and briefly by Karen Harris. It was still a very new show and they tried to revamp it and make it successful. Other soaps had radical revamps, some successful, so I don't think they did a bad thing in this case. I never saw their stint on Guiding Light so I have no comment.

Their work on All My Children has been piss poor from day one. I'll never understand the Crash hype which bored me and was way too dark to begin their run on the show. They didn't show me in those opening weeks or months what their vision for AMC was. How it was better and why I should continue watching after McTavish. They took an emotional issue which is an easy way to rope viewers in. With the fallout of Greenlee being absolved off responsibility, it was officially made a cheap stunt.

What we're seeing today is FABULOUS, but I don't believe it's all them. We know there are various voices at work with the planned firing of B&E. If this were all them, I don't think Frons would let him go. Nor do I believe he'd invest in Angie and Jesse's wedding if he was so disappointed in their work.

[dragonflies]

On any other show they wrote for, did they ever rewrite what they had just written like they did when they whitewashed Greenlee?

I mean it's a sign of a bad writer when they whitewashed what they shoved down out throats for over 6 months

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The single best storyline that ever came from a B&E Head Writing tenure.

Annie's meltdown on the witness stand. I wish someone posted Annie's psychotic outbreak at Corss Creek though, that was another good one. I don't know how much credit goes to Paul Rauch though, since he's been a notorious tyrant at all the show's he's been EP of...

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

No no no!!! Don't get SOFT people. B&E sucked AMC big time and deserved to go.