James Harmon Brown & Barbara Esensten: The Verdict

[marceline]

I've seen this said over and over. If they didn't write this stuff, then who did? I really want to know who deserves the credit because I want to know if there's any hope after Pratt starts.

[Sylph]

I would like to know that, too.

[leevo64]

I enjoyed Tainted Love, Miracles Happen and Naked Eyes. I also enjoyed the return of the Hubbards and Erica's prison story. Other than that they are totally not cut out to write soaps.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

The Annie stuff at the beginning of their GL tenure was good. Other than that...hmm...uh...hmm......

[Loretta3938]

I liked most of what they did on Port Charles. I think they might have gotten a little carried away with the vampire storyline (remembering Desire...with half the town turning into vampires) but before that, I thought they did quite well. If you didn't like supernatural storylines, you wouldn't like what they did, but I did and they always amazed me how they could pull out a surprise ending to each arc. Perhaps their time on AMC could be attributed the same way. B&E start out strong and entertaining, only to wane midway, but come out with a spectacular finish at the end. That's how I'd describe most of the arcs they wrote for Port Charles, anyway.

Are you sure they won't be back? I didn't watch AMC while they were headwriters there, but I don't think anyone could do as bad as McTavish did. If anyone shouldn't be back writing soaps, it's her. JMO, of course.

[Steve]

I loved what they did their first year on GL. As soon as they came in, they reunited Josh & Reva and brought us Crazy Annie, which probably only worked due to Cynthia Watros, but still was as entertaining as hell!

I loved the start of the "Crash" storyline. It's a shame that everything was dropped because I thought they were building to a "Who Shot Greenlee?" story that could have been great. Whitewashing it all in the name of forgiveness was just lame.

I also liked Richie's introduction when it looked like Annie might be as crazy as her GL counterpart was. For the first time, Ryan's wife had a personality, but unfortunately she went back to being the boring victim again.

I suspect Daran Little might be the driving force behind the excellent episodes that have been airing lately if he was hired during the strike and is still there. If so, I hope he is named co-headwriter with Pratt.

[dragonflies]

Never, not when they've managed to outhack the hack McTavish

[EastMA2]

I know that I'm one of the few who liked the cloning story on GL. And I did like their first year on GL and they had other good story arcs on GL like Lizzie's leukemia.

And, this opinion might be in the minority, but they got a bad rap for their quote about writing storylines on napkins in a bar. After that, they became known as the drunk writers, but come on, if all of us were held to our quotes that are probably taken out of context, we'd be drunk all day. lol

I liked the Loving Murders also.

[R Sinclair]

Oh, GOD... WE GET IT!

Haven't you heard? The Algonquin Roundtable already decided that it's Agnes Nixon writing everything.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Anyway, while I did, indeed quit watching during B&E's tenure, it wasn't out of hatred, anger or insultation as it was when I quit watching during the spring-summer of McTavish 2006 (Madden in a box, Kendall in a Koma, Colby's Summer Screech Tour)... it was just out of boredom. I had gotten a new job about six weeks into B&E's tenure and work an incredibly unpredictable schedule these days... and there was nothing on the show that made me want to take that hour (or 20 minutes depending on FF'ing certain Carey, Lavery scenes) out of my time to watch, so I just wound up not watching for a week... which led into a month... which led into six months (I started watching when YaYa came onboard as Cassandra). But I will say this, I saw certain efforts made that haven't been made during McTavish's era at all, so to me, they don't beat McTavish when it comes to the hack/suckage department. I never felt my intelligence was blatantly insulted the way McTavish has made me feel numerous times.

But I am glad they're gone, and I thought from the beginning they were a total misfit for AMC. I think their stuff worked, if not better, differently on Port Charles and Loving because they were half hour soaps AND Port Charles wasn't as defined as AMC. It hadn't even been on the air a decade by the time B&E came on board, so there wasn't such a set, time worn standard that they had to live up to the way AMC's 37 year history required by the time they came here. Also, the four to six character only storylines worked on a half hour soap because there's less time to tell stories than there is on an hourlong soap. So watching the perils of Slavery day in and day out grew tedious as well. I root for Zendall because they make sense as a couple to me, but that didn't and doesn't mean I want to see them every damn day going through crisis after crisis. And I LOATHE anything Lavery, so seeing Ryan on my screen every damn day made me want to puke.

[EricMontreal22]

Well I 8adored* their work on Loving and nearly all of The City (though it did take about 6-8 months for them to find their rhythm--the last 5 months, when they were basically given carte blanche with no network interference as the show was on its way out were some of the best soap I've ever had the priviledge to see and I'm glad I have most of it saved on video.

I know they sucked, after some decent starts, on GL and mostly on PC--I never watched but.

Anyway cuz of their work on AMC/City, which often felt like how I wanted AMC to be, I was one of the fools who was excited for them to join AMC. And... I didn't hate their stint as much as some. Their main prob compared to McTavish was when McT came in she started off with a bang, big umbrella story (I'm not implying she stayed at that level and her last 8 months were some of the worse AMC ever and boring). With B/E they started with the kidnapping story which was controversial but like it or not, the first week or maybe even two it was good soap stuff--really dramatic and well done. But then it went nowehre--it didn't branch out into more sub stories, it didn't move AT ALL, it just became repetitive and awful.

Early on there were other ideas I liked--I liked Adam pretending to be Stuart to get into the Tad family but nothing developed from it, I liked the whole mystery about Annie and her brother, who was crazy, the reveal the bartender (who was introduced nice and slowly) was her brother etc. But then when that happened again the story just stopped (we even had great potential like him and Janet teaming up and nothing happened there). I could go on and on.

Anyway--I honestly do give them 70% of the credit for the Jesse/Angie stuff and I think people who refuse to give them credit ar ejust dense--the writing is VERY close to the writing for the actors on Loving/City, it was clear they had a lot of affection for the character of Angie, and I'm sure it was their idea to bring them back or at least suggestion. But of course what really made it work was the great acting...

The last 6 weeks--maybe even two months have actually been a HUGE upturn for me. Suddenly we have MULTIPLE stories! And characters not related to one story actually discuss and care about other storylines--like a real community and something many soaps forget to do now. We got a LOT of vets, more than in ages, Opal, etc, and I HATED the idea of Ghost Dixie--why bother bringing her back again, and I hate ghost stories on "relistic" soaps--liek Ghost Jesse before. But... They won me over--she had a purpose and the story had a point. The last week has been VERYVERY good--and again to say B/E deserve little credit for this is just sour grapes.

I'm not sure I thought it could last AT ALL, or anything, but I do find it frustrating that justg as I'm really enjoying my show again I find out they're out.

Don't get me wrong. Most of their era stunk. But I'm just saying...

I agree with those who think it's ridiculous to give B/E any credit--much of the stuff going on now even the action stuff is VERY VERY VERY close to what aired on City. Why is it so surprising to think that people could write bad stories and then be inspired by a storyline, ora character and actually write some decent stuff? It happens to ALL writers, just the good writers a lot less. And with people like Frons interfeering it's even more likely.

[dragonflies]

Yeah we do, don't like it, don't read it, no one twisted your arm to read this thread

[EricMontreal22]

HAHA exactly--it's a debate and we all have opinions. though I do still think it's ridiculous to only give them credit for the suck... The same thing happened with McT--i remember many people thought JHC, the producer was writing the good stories. LOL I think that's been proven wrong...

[dragonflies]

I think it's more that B&E haven't really done anything good, so people aren't willing to credit them when there is something good being written.

Daran Little might have alot to do with the good stuff. Heck B&E might have very little of their stuff being aired for all we know.

LOL if people wanted sermons they'd go to church

[EricMontreal22]

Well I agree there--my biase is I LOVED the feel of The City and what they did for it and this week has really reminded me of that show... But I get the feeling most people here never watched the City--and I admit my opinion is guess work just as much as those who disagree.

I am willing to give Daran Little a lot of credit though--Iw atched Corrie only during the era he was heavily involved in and while he did great stuff with the feeling of community (the main difference being Corrie is very much about working class and lower middle class peopel somethign AMC could do better to incorporate more--) btu when he had big "showdown" episodes--I remember a kidnapping on a roof or something, theyw ere spectacular

[LeClerc]

I am giving B&E credit for Angie & Jesse coming back. Maybe they didn't write the story, we can debate that, but bringing them back was their idea. I remember they were quoted in one of the magazines as saying that some fan favorites from the past that would help deal with AMC's lack of diversity would return "if we get our way".