James Harmon Brown & Barbara Esensten: The Verdict

[Southofnowhere]

They never had any kind of plan for AMC once so ever!

This whole shootout at J&A's wedding has overtones of the Moldavia nonsense.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah but thanks to that famous Dynasty scene as well as Days copying it the shootout at a wedding is almost a soap cliche.

[Jess]

I became a regular viewer of AMC with Jesse/Angie and I thought it was great. If B&E did that, then they did some good work. I never liked the entire vampire thing on PC, but I thought they did great romance. The two main couples on that show were really great and had marvelous chemistry. Rumor had it that they were the ghost writers in the early Tess/Nash stories on OLTL. If so, it was really good storytelling IMO. So I think they did very well with some couples. They could write interesting twists and fun stories for a handful of characters. Perhaps their greatest skill is writing short story arcs that play off of strong chemistry between characters.

[Adam]

Whoa! Friggin word. That was my major complaint too, boredom. No they weren't a fit, but I certainly in no way think they did the kind of damage McTavish's years did to this show. No question. The ratings of course went down, but that argument does not fly with me because look at the rest of daytime.

[dragonflies]

Personally while I LOVE PC B&E did the same things on that show that they did on AMC: Couple swapping, plot devices galore and so on

[R Sinclair]

I can read and will and comment on whatever I want to. If you want to keep on screeching about how you know B&E didn't write anything, then prove it. If not, then why bother squealing like a banshee about how they didn't write anything except the stuff you hate? Why are they only capable of writing the things you hate without being capable of writing the stuff you enjoy?

"People" or you? Because I know for sure I'm capable of speaking for myself, and I'm willing to give them credit for hitting a couple of good points during their tenure, no matter how much I think they didn't fit this show and don't want them to return. So speak for yourself, darling, because I KNOW you don't speak for me.

Daran Little? I thought it was Agnes Nixon and Kay Alden? I bet Osama's mistress (since we can't say her name) will start getting credit for the five seconds of decent material aired this week in a minute.

And if people wanted nothing but hate and nothing positive, they'd join hate groups. One extremist opinion suits another. I just think it helps with sharing why I think such things, rather than litter a thread with the same redundant posts. "B&E can't write." "B&E are hacks!" "B&E stink" WHY, exactly do you feel this way? Like I said, WE GET IT, the fact that you hate them... but why? And I mean besides the biased Zendall vs. Whitewashed Greenlee point of view.

That's a good point. Maybe their strengths are in certain areas, but unfortunately, they didn't translate well when it came to writing this show. Slavery dominated this show for a while because that whole quadrangle worked, in theory. Zach, Kendall, Ryan and Annie all seemed to have a connection and the stories that were played worked... for them. But it seemed they just gave any old thing to the other characters on the canvas just to fill time until they could get back to their main characters.

All My Children is about Pine Valley... I don't think B&E got that. I know that, for me, when I watch this show, I'm visiting a town... I'm not visiting a specific couple or a certain quad/sextuplet of characters. I miss the days of friends and/or family gathering at the Glam-o-rama, the Valley Inn, McKays and having stories cut back and forth among these gatherings. I miss seeing people interact with one another instead of being isolated.

I believe what this show needs and is sorely missing... is FRIENDSHIP AND RELATIONSHIP. I want to hang out with my friends Erica, Opal and Whoever Else and just laugh and have fun. I want to spend a romantic afternoon with Jesse and Angie and feel their love and know that this is happening ONLY because they love each other -- not because something tragic is about to happen. I long for the days when two characters would flirt and slowly build to a romance -- not just all into bed five seconds after meeting each other.

[Adam]

Opinions are something everyone can have.... we here have to respect that. I will also say Sinclair, word to pretty much everything you said.

[TC]

I knew ERIC would chime in here. Ha ha. But I agree with you about the bits and pieces I saw of B&E's LOVING and THE CITY (which I watched in French, so it's out there, somewhere.. Tess est "Partou")

For me Corrie's major change post mill was the Richard Hillman story. It was the most sensational in years but it also turned aging slut Audrey into a heroine. To this day, her frivilous moments are seen as "still waters run deep" and Gail's children still suffer from the stigma of having a minor serial killer as a step-father.

And there was humour, camp if you will. When Richard confessed to Gail, her reaction was "You're Norman Bates with a briefcase!"

Her mother Audrey and her local friends, the gossips who couldn't prove anything, were the heroes of that story. But Audrey the owner of a local hairdressers shop reallly came into being after nearly three decades of acting the silly, frivilous, often tipsy, social climber who only wanted good frocks, stylish shoes, and a fabulous but sensible hairdo.... and SOCIAL STANDING.

[Soapsuds]

They also wrote the San Cristobal mess.

[R Sinclair]

Opinions are fabulous! They give insight... but what I'm disliking is rumors being dictated by personal opinions which come from a certain agenda.

Anyway, grading them, I give B&E a C+. Why? Because there was, at least, an attempt. While their material was incredibly boring, there were no rapes, no murder mysteries, no outlandish long lost sibling stories (Jack being Greenlee's father makes STILL makes absolutely no sense)...

[TC]

I thought that happened because Mark Pinter was too demanding.

[Adam]

I guess McTavish wanted Jack tied to the canvas once more, and also she used it as a plot device to delay Jack and Erica's wedding and use it as a wedge between them.

I tell you, the writing for Jack and Erica with McTavish at the helm was beyond pathetic.

[jackericafan]

AMEN! But it was no better with B&E until they realized Woods was a bomb and they started concentrating on J/E history the last couple of months. I don't understand the Erica in prison thing either. KWAK stole a kid and was already out by this time. Erica is in for insider trading and is going to serve her entire sentence? For what reason? If they really wanted to do a storyline about what it's like for women in prison that would be fine, but we aren't seeing any of that so far so why bother?

I thought B&E were just as bad as MMT. MMT would have moments of brilliance now and then (Erica's intervention for instance) but other than that the woman was a menace and a destroyer (Dixie dying from poison pancakes is one example ). I don't see this new guy Pratt being much better since he doesn't know anything about our history. From what everyone has said so far, I am not looking forward to seeing what he will destroy.

In keeping on topic, B&E's grade for me was a great big "F".

[DevotedToAMC]

B&E only did three things right for the short time they were here:

1. The Crash story (until it became about Kendall getting revenge)

2. Introducing Ritchie Novak

3. Making the canvas more diverse

[JackPeyton]

This is the best post of the month, if not the year.

word to everything.

as for B&E - no they were not good, but the biggest issue was theyw ere borring and didnt have balance. They also didnt cause any damage. So id give them a C.