Dena Higley's Blog

[DrewH]

Then she should really find a new job and give the Head Writing position to someone that can do it.

[DrewH]

Cancer treatment may be her calling. I know writing isn't.

[DrewH]

I don't expect Corday to keep her much longer. Her stories are starting to grow stale and it's only a matter of time before the ratings start dropping again. And once that happens, Corday will come up with another idea to save DAYS and bring on a new head writer, if he hasn't already been grooming Rick Draughton to be the new HW.

[Ryan]

Ryan <3 Drew, lol.

Co-sign.

[DaysFanatic777]

I would give Rick a chance. I guess it couldn't be too much worse. In my opinion, though, there are several decent candidates that could easily write for this show and probably do as good a job, if not better than, Sheffer. After Reilly's first tenure, this show started to flounder because Corday couldn't find a head writer that fit this show. In my opiinion, the show was the best it has been this decade when Brash/Cwigly were at the helm (minus Billie's return and the spaceship).

My preferences...

Peter Brash......He did a good job on Days, and he can put down some dialouge.

Beth Milstein.....Her ability to straighten out this show after Reilly left was incredible, and to be honest, IMHO, I liked her Days better than Hogan's version. She knows the show, pulled former HWs out of the woodwork to assist her, and wrote for couples without pushing them down our throats.

Sheri Anderson....She may take the show too far back and make it feel like 1992 again, BUT...she knows it and would be light years better than Higley. She is also one of the best writers in daytime when it comes to creating new characters. Jack, Frankie, John Black, Kate Roberts to name a few. IF I thought Days had one year left (which it may) I think she'd be the perfect choice to give this show a good, historically honest ending.

Tom Casiello...Not sure on the spelling It would never, ever happen, but I love his blog and think he would do very well. Too bad Corday seems to have blinders on and can't pick the true talent out around the writier's table. Thats why I can't trust Draughton.

I can't trust Draughton because Corday hasn't promoted a good writer from his staff since Brash, and before that, never. Anderson was Betty's protege. Reilly was just a cool idea Anderson signed off on. We need a new writer, I just want a proven one.

[DrewH]

The thing about Beth Milstein, I really can't say if she'd be a good HW or not. All she did was wrap up Reilly's storie and set things up for Hogan. None of that was her work.

[brimike]

Oh, Dena, Dena, Dena...

Welcome back to the wonderful world of Days of Our Lives. Only this time, you've got a REAL EP in charge. And not someone like Wyman who lets you do whatever the hell you want.

This is the second time she's complained about getting too many notes in her blog. Methinks there's some unrest behind the scenes in Salem. Like nobody saw THAT coming.

[DrewH]

^ Oh, I never even thought about Ed Scott being the one to shoot down her ideas. People always assume it's just Corday. With Scott here, he likes to work closely with everyone, so I could see him shooting down a lot of Higley's ideas. However, I wish some of the stuff we're seeing now was shot down. However, it could be a lot worse.

[Roman]

KC doesn't know WTF he wants. He changes stafss like folks change underwear, and then sits back and wonders why nothing works and the ratings keep going up and down.

[brimike]

Oh, I'm sure that's who it is. Ed comes from the school of Y&R, and Dena... doesn't.

Corday and Higley are way too tight. This is just my speculation (and keep in mind I was *WAY* wrong about AMC and the Spike/Greenlee rewrite, so take this with a grain of salt), but this reeks of Ed Scott.

[Ryan]

^^^^

Good. Maybe he'll drive her out of there.

[operagirl1]

I wonder what got nixed? Male rape played for laughs? Step-son Shtupping? She did that on OLTL, maybe the "City Hall" of NBC has some taste.

[Ryan]

Maybe Sami was going to have DID. Marlena would take her on retreats and Sami was lured to the bar by strange men and abused....it doesn't matter if they thought Marlena was dead at the time. It's called taking "creative liberties"

[brimike]

I feel like there have been a lot of changes at Days, in terms of the day-to-day writing, even for the last few weeks of air shows. Many of us... even Dena defenders... have felt like it's been kind of directionless. And what's interesting is that Dena always HAD a direction at OLTL. The Jen murder leading to Bo and Rex in the gay bar, finding Mark and Colson, and exposing Colson on City Hall steps clearly had direction, build, and you could see the climax. (However poorly written it was, consdiering it was just a plot device to write out three characters they didn't like)

Todd's Scott Peterson story had a definite build to his execution. Hell, even Kelly and Duke's ridiculous affair built to a brilliantly acted reveal at Michael and Marcie's wedding (however stupid it was to kill off a legacy character).

Clearly, DENA KNOWS BUILD.

So what's going on here?

My guess? There are a lot of people with a lot of differing opinions, and this tug-of-war is showing up on screen as ambivalence, indifference and confusion over what they want to build to. The only story that has anyone excited right now is the autism story, and that's just because Dena (conveniently) blogged about it for the last two months, and everyone thinks it'll be great because she's lived it. But other than that? John vs. Philip? Max and his real dad? Nicole just tossing off one-liners to anyone who'll listen, but still with no purpose on the show? None of it seems to be building to anything, and since Dena has clearly shown she understands the basic concept of "build", there's got to be something else going on here.

[UCLAN]

I'm starting to think that maybe she was hired as a way to completely ax Sheffer. But WGA reemed Days because of Fi-core peopleand how Sheffer's firing went down. Maybe she got caught in the fallout from that.. I don't know cause I haven't watched.

The autism story could be good if it is handled accurately. Hopefully this will be done with a lot of influence from Autism speaks.