Nelson confirmed on The Envelope that the other West Coast soap undergoing the same scandal is Y&R. Josh Griffith has been rewriting Maria's stuff for months with the help of non-union members.

Can you link me to that post? I can't find it.

Can you link me to that post? I can't find it.

http://goldderbyforums.latimes.com/eve/for...864/m/786100302

He confirmed the the 7th post in the thread (Nelson's post is post #8 in that thread).

Edited July 28, 200817 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

Someone posted this at DR, I don't know how true this is.

My friend said they were told that Days was getting a Y&R writer and executive producer, then said "I think that's correct."

I assume it's Griffith, since he's Y&R's current EP and it's been speculated that's he's out of there soon.

Though, John F. Smith was both HW and EP of Y&R for a time. However, Smith hasn't been at Y&R since 2006, he's now at B&B (and I doubt his contract cycle is up there).

Heard anything regarding this, Toups?

Days Of Our Lives:

Head Writer:

Kristian Alfonso (Hope Brady)

John Aniston (Victor Kiriakis)

Blake Berris (Nick Fallon)

Nadia Bjorlin (Chole Lane Black)

Tanya Boyd (Celeste Perrault)

Tamara Braun (Ava Vitali)

Darin Brooks (Max Brady)

Shawn Christian (Daniel Jonas)

Bryan R. Dattilo (Lucas Roberts)

Kevin Dobson (Mickey Horton)

Mary Beth Evans (Kayla Brady Johnson)

Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans Black)

Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie Williams)

Shelley Hennig (Stephanie Johnson)

Drake Hogestyn (John Black)

Leann Hunley (Anna DiMera)

Jay Kenneth Johnson (Philip Kiriakis)

Renee Jones (Lexie Carver)

Lauren Koslow (Kate Roberts)

Joseph Mascolo (Stefano DiMera)

Peggy McCay (Caroline Brady)

Rachel Melvin (Chelsea Benson)

Stephen Nichols (Steve "Patch" Johnson)

Thaao Penghlis (Tony DiMera)

Peter Reckell (Bo Brady)

Frances Reid (Alice Horton)

Kristen Renton (Morgan Hollingsworth)

James Reynolds (Abe Carver)

Suzanne Rogers (Maggie Horton)

James Scott (EJ Wells)

Alison Sweeney (Sami Brady)

Josh Taylor (Roman Brady)

Will Utay (Dr. Rolf)

Arianne Zucker (Nicole Kiriakis)

Nelson confirmed on The Envelope that the other West Coast soap undergoing the same scandal is Y&R. Josh Griffith has been rewriting Maria's stuff for months with the help of non-union members.

The thing about Y&R I don't understand is that Maria is a Bell for God's sake. Her hubby is the president of the family business that still has retained some ownership in the show I believe. if Griffith was engaging in this unethical behavior, I DOUBT Maria would have just let it happen.

Hate to double post like this. But I have to say that here I thought GL was badly produced. Compared to this DAYS mess, Ellen Wheeler is running a tight ship.

The thing about Y&R I don't understand is that Maria is a Bell for God's sake. Her hubby is the president of the family business that still has retained some ownership in the show I believe. if Griffith was engaging in this unethical behavior, I DOUBT Maria would have just let it happen.

Hate to double post like this. But I have to say that here I thought GL was badly produced. Compared to this DAYS mess, Ellen Wheeler is running a tight ship.

She probably had no control over the matter and Griffith could've easily changed things while he was in the booth supervising the show.

There's been speculation that many have wanted Griffith fired for a long time. I guess this is part of the reason.

Days Of Our Lives:

Head Writer:

Kristian Alfonso (Hope Brady)

John Aniston (Victor Kiriakis)

Blake Berris (Nick Fallon)

Nadia Bjorlin (Chole Lane Black)

Tanya Boyd (Celeste Perrault)

Tamara Braun (Ava Vitali)

Darin Brooks (Max Brady)

Shawn Christian (Daniel Jonas)

Bryan R. Dattilo (Lucas Roberts)

Kevin Dobson (Mickey Horton)

Mary Beth Evans (Kayla Brady Johnson)

Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans Black)

Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie Williams)

Shelley Hennig (Stephanie Johnson)

Drake Hogestyn (John Black)

Leann Hunley (Anna DiMera)

Jay Kenneth Johnson (Philip Kiriakis)

Renee Jones (Lexie Carver)

Lauren Koslow (Kate Roberts)

Joseph Mascolo (Stefano DiMera)

Peggy McCay (Caroline Brady)

Rachel Melvin (Chelsea Benson)

Stephen Nichols (Steve "Patch" Johnson)

Thaao Penghlis (Tony DiMera)

Peter Reckell (Bo Brady)

Frances Reid (Alice Horton)

Kristen Renton (Morgan Hollingsworth)

James Reynolds (Abe Carver)

Suzanne Rogers (Maggie Horton)

James Scott (EJ Wells)

Alison Sweeney (Sami Brady)

Josh Taylor (Roman Brady)

Will Utay (Dr. Rolf)

Arianne Zucker (Nicole Kiriakis)

....But which one on the list is the "True" HW of Days?

Hate to double post like this. But I have to say that here I thought GL was badly produced. Compared to this DAYS mess, Ellen Wheeler is running a tight ship.

Isnt that a scary thought?

Edited July 29, 200817 yr by Soapsuds

The WGA has been handed the material written by said diva.

If he releases that name.......

Wait for the bomb to drop!

Me too.

Personally, I think he meant divo.

Joe Mascolo has been the HW for a while now. Why else would Stefano be offscreen? JM's been a busy boy!

No. Kristian only helped Tom with Hope's eulogy - it was a collaboration to get the right tone and content. KA didn't write anything, I believe they just spoke to each other.

Yeah, soaps are, by their very nature, a collaborative business. There's nothing wrong with that, and the WGA wouldn't find anything wrong with that. What they do take issue with is when non-WGA people who were not hired to be writers write long term storylines and full episodes with NO collaboration involved with the head writers or writing team. That's the difference.

Yeah, soaps are, by their very nature, a collaborative business. There's nothing wrong with that, and the WGA wouldn't find anything wrong with that. What they do take issue with is when non-WGA people who were not hired to be writers write long term storylines and full episodes with NO collaboration involved with the head writers or writing team. That's the difference.

As Tootie from Facts of Life would say...."Someone's in Troubleeeeeeeee"

Edited July 29, 200817 yr by Soapsuds

As Tootie from Facts of Life would say...."Someone's in Troubleeeeeeeee"

Lol

^^^ :lol:

Thank you, Tishy and Soapsuds! Those jokes made my evening!

I'll be here all evening Khan...

Psst...the HW is really Henderson, Victor's butler...

Seriously though, if this person or persons is writing entire storyline and not just throwing a line in here and there, big problems. I would love to be a fly on that wall

I have not watched DOOL regularly in a long time, and have no strong feelings one way or the other about how I want any of this to play out as far as any of the individual parties involved, but I find this whole situation fascinating. I'm a little confused as to the logistics of all of this...

I know that technically non-WGA members cannot legally write for soaps, but I wasn't aware that the union was in the business of hunting down non-union members who are involving themselves in the creative process when WGA members are employed and being paid at the union-negotiated rate at every level of the writing staff? I would have thought the issue during the strike was that scabs undermined the WGA's bargaining power and that is why the question of who was writing what became important, but when I start to think of every reported involvement of non-writers in writing tasks in recent history, it boggles the mind...

• Why wasn't the Guild involved a decade ago when Jill Farren Phelps, a producer, was reportedly head-writing OLTL for nearly a year? There was nobody officially in the head writing position for most of that time if memory serves (unlike Dena Higley, who it sounds like has still been getting paid her salary). And two WGA members had been dismissed from the head writer position at OLTL in the year leading up to that (one of whom, Claire Labine, was a former WGA East president) after reported conflicts with JFP over story direction.
• Didn't Tom Casciello say in print that one of the DOOL actresses (Kristian Alfonso?) was actively involved in writing the script for the funeral last year? Why isn't that a union violation?
• On a lighter note, what about the alleged clause Susan Lucci had in her contract that AMC would never make Erica a grandmother, and the fact that she was never called Grandma for so long after Miranda finally was born? (I haven't watched AMC in years...has it happened?) Why hasn't the Guild been investigating whether or not Lucci ever crossed an ethical boundary by crossing out the word "Grandma" in a script?
• More generally, why hasn't the Guild gotten involved in the past fifteen years as the locust of control has been taken more and more out of the hands of (union) writers and placed into the hands of network executives? The practice of story-telling by committee, which has been alluded to and in some cases spoken about candidly by a variety of writers, has surely compromised the status of professional writers in daytime TV as a whole moreso than this specific incident involving one (or two) shows. I've read the soap lore about the infamous Search for Tomorrow actor who was supposedly acting as head writer and ridiculously propping up his own character during the 1981 writers strike, but I don't remember ever reading anything about the legal ramifications for that. I think that is in part because he was the laughing stock of the industry and his work was shown to be amateurish and unprofessional in comparison to the union writers' work that began airing across the board as soon as the strike ended, and nothing the WGA could do to him could compare to that. Now, writers seem to be largely figureheads (at best - and surely at least some of today's writers are not nearly as talented as some of the cream of the crop who walked out in the 1981 strike who are no longer with us/working today) and the difference between Higley's product and what Ed Scott and these cast member(s) may have produced is not so self-evident.

My guess is that the WGA has chosen its battles, knowing it did not have the resources to fight all three networks on the micromanagement at large, and has concerned itself more with protecting the financial interests of guild writers even as their creative roles may be getting jerked around by higher-ups. So why are they intervening in this particular case? If it's simply a matter of Scott and the cast members in questions physically rewriting scripts and outlines by hand, is that really such a central issue here?

I'd personally rather continue to collect a paycheck and write what I want, and if someone else writes something else that makes it on the air instead of my product so be it, which appears to be Higley's deal, than have a boardroom full of executives rip to shreds something I'd spent a lot of time and effort writing and then have to personally be the one to rewrite the final product to their specifications, however ludicrous they may be, which I understand is how the process usually works. I'm not defending Scott or anyone else, but DOOL has a paid writing team (more than one, apparently - isn't James Reilly still getting paid his salary from two years ago?) and will no doubt continue to have one, so I highly doubt their internal mismanagement is going to trigger an industry trend.

I have to wonder, is Higley (whose alleged practices during the strike, if proven to be true, would certainly call into question her respect for the spirit of the WGA) the one initiating this grievance with the Guild? If so, do they actually want to take on this battle more than they have previous ones, or is she just forcing the issue more than countless other soap writers who have surely experienced their share of creative interference from non-union parties? This hardly seems like the best use of the WGA's time and resources, given the unlikelihood of this incident setting some kind of precedent, especially if it is all to protect a possible scab.

I don't want this terrific post to wither on the vine. I really think this poster raises remarkable questions about historical abuses, and why THIS one is being pursued.

My guess? Revenge for the mass-firings during the strike. I want to see just HOW revised these scripts are, and I'd like a judgment about whether the alleged revisions exceed usual and customary practice by EPs and actors. I'm guessing this is not going to hold up, actually....

We are having fun at Dena Higley's Wikipedia page typing in ridiculous peoples names. Last time I look it was Terry. I put in Precious the Monkey. LOL.

I am guessing the WGA is defending Higley because nothing has been proven and will probably never be proven so they have to defend her.

Here is a interesting post over on "The Envelope" where Nelson posts also.

Cindi Posted July 28, 2008 11:30 AM Hide Post

I don't think it's Josh Griffith who's re-writing Maria Bell's stuff. I think it's Eric Braeden. There were already rumors about that.

I'd also like to know where this is coming from. If it's the Corday/Higley camp trying to discredit a long time EP, who's never been accused of anything like this, I say shanangans. Hackley almost distroyed OLTL, she wasn't even professional enough to watch OLTL before or after the got the headwriter job. On Days she got rid of Belle & Shawn, had Sami sleep with her rapist, and lied about scabbing.

I don't believe them.

ETA - I spoke to a WGA friend this morning and this was his take on it:

He thought it sounded more like Higley was trying to diffuse the WGA investagation into her scabbing by using bullsh!t disinformation to take the heat off herself. I guess if it works for Carl Rove and Bush. Also, if she can do an end-run and discredit Scott, then his testimony regarding her to the WGA won't have the same merit. He thought it was a very calculated and desperate move by Higley.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Cindi, July 28, 2008 01:35 PM