OLTL: Michael Malone

[leevo64]

I was just posting in another thread and the subject of ex-OLTL head writer Michael Malone came up. Surely one of the most controversial writers in the show's history, Malone has created successful OLTL characters such as Nora, Todd, Blair, Antonio, Christian, Adriana, Michael, John, Marty, the list goes on. He also wrote the highly acclaimed and groundbreaking homophobia story, as well as Marty's gang rape led by Todd. On the other hand, he also rewrote history countless times to fit whatever story he was telling, from turning Victor Lord into a child molester to having him be alive (!) after all those years. He brought on the infamous Santi family, killed off fan favorites Al and Gabrielle, and lacked focus for much of his second tenure.

What are your opinions of Michael Malone? I like some of his stuff; he puts a ton of heart and soul into everything he writes and tries to make things colorful and interesting. On the other hand, I HATED the Mitch Lawrence stuff, the Santi family stuff and especially the serial killer story. I think Malone is best as a co-head writer with someone else at the helm.

[EricMontreal22]

As I said in the Y&R thread I thinka discussion of him goes hand in hand with his work with, and without, Griffith on the show. The man really can't pace a soap without Griffith even though I have no doubt many of the best plot point ideas and characters were Malone's not Griffith (nora was even based on one of his novel characters)

I do still think his 90s OLTL period, besides the last year, was some of the greates soap I've ever lived thru. The second tenure for him was a mess but it started off fairly good--all the better cuz the period of OLTL without Malone in the meantime had been so BLAH for so long.

the Mitch stuff was gothic storytelling which I love but poorly executed. As for making Victor a molester--that made sense. by the early 90s we knew that nearly the ONLY time multiple personalities emerges is from traumatic childhood *sexual* abuse--so I don't see it really as a rewrite. plus the mid to late 80s of OLTL, the show fell so far off the path that I appreciate all he did to give it layers again--different economic backgrounds, he brought religion back to soaps, etc. He tried to do that when he returned in the '00s (briefly trying hard to build back up a campus life/scene somethign I wish the show would do again) but something wasn't working. We do know from Griffith's public interviews that Frons was dictating story and they found it suffocating.

Some OLTL fans criticize him for even during his great first period, bringing on SO many new families and characters--but Rauch's OLTL had decimated the show SOO strongly i think it was really all that could be done (though I wish him bringing back Larry Woleck had meant he'd bring on OTHER Wolecks... Is Woleck still listed as a recurring character LOL)

One Soap treasure i'd most like to see, that Logan in his soap column always bragged about owning a copy, was the pilot for their planned 1997 late night soap for Fox 13 Bourbon Street, a supernatural 30 minute adult soap set for Fox and set in New Orleans. Apparantly it was BRILLIANT--and Fox had it on their schedule till a *month* before when they decided against going into late night programming. A true loss--I wonder if Malone reused any of that gothic element from the bible for OLTL later?

But that bring sup one final point. Malone was chosen by EP Linda Gottlieb. She was brilliant at her job--and was involved in 13 Bourbon Street too. She wasn't at OLTL during his second tenure...

[leevo64]

Yeah, I have heard of 13 Bourbon Street. I would love to get my hands on the script. As for Linda Gottlieb, she was a fantastic producer in my opinion. OLTL looked good, had the best acting and the best directing during that period.

[EricMontreal22]

Not to mention she revolutionized how sound and pop music worked on soaps. Some complained she turned it into amusic video but it was more effective than not (I guess that makes sense as the head of ABC Daytime at the time--who we need back--picked her because of her work on Dirty Dancing)

Still I think Griffith is the important missing ingredient--you can't discuss Malone's era without remembering him, and cuz he's a lesser name people often don't.

[Khan]

MM has his supporters, and I don't want to take that away from him.

However...

I'm not a fan of his. Wasn't then ... not one now ... and probably, will never be.

The problem I always had with MM's OLTL was precisely that. It was always Michael Malone's ONE LIFE TO LIVE. For all his talk of restoring the show to its' original intentions (and to his credit, he made significant strides in that), he seemed to forget there was an audience out there who'd been watching in the meantime; who had formed very deep, very personal attachments to characters firmly established on the canvas; and who knew these characters, too, like one knows the back of one's hand. Those fans needed to be honored. IMO, his own creations - Angela Holliday, Luna Moody (whose death I'm still rejoicing over, lol), Sloane and Andrew Carpenter, Marty, Todd, Blair, Patrick, David Vickers, etc. - received the lion's share of airtime; while characters we had known and loved for years were either ignored (hi, Larry! hi, Herb!), or rendered unrecognizable.

It has been a long time since I truly recognized Viki, Dorian, Bo or Clint; and I think MM has to shoulder some blame for that. Under his pen, Viki somehow became more haughty and prudish than she had been even during the Gordon Russell era. (The Ben/Viki relationship, aside from providing JFP another opportunity to act out her "All That Heaven Allows" fantasy, was probably a response to that ... but even that was a wrong turn, if you think about it.) Also, Dorian, w/ her absurd Dottie West hairstyle, became more hysterical and over-the-top than ever (and remember, folks, she was supposed to be the sane Cramer sister); and Clint and Bo went from being folksy and charismatic, to a homophobic boor and a wet blanket, respectively.

Furthermore, I don't believe MM ever "got" Asa, Cord and Tina, either. (Or Max, or even Gabrielle, in the brief time he wrote for her.) The Cord/Tina/Cain/Angela quadrangle? Always seemed to be more about Cain and Angela, when Cord and Tina were supposed to be the rooting interest. (And what, pray tell, was so mesmerizing about Cain that demanded so much attention on him; or that Tina would actually believe - for awhile, anyway - that she loved him more than Cord?) The Blair/Asa/Max triangle? What was so great about her (at least, at that point) that would have these two, supposedly shrewd men make such clumsy fools of themselves? Max acted as if his romance w/ Gabrielle never happened. And Asa ... ? Granted, he always had an eye for the ladies; and yes, at times, he could be ... well, headstrong. But in a way, those larger-than-life qualities are what made him so charming in the first place. However, his pursuit of Blair, who was clearly not going to give Delila or even Becky Lee a run for her money anytime soon, along w/ his jealousy over Renee and Carlo Hesser's past, turned Asa into an abusive and insufferable lout. After the way he treated Renee, in particular, I never could watch Asa again without wincing.

And the less I talk about Alex Olanov Hesser ....

Yeah, about those two stories ...

First of all, I felt that Marty, at that point, had not "earned" the right for us to care about or invest in any ordeal which affected her directly. As a viewer, I simply didn't know her enough (and what I did know - namely, that she had insinuated that Andrew was molesting Billy Douglas - didn't exactly endear her to me). And once Kevin Buchanan was cleared of all charges stemming from the rape, who were the principal players in that storyline? Marty, Nora, Todd, Powell, Zach, and, to a lesser extent, Todd's father. All newbies, all tangentially connected to the core of the show. Todd and his father's connection to Irene Manning wasn't even made until viewers brought up the similar last names; and if not for the fact that Powell was supposedly Kevin's distant cousin or whatever, would we have even cared at all?

And as for the Billy Douglas/AIDS Quilt/Homophobia storyline, was it powerful? A little preachy, maybe. (MM always seems to take the "Afterschool Special" way out when it comes to topically relevant storylines.) But, for the sake of argument, let's say it was. Again, though, the dramatic stakes seemed to center around newcomers (Andrew, Sloan, Andrew's gay day-player brother, Billy and his parents), with the Buchanans (Viki, Joey, Clint) working as glorified supporting players. Joey is best friends w/ Billy, and Sloan and Andrew are friends w/ Viki. Ergo, I'm supposed to care how this issue affects them, because they do. Okay, fine. Except, Karen Wolek was Viki's friend, too, but we cared right along w/ her (about Karen's plight), because we had time to get acquainted with Karen. (Plus, there was the fact that her husband was Viki's brother-in-law; and that her pimp had been blackmailing Viki w/ photos of Tina.)

Also, while I wouldn't necessarily object to a storyline showing us character facets we haven't seen before, let me just say this: when ATWT's Duncan and Jessica went public with their interracial romance, I was shocked over Lisa's objections to it, but it totally worked for me, because Douglas Marland somehow made it an organic and ingrained part of her character. Clint's homophobic stance on Billy and Joey's friendship, OTOH, felt so inorganic to me, and it was so clearly done to split up him and Viki and allow her to cheat on him w/ Sloan, that it actually soured me somewhat on the story overall. I disliked Clint after that, but I disliked MM more for the corner he had written Clint into.

Actually, Victor-as-pedophile isn't all that illogical. Perhaps, it was one character assassination too many (for Victor). But, once you realize how much he dominated Viki when he was alive, it makes sense. Victor never molested Meredith, apparently, because she was too sickly. However, Victor regarded Viki as more than just his namesake and heir. IIRC, he even had her appear with him as his "date" at public functions. That, right there, is the mark of an unhealthy relationship. I think Agnes Nixon wanted to deal frankly with that, too, but the prevailing taboos of that time (late '60's-early '70's) made it impossible for her to address the subject of incest properly.

That said, I still hated some of the history revisions that came with that storyline. It wasn't bad enough we had Niki Smith popping out of the proverbial woodwork every so often. Now, we had other, theretofore unknown alters of Viki's to contend with. To me, that's right down there w/ Tess and the whole, dumb explanation of how Jessica ended up with her own split personality. And the fact that Viki was Victor's murderer? Nope, sorry. Don't buy it. Dorian killed Victor, and that's the end of that.

However, I won't hold Victor's brief resurrection against MM and JG, b/c I'm still convinced that was a leftover from the previous regime. Furthermore, when it comes to their second tenure, in general, I do cut them some slack (not much, but some), largely because, Frons was clearly dictating a lot of the story; and, simply put, their material was bad even by their standards.

[Khan]

Some other, minor points:

If I did not care for that backwoods simpleton, Luna, I sure-as-heck was not going to care about her himbo brothers, Dylan or Ty; or her old beau, Blade ... or, Slade ... or, whatever his name was. His story was especially painful to watch. Every "In the Heat of the Night" cliche knotted up into one, gigantic ball of suck, w/ "Special Guest Star" Claude Akins offering no relief.

Also, Megan's death ... you know, when I was done falling into near-epileptic fits of laughter over how Chuck Norris-y "Rescue from Jaba City" was (eat your heart out, Eterna!), I couldn't get over that her final scenes w/ Jake was such a blatant rip-off of "Wuthering Heights." So blatant, in fact, I'm convinced MM stole from that, because he honestly believed soap fans were too ignorant to make the connection.

And remember his brief, failed experiment w/ mini-arcs dealing w/ contemporary issues? Like the one where Viki's maid, whom we had never seen before, was being abused by her husband? Who, once she was "rescued" by Viki, dropped out of sight completely, never to be seen or heard from again? Man, was I so glad when that all came to an end.

[leevo64]

You make some really great points there. Malone also reused his own stories. Did Todd rape Blair? Joey the reverend? Jen the new Marty? To me that was all his doing, not Frons'. The most insulting thing he did during his second tenure was when he brought back Marty to testify on Todd's behalf. Disgusting.

[Cheap21]

Malone's last run on OLTL was HORRIBLE. It was one of the worst times on OLTL in recent history.

[EastMA2]

Malone's last run on OLTL was HORRIBLE. It was one of the worst times on OLTL in recent history.

ITA! I am still hoping that the show finds a way to undo the Victor Lord had been alive all these years story. I hope we find out that the Victor we saw die again in 2003 was an imposter and that he really did die in the 1970's.

[leevo64]

Well, Dorian did say to Viki in the wine cellar a few months ago, "IF that was really Victor Lord." I think that was Ron Carlivati's idea of saying "sorry, wasn't my idea!" I wonder if Malone watches the show today. I'd like to know what he thinks of it.

In my opinion, Malone's biggest problem is that he treats the audience like they need to be explained EVERYTHING. Antonio is from Angel Square, so clearly he looks down at the "rich" people in Llanview. Marcie's overweight, so the story MUST be about her weight. He didn't write people, he wrote one-dimensional characters.

[EricMontreal22]

DIdn't Ron mention that that Dorian/Vicki wine cellar conversation would come up again?

[EricMontreal22]

"First of all, I felt that Marty, at that point, had not "earned" the right for us to care about or invest in any ordeal which affected her directly. As a viewer, I simply didn't know her enough (and what I did know - namely, that she had insinuated that Andrew was molesting Billy Douglas - didn't exactly endear her to me)."

But that was the very POINT. she wasn't meant to be an endearing character--we were meant to see that rape, even when done to someone we don't love, is still awful, and wrong. It was a groundbreaking story for these reasons.

I think some of your problems may have been Linda Gottlieb and ABC Daytime's fault. Malone was hired with the instructions to get the show watched by non fans/newbies. At first to test this out they tried to have 13 week short story arcs (I know Craig Wasson came on as an abusive father for the first of these). Those bombed with the audience but they still wanted the show to be reinvented and get a new audience. But those weren't Malone's idea.

While Vicki's multiple personalities was largely done to showcase Erika there is some psychological turth there too--rarely do multiple personalities just have ONE other double--more often than not there are many fragments.

"o, Megan's death ... you know, when I was done falling into near-epileptic fits of laughter over how Chuck Norris-y "Rescue from Jaba City" was (eat your heart out, Eterna!), I couldn't get over that her final scenes w/ Jake was such a blatant rip-off of "Wuthering Heights." So blatant, in fact, I'm convinced MM stole from that, because he honestly believed soap fans were too ignorant to make the connection."

He did rip off lit a LOT (as soaps like to do) though I don't think it was to insult the audience. I don't really get how that was from Wuthering Heights tho. now if Jake had dug up Megan's bones and danced with them by the moonlight, I woulda cried foul

I still think the Shnessel/Rauch era was far more harmful to Llanview.