A Discussion on Janice Ferri Esser

[MarkH]

I don't know. Lauren Woodland was one of the most limited performers ever to hit Y&R in its' 35 year history. (That may be hyperbole...but gosh, she made my teeth hurt as Brittany).

I think Bill Bell could personally have crafted her scenes, and they would not have shone.

If you have examples of how Victor and Nikki didn't rise above Esser's material, or Katherine and Jill...I'd buy that as a possible indictment of her. But Raul and Brittany...not so much . Plus, she has the virtue of being the show historian .

[Sylph]

No, they all pitch and suggest story ideas, but ultimately Lindelof & Cuse choose what goes in and assign scripts. So what happens in an episode is a work of multiple writers, not just those who are credited. 

There was also a system with index cards on Lost, I'd have to look it up somewhere... 

When the show began, I think every writer had to draw a piece of paper from a hat with a character's name on it and write that character's back story. Something like that, I can't remember...

Here's a quote from Nicola Schindler:

NS:

If you look at American ‘writers’ rooms’ where they do 20/24 episodes a year. They literally have a huge room, and the wall is completely covered in whiteboard, and they will start at episode one and they will write in a different colour for every single character. They’ll go round and they’ll probably do 8 episodes and then they’ll see if they’re going to get re-commissioned. While they are filming episode 2 they’ll get 6 more episodes and they fill in those and then they go the whole way round the room. So in the end, you can look and see that colour hasn’t had an episode for ages.

[JackPeyton]

Really? I thought she was by far the ebst younger actress to hit Y&R in the past 10 years, esp her last few years on the show, esp given all the bullshit they gave her.

[MarkH]

Oh my. Really? I have some kind of odd personal bias against her. Literally, my lip would curl when Brittany would show up.

I definitely hated the writing. Initially, it was the unmotivated stealing of Billy from Mac. Why? She was already rich.

Then, it was the (IMO) chemistry-free pairing with Raul. David Lagos is an edgy guy, and it would have been better to see a dark, nasty girl take him to the dark side. They didn't go that way, so I bought his puppy love with...Mac. (Funny how Mac and all of her beaux worked for me). There are whole years devoted to diabetes and accidents that scarred Brittany that...just blur in my mind. I couldn't stand them.

I didn't like that scratchy voice she got in quiet scenes. I wasn't very appreciative of her singing.

The coup de grace, for me, had to do with how the Brittany character destroyed the Bobby character. Here we had this tough guy...the first one with a non-upper class bearing and a bona fide set of gonads in a long time...he was older, with a lived in face. He needed a WOMAN. If not a Nikki, then a Lauren or... Instead, they put him with spoiled rich girl Brittany. Now she's a stripper for him. Except she wears evening gowns and sings torch songs. Huh? And he likes this... Not a drop of it made sense. And I always assumed a stronger actress might have sold me. But Lauren didn't.

There were other problems. Brittany's daddy had a chemistry-free dalliance with Jill. Brittany's mommy had a better cougar-thing going with JT, but it was pre-empted...the fallout was not very long or deep...it was just a short obstacle for JT and Colleen. So the whole family was kind of dull to me.

I was very happy when the Hodges went to New York. I often want Bobby back, but I fear that would bring back Brittany.

[JackPeyton]

See - i agree with you up until after raul / pre-bobby. thats where i started to like the char of brittany and Woodland started to step it up. And the Bobby/brittany thing was amazing and coulda been a great triangle with Nikki but the writing was just horrid.

I alove loved her friendship with JT and her relationship with other people around town. I def thought they shoulda used her parents more and play up the poor little rich girl gets everything she wantes except attention and love from her parents angle, esp during the bobby storyline.

the char needed much work, and the actress got better as time went on. i def would love to see a return - but not right now. shes just not needed. we have amber and chloe (who hoenstly, fits the role of town bitch/vixen/misundertood heroine much better).

as for mac - ugh. i hated her. every single pairing fell flat for me - except for Kimseys Mac with JT.

[Cat]

I literally caught the interview, live, on BBC America. The US networks are selling their shows abroad at some conference. The man interviewed, a Mr. Kling, is the creator (a show I don't watch, unfortunately. I think Buffy and Santa Barbara wore me out as far "love affairs" with certain TV shows are concerned). Anyhoo, he was very interesting and informative. Instinctively I figured it wouldn't work for Daytime, but wanted to ask the question of those of you who script for a living.

[Sylph]

I've tried to find it on YouTube — the Tim Kring interview — but no luck. I'm not surprised you and Mark don't watch it, I would actually find it quite amazing if you did watch it. It's like a male 18–34 kind of show. But fun.

There was an interview with Kring after the second season ended in which he talked about all the mistakes that were made and every HW should read it just to see how a HW truly honours his fans and sincerely apologizes.

[Sylph]

And as for Janice Ferri Esser - if she hasn't been promoted in all these long years (18 to be precise), there is a reason.

[MarkH]

Just to be clear...while I am a male greater than 34 (but less than 49), I HAVE tried to watch Heroes. To the point that we have the first season box set in the house, and I have watched the marathon on Universal HD for as long as I could tolerate it . But I have never been a comic book guy either. I need realism or realistic melodrama...with the odd exception of new Doctor Who (which is not a serial)...but with which I have been obsessed for about a year now.

[YRBB]

Despite her faults, JFE is still the best writer in the Y&R writing team right now--with the possible exception of Eric Freiwald, who paired with his daughter (?) does not write the brilliant scripts he once did. Or maybe she just knows how to write for Y&R!

[Sylph]

Well, then good luck to Y&R if that's true!

[YRBB]

LMAO she is, though. And I'm not saying that's neccesarily a good thing It's more a testament to how bad the rest of the team is

[Sylph]

Yeah, that team just sucks. It's totally mish-mash of un-mixable people. The only thing is... When Bill was writing this show, it was pretty much irrelevant who wrote the day's show because his vision was everywhere. Bill was that show, the show was Bill. And no amount of cr*ppy dialogue could ruin that.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

But again, most of the old Y&R dialogue writers are on B&B.....and well.....the dialogue on B&B makes me vomit profusely these days.

Not to mention, it appears that B&B's made Patrick Mulcahey a horribly craptastic writer.

If I want decent dialogue alone, I'll watch GH.

[Sylph]

Well, that's because she was writing that dialogue. Y&R refugees haven't contributed this year, except for John F. Smith.