Thanks @Paul Raven

He wasn't wrong about those weeks long location shoots...

I'm surprised at the part about cutting down the length of scenes as I never felt like the scenes were very long under Slesar.

I think the pacing did need to pick up, but I think 13 week intervals was not exactly the right way to go.

I would say that Sheldon had a strong start with the Big Brother type story, but after the Haunted mansion story vignette with Raven/Sky... the show was spinning it's wheels for a bit until the next set of stories were ready to start (Chris' Wait Until Dark story, Jody's campus mystery, and the Standing Oak Mystery).

Out of those three, the only story that seemed to work was Chris' story while those who weren't involved in the three main plots were left to be talk to's.

Once the show returned from the two week hiatus in the summer of 1984.. Sheldon really seemed to find his footing and had the Logan Swift locked door mystery, and what was Beth Corral hiding. Both had excellent resolutions with the show ending sadly with a promise of an umbrella mystery involving the whole cast.

Here's my question: assuming Henry Slesar needed to be replaced as HW, who should P&G have tapped to replace him (instead of Lee Sheldon)? Should they have looked outside of daytime, or hired someone with actual soaps experience?

I can't compliment Sheldon on any of his plots. The Logan murder mystery was but a shadow of Edge's best and Tom Tammi had non of Joe Lambie's appeal. Joe probably refused to return once he watched an episode or two (or talked to Sharon Gabet) even though he took a contract role not long after at replacement SFT Lloyd. Sheldon poorly handled the aftermath of Nicole's death by having Miles get the hots for Chris (triangle with Derek). Jennifer again was a poor imitation of Frances Fisher/Deborah. When Sheldon developed the Beth story it was about a 40 year old woman virgin. It was juvenile. Erwin said what he said in the interview but the fact was that EON had severe budget cuts starting months before Henry left and Henry was being paid top dollar and you can be sure Sheldon was getting close to minimum for a daytime head writer at the time. This move was about budget in the final few years. At the time Henry was fired, the show also went from 17-19 contract players to 14 or 15. They lost Mark Arnold and Lori Loughlin within Sheldon's first six months. I remember watching during the final 18 months and screaming at the television. And I was young (in college). Each day I saw ways the stories could have played/characters connected etc. Imagine if Sheldon had tied Shelly and the Van Dynes to the Whitneys. Perhaps Alicia could have been Geraldine's daughter that she gave up for adoption and Shelly was Alicia's daughter who she gave up. Shelly and Alicia could have wreaked havoc on Sky/Raven and Jody/Preacher. I always thought the actress who played Shelly had potential as a vixen. She was a bit green but by far the best contract hire by Whitney Burnett (casting director who had done a phenomenal job over the years with the exception of the first gay Kelly oh Lord that child!).

As far as head writers, it is difficult to know who could have replaced Henry. Perhaps, if Sheldon was the best selection at the time they needed to promote Kibbee to story consultant or co-head (or bring in a former P&G head writer to train Sheldon on plotting and story arcs) and bring in qualified script writers. But ultimately Erwin Nicholson failed IMO; he was so used to Henry's sheer brilliance that he didn't know how to limit, advise and direct Sheldon. He also needed to update some of the key sets by hiring a new set designer. He tried with some sets but the main locations (police station, penthouse, Karr house were 70s) were drab. And don't get me started on the new opening/closing. That was the true sign that Erwin had lost his way, getting rid of the skyline for that ridiculous color splash and the sunset scene over the closing. Tragic but indicative of a show that had lost its soul.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by VelekaCarruthers

I would say that another exception to the amazing casting by Whitney Burnett was Mark Andrews as Chad Sutherland in 1982. That Republic of Eden storyline was truly a dud and a low point for Edge. Have you seen the proposed 1985 Search for Tomorrow opening that Nicholson considered? It's even worse than the last opening for Edge. Unfortunately, the credits have since been removed, but a version of the proposed credits remixed to the 1986 theme are available here. The proposed theme song was truly bad.

I agree on Mark Andrews as Chad. He was nice to look at, but very wooden. I remember some very awkward scenes between Andrews and David Allen Brooks as Jim in that art or dance studio set that were just plain embarrassing! I missed the Republic of Eden storyline the first time in 1982, but caught in later on You Tube and it was as lame as it read on paper. It felt like someone held a gun to Slesar's head and told him to write an outrageous adventure storyline that heavily featured Lori Laughlin and Mark Arnold. It was a poor man's copy of a GH storyline on a minimum budget.

Oh I can't forget Mark as Chad. I was focusing on Sheldon era issues. But Henry started to loose his polish after he returned from the 81 writers' strike particularly starting in February 82 after the dramatic (let down) Jeff shooting and the Libby angle. It was a perfect storm I believe: pressure from ABC and/or P&G to mirror Monty's GH, the decision to bring back Larkin after the Jeff Brown plot as the real Sky (which included Larkin's absence from the canvas and Raven's misadventures with Smiley/Frank Gorshin (Henry's second worst plot) and Larkin's car accident. This included Whitney's third worst casting of the early 80s, Chris Jarrett as Damien. The Eden plot was Henry's worst for sure capped by poor, poor Chad casting. It's hard to assess the never ending phone book plot because Henry was probably being told to extend it while they prepared Sheldon even if he wasn't aware he was going to be fired. Also, Larkin had additional surgeries during the phone book plot which interfered with the story. Casting Norm Parker as Mr. Cameron was also a mistake given how pivotal he was to the entire story. They needed a charismatic actor for that role. I think Erwin is to blame for much of what we've been discussing. I read an interview with Henry after he was fired and he said he was never told to speed up the plots or make shorter scenes. The sets were already drab and tired and there was no guidance given to Henry. He was writing the entire storylines, all breakdowns and three scripts a week. Kibbee did two a week. They needed to tell him to add another script writer and P&G / ABC needed to demand Erwin buy some paint a sherwin Williams! PS: it's ironic P&G hired Erwin to take over SFT and paired him with veteran and award winner Paul Avila Mayer (who was way passed his prime). P&G made a lot of mistakes. Erwin plus Jeanne Glynn who had found her groove and needed fine tuning over at Search would have worked I think but I believe Erwin was finishing out his P&G contract there.

Edited 7 minutes ago7 min by VelekaCarruthers