2009: The Directors and Writers Thread

[Sylph]

So he's bipolar?

[jfung79]

No, he's good.

If anyone is bipolar, it's the fans for turning on him, some maybe even forgetting they liked him for 2 years.

[Sylph]

Oh, please, jfung79.

1. Guiding Light is cancelled. Deal with it. Accept it.

2. David Kreizman is in top 3 worst writers in daytime, primetime, everywhere. Simply horrendous.

[jfung79]

Oh, please, Sylph, my post was about David Kreizman.

That's your opinion.

[Sylph]

Then again, maybe you're DK himself trying to promote yourself (wouldn't be the first time that happened on SON).

Kreizman is GL show killer.

[jfung79]

Maybe you're Barbara Bloom trying to justify her show-killing. LOL.

And "oh please", if I'm anyone promoting myself, I'd be Richard Culliton. Look at my post history, look who I always ask about whether they are being mentioned in interviews.

[R Sinclair]

Kay Alden.

[Sylph]

What a lovely multi-faceted comment.

Am I Kay Alden?

Is jfung Kay Alden?

If you were to promote yourself, you'd be Kay Alden?

Fun.

[Chris B]

He had a good story here and there, but I thought the show sucked under him as well. The difference is it wasn't as fantastical as Ellen Weston's version. I still remember that awful Josh/Cassie romance, the painfully bad Sebastian/Holly story before she disappeared (remember how much he LOVED Holly *gags*), the awful stories involving Harley, etc. The show had a good story here and there (like the introduction of Jonathan), but a lot of boring characters got tons of story and it seemed to get worse and worse.

And if you wanna tout that Emmy of his...remind me who he tied with in '06 for Best Show? Oh it was that hack Lynn Marie Latham. And GH won what? Three Best Series Emmys back to back for three of the worst years the show has ever seen. Lots of untalented writers get Emmys because the system is so flawed these days.

As for the "great" ratings Kriezman/Wheeler received, don't make me laugh! The first week after Conboy and Weston left saw the show drop three points. They were only there for a little over a year and the ratings were very good. They trended up, not downward. If you look at Toups' rating archives you'll see that the show started experiencing big drops once Kriezman and Wheeler arrived. People can herald their reign as the second coming, but it never was.

I know Weston's writing got mixed reviews, but her ratings were on par or higher than what the previous year had. I personally found the show very entertaining when she was writing.

[bellcurve]

LOL. To be quite frank, I've wondered the exact same thing.

In fairness to my former GL fanboi-ness, I think jfung was referring to the weeks GL was getting those 2.6s and beating a downward trending AMC/OLTL. Those Thursdays were VERY exciting. Too bad Ellen Wheeler and David didn't do something, anything to build on those fluke moments.

And B&B should have won, but I was absolutely NOT surprised that GL won Writing in a Drama Series, especially since a)the show should have won Outstanding Drama Series the year before and The Me, Myself and Him episode from January 2006 was simply one of, if not, daytime's best hour that year. Kreizman better thank Wheeler for that gimmick, the scritpwriter that wrote the dialogue, and Gina for flawlessly executing that Ally McBeal ripoff. It was great. That Emmy was deserved and no different from GH's stunt driven writing.

[jfung79]

I didn't say the ratings trended downward (or upward, or any kind of trend) under Conboy/Weston - I said GL was not in the ratings pack under them. Is that not so? Later, GL was in the ratings pack for a few months in late 2006 (around October/November, which you can confirm in the Ratings Archives) under Kreizman. This was probably thanks to the strength of Jammy and the Reva cancer story.

In addition to what you mention, the Buzz/Lillian romance, bringing back Vanessa, Matt, Dylan, and Hawk, returning Billy to the front burner starting in 2005, and the Alex/Cyrus romance are all things Kreizman did for long-ignored vets and for more family ties between the characters. Such a charismatic, troubled, historic, quintessential GL character as Billy Lewis was essentially *gone* from GL before David Kreizman, and had been for years. There was also the creativity of Inside the Light, and the 70th anniversary Irna Phillips episode.

But people tend not to give Kreizman credit, only blame for his mistakes (like Josh/Cassie going on too long), and for the new production model which he had little control over.

Y&R did not tie with GL for the writing win. They tied for Outstanding Drama Series. GL was sole winner for Writing. But BTW, Lynn Marie Latham is another writer people liked before they hated and forgot they ever liked (although I personally never liked her, because she took over from the Cullitons at PC and ruined it).

bellcurve, thank you for remembering your olden days, LOL.

[Chris B]

I'll give you that.

Who all did nothing...Vanessa only got a "story" when the show was canceled.

Then he went right back to the backburner...

He had potential with Marina (her only spark with Mandy Bruno in the role) and how did it all end up? Mallet/Maria and Cyrus with a series of unsuccessful flings. Harley. Cassie. Mel (clearly two characters just thrown together).

He holds most of the blame for the failure of the production model. Wheeler's mistake isn't the initial execution, but promoting the production model before it was ready to be seen. Instead of saying "TUNE IN TO SEE OUR NEW PRODUCTION MODEL!!!" she should've been saying, "Tune in to see our great story for the return of Phillip" or something involving the characters. The show failed because the stories were so bad (and stayed that way all year) that all you could focus on was the bad production model. By the time they worked out all the kinks fans were tuned out, but I do believe they would've overlooked it had good story (or any story) been in place.

I understand the writers strike threw things off, but even before that the show was bad and after all that time off to think of great new stories the result was just as bad.

Lynn has always been a writer who got mixed reaction on her various shows. I, and many others, still credit her for the great work she did at Knots Landing and Homefront. The early days at Y&R were good, but you also had two Co-HWs who'd been with the show for 20+ years and a writing team that overall had been around just as long. That made the transition very smooth. She could bring them the idea and they could keep the story in character and write the show the way Y&R should be written. When she fired the entire time, of course it was going to be different. Why are you shocked people responded poorly? She changed everything that was working and then some. It was a disaster. Should we still praise her due to a few months that were good that we now know was due to other people?

And for the record I always thought Kriezman was very mediocre.

[Jonathan]

AMC - Daran Little last listed as AHW on 11/2/09. His name was gone today.

[LeClerc]

Probably won't happen but I hope he is asked some day by one of the British rags about his time at AMC. I'd love to know what the story was with him and what he thought about AMC/ABC and the American soap.

[Jonathan]

I cringe to know what he thought. I'd tell him that the AMC he wrote for was not that one we all fell in love with.