Is it just me or is OLTL's scriptwriting getting better. Hillary B. Smith was definately triggering Nancy Lee Grahn yesterday in those courtroom scenes. Kudos to Sharon Lennon who is proving to be a much better writer than Katherine Schock.

Is it just me or is OLTL's scriptwriting getting better.

I wonder how's Fred doing and how he's dealing with a whole lot of [] stories he needs to "break down".

I wonder how's Fred doing and how he's dealing with a whole lot of [] stories he needs to "break down".

Are you questioning the rest of OLTL's breakdown team?

Are you questioning the rest of OLTL's breakdown team?

Remind me who else is there.

Remind me who else is there.

The rest of the OLTL breakdown team are:

Shelly Altman

Janet Iacobuzio

Chris Van Etten

Anna Theresa Cascio

Yeah, none of them are as esteemed as Johnson. However, I haven't really noticed any real change in OLTL's structure or anything else since Johnson joined the team.

However, I haven't really noticed any real change in OLTL's structure or anything else since Johnson joined the team.

Neither did I.

I was just wondering how such an esteemed writer deals with the [] he needs to break into daily stories. It must be unbearable.

I was just wondering how such an esteemed writer deals with the [] he needs to break into daily stories. It must be unbearable.

Johnson would've definitely been a better asset to AMC, rather than OLTL.

Neither did I.

I was just wondering how such an esteemed writer deals with the [] he needs to break into daily stories. It must be unbearable.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does "[]" mean?

Forgive my ignorance, but what does "[]" mean?

[] = expletive deleted in Sylph-talk

[] = expletive deleted in Sylph-talk

LMAO! No one deleted it, I intentionally just wrote "[]". Not to angry the villagers, you know, who will go straight to Toups and do what — well, complain, of course!

Hello all, I'm new here. I've often wondered how anyone can identify what makes a good or bad breakdown writer, especially since, from what I can tell, the breakdown writers are never credited with a particular episode? For instance, Fred Johnson seems to enjoy a certain degree of reverence around here, but given recent comments, no one can identify a difference he's made to OLTL. Is there a "Fred Johnson" show, or a "Janet Iacobuzio" show? If we took five consecutive episodes of OLTL, would anyone here know which episode was written by which writer? Perhaps that's not a fair question, seeing as how so many people here claim to have so much inside information.

I do have another question. Which soaps do people here watch regularly? And by that I mean at least three time per week.

Hello all, I'm new here. I've often wondered how anyone can identify what makes a good or bad breakdown writer, especially since, from what I can tell, the breakdown writers are never credited with a particular episode? For instance, Fred Johnson seems to enjoy a certain degree of reverence around here, but given recent comments, no one can identify a difference he's made to OLTL. Is there a "Fred Johnson" show, or a "Janet Iacobuzio" show? If we took five consecutive episodes of OLTL, would anyone here know which episode was written by which writer? Perhaps that's not a fair question, seeing as how so many people here claim to have so much inside information.

You're right, there's no way of knowing if they're not listed in the credits. I do wish every soap would list the episode breakdown writers and script writers.

As far as identifying what makes a good or bad breakdown writer......we fans just have to go by what happens in an episode. Did the episode flow well? Was there a theme to the episode? Were the tags good? How did the characters act? Were the scenes as good as they should be?

At least that's how I judge, I'm not sure how anyone else does it.

Since you were talking about Fred Johnson, I'll use his scenes. He wrote the breakdown for the day after John's funeral (the second half on October 19th). There was an amazing scene between Marlena/Belle. It was very emotional. The stuff that Marlena talked about: how she dealt with past patients, talking about grief......it was a 7 minute, 30 second scene and it was golden! And then the next scene, Sami shows up and it's just Marlena and her girls, together on the bed.

Breakdown Writer: Frederick Johnson

Script Writer: Bettina Bradbury

I do have another question. Which soaps do people here watch regularly? And by that I mean at least three time per week.

Right now I watch 7/8 soaps. It'll 8/8 soon when I start watching GL this week.

That Marlena/Belle scene never gets old for me.

That Marlena/Belle scene never gets old for me.

Same here.

DAYS doesn't do scenes like that anymore.

Here are couple more of Fred Johnson's scenes.

Octoboer 22, 2007 - BDW: Fred Johnson; SW: Bettina Bradbury

Man, the last five months of Sheffer's tenure was amazing. There were so many great scenes/episodes.

Fred and Bettina are a FANTASTIC match-up, going back years to AMC. You can just tell that she gets his breakdowns, and their styles mesh.