Interview with Tom Casiello

[rangethatrover]

I wasn't watching soaps anymore when Hogan was at ATWT- I thought his entire run was loved by fans/critics. Didn't ATWT sweep the emmys for 3 years (what was it 2002-2005 or something)??

When he joined Days I was like "Wow. They are so lucky, Days is really going to get some emmys now" And then it was like a huge fizzle..

[Ann_SS]

Hogan was a mixed bag. He was great the first 3 years. I loved how he made up for the crappy Lily island story by doing a comedic island story with Katie, Henry and Cooley. Simon and Katie were his golden couple. He tried to fight the CarJack fanbase by hooking up Carly with her true match Craig which I loved. John James as Rick Decker was a hysterical campy serial killer. He didn't use the vets and then went overboard. I never forgave him for making scrumptious Marshall Travers a rapist. Hogan definitely ran out of steam, but I would take him over Goutman and Passante.

I really think that all the soaps need to a co-headwriters to reign in each others bad impulses. For all the credit MAB has gotten on this board for reviving Y&R, the show was a bore until Hogan showed up. Only then, did the characters and stories become more focused so I would argue that Hogan and MAB are balancing each other out.

[P.J.]

LOL....then he seriously deserves some burn time in HELL.

It wasn't Craig, Jen or Billy who sold me on those episodes either. Like you said, Block was a piece of ice, and and the other two actors were green and uninspiring, to put it nicely. (I didn't even like Bryant---I thought Todd Rotondi was terrible) What sold me was everyone around them----the way the news circulated around town. Carly and Em sharing a scene (they weren't friends at the time) and talking about how life is sometimes unfairly cut short. Hal going to Craig (and they hated each other) and Hal offering his sympathies in spite of the fact both Bryant and Craig were pains in his ass. Even Babs running into Craig and laying into him, hoping he'd feel nothing but pain. And later, most of the town coming together after the funeral---it made you feel like there was a community.

By the time Hogan left, there was a divide among the fans. A lot of his stories seemed to repeat. The first year, Simon and Lily were stuck on an island for the summer. The next summer, it was Katie and Henry on the same island. The year after that, it was Simon, Katie, Rose, Paul, and Simon's look-a-like Donovan on the "island" of Avanya. We spent years in a town obsessed with a baby named Cabot. And there was a lot of Craig, and a lot of stupid teen stories.

That first year---that was pretty good. But either Carolyn Culliton was stupendous (Pissy was hired when she left, and actually suggested killing off Bryant) or Hogan was a one-trick pony. Given his background, I tend to think he's not really suited to heading a long-term gig like a soap opera without a strong Co-HW.