49 minutes ago, watson71 said:

There was a producer and writer change in the story- that is part of the reason it was so convoluted.

 

There's a lot of discussion about producers or writers ruining shows but, for a network executive to approve a story and then fire the team responsible for producing that story can only undermine the whole show. 

 

My point about Donna leaving the Love siblings in the 70's for Carl stands.  Vicky always had abandonment issues with Donna but Marley never had feelings about being left alone with Peter and Nicole for her teen years?  At least Vicky had Bridget.

 

Thanks for the specificity on the Harrison mansions; I adore remembrances of the sets and all of the times that a new production team thought that a new gathering place would completely revamp the show. 

 

I didn't recall the Harrison's being from Boston because I confused it with Dack Rambo's Grant who was running for office when he was introduced so I just assumed that Grant had longer familial ties to Bay City.

 

BTW, in hindsight it would have been great if Rachel's half sister or Steve's Aussie daughter had been Ryan's mother.  Given all the recasts, those were well conceived characters who were hampered by the inadequacy of the actors and would have served the story well in the 90's. 

3 minutes ago, j swift said:

 

There's a lot of discussion about producers or writers ruining shows but, for a network executive to approve a story and then fire the team responsible for producing that story can only undermine the whole show. 

 

My point about Donna leaving the Love siblings in the 70's for Carl stands.  Vicky always had abandonment issues with Donna but Marley never had feelings about being left alone with Peter and Nicole for her teen years?  At least Vicky had Bridget.

 

Thanks for the specificity on the Harrison mansions; I adore remembrances of the sets and all of the times that a new production team thought that a new gathering place would completely revamp the show. 

 

I didn't recall the Harrison's being from Boston because I confused it with Dack Rambo's Grant who was running for office when he was introduced so I just assumed that Grant had longer familial ties to Bay City.

 

BTW, in hindsight it would have been great if Rachel's half sister or Steve's Aussie daughter had been Ryan's mother.  Given all the recasts, those were well conceived characters who were hampered by the inadequacy of the actors and would have served the story well in the 90's. 

 

Marley was always given the short end of the stick except during her rape story and being on trial for shooting Jake. 

 

I guess writers figured Vicky was the more interesting of the twins, but thinking about it... Marley could have been an interesting and fascinating character to write because she was raised believing Donna was her sister, and finding out as a late teen that the woman she thought was her sister was really her mother would have had years of story.  Actually, one of my relatives found out at 21 by a slip of the tongue by his girlfriend that the woman he was raised to believe was his sister was really his birth mother and that the people he thought were his parents were actually his grandparents.  He emotionally never recovered and had a loss of identity that he never ever found.

 

Marley going crazy and kidnapping Vicky could have worked if her motive was anger at choosing to marry her rapist instead of being loyal to her sister.. and being that she was no longer Vicky's identical twin... her sense of identity could have really be shaken.. the final nail in the coffin of her sanity.

 

 

11 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

 

Marley going crazy and kidnapping Vicky could have worked if her motive was anger at choosing to marry her rapist instead of being loyal to her sister.. and being that she was no longer Vicky's identical twin... her sense of identity could have really be shaken.. the final nail in the coffin of her sanity.

 

 

That, honestly, is the only rationale that makes any sense to me.

I cannot for the life of me remember what they claimed WAS the cause?

6 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

Thanks. A changing of the guard - with writers AND producers at the same time - explains a lot!! 😨

 

I also forgot to add that when Jill Farren Phelps became executive producer and Tom King and Craig Carlson were the headwriters, Harding Lemay was hired as a "consultant" and his name appears in the December 5th credits, so Lemay was there through much of Justine story.  I'm just not sure how much input he had into the story, but I cannot see him approving of all of this plot- driven writing. 🤔😝🤔

19 hours ago, watson71 said:

I'm just not sure how much input he had into the story, but I cannot see him approving of all of this plot- driven writing. 🤔😝🤔

 

Agreed.

The link below is for a March 2018 interview with Harding Lemay.  It is an interesting read, and it seems that he has mellowed with age.  At age 96, he is probably one, if not the last, headwriter still living from the golden age of soaps.

 

http://daytimeindulgence.blogspot.com/2018/03/exclusive-harding-lemay-interview.html?m=1

6 hours ago, watson71 said:

The link below is for a March 2018 interview with Harding Lemay.  It is an interesting read, and it seems that he has mellowed with age.  At age 96, he is probably one, if not the last, headwriter still living from the golden age of soaps.

 

http://daytimeindulgence.blogspot.com/2018/03/exclusive-harding-lemay-interview.html?m=1

 

Wow, he was pretty nice about Donna S.  I actually think it's a good sign if people are fighting in the writers room.. it means that both people are passionate about the genre and product.. and I will saw Donna S was passionate about AW.. much more so then she was when on the GL and AMC writing teams.

Lemay: "The next writers after her...and the producers...one producer in particular that I won’t get into, who still to this day has black hair, were becoming increasingly injudicious."

 

JFP must be the black-haired producer, right? I swear I've seen Lemay complimenting her in the past -- and he consulted for her on GL and OLTL as well as AW. 

Maybe they fell out?

Something about the Lemay interview doesn't ring true to me...

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

Something about the Lemay interview doesn't ring true to me...

 

Is there any way to prove it's real? People on the soap groups on FB have been questioning its validity as well.

7 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

 

Is there any way to prove it's real? People on the soap groups on FB have been questioning its validity as well.

 

The grammar in Lemay's quotes is quite atrocious. I have never seen him misuse the English language so badly in any interview before. As well, well-known facts about the writer's association with AW are contradicted in this piece. Wouldn't he know his own history? Color me sceptical.

8 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

 

Is there any way to prove it's real? People on the soap groups on FB have been questioning its validity as well.

 

Could be- I thought some of his responses did not ring true, and I just chalked it up to him mellowing with age....

He is 96 years old, so he could have mellowed with age.. or just doesn't remember facts/events like he used to.. so we can't compare how he was in the 1970s to what he possibly could be in the 2010s.  People's perspectives also do change over time.

You all make valid points - I guess there's no way we can tell for sure if it's real.