Y&R/B&B: Kay Alden Interview

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Being in the business longer, and the fact that Alden whores her affiliation with Bill Bell to her advantage?

Alden is not a storyteller, the only thing she knew how to do was handle the mechanics of Bell's writing structure properly. Her plotting and story ideas were either utter stupidity or utterly boring.

[Sylph]

Longer than who?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Than most of the people you listed that should have been interviewed instead, Sylphy, dear.

[Sylph]

That's a crappy criterion.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Maybe so, but it is the Achieve of American Television.

[Toups]

I thought The Takeover, the Billy/Mac romance (the prom), and the return of Matt Clarke were pretty good....but I wasn't watching Y&R consistently back then.

I don't remember her doing anything that damaged the show like John and Cassie's death, or Jill/Katherine being related, or Cane being a Chancellor.

As for B&B, I totally blame the show on Brad. It's his show, his vision.

So what specific things did Kay do wrong? I loved to hear Sylph's specific answers. Alvin, don't answer until Sylph does. LOL

[Aback]

You're right, but those stories were penned by Bill Bell. I don't care if KA's name was the only one listed. It was all Bill Bell's doing. Once BB's health started degrading, you could see the show taking a totally different direction.

[brimike]

To be fair... and I preface this by saying I agree, RSinclair - I would love to see Alden's bible... but there are a lot of head writers who can write an amazing bible but fail at the execution, and on the other side, a lot of head writers who can't write a bible to save their life but know exactly how to tell a story from week to week brilliantly. I'm not saying Alden is one or the other, but I don't think we can judge a head writer on their bible alone.

I'll use Alden for the sake of argument, only because we're talking about her. But hypothetically, let's say her bible was a four-hundred page epic that delved into long paragraphs explaining subtext, character development, proper motivation, brilliantly imagined reveals and pay-offs and highly emotional scenes that delivered on all levels. And then she gets hired. That doesn't mean that on a week-to-week basis, between a writing team, network executives and fan reaction, the bible can't be executed poorly and end up a big old mess. Head writers are given weeks to write a bible, to really take their time with it. But once they're in the trenches, six months in, and it's all being pulled apart, they don't have that luxury of time to "sleep on it" and take the time to find proper fixes to the problems that come up in the midst of heavy story, the way they did in those first few weeks of writing their original bible.

[Sylph]

I think brimike read the bible.

[R Sinclair]

I am not infatuated with Alden. Hardly. I just find her interesting and since I'm not coming from some obscure personal detestation or familiarity with her writing I guess it's easier for me to do so. I'm not doing a Tom Casiello thing here and thinking she's some brilliant writer because of the way I perceive her persona... I'm just saying I found the interview interesting and found her engaging.

As for my dream writer for AMC? I haven't one.

I understand that. It's sort of similar to writing a screenplay based on a novel. Sometimes it translates successfully, other times... not so much. It's just that since I'm pretty much not able to watch her storylines play out from start to finish, that would be the only (and probably more informative) way for me to get a better understanding about her writing. It's just hard for me to formulate an opinion when all I get is "she sucks" or "she's a hack" or "she's not a storyteller," whenever I ask what makes her so horrible.

[Cat]

With B&B, the waters are muddied by Bradley Bell's hands-on approach to [!@#$%^&*] up his personal nest-egg soap.

I think your best bet is to get your hands on Alden's AMC bible -- or an idea of what it may have contained -- and judge for yourself. After all, as a long-time fan of AMC, you would know best whether she would have been a good fit for the show.

I know it is probably "easier said than done," but have you thought about contacting her and asking for her thoughts on AMC and what she would have done for the show as a HW? You never know. French Fan has proved how open and appreciative some of these soap writers can be when people show genuine interest in their work and opinions.

[MarkH]

You think she's on facebook? Gosh, I may be the last person on the planet who is not...

[R Sinclair]

Anyway, one of the things that made me curious about Alden's writing is a quote from this interview:

"One of the questions that I'm most frequently asked is, 'What in your life -- what in your academic career -- what most enables you to do this kind of work?' And the answer is academic debate. Academic debate, more than anything else in my life, enables me to do this work because the effort of academic debate is to see things from all different perspectives."

That's almost the same response I would have when it comes to why I love script writing. It's the ability to actually see things through the eyes of 2, 3 or 4 or however many characters you have playing that scene and speaking their truth in that situation. Not just simply writing the protagonist, antagonist and supporting roles... but actually seeing it through the different sets of prisms these characters in these roles provide. The fun part is writing someone you'd think is the antagonist but is actually protagonist and vice versa.

One of my many complaints about 'the writer' is that she doesn't do that. It's just black and white. This character is good, this character is bad. No matter what Good character does, it's good. No matter what Bad character does, it's bad. That horrid storyline on AMC where Babe=Good had sex with Josh in a kiddie pool because JR=Bad had the nerve not to make her feel needed. Granted, JR's 16 year old sister was presumed dead in a boat crash with everyone searching for her body and he was an emotional wreck... but that didn't matter. He didn't make Babe feel as if she was important to him, so she sleeps with Josh. And still, somehow, when JR finds out and goes ballistic, falls off the wagon and confronts Josh... JR's made out to be the villain and Babe the angel. There is NO debate in that. There isn't any "here are both sides of the story where you get to decide who's more or less right in this situation." No! It's just "this character can do whatever she wants and is always loved -- no matter how much damage she causes with her actions. And this other character, no matter how many emotional betrayals he's put through by this character is not allowed to get angry or else he'll be reminded of how horrible he is."

Again, I say this having extremely limited knowledge regarding Alden's work, while having seen McTavish play this same style of writing over and over and over again -- not just on AMC, but on OLTL and GH.

No, because I'm not on it either. I refuse.

[Sylph]

Yeah... That's nice. :)

[Cat]

And you have just reminded me why I couldn't deal with MMT at either GH or AMC. Reading your post, I actually felt a familiar surge of anger. The worst is when they used to have Bianca as Saintly Voice of Reason, foghorning the Babe-is-Love hymn at full volume. This was after the Bess/Miranda mess was revealed. Damn, Bianca really got the horn for Babe. But when the subject turned to JR, it was all "JR pushed me off a balcony and prevented me from getting my baby back." Um, NO, you bimbo, YOU slipped after an argument with JR. And BABE and KWAK were the ones responsable for keeping your baby from you. For TWO YEARS. While letting you believe the baby was dead. MMT would always bring up JR as the "reason" behind the kidnapping, as if he'd spirited Bess/Miranda away with his own hands.

Re: Alden. I think she is much more subtle about showing the audience who is "good" and who is "bad." On Y&R, she wrote (or helped to write) a character called Tricia who was batshitcrazy but in a "human" or relatable way, thanks to Sabryn Genet's portrayal and the writing which never completely condemned Tricia as Da EVUL while never shying away from absolving her of her crimes.