GL: Defending Pam Long?

[RavenWhitney]

In NYTIMES, there's an article about GL and the writer requests that people write about their memories:

Former GL breakdown writer for five minutes: Todd Strasser posted this:

August 18, 2009 1:21 pm Link

Some of the smartest writers I ever met worked on Guiding Light.

Of course, this just might have been a reflection of the quality of the company I kept.

Soap operas, like many TV shows, are written by teams of writers. At the top of the Guiding Light team circa 1990 was a head writer named Pamela Long. Pamela was a former beauty queen (Miss Alabama 1974) and actress. It was her job to come up with “the long story,” that is, the story of the emotional travails of the large cast of characters on the show (In general Pam was supposed to know what the characters would be thinking and feeling for the next six months, although often, it seemed, there was uncertainty about what they would be doing the next day.)

Under Pam were the breakdown writers. During my brief sojourn at Guiding Light, I was one of them. We worked with Pam to fill out the long story so that all the characters were involved in a weekly basis according to their contract requirements. Some characters were contracted to work five days a week, and others one day a week. The number of times they appeared per week could change based on their popularity and the popularity of whatever emotional morass they were floundering in. After we completed our 20-page breakdowns of each day’s script, a script writer would turn them into action and dialogue.

Pam’s job was easy. All she had to do in any given week was:

1) Make sure she knew where all the intertwining stories of the show’s characters

2) Meet with the breakdown writers to work out that week’s set of breakdowns

3) Read the breakdowns after they were written

4) Read the scripts based on the breakdowns

5) Talk to the breakdown and script writers about what they’d written and what needed to be rewritten

6) Make sure the show’s directors were shooting the show as scripted

7) Deal with actors who often did not like the dialogue the writers had chosen for them to say

8) Deal with producers who might disagree with where she wanted to show to go

9) Go to publicity appearances and give interviews to soap opera magazines and do whatever other publicity activities were required.

Oh, and there was one other thing. She had to know precisely what each character was thinking and feeling over a broad spectrum of time. For example, suppose on Tuesday, July 8 she met with the breakdown writers to plan the breakdowns for shows that would be filmed the week of August 24th. On Wednesday July 9, she might be reading breakdowns already written for shows being filmed the week of August 10th. Or she might be reading scripts for shows that would be filmed the week of July 27th. Or making last minute changes in shows being filmed the week of July 20th. Any change made on July 20th would have ramifications for the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the characters for weeks to come, and therefore, might change everything written about them from that point forward.

So basically, in addition to all of the above, Pam had to know what each and every character on the show was thinking and feeling about a whole host of other characters for five shows a week over a span of roughly six weeks. Imagine having to keep all that in your head.

And yes, she really had been a beauty queen.

— Todd Strasser

[soapfan770]

I certainly hope this is the REAL Todd Strasser and not the imposter from WoST!

[Toups]

I would NEVER want to be sole HW. Being a Co-HW or Story Consultant would be better suited for me. LOL

[Toups]

Imposter? Do tell! Plus, any relation to Robin Strasser?

[Soapsuds]

I loved Pam's work on GL. Some say there was way too much Reva but at least she was interesting. Now she is just there..with gulp..Jeffrey...boring.

[Vee]

Didn't Pam Long also write some of the late-stage Rauch GL? And I know she was responsible for much of OLTL 1998. Wanted one of Todd's alters to have been the one to rape Marty, or something. No thanks. She atrophied.

[soapfan770]

I don't know if he's of any relation to her or not. The imposter was just that. Apparently a poster with too much time on their hands decided to make it seem like he was a soap writer using the Todd Strasser name. He claimed to have wrote for SFT and GL with Long and later JER and on GH with Guza! Eventually holes in their story got so big that Brian the webmaster who had interviewed him for a podcast investigated and discovered that it was just some kid in their basement. Some other members might remember the situation better.

The difference here is that Todd Stasser here calls it a brief sojurn. The Strasser imposter claimed to have started writing in '87 after SFT ended and then all the way through early '91 and claimed to have been the actual scab writer during the '88 strike.

[DRW50]

Was she the one who wrote the last year of Santa Barbara?

I think her biggest mistake at GL was wiping out the Bauer family, which did horrible long term damage to the show. Was that her idea of Gail Kobe's?

I also never understood why she did so little with Trish Lewis. Was it because Trish didn't hoot and holler?

[bellcurve]

Yep. And I also think she was the one who introduced the Walker clan, including redneck, show-swallowing Jodie.

Those don't seem like Dobson creations and sure as hell not Conboy creations.

[Toups]

LOL That's pretty crazy. The only credits I have Strasser in is from GL 1990.

[bellcurve]

Sounds like that kid should write a book called "Diary of a Lost Basement Kid."

[MichaelGL]

She never wrote GL while Paul Rauch was on the show, but was HW under Rauch on Santa Barbara.

[SFK]

Yeah, and in that story, "Todd Strasser" was a scab pen name borrowed from an acquaintance named Todd and the wonderful Robin Strasser. Lordy Lordy, the DRAMEuh...

[soapfan770]

Is that what he said? I couldn't remember!

If I recall right he was finally outed by the investigation which a couple Wost members undertook who actually worked in the biz and then Brian called him but was interrupted by the person's mother who threatened to get off the website or else she and his dad would take his computer away! You see, he claimed he had not talked to his dad since like 1980 This of course all happened around the same time of the Boof incident. I miss WoST, but not the crazyness that finally killed it.

[ian]

wow lmfao -- is that art imitating life or life imitating art? Soap boards being as dramatic as the shows they are about!!