So no one posted the interview with Lemay?

[Sylph]

Or I missed it? It is in five parts, the interviewer is Damon L. Jacobs for We Love Soaps.

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/07/harding-lemay-interview-part-one.html

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/07/harding-lemay-intervew-part-two.html

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/07/harding-lemay-interview-part-three.html

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/08/harding-lemay-interview-part-four.html

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/08/harding-lemay-interview-part-v.html

Who made up this barbaric tribe of OLTL writers he used to work with?!

The interview was good, but not great. Jacobs tended to re-tread everything the guy talked about in fifty other interviews and in his book. It's a shame, because he could have used the opportunity more wisely.

If a comparison really must be made, in this precise moment, I would compare Douglas Marland with a delicious, rich home-made, domestic, grandma cookie, whereas Harding Lemay is a Black Forest gâteau. Or mango strawberry Napoleon gâteau.

[Sylph]

Yup. That's what I thought.

0 replies.

[DRW50]

Was Sam Hall still with OLTL then? What about Peggy O'Shea?

[soapfan770]

Most Lemay interviews are the same really, same questions, same answers etc. Brian at WoST did a wonderful job at interviewing Lemay because he asked different things rather than the same old Reinholt/Courtney/Dwyer firings and stuff. Someone on another board said of the interview that Lemay always seems to come off as an old gasbag. I might have to agree. Lemay is one of the best writers ever to grace daytime, but his ego remains pretty big.

[soapfan770]

I believe that Leman "consulted" Pamela K. Long, Jean Passanate and Jill Farren Phelps who all of course were in a major battle over creative control of OLTL. Not a good situation to be in as one might imagine...

[DRW50]

Oh, I thought this was about an early 80s run. But that wasn't him I think that was Slesar.

Yes I can imagine the time he filled in was a huge mess. I didn't know Jean Passante was involved in OLTL then. No wonder it sucked.

I always wonder what ATWT may have been like if they'd let him take over when he was consulting around 1994 or 1995.

[Sylph]

Toups has some credits from 1998:

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I'm one of the people who doesn't think JFP is Satan, but her OLTL stint represented the WORST of her approach to soaps. She screwed up at other soaps, but OLTL was where she was really drunk off her power.

[soapfan770]

By the way here is what I may call a classic interview with Lemay that he did with SOD in 1997. Jacobs which I had read a couple weeks ago mainly seems to be an update to this:

http://iriswheeler.tripod.com/sodonline1997.html

[Sapounopera]

I've only watched clips of Lemay's Another World and it really felt like a play.

Earlier Sylph (hi there Sylph ) compared him to Marland and that made me think.. What about the legacy each one of these charismatic writers left to their signature soaps? ATWT is still around and the characters/situations Marland created are propably the most important thing on the show. After Lemay left, the show was uneven to say the least. Rachel, Mac and Iris was his most important creation and once Beverlee McKinsey left, there was nothing. Was it his fault that the show later collapsed (no long term planning), or later bad writing and stupid management?

[Sylph]

That's not Lemay's fault. All the interviewers were in love with that interview which started it all and somehow, under a spell or whatever, they just keep asking him the same old questions.

I don't think he's a bore, douchebag, gasbag, whatever... He definitely had a very unique, sophisticated, literary vision of soaps, and I think many don't know what the h*ll he's talking about so they readily label him as a "gasbag".

[soapfan770]

By "gasbag" I mean Lemay gives out a bunch of empty, boastful talk. Of course it's harsh word that I regret re-stating now. Lemay is not boring and always leaves me wanting more but he always seems more than willing to spew on about the Reinholdt/Courtney stuff especially since it appears he has an axe to grind against Ms. Courtney, rumors of his advances being rebuffed not withstanding. Here in the Jacobs interview he statea that Courtney wrote her lines on the cuffs of her nurses uniform. Of course I read Eight Years in Another World and to be fair Courtney, Dwyer, and Reinholt weren't saints either.

Lemay gets a little blame by making a couple critical errors like start to phase out the Matthews family. The rest can be blamed on later bad writing and stupid management. Expanding the show to 90 minutes certainly didn't help.

[DRW50]

Didn't AW also cast all types of theater actors who often left as soon as their contracts were up?

[Sylph]

I, on the other hand, do not see that. I actually find him kind of modest.

He isn't a saint. Great writer, but he himself also knows and admits he made mistakes.