But I'm someone who watches my soaps largely for the day to day type things--if there's good dialogue and character stuff, I'm hooked even if not much seems to be happening lol.

That pretty much sums up her ATWT run...lol You would have loved ATWT at that time.

Btw...you need to bring back your AT avatar...hehe...loved it!!

Down with JHC!

Hrmm I didn't find them sugery--maybe it helped that I had a best friend at the time who was kinda in love with me (a girl--though I screwed it up more than Kevin did by actually dating and sleeping with her before coming out, oh the drama lol) so I could relate as a teenager their age. I lvoed their friendship, liked even how Opal with good intentions led Kelsey along, etc. Of course basically the day Broderick left Kevin disappeared.

Wow, Eric, you're a whore. FYI, we discuss whores in the AMC episode thread on Fridays. So go there.

She has done baby stories, but Lorraine is a smart enough writer to know when something's overdone.

Her last stint was overall great, and when Lorraine is going through a "bad" story (the one that viewers really seemed to dislike was Erica taking Maddie), she still has plenty of good ones going on to make up for it. The day to day execution from her was usually superb.

Great stories from her last stint:

-Michael coming out to his class, and Kevin coming out

-Laurel's murder

-Janet's redemption (I LOVE Kate Collins, but LB made Robin Mattson's Janet such an interesting, complex character)

-Plane crash that "killed" Maria

-Liza's return to town, and her affair with Tad

-Marian's return

-Liza/Adam's twisted romance

-Skye/Dr. Kinder

-Erica at Betty Ford

and there are others, but these are the ones that stick in my mind. Under her stint, the dialogue was absolutely fantastic. Her stories can be dark, but with Lorraine, she put a lot of wit and 'smart humor' into the show (as opposed to McTavish, who went more for broad camp). Any scene with Liza and Marian....OMG! Just delicious dialogue. She won three Emmys during her 2 year stint at the show, and not only were there wonderful stories, but the day to day execution was wonderful, and the dialogue could not be topped.

I certainly hope she can lure Michelle Patrick back to the show (again!) because they worked really, really well together the last time. I hope she does an overall of the dialogue team (bye bye Rebecca Taylor), and she MIGHT, because dialogue is really, really important to her.

There were some brilliant lines of dialogue under Broderick. The Adam/Marian scenes were hilariously written. Even during the Tanner Jordan story, Adam and Mateo show up with the search and rescue team and Adam asks if they have any helicopters searching for Hayley and Tanner and the sheriff says "Helicopters?" and Adam says something along the lines of "You know, those things that fly and have big propellers that twirl around! YES! HELICOPTERS!"

Her other infamous stories are that voodoo arc and the real Santa, right? That was her?

Millee Taggert was rumored to be the one who came up with the Santa Claus storyline.

I thought McTavish made him a terrorist. The material about him being Laura's child pornographer and killing the boy who had shot the films with her happened while Broderick was still there, I think.

Yes. McTavish made him the one who carried the explosives on the doomed flight of TransGlobal 149 that killed Maria. Total rewrite of even RECENT history. McTavish's trademark, of course. That condescending "even though you were watching then and know there's no way this could happen, too bad! Deal with it!" kind of manner she loves to rewrite things in.

I'm not going to get excited. This is not the same AMC as before. Broderick is good and all but she still has to write with what she has now, and that's not a whole lot.

Could you stop pissing on our party? I heard wolf urine is acidic.

Really? I don't think Pratt would dump both of them at the same time. That would be too much for me to handle, in a good way.

You don't get it. She probably read it somewhere. It must be true.

I hate to put a damper on this but isn't Lorraine teaching screenwriting these days? Nor has she done a soap since she was a breakdown writer at GL in 2004.

So?

For those who don't know, LB created David Hayward for Vincent Irizarry. A dream come true for David/Vincent fans, I hope. And she wrote for Thorsten Kaye on Port Charles.

That was my main concern. I love David and Vincent! That's another reason why I couldn't be too harsh on Pratt, because, in the words of VI, he wrote the hell out of David. Was it stellar writing? No. Was it entertaining and a helluva lot more than McTavish did for the character? YES!

They usually never move to a studio 3,000 miles away, either. They are way ahead now to prepare for the move.

They are not going to fire JHC three weeks before the move, sorry.

LMAO!

They are 6-7 weeks out now in terms of taping. But I wonder how far ahead they are in finished scripts beyond that.

Bobbie Eakes said they had taped this week's Thanksgiving episodes like the second week of October.

And via Kelly Ripa on Regis and Kelly, the January anniversary episodes are already in the can.

Wow, Eric, you're a whore. FYI, we discuss whores in the AMC episode thread on Fridays. So go there.

Harumph I'll go there later on after I've watched the episode:P (which should be when the AMAs are over )

I wonder if Agnes had a say in Broderick coming back? If she did that would be amazing because Frons or TPTB actually care about her input.

As I suggested I suspect she had SOME say, yeah.

There seemed to be a lot of pressure from Disney and from Francesca James in 1996-1997, but quite a few of the stories on display at that time, Brooke/Pierce, the attempt to turn Janet back into a cartoon (which was scuttled, thankfully), Maria not knowing she was pregnant for five months, the vile Tanner Jordan storyline, the Liza/Jake relationship which ended up doing very strong damage to both characters (along with having Liza get pregnant and lose Adam's baby - the start of Liza's baby rabies), Brooke's boyfriend being Laura's child pornographer, I thought they set a tone for the show which, unfortunately, put ugliness over heart and plot over character.

Ugh Tanner was awful. I admit the other stories didn't bother me as much (I don't remember Janet being turned into a cartoon under her)even the hated child pornographer one--and I (initially) loved Brooke/Pierce.

I actually liked the Santa Claus story, mostly due to Eileen Herlie.

AGreed, it was a fun showcase for her...

Splitting hairs, but McTavish was the one who made Jim evil. That was one of her first moves as HW, actually.

Despite her clunkers, this show needs someone like her at this critical point in time. Someone who knows the history - loves the legacy of the show.

I know ROscoe Borns left when they made his character for sure evil, right? But was that pre or post McTavish.

I'm really optimistic about this. She's a very intelligent writer, and I just hope she's allowed to do her thing and flourish DESPITE Frons. Of course she'll have to comply with Frons's agenda of keeping Ryan, Annie, Kendall and Greenlee front and center, but if she can flesh out their characters more and give them interesting stories, as well as diversify the canvass, then that's all we can hope for. The voodoo crap and Santa Claus were all Francesca James and ABC, which had just been bought by Disney at the time. I'm also hoping that this might mean the return of Julia Barr on a more permanent basis. Lorraine and Julia are actually good friends in real life and Lorraine always wrote for Brooke (her writing got Julia her last Emmy), and with Julia returning for the 40th anniversary, well, maybe the planets are aligning for her return. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this all develops.

I agree that the Voodoo mess was a reaction to Days but do we really know it was James' fault? SHe did afterall say she Pine Valley as a Peyton Place like town lol

I would LOVELOVE LOVE to have more Brooke but I can't see Barr moving from the East Coast.

LOL yeah after 3 consecutive sets of bad HW's, AMC fans truly deserve this

I count more than three...

I hope that Broderick is a Madison/Frankie fan. Frankie has to be freed from horrible Randi.

AGreed, it was a fun showcase for her...

I know ROscoe Borns left when they made his character for sure evil, right? But was that pre or post McTavish.

Borne's beef was actually with McTavish, due to the changes she planned for his character.

^Oh, thank you. 1995...does that mean she did drug addict Erica as well?

I liked Maria "dying" in the plane crash, was that her, or was that 1998 already?

Both stories are Broderick's.

Nice timing if you think about the fact that they've probably finished taping the upcoming anniversary episode. Too bad Broderick didn't get to pen it though.

I loved Broderick's ATWT.

Borne's beef was actually with McTavish, due to the changes she planned for his character.

So is Carl mistaken?

So is Carl mistaken?

Not entirely (I had to go back and read what you're referring to), but it wasn't the plan under Broderick to make Jim into such a menace. What viewers knew pre-McTavish about Jim is that Laura knew him and wanted to conceal it. Concurrently, there were inappropriate photos of Laura on the internet, which Tim Dillon had found. Jim started to become involved with Brooke, having bonded as survivors of the plane crash. Laura didn't want Broke involved with him. Several scenes would lead viewers to question if Jim was the cause of - or was just aware of - Laura's photos, or if he had some involvement in her upbringing prior to Brooke's adopting her. It was all being played VERY close to the vest... moreso that Laura had something to hide (perhaps beyond those photos). There were times that I actually wondered, during RB's run in the role, if Jim was possibly her biological father.

According to Borne's story at the time, he was brought on to be a mysterious character and new love interest for Brooke. He was clearly caught off-guard by the intention of revealing Jim as a "child pornographer," which was evidently disclosed to him soon after McTavish took over. He abruptly quit and the role was quickly recast. Borne, in a thinly veiled way, attributed the circumstances to the change in head writers.

It's hard to say exactly what Broderick had in mind for the Jim character.

Whatever it was, it was probably better than having Brooke lure Jim to a room covered with PG13-rated versions of the Laura photos (how nice - and perhaps a little sick - of Brooke to make the effort to put all those up! remember that?), shoot Jim in the back (killing him) as he walks away, put Brooke on trial & have her go on the run while Joe Martin abuses his Chief-of-staff role at the hospital by faking that Brooke is in an isolation room because she's ill and dangerously contagious.... then at the trial, have Tad reveal at the 11th hour pictures - SAID to have been taken on Jim's camera - of Amanda Dillon swinging on the play-set in her back yard ... causing Janet to gasp in horror ("OMG, she's swinging!!!") .... which swayed the jury that Brooke was justifiable in killing him ("oh my, he takes child photos that look like they're from Sears! He deserved to die!"), and Brooke is therefor acquitted... Oh, I almost forgot... after she was cleared, Tad chimed in that he took the photos himself and staged it to appear Jim had done it.

That last paragraph is what McTavish did with the story... and that's what I mean about sacrificing character for plot. It was SATURATED with ridiculously out-of-character, offensive events.

Edited November 23, 200916 yr by YurSoakinginit

I have been beating the hell out of the "Fire Julie Hanan Carruthers" drum since Megan McTavish was with the show. I don't think she's going anywhere. She's a lackey and she & Frons go way back. No matter how much I'd love to see Felicia Minei Behr or Francesca James return, I won't hold my breath.

Broderick's return is very good news for AMC IMO. 1995-1997 was a solid period for AMC. Didn't she pen the Arlene/Alec storyline? That was some twisted yet delicious tale. She hit all the right marks for Liza's return and I loved everything she did with Adam owning the airline that caused the plane crash as well as Liza's miscarriage. And I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I loved the whole Erica stealing Maria's baby storyline. That trial was some of the best courtroom drama I'd seen since SB, save Marty's rape on OLTL. I thought Lucci delivered a powerhouse performance throughout and should have won her Emmy for her work in that storyline.

Unfortunately, I haven't watched much AMC since shortly after Edmund's murder and especially after Julia Barr left (it's sad that I can't even say she was "written out" because she wasnt't ), but AMC fans deserve this news. It's about time they got someone credible to head write the show, let alone someone who has as rich of a history with it as Broderick does. I can't believe I'm saying this but WTG Frons!

Not entirely (I had to go back and read what you're referring to), but it wasn't the plan under Broderick to make Jim into such a menace. What viewers knew pre-McTavish about Jim is that Laura knew him and wanted to conceal it. Concurrently, there were inappropriate photos of Laura on the internet, which Tim Dillon had found. Jim started to become involved with Brooke, having bonded as survivors of the plane crash. Laura didn't want Broke involved with him. Several scenes would lead viewers to question if Jim was the cause of - or was just aware of - Laura's photos, or if he had some involvement in her upbringing prior to Brooke's adopting her. It was all being played VERY close to the vest... moreso that Laura had something to hide (perhaps beyond those photos).

According to Borne's story at the time, he was brought on to be a mysterious character and new love interest for Brooke. He was clearly caught off-guard by the intention of revealing Jim as a "child pornographer," which was evidently disclosed to him soon after McTavish took over. He abruptly quit and the role was quickly recast. Borne, in a thinly veiled way, attributed the circumstances to the change in head writers.

It's hard to say exactly what Broderick had in mind for the Jim character.

For some reason I thought the child porn stuff happened when Broderick was still there. There was about a month of storyline, or two months, between the time of this reveal and when Born left. There was the reveal to viewers, the flashbacks, Jim killing Ricky and shaming Laura into keeping quiet.

The change in writing that seemed abrupt to me was Jim suddenly being a terrorist. That started right before Born quit. It was also around the time of other rapid changes, like Dimitri's redemption after Broderick had made him the heavy for Edmund.

In regards to whether or not JHC should get out of dodge...HELLS YES. Like juniorz, I've been calling for her head for years now. I'd be interested to see a Broderick/Burke AMC. Judging from what others are saying, Broderick got AMC story-wise, and I feel that Burke got AMC style-wise. Perhaps it could be an appealing combination, though Burke might be in retirement now. Two ladies who began their soap careers in Pine Valley under the guidance of La Nixon.

Edited November 23, 200916 yr by All My Shadows