Lorraine Broderick as AMC head writer

[Toups]

I have this end credits from August 11, 1989

Written by

Margaret DePriest

Lorraine Broderick

Victor Miller

Megan McTavish

Mary K. Wells

Susan Kirshenbaum

Elizabeth Page

Karen L. Lewis

Elizabeth Wallace

Kathleen Klein

Gillian Spencer

So are Lorraine and Victor listed as Co-HWs or just Associate Head Writers? I doubt Megan was the script editor, so I'm thinking she was an Associate Head Writer, therefore Lorraine and Victor were indeed Co-HWs.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Thanks Toups. I actually think that Lorraine and Victor co-HW the show very briefly in the early part of 1989 until DePriest came aboard in the spring. Lorraine (and Victor?) were planting the seeds for a Nico/Julie/Will triangle, a relationship between Ross and Karen (Cindy's lookalike sister), a Tad/Barbara romance, and the Angie/Cliff pairing. Behr/DePriest came in and shot all of that to hell. I was especially disturbed when they jettisoned the Tad/Barbara thing, because MEK and Susan Pratt had tons of chemistry. Instead they sent her back into the Erica/Travis/Tom orbit and paired Tad with Dixie.

[DRW50]

So the new writers wrote Ross out? I didn't realize he was still on the show by that point.

Do you think if Lorraine and Victor had stayed around viewers might have warmed up more to Karen?

[Toups]

So LB and Victor Miller were sole Co-HWs for a period of time?

It went from LB to LB&VM to Maggie? And once Maggie settled in, did LB and VM go back to Associate Head Writers, joining Megan McT?

Here's what I have so far:

Head Writers

1970 - 1978?

Agnes Nixon

1978? - 1986

Wisner Washam

1986 - 1987

Wisner Washam & Lorraine Broderick

1987 - 1988

Lorraine Broderick

1988 - 1989

Margaret de Priest & Lorraine Broderick (Co-Head Writer) & Victor Miller (Co-Head Writer)

1989 - 1991

Agnes Nixon & Lorraine Broderick (Co-Head Writer) & Wisner Washam (Co-Head Writer)

1991 - July 1992

Agnes Nixon

July 1992 - June 1995

Megan McTavish

June 1995 - October 1995

Agnes Nixon

October 1995 - 1996

Lorraine Broderick

1996

Lorraine Broderick & Millee Taggart

1996 - December 1997

Lorraine Broderick

December 1997 - June 1999

Megan McTavish

June 1999 - Summer 1999

Agnes Nixon & Elizabeth Page

Fall 1999

Agnes Nixon & Jean Passanante (Co-Head Writer) & Elizabeth Page (Co-Head Writer)

November 1999 - January 2001

Agnes Nixon & Jean Passanante

January 2001 - May 2001

Jean Passanante

May 2001 - June 2001

Jean Passanante & Michael Conforti

June 2001 - August 2001

Jean Passanante

September 2001 - December 2002

Richard Culliton

December 2002 - February 2003

Gordon Rayfield (Interim Head Writer)

February 2003 - June 2003

Gordon Rayfield & Anna Theresa Cascio

July 2003 - April 26, 2007

Megan McTavish

April 27, 2007 - July 24, 2007

No Head Writer Listed

July 25, 2007 - January 14, 2008

James Harmon Brown & Barbara Esensten

January 15, 2008 - January 30, 2008

No Head Writers listed

January 31, 2008 - August 26, 2008

James Harmon Brown & Barbara Esensten

August 27, 2008 - Present

Charles Pratt, Jr.

The months without any specific dates are probably the changes made behind the scenes (not the air dates). The specific dates are the air dates.

How come there wasn't a "Toups" in the 80's documenting this?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I wonder if Lorraine left on her own in 1992, or did McTavish get rid of her?

What was the story of how Broderick ended up at GL? Nancy Curlee or JFP handpicked her to fill Nancy's position when she was on maternity leave?

[LoyaltoAMC]

Yeah, Toups, I think that's how it went. Thinking about it, I would stake my life on the fact that LB and VM were co-HWs for a few months. I was HUGE AMC fan back around that time and a total credits junkie. I even remember a comment from Miller about a one-episode character they wrote in the Tad/Barbara relationship. Barbara returned home from a business trip to find a homeless man camped outside her doorway (or something to that effect). The character's name was Haggot Tinsley and (don't ask me how I remember this), but I recall Miller stating that he had a friend by that name and used that name for this homeless character. Yeah, I think once Maggie started, LB and VM became her associate writers. She was a marquis name at that point, which Broderick and Miller were not. Megan joined the writing team in late 86/early 87, and she must've been promoted to some story-decision position under DePriest.

[DRW50]

Marquee name...I don't know why. I guess DePriest did bring the ratings up at her shows, at least then, but a lot of her AW stuff seemed very, very misogynistic to me, what I read about and what I saw.

At least she didn't do any of those "man targets women for being impure" stories on AMC, did she?

[LoyaltoAMC]

Ross was still there when Behr/DePriest took over, but they abruptly ended any Ross/Karen romance. Robert Gentry (Ross) had been a leading man on the show up until that point. Behr came in with a mandate to cut down on the number of stories. She told Gentry that he could stay on, but that he would never be a lead in another story again. They did try something (very bizarrely) with Natalie, whom he'd raped a couple of years earlier, but that went nowhere, and even chemistry tested him with Julia Barr, but the writing was on the wall for him, and he chose to leave.

I read that Ellen Wheeler wasn't really happy playing Karen. They wanted her to stay on after Cindy's death, but I read that she thought Karen had been ill conceived. I thought the character had potential under Lorraine/Victor in a pairing with Ross, but once DePriest came on, she turned Karen into a lazy plot device as Junior's kidnapper.

[DRW50]

That's bizarre, especially the Natalie/Ross bit. Was he a fan favorite? I'm surprised he was so casually disregarded.

Did DePriest write anything for Skye?

[DRW50]

Which team was it who came up with the Palmer/Opal pairing and the Mr. U story? I know some had a mixed reaction to that.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Ross was popular, but not one of their top fan faves. In his exit interview, Gentry credited Lorraine and Gillian Spencer, though oddly not Agnes, for crafting Ross and giving him some terrific material to play. He said that although he, Kathleen Noone and Mark LaMura acting their hearts out in the sketchy Ross/Ellen/Mark triangle, "no one upstairs was paying attention." So I guess they didn't feel he was integral to the show. As far as Skye was concerned, Robin Christopher either took a leave of absence or was written out temporarily for story reasons when DePriest took over. They had Skye move to New York and eventually come across Travis, who was secretly being treated in NYC for a brain tumor. DePriest planted the seeds of a romance there, but was dropped once DePriest left.

[DRW50]

Thanks. So who wrote Skye's exit?

I guess they may have considered characters like Ellen, Ross, and Mark old hat, and wanted those who were more hip. It's too bad, as I think some of those types of characters can add a lot to the canvas, and Mark seemed to have an interesting relationship with Erica. I guess in some ways I should be surprised Ellen lasted as long as she did. I guess after she left they made Brooke more like her.

Did DePriest or Broderick write Hayley's entrance or was that later on?

[LoyaltoAMC]

Agnes was HW with Lorraine, Wisner, and Megan associate or co-HWs when Hayley was introduced and Skye left. There was definitely overlap when both Hayley and Robin Christopher's Skye were on the show together, but this was before Hayley was revealed to be Adam's daughter. This must've been 1991.

[R Sinclair]

Hayley came Thanksgiving 1990.

[Adam]

Elvira you mean. All this reminiscing of Lorraine's time with AMC has me all giddy. She truly got the heart of this show. I can't wait to see what she does with the mess its in... if anyone can dig it out, I suppose it would be her.