Lorraine Broderick as AMC head writer

[DRW50]

They were the ones who had Kirk vanish, yes.

All I ever saw with Eddie was a lot of tics. He got way too much airtime too early, and I don't think Marston was able to handle it. The lesser amount of airtime he got on OLTL is probably one of the reasons he managed to last 4-5 years without imploding for good.

[EricMontreal22]

DePriest's relationship with the ABC soaps has seemed odd to me. She's most famous for her more over the top work at DAYS, creating Where the Heart Is, Sunset Beach... But ABC and FMB brought her into a sagging AMC, temporarily it seems, to help put things back on track around 89. And OLTL briefly tried to do the same with hiring her right at thevery end of Rauch's era. She just seems an odd choice.

[EricMontreal22]

I resent this R I've always respected and enjoyed your opinion, and you can (and do often) disagree with me all you want. But I watched live every day and as soon as McTavish's stuff was known to air (the fourth of July week) we got a number of great scenes, the show suddenly was about family again, she quickly turned the focus back one established characters, etc. I'm not sure how long it lasted if at all, and we were into McTavish's tricks pretty quick but it's not a myth to me that I believe if I saw it live and absolutely feel that way (and a number of people on here, like Steve, who were against McTavish coming back did, briefly temporarily, admit she had quickly vastly improved the show. Sure maybe anyone coulda improved the show at that point, but...)

[EricMontreal22]

\

Amen Sistah. And how could you forget libidizone (which happened while Agnes Nixon was technically still co headwriter but I challenge anyone to prove that wasn't a Passanate story)

[You're Soaking in it]

I distinctly remember calling a former colleague of mine, upon hearing of McT's rehiring in 2003. I asked him rhetorically, "what are they thinking?" I thought I knew McT's pattern very well, and I actually DO. But he gave me a take that hadn't previously occurred to me. He said, "oh, she'll start out strong. She may even go for a long while on good stuff... but there'll be a price to pay at some point down the road... then watch out!"

And he was so right. She comes on to a show with big promises and she makes a big splash upon entrance. It's almost as if she quickly lulls the viewers into a false sense of security. Then there's this point where she goes, particularly with AMC, "AHA! THIS SHOW IS MIIIINE!!!" Then we get the character-decimating, history-trashing, and general insulting audience intelligence. And in hindsight, we realize that - ONCE AGAIN - she was resorting to her usual back of tricks she always has, and we didn't notice: rape, evil twins, implausible-and-pointless dead character resurrections, bombs and explosions... She's used rape and evil twin dual roles AT LEAST three times on just AMC alone.

And then she crashes the show into a firey fusilage, gets fired (this last time WAY TOO LONG after she wrecked things), and we feel burned, duped, and pissed off.

I know it's shallow, but I've always heard McT was so possessive of AMC largely because of jealously toward Lorraine Broderick. Broderick won the Emmys, she was Agnes Nixon's favorite, and so on... So I have to admit that I was a little thrilled to hear that she was second choice to LB back in 2003, and I'm mega-thrilled that LB will be back again, and will likely be the last of the two to be involved with the show. In a way, she'll be helping repair damages that occurred even when McT is still in place....

ETA: I don't want people to take this the wrong way. McTavish has always been very nice to the soap press, a sweet person and accessible. But at the same time, it was easy to see that she was a little insecure and a little manic about her role, especially when it was regarding AMC. When she talked about her storylines, and we knew they were VERY bad, what was alarming was how sincerely oblivious she was to that. She honestly thought whatever she was doing was good and "true" to AMC... all of it.

[EricMontreal22]

I hadn't heard about his story problems--care to elaborate? Of course at Y&R he always had top writing staff

As for being a jerk... I dunno I do think AMC could use an EP who actually has a vision and sticks to it for once--they haven't since FMB (someone some ofthe cast didn't get alon gwith, keep in mind) I mean JHC sounds a bit like a jerk too but she has none of the positives that can come with it.

Thanks--I do actually remember Miles and wondering what happened to him.

[EricMontreal22]

I dunno if WW would ever return--nearly all of his work was still done to some extent under Agnes' guidelines, he's old, a known big family man and has had no soap connections since leaving--I doubt there's any desire to return.

Those credits are kinda arguable--like wikipedia's are Wisner's name wasn't on as headwriter on many episodes in the time he wa slisted there, for example--not saying he wasn't one of the headwriters, but... (that said I loved the Will murder even if it did seem to become a template for all the, poorer, murder mysteries, especially under McTavish to come)

[DRW50]

I did think there were some strong moments when she returned. The rape story with Bianca was sick and wrong but it had a very powerful narrative which carried over for many months.

I also thought some of her 1998 return had some strong moments (Stuart/Marian, Opal's son Adrian, Dixie's illness), although most of that was overshadowed by her bizarre carnie material, and then Kit Fisher. Really, the only good thing carnies ever gave AMC was Myrtle.

I have always felt like she can be a strong writer if someone holds her hand and says do this, do that, do this, do that. I would say if she has characters she enjoys, but she seemed to dearly love Brooke, Tad, and Dixie, and she did some damage to Brooke in 1998 and she did horrific damage to Tad all through her second run. I guess the only character she loved that she never really damaged was Jackson.

She has high highs and low lows. Unfortunately, the lows seem to win out, but I would be lying if I didn't say that some of her material is still some of the better memories I have of AMC over the past decade (of course some of her material brings the worst memories).

[EricMontreal22]

I think your list is as good as possible--the problem is much of this will have to remain guest work (just like Agnes Nixon did do a lot of the HW during the time you have credited to W Washam and as I said her named headed the Emmy writing list for AMC every year till at least 96 I believe)

I believe she wasoffered GL as a co HW--so made the move on her own

[EricMontreal22]

To be fair, as Loyal to AMC said FMB was brought in to tighten the stories--and I have heard from a number of people who watched back then that it's true, while by our current standards the show probably rocked, around 1988 many people did feel (and the ratings showed this) AMC was in need of a minor overhaul in terms of on and off screen decisions. I still think DePriest (whose work I like--I'd love to see Where the Heart is--while I don't love the over the top style of soap opera she was best known for I do think out of the people who did that kind of soap her stuff was amongst the best--I even liked her time at SuBe the best) was an odd choice and it was prob smart she didn't stay too long, but it does seem that her and especially FMB did help turn the show around as they were meant to.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha I always thought the Eric Kane as a clown story was one of the 1988 stories that caused the overhaul, but I do think there are a couple of DePriest episodes on youtube and they do show her slightly more over the top take on Pine Valley (as well as how quickly FMB did improve the production quality of the show)

[EricMontreal22]

Passanante fled to ATWT among rumours AMC was firing her. This is why for a few months that Fall AMC had no headwriter (we were stuck with Ghost Jesse, etc) I believe why she had some reputation left was maybe she took credit for some of the better stuff when she was listed as co headwriter with Agnes, but she did have a very good rep as an associate writer on OLTL starting under the Malone/Griffith era and I believe that was the position she initially returned to on ATWT?

[Jonathan]

Eric, I think it's time to go to bed.

[EricMontreal22]

Nono, not to be too anal, but Return to Eden was a wacky 80s Aussie soap. There was also Marland's early 80s cable soap Return to Eden (or New Day in Eden?). Eden from the early 80s was Black and STern's Playboy channel soap.

Make me:P I'm having too much fun.

[EricMontreal22]

That's exactly how I feel.