"Well, you know, I had a number to choose from and I didn't decide right away [that it was Tad]... I literally sat down and wrote the story eight different ways and when I got to Tad, I saw, 'Oh, my God, I'm gonna make myself cry. This is the best.'" [source]

-Megan McTavish, SOD article on Tad being the one who killed Greg Madden.

With the doom and gloom hanging over the entire genre, wrought with cancellations and bad writing, I figured there would be one or two opinions on this topic. Quotes from head writers of your particular favorite show(s) -- defunct or still airing -- that made you think they clearly had ZERO business writing the show(s) you love.

What are those catchphrases that give you pause whenever you read them? What promises did you look forward to only to have them never pan out? Even what was the one thing you read that you considered pretty much "the final nail in the coffin" of your particular show?

Sheffer's quotes early in his ATWT run made it impossible for me to ever trust him as headwriter. From the open contempt he had towards the vets, and ingenues, but the "men with balls" is what I still cringe at. He derided Tom Hughes as an example of that. Soon enough his vision of "men with balls" would be rapists and sociopathic sluts. Then when he went to DAYS, he basically said that Victor Kiriakis and Stefano Dimera were old and tired and he wanted to phase those types of characters out. Which is a very ballsy remark to make, but if you can back it up, OK. Instead, he brought in Phillip as a rageaholic and EJ as a gleeful rapist.

He also bragged about how Max on DAYS was no longer going to date any of his (adopted) nieces, because his niece was adopted and his brother would never let him date her, and then...Max proceeded to date his nieces for the rest of Sheffer's run as headwriter.

The "my show, my vision" stuff with MAB last year or early this year. The general victory lap she allowed herself to do when her own very limited abilities did not warrant anywhere near such a level of ego.

Guza saying that a 13 year old kid deserved to get shot in the head, that it taught the child a lesson.

Anything Ken Corday has ever said in life.

Yeah---pretty much anything Sheffer ever said in regards to ATWT. The infamous "men without balls" and "I never want Carly happy" quotes especially.

I think a lot of unfortunate quotes were made about the Tarty story on OLTL, although some of that might be made up in my head. The one I remember at the moment is when they were ending the KAD killer story, and RC said they had done all this to remind people that Todd was not the only man who had raped Marty. It was certainly very honest, I will give him that, but I was kind of bewildered. I kept wondering why we didn't get to see Powell and Zach passed off as heroes, and victims, as Todd was in the re-rape saga.

Yeah---pretty much anything Sheffer ever said in regards to ATWT. The infamous "men without balls" and "I never want Carly happy" quotes especially.

I had forgotten about the Carly one. He also said he never got Jack and Carly, or whatever, didn't he? I kept thinking, "Well, you had Jack raped and treated it as wacky hijinks, so apparently not."

Sheffer's "men with balls" comment is so comical considering he created Jordan Sinclair, who I thought for sure was for Henry.

Esensten & Brown, upon joining AMC: "This is the first time we've been at a show that wasn't on life support. This is an opportunity to take this show and see it flourish".

"I've always wanted to create a train-wreck!" - Megan McTavish to Soap Opera Weekly in 2000, on her general approach to writing soap operas. It's an actual quote.

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Okay, she was referring to a railroad crash she penned for OLTL. But don't we all know darn well this quote was a Freudian slip?

Esensten & Brown, upon joining AMC: "This is the first time we've been at a show that wasn't on life support. This is an opportunity to take this show and see it flourish".

I had forgotten this. Even if it's true (although GL was not on life support any more than AMC was when they took over), what a stupid comment. It also helps point out that two shows were canceled under their watch.

I had forgotten this. Even if it's true (although GL was not on life support any more than AMC was when they took over), what a stupid comment. It also helps point out that two shows were canceled under their watch.

Three. You may have forgotten about Dynasty. (Although I think their work was actually quite good there).

Three. You may have forgotten about Dynasty. (Although I think their work was actually quite good there).

I did forget about that. I enjoyed their work at Dynasty, I suppose they had to be better than the last 3-4 years before then.

I also remember some horrible quotes from Millee Taggart over the GL scenes where Marah Lewis was nearly raped by Tony, and then, when he stopped himself, she ripped off her clothes, and while standing around in her bra and panties, demanded he go through with his assault. Millee tried to spin this as "empowerment," when it was really just the latest sick fantasy of Paul Rauch. I did like a lot of what Millee tried to do at GL but this was abominable.

Sheffer's quotes early in his ATWT run made it impossible for me to ever trust him as headwriter. From the open contempt he had towards the vets, and ingenues, but the "men with balls" is what I still cringe at. He derided Tom Hughes as an example of that. Soon enough his vision of "men with balls" would be rapists and sociopathic sluts. Then when he went to DAYS, he basically said that Victor Kiriakis and Stefano Dimera were old and tired and he wanted to phase those types of characters out. Which is a very ballsy remark to make, but if you can back it up, OK. Instead, he brought in Phillip as a rageaholic and EJ as a gleeful rapist.

I remember Sheffer making that very same giving the men their balls back comment referring to the guys on DAYS. I think it was in reference to Bo?

Okay, she was referring to a railroad crash she penned for OLTL. But don't we all know darn well this quote was a Freudian slip?

Didn't MMT also say she created some p.y.t. on GH because she thought it'd be cool to see some chick in the woods who wore only white? (Note to self: must find Megan's dealer and beat the crap out of him.)

It also helps point out that two shows were canceled under their watch.

And - let's be honest - the third (GL), they pretty much hastened to its' demise.

I did forget about that. I enjoyed their work at Dynasty, I suppose they had to be better than the last 3-4 years before then.

David Paulsen was in charge during the final season of Dynasty. He wrote like many seasons of Dallas, the best stuff Dallas ever saw. He also turned the show around after the dream season. I wouldn't credit B&E with the success of the final season of Dynasty.

"It's such a shock when you find out who it is" or whatever Pratt's self-congratulatory quote was from when it was revealed that Adam shot Stuart.

In one of Dena Higley's last blog posts she had something about how "We have a lot of great stuff for Nick coming up" and then within weeks he was being written off the show.

Pretty much anything that Hogan Sheffer said in this article: http://soapoperadigest.com/features/days-of-our-lives/interviews/hogansheffer/index1.html

Brian Frons pimping Lulu and Logan as this new big supercouple when weeks later he was thrown overboard and made BSC to make Johnny and Lulu happen.