Y&R: Kay Alden interview from 1996

[Paul Raven]

An interesting interview from SOW.

Did she stay on in Chicago throughout her head writer days?

A-O-KAY

Y&R co-head writer doesn't mind standing in Bill Bell's shadow.

Y&R and Bill Bell are virtually synonymous,so when the show is praised-or panned-his name is usually the only one mentioned. But there's another person who is very instrumental in telling the tales of Genoa City:Kay Alden.

Alden knows that she doesn't get uch recognition,but “that rarely bothers me”,she says.”I'm working for a legend ,probably the greatest name ever in this genre. If you're privileged enough to have someone like that take you under his wing and teach you everything he knows,the other side of the coin is that you will be forever in that person's shadow. The fact is,in terms of where it matters,people know how closely I work with Bill. Bill's been very good about making sure people know that”.

Several years ago,for example,Bell gave Alden the job of co-head writer. when Alden explains her responsibilities,it's easy to see hoe valuable she is to the show. Her week begins with polishing the last one or two shows that had been plotted the previous Wednesday(five or six episodes are done from Monday to Wednesday).from her home in suburban Chicago,she then gets on the phone with the other main writers-Bell and Jerry Birn in LA and Trent Jones in NY;what she has prepared for the next two shows is their springboard. The four remain on the phone for the next two to four hours,putting together the next couple of shows. The notes are then typed up as an outline that goes to the shows five scriptwriters.

“I'm involved at every level”,Alden explains.”I outline some scenes from every single show and sometimes I make the choice to write those scenes rather than outline them”,because she wants them written in a certain way.”The final script comes back to me and I do some editing. Then it goes to the studio.”

The hours are gruelling.”You don't want to know!”,Alden says. “I am a person who happens to believe that if you're going to do this job,you'd be love it,because it is absolutely consuming. It is fair to say that I am at the computer a minimum of 12 hours;usually it's closer to 16 hours. Then I work at least part of every day on the weekends. It's basically a dreadful schedule,except I happen to love what I do”.

Forget about vacations. A perk of the job,though,is that Alden works at home,which she shares with her three children and husband Vern.”The children are very often in the office”,she says.(Sometimes they're even in the script! Conci,15,played Paul's daughter Heather Lynch,as well as Betsy Sanderson, Faren Connor's daughter. John,12,played Nicholas before Joshua Morrow aged the character dramatically. Noah,8,has not been on the show,yet) “The gift of being able to work from home is incredible. At Xmas(when Y&R goes on hiatus)we get away. To really get away and escape,I have not done that in a number of years. The advantage of that is not losing touch with where you are in your shows. A number of years ago I went to Europe. It was certainly before I had the position I have now. I left for 17 days and didn't think about Y&R for 17 days. Coming back and getting back in sync is a heck of a lot harder than if you'd at least retained your connection and had been editing scripts and stuff(on brief vacations).

Alden joined Y&R in 1974,a year after its debut. She met Bill Bell while she was attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison(Sharon's hometown,by the way)and working on her Ph.D in the field of rhetoric and public address. Her topic was daytime television serials as mediators os social change. Alden started watching Y&R as part of her research,and became captivated with the show. She went to Chicago to interview Bill Bell.

“So,I had this great interview with Bill,”Alden explains,”and during it he casually asked.”What are you going to do when you finish your degree?”I said I always thought I would teach,but I had became enraptured with daytime TV and thought it would be wonderful to write for one of those shows. He gave me a very charming but very pat answer;It's a great field and we're always looking for young talent....”But by the end of the interview,he asked,'Well,why don't you think about writing for daytime,and if you're really serious I'll give you some outlines,and we'll see what we can do.Now,I'm telling you it's a million to one shot.'Obviously,I did follow up on that and he gave me a number of trial scripts over a period of time,and one day he called and said,'I have a job for you if you want it'.My immediate response was to drop the phone. He did not really hire me ,however,as a scriptwriter;more as a Girl Friday with the opportunity to write a script now and then.

Bell was writing out of Chicago at the time. Alden moved there and stayed with her parents.”I asked them if I could stay for a couple of weeks until I found a place. I ended up staying for 2 and ½ years”,she says,laughing.”So that's why I'm still in Chicago-that's where I started out and that's where Bill spent the vast majority of his career until...I guess it's been about 10 years since he left Chicago”.

Alden didn't move out to LA with bell because there was no need.”We're very much inside each other's head. We almost communicate in shorthand”,she says. Also, “by the time he left,I had two children. Bill always had strong feelings about raising children in the Midwest,as I do. He knew what my preference would be,and thus was extremely gracious and never put any pressure on me to leave.

Anyway,why would he want to mess with a good thing?

[soapfan770]

Thanks for posting this. Kay Alden should have never left Y&R. Yes she and the whole Smith regime made critical mistakes but they didn't completely destroy the show like Latham and the current regime. At least Alden understood Y&R, and for the most part 1998-2001 was great. Alden was important to the once well-oiled Y&R machine.

BTW Conci Nelson was such a great child actress actually as the teenage Heather too bad they didn't have April and her stick around following April's murder trial.

[Toups]

Thanks, Paul! I wish the mags would still do interviews like this. I wonder why she didn't mention John F. Smith when she talked about her, Bell, Jones, and Birn doing the outlines. Wasn't Smith doing outlines too?

I agreed. Y&R needs Kay Alden back doing outlines. Y&R is in her blood.

[Chris B]

Wasn't Jack Smith at B&B at this point?

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah it seemslike the magazines mostly have given up on these more interesting behind the scenes type interviews. I have no idea why Kay isn'

t still on the Y&R team honestly

[Chris B]

She's not at Y&R because she quit when LML was writing. It was either quit or get fired, so no choice really. I do recall reading that she and Jack Smith were offered a return in some capacity, but turned it down because they were disgusted with how they were treated. I know Smith was fired shortly after returning from grieving for his son that died. And with Alden she had the AMC deal and then went to B&B so she's just not available to return at this point.

[Saving ATWT]

I wish that either Smith or Alden had made it over to World Turns. The Bell and PNP shows never matched up and the rating reflected this. Either writer would have been able to mix the vets well with newcommers. Also, Lucinda would have been a lot more like Kay on Y&R as opposed to the lame mess written by Sheffer, Pissy and, as always, Goutman.

Y&R has lost all luster and is now no better than any other soap. The same is true of B&B. Is she still working for Brad Bell? I'm shocked he never took over at Y&R.

[bellcurve]

[EricMontreal22]

LOL Something else on someone's mind?

[bellcurve]

Definitely not mine. My sex life is about as vanilla as a Laura Wright character.

[EricMontreal22]

LOL No comment, though I do feel somewhat dirty even for noticing that and thinking it meant what I'm assuming you are (its not Kids'n Play)

[Saving ATWT]

opps...I've done this a few times! PGP, not PNP, is the correct name. I don't PNP and it wasn't even on my mind. I'm just about the straightest gay guy you wil ever meet. PNP is nasty and lands you in the STD clinic!

[EricMontreal22]

HAHA I know, I wasn't accusing just found it funny

[Saving ATWT]

I know, was a cute observation

[Chris B]

Now I need to go search and find out what PNP stands for!

ETA:

Oh god!