Richard Culliton: Yea or Ney?

[NYC123]

I enjoyed Culliton's work on AMC from 2001-2002. I really enjoyed how he seemed to care about the history of the show compared to others. I enjoyed the Leo/Greenlee pairng, Anna/David pairing. I think Passanante was to blame for the Protus storyline and many fans where WAYYY to harsh on him back at that time.

I think Culliton is one of the best script writer out there and I did hope he would come back to AMC.

[atwtfan]

Richard and Carolyn Culliton were fired from Port Charles by Wendy Riche as she wanted to take the show into another direction and they wanted to keep the focus on the interns working at the hosiptal. They left and we ended up with Lynn Marie Latham who took the show into another direction along with Scott Hamner who would replace Latham after she left due to personal reason in late 1998. We had Victor was a spy or something like that. They had to track down him down in Greece, were Courtney joined the show with her son with was Joe's if I am correct. It became less on the hospital setting after the Culliton's left. It was not until Julie Hanan Carruthers took over as executive producer was their a change to focus on the hospital and the interns but that was short lived.

I really enjoy Richard's work as a headwriter and a dialogue writer. He is one of the few great writers still left in the soap world. His work at All My Chidren was great and he has a few mistakes along the way but it was a good run that was cut short way to early. I have always wished he would have been headwriters of As the World Turns again, when he began writing the diagolgue for the show in 2007 but we see that was not the case.

[DRW50]

Latham and Hamner directed PC right into the toilet.

[Adam]

Then a few years later did the same to Y&R.

[R Sinclair]

It depends on what you mean by "seemed to care about history." Did he get a HUGE majority of stories by rewriting history? Yes. Did he care if it made sense? No. And I'm sorry. Whether or not Passanante came up with Proteus does not change the fact that she was GONE, therefore not writing a lick of it, during the entire YEAR that sucker carried on making absolutely no sense! I still have no idea what that was about. I just know that Vanessa went mad and wound up pulling Leo and herself over a cliff and are presumed dead... and Rebecca Budig got an Emmy nomination for sniffing his jacket or something. This big, elaborate drug organization that had been running since the 1960's all of a sudden stopped when Vanessa fell into the river? Passanante or not, if "we" can believe Lorraine Broderick can rewrite a month worth of scripts in about 2 weeks, then what's the excuse for Culliton not being able to rewrite a sensible version of Passanante's story in over a year's time?

The Anna/David pairing was a joke. She's in love with this man, marries this man -- but then spends every waking moment trying to arrest him? Not to mention Anna was a horrible police chief. Almost as wretched as Jesse (must be something about presumed dead people in the role of COP -- Derek was a step behind, but he wasn't as atrocious as Devane and Hubbard).

[Vee]

I loved Anna and David. One gets the sense that you prefer David alone in a room, stroking a fluffy white cat.

[DRW50]

I see where it was a bit dumb that Anna was trying to arrest him while married to him, but this harkened back to Anna's past, where she was in love with men like Duke who were not on the right side of the law. I liked the cat and mouse games between them, and the banter. I liked seeing David in a relationship with a woman that wasn't about her being this somewhat bland heroine who could never love him. I thought the relationship matured David while not taking away his edge.

[DeeeDee]

[R Sinclair]

Then your senses are dull, honey. I prefer David with his equal -- his match. That was not Egoica, Ditzie, Anna, Krustal or Amanduh. He had potential with Liza -- both Liza Colby and Liza Fontaine. I remember VI and Marcy Walker were looking forward to working together again when David returned in 1998, but then Liza turned into Liza DoRight and any interest I had in her went down the drain. Also, I think there was some spark between VI and Turbo. But this David and Greenlee thing is just crackling and sparkling all over the place!

[Adam]

I know we've had this discussion before, but once Megan McTavish got ahold of Liza the character was finished. I mean whether you think Luner can pull off Liza or not (I think its a mixed bag overall), at least she is being half written the way Liza should be... ok the sex on the game table was a BIT much, but you get the idea. Marcy Walker's return in 1995 IMO was the last great character return this show did. It was flawless how she was reintegrated back into the canvas. I loved it.

[Khan]

Bear in mind, however, that this was during one of GL's less-than-spectacular periods. Before too long, Allen Potter would become EP, and the Dobsons would be named HW's, giving the show a much-needed kick in the arse.

[DavidsMuse]

I didn't think I'd find anyone I could agree with almost 100% on about David, because I would have loved MW's Liza with him, but not JL's NotLiza, cold as an iceberg and judgmental! That's not Greens, and I'm loving her with David even more than I thought I would! Fortunately, so are TPTB, "centerpiecing" them upon the move to LA, thrilled with their chemistry!

[DRW50]

I think Liza and David did have some good chemistry but by then Liza had been Martinized and babyized. I would have loved to have seen David with the Liza who was there from fall 1995 to when Jake fell out of that damn tree.