Article: WIll Soap Operas Find Happiness in Prime Time?

[DRW50]

I don't see how any future writer can ever save Adam. Chloe was shoehorned in to a family she did not belong with and seems increasingly pointless, although given how the show feels about Jill, perhaps they do see her as the new Jill.

I think he did a decent job with this. He wrote heavily for the already existing teens. He created other young characters like Jennifer, Will, Bryant, Lucy, who would have inherited the future on a show which was better at not garroting itself. He brought in the Snyders, and there's no reason why they couldn't have been kept around or recast after his passing. He probably didn't know that Ellie would never be seen again, that Meg would mostly vanish until 2005, or, in the Hughes side, that Frannie and Sabrina would never be seen again. He couldn't have known that Adam would be so horribly damaged by future writers. Or that people like Valente, FMB, Goutman and Sheffer would have such contempt for the show's families and history.

[EricMontreal22]

Thanks so much--how did it do in the ratings?

[DRW50]

The wedding? I think there might have been a small increase, but nothing major. The show's ratings rose around late 1995 and early 1996 but declined and hit a very rough patch by late summer/early fall 1996.

[Mitch]

Actually Pam Long made the Reardon's Catholic(which as an Irish American family they should have been.) Marland made them Irish, but strangely they would have ministers perform ceremonies, etc. Long and Culliton made them Catholic, had Bea saying the rosary,etc. I think Marland didn't even know Catholics existed (I still cant believe he grew up on a farm, he was so waspy in his writing.)

Long lumped the Reardons with the Bauers and really didn't like them that much, so off they went when she became sole head writer. Though I dont know how much was also forced on her by the network, who wanted to compete with GH at the time. Which is funny, the summer that featured the Bauers, the Reardons, the Spauldings and the Lewis all equally was when the show became number one. That fall we she dismanteld the Bauers and the Reardons the show dropped like a rock and never really came back from the mid of the charts until Curlee. Also, the original idea to bring back Meta was Long's but she never did...(cause you know, Reva needs a mom...)

Its weird that Long got rid of the Reardons, but created the Coopers who had a brother/sister directly ripped off of Tony/Nola. Chelsea was brought in by interim writers who were intent on rebuilding the Reardons and the Bauers(though they did it in a stupid way) they even brought Bea back..who Long promptly wrote off as soon as she returned. Frank Dicipolous was supposed to be Johnny's brother,but Long didnt want to rebuild the Bauer family (of course) and created the Coopers to give him a role.

I can't believe I know this stuff...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Thanks for clearing that up, Mitch. I must have been confused which way the denomination switch went. LOL!

Very weird that Marland made an Irish American family Protestant, rather than Catholic. I agree, they should have been Catholic all along.