Wisner Washam interview

[SFK]

And perhaps she fears that she's setting herself up for, "Well, come back and write the show your damn self then! "/Well excuuuuse me, we all can't be the *GREAT* Agnes Nixon! "-type responses. But it *is* almost exhilarating to hear people in the industry call each other out on their [!@#$%^&*], I was so glad that he just laid it out like that.

Wasn't that "Little Ladies of the Evening" NYT article also the inspiration for Karen Wolek's famous s/l on One Life? If so, that article sure does... get around. ::WOMMMP wommmp::

And, is his name pronounced WIZ-ner or WISE-ner?

[SFK]

Jesse and Randi has ruin written all over it, just NO. Randi is beyond blah to begin with and we've already had to forgive Jesse for abandoning his wife and son for twenty years, so he finally comes back and cheats on his wife and steals his son's girlfriend?? What are you fools thinking, I guess you really DON'T want us to like the guy. Might as well have stayed dead. The only potential plus is that Randi wouldn't have survived the wrath of Angie (and maybe Jesse wouldn't have either I'm saying, I love Jesse but c'mon AMC, get it together with him).

[R Sinclair]

What are you talking about? I assume you're talking to me since it's immediately after my post (I could be wrong).

[Jonathan]

WIZ-ner.

[SFK]

Thanks Jonathan.

[You're Soaking in it]

I think that, ultimately, Agnes is not fond of McTavish's handling of the head-writing duties, no matter what she's said in support of McT's work (such as her unabortion comments). Maybe there should have been a legal advisory from ABC reading "paid comments from Agnes Nixon in support of ABC and Megan McTavish do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Ms. Agnes Nixon. Opinions are subject to change without notice. Restrictions may apply. Please see Julie Hanan Carruthers for details."

Anyway, here's why I believe this:

A little over a decade ago, Nixon - without mentioning McT's name - effectively spoke out against Lorraine Broderick's dismissal as head writer (which was done by ABC in favor of McTavish returning). Not to mention that Agnes walked off the team herself when it happened... which ABC desperately tried to keep under wraps (McT in interviews would attempt damage-control with vague comments like "Agnes is still in the fold... we still get her input").

Washam's comments about Megan only validate what I've always heard about her reputation behind the scenes.

As soon as McT was let go from Guiding Light by P&G / Mickey Dwyer-Dobin, she lobbied hard to get herself back on AMC. She really viewed (views?) herself as the authority on what IS All My Children. At this time, she was extremely jealous of Lorraine. It just added fuel to her fire that LB's AMC episodes won the writing team Emmys in 1996, 1997, and 1998. And I never heard how she felt about this in 2003, but I'm very sure she wasn't "excited" to hear that ABC approached Broderick to headwrite AMC before they contacted her.

The one thing I can say about her that some might say stands in contrary to her agression, is how sweet (though not always sharp) she typically was when talking to the press. She was typically very accessible, but that's probably consistent with her need to be recognized.

On the other hand, she did snap at a fan at the AMC luncheon in 1998. The female viewer recognized Megan and asked her why she hadn't given Janet a storyline (at that point, Janet & Trevor were drying up on the backburner.) Megan snitted back that "you can blame the 'other writer' for turning Janet nice. There's not a lot I can do with a nice Janet." To her credit, she did eventually give Janet a story: Watching Harrold, the family dog die.

I'm really anxious to hear more about Washam's take on McTavish. The idea that she drove him off the team - I'm assuming he means his 1991-ish exit, when he was AHW along with LB? Lorraine left for GL around the same time... I wonder if she was "driven away," too. Maybe McT had her eye on the prize even back then.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It's funny, it seems like McTavish is very different things to very different people. I remember Michelle Patrick lauding her and her working relationship with her a few years back. But who knows if that's just a taste of Patrick's professionalism.

[Adam]

This just speaks so well to her lack of creativity.

[LoyaltoAMC]

I remember when she joined the GL team, EP Michael Laibson, who was hoping to revitalize the show, called her "the amazing Megan McTavish." That must've really fed that enormous ego. This was coming off her 92-95 AMC run, and I guess she was considered golden.

[You're Soaking in it]

And Felicia Behr (AMC's then-EP) knew better. Bombs, evil lookalikes, rapes, and sadistic plot devices can only go so far. Megan basically has what I call "her bag of tricks" that she reaches into and inflicts UPON a show's characters. She does not know characters, and therefor is mostly incapable of letting story come out from who they are. They should add the phrase "plot-driven" to the soap opera dictionary, and put Megan's picture next to it.

The only time she has ever suprised me with something unpredictable was when she pulled an unabortion out that bag. I can honestly say I did not see that one coming... but I certainly don't mean that as a compliment to her.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I know many were turned off by the tonal differences during McTavish's first AMC stint. Though the show was high in the ratings, I know many fans who feel the "real AMC" died in 1991.

There is something very pedestrian about McTavish and her writing, which was also evident in her first stint. She is not a sophisticated soap writer, and does in fact recycle the same bag of tricks from show to show.

I don't know when things went bad between them, but Felicia Behr really praised the hell out of McTavish when AMC won the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy in 1994.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEj86gGd200

[Adam]

I remember hearing a rumour years ago that Susan Lucci actually was partly responsible for getting McT canned in 1995.

[LoyaltoAMC]

The thing about McT is that she has Agnes' make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, make 'em wait template down pat. It's obvious from the basic way she structures stories that she trained under Agnes, but that's where the similarities end. Megan's shows are essentially dumbed down versions of Agnes's. Her writing is incredibly plot-driven and given to excess. She goes way over the top, whereas Agnes's stories are usually based on character and almost grounded in some sort of reality. Also, Megan's writing lacks heart. I know this sounds oh-so-corny, but I've always detected a sense of hope and optimism streaming through Agnes's stories, while Megan's stories have always showed negativity and pessimism.

[You're Soaking in it]

She certainly thanked her, but I'm not sure I would call it overwhelming praise. There were brewing disagreements about the direction of the storylines, but from what I know, the straw that broke the camel's back was in April of 1995 when Robin Mattson went to McTavish requesting a re-write of Janet bombing Trevor's wedding to Laurel. She wanted the bomb-plot scrapped because of the real-life OKC bombing. McTavish was adamantly against it, arguing one had nothing to do with the other. Behr sided with Mattson, and Janet didn't go through with the scheme. (There were rumors that McTavish took her argument to the network regarding her creative control vs. Behr's). Shortly thereafter, Megan was out.

As for the Lucci thing that Adam mentioned, I found out years after the fact that Lucci was not terribly happy with the Kendall story. It wasn't a popular history-revision with her, and we all know that she and Sarah Michelle Gellar didn't have a bed-of-roses connection off camera - and some of TPTB felt that her dislike for the plot affected her vibe with Gellar (whether or not that's an accurate perception is anybody's guess). I hadn't heard that Lucci pushed for McT's removal at that time period, but I do know that when ABC first considered recasting Kendall (with who turned out to be Alicia Minshew), TPTB definitely sought Lucci's approval in doing so. So what you heard, Adam, certainly makes sense in that respect.

[Khan]

Now, it can be told, lol.

I figured MMT had something to do with Wisner Washam's exit from the show the second time. It was like, one week, SOW announced she'd be the new HW, but Agnes would remain as "Executive Head Writer"; and the next, "Wisner Washam has asked to be released from his contract - effective immediately."