Wendy Riche Interview

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Part one is up:

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2010/07/wendyriche1.html

I'll gradually update the thread when the other parts are up...

[bellcurve]

Damn, what is up with DaytimeConfidential and WeLoveSoaps? The former is getting all these fun scoops and the latter is getting interviews that I actually give a damn about reading.

Was MADD head of ABC Daytime when Riche was hired?! That's surprising, because MADD, in her tenure at PGP, completely wrecked those shows with her interference.

I want to hear about how she dicked over Claire Labine's Bensonhurst project for Port Charles. LOL.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah, We Love Soaps has been doing a great job with interviews the past half year or so-- Thanks for the link! So was there ever any truth to the rumour she might become AMC's new EP? Guess not--sigh

[bellcurve]

That would have been awesome. She proves she can balance a budget and produce great emotional storytelling.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I found it interesting that it was Linda Gottlieb who got Wendy in touch with ABC/MADD. It makes sense, they both came from the film world.

[DRW50]

That's interesting about the kids not being seen until she showed up -- that's something that the show still does today, they try to have child actors in storylines. I remember someone once said that the Tiffany/Bobbie custody battle over Lucas (who?) that Riche kickstarted basically carried the show for ages.

So Riche cast Steve Burton? Bleh. Of course if it wasn't Burton it would be some other guy Guza latched onto.

I had forgotten Gloria's sister was a headwriter. How strange that must have been for Riche, if they ever had to work together.

At the time Riche was producer in the late 90s I put some of the blame on her for how misogynist and mob-heavy and just plain dull the show was becoming (1999 in particular was one big sleeping pill). While the show is more lively now, everything else is so much worse than when Riche was there, worse than I ever would have imagined ten years ago.

[ghfan89]

I could be wrong, but wasn't Steve Burton hired at the very end of G. Monty's tenure?

[Toups]

Back in the late 90's, I was such a Guza fan so I blamed GH being bad in 1999 and 2000 on Riche - in retrospect, I was so wrong.

[DRW50]

I think it was easier for us to blame her, because she was seen as being stretched thin with GH as well as PC, and she was also a public face for the show, so that meant that when, say, GH won an Emmy for Best Daytime Drama and she talked about preventing gun violence in the wake of Columbine, I could put some of my annoyance on her, even though it turns out the endless shootouts continued long after she left as EP. At the time I thought Guza was very overrated but it wasn't until the whole Laura-kills-Rick-and-goes-insane nightmare that I realized just how bad he was.

It's a shame that she didn't ever produce another soap, because she clearly loved GH and she did more than her share to help steer the show into a bright future at a time when many had written it off as a dinosaur.

[R Sinclair]

I co-sign.

[EricMontreal22]

Me too--I actually had no idea until now (prob partly as I was a big OLTL fan during that time int he 90s and have never been s steady GH fan). It does seem like Gottlieb got more publicity for being an :"outsider" etc than Riche did. Also interesting how ABC seemed much more progressive back then (was this under MADD?) in terms of looking for outside talent, etc. I really wish they'd do something similar now (particularly with AMC's EP--who I guess got her start under Riche).

So was Riche replaced cuz ratings were slipping? I know that JFP and her partner in crime McTavish were moved from OLTL to GH but never really got the exact reason. I guess ten years or so is a fairly long time to be an EP--especially in the post 80s soap world and you could suffer burn out.

[SFK]

The industry could afford some more Riches and Gottliebs. I wish LG was still producing the show, she'd be a great interview too. Some great memories of mid-'90s GH, I was really hooked.

[EricMontreal22]

I forgot she handled PC as well.... But then she was off both shows pretty quickly wasn't she? (PC first?)

[MichaelGL]

Didn't JHC work under Jill Farren Phelps at SB in some capacity(alongside Hope Harmel Smith)?

I'm trying to reconcile this idea of MADD bringing on outsiders into the industry, because she did the complete opposite at the P&G soaps, with the exception of Hogan Sheffer. She brought Paul Rauch over to GL from whatever rock he went under after SB's cancellation, and lured FMB from AMC over to ATWT, just to name a few. Neither hiring proved to be truly beneficial to either show.

I've always been on the fence about Riche in regards to her producing talents. While I commend her for steering GH to success during the 90s, I found the aesthetics of the show like its production qualities to be lacking, and I can't help but to wonder if what GH turned into in the late 90s-early 00s is an example of her not being that strong of a EP in regards to the HW under her.

[bellcurve]

I believe I read on an MB years ago that Julie Carruthers was fired by Jill during her maternity leave. But I could have misread it or someone may have been lying.