Wendy Riche Interview

[Vee]

Wendy Riche got scapegoated, at least online, in the late '90s for mistakes in the show's direction - she did allegedly push pairings like Sonny/Hannah and Jax/Chloe versus Guza's desired "Jaxis," and others - and for a long time the perception was that as regards the Guza/Riche deathmatch which culminated in them leaving one after the other in 2000, Guza was in the right. That changed when Guza came back alone, with almost total control and no Riche.

Bob Guza has been and can be a very talented writer; he can also be a terrible, vindictive writer. The show is a nightmarish mishmash today with a few bright spots and ideas that will never come to fruition - all because of his headlining vision. Wendy Riche was controlling and allegedly not always a favorite of the actors, and she may not have always backed the right couple, but she knew how to manage Bob Guza and if she was around today this show would not be the mess that is. She was right.

[EricMontreal22]

I know some on here complain that I bring up Loving too much , but I have to say I liked most of Guza's work as co-HW with Millee Taggert (more than Taggert's solo run). But of course I also loved Esensten/Brown at Loving/The City so... lol

[Khan]

Watching GH during the "height" of the Guza/Riche era, there were times when I felt the discord between the two literally showing up on-screen. No kidding, GH was that painful for me (although, nothing compared to the pain I feel today, lol). Still, I tended to side with Riche over Guza. "Clink/Boom" was a good moment, but that's all it was: a moment. Frankly, from the moment Guza's material as HW began airing (after Claire Labine), I felt a tremendous amount of heart and ingenuity lacking in the writing. It's just that, back then, he had a good EP and solid associate writers (leftovers, mostly, from the Labines' era) to help him look good.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Part Two is up:

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2010/07/wendyriche2.html

[MichaelGL]

+1

As the saying goes, you hit the nail on the head.

[bellcurve]

AJ was gonna be the one to possibly have the HIV/AIDS story?!

I would have killed to see the look on Sean Kanan's face when told him he has to play this story.

OTOH, happy to hear Wendy will be discussing Port Charles.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

What's that?

[bellcurve]

[SFK]

That was really interesting, the premise she'd envisioned for that.

Do you remember when Stone was giving A.J. a spot at the gym and some of his sweat dripped on A.J. and A.J. freaked the [!@#$%^&*] out? "GET IT OFF ME!! GET IT OFF ME!!"

[DRW50]

So ABC would NOT let GH do a story where AJ had AIDS, because he was a Quartermaine, but they WOULD let GH completely destroy AJ from 1998 on because of Guza's Jason obsession?

[R Sinclair]

I must say, not a fan of the piecemeal interviews.

[SFK]

"Stayyyy tuuuuned..." Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't visit WLS regularly and I've actually preferred stumbling upon these interviews after the fact when I could sit and read them in their entirety.

[Dion]

especially when the pieces are relatively quite short!

[R Sinclair]

Exactly!!!

[cityfan01]

Say what you will about B&E on other shows, they worked well at LOV/CITY. And I agree with you about Guza's LOV