OLTL: History of EPs and HWs

[Scotty]

From September 4, 1979:

Story by

Gordon Russell

Sam Hall

Peggy O'Shea

Written by

Don Wallace

Lanie Betram

Marisa Gioffre

Cynthia Benjamin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2JtQmQs3xM&feature=related

[Scotty]

Interesting that the next closing credits I found (12/17/1984 -- the day I turned 5 btw ), the Corrington's were no longer credited, and added were Sam Hall and Carole Berlin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgjWTnAEEPw&feature=related

[Toups]

Ah, so Sam Hall was by himself before Peggy O'Shea joined him. Thanks, Scotty.

Updated:

1984

Joyce H. Corrington & John William Corrington

1984

Sam Hall

1985

Sam Hall & Peggy O'Shea

I put Hall/O'Shea in just 1985, unless they were credited together in the last two weeks of 1984.

[EricMontreal22]

Sam Hall was solo for a couple of years. And yeah the Corringtons came and left (that was eitherjust before or just when Rauch joined the show, when for a while it had a bit of an identity issue --around when for a while the Edge of Night guy was co writing with Hall for all of 6 months)

[EricMontreal22]

It wasn't a first for her--she wrote GL (admittedly a 15 min soap back then) for I believe at least a year while writing AW--and then she was still writing AW (finishing up) when OLTL premiered. But yeah she had co-headwriters--still remember stories she did like the Odyssey House drug storyline, Cathy's STD report, the Marcy story who tried to take over Vicki's life, etc--these were all things Agnes discusses extremely fondly and often and were post AMC. She also was heavily involved with training Gordon Russell when they wrote together. (I thought Agnes didn't pull back from AMC till 1984 or so--when Marland stepped down after a year as head writer for Loving and Agnes took over for a year or two?) Don't forget two that writing AMC and OLTL would mean writing a combined 5 hours a week--writing Loving and AMC woul dbe a combined 7 1/2 a week--might not seem like more, but I think it significantly makes a difference--I know Agnes has gone on at some length about how much harder writing an hour show was then writing a half hour show--she said it was three times the work, not double.

[Khan]

Ah, Lanie Bertram. That's one name I miss seeing in the credits. Whatever happened to her, anyway?

[DRW50]

What type of material did she write?

[Khan]

Bertram, along w/ Don Wallace, Fred Corke and later Craig Carlson, wrote some of the most literate dialogue for OLTL, back when the show truly had (IMO) the best scriptwriters in the business (save for ATWT's).

[DRW50]

So that was throughout the 80s then? I wonder if Carlson brought any of that when he was co-HW. I know sometimes that role is thankless (ask Patrick Mulcahey).