Jean Passanante

[Llantano Incorporated]

Once upon a time reading interviews with soap writers was a pleasure- Agnes Nixon, Bill Bell, even Michael Malone. There was a genuine love for the art form and the characters.

When I read and listen to interviews now, there is almost this hatred that comes across from these "writers"..

Which brings me to my question- after reading and listening to Jean Passanante- is this woman as charmless and dull in person as she appears in interviews?

Good lord, she simply comes across as a piece of s-it to me.

[Llantano Incorporated]

Oh yeah, one other thing. At least Brad Bell always comes across as enthusiastic and excited. There is an energy there. A good energy.

The you have the supremely smug, condescending, and delusional Hogan and Maria touting their "character driven" bull-hit. I have noticed less and less Y&R actors speaking of the show as highly as they did (undeservedly) as little as a year ago. That was another one of my pet peeve's- Y&R's actors still touting this trainwreck as being "daytime's best soap". Totally random thoughts on my part.

[MichaelGL]

From her writing alone, yes she is.

What I don't understand, is if she is this dull and charmless, why does she keep getting hired in the industry? Her writing stint at OLTL alone should have been enough to have her banned from penning a soap again.

[Southofnowhere]

Writers think it's the fans job to watch without question whatever story or couple they DREAM up.

[Southofnowhere]

Most HW's are just picking up a pay check at this point and don't really care.

[Sylph]

I don't really think any of the (great) writers was particularly in love with the fans... Some could just hide the loathing or indifference (quite) well...

[All My Shadows]

I've never met the woman, so I don't know.

[Sylph]

Apparently, she writes poetry in her spare time.

[Vee]

Remind us why you're here among the unwashed again?

[Soapsuds]

To be annoying as usual.

[Eric83]

[Saving ATWT]

Passanate is a dull writer who seems unable to stimulate her own imagination or that of the viewer. Her characters do nothing, lack any real historial memory, and are primarly focused on popping out or stealing babies. I'm gonna stick up for Hogan in that he does seem to have some passion for his work: He knows, at the least, how to hate which he demonstrated by putting the extra bullet into David Stenbeck. He has a huge ego but, at the same time, seems to hold some sort of work ethic which was clear on ATWT and Days. As for Y&R, none of us really know who pens what story. I'm not calling his a god but he is far better than the vast majority of current head writers. I also have some respect for former AMC writer Pratt. His transgendered story challengesd viewers and I liked the fact that he let various characters act homophobic which is pretty true to life; contrast that to Y&R or even ATWT where the issue of discrimination is never really explored. ATWT tried but ended up using the phobes as unrealistic villians of the month who, more times than not, end up dead or in jail.

Passanate is the worst HW on television; however, certainly Goutman called many of the shots and storylines. His work during the strike was way to similiar to her writing.

[Mitch]

I will actually take Passante over Hogan any day. After his first six months and every declared him the second coming ( it really was embarrassing that the soap press and industry was so thrilled to have someone from Hollywood, even if he was a failed script writer) it went to his head, and his distaste for soap's was very evident, all his storylines were ironic jokes on the characters...like he was saying "Hey guys, I'm just slumming here, and will be back to the real world soon..ha, ha, lets see what I can pull over here!"

Passanate brought ATWT back to earth after Hogan's goofy jewel thiefs and annual trips to that stupid island and Cooley. She DID focus more on family and "real," situations, she just doesnt have the talent, the skill or the support to do it in a fresh, interesting and coherent way. Yea, I know she killed the gay, (which I am sick of hearing people whine about..) but it was a dramatic story (though cliched) which involved family and vets and was much more interesting the last week of GL, where we got some mashed together scenes of Remy and Cristina getting married (SNORE) and some jewel theif finding out he was Jenna's son, etc.

Plus, we all know Gautman was writing too so who is to blame for what. I will say she does come off as having the personality of a wet cracker at the Paley thing, but I think she was just afraid Eillen Fulton was going start bitching about her. She came off as distinctly uncomfortable, maybe she was afraid she would get real questions from the audience?

[Saving ATWT]

I feel as if Passanante lacks focus: the ability to connect key facts and ideas and then have them trickle down across the entire canvas. Hogaan was a snarky brat but his stories, regardless of how lame, seemed to better unfold and, also, be less sentimenal. Was watching the start of Season 52/2007 which was right about the time Jean took over. The show wasn't bad, was still running on fumes, but it at this point that she began her 'villian' of the month the JJ kidnapping by the 'white trash' could (he reminded me of Eb, Holden's kidnapper). Also, I feel as if Jean has a rather warped notion of sexuality: Within one year, Emily had become the happy hooker; Ally a porn star; Maddy raped by her Uncle (and we can assume assisted by the killer sister) These sorts of stunts create short term gains but in the long run add little to a program's history. 2007 was the final watchable season of ATWT. I was shocked to see Goutman featuring 4 stories in one episode plus the old sets were SO much better. I wonder why, with so many budger issues, Goutman went out and bought so many new sets when the old Al's and various other hot sopts and houses looked so good.

[Khan]

Word (especially the bolded part).

I think I would've put the show (or myself) out of its misery before having to choose between Passanante and Sheffer. "Better than [enter hack's name here]" isn't good enough for me.