I think Megan did the same - although it wasn't 9 minutes - when she had Opal talk about her affair with Adrian's father and having to leave him behind. Those scenes seemed fairly long.

Having longer scenes means more power and more time for viewers to be drawn in. I have never believed the public are as stupid as the conglomerates believe they are. They want us to be stupid. That makes it easier for them. Considering how much the big companies get away, no wonder the soap producers thought they could do the same and viewers would put up with it. Apparently not. Soaps were built on this type of thing. Even watching the old stuff from the 50s, it can hook you.

This is a long set of scenes Doug Marland wrote at GL right after the writers strike ended.

But remember, these scenes weren't the norm, even for Marland at GL, this was a combination of it being the culmination episode, where all of Nola's manipulations and lies caught up with her, and Marland's frustration of what went on during the writer's strike (the producer's insistence that Nola actually suceed in tricking him into marrying her so they could drag the storyline out) and his need to quickly end it and send the characters off to a new direction (Nola's redemption, which I think came way too soon..she had some more tricks up her sleave...)

I do think that Marland was a master of that on ATWT, he would have long scenes, but they would involve many, many characters coming in and interacting with the two "lead," characters, either in the room or even by phone. There would be so much going on that many time the viewer would be "tricked," into thinking the scene was shorter...even if nothing happened (which happened a lot, the scenes were for exploring someones feelings, conflicts more so then pushing the plot forward) it seemed like it did as so much was going on. I have no idea why more writers have not studied his ATWT just for that.

What I'd like is to see more shows do more Edge Of Night or British-style character-driven special episodes - the "one-hander, two-hander" shows with one or two castmembers, or a particular focus. If you do a big courtroom story, then sure, do like EON did - spend an episode on the prosecution, the defense, whatever. You don't have to do it every day. Make it a special thing.

It would not only be Emmy bait, but a fabulous way to do a character-driven episode while also executing a spectacular gimmick. It's the kind of thing EON did, the kind of thing British soaps still do, so why not do it?

You may not have ment this, but GL did this with their dumbass "Inside the Light," shows. Some of which were very, very good, most of which were very, very bad. Having a show a week dedicated to this would stop the show in its tracks and screw up continuity. Also, most of the time it was a cheap ruse to promote the same characters that they were chocking us with day in and day out (Harley and Gus, Reva and Cassie, Jon and Tams) or to almost "get out of the way," stuff with the supporting characters, like the Rick and Mel thing (we had hints things werent well in Bauerville, but we never saw them, so then they get an episode where their marriage falls apart and we find out that Rick and Beth have been having an affair, something that we should have seen grow all along.)

However, I do agree with you that having occasional shows like this would be great, but a weekly diet of it, no way.