4 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

I do think TEON would be a good bet to reboot (DS has been attempted twice), but with the right writers, both AMC and OLTL could have a decent shot at successful reboots too. The problem is, of course, that TIIC never seem to find, nurture and hire potentially-great new writing talent. They keep recycling the same old hacks, with the same poor results. If AMC were to be revived, I'd want Lorraine Broderick at the helm of the show. ABC would insist on Charles Pratt.🤢

Lorraine Broderick is a fabulous writer, and she is perfect for the AMC. I would take her back in a heartbeat: she created my favorite couple that never was Ross and Natalie. I still give the edge to Wisner Washam, though. He does not get enough respect and credit for his contributions, and he should. Wisner worked well with Agnes, sometimes fairytale-lite stories. He added a realism that's surely missing from daytime. He's much older now and probably wouldn't do it, but if there were an AMC reboot, he should at least consult or train some writers.

What shocks me the most is that he didn't pop back up on another American soap after he exited AMC.

3 hours ago, DemetriKane said:

Lorraine Broderick is a fabulous writer, and she is perfect for the AMC. I would take her back in a heartbeat: she created my favorite couple that never was Ross and Natalie. I still give the edge to Wisner Washam, though. He does not get enough respect and credit for his contributions, and he should. Wisner worked well with Agnes, sometimes fairytale-lite stories. He added a realism that's surely missing from daytime. He's much older now and probably wouldn't do it, but if there were an AMC reboot, he should at least consult or train some writers.

What shocks me the most is that he didn't pop back up on another American soap after he exited AMC.

Wisner Washam was fabulous at AMC, and I would take him back without a second thought. In an ideal world, he and Lorraine Broderick would make the perfect team to reboot AMC.

That being said, WW is 93 years old and more than likely retired and/or not up for the challenges of writing a daily serial.  Broderick is 77, but still actively working, and would perhaps consider supervising the show as a story consultant (with veto power!) at least.

Another writer I'd like to see heading back to daytime is Nancy Curlee.

All the current soaps are weakly written at best. It's unfortunate how few veteran scribes are still alive and potential soap saviors.

If there were still writer training programs in place for daytime it would help. 

17 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

If there were still writer training programs in place for daytime it would help. 

ITA, but TPTB don't appear to have any interest in recruiting and training new talent.

 

12 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

ITA, but TPTB don't appear to have any interest in recruiting and training new talent.

They don't. So you just seem to get hired too often from nepotism or because you kiss a headwriter's ass.

10 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

They don't. So you just seem to get hired too often from nepotism or because you kiss a headwriter's ass.

Or because the network "suits" have idiotic ideas about what the audience wants to see, and they eagerly hire you because you have the same dumb ideas.

On 8/1/2025 at 3:22 AM, vetsoapfan said:

ITA, but TPTB don't appear to have any interest in recruiting and training new talent.

I agree. That is the main problem. Ushering in a new group of young writers with fresh perspectives could put some life back into these shows. I wanted to support the whole genre with the birth of BTG, and it has been a struggle. You can't pay me to watch BB or YR. I am warming up to GH and meh on DAYS. BTG is the best right now, but here is my issue: while the stories are decent on the surface, they lack in the long-term dramatic department. MVJ's team is decent and had some entertaining episodes, but I feel they take the most convenient and safe writing routes. I would like them to take a more unexpected turn and reveal a couple of things nobody was thinking about, a secret nobody was expecting, or connect characters we didn't see as possible. 

On 8/1/2025 at 2:55 AM, vetsoapfan said:

Wisner Washam was fabulous at AMC, and I would take him back without a second thought. In an ideal world, he and Lorraine Broderick would make the perfect team to reboot AMC.

That being said, WW is 93 years old and more than likely retired and/or not up for the challenges of writing a daily serial.  Broderick is 77, but still actively working, and would perhaps consider supervising the show as a story consultant (with veto power!) at least.

Another writer I'd like to see heading back to daytime is Nancy Curlee.

All the current soaps are weakly written at best. It's unfortunate how few veteran scribes are still alive and potential soap saviors.

I agree. 🫶🏿

It's all true about the lack of cultivating new talent vs. nepotism hires and people protecting themselves. That being said, I think one thing BTG actually desperately needs is more oldheads in the writers' room, not less lol. That show would be heavily, heavily improved if some of MVJ's old writers' room chums from GH in the '90s and 2000s, like Mulcahey, Karen Harris, etc. came out of mothballs to punch up dialogue and character. So it would feel less like B&B and people either mouthing expositional platitudes or just throwing off Gen Z-ready quips. That dialogue is not all bad either, and often it's very current (sometimes to the point of cringe)! But it could be much richer and smarter, or less precious when discussing social issues.

Sometimes expertise and a specific voice rings out strong. The best approach going forward is a careful mix of old and new voices. BTG is getting there but it needs more of the former IMO.

Edited August 2Aug 2 by Vee

I don't disagree with having a healthy mix of old and new in the writers' room and was never against it, to be honest. With the show kicking off with so many veterans on her team, I expected them to be firing on all cylinders by now, but I honestly am less excited about the show now than I was in February. I understand most was only used to help her get the show off the ground but nobody bothered to give a few ideas on improving some of the stories or building stronger male characters? She could pull in Lorraine Broderick and Wisner Washam, but if MVJ isn't taking their input, what's the point, is all I am saying.

I don't think there is any indication that MVJ is rejecting the input of her veteran writers. I just think she needs to hire more lol.

That's fair.

On 7/31/2025 at 6:20 AM, vetsoapfan said:

I consider it a miracle that several soaps did archive all their episodes, whether the tapes have ever been made available to the public or not. At least we know they exist. It's so frustrating to know, however,  that many of the best shows wiped/erased their material up until the late 1970s.

AMC was its best (IMO) from 1970 to 1989, as written by Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam and Lorraine Broderick. Then, with the advent of Margaret DePriest, Megan McTavish and others, the writing deteriorated and so did the show. At least eps from 1979 to 1989 should still be around.

Alas, the best of AW (Agnes Nixon's and Harding Lemay's material) is apparently gone forever.

One of Agnes Nixon's requirements when she gave into ABC pressure to expand to an hour was that they would start archiving ALL their soaps (so does that go back to 1977??  That seems to be when we start seeing some full colour episodes pop up...)  (Nixon has talked about how jealous she was that Dan Curtis had the wherewithall to archive DS from the start but said they never had the money to do so...  Of course Screen Gems/Corday Productions did with DAYS and Y&R from the start too, and... whoever was in charge of Ryan's Hope.

Even those B&W kinescopes don't help much with the 70s soaps--networks stopped making them by 1972 (largely phasing them out in 1971) which is why the half dozen+ we have of AMC are all from its first year, for example.

On 8/1/2025 at 12:55 AM, vetsoapfan said:

Wisner Washam was fabulous at AMC, and I would take him back without a second thought. In an ideal world, he and Lorraine Broderick would make the perfect team to reboot AMC.

That being said, WW is 93 years old and more than likely retired and/or not up for the challenges of writing a daily serial.  Broderick is 77, but still actively working, and would perhaps consider supervising the show as a story consultant (with veto power!) at least.

Another writer I'd like to see heading back to daytime is Nancy Curlee.

All the current soaps are weakly written at best. It's unfortunate how few veteran scribes are still alive and potential soap saviors.

I thought Broderick had retired?  But even in that last great We Love Soaps interview with Washam (was that 15 years back?) he made it VERY clear he had absolutely zero interest in working again lol  I admit I kinda both laugh at and love the image of him now joining BTG or something though.

^^ Doesn't it sound wildly entertaining?

On 8/2/2025 at 8:45 PM, EricMontreal22 said:

One of Agnes Nixon's requirements when she gave into ABC pressure to expand to an hour was that they would start archiving ALL their soaps (so does that go back to 1977?? 

ABC archives starting from 1977 would be great. It's a safe bet that they kept material from at least 1979 onwards, anyway. The famous courtroom scenes from OLTL (Karen Wolek on the witness stand) exist. I remember an ABC researcher once, when talking about finding footage for a GH anniversary special, saying he really had to dig around to find the lovely scene of Laura and Scotty under the Christmas tree, which was probably 1977 or 1978 (I don't remember for sure). In the end, if Nixon said it was 1977, I'd believe that that is when the tapes started being saved. 

On 8/2/2025 at 8:45 PM, EricMontreal22 said:

That seems to be when we start seeing some full colour episodes pop up...)  (Nixon has talked about how jealous she was that Dan Curtis had the wherewithall to archive DS from the start but said they never had the money to do so...  Of course Screen Gems/Corday Productions did with DAYS and Y&R from the start too, and... whoever was in charge of Ryan's Hope.

The Doctors should be added to your list too, fortunately. So with DAYS, Y&R, B&B, RsH, DS and TDrs, we are lucky to have almost-complete archives in existence of several soaps. And even with all the others, having tapes from the late 1970s is a treat, even though the genre would soon implode in the 1980s. 

When preparing to air Ryan's Hope on SoapNet, Claire Labine said they had missing episodes from their collection, and ended up getting copies from Ireland (where the show had also been broadcast). I wonder if any other countries kept archives of soaps they broadcast; archives that P&G in the USA wiped. AW was hugely popular in Canada.

On 8/2/2025 at 8:45 PM, EricMontreal22 said:

Even those B&W kinescopes don't help much with the 70s soaps--networks stopped making them by 1972 (largely phasing them out in 1971) which is why the half dozen+ we have of AMC are all from its first year, for example.

I guess we have to continue hoping that more stuff will be brought out by private collectors.