I get what you're saying, especially knowing Bryggman's return was thanks to Liz Hubbard (and Julianne Moore's wasn't thanks to TPTB either, I think).

But GL's was just so hilariously bad. Alan dies, and they spread his ashes at the edge of a lake. Frank and Blake? *eyeroll* No time at all spent reuniting Rick and Mindy---the list goes on and on.

I guess I'm trying to separate expectations and what was onscreen. And IMO, GL was a mess.

I get what you're saying, especially knowing Bryggman's return was thanks to Liz Hubbard (and Julianne Moore's wasn't thanks to TPTB either, I think).

But GL's was just so hilariously bad. Alan dies, and they spread his ashes at the edge of a lake. Frank and Blake? *eyeroll* No time at all spent reuniting Rick and Mindy---the list goes on and on.

I guess I'm trying to separate expectations and what was onscreen. And IMO, GL was a mess.

She wanted to come back. It was her idea.

I guess it all comes down to expectations.

I expected very little from GL's finale, but got more than I expected for the finale.

I expected so much from ATWT's finale, considering it was in a completely different place than the limping GL, however in the end I did feel quite let down.

Remind me...wasn't it Wheeler who started those dopey "Inside the Light" Wednesday episodes?

Yes, the Inside The Light episodes were her baby.

Comic hero Harley will always live in infamy....

Oh yes. Yes, she will.

If anyone hasn't seen it, it really is worth a peek. It is cray-cray. BTW, it probably helps to be at least a little tipsy.

I don't think the Inside the Light concept was a bad one, in theory. A few of the episodes really worked well. Generally, it was the ones that took place in sort of real time or kept the same general pace as a regular episode, just with focus on one story/character. The ones where they tried to speed through weeks or month of story in one episode (the worst example being the episode where Ross died, Ross was buried, and Blake finished grieving all in 42 minutes) were disastrous.

Same with the Peapack production model. The basic ideas were sound and certainly worth exploring in the changing daytime environment. The execution, however, was more often than not a total trainwreck.

I think Wheeler and Kreizman both had some good ideas but neither had any clue how to execute them properly. EW cared nothing about story, character, or continuity while DK, a decent scriptwriter, seemed incapable of devising, managing and pacing longterm story.

Instead of the ITL, they should've commited themselves to more character driven writing all the time. If they insisted on doing the one-character-focused ITLs, they should've done them once a month. Airing them every week just made the show's pacing problems even worse.

Actually, I don't believe it was down to Kreizman and Swajeski....at least, not Kreizman anyway. I'm pretty sure the ITL episodes started when Ellen Weston was still head writer and Swajeski was co-head.

Kreizman was HW when the ITL's started. Weston was fired and Kreizman promoted in April 2004. The first ITL didn't start until January 2006.

Ten bucks says OLTL's finale will be the worst soap finale ever. It will end with Viki surrounded by the Fords, Cutter and a bunch of other useless newbies while we all go "WTF?"

I remember back in 2003 when Ellen Wheeler was hired after the firing on John Conboy. John Conboy stated he wanted to know someone with no experience in producing a show, would be able to turn Guiding Light around? As most people hated his time as executive producer, I do agree with his comments now and then, the show was limping along. Ellen Wheeler was the wrong person to try and save a show that has been mishandled for many years.

Ten bucks says OLTL's finale will be the worst soap finale ever. It will end with Viki surrounded by the Fords, Cutter and a bunch of other useless newbies while we all go "WTF?"

Don't worry, David Vickers will be there. Wearing nothing but skimpy boyshorts.

I've always wondered what went down between Conboy and Wheeler. She was a Producer of GL when he came aboard and it wasn't long before she left that post and went back to ATWT as a Director. Then once Conboy was gone, she came on as EP. From the outset, I figured she had no clue what she was getting in to and would be a weak EP. I was right.

I remember back in 2003 when Ellen Wheeler was hired after the firing on John Conboy. John Conboy stated he wanted to know someone with no experience in producing a show, would be able to turn Guiding Light around? As most people hated his time as executive producer, I do agree with his comments now and then, the show was limping along. Ellen Wheeler was the wrong person to try and save a show that has been mishandled for many years.

If he was that concerned about experience then why did he make Ellen Weston headwriter?

If he was that concerned about experience then why did he make Ellen Weston headwriter?

I agree Ellen Weston was a terrible headwriter but then again when you are friends. You can hire anyone you want. John Conboy made many mistakes along the way but for me P&G should have stepped in. No one higher up cared what happened to the show and they just let everyone from 2002 run the show into the ground.