OLTL: New HW Rumor

[DRW50]

I definitely put it more on Kriezman, I just wonder if she and Kriezman shared ideas then as well as for JR on AMC. I don't know if he had any input into AMC's last months though.

[Khan]

I think it was down to Tomlin and Whitesell under strict orders from the network.

[DRW50]

It was Frons!

[Khan]

Frankly, I think the Jessica/Natalie baby switch was fine (but by no means perfect) until Tomlin (allegedly) changed his mind and made both girls Viki's daughters. IIRC, in the original story, Allison kidnapped Jessica (er, Natalie) under orders from Mitch via post-hypnotic suggestion and then left her at her mother's. If we assume Mitch also ordered Allison to switch Clint and Viki's daughter with Walter and Roxy's, then we could argue Allison left Jessica at Ruth's in order to keep everyone from uncovering Viki's daughter's true whereabouts. Again, not perfect, but definitely not the WTF-fest it became once we started having Mitch rape Viki on the living room couch and sneaking into the delivery room to take one of the girls.

IOW, LB and probably Whitesell had a good story on their hands that Tomlin interfered with, most likely due to everyone figuring out the big twist before they were ready to reveal it.

[SOAPSFOREVER]

OLTL lacks heart and soul. It pushes plot. Ron C. is famous for it. Takes a lot more talent to move and audience emotionally than to shock them. I'm not sure LB is the perfect fit for OLTL, but I think she could bring the missing emotional beats that RC never touches. Maybe she could slow the show down a little, too. On most days it gives me whiplash. It doesn't give the viewer time to "feel anything" before slash-cutting to the next over-the-top scene.

[Mitch]

True, but until Davey totally took over the Spauldings were at least shown as having some shades of gray, and the Coopers not totally perfect. Also, going up to Phillips' death it was clearly shown that Phillip had a breakdown and was not himself (even Harley during a confrontation when she thought he was just being a prick, she realizes its something more with a "Oh Phillip, you are sick," showing some compassion for him.) After Davey took over, Phillip became the Big Bad, James Steinbeck character, until GA returned with Phillips sanity finally restored.

[Vee]

To my knowledge, the ending of the baby switch story on OLTL was always going to reveal that Jess and Nat were twins. What they didn't need to do was have Mitch rape Viki on the couch at Llanfair. Also, the original scoop I remember - several months before the reveal, when it seemed preposterous - was that Jessica was going to turn out to be the product of consensual sex between Mitch and Niki Smith. This, obviously, did not occur. What should have happened, and what RC has attempted to make happen at least once before, was that both girls were Clint's, and Mitch simply relegated one - Natalie - to poverty. This was the major secret Allison had in 2008, which was never followed up on due to the writer's strike - she was going to tell Jessica she was Clint's after all (she was also going to reveal that Miles Laurence was Blair's brother, don't ask me how that works). Somehow the show never managed to get there since.

[DRW50]

I don't know why they never let the show go back to Jessica being Clint's daughter (perhaps they wanted a reason to keep bringing Mitch back) but after the hatchet job done on Clint and Jess in the last few years it's now too late. I'd rather Jessica die and her backstory die with her.

[OLTL_fan]

I'd take her over RC or JP.

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed. I would love if Agnes somehow had it in her to do the first few months--even if it might not do much for the ratings, it would be pretty thrilling to have her start off the reboot. It does sound like she's more than game to be on board (again, at least at first) as a consultant though--which means something (now that it sounds like ABC stopped paying attention to even her consultations during the Pratt era it explains a lot), but I'm more worried who would actually be HW.

Well yes, but there was a lot of good stuff around it that got zero attention from them--the same bloggers who claim over and over that OLTL is a brilliant mix of social relevence and realism with humour.

[MichaelGL]

Broderick penned GL with DK until the new year after he took over. When January arrived she was gone, and that's when DK was fully in charge. He dragged out Harley/Gus on the run, Holly's kidnapping, etc. etc. Without Broderick, DK and Co. were really without a vision, and that is truly when things began to go off the rails and DK's favorites began to show, such as his Harley and Jonathan obsession.

I'm indifferent to Broderick taking over OLTL, the show would need a massive overhaul(Ousting FV and getting rid of the dead wood) if it was to transform from a campy plot driven show to a character driven show with heart. A part of me doubts she would be able to successfully salvage the show, imagining that Broderick would try to infuse more character driven stories while trying to retain some of the campyness and OTT story telling. As we learned from Broderick's tenure at AMC, she does not tell OTT stories very well, like Project Orpheus.

At this moment and time, I think Broderick would be more fitting at DAYS of all soaps. Just from the couple of weeks MarDar have been writing the show, a lot of their material is similar to Broderick's, containing plenty of heart and a bit of light humor, the kind you would see on AMC.

[CCCapwell]

For decades we've been complaining how a soap's head writer really doesn't have that much power in terms of story direction with the excessive network involvement, I believe the online versions of AMC and OLTL we have a real chance of getting back to the old way of doing things when a head writer had the power to actually write their vision. So whomever head writes online-AMC and OLTL, we just may be watching something we have not seen in a very long time: a soap opera written by a writer without the idiotic network execs micromanaging every scene. That is something I am very much looking forward to, so if a talented writer like LB takes over OLTL, I'll be happy.