We all here on the baord praise soap past greats such as Doug Marland, Harding Lemay, Henry Sleasar, Bill Bell, Agens nixion etc. Did these great ever writers write any story flops? If so which stories were they?

It was odd because there really was no hint of development, from what I remember. She had a very brief amount of episodes and then left in shame. Perhaps they just wanted a name actress for a role that would be a big story.

I did wonder at the time if the Dina story was dropped abruptly.

It seems like a bit of stunt casting in my opinion, again its a shame that Bill didn't know what direction he wanted this story to go.

I think that Connie Towers is also someone i would consider for Mary Williams. I know she is probably more committed to guess appearances on GH, but i think Connie would be great in that role. (If Maria actually had something for her to do)

Mary would turn into a psychopathic murderer as well under MAB.

Oh, what fun!

Mary would turn into a psychopathic murderer as well under MAB.

Are you talking about Mary, or are you talking about Patty, who would turn herself into Mary and stash the real Mary in a nursing home in order to stay out of the mental institution and be close again to "Paulie"?

Yes, Mary actually killed Diane, she saw Diane and Patty fighting and killed Diane before she killed pattycakes....

I think that Connie Towers is also someone i would consider for Mary Williams.

That would be like casting Liz Hubbard as Reva Shayne.

Are you talking about Mary, or are you talking about Patty, who would turn herself into Mary and stash the real Mary in a nursing home in order to stay out of the mental institution and be close again to "Paulie"?

Maria, take notes!!!

You have the next 6 months of story right there.

Wow, I had no idea that Connie Towers (AKA Helena LOL) played this mysterious Audrey North. It's a shame that she didn't develop more to what Bill probably wanted, cause she is a great actress and i'm sure the show could have used her more.

Constance and Marla Adams (Dina) didn't share any scenes as they did on Capitol when Marla temped as Myrna. I thought it would have been neat to see them together again. IIRC, Dina was still in France when John gave Audrey her walking papers.

Back to Slesar...

Remember the mythical country that Jody was involved with in the summer of 1982? I forget all the details of that story, but that struck me as ABC trying to make Edge more youth-friendly when it wasn't that type of show.

I always thought the Audrey tale was odd because it I've heard it was indeed suppose to be a bigger story. Plus Audrey North came out of nowhere too, I mean she was suppose to be the loyal Jabot secretary of 30 years we never had seen or heard of before!

I'm going take sh*t for this, but Agnes Nixon and Lorraine Broderick for the Project Orpheus stroyline on AMC. Ridiculous.

With Kay Alden her weakest stories before Co-HWing with Smith was probably the Amanda/Ralph/Mac caper and Malcolm's death.

Marland's worst story for me was probably Holden's amnesia, followed by Shannon getting beheaded and shrunken.

I'm going take sh*t for this, but Agnes Nixon and Lorraine Broderick for the Project Orpheus stroyline on AMC. Ridiculous.

Don't worry, I'll stand and take sh*t with you. That story was ridiculous. Wonderful returns be damned.

Remember the mythical country that Jody was involved with in the summer of 1982? I forget all the details of that story, but that struck me as ABC trying to make Edge more youth-friendly when it wasn't that type of show.

You're right. Mythical countries don't even sound like Slesar's forte.

It was Felicia Behr's decision to fire Peter Bergman. She also fired Ellen Wheeler and pushed out Robert Gentry, telling him that she'd love him to stay with the show but that he would never be lead in a story ever again. I think Behr wanted a tighter canvass. I think with Agnes's early 2000s run, Passanante was increasingly giving story direction. Agnes obviously wrote the Bianca coming out stuff, and the reopening of the Glamorama and Opal's conflict with Marian rang like classic Agnes. All the other strangeness (Alex/Anna, Janet's write off) I'd bet was from Passanante. Of course, that's just an educated guess, but just my take on things.

Wheeler coming on as Cindy's twin (or was it just a lookalike?) was never really too popular was it? While I I liked Gentry on the canvas -- as well as Bergman, it was true that the canvas had to be tighter so I can't fully fault her-.

That's my take on Passanante as well--it seemed obvious thatshe started writing more and more during the 1999-2001 era, where first there was her and Page co-HW with Agnes, and then just her. Other things felt like Agnes Nixon to me--the ones you listed--but her focus seemed primarily on Bianca and really when that story was over suddenly Jean Passanante was credited as sole HW...

I'm going take sh*t for this, but Agnes Nixon and Lorraine Broderick for the Project Orpheus stroyline on AMC. Ridiculous.

Whether some of us defend certain aspects of it or not, I doubt you'll take [!@#$%^&*] for that--a LOT of people at least partially agree.

I think it's a fair point yr brought up that sometimes classic stories are credited unfairly to the HW when a coHW or another writer might actually deserve the credit--not just the blame of a bad story.