Man, how come SOD/SOW don't do articles like this anymore. The information on the writers is so detailed.

I wanted to mention that as well. The rags really flushed down the sink even before the shows did so on-screen.

Toups, Stephen Demorest and Nancy Curlee were head writers at GL til around March 1994. They departed and Nancy Williams Watt and Patrick Mulcahey became head writers. They last just a few months and then were joined by Demorest, Sloan, Taggart, and Anderson. So there were six head writers, though for some reason I don't think Mulcahey lasted long. Over the next few months, writers left and Demorest was the sole head writer by November 1994. Douglas Anderson then took over in December 1994. I remember criticism of him as Ed Bauer suddenly started spouting dialogue and musical references that were not consistent with the character. Anderson was responsible for the Ghost Reva story, which started around April 1995. Anderson was out by May when McTavish took over.

One other thing. Not sure how long Peggy Sloane was there and if was was one of the heads. Leah Laiman was part of the head writing team for a while. It was very confusing and it showed on screen.

An example of how come I think you should keep a head-writer on a show for at least one year minimum! You have to allow time for the incoming writer to resolve previous plot lines and seamlessly introduce their ideas. A year is enough time to allow this to happen. I'm sure if done all over, P & G might have opted to keep this writer on the show longer then a few months. Constant rotation of writers can make fixing a show next to impossible!

I'm not sure if GL would have lasted another year - cancellation rumors were rampant in late 1994. McTavish gutted the show (and sent ratings plunging to all time lows) in her last six months, but she also brought a ratings spike in mid-late 1995-early 1996.

I wanted to mention that as well. The rags really flushed down the sink even before the shows did so on-screen.

SOD and SPW died in the late 90's - SPW was sometimes a pretentious magazine, and at times biased, and as time passed, strangely removed from the subject (Mimi Torchin seemed to start writing about everything but soaps in her last few years at the helm) but also intelligent and detailed. They did some incredible issues about "where are they now" and "110 Greatest Soap Moments Ever" which taught me so much about daytime worlds I'd never been able to see.

The criticism from Corday and others probably did most of the job killing SPW. SOD was already on that path by that point.

GL didn't want Zimmer back in 1995, but were "forced" to do so. That's why the ghost thing was so bad.

I thought Anderson was decent and wished we could have seen more as McT is ARGH.

SOW used to have good in depth articles with performers, but over the years they became a lot less smart.

SOD and SPW died in the late 90's - SPW was sometimes a pretentious magazine, and at times biased, and as time passed, strangely removed from the subject (Mimi Torchin seemed to start writing about everything but soaps in her last few years at the helm) but also intelligent and detailed. They did some incredible issues about "where are they now" and "110 Greatest Soap Moments Ever" which taught me so much about daytime worlds I'd never been able to see.

The criticism from Corday and others probably did most of the job killing SPW. SOD was already on that path by that point.

Didn't DAYS boycott SPW at some point? What was that all about again?

Ah, Claire Labine... that was back when GH was worth tuning into every day. Her era was the gold standard.

Thanks for posting this!

I agree with whoever said about JER not naming Bill Bell as his mentor. I would have thought that too. Considering that i feel like the early days of Passions (before it went out of control) Was a lot like B&B. I really think Reily used Bell's template for B&B when he created the Cranes and The Lopez-Fitzgeralds. ( Which was probably his version of the Forresters and Logans) Theresa/Ethan/Gwen was an updated version of Brooke/Ridge/Caroline (or Taylor) and Julian and Ivy was a knock off of Eric and Stephanie. Not to mention the fact that Julian and Ivy had a shaky marriage like Eric and Stephanie during the shows beginnings, and Julian and Eric both had a secret past lover. Julian's being Eve, and Eric's being Beth. I could go on and name more similiarities but this is the basic information i think.

Edited January 22, 201213 yr by yr9190

Didn't DAYS boycott SPW at some point? What was that all about again?

Ken Corday was upset over some spoofs they did in the voice of characters like Vivian or Marlena. He let them know this. He was also unhappy over negative coverage in the late 90's and early 00's. 2000 was when it hit the fan and first Marlena, then Mimi were gone, and the magazine became more and more of a rag, polluted by the likes of Carolyn Hinsey and an ever-increasing number of primetime blather and fashion parades.

Can't remember the specifics but SPW ran a negative article about a Days storyline and Corday got all huffy and said the mags should be supportive of the show and decided to boycott by not supplying spolers and story previews and ,I think,access to the actors. Don't remember how long it went on for and how it was resolved.

Guiding Light became such a mess after Nancy Curlee left that I became a sporatic viewer. I do remember reading somewhere that Mulcahey quit, but I'm not sure why. Don't know how long it was before he popped up at General Hospital. I also remember SOD announcing before the end of the year that Demorest and Taggert were "leaving" according to a show spokesperson but sources told digest the 2 were fired, and Douglass Anderson, and Nancy Williams Watt would write the show on an interim basis. However, they were ultimately named headwriters, and I remember Peggy Sloan's name along with theirs in the credits-about the time Brent date raped Lucy. I think Sloan was fired or quit at the same time, or right after Anderson was fired (can't remember if her name still appeared in the credits when Mctavish came in. I have it packed away but in GL's 60th Anniversary book, I remember Nancy Williams Watts talk about how she preferred writing dialog as opposed to story, so I don't think she wanted to be sole headwriter.

It was the Marlena Delacroix / Critical Condition article, "General Hospital is Boring" (and it was), that set Corday on fire around late 1999 / early 2000. Mimi was gone in Fall of 2000; Connie / Marlena left several months later. Beyond the GH/Corday/Days drama, in Primedia's opinion, they weren't a fit with Primedia's mandate to angle the magazine toward more reality / prime time programming and make it stylistically a bit more tabloidish. There was also a direction to make SPW more distinctive from SOD (also owned by Primedia), which to some extent came out of SOD's inclusion of features that SPW had originated.

Edited January 23, 201213 yr by YurSoakinginit

JER wrote for AMC!?

JER himself said once that the only show he never wrote for was OLTL.

I mean, I can't really fault SPW and SOD for trying to expand beyond soaps. Look what is happening now with Kodak who didn't branch out from Film soon enough. I'm sure Primedia saw the writing on the wall and they tried to do something about it. Unfortunately, they are doubly screwed because not only soaps but also magazines are a dying breed.

Edited January 23, 201213 yr by juppiter