Who is/was the biggest hack writer on soaps??

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah, I I know that people and critics did like some aspects of his run at Capitol. His soap work probably was more watchable than a lot of others brought up in this thread, though part of that was he worked during a healthier era for oaps--I just find it shocking to hear even back then how he'd be moved from soap to soap after failing at one--I mean his time at AW, his first major job writing for soaps, even at the time was seen as a pretty big disaster. But Lipton does seem to have a huge talent for selling himself, which may have played a part.

[DRW50]

I guess Jean Holloway would also be included, although I've never actually seen her work.

[vetsoapfan]

Anne Howard Bailey

Mel & Ethel Brez

Stephen Black & Henry Stern

Robert Cenedella

Margaret DePriest

Lloyd Gold

Linda Grover

Robert Guza, Jr

Dena Higley

Jean Holloway

Corinne Jacker

Tom King

David Kreizman

Nina Laemmle

Leah Laiman

Tom Langan

James Lipton

Ann Marcus

Megan McTavish

Norma Monty

Barbara Morgenroth & Leonard Kantor

Jean Passanante

Eileen & Robert Mason Pollack

Charles Pratt

Thom Racina

James Reilly

AJ Russell

Jeff Ryder

Robert J. Shaw

Hogan Sheffer

Lee Sheldon

Gary Tomlin

Gabrielle Upton

Ellen Weston

[frequentsoapfan]

Great list, you're missing Ron Carlivati though.

[Khan]

But...aren't the Pollocks always praised for their work on THE DOCTORS?

[vetsoapfan]

Some writers do work out better on some shows than others. The Pollacks' reign on THE DOCTORS was actually fairly entertaining. Not necessarily "good" writing as much as fast-paced and somewhat campy. Their writing on most everything else tended to be...painful.

[Cat]

Of the top of my head? BRADLEY BELL. GUZA. PRATT.

[MissLlanviewPA]

Yikes. Who does that leave us with then?

[vetsoapfan]

LOL! Thankfully, soaps have been gifted throughout the decades with some great talent!

William J. Bell

Bridget and Jerome Dobson

Rick Edelstein

Pat Falken Smith

Claire Labine

Harding Lemay

Douglas Marland

Agnes Nixon

Irna Phillips

Gordon Russell

Henry Slesar

Roy Winsor

Yes, the list of the talented is short compared to the list of those who are...not!

[EricMontreal22]

Quite the list, now I'm curious who would be on a good writer list...

I thought the Pollocks were liked at some show besides the Doctors--was it ATWT? I admit I liked their early period at Dynasty where they basically took every soap cliche and reved it up to the 9th degree--I'd hate to see them do that with a daytime show, but it borught for me the best years of Dynasty.

[Soaplovers]

I think soap hopping is a risky thing because a writer might be great at one soap but a disaster in training on another soap... Here are som eexamples..

1) Pam Long: Ended Texas in a positive way, revived Guiding Light twice, ended Search for Tomorrow in a positive way, but was a disaster on Santa Barbara and One Life to Live.

2) B & E: Fantastic on Loving/The City, was decent on GL, and so-so on AMC.

3) Douglas Marland: Good on GH, pretty good on GL, and really good on ATWT at first... and from what I hear wasnt a good fit on The Doctors.

4) Dobsons: struggled on GH, awesome on GL, ok at ATWT, and SB.. case closed

5) Leah Laiman: I heard she was decent on DAYS, wasnt that bad on AW, and horrible at ATWT and OLTL.

6) Pat Faken: Fantastic on DAYS AND GH... wasnt on GL long enough to make an impression.. and totally sucked on RH.

How did Ann marcus do on her soaps?

Not sure if it is because of a different environment, different tone of a show, etc.

[VirginiaHamilton]

My list?

Claire Labine

Bill Bell

Ron Carlivati

Agnes Nixon

(I'd mention Michael Malone and Megan McTavish, but their subsequent stints on OLTL and AMC, respectively, leave much to be desired.)

[vetsoapfan]

Douglas Marland was actually a miracle worker on THE DOCTORS. He worked wonders with the absolute garbage he inherited, and his work there even lead to Gloria Monty's hiring him to revamp GENERAL HOSPITAL, where his writing brought the almost-cancelled series from the toilet of the ratings up to the top.

Pamela Long did enormous damage to THE GUIDING LIGHT during her first reign, butchering 2/3 of the cast, ignoring and destroying history, and churning out low-brow, campy stories that went against the grain of the show's rich, intelligent legacy.

Ann Marcus' work varied widely from soap to soap. She was excellent at MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN, where she managed to create sympathetic characters amidst a sea of absurd, surreal storylines. She was also excellent at SEARCH FOR TOMORROW, where she wrote fast-paced, intriguing stories centered around both the vets and newer, younger characters. Yet her work at DAYS and GENERAL HOSPITAL was dreadful.

Pat Falken Smith's only failure was RYAN'S HOPE, but I have a feeling that was due more to network interference and incompetent producing than anything else. She was one of the better writers ever involved in soaps.

[EricMontreal22]

I guess that's the thing (and this also goes with the above soap hoping list--something I'ds add Harding Lemay to although he didn't really get much of a chance at Doctors, AW in the 80s--but I still disagreed with lots of what he said while consulting ABC in the late 90s and he seemed to be scarily sympathetic and in agreement with JFP).

To me Malone (at least when paired with Griffith--even his 90s work really fell apart fast when Griffith left), McTavish, maybe Broderick even though she is less controversial than those two, all gave me a LOT of really great soap. They also gave me a lot of crap, and I can see how in some ways they were destructive--but to me the term "hack" means someone with zero talent, and I think they all showed they have some talent and potential depending on a myriad of other factors (including their own laziness).

It was also the wrong soap for her IMHO, that didn't play into her talents which are a bit darker, more urban and melodramatic trhan RH was--plus wasn't she asked to basically make RH more lik the other 80s "big city" soaps? I'm sure it was a thankless job. I would love to be able to see some of that weird anthology soap thing she briefly created for Showtime.

[EricMontreal22]

Robert Soderberg and Edith Sommer never get much credit, yet, while their 70s P&G work was seen as old fashioned compared to what ABC, etc, were doing, wasn't there stuff also seen as solid--and to some fans very good? I know the variuous books say that when they came onto Guiding Light in the very late 60s (after a surreal turnover of headwriters once Agnes Nixon left, I believe 6 or 7 in two years, and then Irna Phillips brief return which like her later ATWT work was not exactly seen as her finest), they steadied the show again and in P&G style of the time (they specifically felt that--I guess unless someone like Irna said otherwise--the soaps should shuffle their headwriters to keep them fresh every few years), they went on to ATWT to help fix Irna's mess and seemed to do well there. Of course shortly after they departed GL (after a brief stint that included my dreaded James Lipton yet again) the Dobsons helped modernize GL, and I assume were then moved to ATWT to do the same.

Then there are people like Ralph Ellis who seemed to get tossed from soap to soap with no real positive payoff--yet nothing extremely damagaing either from what I can tell.