When did Hogan Sheffer lose his lustre?

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I enjoyed his days myself, he brought in Anna and Tony DiMera. He made Phillip into the Kirakis he should have been, and gave us Chloe the vixen. I love his work with the DiMeras.

[MichaelGL]

Co-sign. I enjoyed his DAYS as well, Sure it wasn't perfect, but for a slight majority of what he wrote I enjoyed. The Belle/Philip/Shawn story was of the highlights.

[juniorz1]

I agree with most, that he lost his "luster" at the end of or after the DAYS stint. I tend to think after, though, because the soap press was totally behind him when he was being brought on to Y&R.

I too enjoyed his DAYS. It wasn't perfect, but I LOVED that he brought back Anna especially, and some of his storytelling, such as EJ's initial storyline. I seriously doubt Leann Hunley would have gotten used like she was under Tomlin if it weren't for Sheffer.

And I'm totally biased because he was the writer that finally hooked me on ATWT. I loved his stuff, even 2004. All the way to the end and even the Passanante stories that he had a hand in.

It's Y&R where I think he's been atrocious but to be fair, he was never the right fit for that show anyway and was a total WTF? hiring IMO. There are certain styles of writing that just wouldn't and don't fit on Y&R. His is one.

Some others I'd include in that group: Megan McTavish, JER, Bob Guza, Claire Labine, Dena Higley, Michael Malone, Josh Griffith, David Kreitzman, Ron Carlivati, and Chris Whitesell.

Oddly enough, I sort of think Pratt might be a good fit and would be curious to see what he'd do with it (GOD HELP ME!).

On second thought, maybe I'd rather read Pratt's bible than watch it on CBS.

I disagree with this. I see MAB as just being there and Sheffer/Hamner being the HUGE problem. I honestly think most would tend to agree with that.

Absolutely. I'll come right out and say it: Nelson wants a piece of Valentini/Carlivati badly and what's worse is he thinks it's attainable, or will be someday if he keeps promoting him the way he does.

Side Note: As revolting as it could be sometimes, I do kinda miss Nelson's TVGC soap columns. It was the closest thing to an insider's soap gossip column/blog that we ever got. It entertained the hell out of me, even if I felt a little dirty after reading it.

[sjbeutel]

Hogen Sheffer was good when he has co-headwriters under him that are no hacks like everyone else. I think and I know I am in the minority on this statement but his time at ATWT was good with Carolyn Cullition helping him out. It went to crap when Passannette joined him.

[MichaelGL]

No you're not the only one who thinks this, Sheffer and Culliton were pure gold. Everything went off the rails when she departed.

[NothinButAttitude]

Hogan lost his lusture for me his last year at ATWT. Even though I still enjoyed the show around that point, it became clear that he needed to go. But I do believe behind everyone strong headwriter is a strong co-headwriter and I thank Carolyn Culliton and even Jean Passanante (...dear God I cannot believe I said this ) as they somewhat kept Hogan from seriously running the show off the tracks.

His tenture at DAYS was a mess and hated EVERY story he did. There were bright spots but they are hard to remember when all you can think about is that craptacular John paternity story part 12323, Touch the Sky, etc.

And I personally agree with statements made that the crap we are seeing on the screen is Hogan. IMO, Maria most likely does nothing but deal with budget issues and contracts, and every now and then interjects with story, but the stories have been wreaking Hogan Sheffer. Heroines becoming whores, mustache twirling villains, and some gum-chewing mess from Jersey -- yep, that's Hogan.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Things went off the rails before Culliton left, IMO.

By the second year, the show was already aimless and Sheffer was starting to show his recycled rot.

There was never ever a fleshed out story with Sheffer. Events just happened with very little follow though or anything substantial in the middle.

[Quent]

I was very much of two minds about Hogan's ATWT tenure. To be fair, he did revive the show. When he took over, nobody ever talked about ATWT. He gave it a shot of excitement. He also gave certain actors a new lease on life. Colleen Pinter's Barbara was so far on the back burner she might as well been invisible. Hogan changed that, and made her the center of the action. Katie, Lily, and especially Craig thrived under HS. Sheffer also was able to take a single event (the breakup of Hal and Barbara) and make it into a series of falling dominoes.

Unfortunately, when the last of the dominoes from that great s/l fell, he was out of ideas. We started getting stories like Teens On The Run,Margo/Doc/Jessica, The Dahlia Mystery, Pilar Kills Katie's Rabbit, etc.

To sum it up, his first year-and-a-half was thoroughly enjoyable, but after that it was the pits.

[Max]

While ATWT started going downhill in mid-2002, it didn't become unwatchable until late-2004. I thought it was the best soap on TV from mid-1999 to early-2002 (though, of course, Sheffer didn't arrive until June 2000). Perhaps the positive changes in the show were more the result of Goutman than Sheffer.

[DynamiteKiddo]

I'm not familiar with Sheffer's ATWT but in comparison to all the post-Brash & Cwikly writers, he's been the best head writer "Days" has had. Dena 1.0 was poorly executed, JER 2.0 was total dogshit, Dena 2.0 was a mixed (but mainly bad) bag, and DRT & MMcP unfortunately have as much poor plotting as they do good intentions.

I didn't agree with his off-the-bat decision to just not even deal with Austin & Carrie and I didn't like how evident his lack of interest was in the Horton's, but his first few months were good soap. "Days" fans are really preoccupied with tradition and the super couple fans can appear entitled, but I thought his initial overarching Bo-Hope-Patrick-Billie-Steve/Nick-Kayla story was great. Chelsea, Max, and Abby were finally getting legs and I didn't even mind J&M's adventure to find Stefano in Italy. And Shawn & Belle were finally rootable, and I even thought Willow Stark was a great fire-starting crazy. Kate was a fantastic in-between connecting so many stories and she was regularly interacting with all her ex's (Vic, Roman, and John) while f-ing EJ. It was great. My only (big) issue was his blatant agenda and favoritism regarding EJ/Sami/Lucas--they became the show it seemed sometimes. But everything went awry post-Feb. sweeps and the program became aimless and overflowing with stupid stories (like S&B hiding out on the island). However, I loved the universally panned twist with CrazySteve and Kayla having to harvest one of John's organs for Stefano. He tried to refocus in the summer with the reboot of Brady/DiMera feud, but it was so mishandled, as was the B young story with god-awful Touch the Skies. The show was rebounding after John's "death" but then the writers' strike came along welcome back Dena Higley! ::bangs head::

But I thought the dialogue was always good under Sheffer's leadership and despite some incredibly trying stories, there was consistent meaningful interaction between characters who should've been sharing scenes. But he did get a lot of things wrong, wrong, wrong.

I thought the interim writer between JER and HS, Meg Bennett was actually better than HS (and his co-head writer, Meg Kelly).

[DRW50]

I never understood what Phillip was supposed to be when Sheffer was writing. He was terrorizing young women, dangling them off boats. He was some type of rageaholic. Then he went around pouting over Pocket for months. Finally he hooked up with asexual Belle.

That's always the biggest failing in Sheffer's writing - he loves those "men with balls," but to him, that means men who abuse women and never have any emotion beyond rage and sneering. And then someone has to come along and fix his mess, or he tries to do so himself, like his clumsy rewrites regarding EJ after having him spend months raping and pillaging.

He is suited to an FX show, where hating women is big money and power.

[soapfave06]

Since the only work of his I saw on a daily basis was on DAYS, I felt it was good up until EJ raped Sami but then by the time he found his footing again, I felt it was around the time of EJ's shooting, John's death and the high school reunion, and of course he had to leave when things got really good. Don't even get me started on his Y&R though. Horrible.

[DeeeDee]

Don't forget Hogan's love of emasculated heroes & omnipotent anti-heroes.

[Susan Hunter]

When did EJ rape Sami?

[DRW50]

December 2006.