Under Rated Writers

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I agree they need to be back on Daytime. Elizabeth Hubbard as a Quartermaine would be awesome. Dolan as a recast Sandy Horton and Maura West would be a bad ass Kristen Forrester on B&B or Eve Donovan on Days.

Back on Topic, is Pat Falken Smith considered underrated?

[Soapsuds]

I'd love to see Hubbard back on a soap. CZP would fit nicely on B&B(with all the fashion) as Barbara.

[CSF]

I think that Behr should have gone to GL as well as Broderick.

I think the Labine's would have suited ATWT well in 1996 when they left ABC and NBC strung them along. Too bad P&G didn't think to pick them up for ATWT. Instead, MADD went for FMB. Rauch should have never been at GL. I feel like JFP with the Labine's at ATWT would have been a good combination, FMB with Lorraine Broderick and Stephen Demorest at GL instead of B&E. AW was already a goner.

[jfung79]

Jill Farren Phelps at ATWT? I shudder at the thought, she killed AW when she killed Frankie.

I don't know about what was happening before I started watching ATWT, but by time I watched, the final months of Broderick/FMB's reign, it was super compelling, multigenerational viewing. Young love with Eddie and Georgia, tons of Bob and Kim (dealing with a drifting Christopher played by Ben Jorgensen), tons of Margo and Tom, and Martha Byrne giving the performance of a lifetime as Lily scared to death that Hope would be taken from her. Rita Renfield cluing in to the identity of Reid Hamilton (David Stenbeck) -- "I know who you are, Reid. And I know what you did last summer!"

Then Goutman as EP and Laiman as HW came and immediately the show started dumbing down. For awhile, Carolyn Culliton being co-headwriter helped keep things from falling apart, but the writing was on the wall -- this show was going for style over substance, and the style wasn't all that great either. Bland model Paul Korver recast as Chris and having sex with Molly during dinner with his parents. Puh-leeze. ATWT would still be here today if show killer Chris Goutman and "Lethal Leah" had not taken over in 1999.

[CSF]

And it was the most boring hour of television during 1998 - 1999. It was a total snoozefest IMO. JFP didn't kill Frankie.

[jfung79]

JFP claims not to be responsbile for kiling Frankie, but she was the executive producer when Frankie was killed. I think she is good at doing title sequences and creating sets, but she doesn't have much of an ear for story and she was known for casting a lot of "friends of Jill," which might have been disruptive at ATWT. Claire Labine would have been an interesting choice as writer, but she doesn't have a good track record in terms of ratings. I don't see how she would have been a better fit than Lorraine Broderick. Wikipedia actually says Labine was offered ATWT by P&G in 1996 but turned it down because she was developing a GH spinoff.

Snoozefest would describe the plot-driven soaps that both AW and ATWT became under Chris Goutman's reigns of error.

[DRW50]

That may be where we differ. I thought Behr destroyed Tom and Margo (and Broderick, when she came in, destroyed Emily by making her such a monster that she even made Tom think that Margo had planned to abort the child they'd miscarried), making them shouty and unsympathetic and dour (although that had already started before Behr's arrival - she just made it worse). I hated Reid, and the pointless firing of the very good actor who had played the role before his arrival. I disliked most of the new characters who were brought in.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Honestly, what came after that era (Laimain and then Sheffer) made me appreciated that era much more than I probably should.

[DRW50]

I don't blame you there. I don't think their show was horrible, just boring and too full of uninspiring new characters.

I had a lot of issues with the firing of Allyson-Rice Taylor, the influx of ABC people (ATWT wasn't ABC, sorry, not ABC!!!! I liked most of the ABC soaps but it wasn't!), the hatchet job done on Lyla, the Liz Hubbard fiasco, and so forth. But there were definitely worse writers and producers to come.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think Broderick was probably the only writer that made the Molly character truly work, and I also really enjoyed Carly during her era, before Sheffer wrecked it with Craig infatuation.

[Vee]

I couldn't tolerate the Molly character in the old days. Whenever I tuned into the late '90s it seemed to just have these two snarky dykes with extreme haircuts - Carly and Molly - spending all their time together thinking they were the hottest [!@#$%^&*] on two legs, and they really weren't, and I didn't remember knowing of them in my brief brushes with ATWT as a childhood. It was like, what are they doing here? Who cares about these chicks? They seemed so random to me.

I softened on both of them veeerrrryyy slowly later on, and I loved Molly's last stint on the show, despite the show being a horrible mess - she should've stayed with Holden, since Faux!Lily was so lame. But back then I couldn't take them.

[DRW50]

I thought Carly was a wonderful, wonderful character in Maura's first stint. When they brought her back they took away some of her vulnerability and made her very hard and very plot-driven, in part to prop the boring flop Julia. I felt most sorry for her when they paired her with John Loprieno, a wonderful actor who was horribly miscast.

Molly was a disaster soon after arrival, when she became a crazed stalker clutching a footprint. Broderick improved her at first, with the relationship with Andy (bringing back Andy was one of Behr/Broderick's best moves), but then came the porno affair with Reid, with scenes that were way too in your face (not helped by a cheating scandal involving the actors). Molly became despised. She was probably the most hated character on the show. She was lucky that Goutman didn't let her go (he did let Keith Colouris go - who tried to blame Internet fans for his firing). I thought Goutman/Laiman, and then Goutman/Sheffer, made the character much more likeable, until Jake was killed and they turned the neuroses back up to 500 and had her screwing that thuggish, unwashed Dusty.

Aside from the crappy intro story with the Congressman, I thought Molly's last return was great, especially her exit, when she realized she had unwittingly taught her daughter that it was fine to waste her life on a married man. Lesli Kay was phenomenal. She broke my heart.

[CSF]

Claire Labine has a great track record. Ryan's Hope was considered as a possible replacement to OLTL when it was going down the drain in the late 70's, ABC was thinking of expanding it to an hour if it didn't turn around. Ryan's Hope was also the last and only soap to win a trifecta in the 1979's Daytime Emmy's.

Also, GH was very competitive under Labine and Riche.

I don't think P&G or CBS were looking for someone right away who could make ATWT take off with high ratings, I think they were looking for someone to pull the show back together. It was a hot mess.

Labine is a strong head writer, Broderick does not have that talent as a sole head writer. She's better in the associate head writer position.

I've never heard Labine was offered ATWT in 96, I'm not sure how true that is because I don't ever recall her making any mention in her most recent interview about that time.

[CSF]

That just goes to show FMB's poor judgement in certain areas. I think she did some detrimental things to AMC like that when she took over (Cliff/Nina, Chuck/Donna, Angie). Good thing she had Agnes Nixon to write the show, otherwise I don't think AMC would have survived the turmoil it was in before FMB came over from Ryan's Hope.

[jfung79]

This is the source, an interview on We Love Soaps, of where Labine says she was offered ATWT by Procter and Gamble:

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/12/claire-labine-answers-your-questions_19.html

"Hunger asks: Were you ever offered the chance to write for ATWT instead of GL? If so, what would you have done?
Claire Labine: Yes. It was a very generous and lovely offer. Except Matt and I were trying to get HEART & SOUL [aka Union Place] on the air. I had to turn it down because we were in the middle of that development. I said to Proctor & Gamble, “I am gratified by this offer, but if I have any chance at all...” I didn’t think there was much chance but I thought it was worth a go to do our own show. And they were very lovely about it. That was several years before the GUIDING LIGHT gig.
We Love Soaps: What time frame was that?
Claire Labine: After GENERAL HOSPITAL, and before ONE LIFE TO LIVE."

My opinion:

Claire Labine is a good writer, but didn't last long at OLTL and GL. I enjoyed her GH but Wendy Riche was working with her instead of against her. In the age of P&G and network interference, I don't think Labine would have done a whole lot at ATWT, especially not paired with JFP. (The much-bashed FMB, on the other hand, I think Labine could have got along better with, since FMB worked on Ryan's Hope.) She would have left by mutual decision before very long. If part of the complaint is that Broderick's ATWT was a "snoozefest," Labine has a reputation for her work coming across boring sometimes too; that's why I don't see a big difference.

Broderick is a great sole headwriter. Her months at AMC were well-recieved in between Pratt and Kreizman/Swajeski, as well as in closing out the show. I do think she does great work as an associate headwriter too, and she is working wonders at Days in that position. I think Broderick is great at tying the whole canvas together, and at delving into character, whatever position she is in.