BREAKING NEWS: Prospect Park Names New Head Writers of BOTH ‘All My Children’ and ‘One Life to Live’

[EricMontreal22]

A certain ex-AMC writer who I am friends with on FB and was offered but turned down this role thinks the choice--at least for AMC is really good.

[LeClerc]

Damn. Wish he hadn't turned it down

[R Sinclair]

Who?! Who?!

[EricMontreal22]

H Corley.

[allmc2008]

I know. we could have paid soapsuds (I think he is the one who lusts eric) to seduce Eric to get story info For us.

[R Sinclair]

Why, out of all possibilities, did I think that's who it was? Did you mention him before?

I concur. Oh, well!

[cassadine1991]

wonder what other OLTL and AMC writers turned this position down?

[marceline]

I think one of the big issues with OLTL is that by virtue of picking up in real time, they've been forced to deal with the results of the GH crossover. Not just the story written on the show but the backstage contract stuff. AMC's big issue (the time jump) was entirely of their own making so they haven't had to deal with another writer's influence on their characters and canvas.

[You're Soaking in it]

Interesting, Eric. Any insight (that he'd be ok with you sharing, obviously) as to why he wasn't interested? Corley is great... and it's nice to hear he agrees with the choices AMC went with.

[John]

Hal Corley turned dowm AMC when Mcpherson/Snyder was given the job

[You're Soaking in it]

That's a good point I handn't considered, Marceline - the effects of the legal wrangling with ABC.... overall, I guess that could negate their direction with the story. But it doesn't explain how there's something missing in the tone of the writing, nor things like the uneven responses of some characters to Victor's return. Viki & Clint shrugged as if he should have shown up months ago, lol.... and Sam didn't seem to know he'd ever been "dead!"

And then there's the writer's approach to "edgy" and "real" young characters. I still can't wrap my mind around Danielle telling the guys not to use her moisturizer to masturbate, even if it was "joking" - unless the writers are working overtime to show us that Dani has descended into a trashy, wannabe Ke$ha. I get that she's doing drugs, and that Matthew says "sh_t" every other sentence with various inflections and foreign accents... But in the process, the writers have been making those characters vacuous, unlikable, and worst of all, one-dimensional. I don't blame the actors at all... Hopefully the new writers see that deficit and have a plan to repair it.

[Vee]

I don't think that's Ke$ha and I don't think they're unlikable or vacuous. That's how young people talk, and that's what they talk about. They're sometimes reckless or selfish, they sometimes shirk their responsibilities or play drinking games but that's all pretty real. And it's on course for them to develop and grow.

[You're Soaking in it]

To some extent, I agree with you, Vee... I happen to work with high school age students now. They can be reckless and selfish. But by far, most girls would gross out over what Dani said... not introduce it into a conversation herself. The problem I see is that, with these characters - Matthew and Dani in particular, as they're pre-established - is that these apartment scenes comes off as disingenuous (unlike Dani's overdose scenes, which I thought played very well) and one dimensional. Are Dani's & Matt's lust fantasies of each other entirely sexual? That would be inconsistent with their history, but so far, it sure seems that way with what's in the script.

Since I see a bit of regression in their characters, I absolutely want your last sentence to be true - that it's on course for them to develop and grow. And I think it will. I'm not shooting down the show. I love OLTL. But I know it can be much better than what we've been seeing, and I look forward to the new head writers taking it there - fingers crossed!

[Vee]

Well, again, they're not high schoolers. They're twentysomethings who are ostensibly 'adults,' but in the case of Matthew and Dani (unlike Jeffrey and Destiny) they're clearly barely ready for it. Everything is partying and sex and new experiences, the real world's not something they know how to cope with yet. I think that's something a lot of people can relate to. I don't know why it would be disenguous for them to sexually desire one another and have those kind of carnal fantasies. At that age, only network soap kids are dreaming of settling down, getting married and popping out babies.

I don't think the apartment stuff is one-dimensional, but I do think it's often relatively plotless - it's a lot of vignettes and character building stuff, which I can understand people not liking whether due to the tenor or tone of the scenes, or the age grouping. For me I think it just keeps building on these characters in a way we don't see in soaps today, and also, with a lighter touch, building towards the inevitable conflicts over Destiny between the men, and the romance between Matt and Dani. I think the characters feel far more real and complex than any youth scene I've seen in soaps in a very long time.

[You're Soaking in it]

Believe me, the high-schoolers I've worked with are typically less sophisticated / more crass before they get to college, lol... (I've had the opportunity to see some of them transition.) I want to be clear that nothing about what's happening in those scenes offend my sensibilities, they just don't necessarily - at least for me - always ring true to the characters I'd previously watched. Maybe that's why I find Jeffrey to be the most real of the three. You see it as Matthew & Dani not being ready for adulthood, and that's a valid point. I just think there's more to them than what we are currently seeing. And I plan on sticking around to see it.

ETA: I saw your post pre-edit, Vee, sorry! ... By "disingenuous," I meant some of the pointless conversation scenes that I'd referenced before... not the sex fantasies. With those, I just want to see on the screen, in the subtext, that there's more to Matt & Dani than just getting their groove on - and I'm sure we will...