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

[Khan]

Remember: Ken Corday brought BACK Gary Tomlin and Christopher Whitesell after Marlene's (and Darrell's) blessed re-boot flopped, despite the fact that it was their prior association with DAYS that necessitated the re-boot in the first place. At this point, all proverbial bets are off.

[rhinohide]

Really? Between chasing cyber tail and lifting weights? Where is Drew on Matthew's list of priorities.

I'm not going to argue about this anymore. The more I talk about it, the more I begin to dislike Dani and Matthew. I'll just say Destiny and Jeffrey interest me more. And they get meatier material. Jmo. Dani and Matthew get sexy fluff every day.

[jfung79]

I didn't say Drew was high on Matthew's list of priorities. I just said he is conflicted. He is not a good father, or any father at all, in any remote stretch of a way, but that's not a contradiction.

There is way more complexity to these OLTL teens than the AMC ones.

I agree I like Jeffrey and Destiny too, not necessarily better. I have interest in seeing flawed characters like Matthew and Dani learn and grow too.

About DAYS -- the show has been on fire for months because of Lorraine Broderick. That's the missing link who wasn't there before, and that's why bringing back TomSell didn't just lead DAYS back to where it was before the reboot. Also Higley was there before the reboot and isn't there now. DAYS didn't just hire TomSell, they hired Broderick with them. I don't think people would care that much if TomSell left, but Broderick better not lose her strong influence! She is a master of character-based, multigenerational, interconnected, community-oriented storytelling. My fear is a writing shakeup would most likely take her away too, as she is one of Tomlin and Whitesell's people; so are the amazing dialogue writers. A writing shakeup can NOT happen!

[cassadine1991]

I remember.. Corday and his purges.. maybe he wants Days to have 4 HWs, like how Stephen Demorest shared the HW spot with James E. Reilly, Nancy Curlee, Lorraine Broderick, Patrick Mulcahey, Nancy Williams Watt, Millee Taggart, and Sheri Anderson for 4 years on GL and then GL's last HW crew David Kreizman, Christopher Dunn, Lloyd Gold, and Jill Lorie Hurst

[John]

From August 2008 til the show's finale, their were four HW's

David Kreizman, Christopher Dunn, Lloyd Gold, and Jill Lorie Hurst

That 4 person team doesnt always work

[jfung79]

They were not just 4 head writers doing headwriting... They were doing breakdowns too because they show couldn't afford breakdown writers anymore. Also, the show was having to do a new production model with totally different style of "slice of life" writing that was Ellen Wheeler's bright idea.

I agree a 4-person team doesn't seem like it would work though.

[John]

True currently at OLTL all the writers even the HW's of the show's airing (Horgan/Racina) have also written scripts/dialogue. Its not unheard of and Im sure it will continue with Marin & Jessica now co-HW's at OLTL

[cassadine1991]

yeah then what was the explanation for the 3-5 HWs on GL from 1990-1994??

[jfung79]

With the PP soaps, they can have a smaller staff because they are 30 minutes, and especially now with just 2 episodes a week. Even on the PP soaps though, the lack of intermediate writers has shown in the bad continuity (especially on OLTL); does OLTL have a script editor smoothing things over across the episodes?

Five episodes a week, hour long, I think they definitely need more separation of duties, staff, and hierarchy to avoid burnout and churning out material.

[~bl~]

GL had those kinds of staff back in the day as the show had a lot of moving parts. The two triumverates (sp) after Pam Long was gone. When GL had the five head writers, then the show was a mess after Nancy Curlee left, but the trios actually worked well as they balanced each other out as a team.

[jfung79]

I can see a trio working ... I think that's probably basically what's happening now with TomSell and Broderick.

[John]

Right & its working. Ratings up in key demo. So corday no change is needed. But I feel he will just cause he can

[Soaplovers]

So if LB is the main reason things are running well at DAYS, do you think perhaps the show should have tried to add her without firing Mcpherson and her partner when they head wrote the show?

Their ideas were good/decent, but the pacing was off.. perhaps she could have helped implement those ideas?

[DRW50]

The stories generally amounted to the same three scenes repeated a few dozen times.

[Khan]

Believe me, it doesn't compare to when GUIDING LIGHT had six writers sharing the duties in lieu of an actual HW.