A source tells Soaps In Depth that veteran soap writer Shelly Altman, a member of the current Y&R team, will move into the position. (Altman's previous positions include posts at ANOTHER WORLD, GENERAL HOSPITAL and ONE LIFE TO LIVE.) From what we hear, Altman's co-headwriter could either be former AS THE WORLD TURNS head scribe Jean Passanante or Tracy Thompson, another Y&R staff writer

http://cbs.soapsindepth.com/2013/08/yr-headwriter-out.html

In other words JFP will be writing the show too.

Of course, Nelson is Tweeting this:

Nelson Branco ‏@nelliebranco16m

Josh Griffith has left #YR. Rumour: Former GH writers may be headed to GC. It may get worse, kids!

Nelson is still a bittler little POS! Bring on the mob to GC!!!!!

This is all a nightmare. Altman is probably just a placeholder until Guza's deal closes. I just am done with Y&R. There is no hope. Josh Griffith was a disaster from day one. His previous stint on the show was TERRIBLE and I don't understand why nobody seemed to remember that. I remember people giving me a lot of grief for not accepting him from the beginning, but some things you know. Unless I see ONE Bell writer back as at least Co-HW,t hen I'm done with Y&R forever. Not even going to entertain this mess.

Jean fuckin' Passanante at The Young and the Restless. God, just cancel it now.

It's truly astounding to me. While Y&R was never really my bag, it was always, plain and simple, a cut above the rest. It may have not been to my taste, but it was number one with a bullet and it existed on its own plane and did its own special thing. It never aspired to look, feel, sound or act like another soap opera on TV, let alone the ABC soaps that have been in various states of conditional success or creative disarray since Disney took over in the mid-'90s. Now it seems like all anyone BTS at this show cares about - and this has been going on since Latham and MAB, so it's bigger than any one creative team - is making Y&R into a "peppy and cheap" ABC soap as quickly as possible, to compete with failing shows that Y&R still has superior ratings to. And I am an ABC soap fan first and foremost, but all they've brought over from to Y&R are the unpopular aesthetic or core elements about the ABCD/Disney culture that ABC fans hate.

It's like CBS and Sony are determined to devalue and strip mine the property of its brand identity for as long as possible to make sure no one ever touches it again (see also: ATWT and GL). It really is astounding the way they've rapidly, over the course of just a handful of years, transmogrified the flagship into an imported bad ABC soap.

Edited August 15, 201312 yr by Vee

This is absolutely offensive to our intelligence. On so many levels. Why do they keep hiring these people who have an awful track record? I get it is just a rumor but for Christ's sake, they shouldn't even mention Jean Passanante's name! And they keep associating Y&R with writers who just have nothing to do with it.

I remember back in the day I was so proud of my show being able to avoid all the writer-hopping characterizing its competitors. That's history now. Long gone.

These names being thrown around are even worse. Come on Sony, if you aren't going to hire someone like Kay Alden or Sally Sussman Morina, just cancel the damn show now.

Oh dear.....

I absolutely knew it.

It's gotten to the point that any decision taken by the powers that be will actually make things worse.

But I agree, it appears with Jill Farren Phelps, a leopard really can't change its spots.

Edited August 15, 201312 yr by UK LAW

lmao i didnt watch atwt but i think jean was good?

lmao i didnt watch atwt but i think jean was good?

To quote Arsenio Hall's character in Coming To America:

(sarcasm)

"...yeah good and terrible!

Oh God, will somebody at CBS/SONY please raise their standards with these writers?!

It seems as if Y&R is becoming Daytime's next "Revolving Door of Writers" soap....

Jean Passanante????????? LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Give Shelly a chance. She has worked very well on AW, OLTL and then went to GH at a turbulent time. I read an article about her once and she seemed extremely bright and creative. Doug Marland was an actor and script writer before a very successful tenure as HW. She could be good.

This may sound brutal of me...

I'm just glad Jeanne Cooper isn't alive to see this disastrous crap onscreen.

I don't know if I should cry or laugh after hearing this dreadful news.

Give Shelly a chance. She has worked very well on AW, OLTL and then went to GH at a turbulent time. I read an article about her once and she seemed extremely bright and creative. Doug Marland was an actor and script writer before a very successful tenure as HW. She could be good.

Oh please. Her history speaks for itself. The problem with many of these writers isn't t hat they're bad (although I believe Josh Griffith is a TERRIBLE HW in general), but that these people are poorly qualified to write Y&R. It's success stems from it's signature style and the people they employ don't care about that and choose to do their own thing. Anybody who is brought in is going to fail because chances are they don't know the show, have no desire to learn the show and will once again try to spin it into what they want it to be. I don't know why anybody fell for JFP's mess about fine-tuning the show. She was bound to gut it and that is what is happening.