Interview: Soap Opera Queen

By Carlin Flora , published on July 01, 2005

Jean Passanante heads the Emmy Award-winning writing team from As the World Turns. The soap takes place in Oakdale, Illinois, a town so small that everyone is either related or acquainted, and yet so cosmopolitan that it contains skyscrapers and an international airport.

Passanante and her team must fill five hours a week with plot twists that grow out of the characters' entangled pasts. Historical knowledge of characters is a must, if only to avoid creating incestuous relationships (an occupational hazard for a soap writer). One prominent Oakdale resident's name says it all: Lily Walsh Mason Snyder Grimaldi Snyder.

A former actress and theater administrator, Passanante keeps viewers emotionally satisfied and on the edge of the couch.

Soap opera characters can seem one-dimensional.

I think it is a misconception. For a character to have any longevity, we have to understand why she is doing what she is doing. Our most successful villains are the ones about whom you understand why they've gotten to where they are.

Have you had the experience of writing a villain who has become a nicer person?

That happens all the time. For example, Carly. She came on as "the bitch." Now she is a nicer lady, has kids and is married to the upright police detective. But a lot of people on the show still distrust her. The best characters are struggling with their dark side. You hope that romantic love or love of a child will pull them out of the mire.

Why do you think soaps are so addictive?

We all want to be told a story. There is also a constancy that's comforting. You moved away from your mother, you divorced your husband and your kids live with him half the time. But if you tune in every day, you'll still see Nancy and Lisa and the people you've always seen.

What do you think is the oldest trick in the book?

I hate to think of them as tricks. All of the great soap opera stories have romantic complications. [The viewer] is yearning for the couple to find happiness at last. As writers, we try to prevent that happiness for as long as possible.

The surprise pregnancy seems to really shake things up.

Pregnancy is very high stakes. We're always looking for things that have high-stakes consequences and long-term consequences. And for viewers, most of whom are women, that's an experience that many have had or can anticipate having.

How important is glamour?

There's an aspect of fantasy in a viewer's appreciation of any television show. The characters are beautiful, and they have great hair. Viewers want to be that person; they want to inhabit their life, or at least they want to have their clothes.

Have you had much contact with rabid fans of the show?

One fan was madly in love with a character. For Christmas, she created gingerbread cookies of his face. He has very specific facial characteristics and they were astonishingly accurate.

Has anything happened recently that's elicited a particularly strong response from viewers?

Last summer [2004], Jack fell off a cliff and forgot who he was and fell in love with another woman. The Carly and Jack fans went nuts. You're hoping they'll go nuts and watch as opposed to going nuts and turning off the TV.

What do you like to watch or read in your free time?

I'm a Shakespeare freakI majored in drama in college. In fact I ran into one of my former professors about a year ago. I sort of apologized to him. I told him there are many occasions where we borrow certain plots from Shakespeare, not really intentionally but you realize when you're writing: Oh, this is that scene in Julius Caesar where his wife tells him not to go to the forum that day! And my professor said, "That's okay, Shakespeare stole all his stuff, too."

This is an old ATWT Jean Passanante interview I found u clearly see the woman's passion for soaps. How cool to see she's such a Shakespere freak? Maybe she can add a little Shakespearian writing for y and r.

Seriously ;o 2005?

Edited October 11, 201312 yr by rlj

Michael Malone is more Shakespearian...

Interview: Soap Opera Queen
By Carlin Flora , published on July 01, 2005
Jean Passanante heads the Emmy Award-winning writing team from As the World Turns. The soap takes place in Oakdale, Illinois, a town so small that everyone is either related or acquainted, and yet so cosmopolitan that it contains skyscrapers and an international airport.

Passanante and her team must fill five hours a week with plot twists that grow out of the characters' entangled pasts. Historical knowledge of characters is a must, if only to avoid creating incestuous relationships (an occupational hazard for a soap writer). One prominent Oakdale resident's name says it all: Lily Walsh Mason Snyder Grimaldi Snyder.

A former actress and theater administrator, Passanante keeps viewers emotionally satisfied and on the edge of the couch.

Soap opera characters can seem one-dimensional.

I think it is a misconception. For a character to have any longevity, we have to understand why she is doing what she is doing. Our most successful villains are the ones about whom you understand why they've gotten to where they are.

Have you had the experience of writing a villain who has become a nicer person?

That happens all the time. For example, Carly. She came on as "the bitch." Now she is a nicer lady, has kids and is married to the upright police detective. But a lot of people on the show still distrust her. The best characters are struggling with their dark side. You hope that romantic love or love of a child will pull them out of the mire.

Why do you think soaps are so addictive?

We all want to be told a story. There is also a constancy that's comforting. You moved away from your mother, you divorced your husband and your kids live with him half the time. But if you tune in every day, you'll still see Nancy and Lisa and the people you've always seen.

What do you think is the oldest trick in the book?

I hate to think of them as tricks. All of the great soap opera stories have romantic complications. [The viewer] is yearning for the couple to find happiness at last. As writers, we try to prevent that happiness for as long as possible.

The surprise pregnancy seems to really shake things up.

Pregnancy is very high stakes. We're always looking for things that have high-stakes consequences and long-term consequences. And for viewers, most of whom are women, that's an experience that many have had or can anticipate having.

How important is glamour?

There's an aspect of fantasy in a viewer's appreciation of any television show. The characters are beautiful, and they have great hair. Viewers want to be that person; they want to inhabit their life, or at least they want to have their clothes.

Have you had much contact with rabid fans of the show?

One fan was madly in love with a character. For Christmas, she created gingerbread cookies of his face. He has very specific facial characteristics and they were astonishingly accurate.

Has anything happened recently that's elicited a particularly strong response from viewers?

Last summer [2004], Jack fell off a cliff and forgot who he was and fell in love with another woman. The Carly and Jack fans went nuts. You're hoping they'll go nuts and watch as opposed to going nuts and turning off the TV.

What do you like to watch or read in your free time?

I'm a Shakespeare freakI majored in drama in college. In fact I ran into one of my former professors about a year ago. I sort of apologized to him. I told him there are many occasions where we borrow certain plots from Shakespeare, not really intentionally but you realize when you're writing: Oh, this is that scene in Julius Caesar where his wife tells him not to go to the forum that day! And my professor said, "That's okay, Shakespeare stole all his stuff, too."

This is an old ATWT Jean Passanante interview I found u clearly see the woman's passion for soaps. How cool to see she's such a Shakespere freak? Maybe she can add a little Shakespearian writing for y and r.

I didn't see anything Shakespearian about her ATWT

I wasn't making a prediction, I was using a particular phrase, maybe not the best one. I would have couched what Billy got today as "reaction scenes" as well.

We shall see...although the spoilers I am getting from the Canadians does not bode well.

Judging from the canadian recaps for next Mon's show, thats def what she gets and its a muted reaction, I suspect Peeps aint gonna like this show, this is def all for Villy!

Also what I am hearing...why the heck does Victoria even signify in this story. The scenes from today's show was as if Victoria was her mother. She is NOT! Delia talking about working at Newman indeed!

Edited October 11, 201312 yr by ajsp35801

We shall see...although the spoilers I am getting from the Canadians does not bode well.

Also what I am hearing...why the heck does Victoria even signify in this story. The scenes from today's show was as if Victoria was her mother. She is NOT! Delia talking about working at Newman indeed!

The scenes today were from Billy's POV. It makes sense Victoria was by his side in them

Only the father matters. This is Billy's story. That's too bad cause BM's acting does very little for me, especially with emotional material.

Tough for "Killer Miller" to play material beyond smirking and turning red. They should have just cast the Kool Aid Man.

Exactly. She had her rating highs and then they immediately dropped once she did something stupid to beloved veteran characters.

Give Jill time. She'll eff it up like always.

I think almost all of what will happen is from Sony, more than anyone else.

The scenes today were from Billy's POV. It makes sense Victoria was by his side in them

Calling Victor grandpa and working at Newman...that makes no damn sense as a Billy vision. She could have at least been talking about working at Jabot.

I think young and restless should recast Amelia heinie with Jennifer ferrin from ATWT she would make a great Victoria. She has the chops and Jen wrote some stellar stuff for her at ATWT

Jonnysbro,

I'm sorry but JP is hot garbage. To each his/her own; however, I don't know what you see special about this woman. Nothing that woman does is Shakespearean. Honestly, what stories/characters she's penned that are so great? The same woman that:

- Did baby in a tree (AW)

- Lumina/Jordan Stark saga (AW)

- Created the Z Twins (ATWT)

- Created that drip of a character, Sophie Duran (ATWT)

- Force fed us Paul & Meg (ATWT)

- Criminally underused the Hughes, Lisa, & Lucinda (ATWT)

- Gave the legendary daytime grande dame, Helen Wagner (Nancy), one of the crappiest memorials ever. The damn episode was more about Katie than the Hughes. (ATWT)

- Inflicted Janet & Liberty Ciccone upon us because Janet was based loosely on herself. Then made the VERY talented Stuart Damon be her idiotic mobster uncle. (ATWT)

- Made all her fave heroines (Katie, Gwen, Meg) become obsessed with birthing to the point of no end (ATWT)

- Gave us "egg baby" aka Hunter and destroyed Larry McDermott, a decent man, in the process (ATWT)

- Created Gabriel (ATWT)

- Brought Dani Andropolous back to have her NOT interact with Kim or the Stewarts hardly and make her Craig's's, who was once believed to be her father, mistress (ATWT)

Shall I continue. . .

Edited October 12, 201312 yr by Nothin'ButAttitude

Y&R must have hired JP for that buzz factor. She's set this thread alight. Look out Miley.

Y&R must have hired JP for that buzz factor. She's set this thread alight. Look out Miley.

I think who would be a really good addition to the Y&R head writing team is Anna Cascio. She was a writer for OLTL, ATWT and now GH. She did co-head write AMC in 2003. She has worked with Jean in the past. She literally was at OLTL on and off for 16 years. She could be a great co-head writer for Y&R with Jean and Shelley.

I thought today's show was decent, but a little bizarre. I get that it's suppose to be Billy's POV, but Chloe should have been included in these "fast Forward" scenes.

I agree that both actresses, the teenage and adult ones would have made great Delia SORAzied recasts........The adult Delia looked a lot like Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Adult Delia reminded me a lot of a younger Karinne Vannasse, from REVENGE and PAN AM. Y&R needs pull a Teenage Clone Reva and hire this girl to be another character.

Calling Victor grandpa and working at Newman...that makes no damn sense as a Billy vision. She could have at least been talking about working at Jabot.

She did talk about working at Jabot. She mentioned working for uncle Jack at Jabot or Grampa Victor at Newman. Then she chose to work for her father. I don't see why that's wrong. I think any reasonable adult who has been divorced can only pray that their child is involved in a loving step parent/ step family situation. There are far worse things a child can experience than having a step family love her too much.

Those last scenes with Delia telling Billy that he had to let go of her, but she would always be a part of him just killed me.