A check is a check, and she has about 5 kids, so I can't begrudge her. She kept it vague, so it could have been the people who were at ATWT before him too. It does make me a little sad, because the soap "press" already says that Ron is superior to Marland, so this just further cements that delusion.

Dirt...or dog crap?

I was trying to be somewhat civil but I'd feel sorry for the dog crap

Actually what MW said is true about ATWT and all soaps in general during the era she is talking about. They moved very slowly. In fact, she rightly mentioned Feb & May - because stuff always happened during sweeps, but it definitely slowed down in between. Haven't read a ton of interviews with MW, she has rarely spoken an unkind word so I doubt she meant this any type of slight. Notice she isn't bitter or makes excuses for the lack of the Emmy nod.

Actually what MW said is true about ATWT and all soaps in general during the era she is talking about. They moved very slowly. In fact, she rightly mentioned Feb & May - because stuff always happened during sweeps, but it definitely slowed down in between. Haven't read a ton of interviews with MW, she has rarely spoken an unkind word so I doubt she meant this any type of slight. Notice she isn't bitter or makes excuses for the lack of the Emmy nod.

No one is saying MW is wrong about soaps back in the day, but what happened in between Sweeps? Certainly not retconned plot point garbage! Yes, MW is a class act, but she was slighting the writers of yesteryear, whether she realizes it or not. If you missed something back in the day, you missed a lot. If you miss something today on GH, there will be flashbacks minutes later to remind you of what was said a few minutes ago. Then you have to worry about, has the plot changed, has the history changed, is the motivation the same or does it even tie to the matter at hand. MW can shut it!!!!!

Maura is just terrible! So overrated. She only worked as Carly, not as Diane or Faith 2.0.

No one is saying MW is wrong about soaps back in the day, but what happened in between Sweeps? Certainly not retconned plot point garbage! Yes, MW is a class act, but she was slighting the writers of yesteryear, whether she realizes it or not. If you missed something back in the day, you missed a lot. If you miss something today on GH, there will be flashbacks minutes later to remind you of what was said a few minutes ago. Then you have to worry about, has the plot changed, has the history changed, is the motivation the same or does it even tie to the matter at hand. MW can shut it!!!!!

Yes. Yes. Yes. Everybody knows that, even though characters/stories didn't jump from car accidents to kidnappings, to rape, to shootings, to doppelgangers, to incest with breakneck pace, a lot happened in-between. That's because the well-written shows dealt in character, motivations, dynamics and struggles. THAT'S what got viewers hooked. When that was forgotten, so was the art of soap.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Everybody knows that, even though characters/stories didn't jump from car accidents to kidnappings, to rape, to shootings, to doppelgangers, to incest with breakneck pace, a lot happened in-between. That's because the well-written shows dealt in character, motivations, dynamics and struggles. THAT'S what got viewers hooked. When that was forgotten, so was the art of soap.

This!!

I'm not gonna dog Maura West. She has a plum role she is eating up with a spoon onscreen, living it up after years of misery in the dying days of P&G and ATWT. I blame the storylines and the writing on other people.

Who in the soap press said this? I googled it and found that a FB poster said that Ron's writing was on par with the likes of Lemay, Marland, Nixon, and Phillips.

Marland in this age of hypersensitivity, would've picked apart for his farm boy "fetish", quasi incest pairings, and the Synders would've been accused of eating the show alive.

I remember it somewhere at DC, although it might have just been a fan comment and maybe I mistook it for one of the writers.

It's not about "hypersensitivity." Any writer would be picked apart. Marland certainly wasn't perfect, and I've said so myself over the years here. It's telling though that you criticize him for several things that are very common on soaps (quasi-incestuous relationships, new characters taking up airtime). Ron Carlivati is such a horrendous writer that he has endless failures truly unique to him.

Edited June 2, 201411 yr by DRW50

I try not to deify Marland. The man had real talent obviously but I wonder what it would be like if he was writing a show in the present climate. Can you imagine what a Doug Marland Twitter feed would like like today?

I doubt he would say much on one. He was fairly private to the soap press back in the day, he just had close friendships with certain people I think.

Most soap writers even now are low-key and don't show their ass on Twitter.

I doubt someone like Marland would be writing a soap now, most likely.

As for deifying him - no one here is doing so, but Maura making such a specific comparison, putting down ATWT because she's currently employed by GH, means his name was put into it. I'm sure she didn't just mean him. But if we're specifically comparing two writers, then yes, Marland > Ron. All day every day.

Hell, Stephen Black and Henry Stern > Ron.

I doubt he would say much on one. He was fairly private to the soap press back in the day, he just had close friendships with certain people I think.

Most soap writers even now are low-key and don't show their ass on Twitter.

I doubt someone like Marland would be writing a soap now, most likely.

As for deifying him - no one here is doing so, but Maura making such a specific comparison, putting down ATWT because she's currently employed by GH, means his name was put into it. I'm sure she didn't just mean him. But if we're specifically comparing two writers, then yes, Marland > Ron. All day every day.

Hell, Stephen Black and Henry Stern > Ron.

Falcon Crest yes...ATWT....hmmm...not too sure...maybe an equal sign...meaning both really bad...lol

Edited June 2, 201411 yr by Soapsuds

The best writers in daytime that ive seen their work wether in real time or Youtube is

Bill Bell

Irna Phillips

Claire Labine

Agnes Nixon

Winsor Washam

Douglas Marland

Pam Long

Michael Malone

RC is no where near this

Thinking back I feel he got a lot of praise for OLTL & GH cause of what Higley & Guza did to those soaps. TC's start was always good but always fizzled out and never truly recovered

The writers above wrote to character and understood soaps

Edited June 2, 201411 yr by John

Falcon Crest yes...ATWT....hmmm...not too sure...maybe an equal sign...meaning both really bad...lol

If they didn't tell any stories about how hot and funny it is to rape women with brain damage, then I'd say they have to be better.

Of course on this, the most negative and whiny board on the internet, no one can fathom that Maura actually does like her job and the writing for her character. Leave it to this group to turn a positive interview into a whiney fest.

Why does everyone read what she says as a slam? She didn't quantify it by making fun of that style or saying it was worse. She doesn't say anything about it being boring or worse, just that GH's storylines are super fast and filled with twists. They are. Not good stories or good twists, but it does fly by.