Why do these writers continue to write shitty material? Have they not learned anything from fans? Any wonder soaps are all but dead. This writers can write worth sh!t!

Edited December 29, 20168 yr by Soapsuds

In decades past, many brilliant scribes worked their magic on daytime TV, but alas, most of the master writers have either passed away or retired. Those responsible for "writing" the soaps in the last few decades have mainly been talentless hacks who keep getting recycled from show to show, regardless of their continued, complete failure to produce good material.

 

Bradley Bell is not going anywhere, and will never be replaced unless he chooses to retire, and after many, many years, there is a glimmer of hope for Y&R with Kay Alden back on board, but both GH and DAYS need to fire their headwriters immediately. The problem is, who is available to replace them? The resource pool is dry.

 

Jean and Shelly are doing compelling in the most modern way. Its just amazing to watch.

Just now, JONNYSBRO said:

 

Jean and Shelly are doing compelling in the most modern way. Its just amazing to watch.

 

I agree, it's amazing to watch anyone contend that their work is compelling!

6 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

I agree, it's amazing to watch anyone contend that their work is compelling!

Game, set and match to Vet. as Vet receives the trophy for winning the title, we pause for these commercial breaks....

6 hours ago, JONNYSBRO said:

 

Jean and Shelly are doing compelling in the most modern way. Its just amazing to watch.

It's always amazing to watch outright [!@#$%^&*], isn't it?

26 minutes ago, Roman said:

Game, set and match to Vet. as Vet receives the trophy for winning the title, we pause for these commercial breaks....

It's always amazing to watch outright [!@#$%^&*], isn't it?

 

LOL!

7 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

I agree, it's amazing to watch anyone contend that their work is compelling!

 

 

There's nothing modern or compelling about GH. It's the least amount of trash at the moment. It's basic soap opera.

8 minutes ago, KMan101 said:

 

 

There's nothing modern or compelling about GH. It's the least amount of trash at the moment. It's basic soap opera.

 

Sadly, all four of the remaining soaps have been in the toilet for a long time. The only one that shows any hope for salvation is Y&R. GH is drifting steadily down the drain and unless major changes are made by people who know how to produce and write it well, the show will never recover.

Y&R definitely has a chance. It's so much better than it has been in 10+ years. Of course that remains subjective but I'm watching every day and I couldn't always say that. Pratt's writing was such trash. It's night and day different and it took all of one episode to notice it.

Were network executives as involved in the day-to-day story back in the 70's-80's as they are now? Did the writers have more of a free reign to actually write? I'm not justifying the poor writing that there is currently. I'm just curious if writers are being told more now whom to feature, whom to pair up, etc than there used to be. 

I don;t remember so. as long as the shows were under good control, and the stories and acting were taken care off, they let the show runners have free reign....plus you had people like Ted & Betty Corday, Agnes Nixon and William Bell.....so they wouldn't step in until asked to, because those that i named plus others wouldn't hear of network interference unless it was necessary. 

When Ron was at GH people complained it was a cartoony awful mess hallow and terrible. Remember the Denise crap and plunging ratings at end. 2016 was a magical year for GH ratings went up, critical aclaim up and very engrossing show.

 

Its too soon to call the new YR amazing. I have seen 2 good episodes the breakfast and christmas eve one. Its been very talky and dull to me and ratings are down from JFP/Pratt. They had about 5.6 million when Pratt launched his disaster stories. I hate how Billy and Phyllis were swept under a rug and no Adam recast which is a huge umbrella storyline. Ill know in 6 months if i like what i see.

1 hour ago, KMan101 said:

Y&R definitely has a chance. It's so much better than it has been in 10+ years. Of course that remains subjective but I'm watching every day and I couldn't always say that. Pratt's writing was such trash. It's night and day different and it took all of one episode to notice it.

 

Pratt's material has always been horrendous. His low-brow, anti-intellectual camp has temporarily appealed to certain audiences on certain shows, but he is not suited at all for a television series which aims for quality. Like Jean P., get gets recycled all the time but never actually improves.

 

Yet Pratt had the highest ratings YR had in 10 years lol. Pratt had great ratings in his two years. So critical acclaim and ratings dont always meet. Jean P has won awards.  She still gets hired and has current relevance.

Daytime no longer attracts top talent. Aspiring TV writers are not attracted to daytime, nor has daytime done anything to attract top talent, not 15-20 years ago when an aspiring TV writer would have had access to some of the Master Soap Writers, while most were still active in the business and certainly not now, when daytime lacks the resources to do proper outreach.

 

Because there was no proper outreach to aspiring TV writers, the industry has a small pool of "talent" from which to draw, which mainly consists of friends and relatives of people already in the industry.

When daytime does extend itself outside the near incestuous circle, they usually choose people who either have no grasp of the show's history and care little for it, or people who have become 'rusty' from lack of creative challenges/people looking for an interlude in between the assignments that they truly want, or someone close to retirement, looking for a soft gig to "land" before calling it a day in the industry.

 

Not exactly fresh faces with fresh ideas.

Edited January 3, 20178 yr by DramatistDreamer