Remembering Douglas Marland: Timeless Storylines, Timeless Talent

[All My Shadows]

As long as there exists an Agnes E. Nixon in the soap opera history books, I will object to Douglas Marland receiving the "soap's greatest writer" label.

[Bright Eyes]

 

I think she, Irna, Bill Bell, and Henry Slesar (my personal favourite), and the underrated Gordon Russell are all better than him. But that IS saying a lot.

[P.J.]

You can argue about his ranking in the GOAT, but there's no denying his talent.

 

Oh, what I would have given for him to write for ATWT as long as he wanted.

[dragonflies]

I wish I'd gotten to see his work

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His "how not to ruin a soap" rules should be hanging on the wall of every soap writer's office, laminated and them made to study it lol

[ClassicsSoapFan]

Marland didn't want Holden to get his memory back. He wanted Lily and Holden to fall in love again.

He wanted Dan McCloskey to have his alzheimers play out gradually. Subsequent writers killed him with a heart attack.

I would have loved to see him write for Carly . If I am not mistaken ,she was on the drawing board but Packer and Backus brought her on.

 

I wonder if he would have went to Y&R? Just think of what could have been if he had been there before Latham and Maria ?

 

I wonder what Marland would have thought about Hogan Sheffer?

[Soapsuds]

Yeah, Carly was Marland's baby but he didn't get the chance to introduce her to the canvas or write for her.

[P.J.]

I think Marland would have loved writing for Maura. Loved with a capital L.

 

Marland would have hated Sheffer's lack of motivation and inattention to detail. Hated with a capital H.

[Soaplovers]

 

Oh god...perfect example of how.a writer and a show don't fit.

 

Days would have been boring under marland....days is a campy and dramatic show.   Now pam long on Days would have been a better fit.

[GregNYC]

I loved how one conversation at the Yacht Club or Mona Lisa could advance three different stories.

 

Had he lived, he would have HATED network interference and budget cuts. That's part of reason why he left GH and GL. CBS interference in the mid to late 90's would have eventually caused him to leave ATWT.

 

[Khan]

 

It wasn't always that way, though.  Ask the long-time fans who were around for the Bill Bell and Pat Falken Smith eras.  Heck, ask anyone who watched DAYS before JER came along.  Even when the show was mired in '80's supercouple madness, it wasn't as off-the-rails crazy as it has become in the past twenty-plus years (and all due to a man who, IMHO, held more than a little contempt for the show he was HW'ing).

[Soapsuds]

Marland could do campy. Just look at the storyline with Duncan/Lilieth/Shannon....that was campy as hell.

[amybrickwallace]

He was one of the last of the soap writers who really cared about multigenerational, family stories. Those really were the golden years!!

[Soaplovers]

I didn't like his writing...his shows felt very sterile and boring..no passion.  He could juggle stories and come up with good ideas and pacing...but his dialogue felt more like recap/gossip then actual people talking.  It just didn't feel realistic to me.

 

Days was always melodramatic and never cold or sterile.  He wouldn't have been a good fit for that sho

 

[Soapsuds]

Funny you call his ATWT boring and Days has been boring as [!@#$%^&*] for many years now....LOL

[Soaplovers]

Days is a lot of things...but boring wouldn't be one of them...train wreck is what I would call that show.

 

Of course, I thought pam long was a good writer

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