Could a WGA Strike be a "Death Knell" for Soaps?

[Soaplovers]

We've had discussions in the past about soaps and how fi core/scabs affected things in the 1988 strike....but what do you think affected each soap the most during the 2007/8 strike story wise.

[Chris B]

One thing I do remember is that B&B benefited heavily from NOT having Brad Bell at the helm. Kay Alden did wonderful things with the show at the time and that was before the resurgence with Steffy, Liam, etc. being added to the cast.

[RavenWhitney]

DAYS told a few heartfelt stories and killed off Papa Brady. Noel Maxam produced and directed some of the best episodes during that time.  The writing was sharper.

YR: Griffith slowed everything down to a classic Bill Bell dullsville but that was a good thing after Latham's hatched job

GH: this is the only show I thought got worse under Wolf/Conforti

I didn't watch B&B and never would.  I'd rather play with my Barbie and Ken dolls and make up better stories in their country camper. 

 

In the 1988 writer's strike, AW vastly improved the most under Swajeski (other contributors to that show were Michael Zazlow and his wife Susan Huffed (Roger on GL!!).  

 

[Khan]

I'd be shocked (or maybe not) if Kay Alden were to take over Y&R during a strike and do such a good job for the network and SONY that they keep HER on as HW and let Sally Sussman go once the strike were over.

 

Kay Alden isn't the most dynamic soap scribe in the world; you'll never get from her the eye-catching, jaw-dropping moments like you did once upon a time from Bell, Marland, Nixon, etc.  But I think Y&R fans know that, like GL's Nancy Curlee, Alden has a firm grasp on characters and knows how to make individual scenes "sing," two things that, IMO, can forgive a multitude of other sins.

[Soapsuds]

The soaps can't get any worse with the strike.

[Khan]

If anything, we won't be able to find any differences.

[Aback]

 

Can you refresh my memory on what she did? I can't remember and I tend to think KA is overrated (I don't think her golden Y&R years were entirely her doing), but I would be happy to stand corrected.

[ReddFoxx]

Days will be saved by it's advanced taping schedule, which has already been mentioned. B&B is probably safe because it's international reach helps it stay stable and Y&R could go either way. ABC would scrap GH and turn the hour back over to the local stations.

[dragonflies]

IMO this will be the nail in GH's coffin

[Sindacco]

I can't remember either, would love to know.

 

Also if someone could say what Wolf wrote on GH? I just remember the awful ending, to an already awful story, when Diego Alcazar was revealed as the Text Message Killer.

[titan1978]

GH had the terrible text killer storyline wrap up with a killer out of left field, only to write out the rumored original killer in the next stupid storyline once Guza was back.

[Soaplovers]

I just remember OLTL had  story that Ron C said wasn't in his outlines and he felt he had to finish it..though he didn't understand it....kinda like what happened to Pam Long at GL after the 1988 strike where she had to flesh out Blake and her phone calls..and the scabs didn't know who she was talking to.

[Khan]

Who WAS the rumored original culprit?

 

Was it during Conforti & Wolf's GH when we had Jason retrieving his pre-Jason Morgan memories and maybe leaving the mob?  I seem to recall Bob Guza returning from the strike and putting the kibosh on it.

 

I remember Ron planned for, I think, the Jessica/Natalie baby switch to be retconned into something else via some disc which would have explained (away) everything.  However, and I might have this wrong, but Gary Tomlin, who was HW'ing during the strike, had a character (Mitch or Alison?) destroy that disc; and by the time the strike was over, and Ron had returned, he said, in effect, that they had to move on, but left open the possibility of revisiting that story in the future (which he did, I guess, in the ABC finale).

[Khan]

 

I've heard two, semi-conflicting stories about Blake Lindsay's origins.  One story suggests the scab writers created Blake and that Long (or, probably, Nancy Curlee, since we now know that Long didn't know much of GL's history) came up with the idea, post-strike, to make her Roger and Holly's daughter.  The OTHER story suggests Long did, in fact, create Blake, but that she did not intend for her to be grown-up Chrissy.  (Who Blake was supposed to be and why Long didn't stick to her original plan, I have no idea, lol.)  Either way, it's probably a great example of how a smart HW (or co-HW) can take an awful story left behind by scabs and turn it into something useful.

 

Meanwhile, I think it's common knowledge that the same strike (from '88) did in RYAN'S HOPE.  With Claire Labine back as HW, the show seemed to be inching forward, but the strike ruined the momentum for a show that was already on life support.  I hope the same fate doesn't await GH.

[Vee]

I'm not sure GH can get much worse during a strike.

 

I know/think I know that Frank went to bat for Ron Carlivati in '08 during that strike. Ron had only just started, was doing very well, and when the strike hit Frons allegedly wanted him out and replaced with fi-core scab(?) Gary Tomlin permanently.