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The soap opera writers' discussion


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For her new shows such as One Life to Live, All My Children, and Loving, Agnes Nixon tended to use actors or actors' spouces who had appeared on Another World and The Guiding Light when she was writing them (Patricia Roe, Doris Belack, Joseph Gallison, Gillian Spenser, Judith Barcroft, Robin Strasser, Kay Campbell, Ernest Graves, Shepherd Strudwick, etc.).   However, Val Dufour auditioned for the role of Lars Bogart when it was being recast, and he lost the role.

 

I think that most writers have their favorite performers.   Francesca James and Candice Earley were two actresses whose work Ms. Nixon loved.

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I want to discuss a facet of the career of Agnes Nixon.

She never belonged to the writers' union, and, therefore, she was able to continue with her storylines and as the executive producer when the other shows were being written by others that their regular writers.

When the big strike came in 1966, she was writing Another World.  Did Another World continue during the time that most of the other shows were preempted by primetime reruns, or did the show leave the airwaves with most of the other shows?

I know that Dark Shadows continued by obtaining a waiver for the writer's union.  (although actor Robert Gerringer, who played Dr. Woodard, still refused to appear due to one of the unions was striking.  Mr. Gerringer was later replaced with actor Peter Turgeon.)  How did the show get this waiver from the writers' union?

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The 1966 writers' strike was averted. 

 

https://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/tvwriters_4/

 

 "...in June 1966, the (Writers') Guild threatened to strike against television producers, ironically asking to return to the residual payment system they had argued against when on strike in 1960. A week later, the strike was averted, a new three-year contract was signed, and the writers got their residuals. Another strike, this one with film producers, was averted in December 1966 [106, 107, 108]. In October 1968, the Guild threatened to strike against the television networks but negotiations led to a new three-year contract in late October [109, 110]. Another strike almost occurred in June 1970 but was averted [111]."

 

When there is a writers' strike, the soaps tend to rely on scab or "financial core" writers.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/arts/television/21soap.html

 

Robert Gerrenger refused to cross the picket line of NABET/ technicians' strike in 1967, and was let go from Dark Shadows that year. DS did not need any waiver from the writers' guild because there was no writers strike at that time. Soaps tend to muddle through when technical crews or writers go on strike. But of course, if actors walk out, that would shut down a show.

Edited by vetsoapfan
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Another World, and I assume the rest of the soaps were pre-empted from March 29 to April 10, 1967 due to an  AFTRA strike.  According to the Another World Homepage, when the show resumed on April 11th, Mitchell Dru caught the audience up on what was going on in Bay City:

 

Dru: "Come in. Come in. How good it is to be back with you again. (HE CLOSES THE DOOR AND MAKES HIS WAY TOWARD A DESK WHICH HAS A NUMBER OF LETTERS ON IT, REPRESENTING LETTERS FROM VIEWERS) And when I say that I'm speaking, of course, not just for myself but for everyone who is a part of Another World. And we particularly want to thank you for the many letters you have sent, saying that you have missed us for we have certaintly missed being with you. As far as we are concerned, absence does, indeed, make the heart grow fonder, and we hope that is the case with you...We also want to assure you that during our absence, you have not missed any important developments in the story. Tomorrow, there is a Grand Jury hearing of the State versus Melissa Palmer Fargo. An event which, as Missy's counsel, I am not looking forward to with any eagerness. The District Attorney only has a circumstantial case against Melissa but it's a very strong one, especially since we have no true lead yet as to who might have killed Danny Fargo. That, you see, is the big question in all our minds. Who did it? There's the man who came to see Danny several times, you know, the man Danny called Sam whom Missy saw. But as yet we have not been able to find him, or even to learn his last name...However, Bill is going to Chicago immediately after the Grand Jury hearing to try to get some lead from the people there who knew Danny...Another thing that disturbs me very much, though I don't like to say this even to John Randolph or Bill, is the lie Bill's mother forced Lenore to tell the police about her engagement to Bill. For it was a lie, no matter how Liz Matthews tries to justify it. And I am sure Walter Curtin suspects that Melissa and Bill are in love and I'm sure he intends to ferret out that fact (DRU MAKES HIS WAY TOWARD THE DOOR ADJOINING THE LIVING ROOM) Mary's in the kitchen fixing lunch and Bill and Melissa are still in the living room, I believe, enjoying a few moments alone. (HE CRACKS THE DOOR, LOOKS OUT, AND THE CAMERA, FROM DRU'S P.O.V., SHOWS MISSY AND BILL SEATED TOGETHER ON THE COUCH TALKING EARNESTLY AND HOLDING HANDS) Yes, there they are. And we'll join them in just a moment." (FADE OUT)

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I was originally thrown off by the reference to the writers' strike in 1966, because that was averted and did not shut down production of the soaps. But it makes perfect sense that the AFTRA drama did. Soaps can scramble around and get temporary substitutes to write scripts or man the technical controls, but they simply cannot replace the actors on-screen. 

 

The AW Homepage is a remarkable, valuable resource tool, just like Jason's DAYS Page. I wish we had moire sites like these, for the other vintage soaps. There's one for TEON but its content is very limited. And we used to have pages for Somerset and SFT, but I cannot find them anymore. I wonder if they have been deleted.

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Yes, Mark runs TEON page, but there was no new content for years, although 2017 saw some much-appreciated growth. It has not been updated for six months. I hope it's not "gone dark" again.

 

The link to the Somerset page has been dead for awhile. Perhaps if Mark runs it too, he has moved the site to anothrr domain, but googling it produces no results.

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Interesting- looking up a 1967 calendar- the soaps were off the air for 9 days-

Wednesday, March 29

Thursday, March 30

Friday, March 31

Monday, April 3

Tuesday, April 4

Wednesday, April 5

Thursday, April 6

Friday, April 7

Monday, April 10

 

AW, and I guess the rest of the soaps, returned on Tuesday, April 11.  AW was still a live broadcast at this time.  On May 24, 1967,  AW would make the transition to videotape from a live broadcast. I wonder if P&G and/or NBC made this decision so that AW could have episodes on hand and ready to broadcast in case there was another actors' strike?

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They SHOULD mention him. He was an interview subject in an important book about scriptwriting in the late 80s. He was a professor at the University of Southern California during that time, after he had finished head writing GH. In the book he talks about his first job as head writer of Search for Tomorrow; he says he had that job for five years. He talks about how head writers can get burned out, and also about things head writers shouldn't do. He also described what it was like writing scripts for Peyton Place, and about his time as head writer for a show in the 70s where he joked they had one character pregnant for a whole year!

 

His credits on the IMDb are certainly not complete, since his work on SFT is not listed. And in addition to Somerset, I think he also wrote on Love of Life for awhile in the 70s.

 

I have the unproduced bible he wrote for a new daytime soap in the early 80s. CBS considered airing it (the network instead went with Capitol). Reading Shaw's ideas for what would have been his show, you can see what themes mattered most to him.

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