The soap opera writers' discussion

[Khan]

Oh, I remember all the wild speculation on this board about Veronica's true identity, lol.

 

[danfling]

Don Hastings did not use his real name when he was writing for The Guiding Light.  (He was C. C. Matthews.)

[amybrickwallace]

Another "new" writer showed up in the credits of the Christmas 1977 episode of The Doctors - Linda F. Wendell. Ms. Wendell apparently had been a producer of LIAMST.

[danfling]

 I found this trivia about writer/producer Linda Fidler Wendell:

 

Mother of Jonathan Cole Wendell, who played baby Phillip Scott Elliott on parents' soap opera Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.

Met husband John A. Wendell on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing where she produced and he was set decorator.

[amybrickwallace]

How interesting - thanks for sharing that info. 

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[j swift]

I went deep on the connection between the Hursleys of GH and the Dobsons of SB (and others) because I am interested in the number of married soap writers and multigenerational soap families.  

 

Bridget was Doris and Frank's daughter from her second marriage and his third.  Since Frank had already been married twice before, there was a scandal about Doris (his student)'s mother helping him acquire a professorship to secure the marriage  Later they created GH.

 

Bridget grew up and married Jerome and they worked first on Guiding Light which was scheduled opposite GH, just as later SB would be scheduled against GH.  The legend is that they rarely spoke, and Frank Sr. never had a relationship with his son Frank Jr from his first marriage.  Correct me if I wrong, but while GH always won the ratings battle, it lost viewership during the Dobson's time both at GL and SB  But, I want to know what characters were inspired by their own story?

 

Bridget about her mother Doris from the SB blog: " They never watched any of my shows. When they were asked why not, they said, 'Because we want to be proud of Bridget. That's why we don't watch.'"  Can you imagine such a cruel comment coming from any of either of their characters? 

 

Could this be the inspiration for why Pamela and Sofia were absent from their young children's lives?  SB had recurrent themes of how parenthood changed characters for the better such as Julia, Gina, and Caroline.  Most of the women in SB could be divided into Good Moms (Gina, Julia, Eden) and Bad Moms (Pamela, Santana, and Victoria) and themes of motherhood and abandonment were intrinsic to the story

 

Was the lack of children on GH for early female characters like Lucile, Jessie, Audrey, and Gail reflective of the Hursley's lack of interest in telling stories about parenting? Obviously, Audrey and Gail became mothers later but there are a remarkably large number of women in the early GH cannon who never raised young children.

 

And from a Michigan Today article about the family: Bridget Dobson retired from TV in 1995, but the plot still thickens. In 2011 she and her half-sisters from Doris Hursley’s first marriage sued ABC, alleging the Hursleys’ estate had been cheated out of royalties generated by “General Hospital.” The plaintiffs are cited as the Hursley heirs.  Frank Hursley Jr. (from his first marriage) passed away in 2008; his heirs are not included as part of Frank Sr.’s estate or the litigation. 

 

https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2013/07/29/a8670/

 

It is a cliche that truth is crazier than fiction, but the history between these two couples really caught my interest.  I would love to know if anyone has any further sources on their relationship.

Edited May 4, 2019 by j swift

[Cat]

@j swift As a fan of both GH and SB, I knew the Hursleys and Dobsons were family, but I never knew the bitterness between mother and daughter. You make a compelling argument about their anger and resentment with each other playing out on their shows, underpinning the characters' psychology and emotions.

 

It casts the tragedy of Eden on SB, who succumbed to multiple personality disorder at the end of her run, in another light. As if the daughter could never escape her past traumas, her mother's abandonment. And what a mirror those multiple personalities were with Sophia returning to town early in the show's run, disguised as a man and assuming a male alter ego.

Edited May 4, 2019 by Cat

[danfling]

Prior to creating General Hospital, Frank and Doris Hurley wrote Search for Tomorrow for a number of years.   I know that the characters of Patti Tate and Janet Bergman were already on that show prior to their arrival.   I wonder if they were the writers who decided that Marge should have a second child?

 

Frank and Doris Hursey even continued to write for Search for Tomorrow after the premiere of General Hospital.  Theordore Ferro and Mathilde Ferro were that show's original head writers (for less than one year).  I know nothing of bitterness between mother and daughter, but I do know that Doris Hursley was the daughter of a Congressman and that German was only spoken in their household.

 

Also, Audrey certainly had a child after she married Steve.  Jessie and Phil Brewer also had a daughter who died.

Edited May 4, 2019 by danfling

[BetterForgotten]

Didn't Bridget and Jerry write for GH first and that's what got the attention of P&G and they were later hired for GL? The Dobson's wrote for GL from 1975 - 1979, GL regularly out-rated GH during most of this time. It wasn't until the 1978-1979 season that GH became a major ratings success and that was obviously due to Monty/Marland. 

 

GH was the #1 show during most of the years SB was on, and I don't think SB ever really eroded GH's ratings. GH just seemed to lost viewers gradually throughout the 80's, while Y&R kept consistent and grew, and eventually stole the #1 spot by the end of that decade. 

[danfling]

The first daytime serial written by Bridget and Jerome Dobson was General Hospital.  They wrote that show from 1973 to 1975.   They were the replacement for Frank and Doris Hursley, and they, in turn, were replaced by Richard and Suanne Holland.

Edited May 4, 2019 by danfling

[j swift]

P&G hiring The Dobsons at GL without prior consideration or consultation with the Hursley's was described as not being the beginning of their estrangement, but it was the final nail in the coffin.  Contrary to popular belief, Bridget was alone at GH as an associate writer, although her sister worked with her for a short amount of time, her husband was still teaching at Stanford (the same university that had her father on faculty).  When her contract ended and she met with P&G execs who offered her GL.  It expanded to an hour, she needed more writers so she hired Jerry.

 

The SB blog interview has tons of facts I never knew

 

I did not just want a job (at GH, after graduating from Stanford and then Harvard Business School).  I was obsessed.  I was adamant.  I was furious.  I was outrageous.  I pleaded.  I begged.  I threatened. I had trained for this.  They stonewalled me.  No.  No job.  We'll hire your sister.  Which they did.  Why not me?  “Because you're a party girl.”  and  “Because you'll never meet the deadlines.”   My parents never liked my work, I think, they just liked the ratings the show was getting.  How do I know they didn't like my work? I never received one word of compliment

 

He was head of Procter and Gamble Productions.    He said, "Of course, Bridget.  We've been following your work on GH and think it's wonderful.  Do you want to be a headwriter?  Or do you prefer to stay an associate writer?"

 

My new contract was set the next week.  And then, at the end of that same week, I received a phone call:  My mother had terrible cancer and was to be hospitalized for an indefinite length of time.  And then another phone call from the Vice President in Charge of Daytime Television at ABC-TV: "Bridget, you can't leave the show.  If you leave the show, I'm going to walk into that hospital and fire your mother and your father. I swear to you I will do it."  I had to stay on GH.  It would kill my parents to be forcibly removed from the show, their creation, their baby.

 

I remained for two more years with GH, this time as headwriter with no assistance from my parents.  At the end of this jail sentence, I went dancing off to NY to start writing for Guiding Light.

 

To be fair, The Dobsons later had major beef with P&G as well as New World when they did SB.  So, they could have been the instigating thread through all of these battles.  However, I am fascinated by how it inspired their writing.

 

Another twist, in 2014 Frank Jr's son Duncan guested on GH, even though Frank Jr had almost no relationship with his father.

Edited May 5, 2019 by j swift

[BetterForgotten]

How would one describe Bridget and Jerry's stint at GH? Obviously, it got the attention of P&G, but I've not heard a ton about how it was received. Clearly, it seems, they hated working there.

 

GL seemed to be the best fit for them and their best work (I'm including SB here). SB ultimately seemed like a show that dominated by it's staff writers and eventually Jill Phelps - no one has ever claimed it be a soap that ever had an era that was consistently amazing in terms of storyline content. 

[Khan]

Bridget Hursley Dobson is a very complicated woman.  Brilliant, but complicated.

 

About the only storyline from the Dobsons' GH stint that gets mentioned is the "Who Killed Phil Brewer?" mystery.

[BetterForgotten]

But at least they couldn't lock her out of the Emmy's!

 

 

Speaking of the Dobson's, did anyone know Jerry published his first novel last year? I stumbled upon this article/interview with him from last June

[Khan]

As...eccentric as they are, I wish the Dobsons would return to daytime.  If not as HW's, then maybe as breakdown or script writers.  They were just too good at what they did, and Lord knows this industry needs them more than ever.

 

I love the looks on JFP's and (I think) Steve Kent's faces when Bridget made that comment.  It's like they were saying, "Really, bitch?  You wanna bring that up now?"  Then, they just stood there, looking dumbstruck and crestfallen as hell, and just waiting for it all to be over.

Edited May 5, 2019 by Khan