The soap opera writers' discussion

[danfling]

Aside from the Karen Woleck Woleck storyline, what were some things that Gordon Russell wrote on One Life to Live.

 

To me, the  best writing he did (away from Dark Shadows) was the introduction of the Vernon family.

[victoria foxton]

 

This is way before my time watching. But here's a couple of things he did. From the top of my head. Gordon introduced the Buchanan clan. Karen and Marco switched Jenny's dead baby. With Katrina Karr's baby. Joe Reilly died from a brain tumor. He also created Tina. 

Edited April 30, 2020 by victoria foxton

[danfling]

Tina was a great creation!  I liked her with Greg Huddleston.  She drank a certain flavor of soda - grape, I think.

 

He also created Richard Abbott, Gwendolyn Lord Abbott,  Becky Lee Hunt/Jackson, and Johnny Drummond.

 

Jacqueline Zeman was great as Lana McClain.  I had been including her in the Vernon storyline.

 

And, the storyline about Brian Ashley's death was also good.   I had forgotten about these things when I posted.   But, I would like for someone else who was watching to recall what he/she thinks that were his best storylines.

 

In my own opinion, I did not think that the baby switch storyline was all that imaginative, but Katrina Karr and Marcello Salta were good characters.

Edited April 30, 2020 by danfling

[danfling]

Writer and actress Mary Pat Gleason has passed away.  She was seventy-six years old.  She wrote and appeared on Texas and Guiding Light.

[victoria foxton]

I liked her on the shortlived series The Middleman. I had no idea she was on the GL writing team in the mid 80's. As well as playing a role during the same time. RIP

[DramatistDreamer]

ICYMI, because I know I did.

[amybrickwallace]

This was great. Thank you for sharing it.

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[DramatistDreamer]

You're welcome.

A few days ago, I put in a request for my local library to purchase her book. If it were in the stacks, it would give me an excuse to take a brisk walk to my library and check it out, donning my mask, of course.

[amybrickwallace]

Awesome!! Keep us posted. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Got my hands on the ebook version ( was hoping for the audiobook, oh well) and while looking through the Table Of Contents, I noticed the title of Chapter 12..."The World Turns"

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.

[amybrickwallace]

There you go!!!

[DemetriKane]

!!!

[danfling]

I learned this week that a writer named Arlene Stadd (who wrote The Doctors in 1979 and General Hospital in 1987) was the wife or the former wife of Leonard Stadd, who had written From These Roots and Our Five Daughters on NBC.  He had co-created (with Eugene Barr) Our Five Daughters.

[danfling]

RIP writer Mary Ryan Munisteri.

Starting her career in the mid-1970s, she was considered a pioneer in 1970s daytime serial television, writing for programs like" Love of Life," "Guiding Light," "As the World Turns," and other shows . . .She settled in Brooklyn, NY, where her best friend and co-writer Claire Labine named for Mary the main character "Mary Ryan" (a role originated by Kate Mulgrew) on the eponymous soap opera "Ryan's Hope," for which Mary was a longtime script, long-story, and "breakdown" writer.

[danfling]

Here is the obituary:

 

MUNISTERI--Mary Ryan (1939-2022). Mary Ryan Munisteri died peacefully at her home in Brooklyn, NY, on January 29, 2022 at 82 years old. Starting her career in the mid-1970s, she was considered a pioneer in 1970s daytime serial television, writing for programs like" Love of Life," "Guiding Light," "As the World Turns," and other shows. A graduate of Trinity College (now Trinity Washington University) in Washington, D.C., Mary went on to graduate from Yale University with an M.A.T. degree. She settled in Brooklyn, NY, where her best friend and co-writer Claire Labine named for Mary the main character "Mary Ryan" (a role originated by Kate Mulgrew) on the eponymous soap opera "Ryan's Hope," for which Mary was a longtime script, long-story, and "breakdown" writer. With approximately a dozen Daytime Emmy awards to her name, Mary also won a best writing Emmy Award for the short film "Mandy's Grandmother" (starring Maureen O'Sullivan), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film. Mary was also head of the Writers Development Program at CBS and finished her career with a long stint writing for the successful daytime show "General Hospital." She retired in 2005. She is survived by her children, Matt Munisteri (Carmela Marner), Ben Munisteri (James Bowyer), and Adele Munisteri (Andres Gleich), and two grandchildren, Arlo and Calla Gleich. The family will announce a memorial service at a later date.