The soap opera writers' discussion

[Khan]

Thanks for the article on Frank Salisbury, @Paul Raven.  Next to Patrick Mulcahey, he was the best dialogue writer in the business.  (Too bad the writer didn't mention his work on THE DOCTORS or THE EDGE OF NIGHT, though.)

[Contessa Donatella]

Maloney, M., & Bell, L. P. (2012). The Young and Restless Life 0f William J. Bell. Sourcebooks, Inc.

Excerpts from 

p.38

Irna & Bill co-created Another World. The show bible dated 8-26-63 is 24 pages long. "In a community not too far from Oakdale, a community near the university -- one that is certainly not what we usually think of as suburbia but not completely cosmopolitan either -- live two families," Irna & Bill wrote.

 

"As far as Another World is concerned, we believe that in some way we all create 'another world' for ourselves. If we didn't, facing reality 24 hours a day would be too much. But as for another world for women, we feel that the viewer, who we hope will come to know all the people to whom you've been introduced will recognize in this story that a home and a family should be solidified & not attached."

 

Creating AW also provided valuable lessons. "It was a whole new level of learning," Bill said of starting an original daytime series. Another World, which Rose Cooperman titled & which chronicled the lives of the Matthews family.

 

Bill & Irna left AW & James Lipton came in but then he also left & Agnes Nixon came in. Her Alice/Steve/Rachel triangle put the show on the map.

 

"Aggie did a fabulous job with that show," praised Bill.

My favorite writers are in no order at all:

Lemay, Labine, Curlee, Swajeski, Hurst, Mulcahey, the Dobsons, Marland, Val Jean, CCulliton, Falken Smith, Bell, Nixon & Phillips. 15. I like writers. So sue me.

[Contessa Donatella]

Maloney, M., & Bell, L. P. (2012). The Young and Restless Life 0f William J. Bell. Sourcebooks, Inc.

 

p. 41

 

On December 23, 1973, Irna Phillips died of natural causes at the age of 72, in her apartment in Chicago's Gold Coast area. She died in her sleep, in her bed, alone. It is thought that the last thing she worked on was her unfinished autobiography. Her obituary in the Chicago Tribune said she had requested a private burial service & that her family not issue a public notice of her death. Her desire to slip away quietly spoke to a great loneliness that she felt throughout her life. Speaking of her enviable career, Irna told Time magazine in 1940, "I'd give it all up if a man came along."

 

Irna received posthumous Daytime Emmy Award nominations as co-creator of Days of Our Lives. But she did not live long enough to receive many accolades. She is commemorated on a signpost outside her North Astor Street residence. The memorial, founded by the Chicago Tribune foundation & the Chicago Cultural Center credits her as "the mother of soap opera."

p. 40 

Bill learned many things from Irna, including the importance of protecting his writers. ATWT cast member Don Hastings was privy to what went on in the writers' room, courtesy of his own brief writing stint with Irna. He recalls: "If someone from P&G or CBS didn't like a script and said, "Who wrote this?" Irna would say, "I write all the scripts! If you don't like it, it's my fault because I'm the one who said this is something that should be broadcast!"

 

p. 42

Bill never failed to honor the contributions Irna had made to his career. Later saying, "None of us do anything of consequence alone. Like Agnes Nixon, I, too, had that legend of all legends, Irna Phillips, who invested a lot of herself in me."

Edited December 20, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
more

[Mona Kane Croft]

Did Irna never receive a Lifetime Achievement Emmy?  That is a crime.  Somebody at the Emmys needs to wake up. Irna essentially invented daytime.  Other than gameshows, I suppose.   

[Contessa Donatella]

Irna never received any honors at all of any kind, basically, and it stinks! This local commemoration is the first I've heard of anything except one thing. There is one book on Women Pioneers in TV where Irna has a chapter. (I have this book & I also typed out the whole chapter in text, so I could post it or PM it to people, or whatever. Obviously, on the long side for a post.) 

Women Pioneers in Television: Biographies of Fifteen Industry Leaders by Cary O'Dell. McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers. Jefferson, NC © 1997.
Irna Phillips pg. 181-193

In 1991 TV GUIDE published a special commemorative magazine celebrating its 2,000th issue. Included in its pages was a special section on television visionaries, "The Creators." Of the twenty names there (among whom were Pat Weaver, Norman Lear, David Sarnoff, William Paley, and Leonard Goldenson), only one belonged to a woman.(1) That woman was almost single-handedly responsible for creating one of the most enduring and most profitable television genres in history. As Dan Wakefield wrote in 1976, she "is to soap opera what Edison is to the light bulb and Fulton to the steamboat."(2) She founded the industry of the television soap opera and for forty years was its single greatest writer, producer, guardian angel, and guiding light. The name? Irna Phillips.

Agnes, right place, right time, has honors that go on & on & on.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
clarify

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay, ChatGPT says I am wrong & that Irna was posthumously given the Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. Eventually I will go to the emmy website & check to see if that is true. If it is, thank god! 

[Mona Kane Croft]

I hope this is correct, but I don't remember it at all.  That is the kind of thing I believe I would have noticed.  Maybe I'm getting old and just forgot about it.  LOL.  Were the Daytime Emmy's broadcast in 2017?  I usually try to watch, but I missed it this year.   

[Contessa Donatella]

I cannot find it to confirm it. Been at it off & on. I have no memory of this at all!  April 30, 2017 NO BROADCAST. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

I just remembered, someone posted a list of all the Daytime Emmy lifetime achievement award winners somewhere online just a couple of months ago.  It was either here on the SON Board, or maybe in a Facebook group.  I remember looking through the list out of curiosity, but I can't remember if Irna was on it.   I don't know where the poster found the list originally.   

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay, I just found 2017 Daytime Emmys & it shows one Lifetime Achievement Award only & that is Mary Hart. 

Now Chat GPT apologizes & says they were wrong. 

[Paul Raven]

‘Falcon Crest’ writers call Palm Springs home

Desert Sun Dec 19 2013

By Xochitl Peña;

 

It may be surprising to know that two of the writers behind some of the most theatrical nighttime soap operas of the 1980s are anything but melodramatic.

There are no angry slaps or throwing of cocktails between Steve Black and Henry Stern — just a lot of laughing.

“We laugh all the time. We wake up and we start doing shtick. When we’re making the bed we are laughing and talking,” said Black.

The Palm Springs couple have logged more than 600 hours of primetime and daytime television between the two over their approximately 27 years as writing partners.

The two are known for their long run as writers and producers of “Falcon Crest” — the nighttime soap that ran from 1981 to 1990 and featured the late Jane Wyman as the matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery.

But throughout the years they also wrote episodes for “Flamingo Road,” “Paper Dolls,” “Matlock,” “Knots Landing,” “Silk Stalkings,” “Dynasty,” “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman” and “As the World Turns.” Their first paid gig was a script for “The Love Boat.”

“The thing we love to do best is tell stories and the best genre for that is an ongoing serial drama whether it is daytime or nighttime and we found that we had a great affinity for it and we took to that,” said Stern, 67.

“It was Black and Stern all the way through,” said Black, 71.

The two also wrote television movies with the biggest thrill coming when they got to write a movie for Audrey Hepburn.

“It was the only thing she did for American television and it was because she read another script we had done. Because she loved our script, she agreed to do one with us,” said Stern.

The movie was called “Love Among Thieves” and came out in 1987. The two recall how the script originally called for Hepburn to be hiding in a refrigerated meat car. The thought of getting up close and personal with meat carcass, though, did not appeal to Hepburn. So they changed the scene to a refrigerated car full of flowers. That was her only change to the script, they said.

“We lived and breathed television. It became our lives,” said Black.

Early inspiration

What drove their long and prosperous success was a love for the genre and not being pigeonholed as just comedy or drama writers. They tried everything, said Stern.

Before they met and started working together, Stern was producing shows on Broadway and Black was a promotion writer for Look Magazine and wrote plays.

They were both in their 20s when they met at a New York bar that had just opened in March 1969 — just months before the Stonewall riots that led to the gay liberation movement.

“I kept asking him to dance and he declined,” said Black. “I went back and he finally agreed to meet me for lunch.”

That persistence paid off because the two quickly became a couple, committed to each other months later on June 10 of that same year.

“When you know, you know,” said Stern.

Black remembers having to push apart their twin beds during the day just in case folks from work stopped by.

Though they were never closeted, being gay wasn’t as accepted early in their lives as it is today, said Stern.

“The sense of belonging and not having that stigma of just ‘oh well we’re tolerated’ really came about as gay rights became more and more available to peoples,” said Black.

“We were in that transitional generation. We appreciate much more what we have today because of the experiences we had to go through,” said Stern.

he two were at the kitchen counter when the Supreme Court in June cleared the way for same-sex marriage.

“It was a very emotionally draining moment,” said Black.

“That was the day we knew we would be getting married very soon,” said Stern.

When they could finally apply for a marriage license, they were third in line in Indio.

The two were married on July 1 at Palm Springs City Hall by Mayor Steve Pougnet after 44 years together.

“We are fortunate to live in this wonderful community where it’s accepted as part of the fabric,” said Black.

Sitting side-by side on their couch, it’s evident by the gentle touch of a hand or gaze, the love between the two is still burning bright — even after all these years.

“We’ve had a wonderful ride,” said Black.

“I loved being able to work with Steve. That was a wonderful part of it that we got to experience this together. The relationships were symbiotic. The personal enhanced the work, the work enhanced the personal,” said Stern.

As for how they were able to come up with so many dramatic story lines: “Everyone has imagination,” said Black.

“The trick is to take what could happen in real life and to exaggerate it into something dramatic that will be interesting to watch because you don’t want to watch real life,” said Stern.

What are your favorite shows?

Both agree for dramas it’s “Homeland” and “Scandal.” For comedy, it is “Modern Family.”

What actor did you most enjoy working with?

Audrey Hepburn. “Probably the most generous, most respectful actor we ever worked for,” said Black.

“She was everything in person that you expected her to be. So lovely and easy to work with,” said Stern.

What is key to working together?

Trust. “The element you can’t manufacture in a partnership is trust,” said Black.

Also, added Stern, if they had an argument at home, they didn’t bring it work and vice versa.

What was your toughest gig?

They became head writers on “As the World Turns” and moved to New York.

“As a head writer you are responsible for every single piece of material that goes on five-hours a week, no break, 52 weeks a year. We got there and were working seven days a week, 12 to14 hours a day,” said Stern.

What is the biggest difference between dramas today compared to when you were writing?

The amount of expletives that are allowed and how fast paced they move.

“Today everything has to move very quickly and it’s much more visual. The attention span of the audience is much smaller,” said Stern.

Said Black: “It’s a texting mentality. Everything is short and sweet.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Interesting. I've never read anything before but criticisms of Black & Stern. So this was a new perspective. Thank you for finding & sharing this. 

[Khan]

In retrospect, I probably was more harsh on Black and Stern and their time on ATWT than I should have been.  After all, they were contending with an EP (John Valente), a sponsor (P&G) and a network (CBS) who were determined to tear their show apart.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Wow, I never thought I would be moved reading something about Black and Stern.  Then again, I didn't watch ATWT regularly or at all when they were there.  I agree nobody was likely to succeed at ATWT in that moment. 

I wish an LGBTQ+ couple had gotten to co–head write soaps to great acclaim for a long career.  Alas, Frank Provo and John Pickard probably would have been the most likely candidates, and we know how that turned out.

Edited January 4 by DeliaIrisFan

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay, not a writing team, but ATWT had the actor Farley Granger & his long-time partner Robert Calhoun was EP at GL.