Hogan Sheffer dies at 61

[beebs]

There is also, I find, a tendency in modern writing across genres to deconstruct. Guza did this a lot with the initial Carly/Tony/Bobbie story on GH. The extreme fall from grace that "changes everything" and "lives get torn apart". It's entertaining, it often mines the history of the show to drive it forward, etc.

But then they forget that once it's broken, it needs to be either pieced together again, or rebuilt into something new, and I don't think a lot of these writers are particularly interested in any type of building. Their energies go 98% into the destruction and the aftermath just sits there, and that's not fun to watch, to me anyway. There's no growth, there's nothing that makes me hopeful, happy, or inspired.

[Paul Raven]

So very true.

Often there's very little aftermath...

 

 

[BetterForgotten]

Sheffer and Guza are an interesting comparison. Similar in a lot of ways and a lot of the same pitfalls. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

A few years ago, I had to finally accept the fact that the technique used to write the classic soap opera is a thing of the past and likely gone forever.  What remains is the recent tendency to write in the short-term with consequences that exist in the very short-term.  There is no genuine "payoff" in these stories because there's no natural build to the story, just a bunch of ragged plot points.  It's why I had to stop watching.  I am bored by this basic type of writing, devoid of layers and complexity.

[YRfan23]

Sorry to hear this!  There seems to be a lot of mixed things about his writing, but I also would be curious to see how he would have done as a Solo HW for Y&R without Maria Bell, or any network interference....

[Franko]

This. Closed-end writing really does not belong on a soap opera.

[Faulkner]

And it defeats the point of soap. If you want arcs neatly tied up, you have a lot of other places that do it much, much better and with less wasted time. That soaps have given up on long-term storytelling is an admission of irrelevance. Why even bother?

[Khan]

 

If burning fetuses and chipmunk mask-wearing robbers are what happens when you have MAB and network/SONY interference, I'd hate to see what Hogan Sheffer (or anyone) would've come up with without 'em!

 

I'm with @DramatistDreamer.  I'm truly sorry to hear about Sheffer's passing -- and of course, I pray that God be with his loved ones as they continue to grieve the loss.  But I won't pretend to have been a fan of his work, because I wasn't.  I don't believe Sheffer ever, EVER understood what made soaps tick, and I think it's that lack of understanding that wound up crippling every show he wrote for.

[Franko]

Until today, I didn't know Hogan's background was in films.

[Khan]

 

Frankly, he should've stayed in the film industry.

[Franko]

I have to be honest, I was thinking the same thing. Forgive the generalization, but the soaps aren't a genre that's meant to be where failed film or nighttime ideas/personnel belong. I'm not trying to speak ill of the dead, but rather thinking about the attempt to make AMC daytime's answer to Sex and the City.

[EllenP]

Martha Byrne (@MarthaByrne10) Tweeted: He was the best. What a great time we had during those atwt years. Hogan made the decision to dive into Lily’s past to make Rose an identical twin instead of a doppelgänger. This created incredible story and lots of Emmys :) https://t.co/5GgT62aXQo

 

I had no idea this was Hogan’s idea. This was one of my top 3 favorite stories of his, the others being CharBar/boathouse explosion and the Carly/Jack/Julia I saga. Late 2000 through summer 2001 were what happens when a soap has just the right mix of writing, acting, and production values. Some of the best soap of that decade, IMO.

[BetterForgotten]

Martha must have lost her damn mind because that crap started with Leah Laiman before Sheffer arrived. Though Sheffer did end up writing most of it.

[victoria foxton]

 

 

[Khan]

He didn't "dive into Lily's past" to make Rose an identical twin.  He retconned one of Douglas Marland's finest stories in order to explain away one of Leah Laiman's cockamamie ideas that should've been left off the page altogether.  Don't get it twisted, Martha.