The Young and the Restless Writer's Thread/Index

[will81]

I also have Joyce Perry listed and an E. Wilson as well in Joyce's script archive for episodes from 1973 - 1974. Not sure who E. Wilson is. 

 

 

 

[Paul Raven]

Add Robin Amos to the list.

His/her name is on a July 1980 script. IMDB credits them with SFT and GL in the early 80's.

Maybe Bill was trying out different writers for the expansion.

Edited September 16, 2021 by Paul Raven

[Broderick]

In a rather lengthy video interview (during which she goes, "Ummmm" a whole lot), Kay Alden says that in the early months of Y&R, Bill Bell was utilizing two or three --- "ummm, I think it was two, ummmm maybe it was three" scriptwriters on the West Coast.  According to her, both of them (or all three of them) quit about the same time in late 1973 or early 1974.   This was shortly after she'd submitted a few "spec scripts" to Bell, which he'd paid her $50 each to write, even though he considered her scripts to be somewhat amateurish and overwritten.   When the West Coast writers quit, Bell called her on a Friday and said, "I'm offering you a job and need for you to begin next week." 

She goes on to say that their "breakdown sessions" consisted of herself and Bill sitting down together in his apartment on Lake Shore Drive every morning.  He would jot down a few ideas on a stenographer's pad, discuss the ideas with her in a bit more depth, then tear off the page, give it to her, and she would immediately begin penning the dialogue.  By 5:00 p.m., she'd completed the script and Bell had reviewed it, made any changes he wanted to make, packaged it up, and had it ready for a courier service to pick up the package for overnight shipment to Los Angeles.  She said it was a harrowing process (having to be finished and ready for delivery by 5:00 pm every day), but it was how they rolled for many, many months, with herself and Bell exclusively handling the scripting of each episode.   But she says the rewarding aspect of it is that she and Bell developed a symbiotic relationship in which they could practically read each other's minds and always knew exactly what was expected of each other. 

(And in retrospect, this is probably the ideal method of scripting a thirty minute show.  There's no misunderstanding between the head writer and the script writer, as the two of them are sitting by one another all day, can talk freely and ask questions, and can tweak things as they go.  It's no wonder that the scripts were better -- and clearer as to character development and motivation -- while she and Bell were working together in this manner.)       

[will81]

Thanks for that. I think it must have been four. Kay Lenard, E. Wilson, Elizabeth Harrower and Joyce Perry. I know Harrower was there until she became HW of Days, but she seems to have returned almost immediately after her stint there. Perry was gone in early 74 and Wilson seems to have only been there for a few months. Not sure about Lenard, maybe she and Perry quit about the same time.

Yes Bell once said at a certain point he couldn't tell the difference between one of his scripts and one of Alden's. The protege method was a good one and had Sony/CBS not interferred, Alden may still be writing Y&R to this day. 

[Broderick]

That sounds right.  Four.  (Or maybe 3, with the 4th being a replacement for one of the other 3.)  

You'd expect him to echo that same format with B&B in 1987, if that were his ideal working environment.  And it appears that he did. I've watched those first twelve or fifteen episodes of "B&B" that have been released this so far this month, and it looks as though a few of the episodes were written entirely by Bill (the first episode, for instance), a few were written by Bill & Bradley Bell, a few by Bill and Meg Bennett, and a few by Bill and Jack Smith. 

Here's the quote from Kay Alden, edited to take out the "ummmms":   

Bill was really driven.  He was extremely driven.  He was married to Lee Phillip, who was a very well-known Chicago TV personality and had a huge public presence in Chicago.  But for a lot of the years that I knew Bill, it seemed like he never went out.   He just sat at his desk.  I came in from the suburbs where my parents lived.  I sat at the dining room table, and I worked.  And he worked.  And that’s what we did for, you know, ten hours a day, five days a week.  We also worked on the weekends, but we worked together every day, and gosh, he was very driven.  He took his work very seriously, and he was very fun, and obviously I adored him.  He was wonderful to me … 

The writing process evolves over time.  What we’re doing now [2006] is a more traditional system than we had for much of my career.  There was a point in time, in the first years that I was working with Bill … He was very happy with my work.  The show was still a half hour then.  He was very happy with my work, and he wasn’t very happy with the California writers that he’d been working with.  They were all older, you know, and he had not found this young person, and he liked that [about me].  Through a series of events, all of those other writers left the show.  There were two or three of them, and they were each doing, like, a script a week, and Bill was doing one, or maybe Bill was doing two at that time.  So that was the five scripts.  They all left, within a month of each other.  Bill came back from a vacation.  He’d gone to Hawaii, and something tragic had happened in his family.  One of his parents had passed away, while he was away.  So he came back from the vacation to deal with the death of a parent. 

He had sent me to California, for my first California trip; that was my reward.  While he took the vacation, I worked, but I worked in California, which was very cool.  So we both got back to Chicago.  It was a Monday morning, and we had no other writers.  It was a Monday morning, and it was just Bill and Kay.  Bill and Kay have to write an episode of “The Young and the Restless” that is going to tape a week from this day.  Now, this is beyond even special delivery, we think.  So for the first time, we call around, because we’d heard there’s this thing called "Air Express".  We found out there is Air Express, and they will show up today, they will pick up our script – provided we get it written on this day.  If we get our script written, Novo Air Express would be there to pick it up at five o’clock, and they would take it to the airport, and it would be in California tomorrow.  That was the start of a new era.  We were too busy to look for anybody to hire.  Bill and I had developed already – this was the second year of my career, maybe – not quite, probably near the end of my first year – we had developed this simpatico.  We finished each other’s sentences.  We could talk through stuff.  So we started writing all the scripts.  We would sit down in the morning, and he would have an envelope, or a steno pad – one or the other.  He would jot down some names, and we’d talk a little bit about what they were going to do, and then we’d write the script.  And it had to be done by five o’clock, because Novo Express would be down there to pick it up to take it to California.  That was, of course, my period of greatest growth.  No one in history would’ve gotten a gift like that.  It was terrifying; it was huge pressure.  But it was unbelievable, it was fabulous, and I learned so much at that time.

As talk began [about going to an hour], we began to hire some people, because it was insane to keep writing the show that way, just the two of us.  But that was sort of historically the writing process.  At that period of time, there was no "writing process".  Kay and Bill just wrote the show. 

   

Edited September 23, 2021 by Broderick

[will81]

The thing is - when I say Bell was hands off, I only mean in terms of scripting the show.

In terms of story I think Alden/Sussman/Smith were all important in terms of concepts and ideas, but Bell put the story together and was responsible for the tone and charcaterisations. He may have relied on them more for ideas during certain points but I do not believe they were planning out story. They had a seat at the table and that is it. If any of them did plan any story it was under Bell's guidance and approval - and I would assume may have only happened once or twice and possibly during the creation of B&B. 

You are right, the show isn't the same when he leaves. In fact once he begins to get sick which mostly likely occured around 94/95, the show isn't the same. Which says to me he was the show. No creator does it alone, but he was the visionary and the master.  

When Alden takes over the tone is similar and story is good but characterisation is off.

When Smith comes back in mid 2002 as a co-HW the show gets trashier (Paul raping Chris/Olivia & Brad's affair while Ashley has cancer/Lorie degrading herself by trying to split up Victor and Nikki/Sharon making the moves on Victor/Jill & Kay being related) All these things happened between late 02 in to mid 03. This was the beginning of the end. 

I am certain Bell hired Smith to push the envelope and to give him some edgier ideas, but Bell would reign them in. I think this is why Bell never gave Smith too much control and why the show goes off the rails once he pretty much takes over. By 2002 I feel Bell's illness was probably taking over and I think this and Ed Scott leaving allowed Smith to gain more power and IMO ruin the show. 

 

 

[Broderick]

I don't have much respect for Jack Smith's writing.  It was a "slash & burn" style of writing that didn't seem to include anticipating long-term consequences of decisions.   

When he joined Alden in the early 2000s as a co-head writer, we had all that nonsense of Kay being Jill's mother.  Seriously, what was the point?  The entire thrust of their 30-year rivalry was that they weren't biologically related, but couldn't stay out of each other's lives.  So the audience already considered them  "de facto family" without having to retcon a foolish "forgotten" pregnancy.  Jack Smith appeared to have no perception of irony or subtlety.   Once the decision was made to create a biological mother/daughter relationship between them, the more fluid love/hate, mother/daughter, arch rivals/old friends element of their storyline was gone.  Jack Smith, if he had any brains, would've looked down the road a year or two and realized that he was handcuffing two of his central characters for years to come.  Stupid decision.  And he made PLENTY of other stupid choices.    

[YRfan23]

With that Said it’s hard to believe Alden and Bill Bell himself would even let that story be played out on air, unless they found some appeal over Katherine/Jill being related, which I would find hard to believe…I guess we just have to assume Smith had more power over Alden and couldn’t put a stop to him?? (Bell was already in poor health so we can’t really say how often he had say as an EP or executive consultant at that point.) 

[Paul Raven]

Who knows how this and other stories got through?

First of all, we had Kay suddenly remember she had given up a child which went against all that had gone before.

Then Jill finding out she was adopted, which again contradicted what we knew.

Then the incredible coincidence they were mother and daughter.

The whole concept should have been laughed out of the writers room.

Jess and Jeanne hated the story,

[YRfan23]

Alden never seems to go into detail on why they even did that…sadly maybe she did think it was “good” at the time…but still to contradict all that Bill Bell worked on and established with Jill and Katherine the last 30 years, why would she and Smith do that to him?? If it were any other post Bell era writer it would make sense but we still had Alden and Smith leading the helm which was probably the shows last couple golden years….
 

Edited October 21, 2021 by YRfan23

[will81]

I am pretty sure after Alden had to hire a co-HW and intially chose Trent Jones in 2000, Jack was probably not happy. I believe he left the show briefly and then suddenly returns as a co-HW who goes on the be Co-Exec Producer the next year. Ed Scott was not there at the time and would not return until 04 in a supervising position. I honestly think Sony and probably CBS, wanted Smith there. I don't think it was by mistake. I doubt Alden had much power to veto anything Smith wanted.

Honestly I have read up on Bell's illness. Symptoms appear ten years prior to passing. By 02/03, I doubt Bell was very healthy and that he had much to do with the show anymore. I think it was getting harder by 1998, which I feel is the reason he stepped down. In fact I would say by 02 Bell was not in good shape and this is when Smith was brought back, probably by CBS and Sony. Based on what Jill Farren Phelps said, Smith seems exactly what they would want. 

[Broderick]

Same here.  I don't think Jack Smith and Kay Alden were a "team".   Jack Smith seemed to be in control, and the show was subject to all his absurd whims.   

There's no question that Alden had some lousy storylines (Sperm capers, etal), but Jack Smith's stories were awfully distinctive, as they all seemed like something an adolescent boy would write.  Juvenile crap.  The most damaging in the long run (I think) was that stupid mess with Jill and Kay, which he probably spent five minutes crafting.  As Paul Raven said above, normally something that ill-planned and foolish would've been dismissed immediately by a grown person.  

[titan1978]

Alden never had the same level of power or control that Bill Bell did.

I never felt she would have been excited about Jill/Kay, because she worked so hard at establishing that third generation and the possibility of Billy/Mac.  Even with recasts that didn’t have as much chemistry, that was such a strange story turn to make.  

Alden was smart to refocus the show with Jill and Katherine at odds again when she started to take over.