In a bio Enid Powell lists Y&R from 83-94. She was in her 50's when she joined Y&R staff and was Chicago based.

2 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

In a bio Enid Powell lists Y&R from 83-94. She was in her 50's when she joined Y&R staff and was Chicago based.

She is defintely there post 1984 as she is credited 10 times in the 1986 end credits. Pretty sure I saw a 1985 one as well. Also pretty sure she was one of the few credited in 1988 with Eric L. Roberts

Edited May 21, 20205 yr by will81

42 minutes ago, cassadine1991 said:

What was Bill Bell’s last airdate as HW and EP?

 

Technically speaking the position was called “Senior EP” and he held it till the day he passed away.

Joshua S. McCaffrey was a former Y&R intern who became a script writer for Y&R in 1997. He left the show in 2007 (LML fired him) and went to B&B. However, Brad became fixated on him and fired him for no good reason. I don't think Joshua has written for daytime since being sacked from B&B.

 

Natalie Minardi Slater was a former Y&R intern as well and she became a script writer and breakdown writer (1998-Present). Before Jack Smith was elevated to head writer, many suspected Minardi Slater was being groomed by Alden to eventually become Y&R's head writer. 

 

With the additions of Minardi Slater and McCaffrey in 1997-8, it seems Alden was building out a younger subset of the writing team to coincide with the transition from Bell's era to hers. 

3 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Thanks for starting this @mikelyons! Hopefully we can get some information. In the meantime I looked up that guy Mark Waxman’s biography and this is what it said:

“After graduating UCLA with a BA and MFA in Cinema (and being captain of the varsity fencing team), I  joined CBS, becoming the youngest network programming executive in the history of broadcasting. After several years of developing prime time comedy and drama series for CBS, I rose to the rank of Vice President of Children’s Programming. During that time, I also wrote scripts for the daytime drama, The Young and the Restless.“

 

No dates are included, however it seems Mr. Waxman enjoyed children’s programming more than soaps and went on to create Beakman’s World. I do believe his tenure may have been more accurately in the early 80’s actually looking at the below:

 

 

It's amazing how many soap people from the 70s came out of children's television. I wonder why that was a thing...

IIRC, William J. Asher is Elizabeth Montgomery's ("Bewitched") son by William Asher.

On 5/17/2020 at 6:39 PM, will81 said:

I've been trying to find that too. Unfortunately many of the articles I have found state Kay became a co-head writer in 1988???? 

 

Actually I just found an article with Jack Smith from 1988 stating he and Kay are co-head writers, no mention of Bill Bell at all. I know they became associate head writers, maybe the terminology is confused. He mentions this on the second page

 

 

Just now, mikelyons said:

On 5/17/2020 at 6:39 PM, will81 said:

I've been trying to find that too. Unfortunately many of the articles I have found state Kay became a co-head writer in 1988???? 

 

Actually I just found an article with Jack Smith from 1988 stating he and Kay are co-head writers, no mention of Bill Bell at all. I know they became associate head writers, maybe the terminology is confused. He mentions this on the second page

 

 

This is from 1988. Smith states that he and Kay Alden are head writing Y&R. Could it be that after B&B launched, Bill Bell let Alden & Smith execute his vision while he was busy getting B&B up and running? We know that Smith wrote Y&R and B&B at the same time during this period. It seems Smith went to B&B full-time after Bell came back to Y&R and B&B was "settled". Conjecture, of course, but any insight is ALWAYS welcome. 

Bell stated in interviews that he handed over writing duties more and more and stepped back from the show as the years went on. I'd suggest even before B&B, after Y&R had regained its own momentum, Bell pulled back more, and maybe that's why he felt he could do B&B (or Rags as it was to be known). I have an article from 1987 that states Bell and Lee Phillip rented a hotel room in Dec 1985 and began putting ideas together for the new show. By this point Y&R was on much more solid footing, and would begin hitting #1 again periodically.

 

I do think he turned over the heavy lifting to Alden and Smith. Alden is credited as a Head Writer in newspaper interviews as early as 1980 (I assume Associate Head Writer) and every interview/article on her from that point on refers to her as a Head Writer of the show. Bell once said Alden's scripts are so similar to his in style and structure that he could barely tell the difference between one of his and one of hers. 

 

I'd suggest possibly from 1980 (just a guess) he may have stopped writing the show and focused on outlines only, which was why he promoted Alden. Bell hated the 1 hr format and didn't want to write a 1 hr show. Makes sense he would hand it off more to Alden, since she was a clone in terms of scripting.

Wish they gave Sussman/Alden more of a chance 

9 minutes ago, cassadine1991 said:

Wish they gave Sussman/Alden more of a chance 

 

I agree.

 

Thanks for the info about Sherman! I loved reading about him. The legal aspect of each storyline was always so intriguing.

Ep # 1051

Airdate Wed May 18 1977 

Written by 

William J Bell

Kay Alden

Elizabeth Harrower

 

 

I have questions.  I know from the credits and other sources Kay was very involved, a co-hw ( or Associate HW) for a long time.

 

My question is for those that assume

Bell was more hands off far earlier than before- I really do not see it.  Maybe for periods of time.  But when she was solo things were in the “Bell” style, but she and the team did have a different flavor, pace, and at times tone.  The difference between his last year and then her first year solo are not that great as the couple of years before that, when the show was sometimes in a drought, and had gotten kind of bland.

 

I also know from that interview with Bell and Labine, he talks about how important Alden was and is.  A shared consciousness about the show.  He doesn’t mention anyone else at the show but her by name.  And he says he doesn’t write long term bibles.

 

What I think is very possible, is that he put his polish on everything, even if they were actually generating the plots at certain periods of time.  He probably tweaked everything. Because even when she was solo it had a different feel without him.

1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

What I think is very possible, is that he put his polish on everything, even if they were actually generating the plots at certain periods of time.  He probably tweaked everything. Because even when she was solo it had a different feel without him.

 

I think that's the most plausible scenario - he polished everything but left the overall writing work to Alden. 

 

It's interesting to see Meg Bennett listed as an EP in that list above. 

Chicago Tribune interview with Bill Bell - Oct 14, 1973 @Paul Raven Bell very briefly mentions the writers strike. It is a longish interview

 

 

Thanks for posting. Yikes at that Brad/Leslie scene of him telling her she could lose a few pounds. Wonder how Janice Lynde felt about that?

3 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Thanks for posting. Yikes at that Brad/Leslie scene of him telling her she could lose a few pounds. Wonder how Janice Lynde felt about that?

Yeah I was quite surprised by it too. I am betting Janice was her usual outspoken self, haha. I can't imagine her keeping quiet about something like that