Courier Express, 18 October 1981
‘Hospltal’ intrlgue behlnd-the-scenes.
PATRICIA FALKEN SMITH is mad as hell and she intends to take it out on her former intends bosses -the producer of "General Hospital" and ABC daytime program executive who preside over that enormously popular soap opera. As reported here recently, Falken Smith was the head writer for "General Hospital" for 2 and a half years through last month. But in the wake of a series of disagreements with "GH" producer Gloria Monty, Smith and her entire writing staff have departed and now toiling on the storyline of rival NBC soap Days of Our Lives. Monty says Smith was fired , Smith insists she got tired of working at GH and quit.
In fact, Falken Smith is so upset by what she believes are deliberate attempts by Monty and ABC daytime exec Jaqueline Smith to embarrass her, that she's making noises about suing them unless they both publicly declare that her leaving GH was a genuine resignation and not a firing.
"I won't be maligned by these two crummy broads," Falken Smith told this column. "I made their....show No. 1 and they've done nothing but scheme to stop me and my staff from getting the credit we deserve. We took those awful, corny plots Gloria and Jackie dreamed up and turned the show around.
"'But now, because their stupid science-fiction storyline was such a drag all Summer, they're trying to blame me. But that bad Summer story wasn't created by me. It was created by the scab writers who worked last spring during the writers' strike which I honored because I am a very strong union person. I refused to scab during the strike, and that's what got me in trouble with those two insecure broads. When I came back July 15, after the strike, they dumped all over me and made my life miserable.
So I quit, and then they put out the word that I got fired. All I know is I'm now the head writer on 'Days of Our Lives', my entire staff came over here with and and I look forward to making the show No. 1 and watching 'General Hospital sink into oblivion
By
Paul Raven ·