Y&R Fires Entire Breakdown Writing Staff

[Vee]

B&B is an outlier; its style, tone and rhythm are totally different and so is its international audience and cachet. I think it'll run for some time to come just as is and can easily move to streaming if needed.

[DRW50]

This is where a big splashy move like bringing back Victoria Rowell and centering story around her (maybe a new family along with Lily and Devon) could be a shot in the arm, but you know that won't happen.

[Vee]

Not on network it won't, that's almost certain. I don't say anything for certain because I've been proven wrong about the wildest shít in the past (like AMC and OLTL coming back from the dead in record time).

[Contessa Donatella]

No offense taken but it's clear to me that it is about a time that longtime Y&R fans had reason to celebrate & often when fans face the possible demise of what they've had it is a good time to reflect on what one once had. Or at least that was true of AW & GL, etc. It's often even a good time to stake out some space & do some nostalgia. Sorry if that doesn't compute to you. Really. 

[dragonflies]

Yeah I agree, I think it will do well on streaming and it being a half hour is a bonus for it

[RavenWhitney]

Sara Bibel confirms she's fired as well. She is not one of the five reported in the Wrap. She's currently script editor, not breakdown writer. So that means they fired six writers.

Natalie, Michael, Jeff, Simone and Marin are the current breakdown writers. Sara is editor.

ATWT and GL eliminated breakdown writers after the 2007 strike. But GL appointed four co-heads who wrote the outlines for the remainder of the life of the show: Kreizman, Hurst, Dunn, Gold and they moved Swajeski to script writer.

 

ATWT ended up keeping Laiman/Iacubuzio (Whitesell for a short time) as breakdown writers through its cancellation.

I watched soaps since late 60s as a kid through 2000s. The shows got worse when they expanded the head writing teams in two ways, teasing out character and playing intimate beats.  But given how much plot was required by networks and owners (after Monty ruined daytime along with Jim Reilly in the 90s), shows had to crank out shorter overlapping stories heavy on plot.  Even Doug had five or six rotating outline writers at the time of his death.  Some writers kept small staffs i.e. for much of Swajeski's AW run she had three outline writers and the show was solid if boring at times.  

In the 70s, the Dobsons wrote GL without outline writers as did the Soderbergs during same time period. If you go back and watch these shows, they are slow and plodding at times but that's what viewers expected.  Lemay's AW in the 70s at many high moments but his dialog was stilted and he also rotated script writers (at times having four and other times having none). Tom King was his outline writer for the few years of those 8 he was head writer.  Curlee/Demorest tried to write many breakdowns after they fired Broderick and only had Williams and Mulcahey as outline writers for a time but it didn't last. 

[Contessa Donatella]

They say it is the easiest soap to watch, taking only 18 minutes out of one's day & having a lot of familiarity in stories it tells. I think that is all by intent. 

[TEdgeofNight]

Good! Now if only Sony would extend the firings to the Days breakdown writers as well. It's way past time to shake up the writing on these shows. 

[Cat]

 

Right, what would that look like? The current audience, ageing as it is, is not about to stream Y&R if it's going to be All Change. They will stream if they know EB, MTS and PB are going to be part of the new version. Otherwise, the show wouldn't be recognisably Y&R. These and a cluster of other stars, represent the last link to the 'old' Y&R that viewers loved. 

[MichaelGL]

Sure reorganize/restructure the writing team if you may. Honestly I would love to see the likes of Slater end up at DAYS (which probably impossible).

But being a Executive Producer/Head Writer/Breakdown writer? And you aren't even capable of being a half the writer that Bill Bell or Harding Lemay were? 

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 This is going to end badly. 

[Liberty City]

Sara A. Bibel has confirmed the story, as reported by The Wrap.

[dragonflies]

Yeah it was posted a few pages ago, but damn it's still all so shItty

[Liberty City]

It's disgusting. Truly disgusting. I also love that they're trying to say it's following the model of other soaps... yet Days of Our Lives and General Hospital were like, "No. We have our breakdown writers!"

[Contessa Donatella]

That's kind of funny meaning odd because it's true that in the past DOOL did do a wholesale firing of all of their Breakdown Writers ... and I believe that before the year was even out they had hired Breakdown writers back. And, now, yes, they do use them. So, basically they tried doing without them & it did not work! If they're following the model, they didn't look at it very closely, did they? 

[Contessa Donatella]

We have these great tools to help us negotiate online spaces. But, sometimes they simply fail. You put someone on Ignore, for example, and Voila, wonderful, you don't see them. They aren't there. BOOM. Oops. Fell through the cracks by being quoted. Oh, well. 

But, to the point, if you have a question for me, just ask me. Simple. 

And, to the other point, I already spoke about how the actors may be next up as the money crunch continues. This is very much a product of the times we live in. And, no one really knows how "the talent" will react if someone comes around talking about pay cuts or about letting some people go or about putting numerous people on recurring. Tough stuff.