ALL: What about Bill Bell's writing made his stories and shows the top standard?

[Contessa Donatella]

You might as well be speaking for me, too. While I admire Bell & also have such great memories of his storytelling at DAYS, Y&R has just never done it for me. In the past 3 years I have watched Neil Winters tributes, the Teriah wedding & one other special Teriah day, Chelsea's suicide & I'm watching the show daily right now. 

[Joseph]

I don't know what he had, but surprisingly he had the talent to write the same story many times over but make it feel fresh! Like the Genesis of Y&R was Partly identical to The Genesis of B&B!

[lucaslesann23]

I ask in the most respectful way possible of the man. What were some of his biggest clunkers then?

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, he wrote a woman marrying her rapist. That's always a strike against. DAYS

Many people do not watch Y&R because they find it boring.

That's all I got. 

[AbcNbc247]

Blake Hayes, B&B

Please register in order to view this content

A character that was beyond insufferable.

Edited November 28, 2023 by AbcNbc247

[kalbir]

Texas oil millionaire in 1991. Bill Bell was a decade late to the party there.

[Khan]

The thing about Bill Bell was, most of the time, whenever a particular story wasn't working, and he knew better than anyone when a story wasn't working, he'd drop it ASAP and move on.  Very rarely did he keep pursuing something that wasn't clicking either with himself or with his audiences.

[kalbir]

Y&R

1982-1986 action/adventure storylines. They were tame in comparison to General Hospital and Days in that same era but I found action/adventure never really suited Y&R. 

Summer 1986-end of 1989 Cricket eating the show.

Fall 1994-Spring 1996 Nick and Sharon eating the show.

Fall 1996- first half of 1997 lull in all the storylines.

B&B

The main criticism of Bill Bell B&B is that a lot of storylines were dust offs of 1970s and 1980s Y&R.

[Contessa Donatella]

If only there were some way that people could see this trait as one of his best & emulate it! Instead we have exceptionally stubborn PTB & we have PTB that think they know better. And, sometimes they do, but not always. 

[SoapDope]

Aaron Spelling was a big fan of Bill Bell and always said he liked the way he crafted a story and hoped to do a daytime soap in the Bell style. 

Spelling used Y&R clips in his film Mr. Mom.  

[Khan]

And he might have, too, if he had hired the right people to create, develop and produce SUNSET BEACH.  If that was his one, big stab at giving us a Bell-styled soap, then he should've hired people like Kay Alden and Edward Scott.  (In fact, now that I think about it, he DID hire Wes Kenney initially, but for some reason, it didn't work out).

[SoapDope]

I never watched Sunset Beach, but I remember it being on during the late 90's and was short lived. There was buzz in the soap press when Barbara Mandrell was announced to join the cast after retiring from singing. 

[Contessa Donatella]

NBC let the affiliates choose which of the 4 soaps in contention to go with & they chose "the beach soap". That was the way it was referred to. Other choices were the Claire Labine soap & the Stephen Cannell soap & the lawyers soap. Me, I thought the beach soap was the least interesting sounding of the group. They made a good start. But, it never consistently was about anything. They were very beautiful people & had some decent acting. I thought the writing was all over the place. 

But, do you really think Kay Alden & Ed Scott would have made themselves at home on what was called "the beach soap"? Of course, NBC didn't really do well with hiring heavy-hitters. I'm still furious with them for blocking the Dobsons as HWs at AW in Feb. 1993!

[DaytimeFan]

I always wondered if Aaron knew Bill or was a fan of his. That's nice to know. 

[kalbir]

Not to derail this thread, but I thought there might have been some beef between Bill Bell and Aaron Spelling in the late 1990s. This would have been around the time of the Hunter Tylo lawsuit and in that same time frame there was actor swapping among Y&R/B&B and the Spelling shows.