GH: O’Connor/Van Etten OUT! Mulcahey/Korte IN!

[AbcNbc247]

Or check message boards to see if they could find any talent there

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[Toups]

Which GH does do/have.  They've brought in 5 new writers (2 SWs, 3 BDWs) to daytime in the last 3 years.  All women.

[Lye-C]

Do they give new writers access to classic episodes so they can actually learn the history of the characters and the show?

Imagine some dumb new writer coming in and writing a line where Laura says Luke was her first husband. That’s the kind of worry I have with outsiders.

[Toups]

That's why you have a script editor, and HWs are also known to check up on scripts.  There's also writers' assistant where you can ask them to go look up information if they have questions. LOL. And to be fair, you can still be a new writer and not know the shows history too well.   You write scripts off breakdowns.  You write breakdowns from whatever the HW gives you. 

[Contessa Donatella]

That's excellent! Are the two second generation soap family women among them? Emily Culliton & Karen Hall? Are any women of color? 

[Toups]

It's Kate Hall!  I didn't count Kate in the 5 because she's been at GH for a long time.  I only know Shannon Peace is a women of color. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Kate, thanks for the heads up! 

[Lye-C]

Are they given access to old episodes? They should. 

I’m just so tired of the egregious errors in Days’ scripts but that’s likely due to the incompetence of Fran Myers who should’ve been shown the door years ago. 

[Paul Raven]

Fran Myers grew up on soaps so should know the genre inside out. So if she is messing up what hope is there?

As for new writers , do they love soaps or are just cheap hires greatful for a gig?

Also, if they are like some of the posters here, their knowledge and understanding of the genre starts and stops with 90's soaps. Or maybe the vintage 80's stuff if they want to go waaaay back.

[Adamski]

New writers need to be given a chance - Patrick Mulcahey was once a newcomer to daytime, as was everyone who has ever written for the genre. So hopefully he'll give some new talent a chance on GH.

On a separate note, I've calculated that PM must be 70 by now. That indicates to me that he's unlikely to quit in a year if he faces resistance, as has happened previously. Surely he sees this as his last chance to make a real mark, and intends to stick around for a while?

[DRW50]

Renaissance is one word for what Sheffer did at ATWT...

As for bringing in new writers and training them into the ways of soaps, I'd love that, but those days are long gone, and I can't expect Mulcahey to do what the networks used to do themselves. I think we will still mostly be getting whoever is willing to hurriedly submit whatever Frank deems the most acceptable pabulum.

Edited February 8, 2024 by DRW50

[Vee]

They have done some of that at GH in recent years, maybe the last 5-10 or so - yes, they were producing Frank's pablum, but it was still new blood who might or might not have capability under a strong HW with some control. Toups mentioned Shannon Peace but there are others. I don't know that I count (let's say it) nepotism hires like Emily Culliton. Good or not, she is a product of a closed economic system the same way Labine's kids were. But both the GH situation and the migration of some of the PP scriptwriters to the network shows proves it can be done.

[Contessa Donatella]

GH has two nepo 2nd generation soap family writers.

Emily Culliton

Kate Hall (parents Courtney & Peter Simon)

[Liberty City]

The problem is you need to have people who are coming in and respect what the genre was during its glory days, and how to best adapt that in 2024. And, the truth is, you have very little of that. It seems people are coming in with delusions of grandeur to create what they think they should, but it's all done in rose-coloured glasses. What you need is someone like Patrick Mulcahey, who has the experience and training he has, and for him to become what Douglas Marland was to him for someone else, and continue in those traditions. We don't have that "next gen" training that people like Mulcahey experienced with Marland, etc.

[Vee]

I don't think we can apply that to young and hungry scriptwriters though. We don't know a lot about their output these days. I think you see that kind of attitude much more commonly in folks like Chuck Pratt who made it in primetime then came back to try to upend the daytime soaps they work on and 'disrupt' the paradigm, or society dilettantes like Maria Bell who have only a tenuous connection to the show.

Others are a mixed bag or a matter of opinion. Sheffer was very arrogant and his changes to ATWT were vast and perhaps ruinous depending on who you ask, but he and his team also delivered viewers and critical heat early on in his ATWT run, before his talent atrophied and he bombed out in the latter years and especially at DAYS, Y&R etc. I enjoyed a lot of his early ATWT work but with a better sense of history I also can't argue with many of the complaints about it - those criticisms are very true and real. And there's of course a lot of fans (and many actors) who resented the changes Linda Gottlieb and Michael Malone brought to OLTL and Gottlieb's attitude about their show. I don't agree with those but I understand them.

Edited February 8, 2024 by Vee