ALL: GREAT Moves by Bad/Tragic Soap Writers/EPs

[titan1978]

JFP- I know she regretted this aspect of the story, but nobody can ignore killing Maureen on GL, and the two weeks after as far as depth and acting. She produced the hell out of it. I will give her the Metro Court too, even though both Alan and Maureen should not have been killed. The shows themselves around the death were excellent television.

Tom Langan at DAYS- I pretty much hated his tenure as head writer. But he did create a new generation of characters that propelled the show forwards and still come into play today. They also had good casting of those teens.

Edited November 21, 2024 by titan1978

[Khan]

Nope.  Even her most successful work at GL was due more to Robert Calhoun and Nancy Curlee's influences than to anything she could have come up with on her own.  JFP always had a very dark, nasty and brutal vision for her shows; and no amount of dreary musical montages or "special episodes" was gonna cover that up either.

[j swift]

By most accounts, Joe Hardy was not well liked during his term as EP of GH.  The cast refused to attend a press event that he held.  The ratings dropped to 8th place.  And it is widely regarded as a fallow creative time for the show.

However, he rebuilt the Quartermaine set into the iconic foyer and stairway that would be most associated with the mansion for generations.  And he produced the story of Bobbie's adoption of Lucas, which I would propose was some of the best writing for the character and helped evolve her into a more multi-layered being.  And finally, although he infamously messed up the approval for the casting which doomed the character of Dawn, the idea of creating a female Quartermaine heir was a good idea, and arguably laid the groundwork for characters like Emily.

Edited November 21, 2024 by j swift

[Liberty City]

• Focusing on Cruz & Eden on Santa Barbara (even, as a non-fan of the pairing, I see that)
• Putting Tracey Bregman on contract for the first-time in YEARS (albeit too short)

[DRW50]

Megan McTavish did many horrible things in her daytime career, and I realize how patronizing it is to repeatedly say oh if only she'd had a handler. However, I do think that as much as she brought a very amoral, corroded atmosphere to AMC, she "got" the nature of the show more than many of the headwriters of its last decades (not counting Lorraine Broderick). It would be extremely hypocritical of me to praise the Bianca rape story after I trashed the Viki sexual abuse story, so I will just say the story did turbocharge AMC after years of malaise and provided tons of material for the Kane family. I give her a lot of credit for putting Kendall into a tricky anti-heroine role - she was one of the few who ever knew what to do with the character. There were a number of smaller character moments and pairings under her watch that I appreciated, like Stuart and Marian. And I appreciated that she gave Gloria a good sendoff after years of neglect. 

[Vee]

I agree with all of that. It was a nasty tradeoff with Megan, who knew the show and its families well even as she plundered it.

I do remember when she came back with much grand flourish (just like Frons' reinstatement of Malone at OLTL and Guza at GH around the same time, all three being creative teams who he felt were quintessential to their shows - and to a certain point he was right). A lot of material IIRC was centered around Pine Valley celebrating the fourth of July or some other big event. That was a classical soap opera setup that felt uniquely appropriate for AMC's suburban Americana, even if a lot of the events that unfolded (Bianca's rape and IIRC David almost poisoning half the town or something) were pretty ugly.

[DRW50]

I'd forgotten the David stuff. At least it gave Vincent some good scenes for an episode or two before he just became a Babe prop.

I agree the 4th of July aspects were a strong return to AMC's core. The scenes with Bianca, and then the aftermath, were also powerful, although the whole thing was grotesque. Few soap writers gave me as many conflicting feelings as she did.

[Mitch64]

So you found the "Beth" quote! I know this is not a quote topic but my fave...Alex, in the middle of everyone freaking out that Phillip is "dead"..and Blake faking fainting..is giving orders  and then ."..and would someone please pick that MOOSE up and get her off my floor!"

[Vee]

I think the scenes were very well done with Bianca and Michael, and how he sort of psychotically cottoned on to her and talked himself into their having a relationship they didn't. I revisited them a few years ago and they held up production-wise. I just think, then and now, that doing it was repugnant and a convenient excuse to desexualize her and elide the network's fears of the character (which would probably be far more pronounced today ironically). It took many years for them to even go near active sexuality with Bianca again, and only then in very scattered ways with Reese or Marissa. At the same time it can't be denied re: how it turbocharged story for Bianca and the whole family. It's a very difficult thing.

Edited November 21, 2024 by Vee

[Contessa Donatella]

To me McTavish, both at GL as well as at AMC, was on one hand a very creative, inventive, soapy storyteller who could be good with character, with history, with words, with ambience, etc. who on the other hand did not possess the needed sense of boundaries & limits that a good HW definitely needs to have unless someone else is reigning them in. She went too far. 

[DRW50]

The Brent/Marian story, if we're mentioning GL, falls into some of the same pulpy and very charged material. There's so much that I don't even know if I could rewatch and was disgusting from a writing standpoint - even having Brent fake HIV results to make Lucy think she was positive - but it was a very strong story in performance and atmosphere most of the way through and easily the highlight of Sonia Satra's tenure. The show may have been canceled if not for that story.

Frank Beaty was an extremely rare talent and McTavish used every drop of that talent. It did seem obvious at the end of the story that they were planning to keep him on if they could, which would have been a horrible choice, no matter how superb he was.  

Edited November 21, 2024 by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, Mitch! You put me onto it & the hunt took a few years but a GL fan found the episode for me & now I have it!!! And, yes, talking about it caused people to bring up the moose! What's fun in the full episode is that in the front room Harley is trying to get Alex to fork over some money because she found lingerie that's not hers in Alan-Michael's robe pocket. Why it would've been in his robe pocket defies both logic & imagination! Alex is about to write a check & Alan-Michael comes barreling into the discussion & objects. Poor Alex, no wonder she had a headache!

[Mitch64]

I like her twisted sense of humor..I was all in on that..but history?? Chele and Bridget dont have a bond like they did before..Chele acts like Nola is a total stranger and even calls her Mrs. Chamberline even though she is her aunt..Alex looses all her power and becomes a meddling annoyance..etc

 

I really liked Brent/Marion and loved how McTavish tweaked soap conventions...instead of pregnancy test change it was an HIV test..love the scene on the laptop.."The part of Marion Crane is now being played by....BRENT LAWRENCE" there was a lot of creativity there but it was built on a weak character Lucy as victim though McTavish seems to understand a great deal of the audience really doenst like her and we enjoy seeing her tortured.

I think she really needed a strong producer and a cowriter to reign her in..like they would have needed to RIDE her..and it could have worked.

[kalbir]

My feelings exactly.

Edited November 22, 2024 by kalbir

[titan1978]

Sometimes it really works. Nancy Curlee and Reilly seem like a bad idea. But they worked well together. They had completely different styles and sensibilities, but they also complimented each other and with Demorest and Calhoun made a fantastic show.