I came across in my "soap research" box some photocopies I have of Megan McTavish 1995 and 1998 correspondences with Angela Shapiro and other various ABC execs (not stuff from her "memoir.") I haven't scanned them but might take pics of some page but MAN they make McTavish look even worse than her memoir--though to be fair this stuff was never meant to be seen by the public (why it ended up among Agnes Nixon's papers is beyond me.) Stuff like her turning down story ideas for certain characters because the actor "is a terrible actor."
But a couple of tidbits. In the proposal for the original Janet bombs Trevor and Laurel's wedding, Del was meant to die but more importantly Erica was meant to be harmed in it too and THAT'S what causes her back pain and addiction.
In 1998 she proposes a storyline where Kelsey (who she points out from audience reaction reports no one likes any more) feels sorry for herself, goes out and gets "[!@#$%^&*]ed" by a stranger (she apologizes for using that word but says it's important) who leaves her in her car and feeling sorry for herself she tells everyone she was raped, and ends up blaming Ryan. (McTavish points out that no one in the audience likes Kelsey anymore so she's perfect to tell this timely story about false rape claims) At the trial the man who raped her "Colin" shows up and announces it was consensual and we find out it's Ryan's brother. So obviously this morphed into the "beloved" Ryan/Braden/Kit rape storyline...
McTavish is obsessed in all of these notes to ABC execs with the fact that they need to build up the under 34 demo--that's their future audience, and to kill off characters like Tom (too many old characters anyway.) She mentions a story meeting where an ABC exec came in (this was 1995) and said that they NEED to tell sensation stories like Days of Our Lives although "perhaps not go so low as possession" and how as soon as the exec left the room, Agnes Nixon, Corley and everyone else said they disagreed and their core base wanted stories based on emotions--everyone but McTavish who reassures the exec she's writing to that she KNOWS they need more sensation and that "Aggie" is wrong when she says she doesn't think AMC and DAYS share much of a fanbase anyway ("Why else would we have gained viewers with our Janet well story so much so that DAYS copied it the next year"--I assume the buried alive story.)
It's hysterical how much she bad mouths Agnes. In an April 1999 letter in reply to Angela Shapiro saying she's finding the show boring or something, she goes through the storylines one by one and basically says every single story Shapiro didn't like were ones Agnes wrote and forced on McTavish (to be fair this includes stuff involving Becka who McTavish says feels like a soap character from 30 years ago and doesn't work--something I agreed with.) Of course McTavish was fired the next month and replaced by Agnes Nixon herself officially....
Back to 1995 shortly before she was first fired, she writes about a story meeting where Agnes Nixon had the other writers write up proposals and go through them one by one. She says that Agnes LOVED Hal and Jeff's proposals which largely would play out as soon as McT is fired--Brooke's storyline with Laura and Janet's redemption. And McT points out how awful they are. Now we can argue these stories good or bad all we want (interesting as they're the episodes on PlutoTV right now--and mostly I'm a fan.) But McT's reasoning to the network heads as to why she knows they're bad are... Well Brooke's is bad because Brooke is old and doesn't appeal to the 18-34 except maybe as a matriarch-tentpole character (she is all for rekindling her romance with Adam which they do pursue) And also as it references Brooke's daughter Laura being killed, it's a deeply depressing storyline which the young viewers won't want either (funny--McT's writing often feels quite depressing, but she often complains here how other people are writing depressing stuff.) Janet she points out should NEVER be a nuanced character and they have to keep as a full out villain "like DAYS' Stefano--that's what our soap needs." SHe goes on at some length about how no audience ever wants to sympathize with Janet, and if they try to pair her with any of the men on the show (like Jack or Tad, she says) it will make those men look weak and no longer have any sex interest to viewers.
Oh she also complains that Agnes is out of touch because she complained about some story McTavish was writing that it was all "sensational incident" after sensational incident, and Agnes didn't realize that that's what has to drive the show if they want to win back the young Days audience (she also points out--for some reason--that Agnes just thinks Days right now is "trash" I hope James Reilley never heard her say that :P )
And these reports get worse... I guess in all cases McTavish was writing them when it was clear that she was going to be fired--but it's amazing how she has no shame about throwing every other writer/and her EP under the bus and is shameless about how ruthlessly they really needs to turn AMC more into DAYS. And then there's the long story projection she gives for the rest of 1999 (NONE of which was implemented as when she was fired this time it was all dropped.)
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EricMontreal22 ·
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