2006: The Directors and Writers Thread

[GladGirl]

Miller moved out of Connecticut years ago.... at least 4, maybe 5 years now.

ETA: Sorry, Jackie -- didn't see your post!!!

[Keith]

Yay!

[R Sinclair]

OKAY! THANK YOU!

[ClassicsSoapFan]

Richard Culliton was added to the ATWT credits today as a scriptwriter. He wrote today's script.

So,I guess he is not taking Hogan's place as a BDW!

[Toups]

Interesting! I thought he would be Hogan's replace as BDW too. This is good news for ATWT since I think RCulliton is a very good SW.

GL:

- Charlotte Gibson was again not listed as associate head writer in today's credits

- David Rupel first listed as associate head writer on August 11

[AgnesEckhart]

Culliton is a great everything. Scriptwriter, breakdowns, headwriter. ATWT is very lucky to have him. I'll never understand why he has such a bad rep.

[MichaelGL]

Wow what a surprise. Am I correct, or wasn't the last soap he was on AMC, as Head Writer?

[R Sinclair]

Yes, you're correct. He was fired from All My Children as head writer back in 2002. He may be a great scriptwriter (I've always suspected he wrote the first few scripts during his 2001-2002 tenure because the dialog was amazing -- which gave me false hope), but as head writer, in my viewing opinion, he's horrible. Storylines that didn't make sense (Proteus is... VANESSA?!? WHAT?!?) and there was no balance to the show. There were a lot of dropped storylines and unexplained devices that just were used for shock value.

I'm still trying to figure out who was sneaking around the Wildwind stables, eavesdropping on Bianca and Leo's conversation, while wearing high heeled leather boots. That was never explained.

Also, the infamous distaste Tony Geary had for him when Culliton was head writer of General Hospital. The rumored confrontation where a couple of days later, Culliton wound up tendering his resignation?

[Jackie]

I loved Culliton's AMC. Fun and smart, I thought.

That was Kendall. It was a couple of days before she made her grand re-entrance at the courthouse.

[Toups]

The newsgroups, rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc and rec.arts.tv.soaps.misc (for NBC soaps), I visited in the 90's didn't like him. They called him and his wife, "The Cullitoons." LOL

[Dan]

- David Rupel first listed as associate head writer on August 11

Interesting. David Rupel is back at GL. I believe he was a scriptwriter under Esensten and Brown and left in perhaps 2002-ish.

[AgnesEckhart]

I have to disagree entirely. For the most part I think everything was "explained", although perhaps not with that "beat the stupid viewers over the head with it" style McTavish uses.

I guess I'm in the minority on Culliton. I thought he respected the viewer's intelligence, and I respected him for that.

[MichaelGL]

I think both the Cullitons, Richard and Carolyn are great. I enjoyed Richard Culliton's version of AMC. He had excellent ideas, and if he was allowed more leeway to write those stories I'm sure his tenure on AMC would have been much better. IA that he did respect the viewers intellegence.

I adore Carolyn Culliton. She was Hogan Sheffer's associate head writer during the early years of his tenure at ATWT, after she left it was all downhill from there IMO. If it hadn't for her, Millee Taggart's tenure on GL would have been a mess IMO.

[R Sinclair]

He never respected my intelligence.

Maureen Gorman was a disaster from the word GO! Everything about that storyline was atrocious, because David Hayward was in California harassing Allie Doyle during her residency, blackmailing her with the information he had on her medical license being fraudulent. He followed her to Pine Valley in November of 1997. But he managed to get to New Jersey in August of 97, find Maria, rescue her, shoot her up with that memory erasing drug X-17, get BACK to California, and then follow Allie back east to Pine Valley all within three months? Also, a flashback had David seeing Maria's picture at Wildwind during the Crystal Ball, and Edmund casually mentioning it was his wife. 1997's Crystal Ball was McTavish's return. Edmund and Tad were busy running around trying to hoodwink Dimitri during the whole Evil Dimitri tries to steal Maddie debacle.

And don't get me started on that three ring circus of a murder trial when Erica was pulling stunt after stunt while she was on trial for murdering Frankie because she just assumed Bianca did it!

Chris Stamp and Ryan? Father and son? Are you high? Making Patrick Lavery -- who wound up being Partick Curry under Culliton's pen -- a small time drug dealer who was killed in an FBI sting?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!

And let's get even crazier with Trey Kenyon/Ben Sheppard/Richard Fields, Jr. whatever! Richard Fields apparently forgot he was a pedophile long enough to have sex with Vanessa Bennett during an ambiguous time in history and gave birth to Trey... somehow after David, before Leo, but after Kendall?!? What?! And all this while Vanessa was supposedly being an actress/wife of a drug lord/drug lordess herself?!

Ooh! Ooh! More writing that respected viewers intelligence. The whole Revlon product placement storyline that was supposed to take place and never did -- and wound up having Greenlee working for Revlon, which turned into Giovanna cosmetics overnight?!?

I could continue with even more examples of horrendous storylines that had holes big enough to sail the Titanic through, but I won't.

[Jackie]

David was not "harrassing" Allie Doyle during that time. Allie Doyle had left California for Pennyslvania in August 1997, and arrived shortly after Joe's heart attack. David went to New Jersey in August 1997, to do medical research. Just because he was involved with Allie Doyle previously does not mean his whole professional life grinded to a halt, especially during subsequent times.

I enjoyed the Chris Stamp/Ryan twist. What's so hard to believe that Chris and Ryan's mother had an affair, and she passed the baby off as Patrick's? Patrick was complete scum, why wouldn't it be difficult to believe that he was involved in drugs?

I'm not too sure why you are complaining about the Edmund/David flashback, because Edmund was casually interacting with his guests early on in the evening. It was during the magic show and after that, when the storm hit, that the [!@#$%^&*] hit the fan between Dimitri, Edmund, and all of those people.

The Trey storyline was not my favorite, but it certainly worked within the timeline. David was away at boarding school when Vanessa was involved with Richard Fields. This was AFTER David's father killed himself and David began hating Vanessa. She was involved with Richard shortly before he raped Erica. Vanessa witnessed the rape and took off. She traveled to Europe and that's where she got pregnant with Leo. Just because Richard Fields liked to prey on young girls certainly didn't mean he couldn't have sexual intercourse with women his own age.

Sorry, but Ryan's father was ALWAYS Patrick Curry. This was established when Ryan first came to town under Megan's pen. Ryan (and Braeden, as well) had changed his last name later in life to his mother's maiden name; his birth name was John Ryan Curry. When Megan decided to revisit Ryan and Jon's childhood, she FORGOT her own writing and referred to him as Patrick Lavery. She neglected her own history.