2006: The Directors and Writers Thread

[AgnesEckhart]

Karen Lewis and Amanda Beall are the only scriptwriters who earn their paycheck.

Taylor, Kanelos, & especially Bugler are awful.

Joanna Cohen I thought had a good first script but her show this week was dullsville.

The sad thing is, if you look at ATWT's dialogue writers they are almost all former AMCers they let get away: Elizabeth Page, Judith Donato, Bettina Bradbury (who is much better at ATWT) and Culliton.

I don't think Frons cares much about writers or dialogue. He can cut costs by hiring cheap newbies. And so all the talent goes to CBS....

[Angela]

Bettina is at ATWT, now? Aw, I loved her scripts at AMC.

[Jackie]

Amanda Beall is not gone from "AMC" and in fact renewed her contract for another three years last week. Her name will be back with the other breakdown writers on Wednesday. When she is not listed among the breakdown writers, it means she did not participate in that weekly story meeting and was working on a script.

The good news is that Burton Armus will DEFINITELY be bringing new writer friends with him to "AMC." Since these writers will be new to daytime, I expect them to be given script jobs. The breakdown team should remain in-tact, with the exception of maybe Chip Hayes, since his contract is up a little while after Burton arrives at "AMC."

[AgnesEckhart]

Awesome. Thanks Jackie

Still wish she WAS taking over as headwriter though

[Toups]

They should just leave in the BDW section even if she's not participating in the weekly story meeting. I always have to list her....then unlist her....then list her again..... LOL

I wonder who Burton's friends are. The writing staff shake up at AMC should be interesting.

[EricaKane4life]

I'm dying to find out man.

There's a gay guy on the writing staff now who is supposedly going to be promoted to second in command to Burton.

Amanda hasn't been writing scripts. She's working with Armus on the bible.

[Jackie]

As of the stuff that's airing now, she is still writing scripts. She wrote one last week Friday. Since script writers are always one week behind what the breakdown writers are writing, she naturally was out of the breakdown writer credits the following week.

I haven't heard Amanda was working with Burton, but I hope it's true.

Jeff Beldner is the gay man of the "AMC" writing staff - I would love it if he returned to breakdowns.

[AgnesEckhart]

I LUV your posts!!!!!!!!! New scripters are certainly needed. Although perhaps Rebecca Taylor and co. should not be judged on their scripts under McTavish...there's only so much you can do with a bad story I guess.

I was actually wondering how he would co-exist with the old entrenched soap crowd like Addie Walsh. I guess he needs some people around him who know how things work but still...

[Jackie]

Good point. Now I was harsh on Bettina Bradbury before, but I highly doubt she was turning into mediocre work under Lorraine Broderick, when "AMC" had far the best dialogue on daytime and was winning consecutive Emmys for it.

Rebecca Taylor returned to "AMC" under Richard Culliton and since the dialogue was consistently well-written during that time, she must have been doing something right.

Amanda Beall and Karen Lewis could be blessed with the "special gift" of remaining good when the story is abysmal.

I highly doubt Addie Walsh (and Steve Demorest) will exit "AMC" as long as Julie Carruthers is there. Those two are currently her friends at the Francesca James/Shelley Curtis level.

Hogan instantly clicked with old faithfuls like Carolyn Culliton and Courtney Simon so it can be done.

[Toups]

Didn't JHC bring Chip Hayes to AMC? I thought they were good friends. No?

Hopefully he'll click with Milstein, Brash and company.

[AgnesEckhart]

Working back from Chip Hayes' first episode of AMC airing in January 2004...taped December 2003...written November 2003 when his contract was likely signed suggests a late October/early November departure for Auntie Megs....boy that's a long way away but it will be worth it. And hopefully Megan's work will be a bit better in the weeks to come as we wait.

[Jackie]

The thing is, I think Burton Armus wants to work with a smaller team of writers. 4 breakdown, 4 script. ABC supports this because it will cut costs.

Chip Hayes is one of the more pricy ones because of his primetime experience. So his exit could be "business related" more than anything else on the part of ABC. His contract ends at the perfect time for ABC so it makes it "easy."

It's a real Sophie's Choice for Julie because she is friendly with all of her breakdown writers.

And yes, Julie and Chip knew each other from her time in California.

[R Sinclair]

I know you claim to be on the inside and are the god[dess] of gossip when it comes to this, but how certain are you that this Burton Armus thing is actually taking place? It just seems too good to be true that all of this care is being taken in regard to grooming this man for head writing the show, when ABC has basically let it be known that they believe in Quality be Damned! The lack of good story on all the three shows, the lack of talent, especially in the latest batch of actors to this show(AMC) -- dating back as horribly as Justin Bruening's casting at the expense of Micah Alberti and ongoing ever since. Just make it young and make it NOW, seems to be ABCD's motto. Not, "let's groom and groom and make sure that everything is just right before we go ahead with it." I'm just asking, because anticipating a positive change for this show that won't happen isn't something I really want to do.

Anyway, my opinions:

That's going to take some talented scriptwriters, especially, if BA is going to do just four and four. That's five 80-page scripts a month! I hope Courtney Bugler gets the hell out of dodge. Friday (8/18) was absolutely dreadful from start to finish. CB tries way too hard and it shows. Sounds like another trip to the infamous ABC Writers Development program, if one hadn't been made already.

I do have to say that breakdown writers do need to get more respect (or less depending on their material ). At least from me, they do. That's part of the process I dread! I can plot, and I can script, but I hate writing outlines. It's boilerplate. I rather get to the action.

[Jackie]

ABC has no choice but to train and groom Burton Armus. Like I explained before, if a veteran soap writer was tapped to replace Megan at "AMC," no problem. They would sign them and start them immediately. Even though Burton Armus is an experienced writer, he has no daytime writing experience. Daytime writing is a very specific process and you can be the greatest writer in the world, but if you aren't trained on how it works and are thrown into the pool immediately, you are destined to drown.

THIS is a big reason why daytime so infrequently goes outside the daytime pool for help. Because it takes TIME and PATIENCE for a daytime newbie to learn the ropes to take over. Networks rather just promote a writer who knows the game already or just hire an ex-head writer (see Megan) and get the party started rather than waiting for months while they get situated.

This is why ABC has the writers development program. They are NOT training people on HOW to be writers, but how to write FOR a soap opera. For example, Anna Theresa Cascio was a Yale graduate who established herself as a New York-area playwright before enrolling in the program. She knew how to write alright, she just wanted to learn how the soap process worked.

I actually give props to Brian for doing this. I think he realizes with ABC Daytime in such crappy state, replacing Megan McTavish with another Megan McTavish is not neccessarily going to be the cure. He's trying something different, and hopefully this time, it will yield different results.

The same thing happened with Hogan at "World Turns" -- he signed on three months before he was ready to take over. Not only do you need to know how to be a headwriter, which is a maddening process in itself, but you also need extensive knowledge of the "breakdown" and "script" process.

Four script writers is just fine. Daytime used to have much smaller writing teams, and the writing was much tighter because of it. "GH" operates on three breakdown writers and four script writers already. Michelle Patrick once remarked to an ABC exec. that it felt weird going from "GH" back to "AMC" because she's only writing one breakdown a week where on Guza's ship she was used to doing two. Michele Val Jean works her ass off at "GH" and her work is just superb.

Courtney Bugler is somehow related to Megan so her exit is certain.

[Toups]

Jackie, speaking of Michelle Patrick, do you what Michelle and Bob Guza disagreed about that made her jump ship? I tried asking people when Michelle joined AMC again, but nobody would dish the dirt. LOL

I think she's Megan's niece?