In a recent TV Guide (See Media Mentions for full text of article), the lack of quality writing on soaps was addressed, "Network suits tend to blame the current erosion in soap ratings on things they can't control (e.g., competition from cable, the changing lifestyles of women). But most remain in denial when it comes to the damage being done by their own head writers, who all too frequently foist predictable, uninvolving, even repellent plots on an increasingly exasperated audience. So ABC Daytime President Angela Shapiro seems a rarity among execs. Not only is she candid about this writer crisis, she is determined to stop the madness.

"My writers will tell you, I often find their story outlines very hard to accept," notes Shapiro. "I keep saying, WHERE is the Romance? WHERE are the Laughs? TELL me why I, as a viewer, HAVE to watch this. Tell me why I have to call another car-pool mom and say, Hey, can you pick up my kids from school? I cannot miss All My Children today! I can't tell you how frustrating it is, especially when my worst fears about a story are realized on the air." Shapiro says a recent problem at AMC was that writers didn't want to do their homework. "They'd rather create new characters, because it was easier than getting to know the history and relationships of the existing characters, the ones the viewers love. Also, many of those new characters were not well thought out or well cast, or both. That's very disconcerting for the viewer."

FFBO is quite thrilled to hear those in key positions saying what legions of disgruntled fans have been feeling for years. It is hard not to feel good reading the president of ABC daytime taking writers to task. And actively working to bring in fresh blood? While still getting back to the basics of daytime drama? Sounds good to us!

BUT… there is always a but, isn't there?

FFBO cannot help wondering if Shapiro is merely playing lip service, (albeit some of the best sounding lip service these collective ears have heard), to fixing problems, particularly when it comes to OLTL. Shapiro commented that one problem at AMC was writers preferring to write for new characters over the established audience favorites. Yet, AMC's head writer during that period, Megan McTavish, is now employed at OLTL, despite the fact we OLTL fans have been complaining for several months about this exact same problem that Shapiro described as so very wrong at AMC?

Of course, Agnes Nixon cannot manage both OLTL and AMC; but both shows are her babies. So why was Nixon practically begged to return to AMC, but the writer who was held largely responsible for AMC's state and thereupon fired by Ms. Shapiro, recently rehired by ABC Daytime for OLTL? This act seems to contradict everything Shapiro said in her interview. Does ABC Daytime hold lesser standards for OLTL than AMC?

We are also skeptical of Shapiro's writer-development program for she is not the first person in the past few years to initiate efforts to get new blood. But, while those programs are generally big news for a while, they rarely produce any new writers for the soaps. For the sake of OLTL and the soap genre as a whole, we hope that this program will be different.

It's not just the network executives who are commenting on the lack of quality writing. At Super Soap Weekend, James dePaiva (Max) commented, "Everything is being rushed. We have problems with the fact that we don't have a head writer. We haven't had one in a long time. The concept of long-term story doesn't really exist anymore. People are not looking at a two-year arc the way they were when I came on the show. What they're looking at it 'what event do I pump up the next ratings period with?'"

James dePavia's comments on the writing articulate what FFBO has been saying all along. Mainly, the lack of any long-term vision or integrity to the characters is hurting the show. If this is the way those who are watching it feel, imagine what it is like to feel that way and actually have to act out the script?

We hope that Shapiro's words indicate better things to come, and are more than just empty promises… we soap fans have already had too many of those, haven't we?

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