Thursday, December 11, 2008

Lunch With A 'Guiding Light' Head Writer And Producer

The first big agenda item during the two days I spent at GUIDING LIGHT with some of my fellow bloggers was a Tuesday lunch at the Gladstone Tavern (aka Company, at least from the outside) with Co-Head Writer Jill Lorie Hurst and Producer Alexandra Johnson-Gamsey.

Sara A. Bibel has written a wonderful blog about this experience already and I will try not to duplicate her effort.

I first have to say that you can't not like Hurst. There is a charm about her that reminds me a bit of a young Pamela Long. She went from being a waitress to receptionist in the same building as GUIDING LIGHT and then worked her way up through the GL ranks to become one of the head writers. If my film ever sells and I can work on another one, I'm going to produce the Jill Lorie Hurst movie of the week.

Johnson-Gamsey also worked her way from intern to producer. As that day's producer she had a lot of responsibility to ensure all the logistical issues were worked out keeping the tight ship running smoothly.

Hurst talked about some of the advantages of the new production model for the show: "I had a very brief stint as a producer in the control room in the old style until December and Main Street was sort of the bain of our existence because you would try to stage a car crash or something like that and it was really hard to do. I find this [new production model] freeing actually."

Johnson-Gamsey added, "It is very freeing. There were a lot of times when we needed, for story purposes, to do something like somebody getting hit by a car, and to bring that into the studio, which is what our option was before, it just doesn't work. No matter how well you try and do it, it just doesn't work. And now we can come out here [to Peapack] and do something real with a car in a parking lot and it looks real."

When I asked about the recent WGA nominations, Hurst said that the GUIDING LIGHT writers did not submit themselves this year.

I asked Hurst who she thought her audience was and received an interesting answer.

After a brief pause, Hurst said, "I think I'm the audience. A Midwesterner who grew up watching." She thought some more and added, "I grew up with a lot of people who still watch GUIDING LIGHT."

She asked if I was talking about demographics and I explained that I don't feel that daytime soaps in general in 2008 think their fans are as smart or savvy as they really are. She replied, "I think are audience is extraordinarily smart. I sometimes wish they weren't so smart. I learn a lot whenever I go talk to anyone who watches the show. I actually find that very interesting. If the characters are not coming through for the audience then I'm very sad."

When asked about the return of Phillip, Hurst told us, "He effects everyone. I talked a lot with the producers as we were working toward talking to Grant and figuring out if it was the right time as Ellen was approaching him, and everyone had ideas and thoughts [about his return]. It was fun because we all have our favorites and we all have things we want or don't want, and some producers don't always spill a lot of their ideas into the writing area."

Johnson-Gamsey responded that she felt her job as the producer was to produce and leave the writing to the writing team. But she does chime in giving an example of how she asked for something to be rewritten the day before because she didn't feel it was the type of thing they do very well. If it's not imperative to the story, just eliminate it "rather than trying to do something that's not going to live up to its potential or be exactly what is on the page."

On the role that CBS plays in the new production model, Johnson-Gamsey told us, "I think that they have partnered with us in terms of figuring out that happy medium and working with us to try and say, 'this is doing really well' and working on that area and really trying to work together to figure out how to make it work. Now the notes that we get are little things on the story."

Hurst told us that she believes that the next story arc should always be in the works when one is ending. She also joked that whenever there was something that could possibly make you cry, she was brought in as sort of a "tear-meter" and told to "watch this."

She also said that writers need to watch the show to see what works and what doesn't (that's Douglas Marland Rule #1 by the way) and added, "we need to be very accountable."

2 comments:

  1. I am very tempted to start taping kathie lees show on nbc instead of the guiding light.Everyday,i fast forward through the entire episode.The problem is not the new style of the show.The best actors and actresses are never on.IF marj dusay,kim zimmer,ron raines,robert newman,tina sloan,beth chaimberlain,billy,buzz and vanessa,(i forgot their real names),were on consistently everyday the show would be worthwhile.Currently,they are concentrating on boring actors and actresses.The rest of the cast should be totally eliminated and people from years ago should be brought back.The characters india spaulding,holly and many veterans need to be rehired.

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  2. John, you are about to get your wish.

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