Sunday, May 24, 2009

FLASHBACK: Labine & Mayer on 'Ryan's Hope' (1976)

From the December 1976 issue of Soap Opera People:

Their greatest creative energies and agonies go into the development of "the long story" - enough plot to take three major situations through an entire year. "Or if we're lucky," says Claire [Labine], "a year and a half." "Or if we're unlucky," says Paul, "we suddenly find out that we're about to run through a year's worth of story in nine months."

"Or," says Claire, "that some tiny little change in one script has shifted everything around and thrown months of work down the drain." They sigh. They shrug, philosophers to the end. "We're always in trouble," they say, "always behind."

There are easy ways out of trouble, of course, but Claire and Paul [Mayer] will have none of them. "We have never consciously filled up time by having one character tell another character what two others did the week before. They talk about each other if the discussion has a real effect on the people doing the talking."

2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for posting this! I watch several soaps, and I'm sorry to say, Ryan's Hope on SoapNet is by far the best soap on air right now, imo. I love the characters and most of the stories, so reading anything about the show from back then is a hoot.

    btw, the argument between Claire and Paul over Delia (in the beginning of the article) is hysterical. I have the same argument w/ myself over Dee, lol

    Thanks again!
    Melanie

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are welcome! I am glad you enjoyed :)

    ReplyDelete