GL New interview with Nancy Curlee
MarkH
http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=29992&view=findpost&p=702012
==Begin quoted text==
Hey guys, I was very lucky today. I could ask a few questions to Nancy
Curlee Demorest, whose involvement with GL in the 80s' and 90s' is
well-known. Here for you, the transcript of the interview (CZ is me,
Cedric Zayonnet / NCD: Nancy Curlee Demorest) :
CZ: Dear Mrs Curlee, you headwrote « Guiding Light » from 1990 to
1993, was it a good ride?
NCD: I joined the show in 1984 as a scriptwriter, and before becoming
part of the headwriting team with Pam Long in 1989, wore many
different hats: script editor, breakdown writer, associate headwriter.
All of those positions were instructive and I think prepared me for
the rigors of managing the show and executing my own stories. I knew
the characters and actors so well, and chose to do idiosyncratic,
character driven stories. Because of the wealth of talent on the show,
it was enormously satisfying. We hired dramatists out of Yale Drama
school, and a lot of actors who were experienced on the American
stage. It was a joy to give them good material and to see them
flourish.
CZ : What was your favorite storyline writing? Is there a specific
scene that sticks out in your head that you loved?
NCD: I loved all of the Fifth Street stories, featuring Harley and
Mallet and Buzz and Nadine Cooper. The Bauers, Ed and Maureen and
their errant niece, Bridget. The Lewis Family, particularly Billy and
Vanessa. The Spaulding/Roger Thorpe stories, which tracked the breakup
of Roger and Alex's affair, Roger's affair with Mindy and the later
Alex/Mindy Lewis struggle for Alex's son, Nick McHenry. Frank Cooper
and Eleni, the triangle with Alan Michael Spaulding. Hamp's daughter
Kat, and her relationship with David, Gilly's brother...
My favorite sequence of shows were perhaps the most controversial
during my tenure: the death of Maureen Bauer shortly after discovering
her husband's affair with their good family friend, Lillian Raines.
Lillian had discovered she had breast cancer, but was reluctant to let
people in town know, so she decided to pursue treatment in a nearby
town. Her only confidant was Ed, who agreed to chauffeur her to
radiation sessions at a hospital. While Ed wasn't attracted to Lillian
in a sexual way, her vulnerability and damaged self esteem made her
situation extremely poignant to him. Their one night stand, however,
had far reaching, catastrophic consequences for Ed's marriage and for
his family, and ultimately led his distraught wife's car accident. The
aftermath of that story, Ed's guilt and the deep tear in the fabric of
his family, including his adolescent daughter's depression, was
beautifully written, beautifully acted, and resulted in some of the
best work ever done on American television.
CZ: Who were some of your favourte characters?
NCD: Alexandra Spaulding, portrayed by Beverlee McKinsey, the iron
fist in the velvet glove matriarch of the influential Spaulding
family. Beverlee's nuanced performances were a joy.
Billy Lewis, the big talking, big dealing, charming but deeply flawed
scion of the Lewis Oil family. Jordan Clarke, who played Billy, was
vastly talented, and again, played all of the character's dimensions
with great humor, sensitivity, and heartbreaking empathy.
Roger Thorpe, the duplicitous villain who so believed he was the hero
of all of his own dramas. He was so self-sabotaging, never quite able
to trust the benevolence of fate enough, so that he was constantly
meddling with the truth in order to effect an outcome.
CZ: Most fans think your run was the last golden era for the show (the
ratings went from 5.2 to 5.4 with even a peak at 5.6 and you won the
Emmy Award for Best Writing in 1993). What do you think made the show
special back then?
NCD: The ratings actually came up from a good deal lower from 5.2. I
think we were at something like a 4.6 when the show began to gather
momentum. Mainly due to a burgeoning sense that we all had, writers,
actors, producers alike, that we had our hands on something rare.
There was a palpable sense of enthusiasm in the studio...people
started stopped in their tracks to watch fellow actors taping scenes
that were funny and real and moving. The dialogue was crisp, and the
scenes well constructed. And those veteran actors knew it. It was
thrilling and we all felt a part of it.
CZ: Is there any writing decision you wish you didn’t take?
NCD: Although Maureen's death was a lynchpin in a carefully conceived
and well-executed story, Ellen Parker was so fine, and so well loved,
that her absence left a hole in the show that was later hard to fill.
CZ: Have you watched GL after your departure? Do you feel the show
could have been fixed and rebounded?
NCD: Aside from checking in on the work of friends and actors who were
still involved, it was difficult to watch for me -- rather like
watching someone cook a meal in one's own kitchen. I was irritated
that characters weren't behaving in a way that made sense, and that
most of the subtleties of the stories and characters were gone. I
really found it hard to watch, so I didn't.
What is prevalent in the entire industry, not just daytime, is this
terrible reliance on marketing and focus groups. People can only tell
us what they liked before, not what they wish they could see. That's
the artist's job, to create stories and lead people to conclusions
that they aren't equipped to anticipate until they see the scenes.
It's like a mother taking dictation from a child about how he'd like
to be reared... backwards. It has never worked, never will, yet it's
the rare executive who understands this.
CZ: Do you see a future for American daytime dramas?
NCD: Our future, I think, is what you now see being played out in
successful evening dramas, which I think borrowed much of their
formatting and storytelling from the old soaps. The Sopranos, Friday
Night Lights, etc. are much more recognizable to me than current
daytime dramas. Although the time increments are different, and the
production values far superior, and they have far more latitude in
what they can show, they share the same values. Oddly enough, the
television execs in daytime seemed to want to do seventies action
adventure shows, even as the rest of the industry was evolving into
what we used to do best -- stories that emanate from full throated,
individual characters. The daytime execs were amazingly shortsighted,
and ultimately killing for those daytime shows.
CZ: Would you like to return to daytime soap someday?
NCD: Friends who are still involved assure me that I would lose my
mind in the current scene. I also think the quality of what we did was
impossible to sustain, due to the unrelenting pace of the daytime
shows. I think if I ever returned to television, which frankly is
unlikely, it would be to do a weekly serial.
Am I not a lucky guy? Scott McKinsey, son of late beloved Beverlee
McKinsey (ex-Alex) and director of General Hospital, will be the next
to be interviewed. If you have any questions you'd like me to ask,
please tell me. I hope you've enjoyed it.
==End quoted text==
Phyllis Stone
"MarkH" <mark...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:401442b1-9156-4425...@e21g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
Source
http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=29992&view=findpost&p=702012
thank you, so very much
Rthrquiet
> Source
>
> http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=29992&view=...
>
> My favorite sequence of shows were perhaps the most controversial
> during my tenure: the death of Maureen Bauer shortly after discovering
> her husband's affair with their good family friend, Lillian Raines.
> Lillian had discovered she had breast cancer, but was reluctant to let
> people in town know, so she decided to pursue treatment in a nearby
> town. Her only confidant was Ed, who agreed to chauffeur her to
> radiation sessions at a hospital. While Ed wasn't attracted to Lillian
> in a sexual way, her vulnerability and damaged self esteem made her
> situation extremely poignant to him. Their one night stand, however,
> had far reaching, catastrophic consequences for Ed's marriage and for
> his family, and ultimately led his distraught wife's car accident. The
> aftermath of that story, Ed's guilt and the deep tear in the fabric of
> his family, including his adolescent daughter's depression, was
> beautifully written, beautifully acted, and resulted in some of the
> best work ever done on American television.
Mark: Note that she stops short of saying that killing Maureen was the
right decision; she simply notes, and I think accurately so, that it
was well written, well acted, and extraordinarily good TV.
>
> CZ: Who were some of your favourte characters?
>
> NCD: Alexandra Spaulding, portrayed by Beverlee McKinsey, the iron
> fist in the velvet glove matriarch of the influential Spaulding
> family. Beverlee's nuanced performances were a joy.
The feeling was mutual. Beverlee herself said that nobody understood
Alexandra the way Nancy Curlee did, and Nancy was her favorite
headwriter of her time at GL (she might even have said "ever," which
would be quite a compliment given the excellent material Lemay gave
her as Iris).
> Roger Thorpe, the duplicitous villain who so believed he was the hero
> of all of his own dramas. He was so self-sabotaging, never quite able
> to trust the benevolence of fate enough, so that he was constantly
> meddling with the truth in order to effect an outcome.
This reflects, I think, the way many fans viewed Roger as well. I
don't know how Michael Zaslow felt about it, but I thought Curlee
"got" Roger better than any other writer, including the Dobsons,
including Marland.
> CZ: Is there any writing decision you wish you didn’t take?
>
> NCD: Although Maureen's death was a lynchpin in a carefully conceived
> and well-executed story, Ellen Parker was so fine, and so well loved,
> that her absence left a hole in the show that was later hard to fill.
Mark: There you go. She's dancing all around it (and I've heard,
elsewhere, that she's a very tactful lady--Southern, I think) and
never says it was a mistake, but what she does say is pretty damning.
> CZ: Have you watched GL after your departure? Do you feel the show
> could have been fixed and rebounded?
>
> NCD: Aside from checking in on the work of friends and actors who were
> still involved, it was difficult to watch for me -- rather like
> watching someone cook a meal in one's own kitchen. I was irritated
> that characters weren't behaving in a way that made sense, and that
> most of the subtleties of the stories and characters were gone. I
> really found it hard to watch, so I didn't.
God bless you, Nancy Curlee. This says so well how I feel when I watch
shows--and As the World Turns is at the top of the list at the moment--
in which characters run around doing all sorts of nonsensical things
(basically to move the plot, plot, plot) and we're supposed to care
about it for some reason.
> What is prevalent in the entire industry, not just daytime, is this
> terrible reliance on marketing and focus groups. People can only tell
> us what they liked before, not what they wish they could see. That's
> the artist's job, to create stories and lead people to conclusions
> that they aren't equipped to anticipate until they see the scenes.
Geez, she and I are psychic twins. I've been saying for years that
focus groups can't tell you what the stories should be; that's the
creative team's job. You can ask a focus group to react to something
it has seen played out on the screen and get some valid feedback, but
it's nonsensical to ask a focus group to react to things that haven't
even been written.
> CZ: Would you like to return to daytime soap someday?
>
> NCD: Friends who are still involved assure me that I would lose my
> mind in the current scene. I also think the quality of what we did was
> impossible to sustain, due to the unrelenting pace of the daytime
> shows. I think if I ever returned to television, which frankly is
> unlikely, it would be to do a weekly serial.
Television's loss. I do hope she's doing some kind of writing; if not
for television, then novels, short stories, plays--something. Her
knack for telling emotionally compelling stories shouldn't be lost to
us totally just because soaps--which should have been a natural venue
for her--have turned her off.
Michael
DonnaB shallotpeel
On Sat, 4 Apr 2009 14:25:54 -0700 (PDT), in
<401442b1-9156-4425...@e21g2000yqb.googlegroups.com> MarkH
MarkH
wrote:
> Thanks for bringing this over here, Mark.
>
have ever read anything from her.
I liked her soft, diplomatic but honest tone in all she said.
I watched GL from a distance back then...I remember seeing the
blackout, and I specifically remember tuning in for bits of Ed's
affair with Lillian and Maureen's reaction. I remember it being
enjoyable, but I never really followed the show back then. I
apparently missed out on some good times.
MarkH
http://www.soapoperanetwork.com/news/interviews/794-interview-with-nancy-curlee.html
Cut and paste is disabled, so you'll have to go there to read it.
Here is a quote:
"For me, the GUIDING LIGHT was always a porch light, just outside the
Bauer’s kitchen. Outside, a bad moon may be rising, forces gathering
to do you harm, foes behind bushes...Outside, friends may be
treacherous, lovers untrue... But if you ran like hell, and made it to
the porch, and banged through that screen door, inside there would be
warmth and light and the smell of good things cooking. The GUIDING
LIGHT was about love and home truths and compassion prevailing. For
me, anyway, that’s what it was all about."
record hunter
>
> Cut and paste is disabled, so you'll have to go there to read it.
> Here is a quote:
>
> "For me, the GUIDING LIGHT was always a porch light, just outside the
> Bauer’s kitchen. Outside, a bad moon may be rising, forces gathering
> to do you harm, foes behind bushes...Outside, friends may be
> treacherous, lovers untrue... But if you ran like hell, and made it to
> the porch, and banged through that screen door, inside there would be
> warmth and light and the smell of good things cooking. The GUIDING
> LIGHT was about love and home truths and compassion prevailing. For
> me, anyway, that’s what it was all about."
What a nice thing to say, Mark. For my grandmother, with whom I
watched GL as a little boy (learning to read as a result), this was
the original Bauer kitchen--Meta's? Charita's? For me, as an adult, it
was Maureen and Ed's kitchen. I remember being sure to tape the show
on 4th of July because I would always be out that day, because the 4th
in particular was such a Bauer/GL holiday. It was almost more
important that I watch the 4th of July episode as go to whatever
picnic I was going to in real life.
I remember one 4th when we got rained out, so we stayed home and I
made everyone watch The Guiding Light. Two of my friends began to
actually watch it from that point on.
Unfortunately, Jill F-P killed Maureen Bauer until she was dead, dead,
dead, and the show didn't survive it (to say nothing of Mickey Against
Daytime Drama). It was a good show while it lasted, though.
MarkH
> Unfortunately, Jill F-P killed Maureen Bauer until she was dead, dead,
> dead, and the show didn't survive it (to say nothing of Mickey Against
> Daytime Drama). It was a good show while it lasted, though.
This interview much more firmly supports the story that Michael/
Rthrquiet told.
The "edict came down" to kill Maureen (it was not Curlee's choice --
she personally loved Ellen Parker). So, she tried to make lemonade
and script an excellent story (which, by all accounts, she did).
Interestingly, while Curlee is more qualified in her praise of JFP
than most of her other co-workers (she is asked to do an 'association'
with many of her colleagues), she still has praise. I think that
signals her as a "gentlewoman"....if you can't say anything nice,
don't say anything at all. But she chooses to dwell on the positive,
and that is my all-time favorite kind of person.
I'm really sorry now that I didn't watch her version of GL. But I was
in school back then, man :-).
record hunter
> I'm really sorry now that I didn't watch her version of GL. But I was
> in school back then, man :-).
It was the opposite of Y&R. Can you imagine looking anywhere on the
contemporaneous Y&R for the light on such a back porch?
Rthrquiet
> This interview much more firmly supports the story that Michael/
> Rthrquiet told.
>
> The "edict came down" to kill Maureen (it was not Curlee's choice --
> she personally loved Ellen Parker). So, she tried to make lemonade
> and script an excellent story (which, by all accounts, she did).
I saw that too. I never doubted my impression was right, because I had
heard it too many time from too many places for it to have been
incorrect, but it's nice to have confirmation from someone who ought
to know.
> Interestingly, while Curlee is more qualified in her praise of JFP
> than most of her other co-workers (she is asked to do an 'association'
> with many of her colleagues), she still has praise. I think that
> signals her as a "gentlewoman"....if you can't say anything nice,
> don't say anything at all. But she chooses to dwell on the positive,
> and that is my all-time favorite kind of person.
She's an extraordinary specimen of what's known as a "gracious
Southern lady."
> I'm really sorry now that I didn't watch her version of GL. But I was
> in school back then, man :-).
I stumbled on it late, about a year into when she and her co-
headwriters had things cooking, but I've enjoyed catching up on
YouTube lately. Highly recommended: search on "Guiding Light Beverlee
McKinsey" and watch Alexandra's scenes with Roger in the country club.
*That*, ladies and gentlemen, is what you get when you pair an
extraordinary actress with a writer who can match her talent. Soap at
its very, very best.
Michael
record hunter
It was so wonderful. It came on right after AW (different channel, of
course) I started watching GL in 1988, and continued until 1992 or 93.
During those years, every single one of my friends who watched it,
save one, died. I just couldn't look at it anymore.
MarkH
>
> It was so wonderful. It came on right after AW (different channel, of
> course) I started watching GL in 1988, and continued until 1992 or 93.
> During those years, every single one of my friends who watched it,
> save one, died. I just couldn't look at it anymore.
Oh my. What a painful association.
record hunter
When one of them died, I read HB's speech from Reva's memorial service
(she was dead then, you know) at his memorial service. My friend would
have liked that. They were both blonde, and he loved Reva in
particular.
Rthrquiet
> Interestingly, while Curlee is more qualified in her praise of JFP
> than most of her other co-workers (she is asked to do an 'association'
> with many of her colleagues), she still has praise. I think that
> signals her as a "gentlewoman"....if you can't say anything nice,
> don't say anything at all. But she chooses to dwell on the positive,
> and that is my all-time favorite kind of person.
I reread the interview, and what struck me was how she's able to do
that and *never* sound insincere, or as though she's reaching; it
always comes off as genuine. That's a remarkable talent--and quite a
rare one.
Michael