Too Many Cooks in Oakdale's Pot?
I've been avoiding writing a column for As the World Turns for at least six months. Why? Well, there's just too much stuff to say. But then I realized, in reality, the real story, the real issue about ATWT right now isn't any single story, casting shocker, or performance, it's about the team that is creating the uneven drama.
I have to admit up front that ATWT has a close place in my heart. Besides Days of Our Lives and Ryan's Hope, no soap really has me as emotionally involved as ATWT. As a toddler, it was the first soap I ever saw and I've watched it ever since. I've stuck with the show in great times and horrid times, but by 1999 the show was just boring. The whole show looked dull, the actors looked uninspired, everything was drab. Even the very controversial addition of Another World refugees didn't energize the show. In fact, oddly enough, a charismatic actor like Tom Eplin languished for months.
And then came Hogan Sheffer...
You all know the story by now, Hogan was hired as a cleanup writer who clearly knew more about writing soaps than headwriter Leah Laiman. Once producer Christopher Goutman realized that he offered him the job, even though not only had he never written for a soap before, he was not really familiar with soaps as a viewer. But Hogan rolled up his sleeves and his fresh perspective on the DOA show immediately infused life and by the time his first official script came on the scene, you felt a difference in the writing, the crispness in the performances, and the show came to life. Not only was the difference between Laiman's work and Sheffer's striking, Sheffer's work shed the poor work across the dial in a different light. With the exception of Young and the Restless, nothing else came close. The list of what he was doing right was so long, including integrating the characters, focusing on family and character driven stories, and returning characters' brains back to them, that you could not help but be optimistic. Sure, he had his weak points, he was horrible in balancing all of the stories on his plate and pacing his stories in a realistic manner and he really hadn't studied the show's history thoroughly enough to know all of the connections and details he should have. But why not assume that in time, he would only improve, hunker down and get all of those things straight? After all, he had no experience in soaps, if he could do what he had already done, as he learned and moved on, he could only get better right? In theory yes, but reality was a different matter.
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