The Writers, The Actors, and You
"Read the fan mail. The very characters that are not thrilling to you may be the audience's favorites ... Be objective. When I came in to ATWT, the first thing I said was what is pleasing the audience? You have to put your own personal likes and dislikes aside and develop the characters that the audience wants to see ... Talk to everyone; writers and actors especially. There may be something in a character's history that will work beautifully for you, and who would know better than the actor who has been playing the role?" - Douglas Marland
Words to live by? Maybe, maybe not. Just how should writers and producers take fan and actor suggestions and reactions? How about with a grain of salt...
I'm not sure any headwriters today even bother reading Marland's rules for soap writing. Many probably resent living in his and other famous headwriters' shadow. In fact, many producers and writers come right out and tell the press that they don't pay attention to the fans and often insult the Internet fans. Unfortunately, there are some rude, mean, and overzealous fans that give Internet fans a bad name. But if you cast off all of the emails and thoughts people, then you really put yourself in a hole.
But asking the actors? Is that always helpful? The actors can certainly help with explaining their characters and how they've portrayed them, but should they be actually suggesting storyline ideas, making demands? The writers and producers don't work for them; it's the other way around.
I'll give you some examples of good and bad when it comes to listening to actors. GL's Grant Aleksander and Michael O'Leary saw the dialogue they were given for their now famous Thanksgiving fight when they were stuck at the cabin last year. They both felt it was inaccurate and out of character (probably even more so after the poorly written scene after Phillip first found out about Rick and Harley, leading to Harley tumbling onto the floor) and they tore it up and wrote the dialogue themselves. What transpired was the best historically and characteristically accurate dialogue since Marland's death IMO, proving actors know their characters well and could write their dialogue themselves. In fact, on ATWT, for awhile, one of the actors did write the dialogue herself, Marie Masters. Many excuses, er, reasons have been given to why Marie is no longer a writer, but her scripts were consistently far and away the best the show's produced in the last two years.
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