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SoapOperaNetwork.com has announced that "Days of Our Lives" Head Writers Marlene McPherson and Darrell Ray Thomas Jr. have been relieved of their duties. Former Co-Executive Producer Gary Tomlin and former Co-Head Writer Christopher Whitesell have been named the new Head Writers, effective immediately. Look for their material to debut around July, 2012, just before "Days" goes on hiatus for two weeks of Summer Olympics preemptions.
Gary Tomlin began his career as an actor on such shows as "Search For Tomorrow", "The Waltons" and "Another World". He switched to writing and was a dialogue writer at "Days" from February-October 1980. He was then the head writer (along with Michelle Poteet Lisanti) at "Days" from October 20, 1980-October 20, 1981. He later wrote for "Texas", "Search For Tomorrow", "Another World" and "Santa Barbara" (where he won an Emmy in 1989). Tomlin switched to producing in 1995 and had stints at "All My Children", "Sunset Beach" and "One Life to Live" (where he won an Emmy in 2002). From 2003-2008, Tomlin began the next phase of his career, as a director on "Passions." From September 2008-September 2011, Tomlin was the Co-Executive Producer of "Days." Gary D. Tomlin, 62, was born March 6, 1950 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Christopher Whitesell has a long history in daytime, beginning in 1984 with "Guiding Light." He was on the writing staffs of "Guiding Light", "As the World Turns", "Another World" and "One Life to Live" before being named to his first co-head writing position, on "General Hospital", in 1997. From 1998-1999, he was the co-head writer on "Sunset Beach." Whitesell then was a breakdown and dialogue writer at "Days" from March 2000-March 2001. He later was co-head writer on "One Life to Live" from 2001-2003 and "As the World Turns" from 2003-2008. From October 2008-June 2011, Whitesell was the co-head writer at "Days." He wrote for "The Young and the Restless" from 2011-2012. Whitesell has been nominated for ten Daytime Emmy Awards, winning four times (in 1986 for "Guiding Light"; 1994 for "One Life to Live"; and 2004 and 2005 for "As the World Turns"). Christopher Joseph Whitesell, 55, was born on January 17, 1957 in Iowa Falls, Iowa.
For pictures of the new head writers and more info about "Days", please visit http://www.jason47.com
because of Twitter remarks from some of the cast, like GG stating something to the effect of "big shakeup coming," but Tomlin and Whitesell are not new to DOOL, so I just hope their changes are going to be for the better. It certainly couldn’t get much worse (could it?), and Tomlin was co-executive producer before he was fired, so that scares me a little. I mean, it’s a little surprising to me that KC would hire him back as co-headwriter with Whitesell after firing him as CEP. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed anyway that things do settle down, characters are put back where they belong, and we can watch the show without having more criticism than praise. It’s been a long time folks!
we all were when the current bunch came in? They were good briefly, then what a tumble. At least I’m grateful Days wasn’t so blind not to see the decline. I have no idea what the new staff will offer – but please, a little common sense would be a good start.
announcement. Both of these guys had top jobs with Days and not so long ago and were let go. Why would they be any better now? I think this ship is taking on water fast and there’s not much they can do to stop it.
Remember Tomlin was hired and the writing got better, but then they relieved him of those duties and the writing went into a downward spiral. If nothing else, the new team probably reads these boards and they know what we don’t like, so there is a possibility that some of the crappy storylines will at least disappear. We always get excited and get let down, but I think if we view the change in writers as someone who can fix the current crap, that’s fine. When these writers start spiralling downward, they can be fired and bring on another new team. That seems to be the way for Days.
we need to remember that we will not see T&W’s work until early July, since the show is 3 months ahead, which is not very smart IMO because then if the story lines go in a new direction, there has to be a lot of tweaking and noticeable changes written into current stories, or they have to move too quickly to become invested in them, which makes the writers appear inadequate as opposed to the stories themselves. T&W are both experienced writers, so they should know how to properly tweak a story line without making it ridiculous (radically changed or even dropped completely) which just makes everyone crazy, especially us. We also should realize that when new writers come on board, they, like us, have their own favorites that they like to write for, even though it has always been my desire to see well-balanced writing as opposed to playing favorites to some while neglecting others (too much Sami, Sami, Sami and E.J./Rafe/Ari, etc., as compared to not enough Justin, Sonny, Adrienne, Victor and Maggie, and Jack and Jen). I would prefer a little more balance or why even cast them if they aren’t being used more. Just too large a cast, maybe, but either balance out the writing or cut down on the cast (Starting with Gabi for me …. LOL)
This news sucks.Aren’t they the ones who gave us the Daniel/Melanie show,Chloe prostitute sl,characters totally out of character?This show is so dead.
This news sucks.Aren’t they the ones who gave us the Daniel/Melanie show,Chloe prostitute sl,characters totally out of character?This show is so dead.
maybe if they HAD written the storys the brass wanted, they wouldn’t have gotten the axe.
I can see that being an excuse for us not liking what is being written but not as an excuse for getting fired.
as I remember when NBC renewed Days at one point and told KC that if he was renewed James Reilly would be writing the show again and we all know how that turned out! Can we spell d-i-s–a-s-t-e-r??? I do believe that the network sticks their nose into shows more than they should. Look what happened to OLTL and AMC all in favor of ‘talking crap’ that lost them a big chunk of audience but they didn’t seem to learn from it either.
I think it’s just "sour grapes" being spouted because they were fired. Some of their early work was refreshing, but then when they had to begin new story lines and got a little more into a character’s history, they just did not have the talent to make it interesting, and the more they ruined the characters’ histories, the more it proved that they were not the writers for DOOL, causing them to be fired. These people were scathed on every board I’ve read where their writing was concerned. EVERYONE can’t be wrong. They ruined too many characters and angered too many fans … fans who KNOW it’s characters and their histories. Also, they never were HEAD-writers, so Corday took a shot because of all the flack he received when Higley was in charge, so I suppose he at least was listening to the fans in that respect. I remember reading his interview article stating when Higley was fired and Mar-Dar were introduced. He said, in so many words, that the fans were important and that he had every intention of listening to what they wanted. Well, you couldn’t prove it by me with those 2 writers. Now we have two experienced head writers. Granted, both were let go but at the time Tomlin was CEP, which I suppose was a promotion from head-writer, so hopefully, now that they are working as a team of "head" writers, they will be able to take the show in the direction it needs to go to improve. At least that’s what I’m hoping to see; otherwise, we may as well start finding something new, since 2013 (the END OF DAYS???) is just around the corner.
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